Solved How easy are FT airplanes to build?

Winston1203

Member
So my simple scout is arriving tomorrow, and one big concern I had while buying a plane is the building difficulty, I was never a good builder in any type of thing mostly because I was lacking the proper materials but I wanted to ask what everyone thought about FT planes. Has anybody ever had a failed airplane? Are FT planes easy to build for non-crafty people?
 

Merv

Site Moderator
Staff member
FT planes are easy to build, you should not have any problems. It helps to watch the build video a couple of times. Some like to build along with the video, pausing it as you go.

Using too much glue is a common mistake for beginners. Hot glue is heavy. In most places, a small bead is all that is necessary. Practice on a few scraps to prove the glue is stronger than the foam. It Is important to let the glue gun reach full temp, five minutes or so, nothing worse that trying to work with cold glue. You also need to let the glue completely cool before it will reach full strength, 2-3 minutes.
 

Ryan O.

Out of Foam Board!
They are easy to build for the most part. Whenever you aren't sure about a step, wait and rewatch the step at .75 speed, and if you still aren't sure then just post the question on a build thread for the FT Scout. My local club chose the scout for last year's builder's workshopto get kids building and flying, and it turned out great. Good luck with your build.
🙂
 

JasonK

Participation Award Recipient
I can't speak to "non-crafty", however I will say that the video tutorials are by far some of or the best I have seen for putting things together. You should be able to watch one and have a good feeling if it is in your realm of doing. My take on it is this: if your safe handling a blade and hot glue gun, then you should be fine building the planes.
 

speedbirdted

Legendary member
FT planes are great because they cater both to the absolute beginner and more experienced folks. But it goes both ways; I'd consider myself decently well versed with the RC hobby yet my favorite FT planes are the simplest ones. I've only ever actually built one MS plane, and it made me think if I put this much effort into an airplane, I might as well use balsa or composite material since it can be made to look much nicer anyhow.

But if we're just talking about the "simpler" FT planes, yes, they are incredibly easy. The build videos make everything so intuitively easy to follow even for a beginner and the planes are well designed and go together pretty nicely (though there are some mods you can do to make your planes last a significantly longer time) A guy in my club built a TT blindfolded, it's that simple.
 

danskis

Master member
One of the advantages of the FT planes is that they give you the set-up adjustments such as CG and control throws. Also, most of their kits are great flyers - I'm sure the simple scout is one of them. If this is your first RC plane then take your time to align everything and build it "square". Also, if you haven't flown RC before you might not want to put a lot of effort into decorating it as you are most likely to crash and repair it.
 

Bricks

Master member
When I first started on the FT planes my biggest problem was making sure I folded the A-B folds correctly, take extra time to make sure you get these right and everything else will go great.

Good :Luck you really do not know what you are getting yourself in for, there is no help for you once the addiction gets a hold of you.
 

sprzout

Knower of useless information
Mentor
When I first started on the FT planes my biggest problem was making sure I folded the A-B folds correctly, take extra time to make sure you get these right and everything else will go great.

Good :Luck you really do not know what you are getting yourself in for, there is no help for you once the addiction gets a hold of you.

I finally learned the trick with that in a recent video - I didn't realize that the ways to remember were "A-fold is Above, B-Fold is Beside the fold." It seems so obvious now, and apparently I skipped that step a few times, but I see it now...