RE: Anyone seen this plane before?
I bought a badius for me and one for my dad for Christmas. lots of control line time, no R/C. Paid $55.00 off Ebay.com, and parts from raidentech.com. The plane has proven extremely tough, as it has played lawn dart on any number of occasions. Flies great, although a handful at full throttle, so I use that for climb out, and then throttle back to manuever. Parts are dirt cheap. Wings, $7.00, bats $10.00, rx $10.00, crystals $3.00. Have used both the poly and straight wings--both work good, the straight wing more touchy but has better wind penetration. I have learned to reinforce the wings with packing tape and on the poly wings, I glue a piece of balsa in the joint. Now, i'm into slope soaring, since I live in Marin County, CA, where wind and hills are everywhere.
Busted two wings while slope soaring in 15 knots winds with turb, but hey, that's more than the little Badius was probably designed to so. I'm going to move up to a Ripmax Coyote, EP, at $69.00, also a steal--just move the radio gear over. All in all, probably not a great trainer for someone without any experience, since it flies pretty fast, but for the money, a great all around motor-glider and helped me learn the basics of R/C and slope soaring...now I'm hooked!