triggerdawg

hey guys,
my friends and i are thinking of getting a few fighterbirds from hobbyzone. can anyone please give me any advice on whether or not to buy it? They are new to rc planes and think that this would be good to start with. they all like the idea of the sonic combat module since we are all so competitive. i am still iffy about the investment............any thoughs or comments would be greatly appreciated. thanks

hando

well. i talked a couple of my friends into getting 'em and it was about two days worth of fun... mine is the only one that survived. i'd like to think that it is because of my extensive rc experience but i think i just got lucky. these things fly like giant turds. if you've flown rc before, you'll have a hard time getting used to using the throttle to control elevation. if not, you'll have trouble with everything else. they are pretty unresponsive at the beginning of a turn but if you keep the pressure on, they have a tendency to go into a death spiral. you can recover if you have enough altitude but if you're near the ground it's a crash.

that being said, they are surprisingly durable and can be fun if you get used to the controls before the plane is toast. mine even survived and unscheduled landing in a local pond (don't ask). and if you get good enough to do combat ( i think we had a total of three confirmed kills ) it is a real blast. if you get real good, you might be able to do a loop. i would recommend against attempting this however due to the fact that the wing might decide to fold ( ask me how i know this).

one point to note: if you nose it in real hard, it may not want to fly. i scratched my head on this one for a while before i realized that the tail boom can actually pop out of place causing a severe lack of lift due to an improper tail plane incidence. this is easily remedied by grasping the tail boom firmly in one hand and the body in the other and then snapping the tail boom back (up) into position. (ask if this is unclear)

hope you find this helpful
hando

triggerdawg

thank you very much for the info. i have been flying for about 6 months, but the other guys are new. they all think that this is a good investment. i hope that it will be more fun than two days worth, but i have to say that you are probably right. these guys will in up hurting themselves trying to shoot each down. lol do you have any alternatives besides the fighterbirds?

hando

i haven't really seen anything like it. i think some of the higher end setups from hobby zone can take the combat module now but i haven't had a chance to look into it. if you can get something 3 channel it might be ok. if these guys are ok with dropping the cash, go for it. we had some fun with it. the only problem is that my pals got tired of getting replacement parts. when you only have one, it's just not the same.

the only thing i have seen that comes close is an ir combat module that looks to be programmable. goes for about 50 bucks. can't remember who made it but didn't want to test it because of the fact that it uses ir (light) to register 'hits'. what happens if you try to use it on a sunny day? the up side of this thing is that you can use it on any rc aircraft. if they could somehow make it sonic... i can try to find more info on it if you're interested.

as far as flying combat with the new pilots, maybe take up a position from which you can dive behind something solid if the need arises

saveorhto

My friend and I bought the Aerobird Challenger. If the fighterbird does not have the same controls as the Challenger (fighterbird = the only way to climb is to use the throttle), the buy the Challenger. It takes the combat module and is a blast to fly. We are new to RC flying and these planes have been great! I have crashed mine many times (due to very aggressive flying before I was ready) and with some quick repairs and CHEAP spare parts, you are quickly back up in the air. After my friend and I get a bit better, we are totally getting the combat modules.

Hope that helps.

-S.O.

Scar

My Feedback: (3)

If combat is what you really want to do, why not check out one of the interactive combat flight simulators? There used to be one called "Warbirds" or something like that. You could choose any fighters from 3 or 4 countries, do combat, and if you get shot down, you just hit reset.

The 1/12 size RC guys fly their version of combat, using ribbons. You trail a ribbon, and the other guy tries to grab your ribbon with the glue-painted leading edge of his wing.

Good luck,
Dave Olson

triggerdawg

yeah, i heard about the ribbon thing.......sounds cool, but i don't think the guys are ready for that yet. and the simulator thing isn't really what they want. i talked to them today and they think they still want the fighterbirds. i am thinking about getting the aerobird and adding the combat module.
all and all i really am glad to get this info. it sounds like we will enjoy the combat if we can learn to fly these type planes. it still sounds like they may be kinda hard to fly, but afterwards it should be ok.

qban_flyer

Suffice it to say these Fighterbirds possess a mind of their own. I saw one fly away while six of us were passing the TX around to see if we could get it back to the field as it would only turn in one direction after having been "flown" properly twice before. We never saw that it again. Of all the ones I have seen "flying" (12 or 13 of them so far) only one seemed to do so in a passable manner, with a remote semblance of controllability.

Flying Turd, now there is a term which describes models of this type with truthful simplicity. I must think of that one when someone asks what my opinion of these "birds" really is. I wouldn't recommend them to my worst enemy.