I've been trying to teach a fella how to fly, however he's had a few teething issues, exacerbated by his mode of transport (motorbike) and affinity with trees. However we seemed to have found the solution to his problems: the Nine Eagles 780mm Skysurfer. It's small and light, very easy to fly and packs into its box nicely for transport.
We maidened the plane today, in perfect, sunny (if very cold) and still weather. The Nine Eagles tx looks odd, but is pretty comfy to use. The rudder also looks like there's something wrong with it, but the very small amount of movement you get from it steers the plane quite successfully. The only downer with the kit is the stock battery, which puffed on charging... I'm currently discharging it for disposal using a lightbulb... However, the plane loves the Turnigy 350mAh 2s batteries bought to make up the shipping weight.
Flying wise, there's plenty of power from the brushed motor. I barely needed any trim. The roll rate is laughable - the polyhedral on the wings overcome them at about 20 degrees. But they work well to steer the plane, by themselves for long, wide turns, or coordinated with rudder and/or elevator to turn on a dime. My buddy, who hasn't flown for a long time, had no trouble flying it except for one nose-in incident. The magnetic wing does its job, popping off to absorb the impact. The motor pushed back slightly into the nose, but popped back into place with some gentle persuasion.
Run time was pretty good, with about 8-10 minutes on a mixed throttle. A nice surprise was a built in low battery alarm, although it only sounded once. Maybe it's a first warning beep before it beeps continuously, but we didn't find out. It handles a bit of a breeze, probably up to about 10kph.
I'm very impressed by the package, and my buddy has been buzzing all day after putting a few packs through it.
EDIT: almost forgot the link: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewitem.asp?idproduct=19330
We maidened the plane today, in perfect, sunny (if very cold) and still weather. The Nine Eagles tx looks odd, but is pretty comfy to use. The rudder also looks like there's something wrong with it, but the very small amount of movement you get from it steers the plane quite successfully. The only downer with the kit is the stock battery, which puffed on charging... I'm currently discharging it for disposal using a lightbulb... However, the plane loves the Turnigy 350mAh 2s batteries bought to make up the shipping weight.
Flying wise, there's plenty of power from the brushed motor. I barely needed any trim. The roll rate is laughable - the polyhedral on the wings overcome them at about 20 degrees. But they work well to steer the plane, by themselves for long, wide turns, or coordinated with rudder and/or elevator to turn on a dime. My buddy, who hasn't flown for a long time, had no trouble flying it except for one nose-in incident. The magnetic wing does its job, popping off to absorb the impact. The motor pushed back slightly into the nose, but popped back into place with some gentle persuasion.
Run time was pretty good, with about 8-10 minutes on a mixed throttle. A nice surprise was a built in low battery alarm, although it only sounded once. Maybe it's a first warning beep before it beeps continuously, but we didn't find out. It handles a bit of a breeze, probably up to about 10kph.
I'm very impressed by the package, and my buddy has been buzzing all day after putting a few packs through it.
EDIT: almost forgot the link: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewitem.asp?idproduct=19330
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