HobbyKing Empire Airlines / Finnair DC-3 Airliner EPO 1600mm (PNF)

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Customer Rated

Jul 27, 2016

When I bought it earlier in the year it was £140 ish ... and great value ... have only just got around to putting it together ... bad bits .... alerons needed trimming a little at the ends as they were catching .. I was x 3 screws short for fitting control horns ....
had to remove base of battery bay to get my lipo in ...3600 4s ..
good bits ... great plane c of g balanced just right with lipo forwards .. spot on
everything works ....
did maiden flight today 5 - 10 mph wind ... didnt use flaps ... was bit aprehensive as a few people seem to have problem with them ...(I did put couple of degrees up on alerons)
3/4 power into wind tracked straight nice takeoff no problems retraced uncercarriage and brilliant ... flys great plenty of power flew like on rails ... landing no problem kept some power on .. perfect didnt use flaps for landing ...
all in all very happy .. just make sure c of g is slightly forwards of where they say and controls to about 60pcnt and fly !

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Customer Rated

Feb 22, 2016

Bought mine on a special and got it at a decent price. Went together well. Found it easy to setup all the control surfaces, even the 4 x flap servos. However, that's where the good points stop. Calibrated each ESC and found the starboard props way out of balance. One blade way lighter than the others. Even more frustrating is the link to spares which has nothing, so you have to go to the international warehouse. Props are on backorder and from the comments, seems this has been the case for a while. Now I have to source other props which is not an issue, but disappointing.

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Customer Rated

Jan 13, 2016

Superb Plane, the overall Quality is Superb. Box came nice Packed, no damage at all. The Foam is nice, also Details are very impressive. The Main Gear looks really strong. Would recommend buy this Plane. Built as a Swiss Airlines DC-3

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Customer Rated

Jun 17, 2015

Got this plane as a project for myself and another RC pilot. It's been interesting. The plane goes together easily, despite the less-than-comprehensive instructions. We bundled the wiring (about 6 miles of wires, maybe) with velcro and stuck it to the center of the wing to keep things tidy. The original props flex and shake too much, so we replaced with the MA 8x6 three blades. A nice graphics kit for AA Flagship Detroit had it looking fantastic. The plane flies well. It's pretty fast, and flies more like a speedy sport plane than a lumbering golden age airliner. That being said, it can be slowed down for nice looking low passes. We had a devil of a time with takeoffs at first, but then toed-in the main wheels, which gave us much easier liftoffs and nice wheel landings. After three flights, the elevator servo died. It's a lot of cash for a plane that is perhaps less than perfect, but there aren't many other choices on the market for a DC-3.

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Customer Rated

Mar 10, 2015

maiden mine yesterday, beautiful model, but electric components are very poor quality, second flight and one of the motor/ESC failed, plane entered in a spin dive to the ground., nose and cockpit cover destroyed, as well one of the motors totally separated from the wing.

By the way no spare parts are available

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Certified Buyer Rated

Mar 10, 2015

Nice airplane ,well made ,only the propellers are from a less quality and are very hard to get balanced ,the motors are from a questionable Quality, they now have after 10 minutes running time already bearing play, not expecting much. The engines are attached with screws zelftaping wood screws they come loose very quickly, the remedy is to ad on the back of the engine bulkhead an aluminum plate with M3 screws to fix that solves the problem.The plane is flying very solid and has no tension to stall.Have only made one flight so far ,to little to make a final revue

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Customer Rated

Feb 03, 2015

Nice plane but CG at 65mm is TailHeavy. Move it forward or you'll crash your beautiful new plane! Nylon clevises were too big for control horns so you need to drill out the horns with a 5/64" bit. Has great takeoff power but I have to get new props before I can try to fly it again. I used the Empire decal set and it looks great!

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Customer Rated

Jan 20, 2015

Received on 1/15/15, Well packed and only slight damage to 4,000MAH batt.. 1. wooden wing spar, warped, 2.had to relocate 2 flap servos, one had a loose servo arm and another was installed crooked in servo pouch. 3. servo aileron linkage stripped. 4. servo arms and servo horns and attachment fittings to horns had to be re-drilled. 5. Poor assembly instructions. 6. You would think that on an airplane this expensive you would have a deffinite CG balance point, but on one of the discussions, the owner says NOT to go by the brochure CG which is at 65mm, he says he allmost crashed the plane he says put CG at 87mm. No pictures on site or brochure on where to put all the Empire decals

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Customer Rated

Jan 06, 2015

Mine just arrived (Jan.5) shipped on Dec. 19th. Packaging as usual is perfect and arrived in perfect undamaged condition. Checked all pieces and the shipment had all items as checked off on the QC inspection card. Great quality throughout this model. People who grumble about having to enlarge servo arm holes etc. are not too familiar with model building methinks.

By the way, the elevator and the rudder both have special nylon type hinges.

Great product HobbyKing!!! Very pleased!

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Certified Buyer Rated

Dec 18, 2014

Schaut mal hier oben ins Forum und dort unter Bud-dies Kodes vom 17. Dez.