I'v been thinking about trying my first profile plane, and tower has a good price on these. I was wondering if this plane could help in teaching to 3D if the elevator and rudder were made larger?

I think you will find that there are a lot better planes out there than the Tower plane. My theory is if you are going to learn 3d do it with the plane that will make it the easiest because it is pretty d@mn hard to begin with.

I see things in a little different way....The Morris profiles are definitely the best for 3D, but they are expensive for a couple sheets of wood and a few sticks.

The Fun 51 is CHEAP! The wood is nice and the instructions and plans are also good. All the hardware needed is there. $45 is great price. Almost 1/3 as much as a Morris kit...The airplane is very light too. My Extra Special is 4 lb's with a Pro .46. The Extra Special is the exact same as the Fun 51 except for the fuselage shape. I got my Extra Special (I call it the POS) when they went down to $30 because they quit producing them. I wish I would have gotten about 5 of them!

They are not the best at 3D, that's definitely true. They will do it though and they will do it better than a lot of airplanes will.

If they are setup right, the Fun 51 will hover and torque roll great. It helped teach me and now I am doing tail touches with it everytime I go out...Knowing how much I paid for it and how easy it would be to repair it REALLY helps when it comes to learning 3D.

It will do an inverted harrier pretty well, but upright harriers are wobbly. It won't do an elevator, but it makes up for it with a climbing flat spin. It will also do very tight waterfalls and KE spins. Elevator and rudder authority is huge. There is no need to enlarge any of the control surfaces because the way it is there is more than enough authority.

For $45 there is no reason not to give this plane a try. Just throw the sticks around and have fun with it. Learn how to hover with this plane and then you can move up to a Morris Plane and you will be able to do ANYTHING with it!

A good cheap plane is the best way to learn 3D and this is a good choice. They are built very strong. I have thrown mine in nose first from 10-15 feet a couple times with NO damage. You won't regret this thing. I probably have 300 flights on mine and am not even close to being bored with it. This one is ALWAYS with me at the field...

If you don't mine spending the $110 or so on a Morris profile, get one. It will be a better 3D trainer and better flying plane, but that doesn't make the Fun 51's bad! With either one I am sure your flying skills with greatly improve and you will have more fun flying than you ever have before!

The airplane on the left under my name is a picture of my "POS"....

Here is a bigger pic-


http://www.********.net/pages/brian/rc/POS.jpg

That is good to know. I have never heard anyone praise this plane. The price is definetly right~!

I agree with Brian (BotleRcketWar).
I have the Fun 51. It's a great little plane!!!
A buddy of mine liked flying it so much, he bought a kit
and loves flying it just as much.

the fun 51 is cheap , but not much good at 3d it won't flat spin very well and you can't compare it to an extra special dosent fly the same , i know they are about the same plane but it just doesnt fly as well, if your looking for a cheap 3d plane buy yourself a an omp edge 540. now that is a great CHEAP little plane the kit is only 60.00 and yes you get no hardware with it but it does have landing gear and the servo's are in the tail so all you need is some 256 hardware that you could steal off your old trainer. . i have had a few extra specials and yes they are fun but they are a thing of the past get up to date and buy an omp. might as well start with something that is worth your while instead of old junk.
just my .02 cents worth
Chad

I built a Fun 51. It flys great, does all the 3D stuff. And it was cheap. The key to making this plane fly good is the right motor and prop. Set you throws as per the instructions. You can afford to crash one of these. If you want to drop the big bucks on a first 3d plane get a knife. That first crash will hurt a little more.

"instead of old junk."

Well, thank you very much Chad! I appreciate your comments. Hopefully I will get to fly my old junk tomorrow...

Billy, they can't 3D like a Top Cap or Sledge, but they are fun little things! For $45 with all the hardware, it can't be all bad. Now if I just had some more room in my car, I would have a Sledge or SuDuKhoi....I've flown someones SuDuKhoi a couple of times and that thing was so easy to hover it wasn't even funny. It also did a great harrier...I need to find someone with a Sledge so I can get some stick time on it!

Has anyone put a .61 engine in the tower fun 51? I am looking for a fun fly plane to use with my tower hobbies .61 engine. Just wondering how their fun 51 plane would work with this engine, even though the engine is 24 ounces with the muffler.

be to big and heavy , i liked the plane the best with a LA 46 , had plenty of power and heck the OS la46 is not a power house !!!


Chad

I've read of a few people here who have lengthened the fuse 4 inches and added 1 additional rib bay on both sides of the wing to accommodate a 60 size engine. I built mine stock with a tt 42 engine and am having a blast with it! In my opinion you can't beat it for the price! Just make sure you do not follow the recommendation to cut out the fuse where the landing gear sits, it creates a weak spot that you will be fixing all the time.... ask me how I know!

Don't use the .61, I really think you will regret it. The airplane will be very nose heavy and probably need both servos in the tail to counter it. The fuselage really doesn't have enough strength for that...

It will just be too heavy and you will lose everything the airplane was made for..It's not worth it.

I guess this thread is pretty dang old...hehe

I figured that it would probably be way to nose heavy with the big .61 in it.
Are there any other kits out there that are similar to the tower fun51 but use a .61 engine? I am looking for a very inexpensive fun fly type profile plane to use my tower .61 engine in.

The fun 51 is a good all around fun fly plane. In itself it isnt a great 3d bird by no means but it will teach y0ou the basics and it will do alot of the manuevers out there. The construction is very well designed for strength. The wing that I am flying now has seen 4 different fuses. No lie-(4). One crash even bent a crank in a 46fx. I am currently fling the wing in my ba-cap but with mods. I more than doubled the size of the ailerons and added to the tail moment. This is a awsome combination. Very stable platform in anyones hands. Oh yea, the wing started out from Stomper's fun51 that was done up in transparent blue with yellow and white checkerboard. I know the Bro's remember seeing that plane. But as far as cost, by the time you build, cover and equip the plane you could have bought an arf for about the same money. Hope this helps out, BAD ANDY

is there any difference between the fun 51 and the extra specail?

The Fun 51 and Extra Special have identical wings and ailerons. The shape of fuses and tails differ. I've had them both. My Extra Special died an untimely death so I replaced it with the Fun 51. As far as I can tell they fly identically.

Hi fella's I've heard about the OMP planes before but can't seem to locate any,where can I find them on the net?

http://www.ohiomodelplanes.com/

Here is a pic. of the latest fuse around the fun51 wing. I added fuse area to help with the high alpha knife edge. Instead of doing the typical iverted rudder drags I want to be able to drag the elevator side in high alpha. I am sure the wing will see another fuse and if not, I will have to build another wing. No biggy.. Later, BAD ANDY

Now that's a new one to me...and something to try...

You're really going to have to get the nose up for that. Seems like roll and even pitch coupling could be so bad with the fuse at such a high AOA that it will be REALLY hard to hold it. Hmm...

Something to think about...

Constrictor, The Extra Special's fuselage is the profile of an Extra 300. The Fun 51's fuselage is the profile of a P-51...

For a profile, I thought the Extra Special was a decent looking airplane.

I put a HB .61 in mine and it's pretty fast. It has a tendency to roll to the left on take off and has about a 7 min flight time but I am very happy with it and it will pretty much do anything and has unlimited verticle like Tomahawk cruise missile. Oh I had to put about a half pound of weight in the tail when I built it because I couldnt shove the engine back far enough.

I'm still flying my O.S. .46 FX Tower Extra Special. Lots and lots of flights, and at the cost of a $30 kit, hard to beat. Still a fun plane to fly, and does the best climbing inverted flat spin of any plane I've flown.

I love my fun 51. Its a great plane to fly i practic 3D with it, i also like to limbo it.

I have a Fun 51 and I love it. That's what I am learning 3D on. I can now do a solid hover with it and torque roll and the basic 3D moves. But let me tell you, it's not the best 3D plane, but as soon as you learn to hover this plane, you can hover any other plane that is capable very, very, easily.

get a omp 47' edge 540. great plane to throw around very tough.