The Puri flying wing plan pack that I ordered from vth.de arrived while I was at work yesterday. They didn’t send me an email confirming dispatch, so I didn’t know it was coming, but I’m still just as excited. I ordered it late on Sunday evening and it arrived on the Tuesday the week after, so it took about a week and a day to get here. Not bad when you consider that they probably had to laser it first.
I did make one mistake, though. I assumed that a wood pack would contain a full size plan, but apparently not. You have to order that separately, so I should have ticked both boxes and paid an extra 14 euros for the construction plan. No matter, I’ve got the laser cut parts, so I can always draw up my own plan.
Inside the envelope it’s all adequately packed and they do give you an A4 sheet containing a top view of all the parts. I could build it from that, but there’s a build video on YouTube by Bavarian RC and you can also download the magazine article (in English). Go to the e-commerce site where you buy the parts from (here: https://en.shop.vth.de/holzbausatz_puri-6211949/ ). On a desktop computer you can click on the “…building instructions for this model here” link, but I had a few issues on Android. I ended up having to click and hold to get a menu on the link, then use “download link” and say yes to confirm the insecure download. OK, so I now have instructions on my phone too.
This is what you get in the pack.
I was surprised, because I thought it was all plywood. Actually, its two ply sheets with the ribs on (the right most two in the image) and three sheets of balsa. Then there is a small piece of ply with the horns and two hatches, plus four bits of carbon rod.
It all looks very impressive and I can’t wait to build it.
Here are the individual pieces.
I don’t know about you, but I can see how it goes together from here. All I need to do now is to order some Oracover film, thin cyano and a couple of HS40 servos as I’ve decided to use the same ones as they used in the German magazine article and in the RCM&E review. I was waiting for the email telling me that the Puri had been dispatched before I ordered the (very expensive) film, but, as I didn’t get an email, there’s going to be a bit of a delay. I could probably make this in about a week, so it should hopefully be flying soon.
I’m off to spend a lot of money on transparent Oracover now.
After seeing two P51s flying last week, I just had to have my own one, so I placed an order with RobotBirds on Monday, the aircraft arrived on Friday and I’m hoping to fly it on Sunday. You can’t ask for better service than that. I’m very impressed with what I’ve got for my £73.
So what’s in the box then?
The aircraft arrives very safely packed on one side of the polystyrene cube, while the transmitter and other bits are packed on the other side.
These are the bits that you get with it:
A spare prop and adapter are a very nice touch. In fact, the prop has a very clever prop saver mechanism which allows it to pop off in the event of a crash and prevent damage.
You can’t quite read it, but it has 130×70 written on the back, which is the diameter and pitch in millimetres. If you turn it around there’s a small hole in the tip of the spinner through which a Phillips screw head is just visible, so this must be holding the spinner, prop and prop saver together. The motor is an 8.5mm brushed motor of the type commonly found in micro drones, driving the prop via a gearbox, which gives this aircraft its 10 minutes plus flight times. The box claims 15 minutes, from a 400mAh 1S LiPo, so we’ll have to see how that works out. I don’t think it’s excessive, though, because I was getting out-flown by two of these things last week when I was flying my mini wing. I was doing between 10 and 12 minute flights and noticing that the Mustang went up just after me and was still flying when I landed, despite my having made use of all the thermals I could find.
The other bits in the bags are a Phillips screwdriver to put the wheels on, which is a very nice touch, two wheels and fixing screws, a spare prop saver and a USB charger for the 400mAh 1S LiPo. So I put the LiPo on charge and set about the wheels.
What can I say about the wheels? The best piece of advice I can give is, “just don’t”. They’re not great. It might be because the thin wire legs have been cut with wire-cutters, but they don’t fit in the holes. It either needs the wire to be filed down a bit, or the holes expanded with a micro drill, but we’re talking fractions of fractions of a millimetre here. Also, don’t use their screwdriver to tighten the screws, or you’ll surely end up putting the screwdriver through the wing. The head slips in the screw slot and there’s no thread on the plastic insert, so they’re expecting the screw to cut the thread. Personally, I would cut a thread with a small tap if I had any taps less than 1mm, file off the U/C wire and use my own screwdriver. But, save yourself the hassle and just leave the wheels off. If you’re wondering, for the photos I took where the wheels are on, they’re only push fitted and barely fitting in the holes.
The wheels… best to just leave them in the box.
By this point the LiPo was charged, so I stuck four AA cells into the transmitter and tried turning everything on. I say tried, because my first attempt resulted in nothing. I think you have to power up the TX, then connect the LiPo in the plane within about 3 seconds. The LiPo is a bit fiddly with the wiring inside its little plastic and foam box, but nothing that’s a problem. I’ll have to do some more experimenting with the TX to see if that 3 second window is real, but that’s what the instructions say. There are procedures for binding and calibrating the X-Pilot gyro too, so you might want to take the instruction manual with you on the first flight. Remember this bit, though:
“throttle arming sequence – TX on, Rx on (throttle zero), throttle to full, throttle to zero – armed and ready to fly”.
I always hate it when you have a new plane and can’t figure out how to make it go. It’s embarrassing.
After that everything worked. On the gyro’s “beginner” and “intermediate” settings I could see all the control surfaces moving in the right sense, so that was working fine. Put the gyro on “expert” and the controls only move when you move them, not when you move the aircraft around.
The transmitter is very good considering the price point of the aircraft. The sticks feel really nice and smooth. There’s no ratchet on the throttle, which some people prefer and some people hate. Then I discovered that the rudder has a tendency to stick. The right stick (it’s mode 2) is fine, it’s just the left stick when you move it full right it has some resistance when it’s coming back. I might be over-reacting, I think it’s fine but only the flying will tell. Also, once I’ve flown it as intended I’m going to see if I can make it work with my Taranis QX7S with a multi-protocol module. The only other minor problem I found was with the neck strap. I clipped my Taranis neck strap onto the plastic clip in the middle of the radio to make sure it fits and then couldn’t get it off again. It’s an odd shape and you have go through some crazy contortions to get it off. My advice it to fit a key ring to the transmitter and clip onto that, but it’s a minor point and the radio is brilliant for virtually no money.
Well, that’s the unboxing done and here are some pictures of what you get to fly:
In conclusion, you get a lot of aeroplane for your money and I’m looking forward to flying this one. One thing that puzzled me when buying it was that this one is badged “VolantexRC”, while there is also what looks like an identical plane badged “Sonic RC”, which was the one reviewed in the June 2020 RCM&E. I think they’re the same product, but manufactured and then distributed by different companies, as “Eachine” appear to have another variant. I’m not sure about this without having another one to compare against, but I would be interested to know.
One final thing, but this is the other reason I bought this plane:
It uses the same LiPos and connectors that I use for our drone workshops. I’ve got a few of these lying around wanting to be flown.
OK, that’s the unboxing done and I’m hoping to fly this tomorrow, weather Gods permitting.
flightpad 