Electric

I was thinking that maybe I should bring my nephew over to the dark side with me, and teach him about this wonderful hobby. Giving him an RC car from RadioShack wouldn't exactly be bringing him over, so the only other thing that came to mind was FlyZone's SkyFly RTF. The assembly would turn him off, even though it can be done in minutes. But the actual time using the plane would be a completely different story.

The Align T-Rex 450 series is perhaps the best known of the mini-size electric helicopters. Many reviews are available online, including this thorough one at T-Rex Tuning. In this article I'm going to sum up the positive and negative experiences I had building the 450S aluminum kit, and include a list of tips to help you out.

ParkZone has introduced two new indoor electric planes, operated by Spektrum-compatible 2.4 GHz radios. At left is the Ember RTF, which has a wingspan of 16 inches and a flying weight of 0.6 ounces. We saw this plane fly at the WRAM Show and were impressed with its agility. It's a three channel model with throttle, elevator, and rudder control.

At right is the Vapor RTF, which will be available in June and has a 14.75 inch wingspan and weighs even less at 0.4 ounces. It will also come in a Bind-N-Fly configuration, meaning you supply a DSM2 radio such as a Spektrum DX7 or DX6i. Owners of the E-flite Blade CX2 can also reuse that spread spectrum radio with this model, which is appealing. Both planes operate on a single cell LiPo battery and charger, both of which are included.

Since the release of the Traxxas Revo in 2004, it has dominated at the track because of it's unique F1 style suspension and new chassis design. The Revo also saw a change in 2006, the 3.3 racing engine debuted so Traxxas incorperated it into the new Revo 3.3. The Revo now sees another change- electric!

The eLogger V3 from Eagle Tree Systems is an in-flight data logger which continuously records volts, amps, watts, and milliamp-hours to enable pilots to analyze the performance of their electric power systems. In addition, it supports a wide variety of optional sensors to record altitude, airspeed, component temperatures, RPM, and more.

Three interesting flying wings have caught my attention recently. The first is the VecJet from New Directions RC. This traditional wing with pusher prop has a very untraditional feature - vectored thrust. That means the motor is mounted on a shaft attached to the rudder, and turns left and right with it. This setup enables the VecJet's signature move, the "spin cycle", where it spins madly like a boomerang. Check out a video of the plane in action.

Not very long ago, Losi released their 1/18th scale Mini Slider, which gave life to a usually un-heard of class, 1/18th scale oval racing. Now that there was an easy way to get into the action, many Mini Sliders were sold, and RC tracks all over the country were building small purpose built oval tracks just for these trucks. Now, losi has given us all another option for a miniature scaled oval racer, their all new Late Model 1/18th Scale Oval Racer.The oval racer is packed with tons of new features like a longer, more stable chassis, multiple battery mounting locations, a RX-280 high speed motor, long arm suspension with oil-filled shocks, a low profile rear shock tower and short shocks, and much more.

The ElectriFly Reactor 3D from Great Planes is a 41" wingspan, mid-wing acrobatic plane. It is aimed at intermediate and expert pilots looking for a 3D-capable park flyer. With huge control surfaces and no dihedral, I was really excited to build this plane and get up in the air.

Team Losi is well known for making popular 1/10th scale vehicles. Some of those vehicles are the XXX-NT, XXX-T, and now, the all new, Team Losi 1/10th scale Speed-T. The Speed -T is equipped with a brushless system right out of the box, and is sure to become a big hit. The also fairly new Losi XCelorin brushless system included with the kit includes the high-speed 4800KV Motor, and a programmable ESC that includes a Quick Programming Card with selectable ESC settings that are preprogrammed for your convenience. Some other great features included with the Speed-T are things like a high-torque digital steering servo, a wheelie bar to handle the tire shredding torque, EC3 Low Resistant battery power connectors, and a low chassis design to ensure the best handling.

Great Planes has just announced the ElectriFly 3D Reactor Bipe, an acrobatic ARF based on the existing Reactor.