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

A full review is coming to RCGroups.com very soon. Here is a sneek peak as some of my impressions of the Mini Tele RTF.

This is a really nice RTF Package. The 12-page manual makes for an easy assemble process. Check out the RCGroups Review for some helpful hints on the build. The Standard Wing flys great in calm wind. It is very stable and mild mannered. The Aileron Wing flys even better and can tolerate more wind. NiMh 7-cell battery system will be replaced by 2-cell Lipo and charger which will make this an even better deal.

Best news for you performance types is that if you stuff in a 1250 mah 3-cell lipo and turn up the control rates, the Mini Tele really comes to life!!! This is an easy and inexpensive upgrade. The result is a pretty decent flying (fast) pattern plane. Just remember - Pull back on the throttle and you get back your easy flying Telemaster. Getting that big grin off your face will be another matter.

This is truly an amazing package. Beginners can use the standard wing for training and first flights. Intermedeate flyers can use the aileron wing to learn basic aerobatics. Performance types can stuff in a 3-cell lipo and get a rush. You get all this in one plane.

Thanks HL for making this available.

Overall very stable aircraft for the price. Manual would have been nice but assembly was pretty self explanatory. Great size to fit in a small car. Power was ample to takeoff with a decent climb out. I would buy it again.

Built very straight forward and suggested electronics were perfect match. Had mine over a yr now and still like it -had to buy the aileron wing extra then. Wish I would have started learning with this one versus a foam Cessna. Impressed with the covering and how the parts fit. Using 2100 LiPo and easily getting 15 min flight time.

A nice well-built airplane but I do have three minor issues with the RTF package. One, no manual for the plane was included, a beginner needs to know how to assemble the plane also, the CG and control throws are very important for successful first flight. Second, The "Ikarus" brand RX and TX: it appears that Ikarus is no longer in the RC radio business. The single conversion receiver in its transparent plastic package looks like it belongs in a toy park flyer. Third issue, The "SF" brand motor, esc and servos, Never heard of "SF". The motor leads are small gauge and can the esc be programmed? who knows. A low end AXI motor, Jeti esc and Hitec radio/ servos may cost a bit more but, it would have been a better package.

Regards, Conrad