RCU Forums - Review of Hobby Lobby’s Eratix 3D 25e ARF

Review of Hobby Lobby’s Eratix 3D 25e ARF

Before purchasing the Eratix 25e, I had nothing but praise for E-flight’s products. However, something’s changed at E-flight and it’s not for the better. My previous model, Extra, was superior in all aspects. The manual was explicit, the quality was superb and the design excellent. I have no such praise at all for the Eratix, and the best adjective for this model would be cheap, very cheap. I would normally expect an arf airplane of this quality to be listed on Banana Hobby for about $65, max, with shipping. Here’s a list of some items that will justify my evaluation:

1. Aerodynamically, E-flight took a major shortcut by designing the tail like a flat board.
2. Both the vertical stabilizer and horizontal stabilizers have no aerodynamic qualities at all.
3. The nose cowl is too long to fit the motor, E-flight Power 32-e. I imagine it would be worse for the 25-e. Spacers are required to move the motor out far enough to clear the cowl. These spacers serve as excellent vibration enhancement.
4. The aileron servos are mounted very close to the fuselage which would exasperate aileron twisting at the far edge.
5. The wing’s ribs have a huge gap between them, reducing the overall strength.
6. It looks like the designers didn’t know how to stop building the wing, so they just quit without making a wing tip.
7. The hardware was sparse and several pieces were missing. The bolts that hold the wing to the fuselage would not thread into the blind nuts, so I had to replace them with my spare parts.
8. The landing gear is very, very weak. The metal itself is half the thickness of the comparable Hobby King’s Moneyshot. Just putting the model on the ground carefully results in the outward bending of the gear. A hard landing will probably flex the gear out far enough for a prop strike.
9. The axles are nothing but threaded bolts. The plastic wheels will soon wear with the friction and cause wobbling.
Needless to say, I am very disappointed with this airplane and will avoid E-flight in the future.