After watching the demo video, I decided the Mini-Telemaster would be a fun plane for me to take along for some park flying when I travel for business. And being an ARF, it should go together quickly and easily.

I placed my order for the kit, and picked up the recommended motor, esc, etc. When the kit arrived, I eagerly opened the box, expecting to get right down to work and have the airplane ready to fly within a few hours - a great way to start my weekend. Unfortunately, what I found was extremely disappointing. The covering on every single part of the model was horribly wrinkled and loose. The wings were so badly warped as to be unusable, with one wing much heavier than the other. The tail surfaces were in the same condition. I did make one serious attempt to get all the pieces straight, but they were too far out of tolerance for that. I put the kit away for awhile and then later when I got myself in the mood to tackle the job, I stripped the covering off the wings and set to work rebuilding them on a good flat building board. The wing joiner pieces did not come close to fitting, and took a bit of work to trim them to a shape that would fit in the joiner boxes. Once I rebuilt the wings and covered them in UltraKote, I then used the original tail pieces as templates to make new ones from sheet balso and covered those in UltraKote as well. When I turned my attention to the fuselage, I found that there was no provision for a hatch up front that was obviously going to be necessary in order to get a battery far enough forward to get the CG where it would need to be. I also found that the firewall was installed incorrectly (giving up-thrust instead of down-thrust, and the right-thrust angle was too extreme). I cut out the firewall and re-installed it correctly. I also used smaller, lighter pushrods and horns and other hardware at the tail, and mounted a smaller lighter tailwheel assembly, too. In order to get the CG where it needed to be, I had to mount everything as far forward as I could get it.

In the end, I could have built a model this size from scratch just as fast, and probably with a lot better quality. Over 40 years of building and flying RC models under my belt, and this was hands down the worst quality I've ever seen in an ARF kit. The only good thing I can say about this model was that after all of that work, it flew very nicely, just as I expected it to, but then, I practically built it from scratch when you think about it.

This plane flies better than I had hoped for. The one I bought had no problems at all. The recommended erc motor is perfect for the Mini Tele. I can fly it with just about any battery I have. It flies wonderful with a 7 cell NiMh battery or a 3 cell lipo. Absolutely a pleasure to fly with either rudder only or aeleron wing. It's a floater with a 2 cell lipo and a rocket ship with a 3 cell lipo.
Pros: Pleasure to fly
Flies with just about any battery
Looks great
Easy to take off and very easy to land
Recommended motor is perfect

Cons: landing gear wheels are way too small
wing panels were warped and out of balance
manual is not very good
needs a battery hatch
covering is coming off in places
can't fly it all the time. :)

All in all this is a very good airplane, especially considering it's price. Pleasure to fly, easy to land and very flexible as far as batteries and equipment choices. Highly recommended for anyone from beginner to pro.
THANK YOU HOBBY-LOBBY !

My mini telemaster must have been built on a bad day. The wing joiner was an 1/8" too thick for the joiner tubes-had to sand a lot off to get it to fit. The joiner tubes were staggered so much that the leading edge of the right wing sat 1/4" ahead of the left wing. A lot of sanding solved this problem. The right wing panel was an ounce heavier than the left-2 3" nails in the left wing tip solved this problem. It's powered with a hoffman magnetics rocket 8 outrunner spinning an apc elec. 11X4.7 prop, 18 amp esc and 1800 mah 3 cell blue lipo. Had to stuff everything in the nose as far as I could get it to balance the plane. I don't add lead. Flying wgt came out to 25 oz. With over 30 of thrust this should be a great flyer. I bought the plane on sale so everything considered I'm satified with my purchase. I have been building models for 30+ years and this is only my second arf. My first was a great planes electrostik and it went together without any problems. I bought the mini telemaster to teach my grandson to fly rc and I'm sure it will fly as good as it looks.

i got the telemaster to go with my 12 foot one :) all i can say is great little plane, stable, docile, and smooth but hey what you expect is a telemaster :)
also Hobby lobby is great i live in puerto rico and the ship the same day i place the order and i got it in 4 days who can beat that? no one :) thanks HL ;)

A great flying airplane. One problem is trying to get the CG within the specified area. I feel that it must have been designed for nicads. I had to add 4 1/4 Oz. of lead to bring it within specs.

My first kit built RC plane was the Telemaster .40 in 1993. My thoughts at that time was to use the Telemaster as a glider tug for my son's two meter glider, so I installed the extra shear webbing as the kit indicated as well as the K&B .61 engine :) , that it still has today. What a great flyer, it has flown in contests done spot landings, limbo's, aerobatics as only a plane with the tremendous versatility of the Telemaster could. I think that three words for me best describe the Telemaster, versital, and easy flying.
My experience with the Telemaster is did not come as a great surprise given the development history and design of this aircraft, after all starting life as a design for commercial use and continuing into a RC legend I expected it to be great, and it did not let me down, ever.
Now 16 years later I am almost all e-powerd in my flying preferences and recently purchased the Mini-Telemaster ARF, from my Hobby Lobby dealer,BullitRC. I powered the mini with an AXI 22/12/26, what a perfect combo of power and weight ratio. I found the mini to be well constructed and an extreme value considering the low purchase price. First flight was a beautiful early morning lift off from the smooth grass field at Bullit and a slow right banking climb out, a couple of clicks of down and one right for trim , and it was hands off stable. I flew the rest of the flight at about half throttle, and for a few moments watching the mini it was as if I was flying my .40 size years ago. Landing was the just like the .40, the Telemasters are floaters, so need to be low on approach but as you cut power they just float down and with the slightest flair touch down. I love these planes.
Oh yes! I still have my .40 and my Mini hangs right under in the hanger (garage). Maybe they talk to each other about their flights:), anyway Hobby Lobby continues to offer the Telemaster series , truly a legend and one of the best of the best.

A truly almost ready to fly in fact it is easy to fly as well. The flight of this model is very predictable as said in the product information. Gentle landings and graceful low passes a must. My set-up included a Brushless AXI, Jeti brushless controller, 2100mah TP lipo, a Hitec receiver and of coarse two Hitec servos. All items needed to fly are available from the website as well. The build for any seasoned modeler is quick and straight forward might not even need the instructions to do so. For beginners it would be a learning experience but one I would say that is very possible for success. The only tricky part I would say is the balancing of the model with a larger lipo battery. You might find yourself having to install the lipo right up in behind the brushless motor which is a tight compartment and some batteries widths and lengths may not be forgiving so choose your battery size wisely. I fly three Alfa model warbirds that are also available on the Hobby-Lobby website with powerful brushless setups and I always go back to my Telemaster when I just wanna take it easy....I wish I could fit in the cockpit of this baby and go for a ride....