The Hangar

So, what does OzRcBoy have hiding in the hangar:

Planes that aren't here anymore might be on the Roll of Honour.
(Maintenance Notes)

GWS Tigermoth 400



Type: 4 channel slow flying biplane
Engine: 400 Class Electric
Battery: 3s 11.1v 1500 mAh LiPo
Avionics: MKS Receiver, 3 x Eflite Servos, GWS 480LI Speed Controller
Built Time: 20 hours
Flight Status: Ready for Flight


Pros: Can fly quite slow and is fairly aerobatic.
Cons: Wing setup is not robust so any hard landing generally requires significant repairs. Undercarriage is a joke.

Build Tips: Avoid using too much glue particularly in the rear of the plane. This one can easily come out tail heavy. Mine doesn't fly that slowly because she is too heavy - be careful.



Stevens Aero RV4






Type: Balsa Kit Low Wing Electric Trainer
Engine: TowerPro 2808-21 13A Brushless Outrunner
Battery: 11.1v 2200mAh LiPo
Avionics: JR R770S Receiver, Hitec HS-55 Servos, TowerPro Mag 8 18A Brushless ESC
Built Time: 30+ hours
Flight Status: Ready


Pros: Kit build great - almost snaps together - just wick in the thin CA. Seperate wing servos makes a flaperon setup doable provided radio supports it. Model flys like it is on rails, even at low power, and zooms on high power (around 130-140 Watts of Power).
Cons: Takes a long time to build. Dihedral means not fully aerobatic. Quite fragile - it can handle a rough landing, but it needs to be a landing. Touch a wingtip and you will go home with pieces.


GWS Zero




Type: Foam Low Wing WWII Scale Warbird
Engine: eWatts 1500kv 16A Brushless Outrunner
Battery: 11.1v 1200mAh LiPo
Avionics: MKS Receiver, 1 Multiplex Nano Servos (airlerons), 2 cheap no name servos (elevator, rudder), eWatts 18A Brushless Speed Controller
Built Time: 12 hours so
Flight Status: Ready to Fly - engine has vibration.


Pros: Cheap, looks great, tracks pretty well, quite aerobatic, quite tough (not Electrafun type tough, but tough nevertheless). Really does rock n roll on the 3s LiPo - almost unlimited vertical.
Cons: Doesn't build exactly straight but can generally be trimmed out.

Built Tips: The angle of attack on the lower wing is too high. You need to move the wing mounting point down somewhere around 3-6mm. If you don't do this your Zero will just climb and climb under power. With the change it will still climb, but at a more reasonable rate.



Windrider Ele-Bee (aka Killer Bee)



Type: EPP Foam Flying Wing
Engine: 2000rpv Himax - rated at 200w - handling about 430w in this application.
Battery: 4s 2200 mAh LiPo .
Avionics: Feiago Receiver, 2 x Hitech HS311 Standard Servos, 35A Align Brushless speed controller
Built Time: 6 hours
Flight Status: Grounded - tape hinges giving way


Pros: Fast (faster than a Styrker C), nearly indestructible, can fly in very high wind.
Cons: High Cornering Stall Speed (which is typicall to all Deltas). Not terribly pretty. Like all Deltas have good performance but can become old quite quickly.

Built Tips: The suggested CoG is way too far forward. Aim for about 7.5 inches from the Leading Edge for first flight, moving it back to around 8 inches once you have tested how the plane flys.


Ultrafly P51 Mustang



Type: 6 Channel (retractable undercarriage) foam warbird.
Engine: FRIO 10 Brushless (included with kit) - 160 Watts on 3s
Battery: 3s 1500mAh.
Avionics: 3 x Hitech HS55 Standard Servos, 3 x cheap no name, MKS Narrowband Receiver, Hobbywing 25A Brushless ESC with Separate Switching BEC
Built Time: 30 hours perhaps
Flight Status: Ready to fly


Pros: Park flying warbird wth retractable undercarriage and a brushless motor included. Foam kit is good quality and all the parts lock together nicely (better than GWS foam warbird for example)
Cons: Heavy, particularly if you plan to use 3s2200 mAh packs. Retracts are a joke (but works okay with GWS ones). Quite a long build.

Built Tips: Don't bother with the Ultrafly Retracts - they are no good. GWS make some micro ones with steel spring wire - these are doing the job for me. Don't bother with flaps - they don't make enough of a difference and you are better off saving 15g. Do whatever you can to save weight. Although the maker says you can go up to 650g that producing a wing loading of a massive 18.1 oz/sq ft - aim to try and keep weight to under 610g and you will have a much more manageable aircraft. I'm using some 1300mAh 3s batteries just to keep the weight low.


Phoenix Models Tucano



Type: Scale Tucano Balsa ARF Model
Engine: eWatts R2212 Brushless (should pull 170Watts on 3s)
Battery: 3s 1500mAh Elegance, 2s 2200mAh Elegance.
Avionics: 1 x Hitech HS55 Standard Servo, 3 x cheap no name servos, MKS Narrowband Receiver, eWatts Sword 18A Brushless ESC
Built Time: 9 hours
Flight Status: Ready


Pros: Gorgeous, quick, suprisingly well behaved at stall, ARF Kit quality is good. Separate wing servos, so flaperon setup doable.
Cons: Short on engine mounting options (I'm needing to build a special firewall to mount my engine), no stick mounts etc. None of the servo mounts quite fit a standard micro servo (all need triming), and the battery mounting option sucks.

Built Tips: Make sure you have the elevator/rudder linkages in the control horn before you glue the horn into the control surface.

Microseether



Type: 600mm Balsa pusher prop Delta - kit build.
Engine: GWS 2205 Brushless
Battery: 2s 450mAh.
Avionics: Towerpro SG50 servos, Align single conversion RX, GWS 15A Brushless controller
Built Time: 12 hours over 5 nights.
Flight Status: Busted

Pros: Small, cheap, novelty value.
Cons: Hard to launch, tricky to keep in the air.

Built Tips: Like the instructions say take your time. Read the instructions and look at the picture before you glue things in place. Make sure you give plenty of up elevon (a little more than the usual delta).

Stevens Aero lil' squirt




Type: Balsa Kit Indoor Electric
Engine: GWS LIPS (Light Indoor Power System)
Battery: 7.4v 450mAh 15C Elegance LiPo
Avionics: MKS Propo 7 channel RX, Towerpro SG50 Servos (5g) x 2, GWS 100 Esc
Built Time: 8 hours
Flight Status: Busted Speedie

Pros: Nice fast build - simple model. She took a couple of hardish landings quite well.
Cons: Maybe too much dihedrayl - I spose it is an indoor "trainer" though.

Built Tips: Don't worry too much about whether your wings are straight until you have covered them. I haven't used any really lightweight parts so mine is a little porker at about 120g (about 50% over recommended weight). If you are this far over you must get the CoG right in the middle of the range otherwise she will snap roll (yes - even with dihedrayl) - obviously not all the way over, but enough so you wont be going the direction you need to.

Ewatts P38 Profile



Type: Foam Profile Kit
Engine: 2 x Ewatts 1800kv 160watt Outrunners
Battery: 2 x 3s of some sort.
Avionics: 2 x Ewatts 18A ESC, rest still to be figured out
Built Time: 5 hours so far
Flight Status: Still needs engines installed.
Flights: 0

Pros:
Cons:

Built Tips:

GWS Mini Dragonfly




Type: Fixed Pitch Electric Helicopter
Engine: 300 brushed can motor
Battery: 2s 1300 mAh LiPo
Avionics: GWS Nano 6 Channel Park Flyer RX, 2 x Esky Micro Servos, GWS PHA300 ESC/Mixer/Gyro
Built Time: 1.5 hours
Flight Status: Ready


Pros: Cheap and tough.
Cons: Like most micro helis strongly affected by its own propwash. Undercarriage and battery tray are pretty awful.

Built Tips: Get some superskids. You wont regret it. Use a 2s LiPo like these ones from PLD.

Stevens Aero G300 "G-Ride"


(not mine)

Type: Balsa Parkflying Aerobat
Engine: Still to be decided - probably an ewatts R2212 or R2822 (1500 or 1200 kv)
Battery: Probably in the range 3s 1200mAh
Avionics: Still to be figured out.
Built Time: ??
Flight Status: Airframe built up but not sanded/covered


Pros: ??
Cons: ??

Built Tips: I'll let you know when I do.


Multiplex Easystar



Type: 3 channel foam trainer.
Engine: HXT 2835 2700kv Inrunner with a 5.5x4.5 APC
Battery: 3s 2200mAh.
Avionics: 2 x VS3 16g servos, MKS Narrowband Receiver, Tower Pro 30A Brushless ESC
Built Time: 4 hours (including soldering).
Flight Status: Ready.

Pros: Flys better in the wind than you would expect a trainer to. Excellent elevator authority. Like most things - a big enough motor helps significantly.
Cons: Rudder could be a little bigger. Easy enough to extend with a business card I suppose.

Built Tips: The two reported problem areas for the plane are wings (when setup for high speed) needing more reinforcing, and the canopy catch mechanism not being much chop after one or two hard landings. I did reinforce the wings, but can't report any issues with the canopy catch mechanism at this stage.
For really high speed work, some rare earth magnets to stop the wings from separating in flight is a pretty good idea.

T-REX 450S



Type: Aerobatic Collective Pitch Electric Heli.
Engine: Align 430L 3550 Outrunner in a can.
Battery: 3s 2200mAh 15C.
Avionics: Align 35A, HS65 Servos, Align RX , HLG200 Heading Hold Gyro
Built Time: I paid someone else to do it (how slack is that).
Flight Status: Ready for flight.

Pros: Seems steady to fly. Nice looking machine.
Cons: Remains to be seen whether steadiness is deceptive. Battery drain is faster than expected (used a 2200mAh just adjusting her for flight, and a short 30 second hover afterwards).

Built Tips: More of a flying tip - adjust your throttle/pitch curve to give you plenty of head energy before the blades start biting. Big thanks to Jeremy who put the machine together and Paul from Nitrodude who helped me do the final adjustments and test flew her for me.


Twister Hawk (Blackhawk)



Type: Indoor counter rotating Electric Heli
Engine: Two brushed motors.
Battery: 2s 800mAh.
Avionics: All included (TX as well)
Built Time: Maybe 15 minutes.
Flight Status: Ready.

Pros: Flys out of the box. Fairly stable. Reasonably tough. Good for keeping dogs and cats in line. The aussie army livery is a nice touch.
Cons: Perhaps not as stable as I expected. Heading hold not as good as I expected.

Built Tips: Um - throw away the box when you are done.

Minium Cessna

Picture coming sorry.

Type: Indoor 3 channnel scale.
Engine: Very small brushed motor.
Battery: 1s 70mAh.
Avionics: All included (TX as well - 2.4Ghz)
Built Time: 0.
Flight Status: Ready.

Pros: Flys out of the box. Fairly stable. Reasonably tough.
Cons: Bit annoying that the TX throttle has no rachet, and that the throttle only engageds from mid point to top throw.

Built Tips: Um - throw away the box when you are done.

Easybox II



Type: Indoor 3 indoor.
Engine: 16g brushless outrunner.
Battery: 2s 450mAh.
Avionics: Hitech RX, EM3.7g Servos, 12A Towerpro ESC
Built Time: 10.
Flight Status: Ready.

Pros: Nice simple balsa build (would be a good first balsa kit). Can be built light, flys well. Goes together fast (one evening is all you need for fuse and wing if you are using thin CA).
Cons: Trailing edge is a little tricky to sand. The wing is strong enough for flying, but some of the load created while sanding it to shape is a bit of a challenge.

Built Tips: See my EBII review for notes on how I did it. One tip I would suggest - sand the Trailing Edge to shape before you glue the wing together.