FLEXJET SUPER PNP

[T-CAT]

One the biggest RC pet peeves of mine is lack of glue (in general on all surfaces glued, but mostly...) on crucial flight surface mounts and landing gear mounts. If the factory cannot secure it properly with glue, the right type of glue, and the right amount of glue all with consistency, I’d rather do the assembly myself to ensure the surfaces are safe and ready for flight.

[bill34207]

It does seem QC coming out of China is all over the place and not just with this particular manufacturers model. I've seen reports of loose (insufficient glue) gear in FMS and even Freewing products.
It appears I got a "good one". Other than the boatload of right roll trim it needed on the maiden mine has been problem free for 40 flights now.
When I heard the 1st report of insufficient glue on the gear (RC Groups) I tug tested all 3 of mine and they were solid.One person reported a DOA BEC so I added a Scorpion backup guard to mine (since it was laying around doing nothing) When I fly with the SoloShot tag in plane I remove the backup guard to offset it's weight. My BEC still works and has for the duration of flights since the backup can be used for a couple of weeks without needing a recharge.
Other than the crappy performance of my robotic cameraman shooting like he has attention deficit disorder I'm happy with mine.

[ZCOL]

Bill34207, I agree with you. Thank you for sharing I still enjoy the bird just discourage at first at that price point.

Hope you all get some good flight weather this weekend.

[ZCOL]

One the biggest RC pet peeves of mine is lack of glue (in general on all surfaces glued, but mostly...) on crucial flight surface mounts and landing gear mounts. If the factory cannot secure it properly with glue, the right type of glue, and the right amount of glue all with consistency, I’d rather do the assembly myself to ensure the surfaces are safe and ready for flight.

T-CAT I'm with you, I'd rather glue all surfaces myself as well. I tugged on all landing gear (what I thought sufficient pressure) apparently it's the downward/forward pressure that does the trick.

[crxmanpat]

Four great flights on the FLEXJET today! The only issue I had was that my elevators were not lined up properly on the maiden and required significant left aileron trim to fly level. After landing I adjusted the elevators, but must have gone too much on the right side and the second flight needed right trim. It wasn't a lot, so I left them there for the other two flights.

Other than that, it flew great! Insane roll rate on Expert mode, and knife edges were extremely easy to hold. Great vertical, even while rolling.

No pics or video today as my cameraman was not there. All I need to do now is get my decal order in with Callie.

[xviper]

I was going to do my final appraisal of this plane but I've decided against it so that I don't inject too much negativity into this thread. After all, it's only my opinion. I've given my "bottom line" thoughts on this plane in the Avanti S thread as I found it too easy to compare the FlexJet to that plane. I will, however, just say that if they could take out the Aura 8 and sell it for around $400.00, they'd have a winner. When it comes time to thin out the herd, I'll be keeping the Avanti S. ZCOL has already shown us that this plane is not immune to QC problems and the response he got from Flex Innovations is far less than what it should have been, but then, we've been spoiled by Motion RC's high standards of customer relations.

[bill34207]

I destroyed my Flexjet this past Sunday coming out the bottom of an outside loop and panicking when I spotted another club members plane in my exit path. Lots of carnage as it went in nose 1st from about 50' up.. :Crying:
I will be replacing mine providing they don't run out of them before next Friday when I can get down to their location. With their shop hours being the same as my normal work schedule had to schedule myself a vacation day. That way I don't have to pay shipping on top of Florida sales tax.

[andre]

While in Ohio for Flite Fest I met the Flex Innovations crew and came home with a FJ.

Flew it on Saturday with my heart pounding and fingers shaking.

Looking forward to a lot more flights with this beast.

[rifleman_btx]

Yeah I'm very impressed by that one, my buddy has it and it's a great flying machine.

[xviper]

I unplugged all the leads from the Aura 8 and hooked it them up to the standard RX I was using with this plane. I split off the ailerons so I could program flaperons and "Y'd" the two ELE servos together (using a servo reverser on one of them). I had to do a mix so that both ailerons came down the same distance when the flap switch was flipped since it seems the two servos didn't move at the same rate (yes, both are on the same holes). Playing with the rates and expo, I was able to duplicate the flight characteristics for the way I fly the plane as what the Aura 8 gave me. This plane does NOT need the Aura 8's flight controller for my style of flying. It's very stable without it. My buddy said he could tell that the landing speed was reduced by about 1/3 of what it used to be.
For those who are handy with the Aura 8 config tool (I'm not but playing with it), you will be able to program in flaperons and duplicate what I did. For me, this is the way the plane should have been from the beginning. With flaperons and my short, rough field, this jet is now considerably more enjoyable and easier to land. It is by no means my favorite jet. It is still fun to fly but there are jets in my hanger that are as much fun if not more fun. It was way over-priced, over-hyped and over-rated (my opinion). Seeing how mine flew compared to how my other jets flew, my friend who also got a FlexJet at the same time has not yet even opened the box.
One big PLUS about this FlexJet .................... It has very sturdy retracts. My field will beat the crap out of almost all retracts. This plane's retracts have taken it without even a hint of coming loose. I would consider getting these retracts for any of my other planes when those ones come to a demise.

[ZCOL]

Looking for recommendations from you gents. I've had about 30 flights on the flex jet and am now looking at pulling the electronics and putting them in an ARF jet what would you guys recommend, I'm looking at motion RC ARF birds. From the get go I've had issues with the landing gear and today the front landing gear caused this thing to go out of control on take off, my left elevator servo has a jitter in it I assume trying to find center. Took a good chunk of foam out of the leading edge right wing. I was also looking at just selling it for $150 as a spare parts item and ordering the Avonti so I can run the same batteries. All recommendation are greatly appreciated. Yes, I'm sure operator error was the a factor in some of these issues

[bill34207]

If you want to go through the reprogramming, the Aura 8 makes a heck of a gyro. Plug that into your Avanti and turn it into an even more "solid" flyer.

[xviper]

Are you good at programming the Aura 8 and understand how it all works? I am not and it still confuses me. I yanked that thing out after only a few flights and put in an "ordinary" Spektrum compatible Rx where I set it up for flaperons. I'm messing around with the Aura 8 now to see if I can do flaperons and keep the stabilization but I'm too scared to put it back into the FlexJet to see if it will work. I'll try it one day in a cheap "tester".
Mine also had a jittery elevator servo. Checking the internet, I found that jittery servos can be dealt with in several ways. The simplest way is to install something on the plane that would give some resistance to the control surface when it was near center. In my case, I found a ziptie that was just the perfect width and wrapped it around the elevator's main rod that goes into the tail to get to the servo. The ziptie is installed in that space between the inner edge of the elevator and the fuse. This cured the stutter. I also ripped out a main gear but that was the fault of hitting a gopher hole. I've never had any problems with the nose gear.
Since removing the Aura 8 and having flaperons, the FlexJet flies just the same and takes off so much more effectively and lands so much slower. I discovered on the very first flight after Aura 8, that the stabilizer was never really needed on the plane. Just for kicks, I installed a HobbyEagle stabilizer on my Avanti S and found that this makes the plane even more rocks solid (if that could actually happen). The Avanti S doesn't really need a stab either but I wanted to see what it would do for it.
I'm sure the Aura 8 is a very advanced device and can do amazing things for some people and their planes but for me, it was a useless addition and made the FlexJet way over priced. I didn't like the way it was programmed our of the box and I did manage to understand it just enough to put in more gain and less throws and more expo that helped to make it fly the way I was comfortable with. I had high hopes for the FlexJet but now realize that it's really nothing special. I hope to eventually salvage the Aura 8 but for now, it's just another piece in my collection of junk. I still contend that the Avanti S is a much, much better model and far better value. I'm about to order the L-39 Albatross and I'm predicting that it will rank right up there with the Avanti S.

[ZCOL]

Thank you both for the information, I'm ready to see how the L-39 Albatross matches up to the Avanti, right now I agree the Avanti is a great value and won't hurt as bad if and when damage occurs. I do like the Aura 8 once you get past the programming, I have it in another EDF and it makes for steady flights in any condition.

Thank again gents

[jonesjj3]

The L-39 really has my interest and I have some experience with the Aura 8 and if I get the L-39 I would put one in it, do I need it? no, does the plane need it? probably not, will the Aura 8 make for reduced pilot work load in cross wind landings and flying in higher winds than what you may normally fly in (comfortably)? Yes. Where I fly most time it is more windy than not there fore the reduced pilot workload of the Aura 8 would be welcome, I have called Flex Inovations and had questions on the Aura 8 and they have been very helpful.

[easy dog]

Hey Guys,

First time on this blog/site,

Love my Flex jet and it performs great but I have an extra JP Hobby EDF unit and wonder if the Flex Jet would benefit from a transplant. My Freewing Stinger came to life big time with the same type of upgrade. Any thoughts?

[xviper]

Hey Guys,

First time on this blog/site,

Love my Flex jet and it performs great but I have an extra JP Hobby EDF unit and wonder if the Flex Jet would benefit from a transplant. My Freewing Stinger came to life big time with the same type of upgrade. Any thoughts?

I can't comment on your question but you should post up some specs on that JP unit (blades, kv, inrunner or outrunner, etc) so the more knowledgeable guys here can do a comparison and give you an answer.

For me, my old Stinger 90 didn't really need to "come to life", so anything more powerful or speedy would have been too much for me. As for the FlexJet, mine is at the bottom of my favorites list of over a dozen jets and since I paid a lot of money for it already, I can't see doing "upgrades" on it. It flies pretty good as is. Just didn't like the Aura 8.

[SWOFLY]

I bought the Flex jet last month and I've had about 6 flights as of now. I also have a Freewing Stinger 90 and have flown it for a year now, dozens of flights so I can make a pretty valid comparison of these two EDFs. First off, the Stinger is IMHO the best flying sport EDF you can buy, a friend of mine has the Avanti 80 and it too is a very good flying model. The main weakness of the Stinger as well as other Freewing EDFs is the landing gear. They sometimes don't want to retract or come down and you never know when or why they decide to malfunction. The Flex jet has very sturdy and so far very reliable landing gear, and yes they did pop out after running off the runway one time but some 5 minute epoxy had me back in the air quickly. It flies very nice and smooth, performs maneuvers such as knife edge very well, only a little rudder required, so i'm overall pleased with this model. The biggest issue I have is NO FLAPS ! They should have programmed flaps into the Aura 8 from the factory because unless you have a good headwind on landing this thing comes in fast and rolls a long way down the runway. I'm not going to try to reprogram the Aura 8 for flaperons. I'll probably do what xviper recommends and unplug it , split off the elevators, and dial some flaperons on my TX. The stablization features of the Aura 8 are fine if you are flying in windy conditions , but I I would rather give that up in favor of flaperons. They should offer this plane with or without the Aura 8, thus making it more affordable for those who can't get past the price level. It is well designed and has some nice features in addition to the landing gear the control linkages are a little more solid then what you get on other models. Another thing I don't like is the black plastic tail cone. I replaced it with a Freewing F16 tail pipe with LED lights in it, see the photo. All in all this is a good quality EDF which with a few tweaks can be a n every day fun flying jet.

[Phantom]

Read this whole thread, and was still on the fence about this bird. Then I looked it up and it is currently on sale for about 130 bucks off,...so I ordered the orange one :)

[xviper]

Read this whole thread, and was still on the fence about this bird. Then I looked it up and it is currently on sale for about 130 bucks off,...so I ordered the orange one :)

At $130.00 off, that's a reasonable value for the money. I've always said that it needed to be just over a hundred bucks less to be a worthwhile value. My FlexJet has been hanging from the ceiling for a very long time now (not even counting the winter hybernation) and looking back at all the pre-sale hype and drummed up excitement and knowing what I paid for it, it certainly is not a "special" model airplane. Yes, it can be a nice flying plane, makes nice sounds and works adequately well with the right programming. However, in the overall scheme of things, it's now a fairly uninspiring model that is quite a bit on the "ordinary" side. The Aura 8 was not the wonderful thing that they made it up to be and now sits in a bag with no future use. The replacement receiver with a simple HobbyEagle gyro does just as well, if not better than the 8 and is far simpler to get set up. When you get yours, I would suggest looking at the Aura 8 programming very carefully and make sure that you modify it so that the gyro works on all the modes until you get used the to plane. Without good gyro intervention and the factory rates, the higher rates and expo make for a very twitchy flight. The throws are way more than you need unless you are a seasoned and expert RC pilot, which I am not and that first flight with the Aura 8 was a real butt clencher.