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ElectriFly Sopwith Camel WWI Parkflyer ARF Review
ElectriFly has just added yet another stunning WWI aircraft to their EP Parkflyer lineup, this time with the Sopwith Camel.
Introduction
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| Wingspan: | 35.5" |
| Wing Area: | 389 sq. in. |
| Weight: | 21 - 26.5 oz. |
| Length: | 25" |
| Wing Loading: | 7.8 - 9.7 oz/sq. ft. |
| Servos: | Futaba S3114 Micro (4x) |
| Transmitter: | 4 channel |
| Receiver: | 4 channel min |
| Battery: | Electrifly 3s 1500mah 15C |
| Motor: | RimFire 28-30-950 Brushless |
| ESC: | Silver Series SS-25 |
| Manufacturer: | GreatPlanes |
| Available From: | Your local hobby store |
| MSRP: | $99.99 |
Go ask around your flying field, and see just what are your friends’ favorite era/type of aircraft. I'm sure you'll get lots of answers, but I'd bet there are quite a few votes for WW1 and WW2 fighters. For those of us who fall into this category, it truly is a great time to be involved in this hobby; everytime I login here at RCGroups or visit my LHS, I see a new product that escalates the level of achievement set just a few days prior!
Enter the new Great Planes Sopwith Camel Parkflyer. With great scale looks, docile flight characteristics, and its vivid history what's not to like?
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History
WW1, spanned over 4 years (1914-1918) and involved over 100 countries. The War to End All Wars saw the modernization of many technologies that certainly helped serve as the basis for many of today's modern military weaponry and vehicles including:
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The pace at which aeronautical engineering grew between the years of 1914 - 1918 was staggering, and it was certainly one of the most exciting times ever in the history of military aviation. Among the many innovators of the era was the Sopwith Aviation Company based in Kingston upon Thames in the U.K. Founded by Thomas Octave Murdoch Sopwith in December of 1912, the company produced and designed aircraft until September of 1920. Sopwith aviation developed many well known aircraft over the years, including the Tabloid, Gun Bus, 1 1/2 Strutter, Pup, Camel, Triplane and Dolphin.
The Sopwith Camel was widely known for its many unique characteristics, including the hump shaped enclosure surrounding its .303 caliber machine guns that gave it its nickname, the "Camel". Originally introduced into service in 1917, the Camel came equipped with a Clerget 9B Rotary engine making 130hp, giving it a top speed of just under 115mph. Construction consisted mainly of wood, canvas and wire which helped keep the plane light (around 900lbs dry and 1500 with fuel and ordinance), which allowed for greater armament than the Camel’s predecessor, the Sopwith Pup. In experienced hands, the Camel was a superb fighter and a favorite of such pilots as William Barker who racked up 46 plane and blimp kills between late 1917 - 1918.
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Kit Contents
My kit arrived double boxed with some holes on the outside shipping carton. But the Camel comes well packaged, and nothing within the kit box was harmed. The control surfaces are pre-slotted, pre-hinged and pre-glued at the factory, a nice touch if you're like me and get grumpy installing them. The included pilot comes pre-painted and even has a little scarf material. The hatch is magnetic, and there appears to be plenty of room in the battery compartment for a much larger battery then the recommended 1500mah pack.
The wings, fuse and stabs are constructed of balsa and are nicely covered with MonoKote film. Decals are pre-applied. There are even some plastic .303 Vickers machine guns and inspection cowls to round out those nice scale details. As one would expect from Electrifly, their planes come pretty complete in the way of hardware, and don't require much to be supplied short of glue and power train/electronics.
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Kit includes/features:
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Kit requires:
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For this review, Great Planes has supplied me with the setup recommended for this aircraft. The 950kv motor makes a maximum of 155 watts which, with my targeted weight of about 1 1/2lbs, makes for approximately 100 watts per pound - perfect for scale park flight.
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Assembly
noted there was an addendum to the manual regarding the wing attachment and made sure to follow those new and improved instructions where applicable. The instruction manual was very thorough, well illustrated and clear. Nothing in the assembly process stood out to me as too daunting a task nor did it require any tools that weren't readily available in my workshop. Let the build begin!
Fuselage
While no construction is needed to finalize the fuselage itself, it is the center point for the placement of many other components. It is worth noting that this is the only piece in the kit where I felt it necessary to use a heat gun to shrink down the covering a little bit.
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Wing
The wing assembly consists of dropping in the servos, connecting the linkages, bolting the upper and lower wings into place on the cabanes, and installing the hardware for the wing struts. While mounting the wings isn't a difficult task, some attention to detail is required as the alignment here is fairly critical. The decals one one side of my wing were overlapping the aileron a bit too much and caused it to hang up a bit. 30 seconds with a sharp blade to trim up the overhanging sticker(s), and everything was moving freely.
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Tail
Horizontal StabThe horizontal stab installation begins by mounting the bottom wing with the supplied bolts. This allows you to have a reference point while finding the horizontal stabs center point on the fuselage and during it's leveling. Once the wing was in place, I temporarily fitted the stab with blue painter’s tape and ensured it was level to the wings. I had to sand a little bit to get the stab level with the wing. Normally when I verify the stab is centered with the wing, I just measure from the tip of the wing to the tip of the stab with my measuring tape. Electrifly has outlined a cool procedure in which you insert a t-pin in the cockpit at the pre-marked centerline, and run a length of string to the tip of either side of the stab to ensure it’s the same distance. I like this approach and will be utilizing it in the future. |
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Vertical StabThe vertical stab comes with two notches on the bottom which allow it to rest within the horizontal stab. Installing it is as simple as pushing it into the horizontal stab, checking alignment with your builder’s triangle and gluing into place. |
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Motor/ESC Installation
Mounting the motor starts by removing the motor mount attached to your motor (if one was) and replacing it with the fiberglass mount from the kit. Once this is done, simply take the provided spacers and bolt the motor up to the firewall. The ESC simply mounts to the RX/ESC tray with standard double sided tape.
One of my favorite scale features on the kit is the faux engine. You can glue the plastic piece in place if you choose or use the included steel rods (as I did) which mimic the engine’s pushrods. It really adds to the scale looks in my opinion.
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Landing Gear
The landing gear installation is straightforward, but ensure you align the pieces as outlined in the instruction manual. You'll want to install some threadlocker on each of the landing gear strut fasteners. I didn't, and they vibrated loose after just a couple flights.
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Radio Installation
The provided S3114 servos fit perfectly in the rudder/elevator servo mounting tray, and I had no issues setting them up on the flush mount aileron trays either. The pushrods come pre-bent, and the ez-connectors that we all love so much come included with the kit as well as all the horns etc. The aileron linkages are interesting: they are two piece and connect together with CA glue and heatshrink tubing. I had no problems installing them, and they seem to operate smoothly.
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Completion
The remaining steps consist of gluing in the pilot, Vickers machine guns, and inspections cowls, attaching the battery tray, balancing the aircraft (make sure you add the recommended nose weight) and checking the control surface throws.
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Flying
Basics
The Camel is very light, and sized perfectly, for those trips to the playground with the kids. The plane handles very well all around the flight envelope, but seems most comfortable in what scale flight (approx. 1/2 throttle). I just love lumbering this thing around the airfield in the calm air on a nice early morning flight, and it's apparent that this is the type of flying the designers had in mind when developing this plane.
But the Rimfire 950kv motor will pull this thing much faster if you so desire, with enough authority at higher throttle setting to make any WW1 ace envious. With my preferred scalelike flying, I'm getting flight times of about 7 - 8 minutes from my 1500mah pack, and I am putting back about 1100mah.
The instruction manual states the plane is intended for winds in the 0 - 10mph range. I've flown it in winds up to 10 - 12mph, and it can be a bit of a handful. Just be on your toes, make sure you land directly into the wind, and you should be just fine.
Taking Off and Landing
Without a steering mechanism, I envisioned ground looping and drunkenly weaving about the runway for my first takeoff attempt. Much to my surprise, the plane’s ground handling characteristics are very docile, and the rudder stays effective at slower speeds. To help ensure the plane tracks well on departure, I found that instead of gingerly rolling into the throttle as I do on some of my overpowered taildraggers, it's best to apply the throttle a bit more liberally to get the plane tracking and up on step quickly. With the Rimfire 950kv motor, the plane takes off at about 1/2 throttle in about 15 feet, and normally requires just a little bit of aileron and rudder inputs to keep the wings level and tracking straight.
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The camel floats very nicely as I found in power off glide tests, so bringing it in on those first approaches wasn't so nerve wracking. Landing the Camel on a nice day couldn't be much easier. Approach speeds are ridiculously slow, giving you lots of time to visualize your touch down and adjust as needed. Just keep in mind control surfaces are less effective at slower speeds, so you might need to feed in a bit more inputs then you would normally expect, as it has taken me a few flights to remember.
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Aerobatics / Special Flight Performance
I don't pretend to be a good aerobatic pilot, so all of the maneuvers I put my review planes through are on the simple side. The plane rolls very nicely on the stock throws, executing them in a scale fashion - not too fast, but not too slow either. Loops can be done easily around 3/4 throttle, or chop the throttle back a little for more scale lazy loops. Pretend you're piloting a WW1 era fighter and you'll have a blast ... you'll probably even find the Camel exceeds your expectations in this department, as I have.
Is This For a Beginner?
While the airplane does not exhibit any tendencies that would make me believe it would be impossible for a beginner to fly, it does have ailerons, and on that basis alone I would not recommend it for a complete beginner.
Flight Video/Photo Gallery
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Downloads
Conclusion
This is the first biplane I've owned, and I must say I truly enjoy its flight characteristics and find myself using it for the first flights of the day to get my thumbs warmed up. If you're looking for a parkflyer for your fleet that looks great in the air, flies nicely and is fairly priced, I highly recommend you look into the Electrifly Camel.
Pros:
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Cons:
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Thanks
Thanks to Hobbico for giving me the opportunity to review this plane, and supplied hardware. And as always to Jon Barnes and Terry Riley for their excellent photography/videography skills and support.
Last edited by Angela H; Jan 14, 2009 at 02:18 PM..Discussion
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Jan 14, 2009, 03:06 PM
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United States, CA, Los Angeles
Joined Sep 2003
21,887 Posts
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Awesome video. The special effects and slow motion in the first half are excellent.
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Jan 14, 2009, 03:27 PM
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Stockton, Ca. USA
Joined Apr 2001
8,718 Posts
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Excellent review Don! Truly top notch. As Kmot pointed out, the first half of the video was very interesting and well done. I can't wait to get my Spad XIII. My flying buddy got the Camel and he hopes to get to the assembly soon. Yours looks great in the pictures and video. Mike Heer
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Latest blog entry: New receiver packs and asking Castle for...
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Jan 14, 2009, 03:50 PM
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central PA.
Joined Sep 2004
18,635 Posts
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great work on the video guys! ...in my opinion, I reckon that's one of the few "only available as a 100mb+ download" review vids that's really worth the wait!
 A mighty fine review indeed and it looks like a groovy little park flyer too. |
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Jan 14, 2009, 04:38 PM
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Bradenton, FL
Joined Nov 2004
553 Posts
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Great review- The video is very cool. I have the SE-5 in this series and love it. It is great to see they are doing some other WW-1 subjects also. These birds are the perfect size and fly well.
I can see my hanger may be getting another WW-1 Bipe Cub Fan |
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Jan 14, 2009, 05:17 PM
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Oklahoma
Joined Aug 2008
669 Posts
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Great review and awesome video!
I'm curious...do you know what video software he used for the editing? The special effects were very well done. |
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Jan 14, 2009, 07:13 PM
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Joined Aug 2006
1,550 Posts
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Good job. It would be worth applying some dull coat or matte varnish and maybe adding some dummy rigging too.
From a couple of the photos, especially the one from behind, the plane seems to be a bit "twisted" and not straight. Have you noticed that? |
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Jan 14, 2009, 07:28 PM
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Joined Feb 2005
1,840 Posts
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Thanks for the comments fellas.
I'll let Jon chime in as to what software he is using for the editing as I am not 100% certain. As for the "twisting", I do see how the one photo has an odd angle to it, I'm thinking that maybe the perspective / ground not being level has something todo with it as I have not noticed it in person. Don |
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Last edited by gp125racer; Jan 14, 2009 at 07:29 PM.
Reason: spelling
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Jan 14, 2009, 07:48 PM
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S. Calif
Joined Mar 2000
1,405 Posts
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Don/Jon
Good review and a stunning video. The video was worth every second of the 100 Mb download - I think it was the best video of a model airplane that I have ever seen. Now all you need are some good markings from Callie and aome Krylon Matt and you will be in business - Oh and some rigging would be nice. My Camel makes it's second flight tomorrow. I now have 2 1/2 oz of weight in the nose and have a couple of degrees of downthrust. We shall see. I can always take some weight out once I get comfortable with the flight characteristics. Last week, it balloned up on me on takeoff with 1 1/2 oz in the nose, so I think a bit more weight in the nose was called for. The build is stock with the recommended motor, but maybe the Krylon on the fuselage adds enough weight to require some extra weight in the nose. The moment arm of the fuselage aft of the cg is very long and forward of the cg is very short. Gerry |
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Jan 14, 2009, 08:09 PM
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Victoria, BC, Canada
Joined Apr 2001
3,378 Posts
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The video is 110 Meg. I think RCG might want a smaller version to reduce the load on their servers and for anyone without broadband.
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Jan 14, 2009, 08:54 PM
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USA, NY, East Islip
Joined Feb 2004
10,892 Posts
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Stunning review! That's going to sell an awful lot of Camels!!!
Tommy D |
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Jan 14, 2009, 09:01 PM
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The White House?
Joined Apr 2008
1,574 Posts
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Sweet review (2 Thumbs Up!!)
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Jan 14, 2009, 09:16 PM
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Apache Junction,Arizona
Joined Jul 2003
469 Posts
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Camel
Don, Very nice man, Loved it.
sdjb |
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Jan 14, 2009, 09:37 PM
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Sonoma County
Joined Sep 2004
12,984 Posts
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I use Vegas for my video editing. Here is a Vimeo link but I encourage you to download the full version from here. I worked HARD on it and I think it is worth it!
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Jan 14, 2009, 10:01 PM
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United States, CA, Sonoma
Joined Mar 2005
365 Posts
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Awesome review Don!!! It was a genuine pleasure to shoot some of the media for you. I look forward to doing more of the same.
Awesome video Jon!!! I really like how you included that clean overhead shot I was able to capture. Your video editing skills are definitely moving into the next level. |
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Last edited by blueskyrider; Jan 14, 2009 at 10:11 PM.
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