I just finished building a Red Bull Edge yesterday and my impression of it wasn't much. Mainly on the bilding technique. No interlocking fuse parts, completely built around a tube, lots of messy glue. That hinging system is way over-engineered, tape hinges would be much simpler. The plastic z-bends and hinge clips break if you look at them wrong, good thing they sent extras. I have never glued my fingers together as many times as I did building this thing, not even building the little machine gun parts for my S.E. 5a's. I hope it flies better than it builds, 9 oz., but if not, I have some shockys on the way (just in case).

Ditto on the Edge.Finished mine at 9pm last night. Seems a tad flimsy. Looks the business though.(Nice from far...far from nice I have an E-Flight Park 370 outrunner bl,20Amp E-Flight Brushless ESC and 2Cell 1400mAh Lipo. Do you think the standard prop would be okay for this setup?

e-flight 370 1080 on my Flatana (I assume about the same weight) TP 3 cell 730 with the stock 10 x 3.8.
less than 1/2 throttle hover, instant pullout.
Pleased with the power of this setup.

If you have the higher KV..1360 or higher It will easily yank it around or you could go for even more torque with a larger dia. prop.
Less flight time...

After breaking two of the e-flight shafts with the e-flight supplied prop adapter. My thumbs...to low...whatever.
I drilled out the prop saver included with the GP stock motor. Solved that problem.

Cheers
Michael

Precisely what I was thinking 'bout the GP propsaver. The E-Flite adapter looks cool though, but prolly won't survive long.

I have an 11x8 prop as well,reckon I'll take it with to the field to do some sperimenting

Well I have a bad GP battery pack and either a bad Rimfire or BL-8 esc, or both. Have to send the whole mess back to GP, what a mistake buying this crap. May as well have just flushed my money down the toilet.

I have a Reflection Flatout, and i found it to be a good, but complicated build. The instructions manual could have been a little clearer, but it was adequate. As for the build itself, it took a long time. It seems like all the steps are simple and short, but there are quite a few of them. Additionally, I agree that the leading edge and trailing edge support tubes hardly contact the foam enough, but it is surely stronger than it is without them. One of the most time consuming things was the control rod linkages. As anyone else using these knows it took forever to jam those things that don't look like they fit at all into the very small control horn hole. I'm sure they'll never come out, of course I can't eithier. The landing gear are weak, a reinforcing bar would have done wonders, however, if you are flying anywhere without a smooth surface that doesn't matter too much, since the result is typically the same. All in all, good plane, long build for a foamy.

Okay all you Flatout haters.
THIS IS NOT A SHOCKY!!!

Repeat,
THIS IS NOT A SHOCKY!!!
This is a far superior design to a shocky and takes a longer time to build. This is not meant to be flown at full power during normal flight with a brushless 3cell combo. Instead of depron, these planes are made out of a composite/foam material. You cannot build one well unless you read the dirrections before hand as these planes have a different type of build. The carbon reinforced foam is a really strong combo and will create good flight characteristics if you prep the LE. Also you won't have any problems if with the foam breaking if you fly it the correct way(not full throttle dive as the dirrections clearly say not to do).


Woops

I posted this somewhere.

I found using the little du-bro mini ez connectors is the trick on my Flatana.
They weigh in at .0088 ounces each.

I use them on the servo arm end. Little horns are not sturdy enough for extra loading
Insert the linkage rod into the supplied platic z-bend thing first. Yes its a pain to get fully seated.
Drill out the horn for a nice fit. I never could ream with an exacto nearly as nice as a small drill.
I spin that around to insure a nice fit and free movement.
Snap the z-bend thing into the platic horn and check rod length (not attched to the foam yet). I found the right angle and needle nose the ticket, just be careful not to distrort or break.
Cut to length and insert the rod/zbend into the dubro connector
Clip horn on the rod and glue in the slot.
Leave the horn clipping and gluing for last

Now I can plug in the servos the RX. Swtch on the TX and plug in battery. 0 trims, set trim mechanically with the dubro connector screw.
Careful not to get the screw to tight. The screw will break the rod if to tight, done it!

I am a slimer making the switch slowly....Expesive to make a 40 or 60 electric. I am used to long builds. Kits on the board for months or a year.

Just what I did that I like. Quicker and only one of thos z-bend things per surface. Biggest thing adjustable linkage. Never had one come loose...so far anyhow. Probably better than 50 flights, I fly this thing daily in my yard and it travels with me.

My 2 cents again.
Michael

Woops, I think a lot of the problem people have with the building is the fact GP makes it sound like they are the easiest foamys to build. They did a wonderful engineering job thinking up the hinges and all, but I think it's overboard myself. I just put a Yak 55 from HL toghether yesterday in less than 45 min. and it looks much nicer without all that glue all over. I would much rather build another Yak. My biggest gripe is all the defective GP electronics which they stress so much for the Flatouts. Bad Rimfire, Lipo pack and possibly esc. For a first time experience with electrics, I must say, I'm not impressed yet. Thanks GP.

I built a Cap and my buddy built the Red Bull Edge .... both are CRAP.

My Cap lasted 1 flight - totally shattered on it's first landing. The foam is too brittle and can't take even the smallest of punishment (and no, it wasn't a hard landing). The landing gear ripped right out of the fuse literally destroying everything.

My buddy's Red Bull faired no better.

I sent an Email to Greap Planes, and their response was .... Thanks for the feedback, hope you found this information usefull.

Nonesense.

CRAP .... total CRAP.

I had the same problem with the ailerons on my Reflection. The servo would not center in one direction. I elevated the problem by moving the linkage on the servo arm to the inside hole. Now it all works great. I had plenty of travel too and only running 80% servo travel.

I considered moving the z bends to the inner hole, but instead I wound up drilling out all of the linkages with a #38 drill bit (the stock holes were slightly larger than a size #40) and now everything moves nicely with very little resistance and no slack in the joints. The only joint I couldn't get to was the one on the elevator control horn, because the elevator can't be removed from the tail section. One thing I did find when disassembling all the linkages was that the guides that I had installed in the fuselage for the carbon fiber pushrods had "leaned" toward each other while the CA was drying and were binding on the pushrods causing additional friction and drag on the servos. Had I not gone through this process I would never have noticed it and this condition would probably have resulted in servo failure and a crash. All this being said, I plan to build a Flatana with the knowledge, experience and endless frustration I have accumulated while building my Reflection.
Thank you all for your suggestions and comments. One thing I will add is that while a number of you have said that CA accelerator or "kicker" will help to speed up the assembly of these models, my manual for the Reflection specificaly said not to use it when joining the carbon fiber tubes to the leading and trailing edges of the control surfaces. I assumed that this had something to do with accelerator weakening the bond. When I build my Flatana I plan on using all the "kicker" I can afford.

how long does it take to charge a 650 mah 11.1v 3 cell pack?????????

i am building a flatana and would like to know what the first charge on the battery is gonna be like as far as the time it takes to charge it

nitro125 As a general rule if you charger is puting out 650ma then it will roughly charge a flat 650mah battery in one hour i.e 650mah is milli amps per hour . you do need to be carefull charging a Li-poly Battery do NOT charge at a rate higher that the mah rating e.g. you have a 650mah battery never charge at higher than 650mah as the battery can explode !! ..

As for my thoughts on the flat out foamies .. mine is on its way from Tower Hobbies and i cant wait !!! I havent built one or seen one is Australia yet but as for all ARF planes you get what you pay for ..

I guess some people sould be given a plan and a box of balsa and build a few from scatch to learn how its done .. ARF's are good and i have had a few but i can also build a 1/4 scale pitts special from a plan No instruction book.

my charger only has a 250 a 500 and a 100 mah charge setting so should i charge it with the 500 one??

For a fast charge Yes at 500ma it will roughtly take 1h 15mins to charge .. at 100ma it would take 6.5 hours

ok i finally get it lol

i have the gp rebull edge i love the thing. it is my first foamy so everything was new to me. i usd gorilla glue because i didnt have any foam safe ca. i took a while to build but it is strong. i am still fairly new to 3d but i can hover and i am trying to learn new things. i have got about 15 flights on it so far and will hope to have many more. i have the rimfire brushless set up with a thunder power 3 cell 730mah lipo.

one qustion that i have is can anybody make these things roll good. i can do some pretty neat stuff with this plane but when i try a roll parelel with the ground the thing does not look right and i have to use alot of elevator when it is upside down to make it look halfway right. even with the elevator it still does not look real great. im sure i will learn how though because i am still fairly new to 3d. thanks yall

Move your CG back. You should have it set so that when it's flying straight and level right side up you can flip it inverted and not need to give it elevator to keep it level. I noticed that on my Flatana I had to move the CG back to the farthest back recommended spot to achieve this.

u should try ballancing the plane lateraly to see if one wing is heavier than the other cuz if it isnt then u will get wierd rolls but if there just right then the rolls should be axial or near axial or maybe u mounted the motor with a wierd thrust angle on accedent

I'm in the process of building my Red Bull Flatout. My first electric was an Alfa Corsair easy to build and fly. Saw some friends at the field having a blast with the 3D foamys I thought I'd get one. As stated 40$ isn't bad. Observations.

Yes totally different building from balsa glow planes.

Building without accelerator and will get some for the next ,but slowing me down helped a couple of times.

Using all recomended servos, Rimfire and lipo's agree the plane was designed with specific equipment in mind. Building it with alternative stuff is asking for trouble.


Getting use to the clips and the z bend connectors. Plan on using some silicone on the CF tube to lube it. My elevator is pretty free comparing it to my glow planes but not as free as mentioned above.

Yes I have a few shallow gaps where the lower fuse panel dosent quite hit the CF tube and am filling that in with CA. I blame myself rather than GP as I should have checked and sanded for a better fit.

Looking forward to a maiden later in the week and will post results.

Pete

Since the Red Bull is sitting around without a motor or esc, I went ahead and built a HL yak and equipped it with a Hacker A20-30M, x-12 esc and Thunderpower 3-cell 900mah lipo. Now I'm impressed.

Does Great planes sell replacment hardware. In particular the c-clips, 3 of which broke on my friends plane. He is psisedhe hasn't finished it.

I have had two flats outs now. The CAP 580 and the Turmoil. Building the CAP was really a pain but buidling the second plane went much smoother for the most part. As I was in the midst of assembly I kept looking at the box where is said no tape needed and I all could think was that tape would sure make the need for way too many tiny parts unecessary. In fact after breaking the rudder for about the tenth time because of hitting it on something getting it to the field I put skotch tape on it and worked great. In short building these things is a pain. The other drawback is their fragil nature. If you pick it up wrong it breaks, if you bump it on something it breaks or stress it just slilghtly too much it breaks. I spent more time at the flying field gluing than flying. The CAP died when it just touched the ground barely and then went into lots of fragmented pieces when the wind slightly blew and sent it down. The turmoil was fun but again a slight bump with the ground lead to total explosion. Don't even bother flying in any breeze because mostly you end up chasing the sticks trying to keep it off the ground.

As for flying they fly OK but the flex is so great that each time I flew it seemed like someone changed my trim. The SFG on the Turmoil was interesting but I never did get used to it.

I will admit that they were fun when all together but I like to fly more than tinker so I went looking for something else. I ended up getting an eflight Yak 54. What a difference. I really was able to build it while watching a football game on TV and it all went so smooth I was shocked to find out I was done. The foam is thicker and you can bump it and it won't break. As for flying the differnce is huge. This flies like an airplane. I stuck my Rimfire motor and the rest from my flat outs and it flies fantastic. I can hover easily with the power and it rolls like it should not a flexed rotation. It also handles a mild breeze without difficulty.

My advise is to spend the extra twenty bucks and get the YAK. It is far less than the two flatouts you have to buy. One to learn how to build and one to get the extra plastic parts that you keep breaking trying to get the whole thing together.

I built a TURMOIL. This is my 2nd plane. First was U-Can-Do 3D Flex. I'm very happy with Turmoil. Actually I'm beginner and this is my 2nd real flight after simulator experiment. The video links of my second real flight:

http://www.gurmanbayraktar.com/Download/Turmoil1_04.wmv
http://www.gurmanbayraktar.com/Download/Turmoil2.wmv

I'm living in Turkey and need some advice about radio settings.

My personel rc website:
www.gurmanbayraktar.com