Funjet Ultra White Edition

Well, as many of you will know I am a massive fan of the Multiplex product range and especially love the Funjet. I have owned 2 Funjets and vowed when my second one died that I would upgrade to the Ultra but still to this day it is still flying well, albeit a little tired now.  Anyway, whilst searching the net the other day I found that Hobbystores had the Fun Jet Ultra power set on a special offer at £99.99 (not any more) so I ordered one as this was a £40 saving. Also, West London Models had the Funjet Ultra White Edition at the special offer price of £62.99 so I thought it was time to take the plunge.

Anyway, I wont go into a long and extensive build blog as these are so easy to put together anyone could do it. I started by laying it all out first, then mounting the motor into the mount and glued it all together. I have used 2 x cheap metal geared digital servos from Hobbyking (Hobbyking 939MG) as I had them lying around and I only had to make a minor trim to get them to fit. Im using my DX8 Transmitter with one of the new OrangeRX 710 receiver with an additional OrangeRX R100 satellite receiver. Both of these I highly recommend, especially in a model as quick as this as it covers a lot of sky…very quickly.

Anyway, here is a photo almost finished but halfway through adding the stickers.

MPX Funjet Ultra WE

Resting on top of the Sofa waiting for the batteries to arrive from Hobbyking

My Funjet Ultra WE

I’ve gone for 2 x Turnigy Nano-tech 3300 mAh 3S 45 – 90 C rated.

Update 6th April 2013: The maiden flight was very successful albeit I was a bit nervous. No trimming was required at all which was a first on C of G was spot on as per the instructions. Even at half throttle this plane covers a lot of sky very quickly and when you open it up its really does go. Roll rates are extremely quick even with dual rates at 80%.

Anyway take a quick look below at the maiden flight video filmed by Mark and launched by Alex with moral support from the other Worcester Mad Hatter model flyers:

Modelspot.com Logo

Hi All,
This post it a little out of date but this is the first time I have had chance to update the site. It is sad news that Punctilio Modespot (aka www.modelspot.com) has closed their doors for the last time.

Here is their final note before the site went down.

“It is with great regret that Punctilio Modelspot Ltd has ceased trading and the shop is now closed. A combination of extremely poor local and national trading conditions, general austerity, coupled with competition from overseas dealers actively engaged in exploiting VAT avoidance loopholes, make it impossible for us to continue in the current trading environment as a high street shop. We would like to thank those who supported us over our previous 41 years of trading.”

This is very sad news and I’d welcome any debates on here regarding this. I have been a great supporter of this shop for many years, I bought my first Twin Star from them around 15 years ago and many more models since. I knew they had recently moved premises but I suspected something was wrong when I dropped into the new shop just after Christmas. I was hoping to buy a Fun Cub, but sadly no stock so I thought maybe a Funjet Ultra, once again, no stock. Gordon barely stopped eating his sandwich to serve me and did not get up once from behind the counter so I suspected things were not good.

Its a real shame and yes, the likes of Hobbyking do have a part to pay in the demise of many local shops, but I can not help but think that its the wholesalers who are more to blame in the UK. The likes of Ripmax, J Perkins, Amarang, Horizon etc etc have been buying in items from the far east and then putting their margin on before the model shop can have their bit.

Should these shops have adapted years ago and started to buy direct from China, the likes of Weston UK has been doing this for many years?

Whilst I am a great lover of Multiplex products something was brought to my attention in the last few months which did concern me. I have been told by a number of model shops that sell Multiplex (buying from Gordon the Multiplex agent and owner of Modelspot), that they must not sell below the recommended retail price otherwise they would refuse to supply them. I can only say this has been told to me verbally, but this practice is not legal, this is in breach of competition law. A shop should be able to sell their products at what ever price they want and a customer should be able to shop around for the best price. I wonder that if this practice of what is basically “price fixing” (If it was true) has not helped the UK model industry and has effectively opened the door wide open for the likes of Hobbyking to exploit, albeit to the customers advantage. Do the other wholesalers also specify a minimum price or impose restrictions such as refusing to deal with them because of “X”? I was told that model shop who tried to adapt by buying in Orange RX receivers had been warned that they would not be able to purchase Spektrum Transmitters if they continued to offer these alternatives to Spektrum receivers.

Food for thought but please feel free to debate below.

Kevins Cessna Maiden Flight

Hobbyking A5 Seaplane (Icon Ccopy) + FMS Fox 2.3

GoPro Hero 3

For many years I have been trying to get some good footage on board a model aircraft. I have tried many different cameras but without a doubt, this is best I have tried yet…. the GoPro Hero 3. You can change the settings and start/stop the recording from either the camera or an App on your phone. Next is to link this camera into an FPV system with on OSD (on screen display)

Anyway.. here is a short video of my first flight with the GoPro Hero mounted on a Multiplex Easystar. Any questions ? Just make a comment.

X230 Mini Quadcopter

I felt I was getting a bit behind with all the talk of tricopters, quad copters and now even hex and octocopters so I thought I would start off with a basic kit to see what all the fuss is about.

I decided to order the X230 Mini Quadcopter ARF kit from Hobbyking and kit it out with a KK2.o Multi-Rotor LCD Flight control board.

I woke up early one morning and decided to start building, here are the pieces of the puzzle laid out. This kit comes with all the motors, props and ESC’s

Within a few minutes the frame went together very nicely.

Next was to mount the PCB where all the ESC’s connect together to allow you to have one battery plug.

Motors fitted

At this point you need to decide whether you intent to fly in X or + configuration so you can ensure that the KK Board is pointing forward in the direction you intend to fly, I went for X configuration. You can see from the picture below with the LCD screen illuminated and connected to the orange RX receiver. I simply set up the TX in basic aircraft mode, the KK board converts the signals from the RX very cleverly into a 4 motor control signals. The inbuilt gyros in the KK board give the model additional stability and adjust the motor speeds to compensate.

Setting up the KK Board itself is very easily done using the 4 buttons at the bottom. You work your way through the menus to tell it what configuration you are running and it even tells you which direct the motors need to run via the LCD. You need to calibrate the sensors but all in all the whole set up too only 10 mins. There are some detailed set up tips on the RC groups and Youtube which I strongly recommend reading and watching first such as ensuring the board see’s your sticks in a neutral position before calibration.

Flying this mini quad is very straight forward but some helicopter experience is required to hit the ground running, otherwise a fair bit of practice is required. Just remember, keep the sticks neutral upon take off otherwise it will try to over compensate.

The board basically runs in 2 modes with either self levelling on or off being the 2 big differences. With it off it is similar to a helicopter without heading lock but with it on the model is more stable on its own but don’t thing it will hover without input for long, it won’t, its still needs to be kept control of.

More to follow when I do some videos.

Great looking bit of kit and the plane isn’t bad either.

Isn’t it just great when you find a great model in the shed that you just havent had chance or time to build.

This must have been in my shed in the box for at least 5 years as they are no longer available. I’ve fitted a very small Hacker A10 2200KV outrunner, 8×4.3 slow fly prop and will run with some 700mAh 2S pack that I have had lying around for ages.

Just need a calm day to go out and fly it as these little birds don’t like the wind.

Well packed, no damage

Quite simply screw the blades together, slide the horizontal stabiliser onto the boom, glue in the vertical stabiliser, fit the prop and connect the linkages. All in all took 15 mins to put together.



Now its ready to fly

Click here for a direct link to the Durafly Auto-G Gyrocopter on the Hobbyking Website