Tis the season! mini indoor planes. what to use for power pack and where to buy them.

[Robbutler1977]

I have see a couple videos on flitetest about making mini planes out of like Champ parts and such but...... where can you buy the power pack setups to make your own from scratch? I imagine if you can get small enough power packs you could say make a piper cub out of tag board and foam formers and such. but finding the small power back or bricks as they are call are really hard to find. I would hate to..... let me rephrase this... I hated paying 100$ for the Champ in the first place then turn around and take it apart just to get the motor and brick out of it to make another small plane. also would like to make 4 channel with duel ailerons. still just a single servo that work both ailerons but the brick you just get elevator and rudder, I think it can be mixed for a flying wing, I think. its hard to look though these postings of over 2,000 post to add to or get what you at looking for. if anyone know of a post that covers this please point me in the right direction. thanks.

 

[JimCR120]

Rob,
Pretty much all of my RC air purchases come from the Flite Test store, Horizon Hobby, and Hobby King depending on what I'm looking for. Just last night I ordered the C Twin Pack from the Flite Test store for a WWII project I'm working on. The power packs they offer do vary in size and if you look at the build kits they offer you can find which power packs are suggested for which aircraft. Check it out and be sure to post back with what you're planning. If the power pack has more than what you want then you can still use the contents to pick out the individual items you want in the Flite Test store or wherever you prefer. Actually, I ordered something from all 3 last night. Got building to do ya' know.

Whatcha lookin' to build?
—Jim

 

[PsyBorg]

You can search You Tube as well for the type builds you wish to do. Many people list the parts the used and where to get them in the descriptions.

 

[rockyboy]

I too love building lightweight indoor planes, and hate the crazy $50 or $60 for those Spektrum compatible receiver/servo bricks.

Here are the two other options I know about and use.

1) Hobby King has a clone of that little Spektrum UMX control board - DSM2 only, but that's fine for indoors - and it's only $21

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/2-4ghz-...ble-receiver-w-brushed-esc-linear-servos.html

2) If you have radio with a JR bay in the back like the Taranis family, you can get a 4-in-1 radio module and use this little $11 receiver/servo board

https://www.banggood.com/WLtoys-F949-Airplane-Spare-Parts-Receiver-Board-p-959681.html?rmmds=search

I've got indoor planes with both these boards, and they both work fine. The HK board has the advantage of doing a proper binding and model match, while the WL Toys board has a weird binding procedure that needs to be done every time you power it up - and it's taller, which can be a challenge for some plane designs.

And I do have one nice indoor balsa plane that's using parts from a scrapped champ. But those don't come along as often as I'd like

 

[Bricks]

You can watch the classifieds at rcgroups.com the Eflight stuff comes up often, complete bricks micro servos etc.