Exceed RC F-4 Phantom II EDF

This is the latest creation from the fertile mind of genius EDF designer Andy Chen...there IS a difference as to who designs these, this guy just has the magic touch, and it shows in the scale accuracy of the overall plane, and also in a lot of thoughtful little details and engineering that really make it stand out from the competition.
It's beautiful! Small, and very high performance...
Very high quality molding, lots of detail, good paint, good water transfer decals, clear canopy with cockpit deck(the pics on the nitroplanes website show an early prototype with a tinted canopy), easily removeable or replaceable landing gear, full flying stab, easy fan access for maintanance, lots of nice features.
In the air, it's pure dynamite, everybody guesses it to be about 70mph, and that's very fast for such a small airplane! It's a whole level of performance above the rest of the RTF EDF jets...
It's basically the smallest airframe that you can wrap around a 64mm fan.
Hand launching is really easy, there is a grip molded in for doing it, and you don't need to heave it, it will fly away from just a light toss with no problems.
Roll rate is tremendous, vertical performance is awesome, and downright speed, well...most EDFs, you fly around at full bore all the time, with this one, you want to save full throttle for verticals and high speed passes, and throttle back to half or two thirds to keep the thing manageable the rest of the time, it's mighty quick.
It's very easy to land, I have been bellying mine in on the grass with no problems, though you might want to put a little glass cloth on the lower lip of the intakes, they tend to snag the grass and get chipped up. With the landing gear on, off pavement, it has no bad habits at all. The gear comes on and off with a few screws in a minute or two.
It takes up no room in the car, it can fly out of small parks, or you can take it to the club field and mix it up with the big boys, it costs little, it requires no maintainance, it looks great, and it flies great. It's my new favorite airplane!
Update...
I also got the RAF camo version. Even more beautiful. Probably the best looking foamie jet out there.
On the Blue Angels one, since I am belly landing it, I found that adding a little silver aluminum tape to the leading edges on the wing and intakes cures and damage from the grass.
I see there has been some talk of lateral instability on some of the forums...I think it's just a case of this plane tends to get punched around a bit in heavy winds, mostly because it's so light. In less wind, you will notice that there is no rolling back and forth at all.
It is a plane that flies fast and hard, it's small, and it requires you attention, keeps you on your toes. I also recommend that you go easy on full power, use it in small bursts, lest you burn something out...the system is putting out a LOT of power, and it was not meant to go full bore all the time...which would be a little hairy anyway!

E-domodels F-15 from Nitroplanes

This plane is absolutley outstanding, particularly on two fronts...flyability and scale appearance.

What's in the box? Motor and 64mm fan and 25a ESC, already installed. Five servos, already installed. 2200mah lipo battery. A very useable balance charger that will peak and balance the battery to 12.6v exactly, just like my expensive charger does. A screwdriver, a package of good quality five minute epoxy. All hardware and landing gear. All foam components prepainted and predecorated. A canopy with the frame painted on. Everything you need except a transmitter and receiver.

Construction took about 45 minutes, with no problems and no surprises. Do check the fit of the foam parts, and sand away any paint where you are gluing. Keep in mind that both elevator control horns need to point towards the same side of the aircraft, so the elevators go up and down together. The main gear gets glued into place...there is no real easy way to change that(maybe with some plywood plates?), so you need to make the choice of either gear up or gear down and live with it. I got one and flew it with the gear on, and was so pleased that I ordered a second one so I could have another with the gear off for hand-launching over grass. Frankly, there is not much to say about building it, it's dead simple to get together.

So...off to the field. First takeoff took about 100 feet. It was obvious that it was at flying speed long before that, and that the slightly negative angle of attack from the small nosewheel was keeping the plane down, and I needed to apply elevator to get it off the ground. I suspect the designers did this deliberately, to make sure that beginning pilots would have adequate speed to avoid a slow takeoff and tipstall. If you put on a bigger nosewheel or bent the main gear forward a bit, it would take off a lot faster. Ground handling is exceptional. It will also go from a really easy hand-toss, or will even take off from its belly on smooth grass. Landings are super easy...just leave a little power on and fly her down to the runway, then cut the power. Don't try to "flare" her in, you would not do that will a full-scale F-15(stall a few feet above the runway!), you should not with the model, either. Again...it's really easy to land.

In the air, with the landing gear on, she likes a little dive before performing a loop. With the gear off, without the extra weight and drag of the wheels, she will go up and over with no issues at all. Rolls are just great, very axial and very scale. Speed is decent, no barn burner, but maybe 50-60 mph. It's not "nominal" in any way, it has plenty of power to fly around with authority. Above all things, it's a very EASY plane to fly, dead stable, a perfect first jet, perfect for anybody with a little aileron experience. And it looks just awesome in the air.

On the scale front, the plane is really exceptional. The outline looks great, and there are lots of panel lines and details molded in to the airframe. Even better, there are some really great decal(well...not waterslide decals, but stickers, anyway) sheets included, with dozens and dozens of little grates and "no steps" and details included, and the instructions show where every one goes. I spent an extra hour or more putting all these on(after I test flew it) and they really add a lot of texture and make the model come alive. So far, nothing I have seen on the foamie EDF front has come close to this F-15 on scale appearance. Both paint schemes available are nice, too.

It flies very nicely on the stock power system, but advanced pilots might want a little more urge...it's easy to modify. On the bottom of the plane you will see a hatch right beneath the motor, if you run a sharp razor around the edges, you will cut the glue joint and you can get to the fan to change motors. The battery holder is a simple and clever velcro strap, and I had no problem fitting in a 4s battery instead of the 3s provided. I flew around for about 3 minutes with the 4s, and it was a dramatic difference in speed and climb, but the motor was not made to take it, and burned out after three minutes. So...you will need a different motor, and perhaps a different ESC. The airframe is plenty strong to handle a lot more power. Fly it first, stock, you might be surprised at how able it is in the air, but feel free to upgrade it further, it's a good airframe for that.

At any rate, this plane is a real winner, and a perfect place to get your feet wet in jets...I can put in 5 quick flights on my way home from work, no maintainance, no problems, and fun in the air.

FlyItYourself F-22 from Nitroplanes

I got this plane to keep my Su-47 company. I already had the excellent Sapac F-22, so the bar for the Nitroplanes one to beat was pretty high. It's considerably smaller than the Sapac one, and made out of a completely different kind of foam. The foam seems to be CA glue resistant, and very tough, highly resistant to dings and damage. It's close to the indestructable EPP foam used on some models, but maybe not exactly the same. It's definitely not regular expanded polystyrene foam, but something better. The tail surfaces seem to be made of a different material, maybe sheet depron. Every single part is included...glue, a decent screwdriver, two 55mm fans with 4300kv inrunner motors, two 18a ESCs, three servos, a 2200 3s lipo battery, and a decent balancing charger for the battery. You can also get it with a transmitter and receiver included. Everything is installed, too. Construction is dead simple, but I will give you a few tips...



The ailerons and elevators are linked by pushrods. Make sure there is zero slop in the system. Make washers out of the spare control horns included, if you need to take up any slack. Make sure all of the nuts on the EZ connectors are CAed or locktited for safety. Make sure you turn your radio on and center the servos before you put the horns on, as they are hard to access once you have glued the wings on. There was a little bendiness in my ailerons due to the pushrods themselves flexing, but this has not proved to be an issue in flight. I added a strip of carbon fiber to the bottom of each stab, as they felt a little floppy, but I don't know if that's really needed...it just made me feel better. A couple of cocktail sticks would do the same job, if you don't have any carbon fiber around. I moved the nosegear steering to the inner hole of the servo and the outer hole of the steering arm to reduce the sensitivity of the nosegear. Both main gear legs have the shock-absorption coil going the same way, so one goes forward and one goes back, this works perfectly. Only three screws are provided for the main gear mounting for each side, three screws is plenty, even though there are four holes. I changed out the provided bullet connectors on the ESC and battery to Deans connectors, to make it compatable with the rest of my fleet. The bullet connectors came off with a touch of my soldering iron and went into my scrapbox for future use on something else. I used only five minute epoxy for construction. The provided contact cement works, but I don't like the stuff, and it takes too long to dry. The whole assembly of the plane took about an hour.

I used a Spektrum radio with an AR7100 RX, which may be overkill, but I had it on hand. You need to set up your radio for Delta mixing...if you cannot get the surfaces moving in the right direction, try switching the two servos into the opposite ports on the receiver...instead of left on aileron and right on elevator channels, plug the right into aileron and the left into elevator, and everything should work fine. I used the control throws shown in the manual, and used a bit of expo, which I highly recommend for the first flights. I ran the motors up slowly for the first time, to make sure the fans were balanced and to get them "bedded in" properly. There were no issues there, and they really howl. I mean, LOT of power. There are neat little blow-in doors on the bottom made out of flexible plastic, to get extra air to the fans at full throttle...they are very clever and work perfectly.

So...off to the field...

First takeoff took about 75 feet of pavement, then she was up and climbing at a 45 degree angle. She needed down trim...I flew a couple of circuits to get some altitude, then reached for the elevator trim...and switched off my transmitter instead. I did not realize that is what had happened...I thought the radio link was lost somehow. The motors stopped, there was no control, and she settled into a nice turning glide and landed in a tree with no damage. Stable airplane. Got her back down and tried again, this time without turning off the transmitter, and she flies beautifully. Quite fast, at least 70mph, with excellent vertical, great roll rate, very aerobatic. Not a difficult plane to fly, but fast and small and silver, it keeps you on your toes. Landings are dead easy, just keep a little power on and fly her down to the runway. The gear system is excellent, capable of taking some pretty rough landings. I have not tried her without the gear yet...while I think the hand-launch would be very easy, I am afraid of the landing, as the bottoms of the intakes are made of sheet plastic, I am afraid of damaging them, my grass is pretty rough.

I'm very pleased with this bird, it has exceeded all my expectations, particularly in the air. I feel no need to upgrade the motor system at all, the performance is more than adequate to me. The plane is very tough, very easy to assemble, looks good, is very inexpensive for what it is. Particularly exceptional is the performance...if you are used to EDF jets that just sort of fly around, this will be a big change for you, because this thing really FLIES. It's certainly not for beginners, but intermediate pilots will have no problem at all.

ArtTech P-51 Mustang RTF

Every
Every single thing is included in the box except 8 aa batteries for the transmitter.  Even a simulator disk and a cable to connect the TX to your PC.
Even a spare scale four bladed prop.
Even good quality English instructions.
Even a screwdriver for the six screws that are needed for assembly.
No glue is required.
It took 20 minutes to put the whole thing together, including the extra detail stickers they included...

The provided 4ch 72mhz radio has worked perfectly, though you could switch it out for Spektrum if you wanted.   The lipo charger and 1300mah lipo work perfectly, too.

At the field, the plane is a tremendous flyer.  The first flight required only a few clicks of up trim, then I proceeded to do every possible four channel maneuver in the book...stall turns, rolls, loops, cuban 8s, spins, snaps, touch and goes, whatever.  It will to it all.  It has plenty of power.  I took it up to speck height and dove it straight down, and pulled out very hard, nothing fell off, so the airframe can take anything you throw at it, strenght-wise.  It's very maneuverable, and very stable, and would be a great first warbird, or a great plane for the more experienced pilot to keep in the back of the car and throw around any place you see a field.  THe landing gear comes off in two seconds with no tools, and the plane is very easy to hand launch and belly in over grass.
Construction quality is superb, everything fit, everythign was well made, and nothing has broken in a dozen flights, and the plane has no bad habits.  I love it.

Nitroplanes ArtTech F4U Corsair

Absolutely stunning model.  Every single thing is included in the box except 8aa batteries.  Even a simulator disk and a special cable to connect the transmitter to your computer.  It takes only ten minutes with the included screwdriver to assemble, no glue is needed.
Construction quality and engineering are TOP NOTCH.  Good stuff.  Everything is well built, and everything fit perfectly, and all the electronics worked perfectly.

Appearance is GREAT.  It's very scale, and the scale three bladed prop is a knockout.

In the air, it has plenty of power, it will loop easily from level flight.  Roll rate is good, but not staggering, seems very scale. Rudder authority is excellent.  Speed is good, but not outrageous.  Handling is benign, it's a very easy plane to fly, with no real vices, very easy to land.  A great first warbird.
Expert pilots can add a bigger motor and battery and get more performance, but I suspect most people will be satisfied with what comes in the box.  Certainly, it's in no way underpowered in the stock form.  Flight times are long, too.
This is a GREAT model.  I don't know why Nitroplanes does not put it on the front page...

Nitroplanes GuanLi Me-109 ARF

Like the others in this series, it will indeed fly fine on the provided brushed motor and nimh battery.  Flight times are maybe four minutes, though, and power is okay at best.  With this one, I definitely recommend going to an 11v lipo to get the extra power, as the plane has a tendency to tip stall if you get too slow, it's not very forgiving that way, be careful.  But it does fly nicely.  It's worth upgrading this one to brushless.  The landing gear is pretty useless, too narrow, but it hand launches very easily and looks better in the air without the gear anyway.  The paint job is very nicely done, looks great.  Construction quality is good.  I'm having fun with it.

China Model Productions CMP 50 sized P-40 Warhawk

Just to clear up some confusion, and a lot of misinformation on the internet...CMP is not Willhobby, or FlyModel, or any other company.  CMP is thier own company, and they have been around for  while. I have built a few of their planes, and found the quality to be quite exceptional, they are high-end stuff, and from a scale point of view, nobody else comes close.
The P-40, from a scale aspect, blows away the Hangar 9 and everybody else's P-40.  The paint job is dead flat and perfect, and there are a ton of factory-installed water transfer decals, a beautiful glass belly tank, strut covers, prepainted canopy frame, lots of nice stuff.  All the hardware is exceptional, too, with a fiberglass pushrod for the elevator, and a pull-pull system for the rudder.
You need to be careful flying it, though.  It has no washout, it's not light, and it will tip stall if you pull too hard or get too slow.  The big problem, though, is that the CG in the manual is actually for the much larger 71" one, and will leave you very tailheavy if you don't correct it to about 85mm from the LE.  It's really, really important.
If you fly off grass, you will have really hard time finding rotating retracts that will hold up.  Seriously consider fixed gear like I used.
I flew mine with a Saito 62, fit perfectly and was plenty of power.
Let's here some other comments, this is a beautiful plane..

Nitroplanes Guanli PBY Catalina Seaplane

It's a wonderful plane. It took about an hour for me to get it together. There is nothing particularly noteworthy about putting it together, except things will go much faster with five minute epoxy instead of the provided contact cement. Every single item is included, even a screwdriver and glue. The only thing you need to provide is 8 AA batteries for the transmitter.
So...how does it fly? Just great. With the provided brushed geared motors and NIMH battery, it has adequate power to fly around nicely, and will loop from a shallow dive. It is extremely stable, and extremely easy to fly. It could be a first or second plane. Hand launching is very easy. It will also get off water or snow. If you plan on flying off water, you will probably want to add a water rudder to help steer it around after landing. If you are flying off anything but soft grass or water, you will probably want to add some clear packing tape to the bottom of the fuselage and wing floats to prevent them from getting scratched up. Do not attempt to fly it without the provided wing struts, they are needed, and stay away from any wild aerobatics that might give the wing negative G forces, it's not really stressed for that. The plane is plenty strong for normal flying, but it's not an aerobat, nor was the real PBY Catalina. It looks best doing a low pass or touch and goes off the water. It's extremely light, and will fly very very slowly, it's hard for beginning pilots to get into trouble with it, and the flight charachteristics are certainly suitable for park flying.

Flight times are around 8 minutes with the provided pack, and the wall charger takes about an hour to refill the pack. The 27 MHZ radio works fine, it occasionally glitches here and there, but recovers right away. Keep in mind that range is not unlimited, keep the plane withing 500 feet of you or so, and that you are subject to interference from many other toys and other devices out there. It would be very easy to install a different receiver, but, again, the provided one is perfectly adequate. Do make sure your receiver antenna is stretched out all the way to the tail, that you have fresh batteries in the transmitter, and that you range check your system before you fly it.

As far as upgrades go, if you change the installed connector, you can put in an inexpensive 12c 3 cell 2200mah lipo battery. It will fit flat on the tray right above where the NIMH pack went, and will stay where it is by just a friction fit between the tray and the fuselage and the pushrods. The extra power of the 11v lipo makes for a dramatic transformation...power is now much more than is needed, she will climb out at a 45 degree angle, and flight times are 12-15 minutes. Full throttle is rarely needed. Motor life may suffer in the long run, but mine has been fine so far, and it's a lot more fun to fly with the lipo pack. I feel no need at all to upgrade the motors to brushless, the provided geared systems are more than adequate to fly the plane very well.

It's a heck of a deal for $99, you really can't go too far wrong. I'm very pleased.

Nitroplanes Guanli A-10 Warthog

Construction quality and paintwork from the factory is excellent, no problems at all.  It took me about 20 minutes to put it together using five minute epoxy.  I left the landing gear off, I prefer to hand launch.  Be sure ot put some tape on the bottom for protection.

The plane flies fine on the stock NIMH pack and brushed motors, in spite of all the internet "Experts" saying it would not.  It will loop and roll, no problem, but it's modestly powered with the stock setup, and flight times are maybe five minutes, tops.
Swapping out the 650NIMH pack for a three cell 1300 lipo made a whole new airplane out of it.  Now it is fast and vividly aerobatic, and flight times are long.  I set a timer at eight minutes to make sure I do not overdrain the lipo and ruin it.  No reason why you could not put in a 2200 pack, either.
Beware of one thing, though...the way it is set up from the factory, there is way too much elevator throw, and you may kill it on the first flight attempt.  Move the control horn to the innermost hole on the elevator servo horn, and the outermost one on the horn on the elevator, and everything will be fine.
I am still using the included 27mhz radio.  It will occasionally glitch if I point the TX antenna right at the airplane, otherwise, it has been working fine.
I have put a dozen flights in using the 11v lipo and the stock brushed motors, and the motors and ESC are still going strong, so consider that before buying a brushless converson for it.  Power is a non-issue with the stock motors and a lipo batt.
The plane is stable and easy to fly, yet very aerobatic.  I like flying it in low and close, like the real thing.  
All I can say is the plane is better than expected in all respects, much better than the similar GWS offering, and it is well built and a super value for the money.  Great plane to keep in the back of the car and toss around whenever you see an open space.

Nitroplanes Sea Fury

 

It's a big model, very brawny.

I am using a Monster Power 110 motor, which is probably overkill, but it will go straight up.  Unlimited vertical.
Power is two 4000mah 4s packs.
Speed control is a Castle Creations 85hv.
Using a seperate 1600 5 cell pack for the radio.
I have Raidentech digital servos on all surfaces, they seem just great so far, not cheap junk, but very nice servos.
It comes with flaps, but fixed gear.  It is not retract ready, but installing retract bays should be no big deal, it's a plain wood wing.
Woodwork and covering is superb.  Glasswork is good, and very light.  The wing and stab tips are fiberglass, too.
I made mine a two-piece wing, it holds up in flight, no problem.
I fitted one of the Nitroplanes WWII pilots, it looks GREAT, and they are very cheap.  I had to cut his base down a little to fit.
The only complaint I have had so far is I think the elevator pushrod is a little too flexy for my tastes, so I replaced it with 4/40 rods and a fiberglass tube.
So far, very pleased...

I have about a dozen flights on it, the more I fly it, the more I love it.  Incredibly aerobatic, fast, and very very very easy to land.  Wonderful plane.

Nitroplanes P-82 Twin Mustang

All wood, except for the fiberglass cowls and chin scoops.  Very light, very accurate construction.
I made the outer wing panels removeable.  The two fuses with the center section are very easy to transport.
It includes mechanical retracts.  They are plastic, they work, but off grass, they won't last forever.
I converted it to electric with two Monster Power 46 motors, two TowerPro 70a escs, a seperate BEC, and two 4000 5s Exceed lipos.  Performance is superb, very easy to fly, very very easy to land, very aerobatic.  Has flaps.  I added two Nitroplanes pilots, too, they look good.
Fast to build, very inexpensive to buy and fit out, flies superbly.  Great first twin.

It's a real bargain of a model, sells for an insanely low price for what it is.  It's big and impressive, and flies beautifully.
Later on, I repainted it black to make a nightfighter, see the bottom picture.