HobbyKing ™ Mini Guppy Pendiente Planeador Balsa 1165mm (PNF)

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Nice little slope soarer

Nov 15, 2016

The Guppy is a nice and small slope soarer but you need to improve this little bird at some places. The push rod for the elevator needs to be fixed for not getting loose, the front wing attachment has to be reinforced and it's better using two separate servos for the ailerons.
I'm using 3 pieces of TGY-D56MG (SKU 9399000023-0) and it's same weight as using the 2 stock servos. Also perfect for direct use of a 2S lipo with about 600mAh. This plane is not for beginners!!! Cheers - Tom

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Real Cg guppy

Nov 14, 2016

I fly with motor and battery 1300 mah,but the Real C.G not 45 But 30-35 mm!!

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Nice little slope soarer :)

Nov 03, 2016

Nice built little slope soarer.
But some things should be reinforced before flying.
The stabilizer is getting lose at the first landing and should be fixed by using epoxy before going to the slope. The fixing of the wings also may break at a rough landing and so it is useful glueing a small piece of wood to reinforce this part. For using flaps it's a good choice to use 2 separate servos for the ailerons. You can also use 3 pieces of the small Turnigy HV servos and use a 2S Lipo (about 600mAh). The elevator push rod might need some extra CA-glue for not going loose. After having all these things done this plane is nice to fly in laminar ridge lift at about 2bft and termionics. So you can make rolls and loopings and can have lot of fun with it.

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Customer Rated

Oct 07, 2016

BEWARE These have an extremely dodgy elevator push rod setup. They have used 2 different gauge wires and joined them by the servo with heat shrink and they fail. The outer guide for the push rod is glued in during construction and cannot be replaced. Sounds a simple fix but believe me it is not Pity as apart from that they are nicely built.

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Customer Rated

Aug 28, 2016

So after reinforcing like everyone has said, reattach the tail to the boom with epoxy, solder the elevator push rod to z-bend, and add balsa back stop behind wing, the plane lasted all of 30 min. Throwing javelin style, landing in 2 inch grass, the sheeting on the right wing has failed, between the first and second wing rib. Thankfully I noticed it before my next throw, but now I am faced with uncovering and resheeting that section and praying there isn't anything else broken on this "pnp" model. Perhaps it is rtf, rebuild to fly?

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Customer Rated

Aug 17, 2016

After waiting weeks it's finally in the UK warehouse, Got mine and it's a lovely glider but have to comment on the way the elevator control rod is connected to the servos, (2 pieces of wire joined by a piece of heat shrink tubing) are you joking or what HK, as soon as i powered up the elevator servo the joint came apart, in the air i would have more than likely lost what is a very good glider! But easy fix with electric guitar string (see my photos in files tab) apart from that it's a very well made little slope soarer. Also spent 10mins going over it with my iron as a few lose bits of film, 35gram added plus 2 300mah 2cells to get c of g right.

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Customer Rated

Apr 22, 2016

I wanted a small fast glider and this looked perfect. I paid full price which was quite expensive for a small simple model but it looked good and was exactly what I wanted. It was delivered well packed no problems and looked good. Before I even got it in the air, the elevator push rod close to the servo came apart. The 2 pieces of wire in the elevator push rod had been joined with heat shrink close to the servo. This is a very crappy way to may this critical joint. I fixed this by soldering the two pieces of wire together. Then the whole tail assembly came unstuck from the carbon fibre tail boom. I glued this back with epoxy. Both of these failures would have potentially destroyed the plane if it had been in the air. While doing the repairs, the nut that the wing bolt screws into fell off inside the fuse. I had to hack a hole in the side of the fuse to replace this. This is a great little plane manufactured to a shameful standard. I will never buy another ARF plane from HobbyKing.

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Customer Rated

Apr 20, 2016

Haven't actually got to fly mine yet, but thought I would share what I have observed so far.
i) it's a lovely design & well made for the price.
ii) you only get 1 servo to control the ailerons, but a bit of research on rcgroups shows how to convert to 2.
iii) the designer recommends you tape the wings together to stop them getting ripped off in a crash & breaking the mounting points. I would go one step further & suggest you glue the 2 halves together & to the fuselage.
iv) the biggest issue I see is the ailerons are taped to the wing on the wrong side (imho) as it restricts the movement on the up side, but unrestricted going down - which is the opposite of what you want for clean rolls. So I am expecting poor handling because of this & there's no way to get the tape off without damaging the covering. The only other way to solve it would be to flip/swap the wings & remove/refit the control horns.

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Customer Rated

Mar 12, 2016

wing fixing screws are odd size about 2.7mm diameter thankfully I have found two metal ones in my scrap box!
Nose cone is flimsy!
Needs 40-50gms to balance ( model is only 200 with receiver an battery)

Test glide fine, apart from nose cone!

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Customer Rated

Mar 11, 2016

Arrived late god bless Parcelforce! looks fine but....
1. wing fixing screws strip when tightened
2. elevator pushrod is too long for correct adjustment
3. Aileron clevis poor quality
4. Attaching cockpit with 3 scraps of masking tape is a bit naff to say the least

It will also need lead to balance as a glider unless you fit a large battery!

With a little care could be a great product, please try harder.

Now I must try and find some wing screws.