Tuffoam™ R/C Fun Flyer "Park Flyer" Airplane, retail $59.99 (www.horizonhobby.com...)
Manufactured by Tuffoam™ R/C (www.guillow.com)
Last updated 07-28-12
Wel, thuh kompanie thaat maiks thuh Tuffoam™ Fun Flyer R/C "Park Flyer" Airplane kant spel thuh werd "tough", but they still make an excellent product.
This isn't a flashlight, household lamp, Christmas light set, or other thing that glows, but since I love things that fly (also why I added a seperate section titled "PRODUCTS DESIGNED TO FLY" on my website), and because it has several LEDs in it to help you see it during those pesky night missions, I figured "what the hey".
This is a medium-sized (18" (45.7cm) wingspan), lightweight, easy-to-fly remote controlled airplane. It has two motors (not just one like many other R/C aircraft), and is steered by varying the power to each motor, not with an adjustable horizontal stabiliser like single-engine R/C airplanes (and most real airplanes for that matter) have. Its propellers have three blades, not two like most other R/C airplanes. And it has weels so it can take off from and land on hard surfaces such as sidewalks and unused streets.
The following is from an email sent by a pilot several years ago; this person knows more about aircraft than I do.
I read a few of your RC aircraft reviews, and you have a pretty serious misconception stated at least twice in discussions of models with 2 motors: In full-sized aircraft or in RC, the horizontal stabilizer is NOT primarily involved in turning the aircraft. It does have a secondary role in turning, which I'll return to later. I have dabbled in RC aircraft a couple of times in my life (I'm essentially your age) and I also have a private pilot's license for full-sized aircraft, although I have not exercised that privilege since moving out of Colorado.
The first part of your misconception seems to be that the horizontal stabilizer controls horizontal movement. Not so.
There are three rotational movements: yaw, pitch and roll. Yaw is the horizontal displacement of the nose and tail about the vertical axis. Pitch is vertical displacement about a horizontal axis roughly aligned with the wing, and roll is vertical displacement of the wing tips about a horizontal axis roughly aligned with the propeller shaft.
The fixed horizontal stabilizers (the little wings usually at the back of the aircraft that stick out horizontally) and movable elevator attached to them (or the "stabilator" or "all-flying stabilizer" in the case of a single piece which moves in its entirety) control PITCH. Although this points the nose up or down, and so generally increases or decreases lift, it really controls airspeed: nose-up leads to slower airspeed and nose-down leads to higher airspeed. The aircraft's "state of trim," which depends more or less on the position of the elevator or stabilator, tends to maintain a constant airspeed, although the varying airflow with changing engine power off the propeller does affect trim speed somewhat. POWER translates into climb or descent: at a constant airspeed, more power means climb and less power means decent, and at a constant power more speed means descent and less speed means climb (until you reach the "region of reverse command," when induced drag increases so much that lower speed means MORE power is needed to maintain level flight, or in the most extreme case: when the wing stalls and a small decrease in speed leads to a loss of lift and RAPID descent). This is a common-sense situation: it takes more power to go uphill at a constant speed than downhill, whether in an airplane, car, bicycle or scooter. The lack of a solid hill doesn't really matter.
So, you probably really meant that the VERTICAL stabilizer (the fin sticking up at the back of the fuselage), which affects yaw, controls turning. This is also wrong, although not completely in the case of some RC aircraft. However, unlike in a surface vehicle, YAW, although it does slew the nose sideways, does not turn the aircraft in the sense of causing it to travel in a circular horizontal course. That is actually the result of ROLL, or banking. Rolling into a modest bank angle causes the lift vector of the wing to point sideways as well as up. The sideways force becomes a centripetal force that moves the aircraft in a horizontal circle. The only centripetal force provided by yaw directly is the vector of the engine's thrust resulting from the yaw angle, and except for military jets, the engine's thrust is WAY less than the force of the wing's lift, and is not enough to turn the airplane through a decent arc. (Other exceptions exist in 3D aerobatics, but I'm ignoring that.)
In fact, in a really well-designed airplane, the rudder is hardly needed to turn, and in RC aircraft, low performance planes with 2 channel control have rudder and elevator, but high performance 2 channel planes have aileron and elevator control. (Assumes either glider or constant-power engine/motor. Read as "3-channel" if you want a throttle control, too.) Low-performance models use yaw-roll coupling to let the rudder CAUSE the roll needed to turn the plane, usually via excess dihedral in the wing, but ideally, roll is controlled directly by ailerons. The problem is that ailerons cause roll by increasing lift on one wing, which raises that wing but also induces drag (lift is not free of cost) and slows it down. The wing going up needs to go faster, not slower, to go around the outside of the turn, so this causes "adverse yaw:" the plane tends to turn the opposite of the intended direction, at least while the roll is occurring (the effect becomes less, but not zero, while maintaining a constant bank angle). The rudder is primarily needed to provide a yaw force to offset this adverse yaw and lead to a "coordinated turn" in which there are no net yaw forces, also described as lack of slip or skid. (Deliberate slip is a another use of the rudder to increase drag on the aircraft, and skid can cause the fun/dangerous spin or snap-roll when combined with stall. Brief rolling motions with proper rudder use leads to a "Dutch roll" in which the heading of the airplane doesn't change while the wings rock back and forth. Look them all up if desired!) Older airplanes had lots of adverse yaw, and needed active footwork on the rudder control pedals to make a nice turn or good Dutch rolls, but more recent and more clever designs can make almost-coordinated turns with your feet off the rudder pedals, at least at average airspeed.
There IS an important roll of the horizontal stabilizer in turning: If you want to turn and simultaneously maintain constant altitude, you need to pull back on the stick (pitch the nose up) to increase lift, since as you roll the lift vector would otherwise be the same force. With part of the force directed horizontally, the aircraft would begin to descend unless lift increased, so total lift must increase by either more power (and more airspeed) or more pitch (and slightly reduced airspeed). The latter is usually chosen, so to turn an airplane properly, you use aileron to roll and simulanteously rudder to control adverse yaw, then as the bank angle increases, back stick to increase lift and maintain constant altitude. It's all much easier when you are in the aircraft and can FEEL the results vs. an RC model or flight simulator program, except the consequences of mistakes are worse.
It is a Tuffoam™ Power Plane, 8000 Series, distributed by Paul K. Guillow, Inc.
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This toy is remarkably easy to use for an airplane...here's how to get it flying:
Assemble it (see the included instructional material - you really only need to install the landing gear {wheels}), screw the antenna into the top of the remote control, and as with any rechargeable product, charge the flight battery (see directly below) -- then you can pretend to fly a really large dragonfly (well, that's what the kitty cat would think it is if it were designed to be flown indoors).
Extend the antenna on the radio.
1: On the remote control, turn the "on/off/charge" switch to the "on" position -- slide it toward the left in this case.
2: On the bottom of the airplane's fuselage (body) very near the charger port, there's a black slide switch. Use a fingernail to slide this switch toward the right to the "on" position.
3: Hold the airplane (level, not pointed up or down) in one hand, push the left hand stick on the controller up (toward the front), and firmly but gently toss it straight forward.
Alternately, you may place it onto a hard (paved) surface with a decent length of clear space ahead, and attempt to get it to lift off - this may *OR* may not work however.
4: The motors should immediately throttle up, and the airplane should now begin to climb. Be certain to aim the remote control more or less up at all times; this will help to reach maximum range of the R/C.
For additional instructions & tips on how to fly, please read the instructional material that comes with the product.
Turn the airplane and remote control off when finished using them.
Same switches as before, but slide them in the opposite direction this time.
The battery in the airplane itself is rechargeable; however the batteries in the remote will need to be changed from time to time.
To change the batteries in the remote, turn the unit upside-down, place both thumbs on the texturised areas near the top of the battery door, and firmly push toward the bottom edge of the remote. The battery door should then come off. Very gently place it on the ground, and kick it into the garden so the hungry, hungry praying mantids will think it's something yummy for their insect tummies and subsequently strike at it...O WAIT!!! YOU'LL NEED THAT!!! So just set it aside instead.
Remove the eight used AA cells from the compartment, and dispose of or recycle them as you see fit.
Insert eight new AA cells into the compartment, orienting each cell so its flat-end (-) negative faces a spring for it in each chamber.
Finally, place the battery door back on.
Aren't you glad you didn't kick that battery door into the garden with all those hungry, hungry praying mantids now?
Here is what a praying mantis looks like.
I found this guy on the morning of 09-08-06 clinging to the basket of my scooter.
To charge the flight battery in the airplane itself, plug one end of the included charger cord into the jack near the R/C's antenna, plug the other end into the receptacle for it on the underside of the airplane's fuselage (body), and slide the switch near the center of the remote control's upper surface toward the right.
A yellow-green LED on the control should come on. When this light turns off, the airplane's battery pack is charged: Unplug the charger cord from the airplane and from the remote, and slide the switch on the remote to the center position.
The flight time per charge is stated at "over 5 minutes".
The Fun Flyer R/C "Park Flyer" Airplane is meant to be used as a toy in a dry area outdoors, not as a flashlight meant to be carried around, rained on, thrashed, trashed, and abused, so I won't try to drown it in the toilet tank, bash it against a steel rod or against the concrete floor of a patio, let my sister's citty kats go to the litterbox on it or let my parent's big dog's ghost lift his leg on it, run over it with a 450lb Celebrity motorised wheelchair, leave it outside in the rain, stomp on it, pee on it, use a medium claw hammer in order to bash it open to check it for candiosity, fire it from the cannoñata, drop it down the top of Mt. Erupto (I guess I've been watching the TV program "Viva Piñata" too much again - candiosity is usually checked with a laser-type device on a platform with a large readout (located at Piñata Central), with a handheld wand that Langston Lickatoad uses, or with a pack-of-cards-sized device that Fergy Fudgehog uses; the cannoñata (also located at Piñata Central) is only used to shoot piñatas to piñata parties away from picturesque Piñata Island, and Mt. Erupto is an active volcano on Piñata Island), send it to the Daystrom Institute for additional analysis, or perform other indecencies on it that a flashlight might have to have performed on it. So this section of the web page will be ***SIGNIFICANTLY*** more bare than this section of the web page on a page about a flashlight.
The remote control's maximum range is stated as 150 feet.
The frequency of this particular unit is labelled as 27.00MHz.
There is a thin white wire coming from the back of the airplane; pull, cut, or otherwise remove it!!!
This is the airplane's antenna, and it is absolutely necessary for the wire to be intact for the airplane to maintain contact with the remote control!!!
Photograph of the remote control.
Spectrographic analysis of the red "All systems go" LED on the undercarriage of this airplane.
Spectrographic analysis of the red "All systems go" LED on the undercarriage of this airplane; spectrometer's response narrowed to a band between 620nm and 650nm to pinpoint emission peak wavelength, which is 633.777nm.
Spectrographic analysis of the red "Power" LED on the radio.
Spectrographic analysis of the red "Power" LED on the radio; spectrometer's response narrowed to a band between 620nm and 660nm to pinpoint emission peak wavelength, which is 638.994nm.
Spectrographic analysis of the yellow-green "Charge cycle in progress" LED on the radio.
Spectrographic analysis of the yellow-green "Charge cycle in progress" LED on the radio; spectrometer's response narrowed to a band between 540nm and 590nm to pinpoint peak wavelength, which is 559.927nm.
This video shows a trio of semi-successful flights of this airplane.
Flights were made at Celebration Park in Federal Way WA. USA on the morning of 06-08-12. Temperature at flight time was 52°F (11.1°C).
That music you hear in the background is the song, "SMF" by...o cummon you've just ***GOT*** to know this one by now considering that I'm a known metalhead...go on, take a whack at it anyway...
if you guessed Anthrax, ¡¡¡HUSOOS CRISTO EN UNA MULETA... ¡¡¡NO!!!
It's Twisted Sister you silly goose!!!
This product is not sound-sensitive, and no metal music is present, however the audio may be ignored or even muted if it still torques you off.
This video is approximately 9.20073464119 megabytes (9,389,707 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than forty six minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.
This video shows a trio of semi-successful flights of this airplane.
Flights were made at Celebration Park in Federal Way WA. USA on the morning of 06-08-12. Temperature at flight time was 52°F (11.1°C).
Video content is the same as the video directly above, however, there is no zax in this video -- because not everybody who comes here to watch R/C airplane vidz is a metalhead and would desire an unwanted earwhipping.
This video is approximately 9.20073464116 megabytes (9,389,207 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than eighteen minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.
Another flight of the Guillow's Tuffoam™ Fun Flyer ''Park Flyer'' R/C Airplane. Yes, it really does lift off from the ground on its own despite what it reads in the user manual, which indicates that it can be hand-launched only.
Flights were made at Celebration Park in Federal Way WA. USA on the morning of 06-13-12. Temperature at flight time was 52°F (11.1°C).
That music you hear in the background is the song, "Across the River" by...o cummon you've just ***GOT*** to know this one by now considering that I'm a known metalhead...go on, take a whack at it anyway...
If you guessed Hozay Gonzalez, ¡¡¡HUSOOS CRISTO EN UNA MULETA... ¡¡¡NO!!!
It's Anthrax you silly goose!!!
This product is not sound-sensitive, so the audio may be ignored or even muted if it ticks you off.
I added, "***NSFYE!!!***" (Not Safe For Your Ears) to the title even though this song is an instrumental because not everybody who enjoys watching R/C aircraft here is a metalhead and would want an undesired earwhipping.
This video is approximately 4.40004663245 megabytes (4,596,711 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than twenty two minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.
Another flight of the Guillow's Tuffoam™ Fun Flyer ''Park Flyer'' R/C Airplane. Yes, it really does lift off from the ground on its own despite what it reads in the user manual, which indicates that it can be hand-launched only.
Flights were made at Celebration Park in Federal Way WA. USA on the morning of 06-13-12. Temperature at flight time was 52°F (11.1°C).
The video content is the same as the video directlty above, but there is no zax to appease those viewers who aren't metalheads and would not appreciate receiving an unwanted earwhipping.
This video is approximately 4.44784663245 megabytes (4,657,311 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than twenty two minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.
Another relatively good flight of the Guillow's Tuffoam™ Fun Flyer ''Park Flyer'' R/C Airplane.
Flights were made at Celebration Park in Federal Way WA. USA on the morning of 06-15-12. Temperature at flight time was 58°F (14.4°C).
This video is approximately 9.58845345721 megabytes (7,350,942 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than thirty seven minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.
Another relatively good flight of the Guillow's Tuffoam™ Fun Flyer ''Park Flyer'' R/C Airplane.
Flights were made at Celebration Park in Federal Way WA. USA on the morning of 06-15-12. Temperature at flight time was 58°F (14.4°C).
This video is approximately 9.58845345721 megabytes (7,350,942 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than thirty seven minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.
Video showing a successful flight of the Guillows Tuffoam™ Fun Flyer ''Park Flyer'' R/C Airplane that I made in a baseball diamond in Federal Way WA. USA on the morning of 07-10-12 (or "10 Jul. 2012" or even "Jul. 10, Twenty Stick-Very-Twirly-Stick" if you prefer). Temperature at flight time was 57°F (13.9°C).
The airplane did "porpoise" while in flight -- that is, the nose rose too high and it acted like it was going to stall, but it recovered...and just like it reads on the backs of many shampoopoo (or shampotty) bottles: lather, rinse, repeat (in other words, it "porpoised" repeatedly for the entire flight.
This video is approximately 58.55565357138 megabytes (58,742,264 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than two hundred ninety two minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.
A video showing a truly EXCELLENT flight of the Tuffoam™ Fun Flyer "Park Flyer" R/C Airplane that I made in the socker fields at Celebration Park in Federal Way WA. USA on the morning of 07-18-12 (or "18 Jul. 2012" or even "Jul. 18, Twenty Stick-Very-Twirly-Stick" if you prefer). Temperature at flight time was 61°F (16.1°C).
Note the birds chasing it throughout a fair percentage of its flight! :-O
This video is approximately 110.23764568115 megabytes (110,583,420 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than five hundred fifty one (!) minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.
TEST NOTES:
Test unit was purchased on Ebay on 06-05-12 (or "05 Jun 2012" or even "Jun 05, Twenty Stick-Very-Twirly-Stick" if you prefer) and was received on the afternoon of 06-08-12.
UPDATE: 07-10-12
I had a surprisingly good flight at the park on the morning of July 4th, but recording it on video was not successful because the wind immediately blew it behind the camera, so the only evidence I have of the flight is the following photograph that shows where it came down on the warning track of the baseball park I flew it in (the socker fields I normally use were being set up for a July 4 celebration of some sort):
UPDATE: 07-28-12
I tried to fly it on the 25th of July but during my pre-flight checks, I found that there was cat fur wound up around the shaft of the port (left-side) motor that caused an excessive amount of drag (friction); the propeller did not spin anywhere nearly as rapidly as the starboard prop -- an in-the-field repair attempt resulted in a busted O-ring, so I conducted the necessary repair at home with the furnished spare parts. But when I went to fly the next day, I soon found that I had installed the incorrect propeller. The port motor rotates counterclockwise (or "anticlockwise" if you prefer), while the starboard motor rotates clockwise. So yes, the propellers are different for each side.
PROS:
Durable tough foam ("Tuffoam™") construction withstands multiple crashes
CONS:
MANUFACTURER: Tuffoam™ R/C
PRODUCT TYPE: Remote controlled airplane
LAMP TYPE: 5mm LED
No. OF LAMPS: 3 (2 white, 1 red)
BEAM TYPE: N/A
SWITCH TYPE: Slide on/off on bottom of product's fuselage
CASE MATERIAL: Plastic & compressed foam
BEZEL: N/A
BATTERY: 8xAA cells (remote), 3.6 volt 150mAh NiMH rechargeable (airplane itself)
CURRENT CONSUMPTION: Unknown/unable to measure
WATER- AND DIET PEPSI-RESISTANT: Very light splatter-resistance at maximum
SUBMERSIBLE: NO WAY HOZAY!!!
ACCESSORIES: NiMH flight battery, two spare props, two spare prop mounting clips, four "O"-rings, charge cable
SIZE: 13" (33.10cm) wingspan, 13.30" (34.05cm) long
WARRANTY: Not specifically stated (reads "reasonable amount of time")
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