Distributed by: Great Planes Model Distributors
P.O. Box 9021
Champaign, IL 61826-9021 www.electrifly.com
With all of the indoor planes we're asked to review,
my buddy Geoff and I were looking for a better indoor venue
than our living rooms. We came up with the idea that if we
could get our club interested in indoor flying, maybe one of
the local schools would let us use their gymnasium during
non-school hours.
It worked! (Oh boy, did it work!)
Several of the schools offered gymnasium time for
only a small fee ($5 a head per session) to cover their
electric and janitor costs. So we thought, "Great, now we
have a better place to shoot our pictures and videos". But
what surprised us was how quickly our club members took to
it! Now, once or twice a month most of our members come out
to one of the local gyms and we spend a few hours flying our
little electrics. We even have several members from a club
that is 30 miles away join us!
We discovered that indoor flying is not only a great
way to keep your reflexes in shape through the winter, it's
also a lot of fun!
Our indoor flying was so successful last year that
this year I was hoping to get something better to fly when lo
and behold; Electrifly comes out with a 3mm foam
Citabria!
The new Citabria is an all-out 3D plane that can
also be tamed down for the non-3D flier. It also has several
power options: To keep it light, a Rimfire 250 brushless on
7.4v works great for indoor flying and the Rimfire 300 with a
3-cell pack provides the extra power you want for outdoor
flying. I tried both!
I should start by saying that I've never had one of
these "Flat Foamys" before. So, okay, this nice box arrives, I
set it on my table and take a picture of it. But when I opened
it, I couldn't help being slightly amused. "They COULD have
used an envelope" I chuckled. The landing gear was the only
item that had three dimensions. I guess I should have expected
this, bit it was just a little comical to see for the first
time.
In any case, the items were individually bagged and
taped to the top and bottom sides of the box so that no
movement could occur.
MANUAL
Good manual! It gives good, concise instruction and
pictures without being overly redundant. Although I have to
question the fact that page 6 makes a point of telling you to
line up what looks like servo wire holes on the left side of
the fuse, yet on page 12 it clearly states (and the picture
clearly shows) to have the aileron servo wire on the right
side.
Assembly begins by adding the landing gear doublers. I started
this late one night, so I used 30-minute epoxy for this and let it
sit overnight. For the rest of the assembly, I used Foam-Safe CA.
Next the vertical and horizontal fuse parts are combined and a
series of foam brackets are glued in place to cradle the fuselage
during the next few steps.
Now the wing is glued to the top of the fuse, and supported
with carbon fiber rods. Doublers are added at the wing and fuse and
a strut support in the center.
Doublers are added to the nose and the engine mount is glued in
place.
Servo doublers are added before gluing the servos in
place. Now you can add the pushrods, pushrod guides and the
control horns.
Once the rudder pushrod is adjusted, I used a soldering
iron to lock the heat-shrink tubing.
Finally the motor, ESC and receiver are added and she's
ready!
I showed up at our next indoor meet with the Citabria in tow along with my usually bevy of indoor fliers - but the rest took a back seat at first so I could try out this new flier. Using the recommended indoor power setup, I set her down and took off. I was not expecting her to have so much gusto on the low-power setup, and I was surprised at how quickly she shot across the floor and got into the air!
I immediately pulled the power back a little and proceeded to do a few laps of the gym. Once I got comfortable, I switched her to high rates and pulled a few loops and rolls. The Gym we were using that day has a fairly high ceiling, but it's not very long or wide so it's a little difficult to really get comfortable flying anything but a fairly slow aircraft in, but I had very little problem with the Citabria. Not being accustomed to these delicate precision indoor, I did manage to break it a few times, but nothing that our supply of Foam-Safe CA couldn't fix (Special thanks to my friend Loren for remembering to bring his Foam-Safe CA!). But I quickly learned to "settle her in" as opposed to "plopping her down" on landings
She'll slow down to a crawl and even did well in my feeble attempts to do some high-alpha maneuvers. I was wishing my 3D flying buddies were there. But alas, they are off to college for the semester. It would have been nice to see the Citabria in the hands of someone who could really show us what it is capable of!
A few days later, we got an unexpected break in the weather. My buddy Geoff had about an hour to spare that afternoon, so I spent the morning swapping out the Rimfire 250 for a 300 and booting the battery to a 3-cell pack. When Geoff got his "Kitchen Pass" we met at the park near my house and get a little outdoor time on the Citabria.
Now I felt a lot more comfortable! With no walls or ceiling to get in the way I could really start to play with her - and I did! Even with the mild breeze we had that day she flew extremely well outdoors. It's not something you could do in any wind more than a slight breeze, but for a calm day, the Citabria is a great outdoor flier!
Check out the video to see her in
action!
Video Electrifly Citabria 3mm Foam ARF
Another winner! Whether you like indoor 3D flying, or just floating around an indoor arena, the new 3mm foam Citabria from Electrifly will fit the bill. It took me a little time to get used to flying one of these very delicate, precision, indoor foamys, but I quickly became accustomed to it.
Outdoors, in calm weather or even in a mild breeze it flies equally as well. Since the initial flight report, I have even flow indoors with the outdoor power and as long as you keep the throttle in check, it works very well - of course, serious indoor fliers will prefer the lighter weight of the indoor setup.
Distributed by
Great Planes Model Distributors
P.O. Box 9021
Champaign, IL 61826-9021 www.greatplanes.com
Futaba Corporation of
America
Distributed by:
Great Planes Model Distributors
P.O. Box 9021; Champaign, IL 61826-9021
Website: www.futaba-rc.com
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The comments, observations and conclusions made in this review are solely with respect to the particular item the editor reviewed and may not apply generally to similar products by the manufacturer. We cannot be responsible for any manufacturer defects in workmanship or other deficiencies in products like the one featured in the review.
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