Skywagn180
30cc
Ok. I bought this beauty on Black Friday for my go to EPP indoor thrasher this winter. I heard mixed reviews about this plane. Some were putting it down as inferior to a TH plane. I will set the record straight...
The price was $44 plus shipping. Obviously that is a huge plus. I went in with a buddy and got it to my door for $51! Even though that's a little spendy for foam, it's a lot of plane for that price. The kit and hardware comes really nicely packed. The foam, printing and hardware are first class. They cut slots in the hinge area of each control surface to ease the load on the servos. That's really nice, as many of my other brand 10mm epp planes without the slots usually wear out aileron servos in a hurry. The down side to their technique is that the hinges will likely fail. That's nothing a little Welders glue won't fix. It's a trade off.
The assembly is FAST! I built this from start to finish in 3 hours! That's a record for me personally, and I made more than my normal amount of errors. I decided to use regular thin CA for the majority of the assembly as recommended in the instructions, which is unlike me. To my surprise, it's is extremely strong. Contrary to what I've always been told about CA on epp, I don't think I could rip a joint apart if I wanted to. The design is very well thought out. There are even well placed slots to route the servo wires cleanly. The really nice glass fiber, plastic and carbon hardware is all very usable, extremely light and goes together much faster than that of the competition. As usual, I left the gear off. It's just not worth the weight to me. I also cut off the large foam tailskid area. I can practice landings with my depron planes. It's pretty important to keep these fat epp birds feather weight to get any reasonable performance out of them.
And performance it has! I couldn't help taking it out in the front yard for a spin after I finished it late tonight. Who needs light? I still need to tweak a few things, but this thing flies nicely already. I'm not saying this out of spite, but because it's true...No TH plane I've flown has anything on this plane. It does the crazy Crack tricks just as good as the expensive stuff. It really tracks straight too. Hovers are solid. Harriers show no rock upright or inverted. Rollers are effortless. It is new and I only got about three minutes in on it tonight, but all indications are that this is going to be my best epp plane yet. Especially when you consider the price point. I'm extremely happy with my gamble on this airframe. Don't listen to the description. This is not just for beginner 3d flyers. It's the real thing, just forgiving too.
I am running a Hacker A10-9l, Hacker 7X ESC, Futaba 3114 servos on the tail and a Corona 929mg digital on the ailerons. My battery was a Nano Tech 2S 300 mah for the test. Total RTF weight is 183 grams with a heavy 7 gram RX. Not bad. I will be stepping up to Thunder Power 2S 460 mah when they get here. That will add a few grams, but also more punch. Right now the setup is pulling 9.8 Amps burst and 6.8 Amps continuous with the Gemfan 8x4.5 prop. The thrust is very strong for 2S. It has enough reserve power for the crazy stuff. A GWS prop would give better spool up and less electrical load, but they break easily and don't have the high end punch of the Gemfan. You have to keep the Gemfan on the hub though. O-rings don't cut it. My daughters clear small rubber hair bands from the grocery store work perfectly with a double wrap. The motor and ESC were barley warm after 3 minutes. I'll try to provide an update and possibly video if I can find time. I want my new batteries now!:ecstatic:
