Two problems with this great flying plane. First problem was the nose gear sometimes didn't extend fully. This is caused by the nose steering pushrod moving during gear extension. Simple fix is install a piece of tubing for the pushrod to run through and secure it to the foam to prevent sideways movement. The second serious problem that destroyed my plane after 20 flights was the factory installed hinge on the right stabilator pulled out in flight causing loss of control and a vertical dive into the ground. The mechanical gear is also a bother, but mine worked fairly well. Servo-less retracts would be a huge improvement. A better hinge design and better glue to prevent another accident would also be a huge improvement!

The F35 Lightning II is my 2nd RC aircraft and 1st EDF jet. I will start out by saying WOW ! I purchased the model last season but wanted to get a little more flite time in my high wing trainer. The model is beautiful and pics don't quite do it justice. Quality is good and price point is excellent. My first flite was once again WOW ! kinda like my first flite ever. The Jet flies like a dream and I am impressed ! I am a relatively new pilot and I found the F35 quite stable compared to what I was expecting. I did find the battery to be PUFFED after a 4 minute flite, not a good thing...I called Hobby Lobby and they told me not to leave lipos fully charged for long periods of time BUT they did send me a replacement in about 2 days and in time for the 4th of July..GOOD JOB GUYS....Over all I would give the model a 5 if not for the battery issue but the service I received was a 5 also. This is the perfect 1st jet or the perfect jet on a budget and I intend to fly the fun out of it !!!

I have four flights on mine so far. Just ordered two more batteries for it. I fly with five minutes on the transmitter clock, and agree with another guy that four might be enough. I'm going to put four, wait for the beeps, then land. I've needed three or four approaches on each flight to land almost at my feet on a canvas runway. I've settled on going to medium idle in my downwind turn on final, and not diving down like so many guys do. Gentle turns help at slow speed, with vectoring off on final.

This jet really is an attention getter at the field if you are into impressing your friends. It does look very authentic in the air, especially if you fly about 80% throttle. I blast off only on takeoff. The plane is much more mild-mannered when you go a bit slower than full throttle. Save the full throttle for the low flybys with a nice slow roll thrown in. Expo at 40-50 also helps.

I've had some minor issues. The vectoring servos work OK, but aren't precise or powerful enough to center the vector unit on my plane. I think paint overspray might be the culprit, and need to try to squirt some WD in there to see if that helps. One of the main landing gear wires came loose from the servo. My fault, I didn't check it, but the landing was OK anyway. The gear design (folding forward) helped because it came down and the pressure on the landing was on it and toward the rear -- so even though it wasn't locked, it worked! I ordered a nose cone and some extra elevators. I used the wrong kind of paint and needed to replace the ones that came with it. As a tip, keep any kind of heat source away from the foam. Ask me how I know. The rest of the airframe, packing, electronics, retracts, all fine.

Hobby Lobby had this on sale after I bought mine. Can't imagine why.... this one is worth the money. Five stars, keeping in mind this is a foam jet, not a Violett.

I reluctantly give this plane 3 stars. It flys real nice & lands far better than I expected but you better land super soft or the landing gear will break. I fly off a nice paved airport runway. The nose gear needed to be adjusted to where it locked properly. It dropped the nose down the first time it rolled on it. The original speed control made the motor quit 1 minute into running. Lucky I was still on the ground. Hobby Lobby promptly sent me a new one & it ran properly. (THANK YOU!) The first flight went well & only minor trimming was needed. The second flight went well also with no problems until afterwards I noticed that a hinge was loose on the elevator control surface & had to be glued back down.. The third flight went fine until a crosswind on that day, caused enough side load while taxiing that it broke the side plate of the main gear. I glued it back & flew another pleasant flight without problems. I just needed the plastic side plates of the retracts. Parts are not available! On flight #5 about 30 seconds after take off the motor studdered so I throttled back. It started to run ok so I throttled back up & then the motor quit. I made a dead stick approach & while on final the motor came back online & caused it to float, then sink, then finish killing the landing gear on the mains with a not hard enough to break it, landing. Later I found a poor connector on the motor side of the red wire. I repaired it, soldering in a new connector & so far so good. The landing gear is NOT available for weeks, so there it sits like a big disappointment. The paint comes off super easy & the foam is too soft allowing finger dents just by handling it. It won't stay pretty for long. Cut the stupid Pitot Tube off before it really damages the nose cone. I have been doing this for 30 years so I guess I am a veteran. I rarely have any problems with any of my planes. (I have 8 RC planes & one full size Cessna 150 currently flying) This one though has been somewhat of a problem child & when I can't get parts, well I just lose interest because of the frustration. Hey Hobby Lobby, send me a F18 or a Eurofighter to make me happy again & I'll endorse your products! Right now I'm bummed over this one.

The left aileron was damaged slightly during shipping. All hinges for the elevators were frozen by foam and took some gentle pulling and pushing to gain full movement. I have not flown the jet yet so I can't comment there yet, but the condition of the plane on arrival was somewhat disappointing.

For the price, this is a great bird. Very straight forward build with minor adjustment issues. With a DX-7, it's a breeze to program the expo rates and thrust vectoring. Flight characteristics are in my opinion great for someone who has some experience flying and wants to get into EDF flying. I recommend this bird to anyone that doesn't have money to throw away, but wants a good (cheap) adrenaline rush. I mainly give this bird 5 stars for the awesome price!!! PS....I had no problems with landing gear(retracts) being weak according to some people and paved runway.

I can strongly recommend this plane as a first EDF (leaving TV off) or to an experienced EDF pilot looking for a good stable platform that is capable of incredible aerobatics with TV on. This bird has become my favorite plane of all I've flown. I can depend on this plane to satisfy my need for speed (doppler measured at 79 mph stock) or low and slow meandering at high alpha or standard aerobatics. I haven't ventured into the TV realm much but, that's what makes this plane my favorite ...it continues to challenge me. I hope to have a long relationship with this beauty.
The 2 TV servos failed before the first flight. I found them during radio programming and control surface adjustment/alignment. I replaced both and it has been flying reliably since. I have no complaints.

This is no plane for a grass field. I have tried it on several grass fields and every time the nose gear bends before it leaves the ground. The foam that it is made from dents real easy. The first time I taxied it on grass the nose gear plastic arm broke. The lipo battery that came with it would not charge, I sent it back and the replacement battery they sent was a 4 cell lipo, 14 vdc but only three of the cells show voltage on the balance plug. On the fourth flight the EDF motor fried inself. I don't think this plane is worth the money I paid for it! It doesn't fly as fast as they say it will, my Phase 3 F-16 EDF flys way faster that this F-35. Other than these things it flys great, hovers, low alpha passes, takeoffs and landings are great all on pavement only. I would not recommend this plane for any grass field.

What this plane lacks in top speed and sound (it's pretty quiet) it makes up for in stability and maneuverability. It's a great first "jet" if you leave the TV off as it's incredibly stable. Amazing with the TV on! Spins, 180 degree turns on a dime - all easy with this thing. I can get up to six minutes of flight time with pattern work, three minutes with hard aerobatics with plenty of juice for a couple of go-arounds. It lands like a kite if you drag it in, no problem on short strips.

Two issues to think about:

1. Nose wheel's a bit weak. If you plant the landing it will collapse. However, because it retracts to the rear anyway, it doesn't damage the gear or foam it's mounted in. To prevent damage to the nose (I plant landings all the time because I fly in high winds often) I cut some aluminum off from a can and made a skid plate for the nose. Damage problem solved.

2. The plane is monotone. It's flat gray all around so I had trouble seeing it even at short distances. My solution was to paint the bottom of the aircraft like an American flag (foam safe spray paint and sticker stars). Not only can I see it clearly, but it looks AWESOME.

I have the Eurofighter, the SU-34, and the F-35 in my EDF collection. The F-35 is a lot of fun and I'd recommend it to anyone.

The WOW factor on this plane is amazing. Takeoffs are easy and controlled. Make sure the TV is off on take off or you may stall out into a high alpha. Plenty of power for just about anything imaginable. Plane glides perfectly. Orientation is a little hard at a distance.

Battery flight time is maximum 4 minutes. 4 minutes is enough to get your hands shaking from the TV. Remember to set your timer on your transmitter. Fun factor is a 10 out of 10. Landing gear is weak.

Snapped the front servo landing gear connecting rod after a week, it was a soft landing and the front gear collapsed. Minor scrapes on the nose. Trying to get Hobby lobby to replace it because I cant find that part anywhere. Would be 5 stars if the landing gear was better.

Very nice jet but is a little hard to orientate it in the air if it flys to far away. I lost mine because of loss of orientation or maybe it was because it flew on the other side of a eclectic line. whoops! I am rating it five stars but that does not include it`s hardness to orientate. just don`t let it fly to far away and you will be fine.

Like the thrust vectoring!

There is a required step for throttle calibration as your building your jet. Nowhere in the instructions or on the F-35 webpage is this mentioned but after getting a tech support email from Jay I'm up and thrusting. Here's the link:
http://www.hobby-lobby.com/su34_twin_360_degree_vectored_thrust_jet_54912_prd1.htm

Have not flown yet but I'll give it a 4 star as I had to add epoxy to the ail hinges, the glue used at the factory was pliable and didn't give me a vote of confidence. Nice looking bird, go get one!!!

I was very pleased with the retracts, with some fine tuning they work well. I did have a front landing gear locking issue on first landing but I was traveling slow so only light paint sanding on the nose. The thrust vectoring performed better than expected, changing the jets direction easily, high alpha is as easy as flying straight. I added 40g with a different 4cell battery with the cg correct I noticed what seemed like an improvement. I'm landing this thing at about 8mph or less it floats in at one third power. I think this is a sweet foam jet just balance the fan, fine tune everything and set your radio right you will be impressed. Just go ahead and cut the probe off the nose as well I broke it like three times.

Excellent overall package and a good value. Everything works great out of the box. Thrust from the stock motor is certainly adequate, and flight times on the supplied battery are greater than 6 minutes. Lots of wing area and lifting body allow it to float in like a glider at low speed. Compared with other 70mm jets I've owned, this jet has a relatively modest top end, even in a dive at full throttle. Thrust vectoring works great. Manual suggests a 7 channel radio, but I set mine up on 6 channels using the included y-harness for full time yaw vectoring along with the NWS (there are no rudders on this jet.) Retracts seem adequate so far for smooth surface runways,.

Overall a great flying airplane. My few problems are assembly problems from the factory. The front of the stabs when squished in a little, obviously from the way it was packed. Not to much of a problem, it is a foamie. Assembly was easy and programming the DX7 was straight forward. First time taxiing around one the main gear came off, retainer was just loose. Main problem is, I guess I should have checked, was the front nose gear. On take-off the plane veered hard right into the grass. Did not do that much damaged. Just broke the front retract actuator and stripped the great in the NWS servo. Looking closer at the Nose retract 2 of the retainer screws were not even screwed all the way into the retainer plastic piece. Also the NWS retention screw was loose (probably why it swerved hard to the right). Should have check these before flight, I guess I assumed too much from a almost RTF airplane.

Have hand launched the first five flights and the plane flies great. Very little trim was needed at all on the first flight. The high alpha stuff is amazing. Just land it on its belly in a high alpha position (though it takes very little to scrap up the belly). Very cool. Have not even come close to tapping full potential of this airplane. Cant wait to get a replacement (if I can find one) nose gear so I can land this gear down. Also the battery gets very hot after a flight. This might just just be the battery I got. My other aircraft batteries don't nearly get this hot, also the battery puffs up a little as well.

Overall very pleased. Just rec. checking ALL retainer screws on the gear before first flight. I know most people check this stuff, I just should have. Thrust vectoring rocks!!