Micro Bird of Time 1.2m

I can confirm what many others already have stated: Hyperflight's deliveies are super fast. I had orderd/paid the Micro Bird o Time plus servos for it on a Monday, and on Friday I already had received it - in Switzerland!

The Micro BoT as a product is mostly just great, albeit probably not for every beginner as the "parts click together - no plan needed" may suggest to some.
Especially the few ribs that take the dihedral joiners are extremely delicate but can be handled well with the appropriately light touch, calm, concentrated mind and accordingly enough time.

My three main complaints with the kit are:

1.) The 1.2mm carbon rods that cross the fuse for the rubberbands o hold the wings on: they were (in my kit) very short. Nonetheless I used them. Lo and behold, it turned out that it indeed was finicky to get the rubber bands on in the field, and I swiftly replaced them after the first day of flying with slightly longer rods made of 1.5 mm iron wire I had at hand (weight penalty of 1 gram).

2.) The instruction manual's description and photo of the high start hook's position refer o a different and very similar looking model airplane fuselage!
I found out that the correct position of the hook is exactly 12 mm in front of the center of gravity (+/- 0.5 mm according to your preferences and taste). Measure on the bottom of the fuse from which you project a line at 90° to the CG position on the wing's underside. The in the manual described position of the CG (center of the wing spar) is spot on.

3.) The colloquially written instruction manual doesn't keep all described processes in order. Not a big issue for the average and occasional model builder but maybe a (minor but resolvable) problem to some (but not all) beginners.

But as I said, this Micro Bird of Time is overall a great little glider, and it was fun to build!

Mine turned out at a weight of 116 grams, including high start hook which is enough to stick on with low-tack 3M Scotch "Magic Tape", separable wing halves (own variation, weight penalty 0.7 grams), magnets holding the winghalves close to the leading edge together (weight penalty 0.8 grams), steel wire tail bumper (own variation, weight penalty 1.1 grams + therefore 2.5 grams additional ballast in the nose required) and "heavy" servos (4.4 grams each) right in front and after the CG, and it flew perfectly straight and level from the get-go, no adjustments whatsoever needed!

Builds into a very nice representation of the original, and flies well. I'm very happy with it. Four rather than five stars because in my example the laser cutting wasn't perfect, but my sheet wood was quite hard albeit light. Nothing a bit of time with a scalpel wouldn't cure.

Very nice kit of a classic model.

Nice little kit, excellent wood quality. Despatch time up to Hyperflight usual standard. Looking forward to the build having built the original 3 metre version back in the 1980's.

Model is wonderful!

Worst plane I ever put together. Parts are so flimsy they break before you can start putting plane together. Because of this wings came out twisted. Flight test was interesting. Plane would not fly straight. Very dissapointed. Wasted my money. Hope it was just a bad kit. I am not a novice putting plane kits together.

Well packaged and well received in France. I was looking for a sufficiently large yet easily transportable and very light glider for hand launch gliding that would also come under the 250gr limit of the new European rc model regulation. The micro BOT fits perfectly the objective. Personally I would have appreciated a simple plan to facilitate wing building.

Order was received very soon. Price vs quality is not good. Too expencive!!!!!!!

Very good service from HyperFlight. After 2 weeks I received the M.B.O.T very well packaged. I live in Chile South America!! Good delivery time. The kit had good quality wood and all the pieces are laser cut. Instructions for assembling are very short, but good photos. I missed the plain, but on your website, you warn that the kit does not come with a blueprint. Regards.

As a follow-on from my previous review, I can now report that the micro Bird has now fledged! I put the cg at the aft edge of the spar and it flew perfectly on the slope, with no trim changes from the initial neutral setup required. I flew on a virtualy still (3-5mph wind according to the forecast) cold day and had great fun scratching around. The model reacts well to bubbles of lift (probably from a bonfire a few hundred yards upwind of the base of the slope) and can be turned on a sixpence, so making use of the slightest disturbance is easy. I used the larger rudder option, which may have been of help in this. Overall, a rewarding model with very pleasant flying characteristics.

This is a nicely presented model, that has excellent laser cutting so everything fits perfectly. The downloadable instructions are a well recommended read before starting, to avoid a few potential errors. A little sanding to remove the 'pips' holding parts in the sheets and the minor burning from the cutting process is all that is required for 99% of the parts. Parts fit is generally perfect straight from the cutter, so don't over-sand! I used super-phatic rather than cyano, which I have found by experiment is noticeably lighter and easier to use. I strengthened the elevator halves coupling as I was not happy it was stiff enough by making a deeper section replacement from the scrap ply sheet. Note that the supplied covering film has NO BACKING film! You can wasre a lot of time and frustration till the penny drops! My complete model, covered in a mixture of Solite and the supplied film came in at 50g. 4ch Frsky tfr4b rx, two hs35hd servos and a dreamflight alula battery weigh 41g, so I am expecting a flying weight of circa 95g once the final installation is complete. A very satisfying build!

Thank you for an excellent transaction. This kit arrived in Canada from the UK in excellent condition and in very short order. I'm very impressed with both the kit and the service and am looking forward to an "over winter" build.

This is more of a first impressions review as the kit only arrived a couple of days ago and is destined for a winter build.
No need to say much about delivery turnaround times an packaging. Neil has again lived up to his fabled superfast turnaround times and sensible packaging.
A couple of things to note. There are several small parts in the kit, including motor mounts and pre-bent z bends, (it’s worth putting these carefully to one side or taping to the fibreboard sheet supplied to protect the balsa sheet.
There is no plan in the kit. Not really a big deal as J & H build log is very detailed. There is a detailed part list and useful links included as well. In addition to the official build guide there is also an insightful build series by Steve (A470RC Soaring) https://youtu.be/Sr71OPbKaS0, this goes from unboxing, build and flight.
The kit comes with a roll of lightweight covering that seems very similar to the Angel wings Featherlight.
The quality of the wood is good and the laser cutting very reasonable.
The kit has the option as being built as a motorised or sailplane version.
It’s good to see this as a kit available in the UK, and at 1.2M a very manageable proposition.
As a final recommendation of the really good flight videos on YouTube on of my favs is from John Woodfield https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQwKy8WIrxA