1.4m EPO Warbird w/ Retracts Plug-&-Fly

• Overall
• Quality
• Value

Customer Rated

Nov 14, 2012

Very happy with scale and details. Two motors, two esc's, three retracts, ten servos, all contribute to value. Overall quality is good, but mine came with one wing heavier than the other. HK is in process of replacement wing. Retracts quality is marginal, see in discussion. Check everything during assembly as policy. The wing has no joiner as designed, just add metal rod bent for dihedral to existing carbon tube. Not for beginner, the instructions are vague.

• Overall
• Quality
• Value

Customer Rated

Sep 10, 2012

Das ist eine gelungene P-38.

Sie fliegt super und liegt perfekt in der Luft.

Der einzige Kritikpunt ist das Fahrwerk das ist fr nix, mann sollte es sofort durch ein elektronisches ersetzen.

Sonst ist die P-38 gelungen!

• Overall
• Quality
• Value

Customer Rated

Sep 01, 2012

Super avion, train d'atterissage fragile. Verifiez aussi le montage "usine", il y a des collages a refaire!

• Overall
• Quality
• Value

Customer Rated

May 29, 2012

Needs counter rotating props! I had to add a ton of right aileron to get it to fly straight and that changes with throttle inputs. Outside that the plane is well mannered and is fun to fly. Looks great on low flybys with the retracts up. Giving it four stars for the lack of counter rotating props....I'll have to find my own.

• Overall
• Quality
• Value

Customer Rated

May 21, 2012

Hey guys;

I got mine as below:

1. Some small damages on top surface of the left wing and also end part of the left fuselage. It musnt be of shipment, as those areas were covered by air cuations properly!!!

2. Front wheel retract's servo was brocken, didnt work! I had to change it!

3. Left rear wheel retract was not working, black wire of servo lead was not connected properly at connector.

4. Qualit of the kit especially for gear parts is not satisfying.

This is a nice and cute model, I wish HK had given more care to the quality :)

I give overally 3 of 5 to this plane.

Cheers.

• Overall
• Quality
• Value

Customer Rated

Apr 05, 2012

This is my biggest disappointment ever, had this thing for about 9 months now and have never been able to fly it, came with bad motor and esc, retracts are garbage and forget about customer service with Hobby King. Like the old saying goes you get what you pay for. (I doubt Hobby King will post this)

• Overall
• Quality
• Value

Customer Rated

Mar 19, 2012

This is a very petty plane, but needs allot of mechanical work to hold-up. The retracts are the worst I have seen, I tossed them and used the medium pneumatic retracts with nose gear available here on HK for $58. They were easy to fit, didn't take much modification. Can use nice scale size wheels now, just had to grind the wells out a little. 2" Mains and 1.75" nose. I got the scale WWII foam tires with treads, looks great! Motors are very small, will not handle stock props for long. Mine got so hot they melted the plastic motor mount backplate. The 2 plywood motor mounts on the front are not glued to the foam- epoxy them and take out the left thrust while your at it. Only needs about 2 right thrust to match the cowlings. Since I wanted it to fly like a P-38 I replaced the anemic bell type motors with Exceed Optima 480 980kv motors a 4S 2200 30C lipo, a good pair of Master Airscrew 9x7 3-blades and Dubro regular spinners so you can experiment with different props. The plane flies like a true warbird now, plus with the exra power you fly 1/2 throttle all day and get more time on the same 3C 2200 30C packs. When you want it to rock drop in the 4S pack, it will roll straight up out of sight. Motors and Lipos stay cool and most of all the plane stays together now, even on rough landings. Watch the big flat-bottom wing in high speed pull-outs! It has no dihedral brace in the c

• Overall
• Quality
• Value

Customer Rated

Mar 19, 2012

This is a very petty plane, but needs allot of mechanical work to hold-up. The retracts are the worst I have seen, I tossed them and used the medium pneumatic retracts with nose gear available here on HK for $58. They were easy to fit, didn't take much modification. Can use nice scale size wheels now, just had to grind the wells out a little. 2" Mains and 1.75" nose. I got the scale WWII foam tires with treads, looks great! Motors are very small, will not handle stock props for long. Mine got so hot they melted the plastic motor mount backplate. The 2 plywood motor mounts on the front are not glued to the foam- epoxy them and take out the left thrust while your at it. Only needs about 2 right thrust to match the cowlings. Since I wanted it to fly like a P-38 I replaced the anemic bell type motors with Exceed Optima 480 980kv motors a 4S 2200 30C lipo, a good pair of Master Airscrew 9x7 3-blades and Dubro regular spinners so you can experiment with different props. The plane flies like a true warbird now, plus with the exra power you fly 1/2 throttle all day and get more time on the same 3C 2200 30C packs. When you want it to rock drop in the 4S pack, it will roll straight up out of sight. Motors and Lipos stay cool and most of all the plane stays together now, even on rough landings. Watch the big flat-bottom wing in high speed pull-outs! It has no dihedral brace in the c

• Overall
• Quality
• Value

Customer Rated

Feb 10, 2012

This plane is a nice looking plane and flies almost as easy as a trainer, the good about this plane is that it has plenty of power with stock motors, easy to fly, most electronics included. The bad.. change the three retract servos to metal gear servos otherwise I the stock servos will strip almost immediately, other than that this is a wonderful plane. I like this one alot!!!

• Overall
• Quality
• Value

Customer Rated

Feb 07, 2012

This is a continuation of a review started in December (Dec 7, 2011).



Today the P-38 finally succeeded in a maiden flight. Once in flight, and once the gear truly go up she trims out and flies extremely well. So if you enjoy tinkering, and are willing to invest in upgrade parts, this can be a rewarding and beautiful model to fly.



Out of the box the P-38 had a dead speed control. I decided to try the RMA process at Hobbyking; know they have received the defective part; but have NO ECD on a replacement. We are now 3 months from the start of the RMA process with no end in sight. Bottom line: Don't bother, budget in spare parts and expect the quality to be poor enough to require replacing components. Some HK aircraft have decent builds, packaging, and components, this isn't one of them.



Spare Parts: Budget for a speed control, spare props (I now just use Park Zone 9x7.5 3 blade props), and spare servos (HK900 series). Plan to replace the retracts, or upgrade the servos to Metal Gear (I used Corona 939MG's) to keep the gear from folding up. All told, less than $30 for replacements. I did not buy a motor but that may not be a bad investment either.



Landing Gear: The gear on the P-38 is just awful out of the box. The mechanical mechanisms are OK, the servos and connecting rods strip, or crack with very little use. Upgrading the servos to metal gear and chan