Guanli 401-3 J3 RTF
 

I am shopping for my first trainer plane. I ran across this at nitroplanes. http://www.nitroplanes.com/gl401-3-j3-red-rtf.html

I like the brushless motor/battery powered option for my first trainer. I watched the youtube video on the site and the plane looks clean and seems to fly well with the battery placement as decribed in the video. It looks like a good starter plane for the money from what I can tell.

Anyone have feedback about this plane?

Thanks!

JL

RE: Guanli 401-3 J3 RTF
 

Looks like it has all the right stuff: high wing with dihedral and low wing loading. Hopefully it will fly slow and steady.

Smaller size could be a bit of a problem. Smaller planes can be a bit twitchy.

I would guesstimate it will be okay for training with an instructor.

Neat looking plane at a good price for sure.

Tom

RE: Guanli 401-3 J3 RTF
 

Glad you started this thread, jimmilew. I bought the yellow one ("upgraded brushless") a couple of months ago, and knew very little about it; couldn't find much information on the web and the included instruction sheet is almost comically un-helpful. The video was enlightening, I'd thought the plane was a real dog at first, but am trying to both tune up the plane and improve my flying skills. Had no idea about putting the battery up under the wing until I saw the video just now, I enlarged the space underneath and made a new cover. I'm new at this too. Good luck, if you buy one of these, my guess is you'll do OK.

Having said that, I bought a Hobby Zone Champ prior to getting the Cub, and it's proven to be really good to learn on. It is much smaller, but has a popular following as one can see in the forums. I've flown the Cub 3 times so far, but take the Champ out every chance I get, it's so much fun.

Tom

RE: Guanli 401-3 J3 RTF
 

Tom,

Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunatly, the first day with my son and the plane was a disaster. It went up, and went straight down within 10 seconds and is a total loss. Big Bummer!

Some feedback: The instruction sheet was almost incomprehensible. The pictures were not 100% correct, and their were parts that were not included in the parts list. It took 2 hours to assemble the plane. Once I worked through the assembly, its actually a very nice build and looks great! I suspect it would fly great too.

I wont give up. I think the next model Iget will include flight simulator software. Iwill practice on that first, then go fly the plane. Wish Ihad done this first!!

Jim

RE: Guanli 401-3 J3 RTF
 

Hi Jim,

Sorry to hear this; my experience was similar; the plane flew like a brick (or maybe I flew it like a brick). 3 flights/3 busted props and misc. damage. I believe it was too nose heavy, and I've taken steps to remedy the problem. If not for the Champ, I might have given up altogether and bought another guitar.

I think one advantage to the Champ is its low mass; the plane weighs next to nothing and when it crashes it doesn't do as much damage to itself. The Cub puts about a pound behind every point of impact. I smashed my Champ up frequently for the first few flights. A wing tore off when a wind gust hit it, a dog attacked it one day as I was landing it and chewed it to pieces, but after every mishap it was easily repaired. Looks like crap though, and flys a bit crooked.

I hope you're not too discouraged by your experience. Once you get the hang of it, it gets a lot easier.

There's a sim called FMS that you can download for free online, and you can either "fly" the planes with keyboard commands, or pick up one of those sim controllers which are very inexpensive.

Good luck.

Tom

RE: Guanli 401-3 J3 RTF
 

Hi Jim,

If you're still reading this thread, I had an idea. If the electronic parts; reciever, ESC, motor, servos and transmitter are in useable condition, would you be interested in selling the wreckage of your Cub? Maybe with spare parts I could keep mine flying.

Or, if you want to keep it, I could possibly help out with advice on repairing it, and share learning-to-fly experiences.

Tom