T-28 ...I AM AMAZED!!!!!

[Fondulac]

I can see the Park Flyer forum gets hardly any reads, but this is where this post really belongs.

Never flew a plane this small, never flew a park flyer, never electric, and never a foamie. My brother dropped off a Park Zone T-28 today. I built it in about 5mins. Then took it out on Thanksgiving day (55 degrees here in Roanoke) and maidened it. Never thought it would take off out of the thick clumpy grass, but it was off the ground in 15ft and went straight up. My dad maidened his ParkZone Corsair right after mine. (He doesn't fly anything smaller than a 4.2CI, but he was amazed with it)

We were both thrilled with these things. They fly like real planes. They fit in a trunk (~45"span). Not hard on your wallet (less than $200). Good vertical and impressive power/speed for it's size. Slows so you can almost walk beside it. Wind doesn't even seem to phase them.

These are great for beginners in the sport. They are sweet and a whole lot of fun to fly for seasoned veterans. Have problems with your big plane at the field, pull this thing out and strut it around . Go get one today!

[RappyMan]

I've heard good things about the T-28. Foamys are fun - not too much worry there & fun to do dumb things with.

[Larry Lewis]

Great to see youre having so much fun with it. We have 10 or more in our club now, and we're all having a blast with them. Recently, we had 8 of them in the air at once at a local fly in. Of course, you dont want to take your eyes off of YOUR plane when doing these all up flights! We've had plenty of mid-airs also!:201: In fact,,,you could say some of us go out of our way to make it happen! Last week end I lost an aileron in flight when one of my buddies ran up on me. Didnt bother landing it cuz she kept flying just fine. Roll rate was slow, but other than that!
Full contact combat is fun, but what we enjoy most are slow grouped fly by's ( about 1/3rd throttle) What a cool sight. W take them off in diamond formation and try to stay grouped tightly as we make close in passes.
And you guys are right. It doesnt fly like a piece of foam! This little bird flies just like a larger sport model. Handles the wind great, and is capable of basic aerobatics. We knife edge them right on the deck, and beleive it or not, these rascals will torque roll! Park Zone really did their home work on this one. The motor/speed control set up they have is awesome. This T-28 is quickly becoming a huge hit at clubs everywhere!

[pepatrick]

I used to have the T-28..and now have corsair. I sold the T-28 simply because I had too dang many old planes. 11 electrics at one time..but I still have the corsair. I love flying that plane...lots of fun.

[Mithrandir]

Sometimes the planes you have the lowest expectations for are the most fun!!!

[pitviper51]

once i flew one this summer i was talking about it so much everyone got one.. this plane has no bad habits.. just a great flying machine.. the corsair is the same.. i have video of a guy in my club dropping foam bombs off the crosair,, fun times!

YouTube - HCRC F4U Corsair
mike

[deathbunny]

The t28 is one of those planes that everyone should have! I think pretty much everyone at our club does have one and we get some nice formation flying going with 6 or so in the air at a time quite often in the summer months. When its to windy to fly my big stuff I usualy bust out the t28 even though its the smallest thing I have the wind doesnt even phase it. I upgraded the motor and spedo in mine to a cheapy 40 amp 1400kv china combo and it ROCKS!

[Judge]

I just picked one of these. All I can say is that they are TOO MUCH FUN!!! I bought the Corsair, I like it so much I'm thinking of getting the T-28 just to round out things.

Whisper quiet so you can fly almost anywhere without fear of annoying people with the noise.

Who knew??

[deathbunny]

I have flown both and I think the T28 flys better then the corsair. It is deffinatly easer to land esp in heavy wind.

[Chris Puckett]

2000 Flights on my T-28 and Still loving it. Just a little coupling in knife edge. Negitive snaps are really fun. Also blenders are really fun. Slips are awesome as well.

[SlowHuck]

Yes! They are friggin' AMAZING! Here's someone with obviously talented thumbs committing unnatural acts with one:

YouTube - Parkzone T-28 tumbling and spinning

Just might hafta get me one.

[JohnVH]

2000 Flights on my T-28 and Still loving it. Just a little coupling in knife edge. Negitive snaps are really fun. Also blenders are really fun. Slips are awesome as well.

How did you have to modify yours to do all that? Mine wont..

Yes! They are friggin' AMAZING! Here's someone with obviously talented thumbs committing unnatural acts with one:

YouTube - Parkzone T-28 tumbling and spinning (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNxUQzUO7Sc)

Just might hafta get me one.

How the.... hmm

[JohnVH]

Ok, cranked the throws on mine to the max, still wont blender, flat spin, snap well, nothing.. whats the trick you guys are doing? Put the battery in the tail? Different servo's?

[Pvtzemerak]

Yes! They are friggin' AMAZING! Here's someone with obviously talented thumbs committing unnatural acts with one:

YouTube - Parkzone T-28 tumbling and spinning (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNxUQzUO7Sc)

Just might hafta get me one.

Wow, im suprised his wings didnt break :)

[BTerry]

A few weeks ago I was on vacation at a lake with my family, and when we got there I realized my brother "forgot" to bring my favorite float plane, his gloriously overpowered, point-and-shoot, unlimited-vertical, 200 watt/pound GWS Formosa II. That is one of the best-flying, best balanced float planes available. Despite the floats it is very maneuverable, tracks like a pattern plane, and is so inexpensive it almost begs for the 2' high knife edge and inverted passes in front of the dock.

So facing the prospect of a week of vacation without a plane to fly, I determined I needed something fun, self-contained, and inexpensive to fulfill my flying needs. On a whim stopped by a local hobby shop and bought a T-28 and a set of the Super Cub floats (the plane was on sale for $199).

The "assembly" took a few minutes, and installing the floats required another hour trying to decide how to set them up. I settled on installing the aft mount bracket (included with the floats) immediately aft of the wing bolt reinforcement plate for the forward gear wire, and simply cut a slot for the aft gear wire secured them using a set of landing gear clamps screwed into small pieces of plywood. This location put the float step immediately below the CG and tops of the floats roughly parallel to the thrust line.

First flight: WOW. What a lot of fun! I now know why people rave about this plane! Even with the floats it climbed with decent authority. From fast level flight I could climb about 150' - 200' vertically before it would flop over. Most of the flight was spent a bit over 1/2 throttle. Roll rate is acceptable and requires a hefty push in inverted. Turns really need rudder input to be smooth, so this is good practice. I was a bit nervous for the landing as I didn't yet know about the stall characteristics of the plane or the tracking of the floats. First landing was a touch bouncy because I flew in too slow and it dropped in, but otherwise unharmed.

Second flight: I decided to try working on the landings. I found it lands better when I keep the speed up to minimize the sink rate, the deep Vee design of the floats cuts nicely through the water without simply pitching the plane up. Inverted flight at half throttle was a touch dicey and requires a ton of down elevator, but SURPRISE! full throttle inverted flight is very gentle and easy to control! I shot a few approaches inverted and made a few 5' high flybys, but never quite felt comfortable enough to "drag the rudder".

Third flight: Flew up high, maybe 300' or so, and had a juvenile eagle make a few passes to check it out. That was cool! The house where we stayed has an eagle nest in one of the trees, so we had many opportunities to see three fabulous Bald Eagles (two adults, one juvenile) flying past, catching fish, etc. They are truly magnificent birds.

Over the next 5 days I would walk down to the dock around 5 am and fly in the calm air and water of the first light of day, much to the delight of the fishermen working the shallows around the docks. One guy caught a nice 8# largemouth bass just a few yards away. Good times.

Day 4: This plane does a passable blender. From the blender it goes into a very flat inverted flat spin. From the inverted flat spin, nothing... just a SPLASH! I think the inertia of the floats just negated my inputs and I was unable to recover. Tore the canopy slightly, fried the ESC and the elevator servo. My fault for not putting the ESC in a balloon. Note to self (and all float flyers..): IF/When the electronics get wet, DO NOT turn on the motor until EVERYTHING is dried out completely! Yup, I let the smoke out of it. Back to the hobby shop for a new ESC and elevator servo. Afterwards I kept the maneuvers to cuban eights, point rolls, extended inverted flying, and wobbly rolling circles. All in good fun, and that fantastic scale Navy color scheme makes it all the more fun.

Many, many flights over the course of 7 days proved to me this is a very solid combination. In my 30 years of RC flying and after many different float planes I believe this may be the best advanced-trainer for learning float flying. It is very well behaved in the air and on the water and it tolerant of mistakes.

[JohnVH]

Nice write up local! Cant get mine to blender, but its still on the wheels. Lets see some pics

[wesryman]

I have maxed out my travel and moved to the innermost hole on all the control horns, other than that it is stock. I can get a pretty good knife edge spin out of it now. Also in our club we have had several members do the "death dive" (wide open straight down and full up at the last minute) and the wings flex really bad but don't break, we actually had one snap the other week but the spar was damaged beforehand from previous combat crashes.

Wes

[Chris Puckett]

John are your throws cranked all the way up in your transmitter? Max throws on everything. Out on servo arms, in on control horns, max out travel adjustments. Blenders, Negitive snaps all are great with the T-28. The Corsair tumbles better.

[JohnVH]

Yep, Im at 150% on my 10x, arms on outer and inner.. I even moved the cg back to try that.. it just wont spin for some reason, I have insane throws on it.. I can do a so/so tip spin though, that is fun :)

[sweetpea]

I can go full speed into the runway with my Focke Wulf........if that counts for anything?


Actually I modded my focke wulf. I took the 27mhz rx/esc combo out and put in a AR6200E and a $8 HK brushed motor 30amp ESC. Then I put in 2 seperate wing servos and replaced the elevator servo (all HK hextronic 9000). I also made a rudder but the throw wasn't enough on it. This kept the speed very close to the trojan and corsair so we could all fly together and the roll rate was outstanding with the dual ailerons. Batts lasted 15-20 mins depending on full throttle usage (2200 3S packs).

Then a corsair cut off my horizontal stab over the runway and I nosed it in. Hopefully the video pops up on Youtube soon. I ordered new parts (fuse/cowl/spinner)

What fun you can have with 5-8 of these in the sky at once.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7XneAbBpFs

[BTerry]

Nice write up local! Cant get mine to blender, but its still on the wheels. Lets see some pics

Wish I had some pics! I will need to check with my brother or Dad, I didn't take any pics myself.

Unfortunately the plane is at my parents' house 1200 miles away as it wouldn't fit in the car to bring it home. I will get it back in a few weeks when my airline pilot brother can fedex it (75% off ;) ). If there is another Bellingham party - er, I mean "fun fly" I will bring it up. I want to get one of my projects in front of your lenses sometime in the next few months anyhow, and would bring it then. Will let you know!

Again, this is just an all-around fun plane. It really is just an "advanced trainer" however, so I don't have very high expectations of its aerobatic prowess. It has strong knife-edge coupling when flying with floats, maybe it is better on wheels.

I love the vid of 8 planes in the air, Sam! Maybe try again after-hours at Jets Over Whidbey? I am trying to sneak away for Saturday and Sunday.

Brett

[JohnVH]

Ill be at JOW sat-sun. If you want a pic session just come up some weekend, I can meet you at the field :D

[sweetpea]

Hopefully my parts come in for JOW. We can fly them at my house as well. I've got a field area in my back yard that we can fly in.

[flyingfoam]

T 28 what a great plane.

[flyingfoam]

http://www.flyinggiants.com/forums/customprofilepics/profilepic42131_2.gif

[Scotte 540]

I was lucky enough to assemble & fly this squadron for a Universal Studios movie this summer.......It will be released this spring----"The Life & Death of Charlie St. Cloud".....Zak Efron, Kim Basinger are stars of note........Not a plane that I would of bought for myself, but after flying them, I was very impressed and found it to be a fun plane to fly.......I had floats on all of them and they are a blast to fly off water, along with being very durable......

[flyingfoam]

Scotte 540 if you want to send a few of those my way when you are done just let me know.

[louu]

theres a couple of them planes in this video
YouTube- Broadcast Yourself.

[Scotte 540]

Scotte 540 if you want to send a few of those my way when you are done just let me know.
Universal production people wouldn't let me keep or buy anything from them........I may get a chance down the road if they decide to release props associated with the movie to sell, otherwise, believe it or not, its all destined for an incinerator-------and you wonder why movie productions need multi million dollar budgets:210::210:

[66stang]

I sure have had a blast with mine... Bought it to fly with the group at Nall, but now find it an enjoyable plane to throw around.

[sweetpea]

Hobby King is selling a pretty neat light set for $9. Perfect for Park fliers