Photo supplied by Horizon Hobby

Having been the head flight instructor at my local club for several years, I have become very skeptical about smaller, Ready-To-Fly (RTF), store-bought airplanes. After seeing the hopes of many an aspiring pilot dashed by poorly designed and under powered models, I have arrived at the conclusion that these aircraft are mostly junk. True, most of the airplanes in my experience were the single-channel, very small, electric airplanes found in toy stores. But some were the more sophisticated hobby-store aircraft.

So when I was asked to test Hobbyzone’s Firebird Freedom I expected an exercise in futility with a little frustration mixed in to season all the disappointment. The final result was a big surprise to me and a lot of smiles.

(Ed Note: Some of the photos taken for this article did not reproduce well. Therefore a few of the photos were supplied by Horizon Hobby as substitutes for the missing flight photos. Each will be identified as such. However, all text, statements and conclusions remain those of the author and Sport Aviator.)

Photo 1               Photo 2

Hobbyzone produces three “Firebird” introductory airplanes (they call them “Zone 1” aircraft). The Freedom is the largest of the three with a 50-inch wing span while the Commander spans 40 inches and the smaller Phantom just 29 inches. Both the Freedom and the Phantom are 3-channel aircraft featuring pitch (elevator) control while the Commander relies on motor power to control pitch.

Photos supplied by Horizon Hobby

All three aircraft have ParkZone’s revolutionary Anti-Crash Technology (ACT) to help the new pilot recover from dangerous attitudes and situations. ACT appears to be a very advanced system. It employs two optical orientation sensors to sense the aircraft’s attitude. One sensor is located on the top and one on the bottom of the fuselage (photos 3 and 4). If the nose drops too far, ACT senses the change then reduces the throttle and applies “up” elevator.

The brightly colored box boasts of this Anti-Crash Technology that makes it easy to teach yourself to fly. This, along with the claims of “everything included in this box”, were really arousing my cynicism. Those of us from the New York City area have learned to never trust what the “box” says. But after trying very hard, I put my prejudices aside and finally got to work.

I was quite surprised. The components were packaged as if they were facing the Samsonite gorilla and everything was really in the box (photo 4)! Included is not only everything you need to assemble the aircraft as well as a transmitter, but also the transmitter batteries, flight pack, charger, manual, and instructional CD.

The manual was simple and to the point but with enough details and diagrams to get you through the process. The CD covered a lot of the same material as the manual and had some good video demonstrating the assembly process and lots of encouraging footage of the Firebird zooming around the skies.

Assembly

There is very little assembly required in getting this airplane flight ready. The first step is installing the included- “AA” alkaline transmitter batteries. Next, attach the flight battery to the Electronic Speed Control (ESC) connector. To drain the flight pack, insuring a full charge for the initial flights, run the motor, being careful of the spinning propeller, until the ESC shuts the motor off automatically. The instruction manual clearly outlines this procedure.

The flight battery is a 7-cell, 1000 mAh Nickel Metal Hydride (Ni-MH) pack. The charger is of the “Peak Detect” type and has a variable output for use with the smaller flight packs for other Hobbyzone aircraft. The variable rate charger, set for 1.2 Ah, is designed to plug into your car’s cigarette lighter. This was my first error. For some reason, despite the clarity of the manual and the video I thought the charger’s blinking LED indicated a full charge. Actually I learned later, by finally reading the instruction manual when all else failed, that the full charge indicator is a steady red light.

Next, attach the landing gear if you are flying off pavement. This step is best omitted if you will be flying off grass. However, if you plan to use one of the X-Port accessories like the parachute drop or laser fighter module, then make sure you install the main landing gear. Since my local flying field has a paved runway and the gear weighs in at a paltry eight grams, I decided to use it.

This was the only area of difficulty encountered during the assembly process. The slot in the fuselage was simply too small, not allowing the landing gear to fit. Some judicious trimming with a hobby knife and a little sanding remedied the situation.

The kit included a tail wheel assembly that was not mentioned in the manual or in the video CD. Installing the tail wheel assembly is not at all difficult. It merely attaches to the fuselage by removing the large thumbscrews that hold the stabilizer in place. Then replace the thumb screws. Make sure that the stabilizer’s incidence does not change during this installation process.

One thing the Freedom has over most other airplanes in this class is that the rear control surfaces are operated by metal pushrods. So many aircraft similar to the Freedom use thin nylon string for control surface movement. The metal rods are more durable and provide a firmer control response and pilot “feel”.

The next step was assembling the two piece wings This Firebird is a mid-wing with the two wing halves joined through the fuselage using a square fiberglass rod as a spar. The wing halves are foam with the brightly colored decals already in place and a hard plastic socket to capture the spar. A large fillet molded into the plastic fuselage contains the wings and sets their incidence.