ijustski

I have a lot of experience with the Aerobird Challenger and the previous planes from HobbyZone. The Aerobird is great in low winds and is very predictable. Many of the bad threads regarding the Aerobird are due to bad maintenance after wrecking the plane. Inexperienced flyers will typically pick it up and throw it again without checking to make sure tail is straight etc.,. I have destroyed 2 planes the past 5 months dog fighting with friends and I'm on my 3rd plane and flying strong. I go skiing and fly it at the end of the day. I don't know much about the "slow stick" but it looks like it would break apart with a bad landing. The Aerobird is tough and can be taped, glued, and bandaged like a soldier.

Hint: Throw away the landing gear when you get the plane. It is worthless. Tape wings ets. Read the threads to keep you flying.

I'm on the waiting list for the Aerobird Xtreme!
[email protected]
Manny

sailerf2

I would go with the GWS Slow Stick. I have one with a 2 cell litho-ply pack and it flies very nice and easy. A little while ago I put a 3 cell in it at an indoor event and it hovered. So this is a good plane for beginners and more advanced pilots.

lift off

Just got my ss last week. It is an awesome plane!!! The only problems I had were hooking up the radio gear but an hour of reading directions and some fiddling I got it to work. O ya if you are new like me buy some extra props!!! flys great. I can fly mine in a 3/4 acre lot no problem. I know nothing about the aero extreme but you cant go wrong with the slow stick

ajp340

the aerobird is the way to go, the ss gets boring fast, also its too small you can loose it if you fly too high the new areobird is gonna be awesome. also if your like me you like working on your plane theres not much to the ss, its whimpy
a good way to have a little fun and save money is to build the tail out of balsa, all you need it a dremel tool, sand papper, and some monocoat(use a household iron)the tension on the V tail makes it vulnerable to damage pretty easily. Also the plane is a "pusher" meaning the prop is in the back, so when you crash you wont break the prop, or bend the motor mount

Dopesick

ajp: is making an opinon here. Which is kewl. But I would say this. Talk to anyone doing SEVERE mods to the SS. it's not boring, and no you dont LOSE it when it's high up.

foreverNight

exactly HOW do you find the cg? What i mean is do you set it down and try to balance it on somethig? I'm using mini servos
and a 7.2 600 mah batt. i heard the leading edge of the wing should be like 5" in from the front.

Im A piolit Now

hope everyone didnt go run out and but one yet. just from my experience if you getting one cause your thinking its as durable as the aerobird its not. 3 weeks with a aerobird left me going home everytime with no fixes! 2 days of the same flying with the aerobird extreme left me buying a wing and 2 tails.....oh yeah i lost the nose piece after a litle nose dive from 5 feet up. well the extreme is my brothers but still it cant take that beating my aerobird takes

foreverNight

yeah i kinda figured that. The extreme is heavier. The bigger they are the harder they fall

ajp340

im building balsa tails- after about 7 or 8 ca fixes on it yes, it failed- sending the aerobird extreme nose first into the ground from about 100 ft' or so. As with the Challenger the still underpowered for its weight motor was sent through the fuselage and the circut board completely seperated from its mourings. Hobby Zone did'nt get it right.(again) I like the new more durable wing, you can really crank on it. Most of the wings folded on me when flying the Challenger. Lastly- why would hobby zone send a 1.8 charger when they make a 2.8 battery? So dumb!

FirebatFlyer

Here is a good place to buy the slow stick http://www.4mht.com/ i bought mine from there and they have nice prices and sweet prices on shipping and its fast. I believe you can buy the Slow Stick for 120 with transmitter.

NeoLogic

My vote is for the slow stick. My wife bought me the original Firebird a couple years ago for xmas, and I had a horrible time trying to fly that thing. Key word there is "try". The plane was very unresponsive to the controls, and it was only a two channel jobber. After wreaking and fixing that plane more times than I could count, and not once did I ever have a flight last longer than a second or two, I ended up throwing the entire thing away, because I could not take any of the electronics out, and use in another plane. Complete waste of money.

Now I have an SS. I have not flown it yet (I'm waiting for my Hitec Eclipse 7 to arrive), but I'm most confident I'll have it in the air with no problem, and most important, back on the ground with no fixes required. Infact, I consider this SS to be my first R/C aircraft, not the Firebird.... I feel that was more of a joke or a scam or complete ripoff. (I do understand there have been some improvements to the Aerobird and like) BTW, are they still 2 channel aircraft? If so, 3 channel (and of course 4 channel) have got to be much better in terms of capabilities.

I bought my entire setup at the LHS. I spoke with the guys that work there for quite some time to get thier opinion on which plane to get. I was looking at both the SS, and a Wingo clone they had.. I don't remember the name off the top of my head. I choose the SS of course... but let me get to my point..... What I'm trying to say here is that I choose the SS because from what everyone at the Hobby Shop told me, they are NOT boring, they can be heavily modded to do just about anything your imagination and pocketbook will allow. There is a guy at the field here that has been flying planes since the beginning of time, and he says one of his favorite planes is a SS that he has moddified to do just about anything. He has clipped the wings including the tail feathers, added a brushless motor with a 3cell LiPo, and he says it will go vertical forever at just 3/4 throttle. It's VERY good in wind now that he has done those mods, and you can still add tons of payload to the plane if you want.

I'm not so sure you can do this even with the latest generation of Fire/Aerobirds. I know for a fact you can't do this no matter what upgrades you put in a Wingo

So for anyone who says the SS is boring, or can't be used for acrobatics, really needs to do some homework, and read up on them first, or better yet go to your local field and talk with the people there about these amazing models. Yes they may not beable to do that stuff right out of the box, but I like to think outside the box myself

vindicator

Slowstick:

I've flown RC for over a decade.
Until last year I had never been involved in a midair, and I'd never flown at night.

Last year I bought a slowstick, built it stock.
The first day my buddy and I did some combat:
6, yes 6 midairs later, it was dark, so I had to stop flying.
The next night, I had my LED light set put together, and I flew for 2 hours after dark.

I've still got that airplane, and I've flown combat with it about 20 times.....
Granted, I've had to replace the wing, and quite a few props and prop shafts, and I've shortened the fuselage
but hey, not bad for $35, if you ask me. (course that's without gear)

Some mods, and tips...
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_17...tm.htm#1727879

20minpilot

You say you have video equip. on your challenger,,? I have a challenger and have been wanting to put a small camera or video on it,if ya don't mind could ya pass along what ya have on your bird? the extreme is supposed to have a camera attachment coming out sooon,just plugs right up to the x port!
'thanx

Nickerz

My Feedback: (1)

Here's my two cents...

Bottom line:
Hobby Zone planes are easier to START flying, not necessarily EASIER to fly.

I am considering the GWS Slowstick also and am pretty convinced this is the plane I want. Well, this or the GWS Tiger Moth.

BUT...

I have to give a lot of credit to the Hobby Zone line-up as I have the Firebird Commander and I have actually had a lot of fun with it and can imagine the Aerobird being even better! The thing I like the most about my Firebird (which goes the same with the Aerobird) is it's ready to go. That's it! Put the wing on and charge the battery and your ready! Also, it has the combat module and Aeriel drop module and I have had tons of fun with this! Sure, you can modify the SS for this, but again, you're looking at more work, whereas Hobby Zone is truly Plug-inPlay. I have video tape (which I'm going to try to make available here) of my buddy and me flying my Firebird Comm. off the roof of his house and I have put the 'lil thing into several trees, into a phone poll and bouncing off the powerlines and I haven't had to fix anything! Not even a prop. So Hobby Zone makes some tuff 'lil SOB's but I hear a lot of good things about the Slowstick too, in terms of sturdy flight. I will admit, the fishing line and rubber bands used to pilot the Hobby Zone planes need to be upgraded as the response is not that accurate.

So If you want to fly immediately, then maybe start with a Hobby Zone plane b/c they can take the damage you're going to inflict upon it. But I'm convinced that the SS is easier to fly and you can always try out the Slowstick later. I'm even hesitant about building the SS as I've heard about SOOO many mods and things that at this point, that I'm completely confused. By the time one is done modifying the SS with all of it's available parts, it should be able to go to the moon and back! But that's what makes the SS more fun I think. You can modify it to your hearts desire. If you're serious, you can make the plane serious, if you're not, you can keep the SS simple.

Nick

IthinkIcanFly

Well I couldn't resist myself to get started
First - this site is cool I found it on Google and since late night yesterday I have spent almost 4 hrs.
Anyway.. Here are my 2 cents on Aerobird vs GWS SS there are 2 parts

Part1 (The thrill)

My wife gave me Aerobird Challenger as wedding anniversary gift (My first RC plane ever)
I just followed the instruction in the book, charged the battery, took the plane to a park.
Waited too long for winds to die down and also people to leave but could not resist and started the motor.
It just took me 2 throws to get this plane into air and I simply started controlling it and it followed my command.
It was great I could turn it pretty precisely and obviously made a nose dive first landing... But nothing happened to the plane. Pretty excitnig!!!

Part2 (Not as much thrill)
Over the next 2 weeks I flew it probably 10 more times every time a bad landing, My fault though.
However, after 3 or 4 times I found that this plane is not that easy to control anymore.
It stalls often and I need to correct the pitch every time
7 out of 10 times landing results in crash unless you align it properly to landing spot and do a good job of cutting the power at the right time.
not to mention that being the first time Pilot I am not even going to attempt to use its Pro mode.

Bottom line, I really need a plane, which is slow and easy to control so that even my son can control it once I get it in the air.
And most of it, I should be able to make it land.
Whatever I read so far, looks like GWS ss is way to go.
I am pretty excited about GWS SS.
However, I am still confused and don't really know how much work is it and how much would a GWS SS cost me (The whole thing).
Some say 35, one says he could do it in 60, and sites tell me its close to 120$.
Can someone give more pointers...

Thanks

stevennh

Sorry it took me so long to respond. I did not see the post! I had a 200mw 2.4GHz tx and Panasonic CX-161 camera on the Aerobird with a s-bec converter connected to the flight battery (8.4v). This worked fine, but the weight was a bit much for the Aerobird. I made many flights with this setup. I put the camera under one side of the wing and the TX on the other with the antenna pointing down. I have since picked up an Extreme and it carries the same system with ease. I used the x-port for power. This setup works great and the plane is big enough to get really stable video. I posted a video on the video part of the forum. The tx and camera were purchased from BlackWidowAV.com and the 5v converter was purchased from firmtronics.com.

Steve

Time Pilot

The basic kit for a Slow Stick is around $35. That gives you the plane (I'd say easy to build in an afternoon), the motor and propeller. You still need to get an electronic speed control, a radio, batteries & charger, and a receiver and servos if the radio didn't come with them. This is where the price varies. Depending on what you get, it gets more expensive.

I looked at it from the standpoint that I'm going to be using the radio, servos and receiver in other planes, so didn't go cheap. Figure out what you can spend and go from there. Plan on getting some more props for the SS too. I am a fairly conservative flyer and have broken two already.

foreverNight

Get a slow stick.. very easy too build, you can get a good setup for around 150-175 bucks. plane. tx,
servos, reciever, esc, battery and charger. its easy to fly. flies slow and if you crash real bad its easy to fix. Or just buy another kit for 35 bucks! i guarantee it will alot more fun! AND best of all if you really enjoy this hobby and get hooked like most of us here you can use all your electronics in another plane, all you have to do is buy the plane. have fun

Time Pilot

What do you get in a $150 'good' setup for a Slow Stick?

This is how I'd price it out:

Kit: 35
ESC: 25
2 650 mah nimh batteries: 25
charger: 30
Futaba skysport with micro servos: 125

That brings you up to $240.

Then you need some extra props, packing tape (if you are going to do that mod), an extra prop shaft, maybe, etc.

The worst thing we could do to someone is tell them that they can get into it cheap only to find out it isn't. Kind of like the joke my brother-in-law plays on new parents: "After 6 weeks everything will go back to normal."

It's not the cheapest hobby to get into, but it is a lot of fun.

foreverNight

well it all depends on were you shop. I got a complete package deal on e-bay for 140 $ plane gws micro servos naro 4 ch reciever
4 ch tx ics 100 speed control and 7.2v 600mah batt and a really crappy charger. but, i use my hobbyzone peak charger to charge my
slow stick batteries.
I bought a couple 8.4v 730 mah batteies recently. Major improvement. So to get a good setup in my opinion arounnd 140-150$

connolly

how long does it take to chop the wings on the SS. I havent decided weather I want to get a SS or E-starter for a trainer.

Time Pilot

How long to cut the wings on a Slow Stick? They are made of foam. It will take you longer to get the motivation up to do it than to cut them.

connolly

Thanks for telling me. I'm new to this hobby, all the advise I get is helpfull. I heard that some of these guys have made some prety sweet modifications on the SS. Can it do any acrobatic stuff after that. And how fast does the slow stick go. I wanted to get a good beginner plane that would advace with me. If I did crash the SS is it faily easy to repair. Do you think there is a better trainer than the SS. All I'v heard is good stuff about it!!

Time Pilot

I wouldn't exactly call the Slow Stick acrobatic. Mine is pretty well stock and it will fly inverted, do loops and some other minor things. It has no ailerons, and is limited by that. Those who have added ailerons report that that modification is a waste of time.

How fast? Not sure. 20 mph full out? The name is a clue to it's speed. You can spend a pile on a brushless set-up, but if you want speed, you might want to look for another plane once you learn how to fly.

I've hit a pole on my second flight and nosed it in 2 weeks ago. The wing is a bit damaged, but the reinforced packing tape saved it, I'm sure, on the first crash. Putting about a foot of a 3/8" balsa stick down the front end saved the fuse from folding on the second one. I've read about people fixing the horizontal and vertical stabilizers with meat tray foam or 2 mil coroplast (plastic sign material). Drive shaft fairly easy to replace too....[&o]

It is the only airplane I've flown and think it is a great trainer and a heck of a lot of fun to fly. I wouldn't get your expecations too high with wild acrobatics though. And if you are going to fly it aggressively, make sure you modify the SS so you don't end up folding the wings.

connolly

Thanks, how good is the landing gear, have you had any problems with it. It seem's like alot of people have had problems with landing gears when it's just some wire. and do you hand launch the SS it doesn't look like it can turn on the ground. Is the SS faily easy to asemble? I think the SS is the way I want to go but I just want to make sure I know all the tricks so if I crash it it wont be destroyed