klouche

These Sky Force planes are and enigma. Yesterday I flew the 27MHZ Red Bipe. The first 4 throws were a joke. 15 feet away the motor dies. I almost gave up there and then. Then I began to get long flights. 3-5 minutes, ranges at least 100 feet. It handles the headwinds well and was in general a blast. Finally the battery died.

Perhaps it has to do with the angle of the TX antenna as a poster here was saying. I don't know, but this set-up produces enough good flying for me to keep taking it to the park.

KL

mr_mahoney

I must have got one of the lucky kits. As long as I hold the transmitter up (and don't point it at the plane) I have good enough range for such a little thing buzzing around. I also let the antenna hang strait down from the plane.

Joe.Flyer

Maybe I got one of the good ones??? But, I get 40+ feet easy with my 27MHz version -- my favorite plane so far is the bipe -- and I haven't modified anything. I'm honestly not sure if I'd want the plane to go any farther than that...they're small and hard to see already

You should definately get more than a 20' range with these...so, I guess keep trying the other ideas that have been posted.

My plane ratings:
Bi-plane.................Excellant plane, performs great, balanced
Mustang..................Great plane, performs great, needed little engine adjustment
Fighter Plane............OK, Performs ok after engine adjusting
Fire Rescue Plane........Worst (so far), Slugish performance after much engine adjusting and bending the tail rudder foam

toughitaliankid

I was one of the lucky ones who got a SF with an 80 foot radius, but after the radio mod and reciever mod I am well over 120 feet. Mine has been caught on a roof over night in the snow, gotten wet, and has tons of flights on it. Still going strong. By the looks of Tyco's website shows a remolded radio with different led locations and a telescopic antena as well as a newer looking biplane.

andrewtexas123

I am getting a new antena soldered on for longer range and i put on a retractible antina on the transmiter. I hope it has more distance!

trroadster

Flew mine indoors tonight. The fire bomber climbs exceptionally well (had to add nose weight and down elevator). Climbs at half throttle. The ME262 needed a bit of nose weight and a bit of right trim on the motors but then flew extremely well. Transferred the gear to the 737 (pusher) and with some "inside thrust" on both motors it flew well too. Finally put them on the DC-3 (tractor) and had thoroughly enjoyable scale like flight. Slow with moderate banking in the turns. FUN!

justaddbatteries

i have 4 skyforce planes and 2 skyforce radio setups..my favorite plane is the warbirds..they fly great ,especially with just a bit of wind ..it'll just sort of hang there into the wind..its really cool..my only problem is the instructions werent too clear or else it was just me but i mounted the motors below the wing instead of on top and sure enough i sheared a prop off on a street landing..i contacted mattel/tyco..and they told me that the skyforce was too new of a model and they dont have any spare props.available yet..he said check back in a few weeks .hopefully props will be available soon..does anyone know does the AA props fit on the skyforce? thanks

PrkFlyrRic

As for range problems;
My AA's works great except when I fly over the one chain-link fence in my back yard.
The other three are wood and I never have a prob over them, but every time I fly over the chain-link I get glitches.
And it happeneds with all three of my AA's, tx freq doesn't seam to matter.
I've learned to stay away from that fence....

hydroplane142

JUst to warn you If you crash about seven times the frame will get really flimsy

trroadster

a pice of carbon fibre glued to the bottom will cure that, If you're cheap/frugal try a plastic coffee stirer split widthwise. They fly exceptionally well once you sort out the range issue.

Martyn McKinney

I just got back from flying my SF ME262 and I wanted to convey my impressions.

All in all I am quite impressed and I wouldn't hesistate to buy another one.

Out of the box there were some difficulties, however.

The plane would consistantly turn left and nose into the ground.

I tried bending (and putting creases into) the wings.

What finally worked well was to bend the entire tail section (just aft of the wing) a little to the right and bend a small amount of up into the elevators.

The plane would now glide quite well, but under power would dive left.

I then positioned the left motor straight back and angled the right motor outwards.

The plane now flew like a dream and was comparable to the AA Sport which I had also brought along with me.

This indicates to me that on my system, the right motor has significantly more power than the left and that the tolerances in construction created a plane that wouldn't fly out of the box.

Range was another issue.

I had about 100 feet range with the receive antenna dangling down. I feel that lengthening it would make it acceptable.

I noticed that the motors would pulse on and off as the plane was going out of range.

This is suggestive to me that motor noise might be a contributing factor.

The first thing I would check is to see if there are suppression capacitors across the motor drivers on the receiver board.

The plane flew well at the lowest power setting. Figure 8's at eye level were not a problem and turns seemed to be proportional to the throttle setting, unlike the AA which has constant turn power at the highest 4 throttle settings.

Mine had also spent 2 days on a roof. I stand corrected on this, but unlike the AA there does not appear to be a low voltage cutoff and my batteries were fully discharged.

They charged up well, however and my flights were approximately 10 minutes.

There have been complaints of fuselage weakness just in front of the wing.

I solved this by inserting toothpicks at a 45 degree angle into the foam on the top and bottom of the fuselage between the paper on the fuselage sides.

All in all the planes show some clever mechanical design and perform well, but should be glide tested and trimmed before flying.

Martyn McKinney

Here is a modification which will permit turning at zero throttle.

The cathodes of the diodes go to D2 and D3, while the anodes are joined together and go to the trace in the bottom right hand corner of the microcontroller daughter board.

west6008

Thats a helpful post Martyn,

I kept losing mine in the trees last night after powering off,
beyond that, these models are great, and thermal happy,
I almost lost my biplane!

Is there any chance you could post a version of your Tx modification
for us electronic illiterates?
I can do soldering ok, bit I'm strictly "monkey-see, monkey-do"

Dave ESPI

I was contemplating getting one of these and putting it on a wooden balsa glider ( the dollar ones at any sort of grocery or kids toy store). I think I'll stick with my 20.00 ESTES SKY CRUISER from Toys R Us, and adapt that equipment onto a wooden glider instead.

andrewtexas123

I have a rx and tx for sale they have the following mods:

Longer antena on the R/X

Removed throttle spring and attached a new antena to the T/X.

Andrew

andrewtexas123

I will let it go for 6$ shipped.

Andrew