Firebird Outlaw - A Word of Caution

Airplanes

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Firebird Outlaw - A Word of Caution

Postby aeajr » Mon Sep 08, 2003 9:25 am

With the introduction of the Firebird Outlaw, Hobbyzone has once again pushed down the cost of entry, now around $60.

One of our club members came into the club with the Firebird Outlaw, so I now have a little time on one helping him learn to fly.

First, this is a really cute plane. However it is VERY light so that the slightest breeze pushes it around.

While dif thrust works, I have to say that the motors are not really strong enough to control the plane well in anything over about 3-4 MPH breeze. I am sure someone will say they have flown in 10 MPH, but there just isn't enough thrust.

Anyway, they guy was flying. He made an adjustment on the tail so that he got some better climb and was really doing well. He got it up about 100 feet and was having a ball when it just started to climb faster than he expected. The plane had found a thermal.

He shut the motor off and was just floating along. He was loving it until he realized he couldn't get the plane back down.

When I go the controls, the plane was up about 400 feet. I could not power out of the thermal and was not able to induce a spiral dive since there is no tail surface you can control, as there is on a Firebird, XL, Commander or Fighterbird. We had contact from the transmitter because we could get the plane to turn, but when it hit the edge of the thermal, it would be spun back in. We could not break out of the funnel. Despite our best efforts the thermal just sucked the plane into the sky.

For its intended purpose, a close in little fun plane, it is cute and serves the purpose. However, be VERY careful with this plane if you get it above tree level. It has so little power it can not fight against wind and can easily be blown away or sucked up by a thermal. I never saw anything like this.
Best regards,
aeajr
www.mladesigns.com
aeajr
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Posts: 17
Joined: Mon Apr 07, 2003 8:05 pm
Location: LI, NY, USA

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