olop_ocram

I've been flying Great Planes, Hobbico and Kyosho for years and I wanted to start branching out and look for low cost foam plane manufacturers (likely Chinese companies) that make quality products. I've looked at sites like nitroplanes.com and banana hobbies and they seem to have cool looking products but have no idea whose product they are really selling (for example Nitroplanes calls FMS hobbies Airfield) and because these sites seem to edit all their reviews, we really don't know if the products are any good.

From my early research it looks like FMS and Dynam (slightly lower detail but low cost) are decent brands. Do people agree, and what other brands have people flown and would recommend? The key for me is good quality, fair price and availability of spare parts.

Please share your feedback and experiences.

Mark

allans

My Feedback: (11)

The answer in net is Nitro Planes, Banana Hobbies et al are the worst crap . Un flyable , very low quality , non existent parts and support.

( If need evidence of their poor design look at the structure of the landing gear( and wheel size) on any of these planes - strong , adequate landing gear does not sell planes )

Their Planes and models built to sell - not fly and use. They do have great looking ads though.

Read the pages of RCU and you will see posts that verify this.

Go to a ama sanctioned flying field look and see how many experienced modelers are fly these planes . Ask them why not?

Choose a vendor with a proven history of support ( Horizon, Tower, comes to mind , but there are others) , parts and successful products.

blvdbuzzard

Depending on what you want, and if you read about each plane, there are a number of good planes from Nitroplanes. Yes they do have some real bad ones too.

The Airfield Sky Trainer AKA Cessna is a really good plane. It needs a few mods to make it a great plane. The nose gear steering arm needs to be changed to a Dubro 5/32 arm, nose gear servo needs to be replaced with a metal gear unit. Other then that, get a good charger and lots of batteries and fly the wings off of it. We have four of them in out group and they do fly very well.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1383806

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1347745

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1259209

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1430036

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1501476

The Airfield larger war birds are hit and miss. Most buy the bare airframe and then put their own choice of servos, motors, ESC's in them and they do like them. Some have reported problems with the electric retracts.

I have a couple of the CMP ARF's. They do take a little work but do end up being a nice plane.

If you do have a problem with an order, best way to get help is to go to their board, http://rcdiscuss.com. I have had a few things fixed by posting over there.

If you see a plane you like, search for it here or over at rcgroups. There is bound to be a thread or two on it. It will tell you what is or is not right about it.

I have a dozen orders with nitroplanes so far. I have yet to try banana hobbies. I have countless orders from Tower, Hobby People, and a slew of other online stores. Graves RC is another one I have had good luck with. I have 10 or so orders from Hobby King, I stick with the USA warehouse.


Buzz.

cyclops2

Love CMP, China Model Productions.

Harbor Fright use to sell them. NO assembly problems. I did DIY jobs on them. RC gear was ok.

I also flew several Guan Li PBYs. Also very good. Can crash from 10 to 15' straight into water with NO DAMAGE.
Right wing is ALWAYS lighter than left wing. Need to add about a nickel & a penny to the end for it to float level. I used a piece of pointed Brass rod pushed into the wing & glued. OK

All 7 PBYs had to have the bottom center seam resealed with TITEBOND II drizzled in the full length. Pour out any excess. Then they were a joy to fly.

fmw

It's pretty hard to go wrong with the Parkzone foamies and the new Z Foam planes from E-Flite.  Mulitplex also has some great flyers of good quality.  I don't buy foamies much any more but the above models have done well by me.

Daniel-EL

My Feedback: (9)

I really like the Durafly 1100mm (~43" wingspan) Warbird series currently sold by HobbyKing out of Hong Kong. Yes, they're foamies, but they are surprisingly detailed, accurate scale, and feature retracts, flaps, and nav lights. All you need to do is glue on the tail feathers, plug in your receiver and LiPo, and they are ready to go. They fly very well, are relatively durable, and are priced cheaper than dirt. In most cases, they are stocked in a USA warehouse, so you don't have to wait for shipping all the way from China. I have the T-28 and P-51 and think I will order the Corsair, P-47 and Spitfire later this year. They're always coming out with new models, so I want to eventually acquire the entire WWII warbird series.

yorkiepap

My Feedback: (18)

Hey guys,
There are many threads/posts on various forums that will either praise or condemn ALL of the importers/distributers. Personally, I got great models from NP & BH that I simply did my own tweaking & tuning to insure good function & flight. Yes, some of the components are suspect, although a good series of bench tests will usually illuminate the flawed components. I like to do a total evaluation of every facet of the assembly to change or modify the assembly as I progress to completion. And, yes, the instructions leave a lot to be desired. Recently, I've acquired the Durafly series from HK & find them to be absolutely superb in quality & detail. Ihave the 1100mm's F6F, F4U, P47, &the new DH Vampire enroute &will be my 1st EDF. All the reviews so far have shown the Durafly series to fly quite well with very few issues, if any, & a tremendous value pricewise regarding how the units are factory equipped w/lights, retracts, &flaps as standard. All that is needed is your Tx/ Rx & batt.. For those of us who have time constraints, these are great to get back into RC. Here's a pic of my Durafly P47 on my worktable ready for assembly. Just do your homework with any possible purchase to evaluate your $$$ you will spend & be satisfied.

Denny

DustBen

My Feedback: (3)

Psst... all that stuff you mentioned is made in China also (you really don't imagine there's a factory in Champagne building models, do you?).

The process is this:
A seller, be it Tower, or Horizon, HobbyKing, or BananaHobby gets stuff from the third party factories. Like most goods on the market, it isn't made to the spec the seller wants... it's just sold as the factories in China make the product.
When Gateway builds another 5000 computers, they don't tell an electronic manufacturer "We want 5000 hard drives built to OUR specifications", they buy what the factories there are making and selling... to Gateway and everyone else that wants 5000 hard drives.
The RC hobby industry follows the same trades and practices other consumer electronics goods do. There isn't a "special" manner business is done just because... American consumers want to think "Airtronics is the best", or Tower has been around since a kid at the U of I started a business in his dorm room.

The American market for RC products has become trivial compared to what the volume of sales in Asia. The recent economic development in that region has created a huge boom in RC... because of that new and huge market. And because of economy of scale, and increased demand, prices are dropping world wide and quality increases as factories compete for sales across the entire world market.

Everyone loves 2.4 gHz technology. That radio concept was flying all across the rest of the world long before it was finally introduced into the US after the radio manufacturers supplying radios into the US said, "No more 72 mHz available; all we make now is 2.4!" It was from the huge demand in other parts of the world that we ended up getting 2.4... not the other way around.

So, when you buy a BananaHobby plane, you might find a twin version at Hobbico, or Kyosho. All this stuff is coming from China, and has been for years. When you buy an E-Flite LiPo, assume it was made at the same factory that lots of LiPos are made in... they all end up with different labels is the only difference.

Keep your eyes peeled... look very closely at the tiny details of motors, ESC's, servos... everything we buy. Sooner or later, you'll see the exact same product with a different label. They're not "clones". They are the exact same products made to LOOK differently.

The entire paradigm is shifting thanks to the huge demand and sales everywhere else across the globe. The days of buying "name" are rapidly ending.

cjlear

Totally agreed.

Go to alibaba.com and check out RC plane manufacturers and distributors.