Showing posts with label nitroplanes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nitroplanes. Show all posts

Monday, September 15, 2008

Nitroplanes Flymodel Cessna 401 Twin











Flymodel keeps growing and learning, it really shows in this plane. The quality and engineering is excellent. It goes together VERY fast, far and away the fastest twin to build I have ever done. Everything fits perfectly, and the level of prefabrication is very high. The instructions are English and decent, a step above what this factory has turned out before, about middle of the road as far as instructions go. It shows that they have been listening and trying very hard.
It comes with fixed gear, and it's set up for retracts, too. I am waiting on a set of Robart air retracts to complete my plane. Mechanical retracts could be done, with a little engineering on your part.
I am using two each of Exceed Monster Power 46 outrunners, Raiden 80A Escs, and Fusion Power 3200 5s lipos. The servos are all Towerpro SG5010 standards. I have used a bunch of them before with no issues, they are quite a bargain. Normally, on a plane this size, which will end up at least 10 pounds, I'd use something stronger on the elevators, but this plane is set up with two elevator servos, so standard servos are just fine. I will be using a seperate UBEC on one of the batteries to power the radio. Actually, maybe two of them.
On previous large twins like the B25, P82, and Mosquito, I have used 5000mah packs, but long flights of 10 minutes or so have left me landing with over half the battery still left, so this time, I went with 3200, should be plenty.
The nacelles are each one large fiberglass piece. This makes access to the interior very easy. If you wanted to, it would be easy enough to cut off the cowl portions to make them seperate. What engines will fit? It is set up for two 40s, I think four strokes should go in without any real problem, too. With my electrics, I made up my own plywood box motor mounts, but nice nylon mounts and good quality fuel tanks and tubing are all included in the kit, if you want to go glow.
Did I mention how nice the glasswork and paint are? Along with all the woodwork and covering? Nice quality, and LIGHT. Much lighter than anything by CMP, as much as I like CMP stuff.
Oh...and you can't tell from the pictures, but it includes split flaps, too.
I swapped out a few pieces of hardware along the way...what is included is good quality, but I don't like using EZ connectors on flight controls, so I soldered threaded couplers onto my elevator and rudder pushrods and added clevises instead. The rest of the hardware all got used.
There is a nice set of decals(stickers) included. Not sure what of them I will use, I want to make mine a little different from the box top.
Update...the plane flies BEAUTIFULLY, with no bad habits, and a VERY slow landing speed.
Fast, aerobatic, but easy to fly. The flaps work great.
Here is my setup:
2x Monster Power 46 outrunners
2x Raiden 80a ESCs
2x Fusion Power 3200mah 5s lipos
Towerpro 5010 standard servos
Tigertracts spring-down air retracts
Seperate BEC running off one of the lipo batteries...
12x6 props, 2" spinners

I love it. It looks great, and it flies great, and it gets a ton of attention at the field. Everybody who sees it is impressed, and nobody can beleive this model is only $200, it looks like a $700 model. And the electric systems I used to fit it out are dirt cheap, too. It's awesome.
Many pleasant surprises with this model, you get more than you pay for, for sure, it's not cheap Chinese junk, but a first class product from a company that is really going places.

Exceed Starmax Lockheed F-35 Lightning II ARF EDF










Another one from Andy Chen. And it's GORGEOUS. Spectacular appearance, very scale, great paint and decals.
Assembly takes about 45 minutes. Skip the included contact cement, use epoxy instead. It is set up with three servos...linked stabs and ailerons on each side, but it gives you the option of adding two more servos to operate stabs and ailerons seperately if you prefer. An extra set of four pushrods are thoughtfully included, along with spots to drop the two servos right in.

And it flies BEAUTIFULLY. Fast...maybe the fastest of all the 64mm EDF jobs out there, with excellent vertical performance. Very stable, but very maneuverable. I am flying off pavement, have not tried hand-launching it yet...

Update...about 50 flights later, the plane still does not have a scratch on it, and it's still one of my favorite foamy jets, it's just a lot of fun to fly, and very high quality.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Nitroplanes Willhobby 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 FlyModel B-25 Mitchell



Really nice kit, incredible deal for $225.  Flies like a dream on two Towerpro brushless outrunners....

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

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..

Sunday, March 09, 2008

Nitroplanes FlyModel B-17 Flying Fortress





One of the most interesting models I have ever assembled.  A four engined bomber without a lot of hassle and expense...
First, the good parts...it goes togther pretty quickly, and it flies BEAUTIFULLY.  It also looks GREAT in the air.
Second, the bad parts...there are some minor quality control issues, and it's not perfectly scale.

It's mostly nicely-done wood, with a few plastic and fiberglass parts.  The decals were simply awful, and I threw them away.  The QC issues were not enough paint on the upper canopy deck, and complete and total mispainting of the ball turret.  Also, the nose is painted solid, it would really look better with some windows.  The retracts are not in the scale position, but that's something of a plus, as they are very simple and strong to set up.  I used Nitroplanes retracts, and had no problems.
The rest of the equipment...Raiden 1300kv speed 400 motors, Nitroplanes 8x4 props, Raiden 25a escs, towerpro 4010 servos, one JR retract servo, Spektrum AR7000 receiver, 2 2220 3s packs, one driving the inner motors, the other for the outer.
The motor and esc package is the one offered  by nitroplanes for $160, it's cheap, and works like a charm.
The plane flies just beautifully...I will post more detail if anybody is interested...

If you ever wanted to do a B-17, here is your chance.  Anything else is hideously complicated, or not very scale, or incredibly expensive.  This was my first four engined model, and everything went very well, and people are VERY impressed with it in the air.  And you can't beat the price.  Go for it, it's not too challenging, it's easy enough to get together, and very easy to fly, and the performance is just great.

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.