There is a question that has been bothering me for a while about the huge number of alleged "beginner" planes that work with two channels and have twin motors, relying on differential thrust for directional control and power level for pitch control. Can someone who has one tell me:

How do you control these to a safe landing when the flight battery runs out?

With a conventional design the ESC cuts power to the motor when the battery gets low, so your servos still have power to do a "dead stick" landing. In these planes there is no servo, no control at all without the motors, so what happens?

I can tell you that in my experience I was very disappointed on how it flew, you either had full power to both engines or full in one and 50% in the other to turn with. There was no actual throttle control to fly level with unless you where taping the stick which gets very irritating. But to answer your question if you where smart you could tell when the plane wasnt climbing as quickly as normal which was your que to bring it down. The one i had was by flyzone (forgot the name but it had a 34" wingspan & was red) dont waste your $ on it it was very poor quality and i promptly returned it.

One word answers your questions - crash.

If you have any interest in continuuing in the hobby beyond that first purchase I would pass on these type airplanes.

Dont near those planes. Crashed 2 until i learned that there is some thing called servos. Once u go downward you will almost never get it to climb again. IF u get the elevator trim up, it will always try to climb which make it stall. worst trainners

The first electric I bought for my 11yr old grandson was a differential thrust plane. It was a joke. Would not recomend one. You need to learn how an airplane flys, not just how to fly one.

AMEN, Just boycott these trainer crashers.

i have a 2 channel tyco sky scorcher that flys very well for what it is, it only cost £30 from my local argos store, the included battery charger is a joke but that little 130mah 4 cell ni-mh battery loves a bit of time at 1 amp on my peak charger, now the battery is well cycled it gives you about 3-4 mins of good flight time, as long as there is pretty much no wind its a real blast to fly, the great thing about this model over most other cheap 2 channel planes i have looked at is the fact it has 3 throttle speeds(the first 2 are selected by simply pressing and releasing, the third requires you to hold the button), each performs its function flawelessly making the plane very easy to fly and control, it also turns very well, ill try and get some video soon, my ABX should be here tomorow so i think the baby tyco will get some well needed rest

To answer your question about landing.

Most of these planes have a voltage cut off that will prevent you from applying throttle once the battery gets to a certain level. Just like most other electric planes. However the ones I have flown will still leave you enough power for some directional control. That is you can run one motor or the other but you can't run both. So you are in a glide with limited direction and no pitch influence at all.

I have flown a few of these. The HobbyZone outlaw was the best of hte bunch because it has the best glide of any that I tried. However I don't recommend these planes to anyone other than as toys for a little passing fun. They will fly and under dead calm conditions they can be fun.

The two channel T/R planes, like the HobbyZone Scout, Firebirds, Commander and similar planes give you more control. At least these planes can be forced into a spiral dive so you can bring them down. The two motor planes can't even do that.

Thanks for enlightening me on this. I felt sure the makers must have tried to make SOME provision for the dying battery situation.