Reptile S800

SSgt Duramax

Junior Member
Hi everyone, does anyone know anything about these wings? I was on raceday quads to order some 5x5 props for @Matthewdupreez turbo kadet I am building, and I saw this for 45 bucks, so those ended up being some expensive props. I already have all of the electronics for it.

https://www.racedayquads.com/collec...oducts/reptile-s800-sky-shadow-820mm-wing-kit

I had been wanting a wing and an EPP plane for a while, so it seemed to fit the bill and the price was right. I figure I'll laminate it or at least do something to reinforce it a little bit more. Get used to it line of site then toss the FPV camera on it.
 

Matthewdupreez

Legendary member
Hi everyone, does anyone know anything about these wings? I was on raceday quads to order some 5x5 props for @Matthewdupreez turbo kadet I am building, and I saw this for 45 bucks, so those ended up being some expensive props. I already have all of the electronics for it.

https://www.racedayquads.com/collec...oducts/reptile-s800-sky-shadow-820mm-wing-kit

I had been wanting a wing and an EPP plane for a while, so it seemed to fit the bill and the price was right. I figure I'll laminate it or at least do something to reinforce it a little bit more. Get used to it line of site then toss the FPV camera on it.
Looks like a derivative of the ft spear 😂😂
 

FlyingMonkey

Bought Another Trailer
Staff member
Admin
I have the ReadyMadeRC version in black.

Flies well. It's durable as is, at least I have not broken mine yet. Haven't set it up with FPV yet though.
 

SSgt Duramax

Junior Member
I went ahead and got laminate for it because it was $0.45 per foot. I saw that crash test hobby laminated their wings, so I thought it was a good idea. I think if I like this one I will buy the grim reaper xl from CTH.
 

SSgt Duramax

Junior Member
It's so tiny and cute. You could probably fly it around your living room.;)
Yeah, that couldn't happen. It is freaking fast. It doesn't fly slow very well at all (stalls easily, so you have to be careful). It is actually a handful for flying around in a couple of football fields worth of land. The plane flied exceptional once it is trimmed out, and flies like it is on rails at speed.

It was a tiny bit tail heavy, so I had to add about 5 washers to the front of it so it balanced out. It would have been fine with FPV gear in there.

When it tip stalls, it goes into a nasty, unrecoverable death spiral. When you are landing, you need to carefully set up your approach, come in hot, and as you make your approach, throttle back and be very, very careful with the inputs. I had 2 successful landings, and one where I stalled about 10 feet from the ground.

It is ok to come in hot, this plane is nearly indestructible. When I tip stalled it about 50 feet off the ground, it just splatted with a big ole thud, bounced about a foot up, and landed on its belly. Expecting to see carnage, the plane was in one piece. I picked it back up and chunked it and it flew great. You can't tell I lawn darted it twice. So my main fears with it is getting it stuck somewhere unrecoverable.

It is a bit fast to fly it and have fun where I am since it really wants to stretch its legs and I am too panicky with it to take it out over the trees and stuff right now. In my current flying area, it is a bit beyond my flying ability to fly confidently. If I had about double or triple the area, it would be no problem. It isn't hard to fly, I just don't trust myself with it yet. Once I get more practice with it, it will be perfection.

It needs some sort of gyro I think. I have some cheapo NX4 gyros, but it wasn't happy on them as I could never get very good throws out of the servos. It does struggle a bit with the wind, and a gyro would help a ton.

Overall I love this plane, and it was worth every penny of the $45 I spent on the kit. Compared to the foam board alternatives, I think if you are buying a speed build kit, it is pretty competitive. It is bigger than a mini arrow, and smaller than a versa, which are priced at $25 and $30 respectively. So for 15-20 bucks more you get a EPP plane that is tough as nails, and can easily fit a 2200mah battery (what I flew mine with) and whatever FPV gear and flight controller your heart desires. If this plane were a DTFB plane, it would be a crumpled mess already. It flies on a F pack, so electronics are cheap if you don't already have them.

The only thing that is bad in this kit, is that the plywood firewall is absolute garbage, and will break if you look at it funny, so be prepared to make your own solution. My solution was just a couple of squares of plywood that the carbon fiber motor mount could screw to, and is very solid.

I would say do not buy this plane if you don't have experience with something relatively fast with snappy responses that is a little unforgiving. Or if you have plenty of space, do. Why not, you probably won't break it.
 

SSgt Duramax

Junior Member
Just as an update on this plane.... the installed vortex generators helped greatly with low speed flyability, installing these will help out tons.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2039383

There is also a tool available you can print out to help with alignment of them.

Also, CG on this thing is huge. It can recover from a graveyard stall if there is enough nose weight and height. It will eventually level out into a nosedive if you are high enough. However, if you are flying it FPV over an area you don't want to lose it, still keep your speed up!

This thing is such a little rocket, losing the little bit of top end you do with the VGs isn't noticeable, but lower speed handling is vastly improved.

I have another gyro with RTH and geofencing on the way, and it works excellent for my night fury FPV ship, so it should further smooth this thing out and make it a fairly solid FPV platform, but it is still a hoot to fly LOS.