Worth a Closer Look
Extra 300S 1.60 Almost Ready to Fly (ARF)
Gene Soucy — a three-time U.S. and Canadian national champion full-scale pilot — puts in thousands of hours of preparation and practice to earn his fame, but it takes modelers just 15–20 hours to be ready to thrill audiences with this Extra 300S.
Great Planes' 1/4-scale Extra 300S ARF was created in cooperation with air-show and competition pilot Gene Soucy and is the only licensed version of the world-famous aerobatic aircraft available today. The colorful trim scheme is all MonoKote and comes already applied to the prebuilt wood airframe. The aluminum spinner, tailwheel assembly, authentic sponsor decals, and horizon indicators for the wingtips are included.
Painted fiberglass parts (cowl and wheel pants) reproduce the full-scale Extra's contours. The two-piece wing slides together to form an easy-to-install one-piece wing, and then it slides apart to fit in a backseat or trunk.
Double-beveled control surfaces are linked to exterior servos and are generously sized for enhanced maneuvering. Airfoils on the fin and stabilizer also contribute to smooth flight and true tracking.
- Wingspan: 74 inches
- Wing area: 1,048 square inches
- Weight: 12–13.5 pounds (approx.)
- Engine: 1.20–1.60 (two-stroke) or .120–.180 (four-stroke)
- Radio: four- to six-channel radio with six servos
Price was not set at press time but should be available roughly when this review was published.
Great Planes Model Distributors Box 9021, Champaign IL 61826 Tel.: (800) 682-8948 Web site: www.greatplanes.com
USB Flight Data Recorder
Simple to set up and operate, the R/C Flight Data Recorder from Eagle Tree Systems measures and records information about your flight in real time. After your flight, plug the recorder into your PC or laptop and watch the included Windows application replay your flight, graphically displaying the flight parameters.
Among the items recorded during the flight are:
- Altitude
- Airspeed
- Rudder, ailerons, elevator (control-surface positions)
- Throttle
- Battery level
You can play back this data to analyze the flight or troubleshoot problems. The data can also be exported in an Excel-compatible data file.
The recorder is lightweight (less than 3 ounces with all cables), is opto-isolated from the model's flight pack, and has low power consumption (approximately 35 mA). A built-in status LED indicates onboard battery level on power-up and will retain all flight data without a battery.
Features and compatibility:
- Supports Mode 2 and Mode 1 transmitters
- Adjustable capture rate
- Compatible with Windows 98SE, ME, 2000, and XP
Everything you need is included: the recorder, a USB cable, a pitot tube for airspeed measurements, four Y connectors, software, and an instruction manual. Street price: $149.99.
Optional accessories (sold separately, use the recorder expansion port):
- Electric Expander — measures electric current, voltage, and rpm; $49.99
- Racer Expander — measures rpm and up to two temperature inputs; includes one rpm sensor and one temperature sensor; $29.99
Eagle Tree Systems, LLC 4957 Lakemont Blvd. S.E., Suite C-4 PMB 235, Bellevue WA 98006 Tel.: (888) 432-4744 Web site: www.eagletreesystems.com
RV-4 Park Flyer
With the RV-4, there's no need to drive back and forth to a flying field. Just grab it and go for clean, quiet electric flight at a park or schoolyard.
The quick-building RV-4 features lightweight all-wood construction. Full-span strip ailerons add aerobatic capability, making this a great intermediate model.
The RV-4 requires a four-channel radio with three microservos, an Electronic Speed Control, a motor, a gearbox, and a battery with charger.
- Wingspan: 41.8 inches
- Price: $64.99
- Wingspan: 35.4 inches
- Length: 35.9 inches
- Wing area: 255.8 square inches
In each installment of "Worth a Closer Look" we do our best to bring you new and exciting products from our industry. These write-ups are not press releases but are mini reviews written by the Model Aviation staff. In each instance the product or service is actually built, tested, flown, used, etc., to give you a firsthand account of how it performs.
We have found some of these items on our own, but many have been brought to our attention from outside sources. If you have a product or service that you feel might be "worth a closer look," contact Model Aviation Aeromodeling Editor Bob Hunt at (610) 614-1747, or send an e-mail to closerlook@airbornemedia.com.
Formosa Park Flyer
In the ever-evolving world of park flyers, GWS has introduced this unique new aircraft. It is a small electric-powered sport-pattern model.
Out of the box the Formosa is similar to other GWS designs: the entire airframe is made from injection-molded foam. The fuselage consists of left and right halves, and the wing and horizontal stabilizer are one-piece units.
A few dozen other plastic parts are included and make a complete hardware package, including a geared 370 motor. You will need a micro flight pack with four servos and a battery pack to power everything.
Although there aren't many parts, the instructions call for several of them to be assembled with the supplied glue, making the assembly process last longer than you might think. To allow sufficient drying time, wait several hours between steps. From start to finish, it took approximately three days to finish our Formosa.
The only problem we had was with the landing-gear wire. The 90° bends in the wire were surpassed, and trying to correct the bend caused the wire to break. Replacement struts were easy to make using the original wire as a guide.
Most printed information about the Formosa mentions a finished weight of 17–18 ounces. We were pleasantly surprised when our model weighed less than a pound (14.5 ounces) ready to fly with battery. Included in that weight are several nice features: a bolt-on wing, an 8.4-volt 830 mAh NiMH battery pack, a full-house four-channel radio system, and a canopy that doubles as a hatch, held in place with a strong magnet.
Flying the Formosa is fun. Don't expect to win at the Pattern Nationals with it, but it can perform a surprisingly wide variety of maneuvers in a small space. On takeoff, the 370 power system pulled the model into the air with authority and kept it in a good, steady climb.
After a few trim and photo passes, we explored the Formosa's capabilities and it didn't disappoint. Loops, figure 8s, hammerhead stalls, Immelmann turns, and more are easy to do from level flight. Rolls of all sorts — slow, point, and snap — are also simple to do, though some loss of altitude can be expected since this is a park flyer.
One of the more interesting aspects of the Formosa's flight performance is how well it flies at low power. It slows way down and floats steady as a rock. From an altitude of 50 feet, you'll have plenty of time to glide in and set up your approach.
The Formosa is a great kit. Its light weight coupled with a powerful geared motor will give you a good 10 minutes of high-performance flight without needing a great deal of sky.
GWS Formosa — $45.99; Slope Glider version — $32.99
Horizon Hobby Distributors 4105 Fieldstone Rd., Champaign IL 61822 Tel.: (800) 338-4639 Web site: www.horizonhobby.com
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
