hey guys and gals hows it going? i just bought the flyzone playmate today and thought i would share my findings with it with all of you. im sure its already been done, but ive read alot of threads about it and for the most part people were bashing it. i have to disagree with any such remarks about it. when i first opened the box the first thing that went through my mind was, wow this is ealy cheaply built. but not being judgemental i decided to see how it flew before making a decision. i did the usual new plane stuff, installed the included "AA" batteries into the 2.4ghz controller (4 of them by the way) then plugged the lipo battery into the controllers charge cord and got it charging. the lipo is a 3.7v 130mah 1s. again at first thought looking at the lipos size and mah i thought great it not gonna fly for very long. but i put my judgement aside once again and waited til a flight to decide. it took about 30 minutes it seemed to chage the battery, not to bad in my opinion. i then turned on the controller, it beeped like its supposed to, i then moved the throttle to its bottom most position becuse if you dont the motor wont arm until it is in that position, then i plugged in the lipo to the plane and pressed it into the spot on the bottom cutout nd made sure it had a good hold onto the velcro. the plane then cycled the servos and was ready to go. i gae it the usual pre flight check making sure the servos respond to proper inputs, and that throttle worked. it has full digital proportional control just so everyone knows. the motor on it however is very loud at lower speeds but at full speed it gets quieter. i then gave it about half throttle and a gentle hand toss and off it went, it climbs very well and pretty quickly too i must add, the first thing i noticed is that it is very twitchy with contol inputs if you go full left or right and up and down, it took me a minute to get used to the controller but once i got used to it the plane was a breeze to fly. very responsive to controls, climbs quickly and has a nice smooth glide slope when you kill the throttle. during my first flight with this plane i was able to easily take off and land without any trouble, and for more advanced flying i was able to do loops, reverse loops, and inverted flight without any real difficulty. it has plenty of power, and i had it in the air for atleast 15 minutes of flight. i had a couple of rough landings (otherwise known as crashes) and it held up very nicely. i think its probably due to the fact there isnt any weight to this plane at all. its gotta be one of the lightest planes ive ever flown and owned. the only downside to the light weight it that any significant amount of wind and it gets tossed around very easily, but i was able to maintain flight with it during these "gusts" of wind. overall in my opinion i would give it a 8 out of 10 star rating. the only real downsides to it in my opinion ae the very cheap controller, and the fact that the plane seems very quickly and cheaply made. but the fun factor for flying it is deffinately a must have in my opinion. if you already have a nice dsm radio and could bind the plane to that then you would be golden. hopefully some of you find this post useful and if it leads to your buying the plane i think you would enjoy flying it, thanks

if anyone has this plane and is having problems with it tipping forward during take off and landings i found a simple and effective fix. if you look at the landing gear it curves back, simply take it off and turn it so that it points forward, viola! no more tipping. also i was wondering if anyone has modded this plane? im thinking of adding a tail wheel to it for taxing purposes. another thing i noticed is that it could use some type of connecting bar to stiffen the elevator, i noticed on mine that the looking at it from the back side the left side of the elevator sits slightly lower than the right. a simple gentle bend and its gone but i think its something that might return after a bit of time. id like to see some mods pop up for this plane, and hopefully its popularity grows because it is truely a great flying plane

I too, agree with the above reviews. I have had a ball with the Playmate, only problem that I have had id the prop came of and I had to glue it back on. That was a minor detail, although I had to slice the fuse open to gain access to the shaft so I could push the prop back on with som ca glue. I didn't glue the fuse back, only used scotch tape to put it back so I can get back inside easily. I have flown the Playmate indoors in a small gym with ease, it also flies very well in a bit of breeze, moreso than the Vapor. I also have a Vapor and Ember, the Ember is almost as good in the wind as the Playmate but not quite. The transmitter is small but is easy to get used to.

i had a issue with my elevator getting stuck in the up position today. im not sure what is causing it. only thing i can think of is that last night i switched the linkage for the elevator to the setting on the tail that gives maximum elevator input. i did loops like a ******* with it setup like that. im also getting another 130mah lipo for mine and a 150 mah lipo for it. i still love flying this plane. 2 days of flying now and no body damage yet!!!

Put a small drop of thin oil on the servo and work it in by moving the controls. I use trinity bearing oil.

thanks for the tip wheelnut! are you also flying the playmate? i was hoping to find more mods for this plane but there doesnt seem to be any! is it no very popular? i cant imagine why more people wouldnt own it. yeah the controller is kinda lame for it but it flys so well and has incredible flight times.

To stiffen the tail feathers on a Playmate- Take a needle and thread and run a thread aaround the tail feathers.. Poke a hole about a quarter inch in from the ends of the stab and rudder then glue the ends to the bottom of the fuse . same thing with the wing, only you need to have two threads on each wing.To do this you need two holes in each wing about 2/3s out then threadglued to the bottom of the fuse . This aint well said but hope you get the idea, this helps the tail feathers a lot ... Dont know if its needed on the wings.....
Sorry I aint smarter..........

i get the idea, i actually did something similar to the main wing on mine but i used a pushrod from a slo-v. i havent done anything with the tail like that but i also get what your saying. but i havent had any issues with the tail needing to be stiffened. i am however having a issue with the up elevator sticking. i e-mailed hobbico about it and i got a response the same day saying that the micro recievers are on back order but they are going to ship me a new one once they get some in. i gotta say im pleased with there quick response and customer service