I have been flying micro planes now for about 2 months. Before that, my flying experience was limited to balsa gliders and paper airplanes. Still, I went to an aviation school, and actually studied to be an Aerospace Engineer for a brief time. I love planes, and particularly love r/c planes. Sadly though, they have always been out of my reach financially (except for one miserable failed attempt a few years ago). Micro planes are definitely filling my desire to fly, and they are insanely affordable.
Last week, Amazon had a a pretty crazy sale. The XPV 2.0 Shadow Hawk was going for $17.99. Couldn’t help myself, had to have one. After all, list is $89 for these things. It arrived a few days later. And to get the free shipping offer, I ordered a Mini XPV, which I will review next week.
The weather today was nice. No breeze (very rare around here), and 49°F. Clear skies, a perfect day. I drove to the soccer complex I fly at (about 5 minutes from my office), only to find that the fields were covered with snow. Someone had plowed a path across the field though, so I would have somewhere dry to fly from.
I had removed the throttle spring when it came in last week (makes it much easier to fly), and charged the plane this morning. Tested the motors, and they worked well (they move a LOT of air!). Just for fun I tried a rolling launch off the snow. Didn’t work, and it should have been my first clue that something was wrong. It drew a nice left-arc in the snow (because of the wheels, the arc was obvious). I figured it was a matter of varying snow densities though and didn’t think much of it.
Next came a hand launch. With no headwind, this thing is a dog. Took a couple of tries to get the right AOA, and then it was airborne. At this point I was happy the field was covered in snow. It makes an excellent crash barrier that doesn’t do any damage.
Once I had it in the air, it “felt” like it was flying slow. But that is just because it is about twice the size of the Mini, and ways a lot more. In truth it was flying pretty quick, and I was quickly impressed by the range of the transmitter/ receiver combination (I have the 49MHz version, for what it’s worth).
I did notice that it wanted to fly left. It was hard to get it to go right, so I let it come back around, then descended for a recovery. This plane isn’t as graceful as some of the other micros. With no throttle, it has a pretty rapid rate of descent. And once it starts, there isn’t much time to recover. With the smaller planes, recovery is no problem. The XPV 2.0 kind of looks like a Jart when it heads into the snow from altitude.
I started twisting the airframe a bit, trying to get it to fly level (as you would do with a cheap balsa glider). This seemed to work, but the EPP foam has memory, so it didn’t last long. The next attempt was to change the thrust vector by twisting the motor mounts. Again, some success, but short lived. I’ll have to take a hair dryer or heat gun to it and make the changes permanent.
While the turning tendency is a bit disappointing, I am still impressed with this plane. Probably wouldn’t have been at $89, and I suspect there might be some angry parents on Christmas morning that paid full price for this thing. I have confidence I will be able to make the needed corrections and get it flying true. I needed a heavier plane for windy days, and this seems to fit the bill, especially with the great Tx/Rx range. If you can find one of these under $30, I would highly recommend it.
