Parkzone Habu Foamy

My Habu is a bone stock 70MM EDF foam jet from Parkzone. I fly Futaba radios so I bought the plug and play version. I use Turnigy Nano-Tech 3300 4S packs. I get a solid 5-5 1/2 minute flight and usually put back 2800-3200 MA into the packs. It flies very solid, very predictably. It will get into a spin if you do a snap until the airspeed bleeds off, so play around up high till you know the limits. It's easy to see, slows down nicely for landing and handles wind up to 10mph easily and 15mph if you want to push it. It's a great knockaround jet and it's clearly popular for a reason. This bird is a must have for a jet pilot.

Electrifly Rifle

I have wanted one of these ever since they came out. A crazy fast plane for about $100? Count me in.


Parts List
$100 Kit
$31.99 Futaba Compatible Receiver
$14.99 Futaba S3114 servo (ailerons)
$4.37 Corona 939MG servo (elevator)
$12.73 Hobby King S2445-3200KV brushless inrunner
$19.99 Turnigy Plush 40A ESC
$8.38 Turnigy 3S 1500 battery pack
$192.45 Total.

Construction Tips
-The elevator pushrod angle is very sensitive to set where it attaches to the elevator horn. I stripped out a servo when I didn't have this right.
-Make sure you pay attention to the addendum!
-The CG is critical
-Drip some thin CA glue down inside the nose to reinforce the firewall before you install the motor.
-Be sure your aileron servo does not bind on the battery or RX when the wing is bolted on.
-Check the thread on rcgroups for more tips. http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1205161 The R&D guy for Hobbico that has worked on this bird, Tim, is active on that thread under the name "KRProton".
-In summary, I had the bird built in one evening

Flight Report.
Holy freaking crap. This thing is awesome! Very very fast, and it gets small in a big hurry. Read the tips in the manual and on that RCG thread. The hand launch needs to be a seriously fast throw. It's small with a high wing loading. Watch the landings, you need long flat approaches, and you have to bleed the speed off slowly but close to the ground. If you have realflight, practice with the Rifle in the sim before flying the real one, it's very realistic. I'm very happy with this plane!

Falcon 120 Dynamax EDF

The Falcon 120 kit can be purchased from many online vendors for around $200 delivered which is remarkable for as big as it is. I purchased mine from General Hobby and it had some damage upon receipt. The owner of General Hobby told me he was sending a new fuselage no less than 5 times over the course of 6 months. I finally gave up asking and just repaired the damn thing. She's ready to fly now.



Parts List
$200 Kit
$179 Castle Creations Phoenix 110 ESC
$152.75 Retracts & Struts
$180 3 new JR Z650M high torque servos
$60 6 used standard servos (Flaps, rudders, retract switch
$150 Dynamax Aluminum Shroud and Carbon tail cone (Textured carbon outside, smooth inside)
$175 Scorpion 4035
$100 used dynamax fan
$50 EJF.com motor to fan adapter
$100 Wiring, connectors, misc hardware.

I have roughly $1500 in this bird after you factor in battery packs and a receiver.

Construction Tips
-Reinforce the nacelle mounting area internally or externally. It's too weak stock. Many people building these have put carbon fiber rods or "L" channel on the bottom exterior.
-Lower the landing gear. This thing was designed as a pusher prop plane. You don't need two feet of ground clearance.
- Read the threads on RCGROUPS for more info, many people recommend reinforcing the wings and tail in various ways to cope with the flight loads.

There are lots of these conversions around flying on all kinds of EDF power at up to 20 pounds flying weight.

Flight Report.
Coming soon

Plans Going Forward

I have a new direction for Pence Aviation. Instead of throwing in the towel completely, I have torpedoed several of the projects that have been huge time and money black holes so I can focus on a few things that are more important to me, including:

1. My Family.
   
2. Flying RC for FUN. I have been so wrapped up in huge projects I lost sight of flying for fun!
3. Reviewing planes I buy. I am not sponsored or provided free planes for my reviews. I'll buy what I want, when I want and do build logs and full reviews as I see fit.
4. I can't stop my desire to design and fabricate, so I'll be working on a clean sheet design composite sport jet that I have had drawn up for a while now. No timeline, no sneak peeks. When it's done, flying and proven, I will announce it. Until then I'm not even going to publish a sketch.

I appreciate the people who stand by me in this decision. It was not easy to make, but I'm happy and hope to have some cool stuff coming out eventually.