Tuesday, May 19, 2009

China Funjet

Recently i acquired a China-manufactured Funjet from AerialHobby. Although it's called 'Funjet', there are some distinct differences in the looks department between this and the Multiplex version. I will cover the differences between the 2 in this post.


The left one is the Multiplex Funjet and the one on the right is the Skyatech Funjet (China).

Differences :
1) Size
The Skyatech funjet is larger in overall size. This is due to the larger wing area of the Skyatech version. As a result, it is a great floater. I can cut my throttle during flight and it would glide in the air for ages! Therefore, landing is pretty easy with the Skyatech version.

2) Canopy / Internal housing compartment
The canopy of the Skyatech funjet and internal housing compartment is HUGE! I am talking almost the entire top of the plane is the housing compartment! There is some much room inside that you can place your batteries, ESC and receivers almost anywhere to setup your CG point! Don't get me wrong, the Multiplex Funjet also has a lot of housing space as it is based on long-and-narrow concept, but half of the Multiplex version is difficult to access because the canopy only covers half of the plane while the other half is pretty much CA-ed onto the plane. For the Skyatech Funjet, the entire top of the plane is basically the canopy! So access to the electronics is very easy and setup is simple as well!

Unfortunately, because of the large canopy size, it does not not clip-on to the body very well. I have seen many canopies of the Skyatech flew off during flight. So i would strongly recommend to find an alternative way to secure the canopy, like using magnets, or velcros etc..

3) Motor mount
The Multiplex version has a great motor mount in my opinion. The motor is housed inside the fuselarge and it is protected. The Multiplex version also a motor mount which enables flyers to adjust the trust angle easily by turning a single screw. The housing design is also large enough to house motor size from 20 - 36mm sized motor easily.

The Skyatech funjet is simply a metal stick mount screwed onto a plastic holder and in return, CA-ed on the back of the plane. Again, i strongly recommend to remove the plastic holder and re-CA once again as i discovered that the factory did not put sufficient CAs to hold the plastic holder down in place. You wouldn't want the entire motor mount to dislodge during flight! Trust me on that one... You can see from the photo that the motor will be exposed based on this design and there is no easy or straight forward way to adjust the trust angle.

Due to the small metal stick mount, i found out that it can only hold motor size of 28mm at maximum. And if you are using a 28mm rated-size motor with heatsink, the effective diameter of the motor would exceed 28mm and you can forget about using the stock mount as it will not fit at all!

4) Wing Reinforcement
Multiplex funjet comes with a plastic long tube which runs across the wings to act as reinforcements to prevent the wings from warping or breaking during high-G manueovers.
Unfortunately, the Skyatech version does not come with any reinforcement rods, although there are already pre-cut groove on the wings. So you should purchase carbon rods of about 3mm in diameter size and fit it into the wings of the Skyatech funjet as additional reinforcements.

Well, that's about all i can tell in terms of differences. Flight report coming up next...

3 comments:

Greedy Biscuit Baron said...

Thanks for the info, I have just bought the Skyartec funjet, and am interested in the differences between what is almost certainly a cheaper imitation of the original Multiplex funjet.

One thing I found with the Skyartec, the glue they include with the plane for the final part of the build is rubbish ! There was hardly any glue in the tube, and it ran out before I had stuck on the first wing. Ended up buying some "FalconGrip" to finish the build with.

Greedy Biscuit Baron said...

I would be interested to know what Multiplex did regarding another observation of the Skyartec funjet.

The Aerial Antenna..... on the Skyartec the Antenna comes out through a hole in the right side of the canopy. There are no instructions in the manual that suggest you need to do anything about it, but I ended up taping mine down the right side of the canopy and along the wing edge to the end of the right side of the wing.

I didn't dare test it before having done this, but it really looked like if it was not moved, it would in all likelyhood get tangled up with the propellar at the back.

Would be curious to know what Multiplex did with theirs.

RC Flying! said...

I have had many flights now between the 2 funjets and must admit that I still prefer the Multiplex version. It flies faster and also have better maneuverability. I have also had many problems getting the thrust angle right on the Skyartec funjet and it's not easy changing the thrust angle. The stock setup seems to have too much up-thrust to begin with.

I also had some problems with the canopy staying put during flight on the Skyartec funjet. It flew off a few times. Now because the canopy of the Skyartec funjet is big, this affects the CG of the plane and once the canopy flies off during flight, it usually spells trouble as the funjet would become tail-heavy and landing would prove to be a big challenge.

And yes, the original 'glue' that came with the skyartec funjet kit is pretty junk! I stick to my trust-worthy epoxy instead.

As for the antenna, i don't have any comment as i am flying on a 2.4ghz receive so the antenna is short.