Micro Albatros WW1 RTF

After flying my Micro Stiks for over 160 flights at a little over 11 minutes each time I tried my new Albatros. Hand launched it like I was used to doing with the Micro Stik (at about half throttle) and it went straight into the ground about 10 feet in front of me. Picked it up and no damage was evident so I gave it almost full throttle and angled the launch more upwards and away it went.

I had to keep the elevator at 'full up' to keep it in the air. Didn't like that worth a squat! I couldn't even see where there was a way to trim the thing and kept griping when my wife said, "what did the booklet say about it"? I got to thinking about it while continueing to fly when it dawned on me... I hadn't even read the instructions to it!!! Like the old saying, "when all else fails, read the instructions"! After landing in a predetermined brushy clump in my neighbors yard, I headed inside to do some reading.

I realized my mistake was reading the booklet on my new (and still unflown) micro T-28 Trojan and forgetting to read the Albatros instructions. What an 'idjit'! I got the T-28 about a week before the Albatros. After reading the correct booklet, I found out where the trim was on the TX and gave it all the elevator it had. Recharged the battery and tried again. Still not enough up trim so I got out the needle nosed pliers and bent the pushrod a little in the long'esh' direction and tried flying it again.

Success!

This little plane has some serious power to it in level flight but you'll need every drop of it to do a loop. After adjusting the elevator trim it flew OK for the kind of plane it is but the rudder needs some serious adjustment done at the control horn position before it'll be a "real good" flyer as opposed to an "OK" flyer like it is now. Only problem is figuring out how to change the pushrod control horn holes. It looks like I'm going to have to split the fuselage open to access the control board/servos to take the pushrod off to change to hole position on the rudder. Not looking forward to that.

All in all, it's a scale flyer and not a trick plane like the Micro Stik. I don't fly my scale helicopters like one of my 3D helis so I know that sometimes you just have to sacrifice performance for fashion. C'est La Vie.

canewalker

At first sight the Albatros looks great! Nice detailing and a cool little pilot to paint for some nice detail.
I was reluctant to purchase this plane because the controller looked pretty toyish and cheap...and it is. It does however have digital trim and such, which is nice.
So, I powered her up for her maiden flight. It seemed as though the motor was noisy and vibrated alot on powerup. The servos also seemed a bit sticky and not very smooth. However, I decided to launch, of course, anyway. It flew pretty well right away. It did not respond very well at first and took some time to turn and such. However, it looked awesome in the air. This made the controller tolerable. I received many compliments and questions as soon as I landed.
I decided to change the control arms to the more responsive locations on the elevator and rudder. This was very tricky as the plane is not made of very thick or durable foam. So be careful. I also added a dab of white lithium grease to the motor gear and that quieted it down as well.
It now flies a little better and I just love how it looks in the air. From the comments, so do the others at the indoor fun flies I go to. With a little tweaking, which I think is standard with all planes out of the box, it's a looker in the air and you should be able to tolerate the cheap controller for that fun!
I give it a four for the he sticky servo action, cheap controller and thin foam, but 5 for looks and fun!

Best flying plane i have ever flown in many years. First flight 5mph wind,it flew perfect,no trim needed.Plenty of power.Long flight time.Lands like a feather.What more could you ask. THE OLD GRUMP,(not grumpy after this one)