Astrid Elektro F5L 2m

Overall a nice plane , but lack of instructions and guidance let it down . the spoiler system seems ok but is a bit quirky . The 'Medina' model system is simpler and works well .You need build experience for this. Hyperflight were good and fast shipping.

Received in a great 7 days. Well packaged and all there . There was a replacement parts bag for some bits that were cut too small, all good. There is a small leaflet on some instructions , but minimal , there is a build thread on RC Groups. Some thinking on some of the build , but an experianced builder should be ok . Some of the ply fuse parts needed a little sanding/cutting as they didn't quite slot in . The wing joining points I got to a great fit and good angle UNTIL i covered when they bent noticebly , some angled balsa needs to be added at 45 ' to stop this , braced against the carbon spar at the next rib down . ( like a geodetic structure. ). Not flown yet but will soon . Overall pretty good .

I was first attracted to this design by the criss-cross lightening holes in the fin and tailplane. I thought this may be a weak point but was pleased to find these parts are cut from 5mm thick light balsa which when covered does the job but care needs to be taken sanding their profile.
The kit is very comprehensive and includes all accessories including a 3D printed motor cowl to be used as a sample to assist in sanding the the nose to the correct profile before finally fitting the aluminium cowl. There is very little in the way of instructions provided and these mostly concern the fuselage build. Likewise , at present, there is no build log available on line unless it is hidden away on Facebook to which I do not subscribe. The build is straight forward but all the ply fuselage parts need to be sanded and check fitted to each other which makes for a strong inner ply box structure to be covered in balsa. When it comes to the wings the ply parts need to be carefully checked with the plan. A few weeks after delivery I received a package of ply wing parts from Hyperflight with a note to say the originals were a little undersize. Fortunately I had not started my kit and was able to incorporate them without an issue. The dihedral angles were not on the plan or in the instructions. It’s simple enough to measure the solid carbon joiners and arrange a 5 degree slope to each adjoining face. The main removable dihedral joints can be sanded into the balsa facing ribs after making a suitable jig. The fixed tip joints can be set by making a 5degree template to angle to ribs before glueing
The recommended 1805 T-motor, 7x4 prop and spinner wired to a 28A BLheli-32 ESC with BEC makes for a very quiet but very powerful combination. My model weighed i at 436gms using a small 550mAh GNB Lipo in the front to give a C of G at 70mm from the L.E. It looks good in the air is easy to control and does a good job of indicating lift. It is certainly equal in performance to any of the other 6 RES designs I have built and flown from the Hyperflight RES catalogue