Be the neighborhood jet-jock

BACKYARD FLYER

You just watch; this backyardflyer phenomenon will prove to know no bounds. We modelers will soon be able to enjoy all types of airplane subjects within the confines of small, close-to-home flying spaces. If you've come to believe that schoolyards and softball fields are solely the realm of Cubs and biplanes, you need to take a closer look. For example, take a look at E-Elite's Electrajet, featured in this column.

ABOUT THE MODEL

The Electrajet is a cool-looking, 380geared pusher design (reminds me a little bit of a Navy Chance Vought F7 Cutlass-sort of) that's constructed of all foam. The foam structure, by the way, gives rise to an airframe that is surprisingly resilient on rough landings. And here's the best part: although this model does have brisk performance to match its sleek, jetage appearance, it can be slowed way down and turned tightly in relatively small spaces. The pilot just can't be shy about applying throttle and cranking in lots of up-elevator during one of these tight turnaround procedures. These flight characteristics are because of the delta-wing configuration that won't tip-stall; it hangs in there with lift right down to a crawl. Oh, yeahthis is a model with two "best parts"! The second is that it can be built-at a relaxing pace, mind you-in less than half a day.

IN THE BOX

The Electrajet costs about 150 bucks at your local hobby shop, and that represents a pretty good value when you learn what's included. Of course, you'll find all the necessary injection-molded parts, hardware, an instruction booklet and decals. But also in the box are a 380 motor with a gear-reduction drive system; a 16A, 6- to 10-cell electronic speed control and-get this deltawing electronic mixer! That's right; you don't have to use a transmitter with an elevon-mixing feature with this model. The mixer, along with everything else, is included with the kit. All you need to buy is any basic 3-channel radio with two microservos and the onboard, 8-cell, 700mAh battery pack. I like complete packages, and this one gives you a lot.

BUILDING

An in-depth review on the Electrajet, authored by our in-house master craftsman, Gerry Yarrish, will be published in our next issue of Backyard Flyer, so I'll just touch on a few things here. First of all, the model goes together with an extremely accurate fit that's almost foolproof. The photo shown on the preceding page of the wing and fuselage keying together tells the entire assembly story of this model. In short, the model is a breeze to get ready for some close-to-home fun flying. Simplicity of assembly notwithstanding, a detailed, 15-page instruction booklet with 57 photos is supplied with the kit to ensure success. Gerry recommends one deviation from the instructions' assembly process: he says to install the motor and gear drive before, not after, you've glued on the two vertical stabs. Leaving them off until later gives you far more room to work when you install the drive unit. Our Electrajets were assembled entirely with 5- and 10-minute epoxy. Working diligently, you can assemble the model in 3 to 4 hours. Working lazily, which is how I like to work, you can complete it in 5 to 6 hours.

FLY FAST OR FLY SLOW; IT DON'T MATTA

The reason I decided to tell you guys about this model in my column is because of the way it flies. It flies fast-it flies slow-it flies great! This design really does possess the best of both worlds. Whether it's "ground attack"-style, high-speed low passes at full throttle or "carrier landing"-style, nose-high slow flight that turns you on, the Electrajet does both wellvery well. The slow-flight characteristics of that delta wing are unbeatable. It's almost impossible to stall. With the controls set up to maximum, the Electrajet will do axial rolls; no problem. The overall flight envelope of this model is so enjoyably wide that I think the airframe is well worthy of a brushless-motor upgrade. It's just that good. But that's a subject for a future installment of this "Backyard Flyer" column.

CONCLUSION

Park flyers, backyard flyers, schoolyard flyers-whatever you want to call these new, tiny planes, the trend toward them is growing at a phenomenal rate, and all kinds of products are being rushed to market-some of them good, and some of them not so good. This always happens at the beginning of a new market explosion. To help you guys find the truly great stuff, I try to cover only what is worthwhile. And I can tell you that the new E-flite Electrajet is good-very good. It's a terrific value, it goes together accurately, and it does what the manufacturer claims it will do: it flies great! I wholeheartedly recommend E-flite's Electrajet.

E-flite; distributed by Horizon Hobby Inc., 4105 Fieldstone Rd., Champaign, IL 61822; (217) 355-9511; fax (217) 352-0355; www.horizonhobby.com.

JR; distributed by Horizon Hobby Inc., 4105 Fieldstone Rd., Champaign, IL 61822; (217) 355-9511; fax (217) 352-0355, www.horizonhobby.com.

Copyright Air Age Publishing Mar 2002
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