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Intro
This plane is billed as an "Almost Ready-To-Fly Electric R/C Trainer". After having spent several hundred dollars on other planes that were billed as trainers when I first got into the hobby, I was very suspicious of this claim. So I decided to have a total novice build the Superstar and another total novice to fly it.
 
Superstar EP Trainer Review
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By Don Sims Don Sims is offline
Old May 29, 2003, 10:27 PM
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Superstar from Hobbico doing a fly-by.
Wingspan: 48.75 in or1232 mm
Wing area: 402 sq in or 26 dm squared
Weight: 2.7 lb mfg number mine was 2 lb 14 oz or 1230 g
Wing Loading: 15.8 oz/sq ft or 48 g/cm squared
Length: 36.1" or 917mm
Motor: Electrifly T-601 included with the kit.
ESC: No brand name on the control it does not have a BEC.
Prop:  9x5.5 Hobbico included with the plane.
Battery:  No brand name, brown paper covered 2100 mAh battery included.
Radio: 3-Channel AM Futaba Radio (3FR) with on-board gear preinstalled.
 Manufacturer:  Hobbico
Available From:

The select system comes with the plane, battery, speed control and just about everything that you need even comes with a three channel AM radio, receiver, and servos is available from Tower Hobbies.

Also Servo City is carrying the plane and gear.

Requires:

Charger & 8 "AA" batteries

Introduction

This plane is billed as an "Almost Ready-To-Fly Electric R/C Trainer". After having spent several hundred dollars on other planes that were billed as trainers when I first got into the hobby, I was very suspicious of this claim. So I decided to have a total novice build the Superstar and another total novice fly it.

My first impression of the plane itself was good overall, with the exception of the electronics. Strange looking speed control, Molex-type (a.k.a. Tamiya) connectors, canned speed 600 motor, sub C battery pack, standard servos and receiver. I asked myself, how in the world is this thing even going to get off the ground? Well, I was pleasantly surprised. It actually flies well and has proven itself to be very durable. There are several great threads in the discussion forums here on R/C Groups debating the pros and cons of the plane.

Confession Time
I corrupted the disk that I had my photos stored on just before sending it to Dave Lilly. That meant I took the plane back apart and re-assembled it as much as I could. The photos have been taken after a major crash that you'll read about in the text! I apologies for not having the original set of; "As we built the plane photos for you."

Kit Contents

Kit contents laid out. The wing came in halfs. Ample space in the fuselage for your electronics.

Assembly

There really is not too much to assembling this kit, even the motor is pre installed. Hobbico has included a twenty page instruction booklet with the plane. The first six pages tell about safety, the Academy of Model Aeronautics and other interesting information that a new pilot needs to know about R/C flying.

Leighanna, who is one of my twin teenage daughters, volunteered to assemble the plane. She got started one evening right after I received it. This was the first time she has built any type of plane. I worked on another project while she worked on the Superstar. She asked very few questions while building!

Battery compartment and provided wheels. Top view of the plane after the wing was attached.

Wing

Leighanna: At first I found it kind of hard to follow, I'd never done this before. But when I started to put the wing joiner rod in it started to get a little bit easier. It took me some effort to get the rod pins in but the wing went together faster than everything else.

Dad: The wings are pre built and pre covered, there is a metal joining rod and alignment pin that you use, then you just tape the two wing halves together. It took her less than ten minutes of assembly time.

Elevator attached to the fuselage.

Rudder is held by two pre-installed bolts.

Stabilizer and Fin

Leighanna: The slot for the fin was too small and I had to have "Professional" assistance. The thing that I found tedious was aligning the holes for the stabilizer and the fin. It took a lot of effort to line them up and get them to work.

Dad: Like the wings the rudder and stabilizer are pre assembled. She did have some difficulty lining things up so I ended up giving her a bit of help. Her main problem was finding the holes for the elevator that is in the fuselage. She spent twenty minutes doing this part of the assembly process.

Closeup of the provided control horns and connectors. The wing tiedown and speed control switches.

Fuselage

Leighanna: This part was the easiest but took the most time. I had to cut the slot for the landing gear. The covering went all the way across but there was a hole for the gear in the balsa. When I installed the nylon landing gear straps, they kept slipping but I finally got it. I had my dad put in the electronics because I wanted to go do some other things. Besides, electricity and I do not get along.

Dad: The fuselage was also pre-built and took very little work to complete. The battery compartment is finished and the motor already mounted. Hobbico provides all the hardware to finish the plane and included two supplements to the directions where they used more up to date linkages for the servos. They even provide hook and loop material to act as battery straps and to hold all the electronics in place. Only thirty minutes went into this part of the build.

Provided speed control. 2100 mah battery included with the plane.

Electronics
Dad: As she stated, I couldn't persuade her to put the electronics into the plane. The motor is pre-wired and pre-mounted, Hobbico provides a template to cut out the on/off switch and speed control arming switch. The Futaba servos easily drop into the fuselage and music wire is provided for pushrods. The battery compartment is also pre-built so correct center of gravity is almost fool proof. Hobbico provides hook and loop straps to hold the battery in its proper place in the fuselage.

Your battery, speed control and motor are all pre-wired for fast connections. We used a full size receiver in the plane as well as the full size servos that came with the Futaba radio. It took me half an hour to hook everything up for a total build time of under two hours..

Preinstalled speed 600 motor. Spinner and prop were provided with the kit.

Flying

Leighanna has no interest in flying at this time, so I decided to recruit one of the RCGroups members that lives an hour or so away who was just learning to fly. Richard had a little bit of stick time with a GWS Beaver but had never flown a large balsa plane like the Superstar. So we went out to a local sod field one morning to let him get the hang of the plane. Before he flew it, I went ahead and tried it out to make sure it was trimmed out using the Futaba radio and receiver. The plane took off more like an IC one even on short grass. It had a nice climb out and needed very little actual trimming. The plane flew with the basic characteristics of a trainer, easy stall, nice glide for it's size, and quick recovery if you got into trouble. This was the first time that I had used a Futaba radio and I was impressed with the smooth throttle control and feel of the radio. Since the speed control was a bit different and needed to be armed I decided to fly it until the BEC cut in. A word of caution is that you need to be very careful to time yourself. Once the speed control cuts the motor off, you cannot restart in the air. Luckily where we were flying there is several thousand acres of sod I could land on so I headed it into the wind and brought the Superstar in for a dead stick landing. Overall, I felt that the plane flew quite well. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised at its performance.

After I landed the plane I turned the transmitter over to Richard. Since he already had some stick time in I thought he would be ok without a buddy cord. While the battery was recharging, we talked about the radio and looked at the differences between it and the four channel radio that Richard normally flies with. After the battery was ready, I put it in and Richard got ready to take off. I noticed the rollout was a lot shorter this time and that the plane was climbing at a steep angle. It looked like it was going to stall out and crash so I told Richard to: "Trim it, trim it!" (He didn't know how to trim it or what I meant.) He made the plane wave up and down quite a bit but kept his cool and didn't crash. He landed the plane and we checked to see what was wrong. While looking at the radio one of us had gotten the trim out of alignment so he had way too much up elevator. We fixed the trim, recharged the battery again, checked the trim again and he then flew an uneventful flight.

Here are Richards comments from his flights

Richard: The Superstar EP seems very powerful, but is a bit touchy on the turns. The smooth take-off and landings make up for the touchy turns. I am also able to throw the Superstar into flight and for a plane of this size, this is impressive. Here's a story on the durability of the Superstar EP: I was flying the Superstar on a good day, I had a large crowd of children watching. They were so amazed at the plane flying, but were even more amazed when I came in for a landing. As I looped around I noticed a big telephone pole, I told myself how I would maneuver around in order to miss this obstacle, but was ignorant to the extension wire that went from the pole to the ground. After the plane hit the wire then hit the ground, the children shouted with excitement "Do it again." I was more amazed than the children when I saw the plane was not badly hurt. The left wing was chipped, but I was back out flying within an hour.

Richard and his copilot are ready for takeoff. The Superstar is getting a bit too close to the photographer.
Superstar making a low pass.


Conclusion

Stock, the Superstar flies well and can perform mild aerobatics. It is a solid plane, builds quickly, and a good value for your money. The plane that I reviewed was well built and covered, plus all the preinstalled gear was properly done. With lighter servos, better connectors, better speed control, and a direct drive or possibly geared Magnetic Mayhem or Endoplasma motor this plane would go from being a nice plane to an excellent one. Even gearing the existing motor should positively affect the flight of this plane.

Richard has proven the planes durability by a couple of not-so-nice landings. This is a plane that ran into a guy wire leading from the ground to a light pole and the plane actually sustained little damage. The leading edge of the wing, sheeting, and covering was damaged and repair time was less than an hour.

The Superstar has actually exceeded my expectations for a reasonably priced plane that people can learn to fly on with an instructor at an R/C airfield or someplace with a lot of room to land in. I cannot recommend it as a park flyer unless you have several acres to fly in. A beginner would need help learning to fly this plane, so get an instructor to help you if you decide to purchase the Superstar.

 
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Old Jun 17, 2003, 10:29 PM   #2
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Thanks for the the great review, Don!

Have been researching the SIG Rascal, Scorpio Miss 2 and the Hobbico Superstar EP for a couple of months.

I was very pleased to stumble across your review and enjoyed reading it.

I'm looking for a trainer that can utilize the 4 - HRSC-2600 NiMH packs that I already have, and something that is big enough to see for more than 100 ft.
The hundred or so posts I have read seemed to indicate that the Rascal has some serious instability problems, the Miss 2 really seems a bit frail to go crashing into things with plus the fuselage seems too small to handle sub-C packs. The Superstar just seems to have a lot of the "right" features ... big enough, relatively rugged sheet balsa construction, EASY battery access and reasonably good looks (they have to look KINDA good, don't they??).

As with everything else in the world, the Superstar EP has IT'S shortcomings ... I'm not thrilled with the stock drive setup, but your article made it obvious that it'll get me into the air and through the first few mistakes, THEN I can worry about some upgrades, or "bury" it and go on to the "second" craft!

Thanks again for a very informative review. I will be ordering one tonite and will post flight progress in a few weeks.

Russ
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Old Jun 17, 2003, 10:37 PM   #3
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Thanks Russ, just be sure to have some room to land the thing!! Just gearing the plane as some of the threads on it suggest has made a huge difference on flight times. It's a nice plane. Are you already flying or are you going to have someone help you out???
Don
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Old Jun 18, 2003, 12:05 AM   #4
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Hi Don:

I have flown aicraft a bit many years ago (about the time they converted from tubes to transistors!). When the R/C bug bit me again about 6 years ago, I got deeply involved with weed whacker powered boats, and racing and on and on!

I live on a 5 mile circumference lake, and this last winter I thought how neat it would be to have an R/C plane, maybe with skis to mess around with on the frozen lake! I actually ordered a Simprop Sunny Boy, but it was out of stock. Just as well, as I really wasn't to thrilled about a "foamie" anyway! By this time, while spending countless hours on these buletin board forums (and getting more and more excited about electric power), I bumped into a review on the Lite Machines Corona written by Fitz Walker. After spending another 3,500,000 hours reading posts on it, I bought one, made all the GOOD modifications (knowing that heli's have a pretty poor glide path), and have been having a ball with it.

I've continued to research an airplane that would be a good jumping off point and one with tail-dragger gear that would be practical to put skis or floats on (as the ice is now water), as well as being somewhat less than fragile. I think that the Superstar EP is as close as I'll get. I will most likely remanufacture the main gear to be a bit higher and stiffer, with bigger lightweight foam wheels, and maybe a lightweight non-steerable tailwheel to aid in ROG. By the time I crash it and repair it a few times, it will probably need a different power system to get it off the water with floats, but I will worry about that when the time comes.

Out here in the sticks of New England, there aren't any flying clubs, so help is kinda non existent. I've done O.K. in the past, and did fine with the Corona (what hoot that little machine is!!), so I don't think I'll get into too much trouble.
The good news is that I have PLENTY of room to make a lot of mistakes without hurting anyone!!

I also tend to take my time and not cut corners OR dollars, so the equipment usually works reliably.

Thanks for the interest ... and I must comment on what a boon to mankind these forums are!! It's already been said but I'll reitterate, that you can learn more here in a week than you can in the magazines amd "old time" methods in 5 years!!

I'll attach a pic of the Corona for fun.

Happy flying,

Russ
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Old Jun 18, 2003, 09:24 AM   #5
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Russ,
With your background, you should have no problems flying the plane. You should work with Will at http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/membe...fo&userid=7845 or his homepage at http://www.3dkits.com/ to design some floats for the plane. That would be a hoot flying it off of a lake! I've got a GWS Beaver that I fly exclusively with floats and have a blast with that plane. Thats a nice Copter photo and I appreciate the kind words.
Don
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Old Jun 18, 2003, 12:22 PM   #6
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Hi again Don:

It's interesting that you mentioned Willshep, as I already had the www.foamfloats.com website in my bookmark file as a result of the never-ending info searches! They seem like the hot setup floats for electic powered aircraft. Reasonably priced, too!!

Once I get a few flights (and hard landings) behind me, I am going to contact Will and order whatever the correct size, stiffener, hardware, etc. is.

At this point, I haven't even received the plane yet, and I am checking out brushless motors & ESC's! ... I've lost it!!

You are welcome for the kind words, and thank YOU for the info and compliments.

Happy Flying,

Russ

(EDIT ... Link was incorrect ... Russ)
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Old Jun 18, 2003, 02:14 PM   #7
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hi don!

nice review!

I've been flying this plane since feb. I had the newer version superstar ep which had a different kind of ESC.

I haven't flown superstar ep in stock version but I really enjoyed mine with 2.5.1 gearbox and 11x7 propeller

Its a nice plane for 99 dollors even if flown in stock version.
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Old Jun 19, 2003, 09:15 PM   #8
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See this thread for lots more about this plane, an inexpensive drive system upgrade and an expensive (but WORTH IT!) battery upgrade.
I have one of these - upgraded drive and lipo packs. My son asked his instructor if they could stop the lesson how because he was tried - after 26 minutes on one battery! AND they still had 17 minutes left at thet rate (looping, inverted, etc).
Awesome!
Crash
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Old Jun 19, 2003, 09:49 PM   #9
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Crash, is this the thread you are refering too? It's an excellent one!!
Don
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...ight=Superstar
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Old Jun 20, 2003, 04:10 PM   #10
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Yup! That's it Don.
Forgot the link.
Thanks,
Crash
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Old Jun 21, 2003, 11:39 AM   #11
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No problem Flash! Someone, I've been following your threads on the plane also. Reads like you've had some great times with the plane.
Don
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Old Jun 21, 2003, 11:59 AM   #12
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yup I've sured have. Now I am thinking of putting a MM motor from tower or servocity.
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Old Jun 21, 2003, 05:35 PM   #13
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The MM is nice but look at the Endo's brushes, they seem to last longer and the motors are the same price.
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Old Feb 10, 2007, 04:58 PM   #14
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I just bought one of these complete from a swapmeet at the local field.

I could have ditched the radio in favor of my Spektrum, but decided for the extra $, why not keep it?

Anyway, I purchased this with the hopes of putting my Hacker A30-8xl into it. I also purchased a gearbox, but am unsure of the ratio. I intend on swapping to LiPo, because that's what I'm set up for,...

So what do you guys think of putting in the hacker motor, running a 3s LiPo battery of say 4000mah?

Also, what kind of "Upgrades" would you do to it structurally, I don't care for the "hinge" on the tail (elevator or rudder), and intend to remedy that before I fly it. Should I be concerned on the wing joint, or is it strong enough as it is?

Thanks!
Wayne
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