Best of the Foam Turbine PNP's?
 

Is there any one foam turbine/edf company that stands above the rest? I've been looking at HSD and Aerofoam, and the best I can tell is the hsd comes with a power distribution board, and the aerofoams do not? Is the foam comparable to a typical eflite epo model like a viper? Are the retracts and servos in the pnp versions decent enough to trust and use or are people swapping in more mainstream electronics/retracts? The price is attractive, how is parts availability and support for either? Does any one model stand out from the rest in terms of quality or flight characteristics? I'd like to get into turbines with something semi disposable vs a high end carf or the like, are these worth the savings?

I have seen several HSD fly and they seem to do well. I have not seen Aerofoam to compare.

comparing foam airframes is sorta like trying to compare the ways of being murdered,

there is no best one...
they all sorta suck.

I've owned an HSD SuperViper with a K60 G2 for several years now and it flys very nicely. I used the stock servos and I haven't had any issue with them. I routinely fly it off of a far from perfectly smooth grass field and it it's held up to this fairly rough service for many flights without any issues. I've heard some claim it's fragile and the gear tears out but I've caught divots in the runway(I did say less than perfect right ?) that practically stopped the SuperViper dead in it's tracks and it didn't tear out the gear or damage it in anyway.. If someone is tearing the gear out of one of these I'd hate to see what type of landing would do that, or maybe I'm just lucky (Im not, not even a little)...

It's foam, and lets face it, it's not very classy but it was inexpensive (as turbines go) it's flies great and it's held up well. I've got other nicer jets but if I just feel like flying something small that's easy to transports and fun to fly it's my first choice..

The super viper, L39, and the j10 were the ones i was considering. Does the k60 power the viper well or would an 80 be better? What kind of flight times are you getting, did you swap out or add any fuel tanks?

I have two AF jets. A MB339 and L39.
The MB339 works pretty good, but I have it under powered with a X45. I didn't have any issues with this model.
The L39 has an X90 in it. This is almost too much power :). My L39 was the pro version with metal gear servos. It flies great. I probably could rip the wings off with the X90.
Here is the good:
1. The control surface hardware is good.
2. The fuel system is good
3. The pipe is good.
4. It is a nice flying airplane

Here is the bad:
1. The servos wouldn't stop buzzing so I took them out and put in MKS 747 servos. Much better
2. The landing gear control had an odd quirk - whenever it was powered up, the gear would retract. Not acceptable and I couldn't work it out, so I put an Xicoy controller in.
3. The wheels and brakes are JP, which is good, but they seem a bit weak.

Mine came out nose heavy and I moved the batteries to the top of the fuel tank. I got rid of the power board too, and run the whole thing as high voltage. I don't know if the gear door servos will last, but so far they have.
I got the blue-white camouflage version. It looks great, but the camouflage works too good. I may paint the tip tanks orange so I can see it.

Thats not true, there are some really really nice all foam jets now.

To each his own...

I use the stock tank and removed the smoke tank and smoke pump from mine which took close to ~8oz out of it. Since I fly it primarily off of grass I didn't want the added weight of increased fuel capacity and and I typically fly about 6 minutes and land with about 15% fuel remaining. I'd much rather have a really nice, 6 minute flight than wrestle a pig for 10 minutes so I wouldn't go loading it up with a lot to extra fuel, larger turbine, huge batteries, etc..

I consider the k60 to be adequate. It seems they are still recommending a 60N Turbine. I've never been a fan of using turbines larger than recommended so I probably would stick with a 60 or perhaps a K70 G4 which should have a bit more power without any additional (maybe less ?) weight.

There is a YouTube video of a guy comparing the two brands HSD and Aerofoam on YouTube. He has 4 videos and does a good job explaining both.

my buddy has the MB339 from Aerofoam (edf) and we fly of grass. It’s holding up good. The foam is very thick but light.

I had the HSD super viper. It flew pretty decent, but was heavy - like 21lbs without smoke at take-off. I fully get where you are coming from as far as getting into jets 'cheap'. My only recommendation is if you get the viper put an SW80b in it, or get one of the jets designed around the 80 as it has a much wider range of use in other jets, IMO. For an aerobatic sport jet, the viper had some coupling and tip stall issues but was manageable. I was thinking about a throw-around foamy and my money would go to the HSD L39 or F-86. they both fly extremely well.

Wow, 21lbs is a real chunk of lead for a SuperViper. Not sure what you put in yours but my scale says (and yes I actually weighed it) that my Super Viper weighs 14lbs dry which should mean about 17lbs with a full load of fuel. At it's current weight, doesn't have either of the issues mentioned. Not sure where all the weight you're talking about came from but mine doesn't feel the least bit heavy for it's size. Also, it has no problems getting airborne off of grass with about a 250-300' takeoff roll with the K60 G2. It is true that there aren't a lot of choices for 60 size turbines around but if an 80 would increase the weight any significant amount it would pribably be better to find something designed with a 80 in mind rather than load up a SuperViper with a heavier turbine and extra fuel..

Swiwin 60 and 80 weigh the same. Maybe they've changed something with the foam structure since they first came out. I noticed they now advertise as "EPO 20 times" foam. Mine was one of the very first ones. I think mine was 17 empty, with sw60b.

I have owned several HSD foam jets and also the Aerofoam L39. All have been good planes but the Aerofoam L39 is my favorite and has no bad habits at all. My L39 is about 2 years old with 140 flights and still looks good. From my experience the Foam planes are actually tougher in some ways than Composite planes. I had the HSD Super Viper and the 1st gen HSD F16.

I had the very 1st foam HSD PNP kit back in the day when Thomas was still @ HSD (2017). Came with a Swiwin 60 and a smoke setup in it - flew great. Out of the box and in the air in 1hr! Probably 20 or so flight and no issues. I have flown my friends Aerofoam L39 and was shocked with it's performance on the 80N on it. Rock solid - knife edge was a breeze and and slow flight was very stable... No flex on the aerofoam. Good stuff!

If you get an Aerofoam you have to make sure you re-glue your stab and wing mounts.

I ended up finding a great deal on a boomerang XL so I'm going to be starting with that. The foam pnp stuff certainly seems worth considering though.