Electron

TOP 5 Winners for August - 2005
 

1st Position - TOP 5 Best 1st Plane	1st - Multiplex EasyStar 85% Total: 187pts/220 (85%), Average: 8.50/10, Deviation: 0.74 The Multiplex EasyStar is in this first round, the overall winner. It accumulates good characteristics, all around, and does not show any negative point. MOST IMPORTANT: This plane behaves excellently in all most important criteria. Get this plane safely, as your first plane, no way you could be disappointed ! As a reward for being the first one, the EasyStar got a Special Photo Session
2nd Position - TOP 5 Best 1st Plane	2nd - Mountain Models Magpie 83% Total: 183pts/220 (83%), Average: 8.32/10, Deviation: 1.32 This plane answers very well in most area relevant for a beginner plane. Cheap to purchase, Extremely strong plane structure, after tape is applied all around the EPS plane, easy to build, easy to fly, easy to carry, does not take a lot of space to keep at home, does not require a lot of expenses to finish it and it is the ONLY plane which scored a 10/10 on possibilities to progress as it can add landing gear, and wing with ailerons when the pilot finds it justified. The Dihedral makes the plane comes to neutral flight, very well and fast. On the down side, the motor/gearbox in the front is asking to be broken during crashes, need to purchase tape, glue which add to the initial expense, but still is not like critical, and finally, special tools would be required to bend the Piano wire in order to achieve a proper landing gear. The flight characteristics are fine. Not the cleanest flight path but enough for a trainer. Looking wise, not anything great and that proves the point that the look does not matter at all, in order to get a great 1st plane.
3rd Position - TOP 5 Best 1st Plane	3rd - Multiplex TwinStar II 83% Total: 182pts/220 (83%), Average: 8.27/10, Deviation: 0.77 The long awaited TwinStar II is an excellent plane, from many angles. The structure is very strong, it looks gorgeous, it is well designed, easy and fun to build, it flies very nicely, with authority due to its weight/size and good wing shape. It is very easy to balance its CG, with many types of batteries. As a second plane, it could really be considered as one of the absolute best plane to recommend but as a real beginner plane, it did not beat the ones above due to the fact that it needs more investment to fly, like getting a 5 channel radio Vs 3, getting bigger batteries. Said that, it is not more complicated to fly with the ailerons. You could even fly not using them at all, if this is what you like and you could use the batteries bought for this plane, for many others. Would have been great to add the option to add a landing gear. Surely people can build it from their own design, but this is more complicated. Still an excellent plane, very robust and that will provide lot's of fun !
4th Position - TOP 5 Best 1st Plane	4th  - Multiplex EasyGlider Electric 82% Total: 181pts/220 (82%), Average: 8.23/10, Deviation: 0.81 The EasyGlider makes a brilliant entry in the Top 5. This plane is advertised as a possible replacement for the standard balsa gliders. We noted it here, as used for a beginner, which is why it got such high grades. If it was to be graded as a glider comparable to other gliders, it would not have been so well positioned. What penalized him is his behavior with the wind, and the fact that the motor is located in a more sensitive place, in case of crashes. Still, this plane offers excellent capabilities and very good learning curves, with its ailerons.
5th Position - TOP 5 Best 1st Plane	5th - Multiplex MovieStar 80% Total: 176pts/220 (80%), Average: 8/10, Deviation: 0.87 Its advantages are mainly its stability in flight, due to the wing shape and its weight. The Weight plays also a big role in order to handle small winds easily. On the other hand, this also increase the average speed needed for this plane to stay airborne. Also, having 2 motors increases the battery consumption. The plane is designed specifically for Aerial Photography, so its cockpit offers a very generous space for installing most of anything.

The EasyStar is, finally, our great Winner in this competition, and ends up 1st, with Flying Colors

Let's see what made it win:

• This plane is the only one, among all the list of planes tested in this competition, who perform so high, and so many times

• Great innovations like:

  • The Cockpit closing mechanism, which is a work of art and smartness

  • The wings can be separated, and removed for transport and are joined, just by a inserting them in each other. No wire, no screw, nothing, just push them in, and they lock. Marvelous idea !!

  • It is the only EPP/Foom/Elapor plane where the structure is optimized in a way to have empty parts, within it, to keep it lighter

• Easy and very straightforward to build

• The User Manual is a real pleasure to follow

• Very fast to build, so you can be faster in the air

• Pretty easy to repair, Elapor does magic in this area

• The motor and prop, are protected, in cases of missed landings as it is located above the fuselage

• You can use the electronic put inside this model in a very wide range of other planes

• You can, but it is really not necessary, replace the stock motor with anything brushless

• The CG is well located, so that you can change the type of the motor weight and batteries without having to suffer

• Replacing the Battery is a piece of cake, thanks to the smart cockpit

• Multiplex proposes a FMS Simulator Version of this plane, which is a Major + when you need to practice it, before the real flight.

• And of course, Elapor is very strong, and can even be boiled, to come back to initial shape, if a bad crash happen.
   

Anything that could be better?:

• Tape to put below the fuselage is missing in the kit. This protect the structure on landings and reinforce the overall strength if the plane

• Maybe an option to purchase a different wing, with pre-installed ailerons

• General Conclusions

It is very important to understand that these planes were grades, as intended to be used for a beginner. It means that a plane which arrived here last could be the best, as a second plane, and so on.

This article was a real pleasure to build as it requires quite some investigations, and research from many people who helped us and on our side. Also, we did have to rethink our methodology few times, before reaching what we believe a fair comparison.

Now, what's next as some planes were not included here, what about the new planes coming to the market ?
We know that the planes tested here in the TOP 5 are good choices. Anything else, we just can't tell, until we will actually test them, or get enough feedback to provide an educated evaluation. In short, if you get the place rated 1st position, you won't be disappointed. Then among the TOP 5, again, high chances are you will enjoy them. Anything beyond that, up to you.

We have a global classification. If someone cares about something specific, and not all the criteria are important to him, then the proposed classification is not correct and he should remove the grades, from all the planes, in the area he does not care about.

The Table proposed, should serve new comers to go to buy a new plane. Just taking this table  and applying it on a plane to purchase would guide very well.

And a Very Special Thanks to Bernard Chevalier, for his determination, kindness, professionalism, very good sense of humor, knowledge about statistics and in general, about science and to Talia, my wife, for being patient while I took all the pictures of her, with the EasyStar.
 

Ranking recorded up till now. Changes are in Brown

August 2005     Rank Plane Name 1st Multiplex EasyStar 2nd Mountain Model Magpie (New) 3rd Multiplex EasyGlider 4th Multiplex MovieStar 5th Hobbico Superstar EP

June 2005 Rank Plane Name 1st Multiplex EasyStar 2nd Multiplex EasyGlider (New) 3rd Multiplex MovieStar 4th Hobbico Superstar EP 5th Multiplex TwinStar

(c) BungyMania - Electron        February 2005