Bellanca Decathlon 480 RTF

Have flown this plane for several months now. I began the hobby with the Wing Dragon and then the Wing Dragon III. Both Wing Dragons are mostly gliders. In other words, the wind moves the airplane around in the air with/without your direction.

This plane, ohhh, how I wish I had started with this plane. It can handle some wind and actually flys rather than floats. It is impossible to turn upside down as the wings immediately force the airplane back to right-side-up flying. As always, spend some time on a R/C simulator before heading out to the field.

I added some LED lights to this plane, but it's a waste of money. The landing gear is junk. Launch by hand and belly land. Be sure to add some clear packing tape to the tips of the wings and the bottom of the fuselage to keep your airplane looking good after landings. I find the original engine is just fine. I knocked it loose in a rough landing, but used an xacto knife to open the hood and glued it back in place. Works fine. I do recommend buying a 9.6V battery with more amps. They are a bit larger, but can fit into the battery bay with no room to spare. On the factory battery I get 9 minutes on a good day. Watch the time closely because this thing has a lot of drag due to the struts and comes in for a landing without much of a warning. In fact, tonight I kept flying after my timer went off, and sure enough the plane nosed in for a landing so rough I broke the wing almost in half. About to order a new wing, and so took the time to help others by writing this.

By the way, this plane is easy to convert to four channel. Everything is ready, you just add the servo. However, I enjoy the hassle and near stress free flying of 3 channel and believe by the time I want to try adding ailerons this airplane will be so beat up I will buy a purpose built 4 channel Cub.

The Bellanca Decathlon has a very nice appearance. I don't recommend as a trainer, soft foam material breaks rather easily requires a skillfull flyer. Better hand launching it, not good on ground control.

Today I flew alone for the first time. The plane flew great. My landings were shaky, but we survived. The landing gear is a little flimsy but it bent back right into shape. The tail wheel need repair but glue and tape fixed that. I am a real novice, but it worked for me.

Ok. When you see rc trainer on anything it doesn't mean any knuckle head who has never flown before can fly it. Find a local club and get someone experienced to help you your plane will last a lot longer. At the very least get a simulator before you even by a plane they will help and can be had very cheap on the internet auction site. The hardest part of flying is take off and landing and especially with a new model that hasn't been trimmed and that is even worse when you are hand launching by yourself. Now for the Belanca. I have owned several of these over the last 2 yrs. Learn from my mistakes. First don't buy the rtf. The radio is on 27 mhz and the first time you go to the local club you are going to get some dirty looks. They like you to use 72 mhz or 2.4ghz. There are 6 channel 2.4ghz systems on the market that can be had for $50.00 with receiver delivered that work great for this plane and others.The motor is brushed and is crap, the servos are not very good but in their defense i am still using the originals but the rudder twitches like crazy. The landing gear is crap don't even bother.Now here is where this plane is a bargain. You can order the fuselage which comes with the pushrods and cowl for less than $14.00, the wing for less than $13.00 and the tail for less than $6.00.so you can get the airframe shipped for less than $40.00. Now you can use a brushless motor and lipo. I use 1350kv motor, 30 amp esc and 2200 mah 3s lipo and can fly for 20 minutes. Standard 9 gram servos will work fine for the control,and if you flatten the wing and add airlerons it will roll nicely and fly inverted. I have lights on mine and use it for night flying and lunch time flying. Its easy to transport. As for landing some clear packing tape on the bottom protects the foam. Its and alright trainer especially with an instructor but more over i think its a great lunch time plane or if you just want a quick flight. Its easy to repair with epoxy and the replacement parts are cheap. Here is a link with a thread on how to do the mods i talk about. http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=794616

It is a good flying aircraft. Easy assembly. Great for a beginner