I scratch built this little Bronco using 3 view drawings and various plans that I found here on RCG. It is built from Model Plane Foam https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show....php?t=1533245 which is a wonderful product to work with, and is much cheaper than depron.

Wingspan is 1000mm and weight around 900grams.
Motors are 2100kv AXN spares from Hobbyking.
Props 6x4.
9g HT900 servos
30A HK ESCs.
8ch Frsky Rx.
2200mA 3s battery.

There is no landing gear so I use a purpose build dolly for take offs and then belly land (I'm not yet good enough to land back on the dolly ).
The underside is covered with fibreglass and WBPU.

This is without doubt the best flying scratchbuilt plane that I've built to date. It is fast, maneuverable and extremely stable. No tip stall tendencies that I've noticed so far, she just mushes about nose high. Looks very impressive in the air and sounds real nice when on full song. Though lower throttle settings can give a rather dissonant warble.

Next I will be adding some panel lines and decals along with an overall coat of WBPU for protection.

Got this from the aus w/house because it was cheap and I kinda liked the look of it.
Typically, it needed plenty of mods just to get the cg right, but I knew that before I bought the thing. Pays to do your research before buying these cheap planes.

Here is the thread where these mods are discussed. https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...2#post23597497 My contributions are on page 12.

I tried flying it with 2200 battery and it was way too heavy. Changed to 1300 nanos and she now flies real nice.

Great value if you are prepared to do a few mods.

I picked up this kit from the hobbyking aus w/house.
https://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...00mm_Kit_.html

Basically its a knock off of the Merlin/Kinetic.
The foam is quite good and fits together nicely but the hardware is a little crappy.
The ply elevator mech has a lot of slop so I used 3mm prop sleeves as bearings. Works quite good.
I added 3mm carbon to the wing and elevator to help stiffen things up. The supplied fiberglass works quite well at stiffening the fuse.

A hatch was cut in the fuse for access to the elevator servo and I covered it using a cover from a Kinetic. All servos are HXT500s.

Motor is turnigy 2730-3000kv turning a 4x4 (cut down 6x4) prop. Battery is 500mA 3s fitted under the canopy on a balsa tray. Under that sits a 25A speedie.

The plane is fast, extremely fast, and is rock solid to fly. Its way better than the Kinetic thanks in part to everything being so rigid. The kinetic feels very sloppy in comparison. Good glide characteristics too thanks to the small prop.

Flight times are very short at WOT but even at half throttle she's plenty quick enough. Usually I get 5 minutes of mixed flying with a couple of high speed passes.

AUW with battery is 255 grams

So if you're looking for a cheap kit to use a base for a mini hotliner then I highly recommend this one.

Always wanted one these ever since I saw the first review on this thread.
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show....php?t=1371681

I got mine from the Hobbyking aus warehouse.
The reason I chose the T28 was due it's all round flying qualities, not just its speed.
And to me its more than quick enough on 3s for my local park.

I added a 3mm carbon spar to the wings because they seemed to have a bit too much flex for my liking. Other than some black stripes for orientation and an alloy spinner she's stock from the box.

There is a wide variance with recommend cg but I went with 30mm from the LE edge and she handles just fine.

Nice plane, very easy to fly because it is so stable at any speed.
Also quite fast, even on 3s.



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A flying buddy bought this back from Thailand for me.
http://www.ifomodel.com/th/index.php
A couple of guys in the club have their Yak, which is very similar, but I like this one because it is something different. Oh, and it was the only one available in the shop at the time.
They are unusual in having a tapered EPP fuselage which goes from 20mm at the nose down to 10mm at the tail. The kit comes with all the foam surfaces ready to piece together and some control horns, that's it. The rest is up to you.
The manual was in Thai. Lots of n's and u's but a least the pictures were in English.
The motor I chose was a trusty old unit that has served well in many of my planes. A Turnigy 2210C 1200kv, 150W.
Speedie is a Hobbyking 20A Special (nuthin' special).
Servos, HXT900's.
Prop 8x3.8 no name.
I added some extra carbon bracing in the tail section and wheels off some long forgotten hack.
This plane flies very well for what it is. More a sports flier than a 3D ship but it will hover even I can't can't.
Seems very durable too.

I think me and the Sbach are going to have loads of fun together

These are a great fun little plane for either indoors or outdoors.
The piYak build thread can be found here https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show....php?t=1226187

Mine is made from 9mm EPP and is the 18inch version.
It has a Turnigy 2730 1500kv turning a 8x3.8 prop.
Speedie is a 10A HK version.
All servos are HXT500s with arm extensions on the elevon servos.

I find it quite easy to fly and it can goof around in a small area at very slow speeds. I haven't quite got the hang of hovering but she is more than capable.

My old Easystar has been hanging from the rafters for quite some time.
Once I'd learnt the fundamentals of RC flying I quickly grew out of it.
I remember RCPowers doing a twin version of the Hawksky and thought it would be a great little project to do the same with the EZ*.

I already had most of the bits for it so it was a simple matter of getting out the knife and setting to work.

Motors are 1650Kv 180W Turnigy 2210As. I have used these little motors before and they perform quite well.
Props are good old 6x4s.
Speedies are a couple of HK20A cheapies.
All servos are trusty HXT900s.

Control surfaces were enlarged and are made from 2 layers of 6mm depron sanded to a taper.

CF reinforcing was added to the elevator and tailplane, and along the underside of the tail boom. I also added a strip of 12mm wide carbon along the top of the wings in order to add stiffness and to flatten them out a bit.

Wings were clipped down to 1100mm. Ailerons are 300mm long.

Battery is a 2200mA 3s which I had to mount much further back. This required a bit of foam surgery around the servo pocket area but not too much. The battery slides in on its side.

I have only had one flight with it so far and I was extremely pleased with its performance. It has the easy flying characteristics of the old EZ* but is a whole lot more precise and manoeuvrable. Speed is quite good, not blisteringly quick but certainly quick enough for me. It still glides reasonably well too, which surprised me.
All in all...Continue Reading

Everyone should own a Funcub. They are such a fun and versatile plane that not having one can leave a dirty big hole in your flight line up.

I bought this one as a goer. It came with a Turnigy 480 850kv, 11x7 APC prop, 40A Mystery speedie, HK933 servos for rudder and elevator, and HXT900s for ailerons and flaps. I use 2200mA/3s 40C batteries.

This set up seems to work rather well. Not over powered but more than adequate for this airframe.

It did have a broken tailwheel mount which had also torn a chunk off the bottom of the rudder. I believe this is a real weak spot on these planes so I used a different style of mount made up from bits from a defunked Katana.

The only other mod I have done is to add a tab (CA hinge) to the battery hatch in order to make it easier to open.

The FC is a fantastic slow flier and is great for laughs at WOT.
Could be a nice easy trainer because you would have to be something really stupid to cash one.
But then again, you can do a lot of really stupid things with this plane

This plane can be bought as a kit from good 'ol Hobby King.
https://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...dProduct=12914

I bought it because the reviews on HK and here https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show....php?t=1472734 praised its flight characteristics.

Also I wanted a basic EPO kit that I could build up and paint to suit my own tastes. I'm getting a bit bored with all the ARF look alikes.

The basic airframe is quite good and is very solid. Scale details though are totally comical. The supplied hardware is basically junk, however I did use the control horns and pushrods.

Specs.
Turnigy 3536/6 1250Kv.
Mystery 40A speedie.
2200/3s 40C
10x7 TGS prop.
Turnigy 7A ubec
HKSCM9-5 servos (only 5V hense the ubec).
Weight, just under 900grams.
Cg 70mm at wing root.

Mods.
Dual aileron servos (so that I can add some differential if need be)
Firewall added for engine mount.
Doubled up wire link between elevators (too sloppy)
New vacuum formed canopy (original just looks too ugly)
Carbon fibre reinforcing on R&E control rods (they flex a lot)
Reshaped gun cowling (again, too ugly)
Reshaped engine cowling (looks way off scale)
Tapering to the LE of the vertical stab (way too thick)
Reshaping the wing root joint (original has a large step)
Filling the exaggerated panel lines.
Spinner made up from an old 90mm EDF fan.
Added tailwheel in retract position (looks more scale and aids in belly landings)
Digging battery compartment 40mm further forward.

...Continue Reading

Another great design by Ken, dz1sfb.
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show....php?t=1542672

Mine is made from depron and has more rounded wingtips, extra stiffeners in the tail and runs on 3s. As a result it is a bit heavier at a little over 300grams.
I had trouble getting the cg right and had to cut the battery hatch as far forward as possible and fit a spinner. If I were to build another one I'd make a short extended nose to help balance it better.

This is a real nice stable flyer at 1/2 throttle but can become a bit of a handful at WOT as it is very fast. IMO 2s is more than enough for this plane.
It is very manoeuvrable and tracks nicely in the air. Slow flies well without any nasty habits.

Nice and quiet too, which is a plus when compared to most noisy pusher type wings.

Specs.
6mm depron.
6mm hardwood wingspar.
2x HXT900 servos
Turnigy 2730 1700kv
20A hobbyking ESC
7x6 Apc prop.
3s 1000mA battery
4ch frsky Rx

Christmas present from the Hobbyking Oz warehouse.

After reading the thread on this thing I thought I'd do the mods before attempting to fly it.

Motor is a Turnigy 3536/8, 1000kv and a 45A hobbyking speedie.
Prop is 10x7 and she pulls 27A static for just over 300W.

I intend to belly land this thing so the drop tank was beefed up with a carbon spar through the guts and some reinforced tape. Maiden flight will be with the LG.

Other than the power upgrade the other major mod was to the battery hatch. The original hatch was glued shut and a new hatch was cut into the top of the fuse. Battery still loads into the original location but through the top instead of from underneath. This makes battery changes a whole lot easier and opens up a lot of space inside the fuselage.

I was sorting through some old photos and came across a few from my control line days back in the mid 70s.

Back in those days my mother had a boyfriend called Vic and he use to take me and a couple of my mates in his big old 64 Pontiac. We could fit loads of planes in that thing.

I dropped out of flying at the age of 18 when owning a car gave you a far better chance of getting a date than a toy aeroplane did.
In fact, playing with toy planes was a sure fire way of ending up only ever playing with something else

So began a long, much too long, love affair with cars, and in particular hotrods.

Now I'm happy to say that I'm back where I began. Plane crazy

I picked this up from a flying buddy who said he was "over it."
It came with landing gear from a PZ Cub along with PZ control linkages etc.
It also had a pair of HXT900 aileron servos.
So a few "issues" with this plane had already been resolved.

One major outstanding issue was the stock motor and ESC, which are of rather poor quality. Recently I took delivery of the FMS 1100mm F6F Hellcat which I intend to upgrade to a 3536 motor and 45A ESC. The F6F's 900Kv motor and 30A ESC were removed and fitted into the Extra.
Prop is a 10x5 APC on a parkzone prop adapter (it was all I had).
With a 2200/3s battery no additional nose weight was needed to hit the cg (90mm from LE)

I've fitted HXT900's to the rudder and elevator and larger diameter wheels for grass takeoffs and landings.

Maiden (for me anyway) was on a pretty windy day however she flew rather well and was very precise and manoeuvrable. Seemed to have loads of thrust but the speed was a little slow for me. I might upgrade to a 10x7 prop.
I can't 3D to save my life but with the rates dialled down this plane is docile enough to be flown like a sports flyer.

I bought this plane a while back from the Hobbyking Aus warehouse. Price was good and so were the reviews.
First things I did were, ditch the legs, fit a 7x6 apc prop, use 3S/1000 batteries and install a rudder servo.
It was a blast to fly but I was never really happy with it because she was a little nervous at slow speeds and landed like a brick.

Recently I decided to do the battery mod which places the battery much further forward. This involves cutting the along the top of the fuse all the way to the cowl.
This piece is then joined to the canopy hatch to make a large single hatch. The battery was removed and the foam dug out from under the cowling.
A new ply tray was installed along with a velcro strip. This mod allowed me to remove the 25grams I had added earlier along with another 25grams added by the manufacturer.

Further to this I removed the rudder servo and tail wheel. The rudder was fixed in place using a bamboo skewer. I hardly used it anyway.
This along with a lighter 4ch Rx meant a weight saving of around 70-80grams which is a lot for such a small plane.

The results are remarkable. It is now a totally different plane to fly, faster more stable and less nervous at low speeds. I swear, this now turns on a wingtip without a hint of tip stalling.

I adapted the plans from this thread https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show....php?t=1181441 to make my own version of the Jackal twin.
The original was based loosely on the Partenavia P68 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partenavia_P.68

Mine is about 80% scale with KFm2 wing and a few other mods.
Specs are:
820mm wingspan
All 6mm depron
2x 2730 1700kv turnigys
2x 12A mystery ESCs
1x 3A hobbyking UBEC
2x 7x6 counter rotating props.
Frsky 4ch Rx
4 HXT 900 servos.
AUW 420grams

A very nice flying plane. Easy to hand launch and easy to land. Flies very true and looks nice in the air. Sounds great too, just like a real twin.
Will take off ROG however the props will strike if one of the wings dip.

She's a bit slow with 2s so I will upgrade to 3s. I may even add a Vtail mixer for differential throttle control.

Update:
Now using 3s/1000 with 6x4 props (not counter rotating) and it flies fantastic. Will fly ROG within 2 meters. I now have it dialled in with the right cg, throws etc and she handles really well. Very aerobatic too.
Landings are easy because it will slow right down without stalling so that you just plop it down tail first.
Great flying plane and well worth the build time.

Last US biplane fighter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumman_F3F
I've always loved the look of these things.

I based the fuselage on the SEMFF P47 and made it shorter and a bit thicker.
I also decided to go for full airfoil wings instead of the usual kfm2.

Motor is a Turnigy L2210C 1200kv 150W.
Battery 1000/3s.
It weights close to 400g.

First flights were not very successful. Kept torque rolling to the left with very little aileron authority to correct it. Also, it seems to be a little too tail heavy even with 25g of dead lead in the nose.
Broke off the lower right wing after 3 attempts. Its a very tough for a depron plane.
Its now under repair to fix the wing and the cg issue. I have already fitted ailerons to the lower wings. I might even install some LG to cure the cg problem and make it easier to launch.

Update 1:
Added ailerons to the bottom wings and lead to nose. Cg is now on the LE of the lower wing.
Finally got in the air and it flew fantastic, much like my PZ Wildcat.
Unfortunately I over controlled on launch and it ended up cartwheeling.
Broke of both lower wings and incurred some other minor damage.
Still, it was great to finally get it in the air and to see it fly so nicely.

Update2:
All repaired. Added a carbon spar to the lower wing and modified the upper wing mounting so that it attaches with rubber bands.
Reduced prop size to 7x6 and there is less tendency to torque roll. It's a little slower as a result but its plenty...Continue Reading

This is one of my all time favourite fighters from WWII.
Not a great fighter aircraft but they do look real nice.

This one is VLF design (Vertical Laminated Fuse) made from 6mm thick white depron.
The plans are available here. https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...&postcount=268

Mine is a little different in that I used twin aileron servos in an attempted to open up the battery compartment for different size batteries.


Specs are:
Turnigy 2730 1700kv. Blue wonder clone.
1 HXT900 and 2 HXT500 servos.
HK 20A ESC.
6x4 prop.
1000/3s.
AUW 300g


Although the cutting out was quite fiddly the overall construction was pretty straight forward.
It flies nice and is quite fast. Looks the goods in the air too.
I might up engine it later to the same motor I used in my Texans.

Update 25/10/11.
Now running a 7x6 prop with 3s.
Much faster and great vertical performance.
Motor runs cold so it seems to handle the extra amps ok.

A flying buddy gave me this after he got tired of crashing and repairing the thing.
It was in pretty good condition with the main problem being a mushy engine mount from too many nose ins.

In a previous blog I modified one of these by widening the wing chord, however with this one I decided to leave the wing as is except for modifying the ailerons.

I have cut new ailerons where the flaps should be and fixed the originals in place. The idea being to reduce tip stalling tendencies by reducing control surface disturbances at the tips.

Flight report:
Flies extremely well and is very quick. Even at 1/2 throttle there is amble speed. It was easily outrunning the EDFs at the local park.
Loops are quite tight, much tighter than before but it will still stall out if too tight.
Bank'n and yank'n is what she does best and turns can be very tight and precise. It is very neutral in a turn with little or no elevator input needed.
Roll rate was a little slow but still acceptable. I moved the clevises one hole in and it was much better. Slightly longer ailerons would be nice but they are still very effective as they are.
Handlaunching was always a problem with these little Texans. Not any more, 3/4 throttle and a quick underarm toss and she's away.
The only problem I had was that the canopy would fly off during a high speed pass. A strong rubber band cured that.
Overall I am very happy with the results from these mods....Continue Reading

This one is a real sweetie.
Flys real nice without a hint of tip stalling.

I had trouble getting the cg right for some reason.
Very tail heavy and had to install the battery as far forward as possible.

Looks a treat in the air with this colour scheme

Specs
6mm white depron.
Selleys Durabond pu glue
Turnigy 2730 1700kv
1000/2s
HXT900 servos
HK 10A speedie
7x6 APC prop.

Modified Kinetic after an argument with a communications tower.
The nose and engine mount were all busted up so I cut back the foam and glued on a ply mount.

Motor is 1400kv from my old HK Texan.
Its much lighter and more powerful than the original.
6x7 APC prop.
Servos replaced with HXT500s. (the stock servos are real crap)
500mA 3s provides 15 minutes of flying.
AUW is 230g which is 50g lighter than spec, and with 350g of thrust it is a very fast little bugger.