I'm building this Extra 300S that I bought from General Hobby, its the same Chinese made model that is sold by Nitro Planes. I will be building it as an electric. I paid 99$ for the kit. The kit appears to be a good value for the money, but as other have stated, the instructions are extremely poor. I'm pretty handy and have built helicopters and guillows balsa planes before so I'll be ok, but any first time builder that doubts their abilities might have trouble. The instructions have no explanations, poor illustrations that are sometimes misleading, and a huge lack of information. There are pieces in the parts bags that are not mentioned in the instructions so you have to guess where and how they install. I downloaded a manual for a different brand model from Tower Hobbies, and it is very helpful for general information. Most of these planes are probably built in the same city or even factory in China and share a lot of the design and parts.

Here are some things that I have noted so far, if anyone disagrees, I'm open to suggestions.

- you have to figure out for yourself how the linkages for the tail run and which holes they are to pop out of, also the placement of the tail surface horns horns is not explained. (I made one error and had to move the rudder horn after I figured out the correct hole to run the linkage out of.
- The linkages are assembled from metal rods, heat shrink, and wood dowels. Seemed really gay and low tech at first but after I put it together it actually works kinda well and flexes much less than a single piece of metal wire would.
-It does not specify to glue the 2 wing halves together, but i think this is a must and unavoidable. there is an underpan that goes under the wing and completes the underbelly of the plane, this has to be glued onto the wings, so the 2 halves of the wing have to be as one.
- there is a piece of plywood 1" x 3" which is not explained but has to be used as a washer for the wing mounting screws. If you screw the bolts and washers directly onto the balsa wing there is not enough surface area on the round metal washer to resist the torque of the wing in flight. the strip of plywood has to be used in between to spread out the torque of the mounting bolts. The underpan/ belly piece will have to be modified to fit over this plywood.
- The silicone tubing included to keep the clevises closed is too small and brittle, cracks if you try to install.
- The wheel pant & main gear assembly does not work if assembled as illustrated. I had patent something original for it and although not how they intended, I think it will work well.
- I goofed and bent the wire for the tail gear in the wrong direction. You have to bend a little tab in it that will go into the rudder and therefore move with the rudder. This metal cannot be bent twice!!! you have to bend it in a different spot if you goof or else it cracks!!! Luckily I tested the double bending ability on a scrap before trying to correct my error.


More to follow!

Tom