Distributor:Hobby-Lobby, International Type: Sport or F5B Competition Flying weight: 38 oz. / 1077 g Length: 36.5 in. / 927 mm Wing span: 67 in. / 1701 mm Wing area: 330 sq in / .212 sq m Wing loading: 16.5 oz/ sq ft / 5.03 kg/ sq m Radio: JR 9303 transmitter with DSM2 module, Spektrum AR6200 receiver, 2 Hitec 125MG thin wing servos on ailerons, and a Hitec HS65HB for the elevator Power system: AXI 2217/9D + PG3 outrunner motor w/Gearbox, Jeti Spin 44 ESC, and PolyQuest 3300 3S Lipo. Prop is Aero-Naut 14x12 carbon folder. Power output (static): 46 amps / 527 watts, 5200 rpm MSRP (airframe only): $339.90 Price as tested (not including transmitter): $970.20
Introduction
The F5B Tiger, distributed by Hobby-Lobby, International, is a fully-molded electric-launched sailplane. This type of model is often referred to as a "hotliner", and is similar to the models used in F5B competition. For those not familiar with F5B competition, the models are required to fly both distance (speed) and duration tasks, with the caveat that the motor cannot be run while on the course. This means the models must possess incredible rates of climb, since they must streak back to altitude as fast as possible before re-entering the course, as well as the ability to go fast and glide for long distances. Of course since they need to make "pylon racer" turns at both ends of the distance course, the models must also be extremely strong to withstand the g-loading. The Tiger fits the description! Soon after Hobby-Lobby contacted me to do this review, a large box arrived at my door. Having built and flown many models over the years, I have pretty high standards when it comes to fit and finish so I wasn't sure what to expect when I opened the box. I am happy to say I was very impressed with the workmanship and quality. All the details were there - from the wing bolt sockets to the "wipers" on the ailerons and elevator. The airframe is of absolutely stunning quality, with no imperfections in fit and finish to be found no matter how close you look. Let's get on with the build!
Construction
There is really no "building" to be done with the Tiger, since the airframe is completely molded and arrives fully assembled. The wing and tail are bolt-on affairs, so the only tasks left up to you are the installation of the servos and the motor. Hobby-Lobby provided a fiberglass firewall with my Tiger, but unfortunately the bolt pattern of the AXI motor did not match any of the holes. Upon further measuring, even had I slotted the mount for the bolts, there would have been very little material left around the bolt holes. Since the mount is also too large to fit inside the nose without sanding, I simply made a mount from 1/8" aircraft plywood. The mount was then bolted to the motor and slid in from the wing opening. Once I was satisfied with the fit and position, I mixed a batch of 30 minute epoxy and milled glass fiber to a thick consistency and epoxied the firewall in place. A neat trick is to use the prop hub/spinner assembly to assure the mount is parallel with the front of the fuselage. Simply slide it onto the gearbox output shaft until it touches the fuselage, while pushing the motor forward from behind (use a stick to reach it). Tighten the retaining bolt and let everything cure.
Servo installation may be a bit of a surprise to some folks, since they are epoxied into the airframe! The first step is to remove the mounting lugs, since not only can they not be used, but they also simply won't fit if you leave them on. There are no pushrods supplied with the Tiger, so I picked up some 12" standard pushrods and Sullivan clevises from the hobby shop. The aileron pushrods are quite short, with Z-bends on the servo end and a clevis for the aileron horn. Speaking of the horns, these are nice brass units that thread into sockets that are molded right into the ailerons! All I had to do was drill out the hole slightly so the clevis pin would fit, then they were threaded into the ailerons.
Fishing the servo wires down through the wing is made easy with pre-installed pull-strings! Just plug in a 12" extension cable, tape the string to the end, and pull it through to the opening in the center of the wing. Here's a trick: Use a length of waxed dental floss to tie the connector together on the extension so it can never come unplugged. The servo horns must be trimmed quite short in order to fit everything under the supplied servo covers, but that doesn't present any problems since you don't need much control throw anyway. One item to note: You will need to notch the lower wing skin so the aileron horn can move forward, otherwise you won't be able to get any downward aileron travel. A rotary tool made short work of that task.
Once I was satisfied with the linkage geometry and operation of the servos, I cleaned the servo case with denatured alcohol, then carefully wrapped the servos with good quality clear packing tape. The seam is on the upper side of the servo, and the bottom side was carefully scuffed with a scouring pad to promote adhesion. This is done so that if the servo ever needs to be removed, one can slit the tape and (eventually) peel the servo out. I then mixed up a batch of 30 minute epoxy, thickened it with colloidial silica, and epoxied the servos in place. Be sure to clamp the ailerons level when doing this. Care taken here will assure a first flight that brings no surprises with out-of-trim ailerons. When the epoxy is cured, make sure your ailerons still wiggle the right way, then tape the servo covers in place with bits of clear tape. The wing is now complete!
Installing the elevator servo proved to be trickier than the aileron servos. There is no horn provided for the elevator, so I made one from a bit of carbon fiber plate I had in my scrap bin. You could also use a scrap of printed circuit board, or even 1/16" aircraft plywood (though I'd soak the pushrod hole with thin CA for durability). The pushrod simply has a 90 degree bend on the elevator end, and a Z-bend for the servo. Obviously there is no way to adjust it, nor can you remove the servo arm once it's installed, so be sure you get it right the first time! The elevator servo arm must be trimmed even shorter than the ailerons, so you must be very careful with the Z-bend geometry to allow proper elevator travel without binding. Again, just take your time and make sure it's right before you epoxy it all in place. As with the aileron servos, the elevator servo was wrapped in tape before being epoxied into the fin. A nice cover plate hides it when installed.
The rest of the building is simply installing the receiver, ESC and battery pack. Initially I was concerned that the motor wires might try to rub against the outrunner motor, but their stiffness combined with the location of the ESC keeps them tucked tightly against the inside of the fuselage. Just be sure to check yours, and if they try to rub use a bit of double-stick foam tape to hold them to the inside of the fuselage. The battery pack needs to be just about as far forward is it'll go (without touching the motor) to get the CG in the correct position. Hobby-Lobby recommends the CG be set at 2.5" aft of the leading edge at the root, and I found that to be a nice setting based on how it flies.
Flying
The weather here in Central Texas has been abnormally windy this year, putting a damper on flying anything other than larger helis and planes. Add to that the record-setting heat, and we decided to go for an early morning first flight for the Tiger. We arrived at the Austin Silent Flyers field at 7:30 am on a Saturday morning and set up the Tiger. After the obligatory pictures, range check, and camera-person briefing it was time to put this beauty into the sky. My friend and fellow aviation addict Rob had the honors of tossing it for me while my lovely bride Liz filmed. After one final control check I added about half throttle, Rob tossed it, and away it went. After it left his hand I rolled on full power and pulled it vertical. I think I can summarize the climb in one word: Yeeeeeehaaaaaa! After climbing for only 5 or 6 seconds, I shut down the motor and pushed over at the top. The aileron trim was perfect, but I did need to add a few beeps of down elevator for a hands-off glide. The first turn revealed a bit of adverse yaw, which was easily corrected before the second flight with a bit more aileron differential. Other than that, the flight characteristics are simply amazing. It is smooth, it is fast, and it has no bad habits at low speed. Even though it was early morning, I was able to find and work a couple of small bubbles of lift. I can already see that it is going to be one of those "fly it till your neck hurts" planes, with such good thermalling ability from only a 5 second climb! Of course, the most fun part of a plane like this is to convert altitude into airspeed, and show off with fast passes, large loops, and other smooth aerobatics. The Tiger excels at this, and emits a very pleasing whistle (no doubt from the cooling hole in the spinner) as it screams by in a fast pass.
Conclusion
I can honestly say this is one of the more enjoyable planes I've flown in my 28+ years of RC flying. While certainly not cheap, the Tiger is a stunningly beautiful model that flies as well as it looks. The power system that Hobby-Lobby recommends pulls it vertically without effort, and is a fine choice. However, if you are on a budget, you could certainly use a lower-priced low-kv outrunner direct drive and still have a lot of fun. A search of the electric sailplane section of some of the online forums will reveal several power system options to consider. While we did get video of the first flight and some flybys, my camera people had a very tough job. This is a very fast model, and it gets small very quickly. Combine that with the white wings and cloudy sky, and they had a nearly impossible job trying to follow it in the viewscreen. So please do keep that in mind while watching the videos, and don't think badly of their camera skills.
If you are an intermediate to advanced pilot looking for something different, or are a dedicated sailplane guy who wants to try a self-launcher, please do give the F5B Tiger from Hobby-Lobby a look. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
Note:If you would like to see all of the 100+ photos that I took during the build process, check out my Flickr album. Videos
Hobby-Lobby Mini Reno Racers
Fri, 30 May
By Jamie "GFBurke" Specifications:
Manufacturer: Hacker Distributor:Hobby-Lobby, Intl Type: Mini electric EPP 3ch plane For: Beginners to advanced pilots Flying weight: (review model): 3.8 oz. Size: 20-1/2" wingspan, 17-1-2" long Prop: 4.9x4.3 Prop & Spinner Radio: Airtronics RD6000 Super transmitter with Berg 4 receiver, 2 HS-55 Servos. Power system: Potensky POT 20W OUTRUNNER Brushless Motor, Jeti Advance PLUS Mini 8 Amp ESC, and "Twenty" 2 Cell 300 mAh 7.4V Li-Poly Pack CG: 35mm to 40mm back from root of main wings
Introduction: Many of us know that Hacker makes some wonderful R/C products ranging from large to small. With the addition of new products and the hype of the larger models, the little planes may be overlooked. I enjoyed my Hacker Reno Racer EPP Midget Mustang so much, that the next rendition of the Reno Racer called for a review. We welcome the new Mini Reno Racer.
This is a very small plane made for indoors or in a small park. No, it's not hairy - it's EPP! We love EPP because they are hard to break and even if you did, it just takes a little bit of hot glue or super glue to fix and your as good as new. No landing gear with this plane, but it's trivial to add if you really wanted. Landing gear is not needed since I fly on grass or come in slow and low and plop it down on concrete.
Unpacking: Received the package from Hobby-Lobby. Everything is in order and well packaged. I now realize just how small this EPP plane really is!
This thing is small! Very cute and colorful. I like the detail in the art work for the wings - makes it look more real. The quarter does not come with the plane, just there for size comparison. :)
Pictures of the electronics.
Building: The first few steps explain on how to setup the main wings. Gluing them together with normal CA and getting them to bend up (dihedral) at a certain angle. Be sure when gluing them together that they match up and should not be flat. Then inserting the aluminum spar and bending them so one side is off the ground at 45mm.
Then, we install the aileron servo. Since the instructions say to setup the control surfaces with the included heat shrink and aluminum sticks, I did it that way. I've seen this in instructions before and I've never attempted to do it this way until now. More on that later.
While my main wings where drying, I constructed the motor mount with the supplied wood and plastic shim. Be sure the plastic shim goes on the proper side as shown in the picture.
The instructions say to cut a slit in the EPP and hide the ESC. This is probably okay, however, I chose to mount my ESC flush with the plane so it could breath. It's only going to be pushing around 5A so hiding is sure to be okay. I used a solder iron to burn out the ESC mount hole and the elevator servo hole.
Placing the servo and checking position with the elevator, I glued the elevator and rudder in place. The two sides of the elevator are attached to each other with an aluminum bar (so when the one moves, it moves the other side).
The motor and prop combo that came with the plane work fine. However the stationary shaft with threads was much to large to get the prop on. So, I drilled the prop hole larger so I could get it on. In the next picture, the one I modified is on the bottom and the stock is on top. Maybe I was confused, but that large threaded shaft would not come off the motor.. .so, I'm not so sure the prop and motor where made for each other (thus the drilling).
The motor has no leads on it. Since the motor and ESC would be so close together, I just chopped down the length on the ESC wires, then soldered them to the motor. Be sure the motor turns CWW when looking from the front of the motor!
Placing electronics is not wonderfully clear in the instructions. I don't like to see wires and things handing down. All these mini Reno Racers are similar. However, the RareBare cannot have the aileron servo where the instructions say to put it without some modification to the lower EPP that holds the wings on. I chopped a piece of the EPP off from the bottom of the plane. Then, I took a small piece of EPP and honed it out so I could hide my receiver in it.
Without cutting all the wires down to fit exactly (one could/should) after hiding the RX, I bundled them up and used hotglue spots to hold them neatly. Always check your power system and get all the electronics working before permanently putting them into place!
Finished look.
Light enough?
Technical specs: 5A @ 36W WOT All up weight with lipo (rtf) = 112.90g
Flying style: Quick for it's size. Keep her in a close proximity for easier orientation. An easy under-handed toss at 1/2 throttle and she will take right off. Affected by the wind if 10mph breeze or more. However stable and solid otherwise. Great for an indoor gym or a calm day outside. Easy to pack around everywhere you go. Loops are simple to do at high speeds. Roll-rate of ailerons is snappy and amazingly solid and fast. Setup the ailerons throws on high rate, but use some expo until you get the hang of the twichyness of a very small aircraft. Landings are easy, bring her in and plop it down on the grass. The use of a prop saver will save you big time here-not only for the prop, but the motor mount and EPP. A fun bird to fly. People will be asking "How you are doing that on such a small wing?" It cuts through a breeze with no issues. If it's too windy to fly your Pico Tiger moth, it's not too windy for the RenoRacer. This is due to the nice airfoil built into the EPP wings.
A beginner aircraft? I'd have to say that the build of the plane is not for a beginner. If you have a few EPP planes under your belt or are looking for your first build after modifying a few planes then it's just fine. As for flying, if you have orientation down (practice with a simulator or have other planes) then yes, it is for a beginner. It is light-weight and made of EPP so a beginner would be hard pressed to really break this thing. If you do break it, just use some CA or hotglue and it's good to go. A beginner that has someone helping them get this plane setup properly, could take it to a grassy park and bang it around without much incidence.
Negatives: Not too much on the downside of this plane. Sure, you could have issues if you fly this plane in 10mph or more wind, but it's only 117g RTF (it's expected). I also think the HS55s might be a bit heavier (weighing in at 8g) than I would recommend. The instructions are not as clear as they could be, there are some minor details that could be clarified. I personally believe that using heat-shrink and aluminum as control rods may not give you the best results. Again, there is nothing wrong with the plane or how it flies. I would only change some of the setup options. This is why the build part may not be suited for a beginner.
Conclusion: I am a huge fan of EPP planes as well as Hacker products. The mini RenoRacer is no exception. For me, it is a bit more difficult to properly set the CG on small planes. Once you do, your good to go. This little guy fits in any car seat or trunk and is a little breath of fresh air to fly! Not having to worry much about a crash (yeah for me!) and being quick and maneuverable is a showcase marque. It is great bringing this plane to the field and having other RC'ers say, "It's so tiny, can if even fly?" This is especially fun when you let her go from your hand and do maneuvers close to the flight line. Many people at the fly field where blown away when they saw it fly and witnessed just how stable and solid it flew for it size! Listen for background comments in the video. I think anybody who gets a kick out of a Cox war bird or Hyperflea would feel at home. If you like war birds and the way they fly, then this is a must! The high detail of printing on EPP is amazing. I would like to experiment with a 4ch modification to see what could be done.
Things I would have done differently now that I've built one: 1: I would have used normal control rods and control horns. (I have now done this) 2: Moved the elevator servo up further above the wing (easier CG) 3: Trimmed all the wires so they fit to the exact length (less weight and no dabs of hot glue)
* Other options: One could simply leave the dihedral out of the wings, cut the rudder for a control surface and made this into a 4ch plane with rudder and have no extra weight. The 2 servos included where 8g servos. Just adding one more that is 6g and making the other two 5-6g would be just as light. It's not needed, just fun playing with other options.
Updated photo of how my control rods are, this way was used during the video shot below.
The package arrived double boxed, and very well packed. The manual is clear, easy to follow, and has plenty of pictures!
Build The build was pretty simple, and took about 2 evenings(or 1 day) to build.
<---First off was to install the aileron servos!
Next was to epoxy in the spar joiner--->
After that I had to install the tail feathers!
There are two wooden dowls that go in the top front, and back of the canopy area. These are what the rubber bands strap to, to hold the wing on The electronics
The electronics installation is very easy. The HS-322 fit perfectly in the servos slots. If you wish to add flaps, there are servo mounts already in the wing, for the flaps servos!
Before the electronics
And after!
I cut a whole in the side, and put the switch on the outside, instead on on the inside.
Completed!
Its finished!! Flying This plane flys very good! It will slow down to a crawl, and float forever. Its not a park flyer though. only takes about 10 feet(if that) to take off, but it floats so much, it takes alot of room to land, but once you get used to landing it, you can grease it in every time! It does very nice, tight loops. It will do somewhat of a knife-edge, but its not real pretty. If you do a half loop you can fly it inverted, but you half to hold full down elevator, and it is not something I will do very low.
Is it for a beginner? While it is easy to fly, and is considered a "trainer" plane, I would not suggest it for a first plane. It would be a good 2nd aileron plane. For a first plane I would suggest something made of EPP. Although if you have a buddy-cord, and an excperienced pilot to fly with you, then it would be a good first plane. Media Inflight pictures...
Want to see more in-flight pictures? Go to my RCGroups Blog
Conclusion This is a great airplane! One of the best aerial video planes out there. Its good for nice relaxing sunday flying. Pluses *Easy Build *Great flying *Takes abuse pretty well for a balsa plane
Minuses *Uses rubber bands to hold on the wing, I would rather have a bolt on wing
Hobby-Lobby Dragonus II ARF
Sun, 06 Jan
Chris "JustPlaneChris" Boultinghouse
Specifications:
Manufacturer:RCer Distributor: Hobby-Lobby, Intl Type: Mini electric aerobatic helicopter For: Beginners to advanced pilots Flying weight (review model): 27.9 oz. / 792g Length: 26 in. / 660mm Rotor span: 27.5 in. / 698mm (325mm blades) Rotor disk area: 594 sq in / .38 sq m Rotor disk loading: 6.77 oz/ sq ft / 2.07 kg/ sq m Radio: JR 9303 transmitter with DSM2 module, Spektrum AR6100e receiver, 3 Hitec HS65MG servos on cyclic, and a Futabal 9650 on the tail (GY401 gyro) Power system: Stock MTM 500XH 3300Kv outrunner, Jeti Spin 33 ESC, and PolyQuest 2150 3S Lipo
Introduction
The RCer Dragonus II, distributed by Hobby-Lobby, Intl, has been gaining a lot of ground in the hot "mini" electric helicopter market. It has features typically only found in larger machines, such as adjustable Bell-Hiller ratios, and a belt drive that uses a pulley on the main shaft rather than a "double stack" main gear and secondary tail drive gear. While the Dragonus has been available for quite a while now, the subject of this review is an ARF version soon to be offered by Hobby-Lobby. So, let's dig in and see what's in the box!
Construction Since this is the ARF version of the Dragonus, there really isn't much building to do. As you can see, the airframe is completely assembled, needing only radio installation. However, there are a few issues I encountered I'd like to address.
The first thing I noticed was that none of the frame screws had threadlock. You'll definitely want to remove the frame screws (one at a time) and apply a bit of blue threadlock to keep the frame from loosening over time.
As I dug into the manual (same one you get with the kit version) I noticed that the "A" linkages in the pre-assembled head were the wrong length and would not allow proper head movement. I sent an email to Hobby-Lobby, and they have contacted RCer to let them know about the problem. Luckily, I had a spare linkage set so I "borrowed" the correct link rods from myself and kept building. Another "gotcha" that is fairly well known in the Dragonus community is the fact that Hitec HS65 servos are deeper than whatever servo the frame was designed for. As a result, the wires / grommet will rub the frame. This is easily fixed by modifying the frame with a few passes of a file or Dremel sanding drum. A bit of model airplane fuel tubing split and glued to the frame protects the wires from chafing.
I also noticed that there was a tiny bit of wobble in the center hub assembly. From what I read in the various online forums, this is fairly common and not considered a huge issue. I'm somewhat of a stickler about everything being super smooth though, and this wobble does induce a bit of vibration. I see a CNC center hub in my future not only to eliminate this vibration, but also so I can crank up the headspeed with some nice carbon blades.
Next up is the tail. If you choose to install a Futabal 9650 servo for the tail, you'll either need to purchase the optional 9650 basemount, or the excellent CNC tailboom mounts available from RC-Tek as the frame mounts are too small to accommodate the 9650. Since the basemount was on back order at the time we were collecting bits for this review, I chose to order the RC-Tek mounts. They are very nice!
The stock motor seems to be powerful and smooth. One thing I do want to mention is the pinion gear suggestions from the small leaflet included with the motor. In it they say "suitable pinions are 14T with 3 cell battery as the initial use for smooth yet very powerful combination for 3D flying. A 15T pinion can be used for very high rpm." Well, let me just say you do not want to use a 14T or 15T pinion for sport flying with the stock wood blades. Even with a 13T pinion, I tached 3200 rpm at 85% throttle! IMO, this is too fast for wood blades and plastic head parts. For the initial test flights I dialed back the throttle curve to 2600 rpm. Speaking of blades, the stock blades are beautiful, and seem to track and fly nicely. My blades were .3g out of balance, but the CG of both blades was identical. One wrap of clear packing tape on the CG of the light blade brought them into balance. A bit of "bling" was added in the form of dayglo orange trim Monokote and some holographic flash tape from HiLaunch.com The rest of the setup went very smoothly. Wires were tidied up using waxed dental floss, and a hook-and-loop strap was glued to the front of the frame using GOOP adhesive to retain the battery. Programming the Jeti Spin 33 is a piece of cake when using the Spin Box unit. At the time of this review I have not yet enabled governor mode (as you'll be able to hear in the flight video below), but I do plan to try it. The Jeti Spin 33 has a wonderful soft start and slow spoolup, and (very important for Spektrum) it has a switch-mode BEC capable of driving 7 servos! This eliminates the need to use a separate BEC, and is something I wish other ESC manufacturers would start doing. It's worth the extra cost to avoid the hassle of a separate BEC.Look for a more in-depth review of the Spin 33 and Spin Box at a future date.
Flying
For the initial setup, I chose to configure the Bell-Hiller ratio for "beginner" level. Even with this setting, the cyclic is quick! If you are a beginner, you'll probably want to add some flybar weights and / or use some expo on your cyclic until you get accustomed to the quick response. My trim settings were spot on, and tracking was excellent as well. Despite the cyclic being really quick, the Dragonus is also remarkably stable for a mini. I suspect with flybar weights and / or longer and heavier blades, it would remain locked in during hover like my Swift. Collective response is smooth and powerful, and as you can see from the video it has plenty of "pop" even with wood blades and 2600 rpm headspeed. Average current draw for the first flight was 13.2 amps, based on recharge data. This will allow safe 7+ minute flights without pushing the pack beyond 80% of its capacity.
Conclusion
I'm impressed! While there were a few "out of the box" issues with this early release ARF, the problems were minor and quickly addressed by Hobby-Lobby. The flying performance is excellent, and will only get better as I become more acquainted with it's characteristics. If you are looking for something that's slightly off the beaten path, rather than "just buying a T-Rex", then give the Dragonus a close look. I think you'll like what you see.
Needed *Two BL DF Motors *Two 30A ESCs *Four 20g servos (Six if using Retracts) *Rx *Tx *One Y-harness(Two if using retracts) *Two 12'' Servo Extensions *X-acto Knife *Foam Safe CA *5 minute Epoxy
Optional *Retractable Landing Gear
The Build
The build on this bird goes by pretty quick. It takes about 2 evenings to get it ready to fly! The surfaces are pre-hinged!
To Start off the build, I installed the aileron servos in the wing. The pre-cut servo slot are very small, so you have to cut it out to the size of the servo you are using.
Then I installed the motors
After that, I installed the vertical, and horizontal stabs
Next was the landing gear. The Jet comes with fixed landing gear, but you can order the optional retracts.
Stock fixed gear
Retracts
There are pre-cut slots in the wing for the retracts, but not in the fuse. It does come with a sticker which you place over where the nose gear goes. (Note: This is only necessary if you are using retracts)
To finish up, I had to install the pushrods...
and glue the vortex generators on the wingtips.
The finished product! Is this a good plane for beginners?
No, it's not. The Jet is easy to fly, but it does not have the self correcting characteristics that a trainer plane should have. Also, the build would be a little advanced for beginners.
Tips
The plane comes with pieces of wood pre-installed in the wings, that the landing gear screws into. They ripped out on my first take off, so just be sure to add some glue to them before you fly, and you should be good to go.
Also, when I got mine, the aileron hinges were loose, so be sure to add some tape to them just for extra security.
How well does it fly?
It flies great! It is very stable, and handles wind very well! It is not the fastest plane out there, but it does have some speed to it. Very scale flying! It can do loops, and rolls, but it needs a little more down throw to keep it inverted.
Pics, and Video I still have not gotten the video, but I will this weekend. Until then, here is Hobby-Lobby's video! Hobby Lobby's Executive Jet Video
Is it worth buying?
Yes!! If you dont have an Executive Jet in your hangar already, you should get one. It is one of the sharpest looking planes out there, it flies great, and the sound of those twin ducted fans is awsome!
CompyFP main blades review
Fri, 14 Dec
Review of the flat wood FP blades by Heli-Fever. These are the blades going on the upcoming CompyFP. A comparison between these and the popular M24 blades.
Test subject: Freestyle belt HoneyBee FP Arc110 inner-runner motor 10T steal pinion Castle Creations 10A ESC 3s 10C 800mAh CSRC lipo
Here is the two part video review.
It would be nice to really get out and do some serious flying to put these to the test. But so far, I am liking the flat wood blades better. *Same stick position for hovering *They look and feel better *Not flexible *Lighter than M24s *No sound difference *Will be cheaper in the States (soon) ;)
Thanks Ken from J-Team. Next up from me will be the CompyFP.
Hobby-Lobby F5B Tiger Review
by Chris "JustPlaneChris" Boultinghouse
distance (speed) and duration tasks, with the caveat that the motor cannot be run while on the course. This means the models must possess incredible rates of climb, since they must streak back to altitude as fast as possible before re-entering the course, as well as the ability to go fast and glide for long distances. Of course since they need to make "pylon racer" turns at both ends of the distance course, the models must also be extremely strong to w
ithstand the g-loading. The Tiger fits the description! Soon after Hobby-Lobby contacted me to do this review, a large box arrived at my door. Having built and flown many models over the years, I have pretty high standards when it comes to fit and finish so I wasn't sure what to expect when I opened the box. I am happy to say I was very impressed with the workmanship and quality. All the details were there - from the wing bolt sockets to the "wipers" on the ailerons and elevator. The airframe is of absolutely stunning quality, with no imperfections in fit and finish to be found no matter how close you look. Let's get on with the build!
There is really no "building" to be done with the Tiger, since the airframe is completely molded and arrives fully assembled. The wing and tail are bolt-on affairs, so the only tasks left up to you are the installation of the servos and the motor. Hobby-Lobby provided a fiberglass firewall with my Tiger, but unfortunately the bolt pattern of the AXI motor did not match any of the holes. Upon further measuring, even had I slotted the mount for the bolts, there would have been very little material left around the bolt holes. Since the mount is also too large to fit inside the nose without sanding, I simply made a mount from 1/8" aircraft plywood. The mount was then bolted to the motor and slid in from the wing opening. Once I was satisfied with the fit and position, I mixed a batch of 30 minute epoxy and milled glass fiber to a thick consistency and epoxied the firewall in place. A neat trick is to use the prop hub/spinner assembly to assure the mount is parallel with the front of the fuselage. Simply slide it onto the gearbox output shaft until it touches the fuselage, while pushing the motor forward 
from behind (use a stick to reach it). Tighten the retaining bolt and let everything cure.
on the extension so it can never come unplugged.
thickened it with colloidial silica, and epoxied the servos in place. Be sure to clamp the ailerons level when doing this. Care taken here will assure a first flight that brings no surprises with out-of-trim ailerons. When the epoxy is cured, make sure your ailerons still wiggle the right way, then tape the servo covers in place with bits of clear tape. The wing is now complete!
(though I'd soak the pushrod hole with thin CA for durability). The pushrod simply has a 90 degree bend on the elevator end, and a Z-bend for the servo. Obviously there is no way to adjust it, nor can you remove the servo arm once it's installed, so be sure you get it right the first time! The elevator servo arm must be trimmed even shorter than the ailerons, so you must be very careful with the Z-bend geometry to allow proper elevator travel without binding. Again, just take your time and make sure it's right before you epoxy it all in 
place. As with the aileron servos, the elevator servo was wrapped in tape before being epoxied into the fin. A nice cover plate hides it when installed.
outrunner motor, but their stiffness combined with the location of the ESC keeps them tucked tightly against the inside of the fuselage. Just be sure to check yours, and if they try to rub use a bit of double-stick foam tape to hold them to the inside of the fuselage. The battery pack needs to be just about as far forward is it'll go (without touching the motor) to get the CG in the correct position. Hobby-Lobby recommends the CG be set at 2.5" aft of the leading edge at the root, and I found that to be a nice setting based on how it flies.
The weather here in Central Texas has been abnormally windy this year, putting a damper on flying anything other than larger helis and planes. Add to that the record-setting heat, and we decided to go for an early morning first flight for the Tiger. We arrived at the Austin Silent Flyers field at 7:30 am on a Saturday morning and set up the Tiger. After the obligatory pictures, range check, and camera-person briefing it was time to put this beauty into the sky. My friend and fellow aviation addict Rob had the honors of tossing it for me while my lovely bride Liz filmed. After one final control check I added about half throttle, Rob tossed it, and away it went. After it left his hand I rolled on full power and pulled it vertical. I think I can summarize the climb in one word: Yeeeeeehaaaaaa! After climbing for only 5 or 6 seconds, I shut down the motor and pushed over at the top. The aileron trim was perfect, but I did need to add a few beeps of down elevator for a hands-off glide. The first turn revealed a bit of adverse yaw, which was easily corrected before the 
second flight with a bit more aileron differential. Other than that, the flight characteristics are simply amazing. It is smooth, it is fast, and it has no bad habits at low speed. Even though it was early morning, I was able to find and work a couple of small bubbles of lift. I can already see that it is going to be one of those "fly it till your neck hurts" planes, with such good thermalling ability from only a 5 second climb! Of course, the most fun part of a plane like this is to convert altitude into airspeed, and show off with fast passes, large loops, and other smooth aerobatics. The Tiger excels at this, and emits a very pleasing whistle (no doubt from the cooling hole in the spinner) as it screams by in a fast pass.
<---First off was to install the aileron servos! 
RCer
The RCer Dragonus II, distributed by Hobby-Lobby, Intl, has been gaining a lot of ground in the hot "mini" electric helicopter market. It has features typically only found in larger machines, such as adjustable Bell-Hiller ratios, and a belt drive that uses a pulley on the main shaft rather than a "double stack" main gear and secondary tail drive gear. While the Dragonus has been available for quite a while now, the subject of this review is an ARF version soon to be offered by Hobby-Lobby. So, let's dig in and see what's in the box!
Since this is the ARF version of the Dragonus, there really isn't much building to do. As you can see, the airframe is completely assembled, needing only radio installation. However, there are a few issues I encountered I'd like to address.
I also noticed that there was a tiny bit of wobble in the center hub assembly. From what I read in the various online forums, this is fairly common and not considered a huge issue. I'm somewhat of a stickler about everything being super smooth though, and this wobble does induce a bit of vibration. I see a CNC center hub in my future not only to eliminate this vibration, but also so I can crank up the headspeed with some nice carbon blades.
Next up is the tail. If you choose to install a Futabal 9650 servo for the tail, you'll either need to purchase the optional 9650 basemount, or the excellent CNC tailboom mounts available from RC-Tek as the frame mounts are too small to accommodate the 9650. Since the basemount was on back order at the time we were collecting bits for this review, I chose to order the RC-Tek mounts. They are very nice!
4T or 15T pinion for sport flying with the stock wood blades. Even with a 13T pinion, I tached 3200 rpm at 85% throttle! IMO, this is too fast for wood blades and plastic head parts. For the initial test flights I dialed back the throttle curve to 2600 rpm. Speaking of blades, the stock blades are beautiful, and seem to track and fly nicely. My blades were .3g out of balance, but the CG of both blades was identical. One wrap of clear packing tape on the CG of the light blade brought them into balance. A bit of "bling" was added in the form of dayglo orange trim Monokote and some holographic flash tape from HiLaunch.com
Programming the Jeti Spin 33 is a piece of cake when using the Spin Box unit. At the time of this review I have not yet enabled governor mode (as you'll be able to hear in the flight video below), but I do plan to try it. The Jeti Spin 33 has a wonderful soft start and slow spoolup, and (very important for Spektrum) it has a switch-mode BEC capable of driving 7 servos! This eliminates the need to use a separate BEC, and is something I wish other ESC manufacturers would start doing. It's worth the extra cost to avoid the hassle of a separate BEC.Look for a more in-depth review of the Spin 33 and Spin Box at a future date.
For the initial setup, I chose to configure the Bell-Hiller ratio for "beginner" level. Even with this setting, the cyclic is quick! If you are a beginner, you'll probably want to add some flybar weights and / or use some expo on your cyclic until you get accustomed to the quick response. My trim settings were spot on, and tracking was excellent as well. Despite the cyclic being really quick, the Dragonus is also remarkably stable for a mini. I suspect with flybar weights and / or longer and heavier blades, it would remain locked in during hover like my Swift. Collective response is smooth and powerful, and as you can see from the video it has plenty of "pop" even with wood blades and 2600 rpm headspeed. Average current draw for the first flight was 13.2 amps, based on recharge data. This will allow safe 7+ minute flights without pushing the pack beyond 80% of its capacity.
