Customer Reviews

Needs a lot of work to fly. Review by Samuel

Value
Overall
Quality

Update of review
I replaced the motor to the HK C20 adding a TON of power, after much work I have gotten the plane to fly and do so well. The Vert. Stab is WAY to large (This is a Multiplex Merlin clone, not a knock off but 100% a clone) The Merlin has a major issue and that in the fuse/Vert. Stab, they made the Vert. Stab way to large and didnt want to change the molds so the just changed the Hor. Stab making it a Full flying elevator to correct some of the poorly designed aerodynamics. The problem is the Rudder/Vert. Stab is TO LONG and causes uncontrollable death spirals that no matter what you do can not be over come even from way up high once it starts it doesnt matter the air speed the control surfaces DO NOT get air flow and you can not over come it (Once again Im a competition level 3D plane and Heli pilot)

What you have to do to get this plane to fly is number one cut the top of the rudder/Vert. Stab 1/2in then fly it if it still trys to tip stall even at speed and wants to roll nose down land and cut another 1/4in off and fly again and keep doing this UNTIL you start to get adverse yaw in a banking turn then add a little back 7/8in is what mine took to fly perfect. The plane is a ball now on 2 or 3S, with the C20 on 3S its no longer a warm liner its a small HOT LINER, GPS was 93.6MPH level flight on this setup. The C20 on 3s is awesome because you have close to a 2 to 1 power to weight ratio and you can use thrust to pop up the nose and accelerate vertical.

Im enjoying this plane very much now its a fun and VERY fast park flyer that flys VERY well now, Hands off level flight when before the moment you started a bank no matter the speed and use of rudder it would drop the right wing and death spiral out of the air. The C20 on 3S makes a perfect fast flyer for VERY Experienced pilots and will be FAR to much for even intermediates. Its a cheap but good quality plane that WILL NOT FLY STOCK, once you mod the Rudder then you will have a plane that flys really well on the stock motor if you want a rocking fast pylon racer that can handle all the G's you throw at it run a C20 on a 30 to 40C 3S 850 and you will drop your jaws watching how fast it is. Last thing the stock servos ARE NOT able to provide the torque, speed, resolution or centering when running this plane on a C20/3S setup, the torque is not enough in level flight with that setup you will have crazy control surface lag while the servos struggle to move the control surfaces at anything above 3/4 throttle and forget about it in a power on dive the surfaces will all but lock up under the load remember this setup is good for over 90MPH level flight, Using GPS telemetry on my Futaba 18MZ thats dead on accurate. I swapped the Servos over to, RotorStar RS-2125MGC the servos alone cost more then the plane but WOW they are awesome servos a little big and need some fitting and slightly heavy but with the huge power increase the extra weight helps stability so the weight is a plus. They are 250 to 450 size 3D heli servos and I have a bunch of them laying around, The best micro servos on the market, I Fly MKS Brushless Digitals on everything thing but when it comes to Micro servos I ONLY fly the Rotorstars, and it doesnt matter how many times you crash them the servos will still be fine so they are very much worth the money. Ill post some Videos with the C20 40C Optipower 3S 850. In going to change the motor over to a Hyperion ZS2205-34 motor making 150W of power to see if it can handle 140 to 150MPH straight line Ill post videos on YT and we will see it either flying level around 145+MPH OR it will break apart mid flight one way or the other it will be spectacular. (Posted on 9/11/2014)

quality for the money BUT. Review by Samuel

Quality
Value
Overall

The plane is very quick build! the motor is over very nice quality but the shaft (That you can not get a replacement for) is fairly soft and bends fairly easy and thats a REALLY big issue. It uses a 2226 motor thats a size motor thats very hard to find other then from freewing and no one carries replacements, about the only option is the HK C20 that they only carry over seas so long shipping time.

The servos are fast enough and have enough torque BUT centering and resolution is VERY POOR but the teeth are strong and I have not stripped one even tho the plane has had plenty of hits to the ground <speaking of this heres the issue with this plane.

CG is 40mm/4cm from LE in the booklet, I got perfect CG dead on 4cm from LE with a 2S 1000 and 3S850 both 30C the ESC comes with a Male T connector just in case anyone needs to know what the connector is.
The plane has one HUGE issue in the design and no matter what I do I can not correct it (Ive been flying 3D Helicopters at a competition level for 3 years and been VERY good 3D heli pilot for 8, Flying planes for 17 years and Im a very good 3D pilot flying planes) So I really know my stuff given Im more of a heli pilot BUT planes are a joke to fly when you are a Pro level Heli pilot and this plane simply can not be setup.
I have tried everything moving the CG to try and find a sweet spot and can not get this plane to be fly-able. It will not fly at less the half throttle I must have gotten a bad one that has some really bad issues with its air foil. The vert stab is to long/big and some other airfoil issues, It causes the plane to need half power at all times to not tip stall and fall in to a unrecoverable death spiral.

Today I took it up under 100% throttle to about 800 feet back of power to about 20% and in level flight the right wing drops nose down in to a spiral that no matter the control inputs you can not stop the roll and you can not lift the nose even with plenty of speed to give air to the control surfaces, the Ele will not have effect once the death spiral starts you CAN NOT lift the nose back up. This plane isnt stable in ANY flight envelope, you will be fighting roll no matter the speed and at anything less then 85% throttle as soon as you start a bank (Rudder input or not) it will drop the wing and nose in and you loose all control and lawn dart in it.

I have never owned a plane that is this unstable, I was messing around today showing my friends with a 40in Edge 540 that is setup to fly hard core 3D will fly hands off because we had no wind this morning it was dead locked in as all my planes are of course some are more stable then others in level flight but all will pretty much track perfect at half throttle and no wind they fly wings and nose level until you want them to not be. 5 People all very god pilots tried flying this plane today and ONLY I could keep it in the air because the moment you start a bank even under full power you drop air speed and as soon as air speed drops so does the nose even when using the rudder to keep the nose up in a bank it doesnt matter you start a bank and when you start to pull on the Ele you will drop air speed and then you roll in to a death spiral that no matter how high or how fast your going you CAN NOT recover from. This is simply the WORST flying/crashing air plane Ive ever flew.

Ive seen plenty of the Kinetic 800s fly and everyone ive seen flys awesome and ive flew a friends at the field and its awesome thats why I bought this one. I guess I just got a bum one or the Freewing version is garbage. Ive flew VERY Tail heavy planes that flew better this thing is not a plane its a Tip Stalling nose dropping death spiraling piece of junk that ALSO has absolutely NO glide slope, you CAN NOT land it off power you have to land at almost half throttle and slide it in really fast when its time to put it down BUT you wont have to worry about that because you will never get to the point of having to land it it will have spiraled in on you long before its time to bring it in.

Buyers beware of this plane as Advanced pilots cant handle it no matter what we did to it, the good thing is its insanely tough except for the motor shaft to destroy this plane I really dont think you can without WOT lawn darting it. just understand if I didnt get one with a bum airfoil then you are not going to be flying this plane. To make it easy to understand this plane is 10X times harder to fly then a poorly setup 150 size Heli.
Its the first time I have had or seen a plane that I simply COULD NOT FLY.
(Posted on 9/6/2014)

65 plus flight re-review Review by Stacey

Quality
Value
Overall

This little guy has been in the back of my jeep for the past three months. I have actually managed to fly the wings right off it. This airframe has been absolutely punished and is still going strong. Slopes like a larger plane and is a decent duration bird with a 500mah or below. Or treat it like a mini warm liner at the park. Only needs two things: paint it a bright color. The climb out is ridiculous. It will be a speck in 7 seconds on a calm day. Also check the wing connection for slop after your first twenty or so flights. I built mine up with hot glue behind the tiny tabs themselves and worked like a charm. Buy one, hell get two for the price. (Posted on 7/17/2014)

great! Review by Stacey

Overall
Quality
Value

great little plane really really fast shipping great packaging order with confidence (Posted on 4/27/2014)

Great buy and flies/glides stable Review by DANNY

Value
Overall
Quality

Besure to check your CG before flying and the littles amounts of weight forward or back will affect the stabiliy. I used a 2S 850mah and 1000mah just fine, long flying time and can climb to nice altitude to glide back down. Will try a 3S lipo soon as the speed was fast to stay fun but could of course use more power=speed. I did change the folding prop to a 9x5 since I broke the stock 8x5 prop [my fault]. It does provide a little more power since I'm only using 2S and no issues with weight.

Start on low rates first because it will be twitchy, took about 3 flights for me to learn its flying characteristics.

For the price, go for it! (Posted on 11/9/2013)

So cool Review by Russ

Quality
Value
Overall

This little guy has it all. Performance, quality, easy on the bill fold, easy to put together, and a great glider. The only negative thing I can say is that my neck got sore from looking up for so long. I was able to keep it up in sky for over 30 min with a 800mah 2 cell battery. It can glide inverted and also do loops and barrel rolls without power. If you want to add a little power it can do low and slow crop dusting with ease. I would recommend to people new to the hobby as well as people with years of flying under their belt. (Posted on 9/13/2013)

Update on Buble's performance. Review by Robert

Quality
Value
Overall

My previous review stated that I had not yet tried the Bubles on a three cell pack. Well that all changed today. I flew the Bubles using a three cell 350mah pack. Yes, only 350mah. The Bubles will literally climb vertical on a three cell pack. Not just 75 or 80 degrees, but a true 90 degrees straight up. It will climb to over 1000 feet in about 8 to 10 seconds. Cut the power and start thermal hunting. I was able to make this 8 second vertical climb about 10 to 12 times with the little 350mah pack. With about a three minute glide after each climb out, my first flight with a three cell pack, lasted 36 minutes. For my second flight with a three cell pack, I installed an on board altimeter recorder from Winged Shadow. Climbed for 10 seconds, cut the throttle, and glided back down. I then checked the altitude obtained in the 10 second burst. A whopping 1362 feet in altitude, over a quarter of a mile, in a mere 10 seconds. Awesome. No, make that a triple awesome. (Posted on 4/21/2013)

A blast to fly Review by Robert

Quality
Value
Overall

After opening the box, I was making the first flight in less than a hour. Very good design, and assembly is a piece of cake. Value Hobbies recommend a two cell pack, while the manufacturer suggests a three cell. I have only used the two cell set up so far. Even with just two cells, performance is awesome. Hand launch is a snap. Climbs out at an amazing angle. Don't forget to add the supplied stickers. They helped me quite a bit in regards to orientation. It can disappear in a hurry if not careful. Landings are best done with the prop at idle. A spinning prop produces a lot of drag. This actually slows the plane down considerable. With the prop folded, you are likely to glide right pass your intended landing area. The Chinese translation to English is humorous at times. Although my attempt to translate English into Chinese would be a disaster. Pictures throughout assembly, make up for the lack of a good translator. At $59, you can't go wrong. Very fast at full throttle, yet very gentle at about half throttle. Yes, you can have the best of both worlds. (Posted on 4/13/2013)

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