Zagiflyer576

Does anyone have one? I did a search and didnt come up with one thread on it....

just ordered one today from work so ill let everyone know how it goes!

Zagiflyer576

pic

Spacey

I'm busy building mine but some other things came up during the build which were of greater importance (Darn eggbeaters just can't stand the fact that anything other than themselves are getting attention). I've got the fuz together and things looks great up untill now. Hope to get going on it again soon! [8D]

Mike Parsons

It is an awesome plane! http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/a...article_id=681

I am retrofitting mine with a VPP unit now.

cosmic

My Feedback: (2)

I don't have that one but 2 caps and 2 reflections.. My advice is if you break one clip throw the rest away and use tape.. The Not so great plane flatout the plastic is some of the worst I've ever experianced!!! And all the suggestions in the world doesn't make up for the crap they put out!!! Heat, boil, ream, WHY ? Bad product is still a bad product.. I used some tape to mask a part I was working on and when I removed it some of the skin came off revealing some gouges inthe foam as long as 4-5 inches that was hidden under it..So if your lucky enough to get one together and it works, go buy a lotto ticket.. Taped my reflection and it does fly great.. The cap is a pos... As far as the one you see fly at the show They don't use half the carbon and use kevlar thread to lighten them as they are not concerned about durability.. By the way the reason I have two of each is they sent me two new kits and guess what THE SAME @#$%^&*! THING.. NEVER AGAIN!!!

SuperKaos

My Feedback: (2)

Strange, I have built 5 of them and never broke a clip yet. "Man, should have played loto"

I think many are breaking clips from not aligning ALL the clips PERFECTLY before glueing them in place and then snapping them to the carbon rod trailing edges [&:]

My one reflection has over 31 hours of air time with all factory hardware...

Seems to be flatout fun, of flat out hell

cosmic

My Feedback: (2)

You should have bought that ticket!!!!! Seem people love or hate them.... Love the way reflection flies!!! Hate the plastic!!! But either way the plastic in my 4 kits were brittle... Even admitted by great planes .. But not aligning clips perfectly.. I guess the others that have the same problems as I have had don't come close to the having the perfection necessary to build them...[&o]

SuperKaos

My Feedback: (2)

I plan on building another one soon as mine is getting BEAT pretty bad now. I probally have cursed myself and will break every darn clip now

Zagiflyer576

Just got my rcu bipe in! should be starting on it tomorrow!! Ill take some pics at the end of the day to show the progress....


hmm.....idk about the plasic issue either. I had a Cap flatout also, and yes it is one of THE WORST flying planes i have ever owned. It had horrible knife edge coupling, i guess due to the low wing? But after many crashes and re-glueing i never once had any problem with the hinges or any other plastic part for that matter...

50%plane

My Feedback: (5)

I loved my RCU bipe. It's now dead due to some excitement at the field. I used all stock hardware and found it to be top notch. The folks who are always wining about it is because it isn't a regular foamie. The plane actually flys like a 3D capable stearman. Well, that's about the best way to describe it. I guess not so much of a precision plane, but it is a wonderful flying plane. YO uwill have to modify the botom wing probably as in mine, I had the inner aileron hinges slots cut wrong/not at all. It is pretty easy to take care of, but take your time. I had an early kit though and I hope they fixed it by now and you won't have to deal with it.



50%

Zagiflyer576

Yeah noticed that AFTER i glued the right aileron hinges in place. I said to myself, "Why doesnt this look like the pics in the book?..." then after some carefull studying i found it.

Seems I got an older kit, even though it just came in on special order. The instructions do not have the part mentioning the clipping of the hinge clips, unlike the online manual. I never ended up clipping them cause i just got to lazy. Still didnt have a problem with any of the plastic.

MaxThrottle

Yes the plans are off for the aileron hinge and the cross member support and I haven't seen a kit with this corrected yet. The one thing i haven't figured out is which horn would be better to use. The picture shows the one attached to the aileron surface but I think the spare C clip horns would do better since they are clipped on to the Carbon TE.

I found during the Build the hardest thing was to keep the CA where you wanted it and away from where you didn't. Tapping things in place is fine until you get CA on it.
For those seeming to have problems with the C clip hinges, one person said to boil them to soften them up (5 minutes). I boiled a scrap piece of the plastic from the kit to test it out and it actually does make it easier. You may want to boil only the C sections of the horn on the Rudder and Elevator. But you shouldn't really have to if you drill out the inner edges as the adendum suggests. Drill first and boil if your not comfortable with the C's.

When you get ready to glue the firewall, make certain you have 1degree down and right thrust. If its off it'll make it float a little more than you might like but if you are flying indoors that might be a good thing.

Something I also came across from RCU a while back is use Elmers Polyurathan glue in places where the Foam safe CA doesn't seem to hold or where fill or strength may be beneficial. It takes longer to set but its easier to keep clean, is stronger or is flexible unlike a CA Carbon/Plastic bond.
Polyurathan glue is foam safe, a great filler and cleans up more easily. I'm suprised its not a standard glue where balsa or foam is involved. And if you want it to foam more, spray water on the glue as it sets.
Get electric tape from the local hardware store in the appropriate colours (Red, White & Black) and reinforce the left and Right fuse panels right where the Rud/Elv servos are. Side force rough landings reveal this area to be the weakest point on the fuse. Its to bad they didn't have the 45 degree panels extend over the servos to between the wings.

Oh and where each landing gear crosses the wings LE, put a tie wrap around it. If you really push your flying, especially indoors, you're bound to come down hard on the landing gear. Again Poly glue here works better here. CA fractures from the impact.


Flying is a breeze and plenty of fun. The Kids at the park love it. This kit makes me look like I know how to fly. I used the Castle 10, ThunderPower 3 cell 730, the recommended RimFire and Hitecs O5S/HS55 flight pac. That should bring you in at around the 11 oz mark. But your flatout will get heavier with every repair so getting more than one kit may not be a bad idea!

SS2P

Hey,

I know all the flat-outs are bad to build but they fly really well. I have reflection it flys well. I had lots of trouble putting it together.

Paul

hellblastervolly

Hi guys I have my RCU Bipe for a month now and finally was able to find a good soldering iron to change the Deans micro plug of my ESC to a Female BEC Connectors so I can connect the battery. Now that I have everything working ( servos, Rx, Tx, motor/w VVP, ESC ) I'll start with the building part so I'll keep posting the progress, good or bad.

Fernando

Zagiflyer576

well, after a month of lazyness, i finally got her in the air. I absolutly love this plane, very neutral, minimal pitch/roll coupleing with rudder (nothing that cant be flown through), and she loves to fly slow.

I still need to move the cg back a little and add some more aileron throw. The recomended amount was just not quite enough for me. Alos the 3s 780mah i had is just so old and over flown that it only gave me about 5 mins of flight time at less than 1/2 throttle the whole flight. So im going to have to get some new batt's. My dad only got one shot of it in the air today. Ill be sure he gets some better shots on the nezt flight.

Spacey

I finally got mine in the air this past Saturday again after it only lasted 6 meters on its maiden (Ailerons reversed [:@] It was bound to happen to me someday). I sure am glad I pieced humpty back together again! Great flying biplane for sure like mentioned above. I don't quite know what it is that I like about it so much because I only have about 30 minutes on it now but I think it's mainly cause it's so predictable and well mannered (sp?). Knife edge coupling is very predictable and she never gets too squirrely in anything. Does great upright and inverted harriers and I even managed my first successfull switching rolling harriers. Very cool little plane!

push rodz

My Feedback: (5)

Think about it guys.....these are cheap ***** "foam" planes. They are supposed to be quick & easy to build. Why design a plane that is complicated and frustrating to assemble? Personally, the way GP has designed the hinge lines on their flatouts is not a "plus" in my book 'cause hinge tape has, is and will be the way to go on a cheap ***** foamy plane forever. To try to complicate the otherwise very easy application of using hinge tape with pastic this and that is a sad attempt at marketing to suck people in to buying the crap that people are stuck with once they buy it! My thoughts are, if it ain't broke - don't try to fix it! Sounds like GP is trying to reinvent the wheel.

A foamy plane typically has a very short life span, considering the material that it's made from and the style of flying (3D) that they are designed for. Why invest that much time and effort in something that is not going to last that long? There are plenty of planes on the market that fly just as well if not better than the Flatouts and are much easier to assemble - so why bother?

Mike Parsons

My RCU flatout is one of the best flying foamies I have had (and I have had a lot). There is nothing stopping anyone from using tape hinges if they want. I didnt have a problem with the clip hinges and found that I get unristricted throw and an insane amount of it. I have well over 200 flights on mine (including using a VPP setup) and it looks just as good as it did the day I finished it. Every plane has an expiration date, just when is up to the pilot.

-Mike

Zagiflyer576

I agree with you Mike. All these people have been knocking the flatouts lately. If they don't like them just don't buy them. Everyone has their own opinion of things, some people really like the flatouts, some people really hate them. Does that make one group or the other right? Nope.
So what if GreatPlanes is trying something new. Where would our hobby be if companies never ventured outside of the box? We would still be using Kraft radios and flying heavy 1 channel wood planes in circles...I don't hear people complaining about the affordable computer radios that are available now! So by trying something new, makes GreatPlanes out of line? I don't think so.

Personally I love the clip hinges, it is worth the small amount of time and little bit of glue on your fingers. If you don't like them, well so be it, use hinge tape, no one is stopping you.

push rodz

My Feedback: (5)

You know.......you're absolutely right: Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and no one is forcing anyone to buy anything. You either like things or you don't. And no one particular group is correct over another, especially when it comes to hinge lines and whether you use tape or not. If someone prefers to spend that much time on a cheap ***** foamy, then that's their business and personally doesn't effect me in the least.

Thinking outside the box and trying new things is the way that technology progresses and I am all for progress. However, some ideas are just better than others. What one person deems the best thing that's come along, another may think it's the most rediculous idea ever imagined! That's what makes the world such a diverse and interesting place. It's not a matter of who is correct or incorrect - it's a matter of personal opinion.

If you have great sucess and satisfaction from a particular method or design, then by all means, go for it. Rave about it and tell all your friends that it's the only way to go. By the same token, if you think it stinks and is a waste of time, shout it from the mountain top. Either way, it is just "your" opinion and people can take it for what it's worth.

Mike Parsons

Push,
Completely agree. The sharing of opinions is 90% of what makes an online forum keep spinning. Neither is right nor wrong and all are welcome. One mans treasure is another mans trash..or is that junk? I cant remember lol

acrooks

Just ordered the Biplane- looks awesome in the video. I'm starting to fall in love with electrics, i like being able to fly them anywhere

Vertical3-D

My Feedback: (20)

Well I just got one of these, not flown yet but completely built(w/servos in), 4th flatout I have had and the 5th, a redbull 540 is sitting here waiting to be setup, I have an ultrafly motor for it, the rcu bipe gets a rimfire and a little something else I have in the works as far as power systems...I personally loves these planes, I don't fly indoors so wieght isnt a big deal. My first was a cap 580, which got changed to a mid wing and solved many problems( I learned 3-D with it) then I got a flatana, sweet flying plane, next was a turmoil, which I still have back home(I am away for school for a year). that was the first hinge problem I encountered, so my natural instinct was to clip one as is now recomended, and problem was solved. what people fail to see is just how frictionless and accurate the system is. My radix had tape hinges and compared with the flatout they were sloppy, plus I had the elevator come loose after a few flights, with good blendurm hinge tape. The thing with a flatout is you actually have to read the intructions, do stuff when they tell you to, then it makes a very nice plane, harder then a normal foamie, yup, higher quaility plane that will reward you with great flying, yup...don't like them or have what it takes to build one right, then don't buy it, that simple...

bdavison

My Feedback: (1)

vertical, I completely agree. The reflection is still one of the best flying all out indoor/outdoor 3D foamies Ive flown. Its just non-stop insanity from take off to landing. The problem isnt with the flatouts, its with the people building them. They break the linkages because they are trying to force them, and then complain about brittle plastic. HELLLOOOOOOO....drill it out, then the carbon will slide very easily through the z-bends.

I still have a reflection to this day, and fly it occasionally. Its still a fun little airplane. Ive had it since the freestyle championships last year in Memphis. Unfortunatly my RCUniverse bipe suffered an untimely death due to mis-programmed radio, but it flew great as well.

Vertical3-D

My Feedback: (20)

Just got one of these, it will be using a futaba skysport 4, greatplanes b-8 micro servos, electrifly b-8 esc, and probablly a 1250 lipo pack(also electrifly), rimfire motor with a counter rotation device of my own desing(on the plane for testing), just one motor and should have almost no efficiency loss while completely eliminating torque affect, also Ill be using MPI wheels which are the best e-flight wheels I have found so far...no tail wheel, just a skid to save the rudder.