by Andre » Wed Sep 12, 2012 10:42 am
I agree with S-rob. I am a newbie teaching myself to fly. I totally destroyed two NineEagles planes and have a badly damaged AXN and a HK Decatllon to repair. In desperation I read all over the Internet to get advice. The Hobbyzone Champ got a number of “good-for-beginner reviews”. I bought one and it is fantastic. I flew it and on the first flight I was landing and taking off and doing figure of eights. This was from a guy who normally crashed shortly after take-off. It is very stable and self-righting if you take your hands off the controls – provided you have some height to spare. If totally out of control switch the engine off. I have decided to continue flying the model until I have gained more experience. I have a Bixler V2 which just arrived. I will build it and park it for a few months.
One thing I cannot emphasize enough is that you must only fly it in calm conditions. On my second flight the wind had got up and it blew away. The poor little engine wasn’t powerful enough to make it back. It blew about 400 meters away and disappeared. I couldn’t find it, but had 3 business calling cards in my wallet. I wrote a short note on the back of each one and placed them in the post boxes of houses that I thought were probably about where it disappeared. Five days later I got a phone call. The house owner was driving down the street when he noticed a small kid walking down the road with a little yellow plane. He stopped and asked where he got it. It was my plane. I got it back totally undamaged. The one side of the propeller blade was muddy and there was a nick in the paint on the nose. It survived a couple of days of rain during its five day sojourn outside. The battery was stone dead and wouldn’t take a charge. I ordered some more batteries from HobbyKing (wish they sold the plane), and tried it out. Perfect! Survival against all odds.
Buy it – you won’t be disappointed.