Parkzone T-28 Trojan maiden flight, with video!
So last year around October I started to get into the RC airplane hobby, buying a simple 2 channel Firebird Commander 2. That plane was literally “gone with the wind” and I replaced it with a nice 3 channel Super Cub. The Super Cub is currently grounded because I have to glue the tail together. I’m hoping to fix that soon.
The latest plane I bought is a T-28 Trojan from Parkzone. It’s an RTF (Ready to Fly) model which means it comes with everything. The radio, Li-Po batteries, servos, ESC, even the AA batteries for the remote! You can get one of these for around $219.99, but if you have the rest of the parts already you can get the PNP (Plug and Play) model that comes without the the Li-Po battery and radio which goes around $159.99.
T-28 Trojan (you can see an animated version of this image in the video)
One of the main differences between this model and my Super Cub is that this plane has ailerons. Before I had to steer the plane with the rudder, but now that I have ailerons available, you can do a lot of more maneuvers and the plane becomes much more responsive. It also makes flying a bit more difficult, however the T-28 is nice starter plane for people moving to 4 channels and the radio has a setting that prevents you from over steering the ailerons too much (you can turn off this setting of course).
The plane comes in a nice big box, with everything that you need except the screwdriver. I say that because for some reason the Super Cub came with that too, which I thought was overkill but greatly appreciated. Putting the plane together was not too complicated, however the front landing gear was a pain and I couldn’t install it. There’s a very small screw that clamps on the landing wheel, and the screw would not move at all, to the point were I forced it and ended up with a stripped screw. Luckly, the folks at HobbyTown in Melbourne, FL removed and replaced it. Thanks!
This past Sunday, I made a short (2:30) video of my maiden flight with this plane and it was a lot of fun. My wife was operating the camera and our baby was there with us supervising the event. Everything went fine, until the landing, when I got some cross wind and unfortunately hit the curb. The right landing gear fell off, but it should be easy to glue back to the wing. Also the front wheel fell off, but that was just a matter of screwing it back in.
Right click and chose “Save As …” on this video link to download higher quality version.
I may get one of those FlyCamOne2 cameras, and get some more exciting onboard video. They seem to be around $100, I’m only worried about the image quality. It’s hard to evaluate as a lot of sample videos are in YouTube and that site really screws up with the original video quality.
I plan on flying this bird again this weekend, hopefully I’ll be able to make more maneuvers. One thing is, this plane is much faster than my Super Cub so I have to get used to that. For most of the time I was flying 1/4-1/3 throttle and it seemed pretty fast for me. It should be fun pushing this model to its limits to see how fast it can go. I’ll probably try a loop or two, but what I’m looking forward to is a bit of inverted flight. Not sure if I will be able to achieve that soon, but we’ll see.
Filed under: RC airplanes on May 1st, 2008
Hey, I see that you are getting pretty good at the aircraft. Will you start to build them out of balsa and use a fuel based engine?
Im comfortable here in NC and became “official” Friday with my Drivers license. At any rate keep in touch…
Jack
[...] trojan from Parkzone. … T-28 trojan you can see an animated version of this image in the videohttp://sellmic.com/blog/2008/05/01/parkzone-t-28-trojan-maiden-flight-with-video/Photos: North American T-28… Trojan Aircraft Pictures …Picture of the North American T-28… [...]