Whaattt!!??
@Mad_Mechanic that's your first SpeedBuild kit? Holy shoot, what took you so long? What did you think of the foamboard and the laser cuts? Do you think the time saved was worth the money spent on the kit? Would you buy another one, and why did you buy this one?
Ok, lots of questions here.
What took me so long?
Two things conspired here. First, I was trying to figure out which kit I wanted to buy/build first as a trainer plane. I wanted a plane that used more common '9-gram' servos, which means either a B or C-pack kit. I also wanted something with a good size wingspan that could fly on the slower side. So I was looking at planes like the Explorer, Simple Cub, and Storch. After that I decided it would be best to get a plane that had more simple cuts and straight edges, so I wanted to avoid things like the curved edge tail on the Storch.
I did also consider the Simple Scout, but decided against it, mostly because the speed build kit was out of stock when I went to order.
The other thing that was going on is that I'm also trying to work on my own scratch design/build. I grew up flying control-line with my dad and my first plane was a Cox PT-19 trainer with an .049 engine. This was a plastic model with wings that were held on with rubber bands and boy could those planes take a beating. So a couple months back I acquired a set of high resolution prints for the PT-19 and I've been working on scaling them down and designing a low-wing trainer inspired by the PT-19. I'll be starting a scratch build thread for this plane when I get further along in the process.
What did you think of the foamboard and laser cuts?
I loved working with it. The laser cuts made things so easy to get ready for assembly and it meant I didn't get frustrated with doing layout work.
One thing I did do and I highly recommend to others is get myself a really cheap (like $2 at Harbor Freight) utility knife. I threw away the blades that came with the knife and used good brand blades (in my case Stanley). Basically I was nervous holding onto a utility knife blade without a handle so for $2 I got some piece of mind and confidence.
https://www.harborfreight.com/utility-knife-3359.html
The handle did make bevel cuts a little trickier as you want to hold the blade at a really shallow angle but it's doable.
Do I think the time saved was worth the investment?
Yes, very much so. Not much else to say. I spent the better part of an afternoon building the fuselage and tail. I set myself up on my coffee table with my laptop open to the build video so I could easily pause and rewind the video for each part.
Each wing got it's own evening after work to build, so about 2-ish hours per wing. Again, I had the build video up and I was constantly pausing and rewinding so I got each detail.
So in all I probably have around 8 hours in build time over the course of 3 days. 4 hours for the fuselage and tail, and 2 hours per wing.
Electronics setup did not take very long, mostly because I've done receiver wiring and transmitter stuff years ago for RC Helicopters.
Would you buy another one, and why did you buy this one?
Yes, I after my experience with this kit and the build video I would buy another speed build kit. I will probably buy the Simple Scout next and sometime later I might also buy either the P-51 or the MiG-3 kit.
Why did I buy this one? If the question is why did I buy the Explorer specifically, see my response to the first question. I will add though that I really liked that this kit comes with two wings, a 3-channel trainer and a 4-channel 'sport' wing with ailerons. It means you get to practice building wings twice with one kit and the process is very similar for both. It also means that the Explorer is a trainer and something you can grow into. Plus with the high mount pusher prop configuration, hopefully I won't be breaking as many props as I would with a tractor/puller prop setup.
If the question is more general, as-in why did I buy the speed-build kit as opposed to downloading the free plans, well, I figured I would be better off experiencing the build process first with a laser cut kit rather than doing layout work with tiled plans my first time around.
Plus, buying the speedbuild kit supports FliteTest.
She looks awesome! I can't wait to see video of the Maiden!
Yeah, I'm looking forward to taking it out. I need to find a place to fly it first, there are a lot of parks near me but most of them are on the small side and/or have too many trees or baseball field posts that I would have to avoid.
I will probably have to convince my fiancee to do the filming
I've got four builds I've gotta do, three for challenges, and another so my son and I can crash our planes into each other, after the challenges are complete. You've got time before I can join, but you've gotta come up with a challenge for that Bad Boy!
Take it out. Fly it around. Come back at me with a challenge. If I can do. I'll do it.
Sounds good! I'll see what I can think of to challenge you with!
