I got my Son[who is in IRAQ] a 49" ZAGI and the best thing you can say about it is that it flies[barely]. It came with a 370 MAH NIMH battery, and a solid state motor control, and a gear reduction motor. He says it weighs 11.2 ozs RTF. He is using a GP feather rcvr, 150MAH , and HS55s. Is there a simple way to wake this thing up?

Something doesn't sound right, a 49" wing that weighs 11.9 oz can't be right. My 400X weighs
something like 23oz and flys great. If you can give us more details, like which brand of wing, as I don't think it's a actual Zagi. What size of motor is it? Also, it seems to have a pretty small and not-so-powerful battery. More details would be helpful.

Jesse

the only thing that sounds like that from zagi is the zagi fixx, which is 40 in and uses the power combo described. its classed as a parkflyer,at about 25mph. so, its not going to be a full blown speed demon...

my cut down zagi 400 to 30 in with a speed 300 is slow, but aerobatic and climbs pirty decent. rolls and loops are tight.

but thats the difference between a 48 in wing with speed 400, 30 in with speed 300 and a 40 in with a small IPS on gear reduction.

HI RONBO! You got it right, it was my mistake. The Zagi Fixx is what it is. It has a GWS 3A motor, and according to my Son, has to be flown at full power at all times, takes a great deal of time to climb to a high enough altitude to do just one roll. I don't have the background with electrics to advise him how to make it fly like a half way decent sport plane.

Its a parkflyer not a sport plane. If you buy a yugo you can't have a ferrari

With a bit of work, the power unit from the bigger Zagi will wake it up Includes motor, direct drive prop, higher amp speed controller and 700 ma. ni cad. mine has been cut down to 39 in. for better maneuverability in combat.

HI POLSTERY! Do you have anything constructive to add? In the TOWER catalog the ZAGI FIXX is described as a HOT ROD, capable of KNIFE EDGE FLIGHT, it can DO IT ALL, AND MORE! What a joke. If this thread ends up turning away let's say 100 people who might have been suckered into buying this ANEMIC PIECE OF CRAP, then it was worth the effort to put the word out.

If you want a fun LITTLE flying wing get your self the Mini Speed Wing Mine is a blast it has like a 24" wing span and comes with the small GWS motor and a direct drive pusher prop for like 40.00 bucks and they are small and quick I have mine set up so it will do close to 4 rolls a sec. and will go vert for a bit from flat and level (BUT IT WONT KEEP GOING VERT.) I would rate my mini speed wing to be as fast as the larger zagis. I believe the web site is Miniwing.net but can be found via the search engines out there. they have some good videos of there many flying wings they even have a twin motor (Pusher) wing that looks like fun too. good luck and always have fun flying weather it be a slow flyer park flyer or others. Thats what I do is just go out and have fun!

i have modified mine to use 2 hacker B20 s and it flys great goes about 70 last time i clocked it

HI KILLER! Thanks for the great advice! I wish I had consulted with you before sinking $170 into a flying turd! We'll try to salvage the power system and put it in something lighter and hopefully more fun.

HI PROP ACE! Thanks for the info! NOW your talkin' Is it set up push/pull?

not a problem combatpigg anytime and look in to it the mini wing does not come with the speed controller reciever or mini servos but those can all be purchased from EBay new for great prices and if you have an extra 4 channel radio sitting around you will be good to go I believe the web site for the mini wing also sells heat sinks for the little gws motos for like 2.00 bucks (helps keep the motor cooler). enjoy
Rick

The Zagi Fixx will give you about 15 minutes of totally uneventful flying

RX battery? Any reason to have a seperate RX battery, since the ESC already provides the power to the RX/servos? Only other thing is to make sure he has the prop on correctly.

If you're shipping over there and looking for something faster/reseliant/easy build/no fuss(electric), my 2 cents worth of recomendation:

* Projeti on Speed 400 longcan motor, 10 cell NiMh pack (eg, KAN1050). Down side it that the foam is not that though, but it's a nice speedy setup w/o the brushless cost.

* Multiplex MicroJet - though foam, hand launching can be tricky but it does get up to speed nicely. S400 and 8 cell 2/3A pack.

* Multiplex TwinJet - Twin S400 LongCan, you'll need a pack capable of higher amp draw (pack cost depends on how much you want to spend), 8 cell's nice 10 cell pack nicer still. Same foam as uJet, can use any glue and takes most any paint.

other than changing props/gear ratios, possibly to pep it up would be to try an astroflight 010 direct drive.

that should pep it up. but i dont know about battery, may need a bigger battery. ill leave that to others to chime in.

just remember, its a parkflyer, irregardless of what tower says...

Thanks PETER! I'll let him know the rcvr pack is redundant,[ that's a 1/2oz of dead weight]! I appreciate you taking the time with your recommendations! I think I like the looks of the FORMOSA, and my Son is eager to learn about 3D flying. If you could believe the TOWER ad though, the ZAGI FIXX sounded like a hot little plane.[&o] Their credibility with me just got lowered a few notches.

You're welcome! fwiw the Formosa, albeit a very nice parkflyer, is not a 3D plane. I'm thinking for something that's nice to throw up in the air for fun, and in keeping with the Mil. team, the Twinjet might be the ticket. here's some video on standard brush motor setup:

http://plawner.net/video/twinjet_10_...00_low_res.wmv

http://plawner.net/video/twinjets_wi...rsed_motor.wmv

http://www.psi.ua.es/eag/TwinJet/twinjet.htm

combatpigg, I think you may have misread the tower write up. The description just states it can loop and roll ( big deal anything can) nowhere did it say anything about being hot or anything about knife edge. When you read these descriptions and reviews for that matter I accept the as half truths and go from there. Sorry you had to learn the hard way.

Hi POLSTERY! I'm looking right at the ad on page 71 of the 2004 catalog[not the little mailer], and it says,"The ZAGI-FIXX is an aerial HOT ROD of a park flyer, capable of aerobatics in close quarters! Inverted flight, knife edge, loops, rolls, the ZAGI can do it all and more" It barely has enough power to fly right side up, and it will snap roll out of any attempts to bring the nose up any higher than a couple of degrees. My Son doesn't have that much time to himself in IRAQ, and to be honest he is having more fun racing a $10 micro car around on a piece of plywood, than he is struggling to make this piece of ARF crap fly. I don't try to read ANY interpretations of over blown advertising into products that I use. What they are doing with this ad is just one step above STEALING ! Can you imagine what the power to weight ratio would have to be to get an elevon ship to knife edge? The only way this thing can K.E. is when it is in a deep stall headed for the ground. The more exposure this thread gets, the better, because I want to make ZAGI sorry they ever tricked me out of my money. Don't they call themselves TRICK RC? Hmmmm.

Your right, I was looking on there web site, I see the ad now. Knife edge with no rudder I'd love to see that?????? I'm with you on this one tower and or trick is pulling the wool over someones eyes. A call to tower is in order, maybe you'll have some luck. Good luck

Has it been flown without the extra rx pack? Not saying it will now be a hotrod but it would HAVE to fly better without the extra weight on board. With a park flyer the 150mAh redundant pack would be quite a bit of uneeded ballast...

I just looked up the FIXX on TH. Looks like that catalog was just as little too ambitious. They have loop, roll, inverted flight but no knife edge. I'd definitely lodge a complaint!

HI FORESTROKE! So far my ARF experiences have ALL been sub-standard. It goes way back to Christmas morning in 1964 when I saw a COX P40 under the XMAS tree. That plane was my WHOLE XMAS , and it was a pile of broken plastic , at the hands of my father who was a P47 pilot in WWII. The next ARF indulgence was a LANIER Q500 PREDATOR. The wing had about 10 degrees of positive, and the over laps in the covering were all arranged to face INTO THE WIND! The firewall ripped loose in the middle of a heat that I stood to win, another sub-standard P.O.S. Now I have been duped by the ZAGI COMPANY. As far as I'm concerned, the most gratifying events in my modeling career have been with either scratch built, or well engineered kits ,like what MORRIS HOBBIES has to offer.

Slow dog at that till I changed it to the twin 180 motor GWS re wired the motors in series
7x6 GWS prop 3 1050 lith batteries in series flys great motor does not get hot lots cheaper than
astro power

I hate to say it, but the pile of plastic isnt the plane's fault. My first plane was that same Cox P40. I ended up destroying it on the second flight but that would be my fault as the rookie pilot. It didnt come apart in mid air, it came apart in mid earth due my increasingly violent oscillations.
I have had two Zagi 400X planes and a Trick RC Razor and they all flew fine. I only replaced the first one because I dont care what a plane is made of, they can only take so many violent meetings with trees, earth, yer flying buddy, my truck, you name it.
I have had quite a few ARF's and the only bad one was a Global P47. It was one of their early designs and their product line has improved dramaticly since.
For the record, I have built many kits also and have quite an inventory waiting to be built. The worst flying plane I ever had was a CL kit I built (forget which) and it was all due to my lack of building skills. The very next CL kit I built was a Baby Ringmaster and that sucker handled like a dream.