Estrella from Hobbyking

[Colin Carpenter]

Delightful !!! Any cooling ? Colin

[Dom (Essential RC)]

No holes in the cowl or fuselage for cooling Colin but in my experience not needed on a model like this as you should only be flying 50% throttle most of the time and full throttle for the verticals. Could easily add holes but won't be needed for my style of flying.

[Steve Colman]

Looking good Dom. Is that a 4S or 5S lipo?

Steve.

[Dom (Essential RC)]

4 cell Steve. Lower capacity than the model will take but I reckon I'll still get good flight time.

[Jon Laughton]

Looking forward to hearing about the maiden - I really fancy one of these with an OS55Ax power plant...

[IanN]

It'e a very pretty looking model indeed - I like it a lot

Then I saw the price, £147 for a .46 / .53 sized aerobatic sports hack. Ouch! However, I checked around and it set me thinking.

For example, Black Horse Super Airs were great value: they used to retail at c£55 to £60 and I picked both mine up for £50. BUT that was ten years ago and and a trawl of the big online retailers show that Super Airs now seem to sit in the £108 to £113 bracket. So, the price has more than doubled.

ARTFS are undoubtedly a good thing. But, do they still represent the same vfm that they did a few years back?

[Simon B]

I'd challenge anyone to build a model and cover it in solarfilm to that standard for 150 quid.

The one thing I'm wondering is that now they're charging prices like this, how long will people bother buying kits from Hobbyking? Recently i noticed they were selling a VQ kit and it was cheaper to buy it from Inwood and it seems to be becoming more the case. I'd always prefer to buy in the UK and these days i see less incentive to buy from HK.

[IanN]

Posted by Simon B on 17/04/2016 11:55:37:
I'd challenge anyone to build a model and cover it in solarfilm to that standard for 150 quid.

Yes, I completely agree. However, anyone building that sort of model from scratch would very likely indeed have plenty of stuff - covering, wheels, linkages, tanks, mounts, wood, and other "bits and bobs - already at their disposal that they would use. Ok, those have all been paid for at some past point, but it's far from the same as shelllng out again on everything needed. So it's very likely indeed you wouldn't have to dig into your pocket for £150 to do a similar plan build .....

I do completely agree with your second para. That's the point I was making. Some of these offerings don't seem anything even remotely like as competitive these days as they were not so long ago

[ken anderson.]

value for money...when i wrote off A/Wot no1...i bought another kit...and decided to keep a rough check-how much to put together etc....total £200.00+this was the kit price and odd's and end's to get it in the air...covered with S/Span...a few weeks later the first of the ARTF versions came out...my friend got one delivered for £119.00...i gave it the maiden flight and couldn't fault it........

ken anderson...ne..1 ...value for money dept.

[IanN]

Posted by ken anderson. on 17/04/2016 13:16:55:

value for money...when i wrote off A/Wot no1...i bought another kit...and decided to keep a rough check-how much to put together etc....total £200.00+this was the kit price and odd's and end's to get it in the air...covered with S/Span...a few weeks later the first of the ARTF versions came out...my friend got one delivered for £119.00...i gave it the maiden flight and couldn't fault it........

 

ken anderson...ne..1 ...value for money dept.

As per my post above, I think the majority of peeps building an Acrowot would already have many of the "odds and ends to get it in the air". Acrowot kits (ABS) currently £110 in Slough. I couldn't see myself spending £90+ to finish one - although I admit I'd struggle to do it for the £9 that would take it up to the price of the ARTF that you refer to

The Estrella is very pretty indeed and may well fly as well as it looks. However, would I spend £147, and then still have to do all the usual "best practise" stuff like running extra glue firewall, u/c mount etc - and then, as a high proportion of purchasers will - also then ditch some of the hardware in preference for our own "tried and trusted" favourites?

Or would I, say, spend £75 on a Mick Reeves 63" Gangster Lite kit?

Just to repeat, ARTFs are good and I'm not knocking them - just saying that in many cases the relative VFM is now nowhere remotely near as compelling as it once was

 

Edited By IanN on 17/04/2016 13:56:36

[Dom (Essential RC)]

2 flights done early this evening and although it had less power than I would have liked (probably due to the relatively old flight packs I was using) it flew fantastically. Main observation is that it flew light and actually didn't need that much power to fly well. I got into the groove of flying it low and aerobatically almost on the second circuit after a quick trim for straight and level. Editing the vid now. Will share soon.

[Steve Colman]

Sounding very promising Dom. Really looking forward to seeing the video now.

Steve.

[Dom (Essential RC)]

So...just to re-iterate it flew well but probably would have had a bit more urgency about it with some fresher lipo packs. That being said it still flew really well as you'll see in the vid. I've not had many models where I can get them in the air and keep them this low and aerobatic on the first flight. The way it flew just in a the first few seconds inspired me to fly it like that.

[IanN]

It's a looker in the air aswell as on the ground

What was the weight / wing loading? (Apologies if you say in the vid - no sound on the device I'm using at the mo)

[Dom (Essential RC)]

Apologies Ian. I did mean to weigh it. Will do that this evening and let you know.

[Gary Manuel]

Nice review Dom.

I'll be keeping my eye out for future HK sale events

[Dom (Essential RC)]

Haha...you can always hope it will come up in a HobbyKing Sale. I'll be selling this one if anyone is interested. Just need to check HobbyKing are happy with the review and I'll put it up in Classifieds section unless someone wants to PM me an offer.

Edited By Dom (Essential RC) on 18/04/2016 09:22:54

[iqon]

Good review, I thought it looked nice as soon as it came out. Wont be buying one at that price though....

[David Pearce 4]

Thanks for the review Dom, looks a good aeroplane and one I may consider in the future.

As for the 'value for money' debate; I spent £125 on my E-Flight Pulse 25e and probably doubled that with good quality motor, 4S batteries etc. Sound expensive but I've now done 216 flights with it (yes I count them!). That's £1.15p per flight and getting cheaper every flight. That's pretty cheap for an plane that is great fun to fly.

They're only expensive if you crash them early, at least that's how I look at it.

[Colin Carpenter]

Dom. That's a very good looking aircraft in flight. David, I log my flights on my I phone and charge my planes out at £1 a flight. All my foamies with 200 trips on them are quids in and my balsa fleet is getting to covering their costs quickly enough. What a nerd? Eh ? Colin

[Steve Colman]

David and Colin,

You are not alone in your flight recording; I'm guilty of the same offence. My friends down at the club mock me about my little flight log booklet, but I find it a necessary part of my regime, in order to keep track of numerous lipo's if nothing else.

Dom, nice one on the maiden, I like the flying characteristics of the model. Would also be interested in the models weight.

Getting it past SWMBO is going to be something altogether different however.

[Dom (Essential RC)]

Weight without flight pack is 2.47KG. Hope that helps.

[Steve Colman]

Many thanks for your efforts and feedback re the Estrella Dom.

[Dom (Essential RC)]

No problem Steve. Was a fun little project. Cheers

[Dom (Essential RC)]

My HobbyKing Estrella is now for sale in the Classifieds section for a bargain price. Too many models and not enough time to fly them unfortunately.

http://www.modelflying.co.uk/classifieds/view_ad.asp?ad=12780

Edited By Dom (Essential RC) on 20/04/2016 08:08:40