Park Fliers

[Doc Holliday]

Does anyone have a park flier? How do you like it. I'm thinking of getting one and would like some feedback.

[jgrid42]

A good friend of mine has one. He occasionally lets me fly it, and I am as good as him although he flys it a lot.

There are some basic things about any airplane:
As a beginner, you will crash. A lot.

You will then have to go inside, whip out the Epoxy, and repair it.

You will then go fly it again three hours later. You will crash. You will consequently have to go repair it again.

You will occasionally break a molded plastic part or run out of epoxy. You had better pray your LHS carries parts for your plane, or you will have a hard time trying to find replacment parts online. (His plane isn't very popular as far as parkflyers go. You probally won't have this problem as much with a parkflyer stocked by Tower.)

Anyway, they are fun and once in the air, as exciting as any car or truck. There are several set backs, however:

Electric parkflyers, especially the less powerful 280 speed powered ones, will not be able to handle much of any wind. Depending on where you live, you may get very few days suitable for flying.

They break a lot, as described above.

They are fairly expensive to operate, ie. a basic level plane vs. a basic level car.

However, they are a lot of fun. I was wanting to get one for some time,during which I devoloped my expirtese, but my 1/8 buggy comes first. After all, you can make those buggies fly too.;)

Planes that Tower carries will probally be best because there is almost garuenteed parts availability.

Check out Hobby-Lobby.com too, they have a huge selection

[Doc Holliday]

Yea, I know about the crashing.. I flew planes several years before I got into the cars. I've just never had an electric plane. I was wondering about flight time with what batteries, etc. I still have all my glow fuel planes, but it would be nice to have something to fly out in the back yard! lol

[lescar]

Mark, I figured you be the first one to post here. :rollin:

[Doc Holliday]

you know, i think it's strange, with planes the fuel is called glow fuel. With cars it's called nitro.

[jgrid42]

Depending on the plane and battery you could get between ten and twenty five minutes. With a spare battery charging as you fly you could get almost constant flight provided you dont overheat the speedo or motor.

Is the fuel for planes and cars the same, or are the percentages different? My LHS sells only one kind of fuel, labeled for Planes, Helicopters, Boats, and Cars. I guess you could use any nitros oxide fuel, but do plane engines have different requirments?

Didn't realize you've done planes before, with expirence you will probally only need a little time to perfect your skills for the plane.

[Doc Holliday]

I assume you mean nitromethane, not nitros oxide fuel. :) As far as car and plane fuel, I would guess they are the same. I usually run 15% fuel in my planes. If there were a difference I'd think car fuel may have more oil content due to it running in a confined area compared to plane engines. I would definitely find out before I used plane fuel in my car. Also you could add extra castor or synthetic oil if needed.

nice to hear I could get up to 20 min. runtime. I usually only fly 15 min. with glow fuel planes, so it compares with that.

[trxrustler11121]

Well, I can sell you mine. I flew it for about 3 months and went back to glow planes. They are so much fun to fly. Mine needs a new main wing, tail wing(s), and canopy but i think i can fix the canopy. It's a Hobbico Sky Zap. I will sell it for $40 because it needs all of those replacements. Towerhobbies stocks all of them and the cost of the replacements is about $20. private message me if enterested.


*edit*nope, can't fix the canopy. As you can see, I took a really bad crash and never got my plane fixed.:mad:

[IraceaLosi]

yes there is a difference between car and airplane fuel. car fuel has more oils to help keep heat down because cars have more stress put on the engine and they are only getting around 30 to 40 mph winds hitting the engine when an airplane is gettin a 60 mph wind at the least.

[nitrohalic]

i have been into parkflyers for a few months. id get a GWS since most stores carry their stuff. i have had a tigermoth, pico stick fd, and an e starter. all foam and all fairly slow and controllable. but i still have to try my new brushless in the e starter. if you want good help id suggest going to rcgroups.com since there are a lot more posters there

[johnrobholmes]

just to add a bit- i have a few planes
you will crash a lot, if you get a park flier the early morning and late night are good because the wind dies down.
two of the best beginner planes are the slowstick and the yardstick. any stick plane really. they dont break very easy and they are cheap to fix. and they fly very easy compared to others. runtimes with a 280 motor and 1900 lipo- i havent gotten more than 20 minutes without crashing, so lets call it 20 minutes or more

[madfish]

hey guys thanks for the info i was going to post about park flyers but some one did i have never had a plane and want one but do have experiance in flying helis so if you could suggest somthing cheap to start of with so when i dod crash im not waiting for ever to get parts

[Mini-T]

I would highly recommend the Wingo from hobby lobby, it was my third plane. Previously i had the $100-150 peices of junk. With the aid of a flight sim i hardly ever crashed the wingo. It is very easy to fly and with the after-market gearbox and prop it has tons of power. It tends to fly itself so you can let go of the sticks and it can continue to fly.

[medic_4077]

I learned on a hobbyzone Firebird II. It was cheap, parts were always available and nothing broke that couldn't be fixed in under 30 min. Infact it's a pretty indestructable learning toy and flies in winds up to 10mph. (15 mph with a wing upgrade, but it's a little dodgy)

Of cource nothing can be reused on your next plane, it's completely ptroprietary. But it has survived several lawn darts from 50'+ as well as half a dozen hard tree hits. Plus there are some mods you can do to keep it interesting.

The biggest factor on which model/plane to start with might be your average local wind conditions. if you never get below 10 mph you would probably never get to fly a Slow Stick.

[boss_blueangels]

Well, since you're an experienced RC flyer, I would recommend a ParkZone F-27 Stryker. It's a foamy flying wing. I've been flying RC's for at least 5 years now and have been flying my UltraSport 40 for about the last two... I've owned my Stryker only since Christmas and have flown the thing almost as many times as the UltraSport already! It's a WONDERFUL little plane! It obviously doesn't handle gusty wind as well as my grossly overweight US, but can still do anything you ask of it. I've had friends fly it and crash the thing straight into the ground several times, and it only takes about 5 minutes to repair at the field, even when breaking the nose in two sections!

Which brings me to one of the coolest aspects of the plane... it's CRASHABLE! lol You really can bash this thing up and just keep on chuckin' it! I've landed the thing on it's top before and I only have 2 scratches on the vertical tails... crashed into trees, and only a small dent in the wing, and even cartwheeled the thing a good 20 feet still with no additional marks. When I take my US out... I'm a nervous wreck, but with this plane, who cares? Just throw it and fly! If you crash... well, throw it again!!!

Another fun thing is the fact you can attach a "Sonic Combat Module" which allows you to have dogfights with other aircraft with the same attachment... it sends out a beam, and when the other A/C (within 80 feet) is hit, the engine (only) is disabled for about 10 seconds. Fun stuff!!

Also, I fly mine in about a 2.3 acre area with several trees in the middle with no maneuvering problems. AC also has dual flight modes changable with the flip of a switch on the TX. (hi rates and low rates) Awesome plane, can't say enough!

[renoirbud]

the Stryker may be the best bang for the buck in all RC, 40+MPH and $169.- RTF.

How can you go wrong with that?

And yes it is very crashable and easily repaired. I also bought a Super Decathelon and found it harder to fly initially because it has a limited amount of power.

I figured out how to keep the Stryker in the air after 5 packs and $12 of damage (one servo).

[Pinball]

my first plane was a firebird commander. I taught myself to fly on that plane. It had a few tweaks when I got it but she remained a solid performer for a long time.

Sadly she sits 50' up a tree, due to a sudden gust during landing. :(

but now I got a Aerobird challenger, and it is the best. A lot of fun to fly, and I highly reccomend it!

[stampede_dude]

dude, id go rescue i with my current plane, or at least try. rescue missions are fun. put rope around it with your plane and pull it out with an r/c truck.