Mini Telemaster Radio Ready w/2 Wing Sets

As an optimist, I read the positive reviews and ignored the negative ones. Wrong decision. It is NOT for a beginner unless an experienced R/C person takes the warps and twists out of the plane, adds extra weight to balance the plane correctly, sets the servo throws correctly, secures the motor to the firewall better, etc. Honestly, I am surprised that Hobby Lobby sells this model aimed at the new or inexperienced modeler. If you don't fix it before you fly it, you run the risk of a crash!

I bought this plane for my nephew and am I glad I was there to get things right. It took 3 tries to take the twist out of the fuse so the model would track right during flight. I can't say much about the quality of the servos, esc or motor - they are "no name brand" but have been OK for around 8 flights.

The good news - once you get it right, it's a nice flyer.

Situation: My home is at Sentani, Papua, Indonesia - where there are absolutely NO places to get spare RC parts. After waiting about two months for one of our good friends to bring it here from the US, I finished assembling the plane after about 6 hours of working. There was no manual, couldn't find it online either, so I had to use my engineering creativity/skills. Quality was fine, although the wings didn't quite match up and other minor flaws surfaced.
This morning I did all my control checks and stuff but forgot to do a CG check. The CG was actually 80% down the wing (instead of 2/3 - 33%) so it was VERY tail heavy. I took off, and the plane instantly fishtailed. After a nosedive crash into the thin grass, I was surprised to see the only damage was on the firewall. No worries, a 20-minute epoxy job.
This afternoon, after adding about 80 grams (yes, 80 grams) of weight in the nose, the plane flew well. After figuring several trim issues out, I was enjoying the afternoon flight when the engine suddenly came loose from the firewall. Thankfully I safely deadsticked it into some tall grass, and no further damage was done. I am currently fixing another foamie then will move on to this "Super Flying" (??) brand motor to screw it back into place. Let see how it goes tomorrow morning.

This plane is a piece of junk. First a servo fails (replaced) now the work is failing (trying to replace). This plane looks like another cheap China junk plane. Even the few hours of flight times vs. the days of replacing defective part, once in the air my RC club gave the plane a thumbs down review.

The kit had essentially everything except the receiver. I installed a Spektrum 6 channel that comes with the "6i" transmitter. The parts went together well with the exception of the wings (I bought the kit with 2 wings).

A caution -- the wings need to be checked for warps, washin and washout. Failure to align surfaces and panels will result in difficulty in controlling the airplane. The wing sets which came with my plane needed quite a bit of adjustment with the Monocote iron!

Where I fly, we glue all wings together or bolt them to prevent disassembly in mid-air or other embarassing locations. The two wing sets needed significant and careful trimming to make the wing roots align properly. Proper alignment is also important in achieving an easily "balanced" aircraft. I don't suggest skimping on this, especially if you want a safe airplane right from the start.

The craft behaves well in light winds, and is a pleasure to fly with either set of main wings.

From the standpoint of a raw beginner (6 months into learning to fly):
Good points:
excellent power (don't need full power to launch)
lightly built plane
quick build from ARF
with 3 cell LiPo 2200 mAh, you'll have power for 20-25 minutes, if you throttle back after climbing beautiful glide on no power, ONCE IT'S TRIMMED FOR GLIDING
Things to watch:
very nose light -- I added 6 x AA old batteries behind firewall, to get CG manageable. Without this,
plane was all over the sky and uncontrollable. This with 2200 mAh LiPo battery also in nose. This
brought the CG just forward of 1/3 chord. I almost lost this plane on the first 2 flights, before I
loaded the nose with weight.
on full power, the plane travels too fast to be a trainer: it uses up sky fast.
rudder control horn came loose in first flights -- I could not trim rudder as a result. I don't like these little bolts and nuts! Bolts into plastic seats, or CA the control horns in.

Conclusion: Probably not a plane that a beginner (who can keep a Yak in the air in RealFlight) could take for a first flight. HOWEVER, ONCE TRIMMED, this is a beautiful flier. This plane is light years beyond the plastic Sky Fly class. Despite the caveats, this plane deserves praise. sjw tucson