FlightTest 3 pack swappable guide by a newb for noobs

Imanewb

Member
I decided to document the process from item choices and un-boxing to the first flight or crash as the case may very well be :) of the FlightTest 3 pack swappable kit so that others could learn from my mistakes and to give a little back to the community that I used to learn what I have so far. This guide will hopefully help with equipment choices as well as I intend to try different configurations like a 2 cell lipo vs a 3 cell lipo and show the outcome assuming I can get it off the ground :)

I have been doing a ton of research and placed all my orders over the weekend 4/18/2014 from multiple sites as no site had everything I needed in stock. Most of the suggested items were back ordered so I did my best to find comparable alternatives and used the wealth of knowledge here on the forums to make sure my choices would work.

DISCLAIMER::
I know nothing about flying. I will most likely make mistakes, connect wires backwards, blow stuff up, burn stuff out, and injure myself in multiple ways. Following this guide may turn out to be the "what not to do" tutorial depending on its outcome but the goal is to save others the time and to learn from my mistakes along the way. And hey, even if you don't learn anything it should be at least mildly amusing to watch me screw up :)

This is by no means an end all be all guide I highly recommend flight tests guides to get you going. you can find then here for the swappable kit


Parts and Accessories: all ordered the weekend of 4/18/2014 awaiting arrival. After ordering I made a post to get user feedback and got some fantastic suggestions. Link to post here. From this post I learned that maybe a 2 cell lipo would be more fitting and that I needed to get the proper connectors for my battery to esc connection so I am ordering those today and should (I think) have everything I need to build my first plane.

I researched vendors prior to ordering and to be honest my findings were that all the vendors have people who love and hate them (besides flitetest, everyone seems to like those guys). I decided I would judge them based on my experience rather than others and go from there. If you can find everything you need at one shop you can save on shipping but I was not able to and I figure this gives me a chance to give an unbiased review of these shops. I have never ordered from any of them before.

Vendors Used to order below items:
Altitude Hobbies - ESC, Prop, Servo's, Motor
Flite Test - Airframe kit
Aloft Hobbies - Rx/Tx

Airframes: FT Flyer, FT Delta, FT Nutball
FlightTest 3 pack swappable kit

Rx/Tx
FrSky Taranis & X8R

Motor
Suppo 2208/14 1450kv Brushless Motor (Park 370 equiv.)

Esc
Suppo 20A Brushless ESC

Prop
Gemfan APC-style 8x4E Electric

Servo
Suppo SP-90 9g Micro Servo

Battery options
500mAh 3S 20C Lipo

Charger

Low voltage alarm


Up Next
I am soooo bad at waiting for shipments :) As the items arrive I will update this and do an un-boxing video. I have decided the FT flyer will be the first plane built based on user reviews etc. I may run and buy the 2 cell lipo and XT-60 connectors from a local store as suggested by Team_Monkey in my other post so I have them available when the other items arrive.

Aloft Hobbies
4/18 Ordered
4/18 Email confirmed shipment in transit, Expected Delivery Day: Wednesday, April 24, 2014.
4/23 Order received!

Flite Test
4/19 Ordered
4/21 Email confirmed shipment in transit, Expected Delivery Day: Thursday, April 24, 2014
4/24 Order received!

Hobby king
4/20 Ordered
4/22 confirmed shipped, Expected Delivery Day: Wednesday, April 23, 2014.
HobbyKing turned out to be the only supplier that I had issues with, Buyers beware!

Altitude Hobbies
4/20 Ordered
4/21 Email confirmed shipment in transit, Expected Delivery Day: Thursday, April 24, 2014
4/24 Order received!



Aloft customer service has been most impressive so far. I had a question and an employee named Wayne replied to my contact form question via email rather quickly and was the only store so far to ship same day. The only store yet to ship is Hobby King but it has only been two days so no complaints yet.

For those interested, I am considering doing the videos live that way you could ask questions and maybe even keep me from making some mistakes what do you think of that idea?

Hobby-king links removed as I cant recommend anyone use them from my experience with them.
 
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