I am cheap and I like buying and reviewing midsize (i.e. wingspan between 1000-1500mm) RC airplanes that cost less than $100 to get up in the air. This is a particularly important market segment in my opinion, especially for trainer airplanes, because most of the newbies wanting to get into this hobby are not willing to invest more than that. Nevertheless, their first experience is critical in keeping them in the hobby.
Hence, whenever I see a “potential candidate” in this market segment for a reasonable price, I just go ahead and order it. My main goal is to sift through the “duds” in order to get to the “buds”, or in other words to find the gems in the rough. Plus, I extremely enjoy building and flying a wide variety of cheap airplanes; the more the better.
I ordered this airplane kit from Banggood.com when it was on sale (“Flash Deal”) for $59.99 plus $2.99 shipping:
www.banggood.com/E0717-1030mm...
They advertise it as a PNP (plug-and-play or receiver-ready) airplane, but in actuality it is a kit that comes with the motor, ESC (electronic speed control), the servos, and two propellers. The premise is that you can build it up to a PNP-condition with all the materials provided in the box, and you will only need to add a receiver, a transmitter, and a battery in order to get it ready to fly.
So, in theory, you can get this airplane flying for $100 or less if you are a penny-pinching and patient shopper. Here is the math: This plane cost me $62.98 shipped to my door in the U.S. The recommended battery is a 3S 2200mAh LiPo battery, which you can order from HobbyKing for $9.99 (Rhino brand). And a basic Turnigy 5X 5Ch 2.4GHz transmitter and receiver combo costs $26.51 on HobbyKing. You can find similar deals from eBay, Banggood or other online hobby stores as well. (By the way, I am not counting in the charger, since it is an investment that you make one time when getting into this hobby and will use it for years with all your future planes.)
This kit arrived in a basic, unbranded cardboard box. Upon opening it, I was pleasantly surprised by a large sheet of building instructions with color pictures and an English description for each step. It was printed on a high-quality, glossy paper. I am not used to seeing something like this arriving with an inexpensive, no-name kit from China. GREAT START!
The materials used in the construction of this airplane turned out to be really interesting: plastic (polyethylene or polypropylene) fuselage, expanded polystyrene foam (a.k.a. Styrofoam) wings, sheet foam horizontal and vertical stabilizers, and plywood main tray and reinforcement. Do I care? No, as long as it builds well and flies true, I don’t! And we are going to find out soon enough!
In this first episode, I am showing the unboxing of this kit and sharing my first impressions. In the next episode, I am going to provide a detailed build video to get this kit ready for its maiden flight, so stay tuned!
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