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| The Spirit 600 comes in 4 colors and two styles, collect all 8! |
It's time for some surprising fun, small, and perhaps most surprising valuee on the market, the Spirit 600 offered at Banggood. I have to admit I wasn't holding out much hope for this kit when it first arrived. I mean assembly was too easy and a bit, well, different. When I brought it to the park and launched it for the first time I thought it would hit the ground. But, to my surprise it took off and gave me a very nice flying experience. It wasn't an off the rails Turnigy Bonsia flying experience, but it was fun enough to make me want more. What it lacked in the ability to do amazing tricks it picked up with providing a smooth, stable flight.
I can't describe why I love flying this plane as much as I do. I have a lot of delta wing planes that are slight variations of each other. This plane flies differently than all my other deltas. I think it may have to do with the large nose on the front of this plane. It's quiet and fast and just marvelous to watch fly around. You can fly it slow and watch it fly with grace, then give it throttle and watch it take off into the heavens. It's just a blast to fly around.
The Build
If Nerf were to make an RC plane, this would be the design. The plane has a huge EPP foam center. It's what hits the ground first, not your wings. All you do is glue in the two wing halves onto it. Then it has a funky side port for the servos. If you go with the 5g servos like I did you need to shove it in with a little force, but you'll know it's in to stay. Add a little glue and never think about it again. While you're at it, glue on the winglets. The next day wire it up, get your servo arms/control horns installed. The motor mount is a piece of thin plastic over foam. Don't worry, it's beyond fine. I installed the C20 motor from Banggood running a 5.5" prop. Love it!
Now, I'm all about the carbon fiber rods on planes. This one didn't need it. The wings are sturdy enough. But, I had to do something so I painted the bottom of the plane then put lamination on the wings to get a bit more performance out of it. This ultimately didn't work and gave the plane some bad flying characteristics (too much weight). You want to make certain the wing sit perfectly flat. On this build they didn't and bowed the plane which made it want to land when it picked up speed. Lesson learned.
This is a plane you can assemble in the morning and fly in the afternoon, it's that simple. Because it's easy to build you may want to rope your kid into helping you build it. Oh sure, you can prewire the electronics in advance. You can literally glue the plane together Friday Night and then throw the electronics on Saturday morning and take it out flying, perhaps with some pins still in the foam to keep it together while flying What I like about this plane is that the wires are all hidden away inside the fuselage. It makes this plane a very clean looking. I prefer the lattice graphics though the ink is fairly faint on this plane.
I will warn you, however, as easy as it is is to build, it's even easier to build wrong. You really have to keep it light with small motors and lightweight gear. You'll need park flyer receivers. Weight is an issue with this plane. Work extra hard to keep it light.
Flight Characteristics
To me, 2S batteries always seem like a bit of a letdown. However, it's more than powerful enough with the 2S battery. 3S wasn't all that much better, 2S is perfectly fine, and it does go nearly vertical.
What impresses me the most is just how smooth this plane flies. It is very stable in the air and very controllable. Since it's light it does give up some authority to breezy days. My flights are lasting around 18 minutes which isn't bad for a small plane on 2S. I kinda like flying small planes first thing in the morning to get me warmed up for the larger planes. As I mentioned earier, this is just a fun little plane to breeze around in the sky.
Top 3 things about this plane
1) It's the right size- This is a true park flyer. Let's not sell park flyer short. A good park flyer is a lot of fun, no matter how much flying experience you have. I live for I live in Southern California, and you should see what passes for parks around here. Though some are huge, most are small. If you're looking for a plane that can stay within the boundry of a park, this is it. If you're standing around at your buddies house and want a plane to fly in the neighborhood but can land on the grass in a front yard, this may be it. It depends on your flying skills. Just point that big nose at you while landing into the breeze and catch it. And yes, I can throw this in the back of my car and have something to fly just about anywhere.
2) It's safe- Though we're not supposed to fly around crowds of people it sometimes happens. One of our local parks goes from empty to loaded with people during the duration of a flight. Thus landing is a further complicated by people moving around the park. This isn't the time for a large plane that can hurt someone. You want a small plane that can easily maneuver to the few isolated spots on the field.
Perhaps if you were to take this plane up to 250 feet, turn it on full power and drive it into the ground it could dent a car or break a window. With some minimum care this is a plane that won't do a lot of property damage should your luck run out. Because of this, I tend to think this is a good plane for a newer pilot. With that said it's a tad bit fragile if you do a high speed crash with it.
3) Cheap and fun- The motor is $8 and the plane is around $20 so it's on the lower end of costs. Fully outfitted this is a $50 plane. That's not free but it's moving in the right direction. I remember when Nicad battery packs were $40. And yes, it's a cheap thrill, this is a fun plane to fly. I think you'll be surprised how well you'll like it.
Mods- Just build it, it needs nothing. Perhaps if the wings bow over time you can run a very small carbon rod in the center to straighten them out. You can also stick small cameras that record up front and get the view from way up high.
Motors- I like the C20 for this plane. If you're using something else, just be certain to watch your tail weight with the motors. This plane seems to prefer the sub 20g motors. Since the propeller isn't restricted in size I went with the full 8" propeller and it flies smoothly and with very little noise. This cuts down on noise pollution and makes early morning flights in residential parks doable.
Who is this plane for?
It's a little too small to be the ideal trainer. I prefer 900-1000mm. But, lets' be honest, the first plane is one that someone will crash a lot. So, take someone out into a field away from trees, get them to fly it at half-throttle or less and let crashing begin!
There is something charming about this plane that experienced pilots may enjoy as well. You can spend a lazy Sunday afternoon with it at your local park. You can take it up to the ceiling of 400 feet and still see it, but you may not feel like going much higher Shut down the throttle and watch it glide back to earth very gracefully. I mean, way too gracefully It almost defies logic how well this plane flies.
There is a smaller version of this plane at 500mm. That one requires smaller servos and motors so it's a bit more expensive. I would like to see a larger version of this plane at 900mm in the future.
Get it while you can?- This product is available from Banggood, for now. I am thinking that the deep discounts in 2017 means that they may not carry it in the future.
https://www.banggood.com/Spirit-600mm-Wingspan-EPP-FPV-Racer-Flying-Wing-RC-Airplane-KIT-p-1128481.html?rmmds=search&cur_warehouse=CN
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