JP Mini Aviator

[Phil Winks]

Got this one yesterday and it's fun. It's the Mini aviator from the boys at Perkins. mine came from BRC hobbies at a mere £12 plus postage I'm told. (My favourite blond one bought it for me). The box it arrives in is very basically a purpose built foam storage facility that should keep it safe in transit for quite some time. the extra bty's were added by my good lady.

The transmitter is a 2 ch infra red job controlling speed and rudder. so with the probs these have with bright lights and the fact that this is only 8g AUW outdoors is almost certainly a no no. They supply a natty little display stand which also works well to keep it in place when charging the 1g on board LiPo from the handset which uses 4 AA disposables

Flying this one is simplicity its self simply switch TX and model on, push the throttle to half power and gently push the model forward at shoulder height nice and level and away she goes. turns are proportional and at full power she climbs reasonably briskly. flight speed is advertised at 2m/sec not sure if this is min or max but suffice to say at half throttle she holds level and at full climbs at about 45 degrees minimum turn circle however is not quite as tight as the box statement "living room r/c fun" might suggest. mine is approx 10 x 14 foot and the only flight pattern I can safely achieve is a 6/7 foot x 10 foot elliptical circuit much to the annoyance of the cat and dog who both now need therapy the advertised flight time of 10 Min's is accurate and that's using a lot of rudder. If you should (and you will) hit a piece of furniture or that unexpectedly opened door the aviator will simply bounce of with no damage. this one gave me loads of smiles yesterday and a short trip to my local church hall this morning was very good just not enough power for loops you'd need a very tall hall to achieve that but a flattish spin can be achieved all be it by accident and a simply surge of power recovers it. on shiny floors with a good run it will also ROG and touch and go's are also possible and with no u/c.

So lots of smiles all round

[Big Bandit]

Hi Phil,

Couldn't agree more, fantastic piece of kit to play with indoors (Thanks David). Mine will just fly within the walls to the dinning room, the trick is to get it banked in the tightest circle you can and balance the trottle to keep it just below the ceiling. I've not tried it outside as with the picoZ the sun takes over and cuts the trottle. I use a little xwing twin pusher thing and a Rookie in the garden, it's quite novel when I ask the kids next door for my plane back.The Rookies a bit mental as it has a bang bang rudder on two buttons rather than just the one from my single chanel days.

Cheers,

Chris.