paul daniel

My Diablo, while I have only had 2 short flights on it, had no radio problems. Just as an FYI, I have the ParkZone Typhoon 2 and it had radio glitches. I have the T-28 and it has no problems. The problem, at this price point, almost any radio is a shot in the dark.

niceschott

Man I'm pissed. I'm a fairly experienced flyer, and picked this thing up a few weeks ago because I just moved, and there's nowhere near the house to fly my gas planes. I needed a fix ... so at $200, I figured what the heck, have always thought the electric fan jets looked fun.

The Diablo is super duper slow in its stock configuration, and if you've got any headwind, fuhgetaboutit.

I ordered the dual motor pod and the stubby wings, and today was the first day the rain stopped and I could try out the new setup. Holy crap. What a P.O.S.

One other commenter on here said he had trouble gaining altitude. I'd call that the understatement of the century. Mine flew like a rock for about 20 yards ... couldn't climb for my life. Adjusted a few things - battery placement, radio and manual trim, elevator throw - and still no good. It really feels like it's just way too heavy with the dual pod for the extra motor to compensate for. Add to that the smaller wing surface, and how the heck is this thing supposed to even get airborne?

Will tinker with it some more - am thinking of trying the dual pod with the original wings, and the single motor with the stubbies. But I'm not optimistic. Looks like you get what you pay for.

Part of me wants to spring for the brushless motors and step-up ESC ... maybe the extra power and lighter weight of the motors themselves will do the trick ... but I'm a little trigger shy after today's disappointment.

Has anyone out there found a way to make this thing work like I'd hoped it would???

lowwinds

I Think you should do what i did. Cut your loss and put in the basement with other crap that has no uses. I will not be suckered into putting any more then the 200 $ they burned us for. Take your money and put it towards something else. As i have said before this is the worst plane i have ever had. Save the battery and charger toss out the rest.

diablo2new

Got my new parkzone.typhoon 2 -3d so far so good everything work's ..for get that diablo p.o.s. cheap and not worth your time and hard eared money!! I think they should of sold this at toys a r us...I been hearing of alot quality problems with the dead diablo..





I wonder If I could market a product and make a me rich ...that's a p.o.s And laugh!!!!!

d_bodary

My Feedback: (85)

Well i flew my Diablo for the first time today. Pretty docile flying plane. Lands slow. Added a half ounce of lead to the front.

As stated in an earlier post the negative lead was a little loose. mine was also a loose fit.
once in a while the esc would glitch.

It is not fast guessing 30mph. I would rate it for the eighty dollars i paid for it thru Towers scratch and dent a pretty darn good deal.
If i had paid two hundred. Not such a good deal. I may try and teach my nine year old nephew how to fly on this plane.

White Raven

My Feedback: (1)

Hello all. This is my first post here after numerous visits over the past years or so. I joined because I am interested in learning more aout this plane, as the other forum groups I am on, are lacking on this item. It is sad to here so many bad experinces with this plane. Is anyone wanting to get rid of their, please let me know. I Have had many models, but nothing in the past few years. I wasn't a good pilot then either. I want to get a trainer, but local clubs seem to be full of glow elitists. I thought it was interesting that they aimed this plane at beginners. Seemed very promising, sorry to hear all the problems. Could anyone tell me what the weight of it is? How much Dihedral in in the wings? I'm not sure if I would buy one after hearing of the problems listed, but I wonder if this could be designed on a larger scale. Overall shape seems very flat, almost profile. -James

d_bodary

My Feedback: (85)

Mine weighs 25.6 ounces complete with battery. The airfoil is undercambered. And it flies pretty much like a little overweight glider. Not at all like a jet. Like i said earlier it is pretty docile.
I never measured the dihedral in mine but it is pretty substantial at the wing tips.
I would be interested in selling mine but shipping would probably cost 35.00. If i knew for sure i would be going to the Owosso swap meet i would meet you there with it. But i don't have a clue if i'm going or not.

pcpadgett

After 12 flights with the Single Pod, I decided to fly the Diablo with the Dual Pod. Oh No. Bad news. The added thrust did not make up for the added weight. The plane was nice slow and flat with the Single Pod, but bad slow and porpoising like crazy with the Dual Pod. Had to max out the down elevator trim to get it to fly. The Dual Pod added more weight to the tail. It flys just as slow. I had to fight the plane to get it back to the field. I am pulling the Dual and re-installing the Single Pod. At least it flys with the Single. I may try going brushless on the Single.

White Raven

My Feedback: (1)

Sorry to hear that... really is sad to hear about the lack of upgrade.

The Owosso meet, when is it? I tried searching, but recieved different dates. How much would you be asking for it if you were to sell it? Is there anyway you could give me an idea of dihedral(s) when you have a chance. Almost sounds like I would be better off scratch building something. The underchambered airfoil wasn't something I was expecting though... slow flying is fine with me, gives me time to build my skills.

d_bodary

My Feedback: (85)

Owosso swap meet according to the AMA magazine is drumroll please. Sunday 9am -3pm Feb. 3rd.

As far as selling it to you if shipping and handling is included it would really be out priced. What i would probably do is order one from Tower's scratch and dent or maybe even two of them if they are the same frequency. Repair them and then go fly. use one for parts or put that one together.
I think including shipping and handling i would probably have to get 135 to 140 for it.
From tower you could probably buy two for 80 each take 20 off the price and after shipping it be about 149 for the two.

The dehedral is mostly out on the wing tips. probably thirty degrees up on both wing tips. the main wing section is pretty much flat. think glider wing.

White Raven

My Feedback: (1)

20 off? Is that a coupon or something? It looks like I would have to join their club to be able to purchase any of the listed ones. What type of damage did your Diablo have? Looks like some of the less damaged are at $140... the $80's say sever damage, usually to the tail in most cases it looks like. At that point, I'm looking at about $80, $25, and shipping... Almost sounds like trying to scratch build using some exsisting equipment would be better. I have a WemoTech 480 fan, and two Eco 2 fans... it doesn't seem like the the Diablo even has much power... 370? It would be hard to believe that it would kick out more then about 10-12 ounces of thrust.

Marc00072

Guys,
I thought I found a durable trainer with available buddy box ($53) to get started but my search will continue. I am glad I read this before buying a Diablo. It sounded great on the website. Can you recommend a good trainer to begin? I am thinking I would like to have a plane with aerilons from the get go.

Thanks

niceschott

for your first (or near first) plane - assuming you're talking about an electric that you can fly in any open field - i really like the parkzone planes. i started a couple years ago with the J3 cub, but the P-51 is pretty sweet ... with ailerons and everything, and performs much better. it's cheap, easy to replace parts, and looks pretty cool too. just google parkzone p-51 and you'll see it.

Marc00072

So you would recommend the P-51 for a first time flyer?

Has anyone had a good experience with the Diablo? Has Tower or manufacturer made corrections to radio glitches?

dkme

niceschott,

Do you think you can get away with the P-51 as a first time plane? I can hover an axe-cp allright and I think I'm capable of taking it slow to start. How does it handle light winds?

niceschott

dkme - i totally think it's fine for a first timer. it's a bit heavier than the j-3 that i started with, so can handle winds a bit better, and since you said you wanted to start with something that had ailerons ... there's not much else out there that fits the bill. i'm not sure about this, but i think it's pretty easy to upgrade to a brushless on that one too once you get your chops. at the end of the day it's an equation: perfect beginner plane = price/ (something you won't get bored with too quickly) * (easy to replace parts when you crash) - scalability. or something like that ;-)

at the end of the day, what's the worst that could happen? you could buy a diablo. ha.

d_bodary

My Feedback: (85)

Raven

on my Diablo It was listed as severe damage to wing and stabilizer. Both wing tip ends were broke loose. a few drops of ca and they were fixed. The stab took a little bit of thinking. but after staring at it for 5 minutes. i took some straight pins thru it to hold it straight. Then put some medium ca on it and rubbed it in with my finger. yes i used a piece of waxed paper to keep the glue from my fingers. then let it set up for a few minutes. and the stab and elevator were fixed. pulled the pins out after letting it sit overnight.

as far as thrust measurements go. I have no way of making that measurement. But 12 oz. cannot be that far off it's probably close.

In a way it's unfortunate it is marketed as a jet. Because it flies more like a powered glider a little heavier But personally on calm days i do think it could be used as a trainer airplane. In the instructions it says fly with winds 5mph or less. The day i flew it was only a couple mph winds. In stock configuration 10mph winds would not be any fun at all.

aalope2001

I am still waiting for all my parts to arrive. I am building my Diablo from scratch. I purchased the body, advanced wing, and dual power pod. I have a six channel futaba controller and an electrify esc. I hope everything goes well. I want to modify the plane to add a landing gear, but I will do that after my first flight.

c-17 Criew chief

iv had my diablo for about 3 weeks. it my first plane. Its is great as a trainer, slow-and glider like flight caricteristics. I did notice the fact that it is hard to gain lift, that is because the cg is a bit to far forward, i mover it back some and it flys much better. It is a very durable plane. i broke the horizantal stab and with some regular CA and masking tape and about 1/2 hour drying time i was up in the air again learning.

I also moded my with some gear. trike style like on most fighters. with the cg about in the middle of the nose gear and mains. it lands good now. though one has to be carful not to put to much weight on when making the gear.( nose heavy is bad-it loses all its lift).

I am going to get the upgrades to day, i have high hopes for them. though with the duel pod i might have to up the bat from 1500mamps to 1800 or 2100. we will see.

Is going the be the t-28 trojan. need to wait till i get my tax refund back. MY salery doesnot alow for big purchases.

good luck with your planes

If you have problems with your plane, experiment. it cant hurt, it might even feel good to do it. To me that is the best part(when i dont crash), but then it is still alot of fun to fix it.

White Raven

My Feedback: (1)

Hey guys, could you do me a favor if any of you have time. I'd like some measurements. Fuse: width at wings, and at tail, nose to wing. Wings: root, poly, and tip chords. Span between points of poly, along with degrees or amounts of hedrial. Last, Tail surfaces, width, spans, tips and roots. I know it is alot to ask for, but I'd appreciate it.

cloud-base

Got my radio back from Hobbico. They said they found no problems. That is very frustrating! [:@] What do they do, test it across the lab table?!

I am not sure what my next step is going to be. I was hoping to get a nice beginner plane with everything included for the price. That, I did get (almost). I guess I will not stick with the cheap radio in the long run anyway, it is just that I don't have the money to upgrade right now to one that doesn't glitch. I'll try some mods and have fun when the weather gets better. Might just return the dual pod before I put it on and scuff it up from the sounds of previous posts.

Why don't companies sell the planes ARF and just deduct the price of a radio and receiver? It seems if you were in this hobby long enough you would build up quite a collection of junk radios?

White Raven

My Feedback: (1)

Yeah that sucks. It's hard to get a real good deal nowadays, I was excited by the Diablo, but after numerous reports of radio, cg, and lift problems, I won't buy one now. Maybe the parts t build one at most, but you are very correct, it should be sold as a ARF without the junk radio, or esc. Sorry to hear about your bad luck with hobbico.

After all this, I am simply just going to build a plane like the Diablo. If someone will help with measurements, I'll come close. If not, I have several designs in mind. I've built a few gliders, and have foam cutter equipment and materials. With what gear I have, I should have much better results. It's sad because the diablo as a trainer could be a real center of interest in the hobby... but the company seem to be tripping over bucks to pick up dimes.

pcpadgett

Had the same glitching problem with the Diablo radios. Sent them back to Hobbico and they are sending me a new receiver and transmitter, but the esc tested fine. I will probably just shelve their radio and esc, since I have already replaced them with a better system. I agree, they should sell the plane less radios or charge a few dollars more for a better system. Has anyone gone brushless with plane? The dual pod is a waste of money.

paul daniel

Hey guys. I have a Diablo and here are some thoughts. I never had radio problems with it and it flew OK with the single pod. It was tail heavy and I had to add about 1/2 oz of lead to the front. When I converted it to the duel pod and short wings it did not fly well at all. I think it was underpowered. Great Planes has had some good planes but this was just a bit off the mark. I think it has potential if they had put a bit more power in it. There are options for a PNP and I have had gread success with the ParkZone Typhoon2 and T-28.
Paul

c-17 Criew chief

i just upgraded my single egine pod w/ the brushless motor and 36 amp ecs. totaly difrent plane no lift problems very stable in the wind. it makes up for all the short commings with the stock motor. It is not undre powered anymore. i was 1 foot off the ground hit full throtle pulled up and it shot up fast to above the tree tops. able to do loops after a little down noes atitude and when it compleats it has bearly lost any of the origanl altitude.




As i said be for if your having problems with your plane, experiment, it cant hurt. It might even feel good.