HobbyKing® ™ Decathlon Brushless Plug-n-Fly

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Customer Rated

Dec 13, 2014

Plane was terrible to assemble. Wing does not bolt on properly. Wing bolts do not tension, but pulled straight through the wing. Had to glue the wing straight on.
Battery compartment is to small, does not fit battery.

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Customer Rated

Dec 20, 2013

Had some fun with it for a while, BUT.... quite a few weak spots through her, came in too steep at one point, and nose dug in, literally snapped in 1/2!!. straight through where the wings wedge in down through where wheels push in.....
Second crash :0
snapped the whole tail right off!! right where the servo rods come through.. 'explodes on impact'
All fixable, but i now think the weight has gone from 580g too 650g :)

I wouldn't recommend as a 1st plane.. u need a little know how..;)

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Customer Rated

Oct 14, 2013

I give this Decathlon 5 crowns.Why ? Well first it is a beautiful plane.Assembly is straight forward. It takes a little time to put it together right.I read many people having issues with the wing mounting and battery box problems.All planes is some manner need modifications to obtain good CG.
Now i am writing this before setting the CG on this plane. I took the plastic bracket on the wing that mounts to the front fuselage off the wing and saw how it attached to the front wing saddle area. It has three plastic pins that go into three holes on that fuselage area. I then re-glued it and lined it up to make it fit.I first strengthened the wing with packing tape, had to really press down hard and forward to get that wing to go in place.It then lined up the two plastic nylon pins that fit into the holes on the rear wing saddle area.I tightened them down and then I placed packing tape over it all to strengthen it and than attached the wing brackets from the wing to the side of the fuselage with the screws.The wing is now very tight and strong.
The battery box has a tray and there is another tray for the receiver, I instead placed the receiver inside under the wing inside the fuselage, I set up my transmitter and the servos and wiring before I mounted the wing.And ensured they all worked and the wiring in place, I mounted the ESC also under the wing inside the fuselage and attached it

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Customer Rated

May 31, 2013

This plane is awesome very good 4ch trainer. I would buy 10 if i dident pick up 4ch so quick. Because of this plane Iam flying anything i put my fingers on thanks to the Decathlon. Don't hesitate in buying one once you do some very miner mods its a great plane i give this a BIG 5/5 crowns.
Thanks Nic

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Customer Rated

May 20, 2013

This is a great little plane! This is my first ARF and my first aileron plane. Up until this plane I have flown mostly gliders, both powered and non-powered. I would classify this plane as a beginners aerobatic trainer (just like the full size plane). Its not for straight up beginners because it is quite docile and the foam is not very strong.



But, like others have said, once it is setup correctly, it is a great flying plane. Some of the things I did were to change the wing incidence, reinforce the pushrod sleeves, increase the motor down angle, relocate the battery, and changed to a bigger prop and proper nose cone. I still have it setup with minimal control throws and it still loops and rolls with ease. I can even get it to hang on the prop with the stock electronics (different prop of course).



I run a 1300mah battery and can get 10 minutes of high throttle flights, throttle back and you could see 15 minutes of flight time. It can be a handful when it gets windy, especially if its turbulent. Take offs and landings can be done on very short runways if you have a slight headwind. It can land with or without gear, just make sure whatever you are landing on without gear is soft, as the foam will scrub away quite easily. I had a wing tip strike during a crosswind landing on asphalt and it scraped a good sized chunk out of the tip.



The foam will also dent and d

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Customer Rated

Jan 26, 2013

Great plane for less money. But you have to do some modifications before: CG (move battery), cowling (fiberglass interior), strengthen wing bases. Good plane for beginner by less wind.

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Customer Rated

Jan 03, 2013

Bom modelo, voei com lipo 1.3 como indicado e consegui bom cg colocando a bateria bem na frente logo atras do motor. Com a 1.6 nao consegui bom cg talvez tenha que colocar um pouco de peso na ponta. Modelo ideal para trainer e para um vo tranquilo.

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Customer Rated

Nov 02, 2012

This was my first HK plane, so it was rather special to me. I didnt know about the tail-heavy issue, and had two repairable walk-away crashes, but once I got the center of gravity right, it flew very well. I successfully took off once from a grass field, but it did a (harmless, motor-off) flip on landing. Tried to take off again, but the wheels got caught in the grass and it did a noser. New prop, then on to a large empty asphalt parking lot. Took off, did some great aerobatics, and did a beautiful drop-out-of-the-air, three-point landing on the asphalt. Then we took off again and I made the mistake of flying it against a sunset. I let it get too far away, until it turned into a small, flat silhouette, and then I lost orientation. Ended up nose-diving straight into the ground. Another lesson learned, and unlike a lot of things, it is replaceable, and I have already ordered another one. Ill be better at beefing up and tweaking it out this time. I love this plane!

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Customer Rated

Sep 18, 2012

A few annoying bugs that disappointed, but for the price this provides a good 'starting point' - with a few mods, it is a fun scale-like flyer, or aerobatic trainer. Must do mods : 1) strengthen wing mounts by drilling a couple of holes in the plastic ahead of and replaced the tiny plastic pins on the front 'spar' with longer hardwood dowels about 3mm diam. 2) I pulled out the threaded studs from inside the cabin for the bolts that hold the wing and epoxied them back in with a little wood reinforcement. 3) If the prop and gear break easily, and it would not take off on grass with the wheel pants. When gear legs broke, I bent up may own replacement gear from music wire-easy at this diameter using just pliers. I switched to 55mm foam tires and tossed the fancy pants (more scale wheels & better on grass or dirt). 4) Ive tried 4 different replacement props, but best replacement prop is from Hobby Lobby's Decathlon sturdy and flies better than the original. I also use a "prop-saver" which still works with the rubber spinner -spinner inertia seems to smooth out the prop so I always fly with it on. 5)Batteries and CG It flys "scale" on 3s lipos, but to get right CG with lipos without ballast, cut a 40mm W x 50mm L hole in the bottom of the body just behind the cowl as a lipo battery location. A glued-in loop of velcro holds the batt

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Certified Buyer Rated

Aug 10, 2012

Great little model. Using a 1000mah 3cell. flies great and can be very aerobatic or docile.