Radjet 800 Unboxing

...what's in the box

The Radjet comes nicely poackaged - double-boxed with all items individually wrapped in plastic, so there's no damage.

The parts are nice-quality EPO, and the kit also includes an underside protector skid. The canopy is a loose moulded plastic part which needs to be attached to the base, which includes magnets for attachment.

This kit, the PNF, includes a pre-installed 1850kv motor, and a 20A speed controller, good for 100-120kph performance with a 4S battery.

All parts fit neatly together, with the tail & wings needing to be glued. Note that you'll have to add some sort of reinforcement to the wing joins, preferable some sort of spars or strips because the basic joint isn't going to cope with the wing loadings of this pretty speedster...

Turbo Porter PC6. Wing Cam.

...an intriguing viewpoint

I decided to give the Turbo Porter a go with a wing cam - I’ve only tried this once before on the Raptor glider, and I thought that the Porter would be a good candidate to handle the imbalance that the weight & drag of the camera creates.

I also thought I’d try a ground, putting the mobius on a mini tripod to capture launch and landing action.

Well it turns out that the latter is a bit trickier than I expected; it has to be located far enough away that the plane has lifted off, obviously, so there’s running back & forth to set it up. Secondly, when I have to fly to fixed cameras my flying goes to pieces. I crashed the Rarebear doing this after having flown it twice without incidence beforehand.

Despite the incumberences of the wing and ground cameras, I still managed to get some nice footage, with the wing cam providing intriguing fixed footage of the Porter as the scenery and lighting revolve around it.

And I managed to capture about a second of takeoff from the ground cam. At least I didn’t hit it...

GeeBee R3. Flying Around.

...having some fun

The little GeeBee is kind-of strange to fly, as I may have said before - it appears to be dragged around by its engine and has the very characteristic forward-jutting undercarriage.

However, despite odd characteristics, it does fly quite sweetly, although don't fly it too slow or you'll have it upside down in the grass from a tip stall

One thing it does for you, almost without trying too hard, it knife edge. Maybe not exactly perfectly, however very stable and most entertainingly.

So, while I was buzzing it around, I put it into increasingly steep turns and had it knife-edging around for my amusement.

A fun little plane, except when you try and land it on grass...

Art Tech Pilatus Porter 1700mm PNF. Unofficial Unboxing.

...lovely plane & lovely kit

The Art Tech PC6 Turbo Porter is a high-quality kit all round - well boxed, accurately moulded and well put together.

All the servos and linkages are installed, you just need to connect the tail linkages to the control horns, and all the decals are pre-applied as well which I like as ones like the windows can be tricky.

The servos for the drop cavity (bomb bay) and tow hook are also installed. There's a convenient access hatch on top of the fuselage to get to the tail servos if required at some stage.

Overall the Art Tech Turbo Porter looks like an excellent aircraft; now's here's hoping it flies like a PC6 should...

Firstar 2000 V2. First Flight.

...brief but successful

The first flight of the Firstar 2000 was also my first outing with my new Taranis, with the latter being much more of a headache to configure than was the former. However the Firstar disappointingly have a number of quality issues which first required resolving.

The morning was a little gusty, with the northerly coming through earlier than expected. I opted to fly the Firstar with two 2200 3S packs which seemed to give the required cog. Volantex suggest running this off a 1800 3S, but seriously...?

Despite the Firstar V2 having the revised motor mount which reduces nose-down rotation due to the moment, this configuration still pushes the plane downwards and consequently there is the balancing act with the amount of power you use to launch.

As such the launch went OK, although I needed to rush to get both hands onto the radio controls after I'd thrown it. Of course, if you have someone to throw it for you this isn't an issue.

As you'd expect with the high aspect glider wings, it flies, and glides, very stably although the downward effect of the motor spoils its cruising performance in my opinion.

The flight was cut short by my inability to trim it out. No fault of the Firstar but rather programming glitches with the Taranis which I have subsequently fixed, but the Firstar landed without issue to complete a rather abbreviated but nevertheless successful maiden flight...

GeeBee R3 750mm TRILOGY. PART 2: The Build

...so how does this work?

The GeeBee is a nice-quality kit, with solid EPO fuselage making it a smarter-looking proposition than a Rarebear, for example. While having a simple screw-together construction, it does however its construction poses a few questions.

How does the battery setup work, and where's the best spot for the receiver?

The first question is a puzzler, for me anyway having only had planes with unfettered access to the battery. Obviously, unless you're happy remove the wing every time you fly it, you need the ESC lead to remain in the battery hatch so it's accessible through the small hatch opening.

This I found achievable by mounting the ESC against the side of the fuselage, preventing the lead from falling back into the fuselage. This setup seems quite reliable, although packing the battery in and then feeding in the lead and connectors is still squeezy and awkward.

Regarding the receiver, in this case a twin-antenna Orange R615x, I mounted it in the central fuselage cavity which corresponds to a cavity in the wing moulding above. And, connecting all the servos from the back and the ESC from the front gives a very neat installation.

Next challenge is the bracing wire; five pairs of different length wires needing to be clipped into tiny hooks. Fifteen tediously fiddly minutes later I was finished.

The last trick was spinner and propellor. The latter simply gets tightened with a nut, with the spinner base in behind it. Then the spinner is installed; it comes with double-sided tape but, really, that's never going to hold. So I superglued it in place, with cardboard slipped in behind the base to keep it spaced off the cowling.

With everything in place the little GeeBee was looking good...

GeeBee R3 750mm TRILOGY. PART 1: Unofficial Unboxing

...a great-looking little plane

I’d had the GeeBee sitting in the corner for a while and finally got around to unboxing it.

It’s a nice quality kit, coming safely boxed and individually wrapped so that all parts were in perfect condition. The fuselage is even secured in place with velcro straps, a first for me.

The GeeBee comes in the classic Texaco livery which looks great and the decal application is nice. The fuselage is full EPO including the cowling which is nice, however there is a downside - the battery access is a small hatch on the underside.

The 5g servos, in wings and fuselage, are pre-installed along with the control horns. The high-standing tail wheel is also fitted, leaving only the tail planes to be screwed into place. The wing, with locating pins up front, is also screwed into place - a glue-free assembly.

The iconic GeeBee undercarriage comes pre-assembled, with integrated wire reinforcing which also serves as the mount slotting into the wing. Included is sprung bracing wires stabilising the undercarriage as well as bracing the wings to the fuselage, which should look great assembled.

The kit comes with two three-blade props and two spinners, the latter being the only disappointment - they're EPO, with the cone apparently needing to be stuck onto the base with double-sided tape! I'm not surprised to read that people have ditched these for real spinners. In fact, had I known, I’d have tried to get a replacement spinner when I ordered the kit…

Fox Glider

...should be good.

I've splashed out on a 1.5m PNF Fox glider, a fibreglass fuselage and balsa creation from R2Hobbies, available for the very modest sum of just over a hundred bucks all up.

So what's the catch? Well apparently there's an issue with the tail plane angled too low, causing the Fox to be nose-up which apparently causes instability. The upshot is rework required , with the full fix being cutting out the tail plane mounting slot, raising the incidence by 3mm and then filling the gap with a wedge of balsa.

A lot of work, yes, however at the end you get a speedy and maneuverable composite glider, which can also double as a speedy slope soarer.

Not a bad deal...