Hi,
I've been all over the flite test site/forum for a couple of years but this is my first post. It's about time I gave a little back for all that I have received from this great community.
My latest build over Christmas was a FT spitfire and a Mustang. Here in Australia getting cheap foam is problematic, and when you live in a remote location like I do shipping makes it even worse. I have been building with Depron, but it's expensive. I looked into the Hobbyking foam but there wasn't a lot of positive reviews on the stuff and the shipping made it almost as expensive as Depron.
So when Hobbykind has fee shipping to anywhere, I jumped online and got a couple of boxes of the stuff. It's smaller than depron at 1000x500 as opposed to 1000x700, it has no paper covering, and it's 5mm - flite test plans are 5mm not 6mm (depron).
It's softer than Depron and from what I can tell a lot weaker than flite test foam as there is no paper, however it is very light. It's more like Depron than different, so I'm quite happy with my purchase.
I've built a Spitfire that is under 500grams with the battery!. It flys great. Very floaty, and easy to fly. Finding out that the Hobbyking foam was a success I then spent a little more time building a Mustang. I also made it quite a bit heavier/stronger than the spitfire with chrome poster board detailing and coloured book covering vinyl on the wings for strength, plus some strapping tape in the usual week spots. After all this reinforcement it still turned out OK and not too heavy (although very noticeable over the spitfire)
- Weight WITHOUT the battery is 550grams
- Weight with 1300ma 3S battery is 665grams
- Hobbyking foam - 5mm
- 2212 1000kv motor (VERY cheep generic Chinese $6 motor)
- 30A esc (VERY cheep $6 generic Chinese ESC)
- 1300ma 3S battery
- 4 x 9g servos
- 1045 slow fly prop - great for beginners (2212 1000kv motor)
I'm VERY happy with the easy performance with the small cheap motor, and would totally recommend this to someone who doesn't need the speed, but enjoy longer and more relaxed flight time (more scale too).
To top it off my young Boy has gone drone nuts. We got him the parts to build his own racing quad for his birthday, and we have been flying together over the past week, with him chasing the planes. He really has picked up flying it quickly! We put an old action camera onit (poor quality image) but the results have been quite fun regardless. The following video is our second attempt at some chase footage. 4K action camera on the cards as the next purchase!
What a great way for a Father and Son to get out there, build some memories and experience flight together!
Thanks Flite Test!,
Tam