Parkzone Warbird vs. Parkzone F-27 Stryker?

[Moonwalker]

Hi,

I am pretty new to the hobby but have been going hog wild flying the 3 channel planes from Hobbyzone. I am starting to get a little bored with these slow flyers and want something with a lot more challenge. I am considering one or both of the above noted planes from Parkzone.

Does anybody have any experience with either of these planes and would be willing to comment on;

1) Durability in a crash (I understand the F-27 if made from EPP);
2) Ease of flying for one moving up from the Hobbyzone line;

Thanks for your commentary.

[Grasshopper]

Hi Moonwalker,

Depends on which warbird you are talking about. I've been flying the P-51 stock for about 8 months now. I like it ok but I can't say I would recommend it. I've not had any problems with it, it's just not near as responsive as my other warbirds. Unless you just really like the Parkzone planes, I would recommend the E-Flight P-47. Even in the stock brushed set up, it's a much, much better flying plane and in my little old opinion, much easier to fly too. If you are set on the Parkzone stuff, I would take a look at the Focke Wulf. I've not flown one but I've heard good things about it.

P.S. I was speaking only of the warbirds. I've never flown the stryker but have read a lot of positive comments about it.

[I_Love_My_ABC]

Moonwalker,

I have flown a semi-stock Stryker ie. I bought the bare airframe and built it up with a direct drive 480 brushed motor and electronics. It flew very well for the short time I had it. Unfortunately I lost it in the sun-glare, it went through the trees at my local park, out onto the road and finished up being run over by a large delivery truck!!

I not only found it very easy to fly, but it had a great glide rate and plenty of power to burn. The stock RTF kit would be much easier to get in the air and I hear that the brushless F-27C Stryker is also very nice but a real handfull doing 80Mph out of the box!!!

I now have a full RTF Parkzone Spitfire MKIIB which I fly pretty much every time I go out now!! Absolutely brilliant!! I can't think of anything to complain about, it's close to perfect and is quite challenging to fly as well. I don't think you can really go wrong with either route, but I've also heard good things about the E-Flight P-47 Warhawk so It really comes down to personal preference.

A couple of things I would consider are that my RTF Spitfire only took about 10 minutes to assemble and 40 minutes or so to charge the battery. You can conceivably be in the air in less than hour from opening the box!! You're probably familiar with that having flown other Hobbyzone/Parkzone planes, and the Stryker RTF is about the same, whilst the Warhawk requires full assembly which will probably take a couple of days of solid work to get it flying.

Once again it comes down to personal preference, I personally started with RTF's then started building ARF kits but now I've gone back to full RTF's. They're just so easy and my Spitfire tracked perfectly in the air without any trimming needed. I'm really enjoying flying again with no stress instead of investing hours and hours in a build that I'm never quite sure how it will fly!!

It all depends what you like I guess, if you're really into building, like some people are, I'd probably lean towards the Warhawk, but for mine, it's Parkzone RTF warbirds, particularly the Spit that currently rules the sky...

;-) ;-)

[wgregoryl]

Hi Moonwalker,

I don't have experience with the Spitfire, or the Warhawk for that matter, but do have experience with the Stryker and most hartily recommend it. I personally fell it is rather bullet proof, obviously not going to survive being run over by a truck LOL, but have seen it flying quite well with nearly no forward fusealge remaining after a lawn dart like high speed crash! I have flown it in both its original stock form and the later brushless with a 3s Lipo added.

The stock configuration was fine until and after I went to the brushless with the lipo. I gave the stock one to a friend, I have no use for it any more. Yes, the new one can do 80mph out of the box, but it does indeed fly slowly exceptionally well with an excellent glide. If I'm not in the mood for trying to peel the paint off the wing I can just put it up high and glide for awhile.
So, it has a VERY wide performance envelope which you can choose by modifying the push on the throttle as your mood chooses.

Spitfire may indeed, and sounds to be a fine plane. But, you can literally toss the stryker in the trunk, it's quite durable, and is available plug and play if you already have a receiver and transmitter and want to save a few bucks on the acquisition.

My 2 cents....

[Solid Hit]

I'm going to make a different suggestion. If you intend to stay in the hobby, you are limiting yourself to your choices in the Park Zone planes. Instead, I would suggest that your next purchase be a good computer radio.

One transmitter can be programed for many planes. Each plane can have it's own trim settings on one transmitter. Your equipment can be moved from one plane to another. You will not be limited to whatever Park Zone has and end up with one transmitter per plane. The Park Zone electronics are so-so and are proprietary meaning you can't take one of their servos or receivers and interchange them with standard electronics.

[I_Love_My_ABC]

Solid Hit,

That's not a bad suggestion, by all means go out and test the water Moonwalker, I was in no way suggesting that you should only stay with Parkzone gear, actually quite the opposite. I was only relaying my own personal experiences with having started down the Hobbyzone/Parkzone route and then moving away from all that and into a computerised transmitter.

I've built and flown many ARF kits over the past three years or so, foam and balsa but nothing I have ever built, with the exception of a couple of the GWS kits, (Slow Stick and Pico Tiger Moth) have really been consistently good flyers. Admittedly, some of that can be attributed to my limited building skills in the early days, but I still have a couple of HZ/PZ planes that still fly as well today as they did on the day I bought them!!

As for the HZ/PZ radios, I guess I've been very lucky. I've had them from day one and have never had a problem with any of them, not even a radio glitch that I can ever remember, with the exception of a faulty ESC/RX unit from my old PZ Super Decathlon which was replaced by the vendor free of charge before it's maiden flight.

I wish I could say the same for my JR Max66 which has glitched from time to time, quite badly, luckily without ever leading to a destroyed plane. The HZ/PZ radios are what they are, they're not very flash, and if you can get over the fact that yes you do get one with every RTF kit you buy, in my experience, they do the job they were designed to do and they do it very well, albeit with some limitations.

It is true that most of the Parkzone radio gear is proprietary, and the old 5 wire servos were pretty nasty, but Parkzone seems to be listening to the complaints and with the introduction of the F-27C Stryker, 3D Typhoon, and now the Spitfire, they are now using standard 3 wire servos and seperate ESC and RX units. The Spitfire still has a combined ESC/RX but also has a 6 channel radio system with seperate throttle channel (Port number 1) and will accept an external ESC should you wish to do a brushless upgrade with the stock radio.

The P-51 & Focke Wulf and the Spitfire are also available in airframe only (Including brushed motor and gearbox) and the F-27C Stryker & 3D Typhoon are available in a plug and play version. I was originally looking at the Spitfire airframe only option, but for an additional $75.00AU ($55.00US) the RTF kit included the radio, ESC, RX, servos, charger, flight pack (9 cell 1000Mah NiMh) and transmitter batteries. To me that deal was well worth the extra dollars, and I now have one of the nicest flying RC planes I have personally ever seen, in the air for only $225.00AU!! ($165.00US)

There is a perception out there that all of the Hobbyzone/Parkzone stuff is mass produced crap aimed solely at the beginner market. That couldn't be further from the truth today, they are producing some of the best flying, best value for money packages on the market today, and in particular, their warbird series including the F-27C are all a real challenge for even experienced RC pilots. There is now a huge range of choice from beginners products right through into the high-end, high-performance warbirds and the raw power of the brushless F-27C Stryker that does 80 Mph right out of the box!!

This company has gone from strength to strength and are producing, as they have always done, high quality products at low prices. They are responsible for introducing many new RC pilots into this wonderful hobby and I've personally done a complete 180 degree turn back to the RTF packages with the Spitfire. It's just a stress-free flyer that I'm enjoying much more than I imagined I ever would!!

Once again I am in no way saying that you should only fly Hobbyzone/Parkzone planes, but don't ignore them either, because in my experience they are a great option at a great price and they just seem to me to be getting better and better.

Cheers!!

Todd Clarke

;-) ;-)

P.S. I don't work for Hobbyzone, Parkzone or Horizon Hobby or any of the affiliates. I'm just a regular punter who pays for and uses their products, and I strongly believe that if something is good it deserves a little word of mouth promotion!!

[UncleBob]

To make it simple, if you want a nice scale look you need the warbird. Otherwise the Stryker wins in every category.

It's a lot tougher
It flies faster
It also flies SLOWER
The RX and ESC are not integrated, so you get better parts.
There is a Plug and Play version so you can get a good radio, some decent batteries and fly
Spares are cheaper


My brother has the Spitfire and had the FW-190. Both perfectly good planes but the Stryker is easier to fly and outperforms them in every corner of the performance envelope.

The only downsides are (1) the delta/wing planes are really addictive and (2) they tend to be "visually ambiguous" so you have to be careful and sort of get used to keeping track of them.

[Balil]

i strongly suggest repainting the stryker to help with orientation. this bird gets real small real quick so it wont really help at a significant distance but when doing aerobatics low to the ground it'll help. here are a few shots of my freshly painted stryker. dont mind the stickers they're there simply to hold the servos and wiring in place, another thing i suggest is to run the antenna through the carbon fibre wing spar. i did this because the tape i had origonally used didnt stick to the paint very well. it seemed to work fine as it keeps it straight and you dont have to worry about it contacting anything metal..

[I_Love_My_ABC]

Nice paint job!! That's certainly two very different surfaces which is exactly what you're looking for when flying at altitude with a "visually ambiguous" (Man I love that term!!) plane.

As for your antenna, please correct me if I'm wrong anybody, but I seem to remember reading somewhere that an antenna shouldn't be routed anywhere near carbon fibre, let alone through a carbon fibre rod. Something about it effecting the range of the RX and causing glitches in the radio system.

I may be mistaken, but it may be a pretty hard lesson learned at 80 mph...

Todd

[Balil]

with the stock setup the antenna is run less then an inch away from that tube in a small groove. i havent put her up in the new configuration yet, but as soon as i do i'll give a flight report. and as far as the lesson learned at 80mph.... i nosed it down at full throttle yesterday, and i put her back together and threw on that paint job

[I_Love_My_ABC]

Has anybody seen a good FMS model of the Parkzone Spitfire MKIIB...

[visalia31]

I'm going to make a different suggestion. If you intend to stay in the hobby, you are limiting yourself to your choices in the Park Zone planes. Instead, I would suggest that your next purchase be a good computer radio.

One transmitter can be programed for many planes. Each plane can have it's own trim settings on one transmitter. Your equipment can be moved from one plane to another. You will not be limited to whatever Park Zone has and end up with one transmitter per plane. The Park Zone electronics are so-so and are proprietary meaning you can't take one of their servos or receivers and interchange them with standard electronics.

This is very good info and timing. I hate buying RTF planes now because it just adds another remote or much more work to convert it to my radio. IF you plan to stay in the hobby, a nice radio is a big plus.

BTW, I have a Futaba 7CHP. not the best, not the worst. Just right for me, though.:)

CG

[UncleBob]

I'm going to make a different suggestion. If you intend to stay in the hobby, you are limiting yourself to your choices in the Park Zone planes. Instead, I would suggest that your next purchase be a good computer radio.

In all fairness ParkZone has been doing a lot better, to the point where they are offering a growing number of products as Plug-n-Play (you supply the radio) models. Even the new Spitfire RTF has a throttle channel out so you can disable the integrated ESC, and the new products use standard 3 wire servos.

I do agree the included radios are 3rd rate, but they do the job for a low cost.

[I_Love_My_ABC]

My full RTF Spit is the best flying plane I have, and I have a lot of good quality, well made ARF's sitting around here too. I can't believe how well it does fly straight out of the box... Parkzone is definately not for everyone, but the quality has certainly gone through the roof of late!!

[constantCrash]

just yelling out another yay for the spit. i bought it at 5pm on thursday and had it in the air at 7:30pm (had to wait for the wind to die down) purchased on a whim because the store owner had one on display and couldn't get over how cool it looks. But i'm going to have to paint the bottom of the wing to get more visual contrast. it's hard to tell orientation on it sometimes.