About the lack of elevator for take-off, The vectoring may be angled down to much while turned off causing the lift to not be there.

The Craven report!

Well, you guys have hopefully all seen the videos by now. I’ve slept on it and it’s time for my no holds barred opinion of the Hobby Lobby SU-34. My recommendation is....don’t buy it. Now, if they follow some of the recommendations I’m going to make below my opinion could change. I just honestly believe in the saying “you get what you pay for”. I had no idea who Hobby Lobby was when I bought this plane. What drew me in was the good looking ARF jet and the vectored thrust. As a pilot who has advanced to giant scale aerobatic aircraft, I guess I just expected so much more. I don’t care if the price was $299. For the recommendations I’m going to make, I would have gladly paid $100-200 more for an airframe that would be worth my money. During the day of the maiden, I had a friend, who is an excellent giant scale pilot, tell me he had 2 of Hobby Lobby’s Eurojets. He said he had the same problems that I had and he would never buy another one. Now, I’ve always been one to give a company a second chance to fix their mistakes and I’m going to give Hobby Lobby that chance. First I’m going to post my pros and cons and then my recommendations for their future aircraft. Until then, I say save your money. One flight for $299 is not worth it for me. I’d gladly spend more money knowing I’m buying a quality aircraft that will last a much longer time.

PROS
Very inexpensive
Great packing
Very nice looking airplane
All in one ready to go minus rx
Once the bugs were worked out it flew very well
I loved flying it with the vectored thrust
Very visible scheme
Definite eye catcher to everyone who saw it
Awesome all in one ARF (minus rx) but see con below for confirmation on this
Very nice included lipo
Nice fans and speed controls

CONS
Very poor build instructions
No recommended throws in the instructions
No recommended initial take off recommendations in the instructions
No pre-drilled holes for plastic or something else for control surfaces to be mounted to insure straight and proper mounting
Very weak servos
No protection for exposed servos
Bad recommendations in the manual about taking off with vectored thrust
Paint was permanently discolored by a slight rain
Very weak landing gear

The bottom line is this, I love the looks of this airplane. Unfortunately, I hated wasting my money on a very unsuccessful first flight. Yes, I glued it back together and it flew very well after that but, who cares. I only did that to see if it would fly (by being hand launched) which it did very nicely. But, I still took home a broken airplane. If Hobby Lobby would install some much better, metal digital hi torque servos, along with a much improved landing gear, this airplane would deserve a second look. Until then, save your money.

Thanks for the info Craven. I too, had looked at these as a great "package deal" for the money. Too good to be true?? Maaaay-Be! For me personally though, I always thought I'd start with something a LITTLE less complicated for a first EDF. HL's receiver ready "Skyblazer" F-86 or Mig-15 for $119 perhaps. Small, inexpensive, and simple. Get the feel for the EDF for a while, then move up. I agree though, that every "promo" video I have seen on this SU-34 made it look so good, and very easy to operate, that most with significant airplane experience would think "I can do that".

Thanks again, for the Heads-Up.

I just tell it how it is and pull no punches. The problem as I see it is, if they'd just spend a few more bucks they'd have a ton more buyers. I know they're just buying what China puts out. So what! Don't sell that crap. Make the Chinese improve their products. Period the end. We don't want to buy crap from the dollar store. We want quality. Repeat business is what keeps this hobby going. Just ask the major retailers like Horizon, Great Planes, Extreme Flight and others. Good quality products along with great customer service, equals life time customers.

My experience with EDF all have been with SAPAC models. We started selling them and I feel that if we sell something I need to have a good understanding of both the mechanical aspect of the aircraft and the flight aspect as well. So I bought a f16 and a L39 from them to mess with. both planes fly great. I have looked at these Hl for their vector thrust but it sounds like they are a no go. I might just convert my f16 to vector . I tend to get bored flying jets so I need something to keep me busy when we go to the jet event lol.

Con: No boost tabs.

Looks like a sweet fun plane. Too bad it didnt do too well to start off. I wonder if those eletric jets they were selling at Joe Nall are just as bad. lol. I saw a ton of them sold considering I was sitting at the OMP booth right across from Hobby Lobby. I believe they sold out of them.

Yep. Same plane. I think (but I believe) they think they can sell multiples to each customer. It shouldn't take several airframes to figure an airplane out. Nobody, including myself, wants to buy a second airframe right after an unsuccessful first attempt at a maiden.

Great instructions, landing gear improvements and better servos could solve the entire problem in my opinion.

Originally Posted by Craven

Yep. Same plane. I think (but I believe) they think they can sell multiples to each customer. It shouldn't take several airframes to figure an airplane out. Nobody, including myself, wants to buy a second airframe right after an unsuccessful first attempt at a maiden.

Great instructions could solve that problem.

http://www.hobby-lobby.com/mig_15_ep...28669_prd1.htm

This is what I saw. But I did see the ones like you have. We were very close to buying the P-51 they had but didnt.

Originally Posted by Sukhoikid

http://www.hobby-lobby.com/mig_15_ep...28669_prd1.htm

This is what I saw. But I did see the ones like you have. We were very close to buying the P-51 they had but didnt.

I can only comment on what I tried.

have a guy i fly with in willard that picked up one of these from the toledo show, he brought it out to the field about a month or so ago and wanted me to do the maiden flight on it. started the take-off run and the nose gear was just starting to lift off the ground when something suddenly didn't sound right. shut it down and walked up to it and found that a dandalion or something got into the fan and took out all the blades in the right fan unit. he is still waiting for a replacement fan unit from hobby-lobby since they are on back order.

Not to impressed with the retracts on this thing. seemed to roll for take-off ok on the grass, but will plain on belly landing it.

hey Craven, you are an experienced rc pilot and still had problems. think of the amount of people that will buy this as a first plane to fly in the park! what chance do they have of a sucessful flight??? this is the stuff that turns people away from the hobby.

Originally Posted by Bam Bam

hey Craven, you are an experienced rc pilot and still had problems. think of the amount of people that will buy this as a first plane to fly in the park! what chance do they have of a sucessful flight??? this is the stuff that turns people away from the hobby.

Exactly!

Kevin I know several guys came by our boths looking for fans that would fit the HL stuff. I wonder if they were selling some with out fan or if the guys know something that we dont.

Yeah, or they had all sucked dandylions in 'em.

I was there helping Craven with this plane, and I agree completely with his review. The plane had a lot of promise, and seemed to fly well once in the air. But the instruction manual needs significant improvement. And the quality of components needs to be higher. The model was setup strictly with the provided hardware.


Great job on the review Craven! I think you hit the nail on the head! I hope they improve the weak points that your review has shown and provide a high-quality product in the near future.