Durafly Warbirds

sandblaster

Senior Member
Be waiting for this. Very nice looking. Now to get the 4 pack.

Just checked. Backordered in US warehouse.
 
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lobstermash

Propaganda machine
Mentor
Not in the aus warehouse at all :( I'd love a P47 of this ilk. The 1600mm is a little too big for me. Also the se5a is dead sexy.
 

earthsciteach

Moderator
Moderator
Great episode, guys! I LOVE the look of the Corsair.

Now, here's the hard question: How does the performance of the Durafly F4U compare to the Parkzone F4U?
Sorry, I know its a bad position to put you in, but I really would like to know. Can you give pros and cons of each without declaring a victor?
 

Ak Flyer

Fly the wings off
Mentor
I hate shootouts that sugar coat things but I can totally understand why you wouldn't declare a winner. Still, I think that whoever loses would be inclined to improve their plane. I think the Durafly planes are more realistic looking from the pictures. I like the fact that they come with flaps and retracts that you have to pay extra for from parkzone.

However.....the flip side to that is that there is more to break and therefore more to repair.
 

Fishbonez

Active member
Great episode, guys! I LOVE the look of the Corsair.

Now, here's the hard question: How does the performance of the Durafly F4U compare to the Parkzone F4U?
Sorry, I know its a bad position to put you in, but I really would like to know. Can you give pros and cons of each without declaring a victor?

I was just going to ask the same question
 

colorex

Rotor Riot!
Mentor
Now, here's the hard question: How does the performance of the Durafly F4U compare to the Parkzone F4U?
Sorry, I know its a bad position to put you in, but I really would like to know. Can you give pros and cons of each without declaring a victor?

So, would it be a Monday or Wednesday (Horizon or HobbyKing sponsored) episode?
 

jetpackninja

More combat please...
Mentor
A long term shootout review would be awesome.

The Durafly series are feature rich and look like a good value, but if the electronics don't hold up, or if they turn out to not easily repairable...

I'd love to see a head to head Durafly vs. Parkzone. HK seems to have stepped up their game on this one.
Initial reviews and then a followup like about 3 months later would be awesome!
 
I have the Durafly P47 and my friend has the Parkzone P47. He has installed the optional retracts and flaps so they are now very close specs. Build wise they are fairly even, though the Parkzone probably has the edge but I like the look of the Durafly slightly better. The four bladed prop looks good on the Durafly but has the negative of being less efficient and also worse with belly landing; I've changed to a two bladed wooden prop.
The retracts on the Durafly are roughly comparable however the prebent struts are good on the Parkzone as they have a bit of a spring in the middle which gives it some flex, where my struts bent on grass landings. I have got the PZ struts to put on my Durafly but unfortunately broke two screws when trying to get the other struts out.
On take off the Durafly has a shocking torque steer, probably due to the larger prop. Have to be very careful to accelerate slowly. In flight they fly fairly similar however the lower kv motor on the Durafly meant that it flies slower at WOT even though it has a bigger prop (other people haven't found this the case though), was even worse on the 4 bladed prop. I find that I wish it would go about 20% faster so that it would be still scale but powerful enough to pull out of manevoures. The Durafly pulls 32 amps on the four bladed prop at WOT, though only 22 amps with the two bladed. I find that I am flying the Durafly at WOT 90% of the time, as such only getting 7 minute flights on a 3S 2200mah.
The Durafly has a 35 amp ESC and the Parkzone only a 30 amp ESC with inbuilt 3 amp BEC. I think with the amount of extras they should have an external BEC and I have installed one on mine; just wasn't comfortable with all those servos, lights, retracts operating from the inbuilt BEC.
I have a 910kv 3536 NTM Prop drive motor on the way which I'm going to replace the standard motor with. Hopefully that will give it a bit more punch.
The Durafly is about $185 delivered in Australia and the Parkzone P47 about $350 with the retracts and flaps. The Parkzone does have a full range of spare parts where the Durafly only has the prop available, though I think they are going to stock the spare parts soon.

Hope that helps.

Cheers
Brett
 

fred0000

Senior Member
great looking planes, the spitfire looks awesome (not in the epesode, I want and looked after) seem to fly really well and look REALLY good, I thought this was a great show.

thanks BrettAltea for posting that, lots of great info in there.
 

KKArioKA

Epoxi Flyer
nice review Brett ! thx for sharing !

Im concerned about the little wheels on the T-28, especially the nose wheel, hopefully we can find a larger spec to fit in the retracts ....

ALL OF THEM are really nice birds, but as some1 mentioned im afraid of buying pre-assembled eletronics/motor that arent proved effective ... lets wait for more reviews and quality assured components.
 

Bilemshious

Junior Member
Thanks Flitetest for a great review as always. I was looking to get either the Trojan or Corsair as my next plane. But I'm still looking for more reviews before I pull the trigger.
 
Glad I can help. All up they're very good value for money. As an aside Scott from Hobbyking has said that his favourite of the range is the T28, though some have reported problems with the front retract.

Also to let you know the P47 has what I think is a plastic wing spar. I also get some jitter from one of my slow flaps servos. If it goes I'll just put standard servos and slow down their action on my transmitter as I expect to flash it with er9x at the end of the month when my Smartieparts board arrives. Can't wait to get rid of the Turnigy 9x firmware.

Thinking about it that could be a good flite test episode.
 

Ak Flyer

Fly the wings off
Mentor
Chad, I wonder if you could save some of your setups and post them for download like we do from the Spektrum community website. The setups you use for the planes you review with things like flaps etc would probably be useful to a couple people.
 

sandblaster

Senior Member
Chad, I wonder if you could save some of your setups and post them for download like we do from the Spektrum community website. The setups you use for the planes you review with things like flaps etc would probably be useful to a couple people.

Really great suggestion. Would be even better then a quick tip. But a quick tip would be very educational.
 

Ak Flyer

Fly the wings off
Mentor
I think Chad could do a good quick setup basics video, but there's lots of setup videos all over youtube. Most of them are boring though.

I think a basic tip show about using the scroll setup menus that spektrum uses would be better, not focusing on the DX8 but covering all of the DX radios. Go through wing selection, tail selection, basic servo setup, stuff like that. Maybe do another show on setting it up for helicopters, just the real general stuff not going deep into gyros or anything. Then maybe they could do one for multicopters after. David could do that one as he seems to be the multirotor guru.
A similar episode with the Turnigy 9X would also be good. Those seem to be the two main radio types that forum users have. 9x's and spektrum.
 
Just took out my Durafly P47 again today. The more I fly it the more I like it. It flies straight and true and very easy to control. Still wish it had just a little bit more oomph but new motor due to arrive this week. Was flying inverted and also low fly bys. Was a bit windy today but still stable. When coming in to land I put it into the wind and put the flaps down and it just slowly descended vertically. This is a plane where you always feel comfortable. Won't have you on the edge of your seat but very nice to fly. Getting Just over seven minutes on a battery.
This is a great plane for your second plane as it is so easy to fly.
Will let you know how it goes with the new motor next week.