39in Red Eagle Hummer Kit (15mm EPP)

Product Rating:

Product Review (submitted on May 26, 2014):

Instructions are in fine print, both sides of one 8.5x11 inch paper. It's all there, but unless you know what to look for, it could be challenging.

The main negative is that they recommend 502 glue (non-foam safe CA) for the assembly. Non-foam safe CA is fine to use on EPP, but this is a 3D plane, it's going to hit the ground (at least with me flying it...), and CA is brittle. I really wanted to build it fast, and I let that and the instructions over-rule my better judgement (which was my fault), and used CA for the build. As I feared, CA is fine until you hit something. I've had several glue joint fracture. Repairs have been done with 5 minute epoxy when possible, thin CA when I need it to wick. I should add that this is not my first rodeo, and I know how to make good glue joints.

Another issue is that you wind up gluing to painted surfaces, never a good thing.

I did not glue the landing gear in. It does not come out in flight, but can be removed by pinching the legs together. I recommend this approach if you 're going to fly on grass.

I'm using a turnigy d2830/11 @1000kv (nearly the same as the Gforce e400), an acp 11x3.8 slow fly prop (also used the 10x4.5 slow fly from value hobby - cheap but fragile), a hobbyking 18amp esc, 4 9gm tower pro servos), and an frsky 5ch micro rx(4gm). Weight w/o battery is 455gm. No way will the flying weight be under 500gm w/o mods to the airframe; there's nothing heavy in my build A thunderpower 1300mah 3s runs about 65gm, and that's about as light a battery as can be used. Perhaps "flying weight" of 450-500 means w/o battery?

I built some servo arm extensions by screwing a double sided arm to a single sided arm with 2ea 2mmx8mm screws. The single sided arm goes on the servo, the control rod goes into the far end of the double sided arm. Without this, I did not have sufficient roll rate. There are some plywood bits that look like they are supposed to be servo arm extensions, but usage was unclear and would have required more work than my approach.

CG. I could not believe the recommended CG, 120-130mm aft of the leading edge, so I searched RCGroups. People said it works, and it does, but it is boarderline stable in pitch. I have programmed a landing mode on my radio. Lower throws and adds LOTS of expo. Landing it yesterday, it was floating down nicely. A small gust hit it, and it ballooned up 8 ft. Several times... If your radio does not support multiple flight modes, I'd go with either really low rates with a dual rate setup (like 40%) or really high expo (like 70%) for the initial flights.

On the plus side, it flys inverted with no forward stick at all. Trim it right side up, flip it over, and it's still trimmed! Never seen that before! I suggest starting more like 100-110mm and working the cg aft. I should add that I generally fly with the CG fairly far aft and am fairly good at not over controlling.

The motor I'm using provides sufficient power and is probably limited by the generally poor condition of my batteries. Of the two props I've used, I would recommend a 11x3.8 over a 10x4.5 prop. Current draw is about the same, but the larger prop will be more efficient and provide a little better throttle response.

Bottom line is if flys great, build with epoxy where ever possible, and have fun!

One final pointer. I have two pieces of ~40" 1.25"x1.25" aluminum angle. I used these to hold the fuse straight and align the fuse stiffeners when I glued them. Worked very well.