HobbyKing News -

Bixler 1.1: Excellent Beginner Plane

The humble Bixler has been around for a long time and it’s no doubt helped tens of thousands of people to take to the skies and the newly released Bixler 1.1 is no exception to that.

The Bixler is well known as one of the best gliders on the market today. Although I love warbirds and larger scale planes I still have a Bixler. There are those times when you can’t be bothered dragging everything down to field. You want a plane that you can drop on the back seat and head to the field with a bag of 2200mah packs and catch up with the lads.

Continue reading Bixler 1.1: Excellent Beginner Plane

How to a Wire a Double Crossover Using Arduino and Relays

Building turnouts or points for a model railway is actually very common and easy to do. There are many reasons that you might want to build a set of points. Not only is it considerably cheaper to build your own but there is tremendous satisfaction when the points are completed and your rolling stock runs through smoothly. Of course, building your own points allows you to make a set of points to suit the layout perfectly as opposed to fit your track to the points your hobby ship had in stock. You don’t have to wait until the store opens or the snow clears. Provided you have a few basic components you can fabricate a set of points in between half an hour to an hour. The more you make the better you’ll get at it. It might take you a few attempts to get it right to start out simple first and work your way up to more complicated trackwork.

Continue reading How to a Wire a Double Crossover Using Arduino and Relays

Building a Big Multirotor Part One: The Basics and Power System

Introduction

If you look for information about what to consider and the parts to look at if you are considering building a larger quad, hex or octocopter to carry a camera and gimbal then it can be tricky.

Most of the articles, videos and forum posts about building multi rotors focus on the building and creation of smaller racing models these days. I’m often asked about it from subscribers and readers and have been waiting for the chance to bet one of the experts in a room pick their brains.

Continue reading Building a Big Multirotor Part One: The Basics and Power System

How To Balance an RC Model Aircraft

Balancing RC Model Aircraft

Every RC airplane (and all other aircraft, for that matter) have a specific CG position, it’s the mean point where all gravitational forces act upon the plane, and the point where the plane balances fore-aft correctly. Technically this is called longitudinal balance. You can liken a plane’s centre of gravity to the fulcrum of a see-saw, for example. Continue reading How To Balance an RC Model Aircraft

New Website. Who Dis?

So you may have noticed that on Friday HobbyKing mysteriously went down for a few hours and all that was left was a cryptic note posted to social media channels. Needless to say, it had hobbyists awaiting at the edge of their seats to see what the announcement would be. Continue reading New Website. Who Dis?

Hero of the Pacific: Durafly 1100mm Seafire

Durafly is known for making stunning looking scale RC aircraft as well as some of the best flying sports planes around. They go to the next level to add all the bells and whistles, literally. The Seafire breaks new ground for Durafly flying in the face of tradition because it’s a what-if scheme. Continue reading Hero of the Pacific: Durafly 1100mm Seafire

Drone Used for Epic Fourth of July Fireworks Display

Intel has been at the forefront of creating display drones, which are known as a ‘shooting star drones’ for their ability to light up a night sky, not unlike shooting stars. These ‘shooting star’ drones have become more and more popular as the company as showcased this technology on numerous occasions. Continue reading Drone Used for Epic Fourth of July Fireworks Display

Sneak Peak: Avios C-130 1600mm

In case you missed HobbyKing’s very special announcement about the release of their scale Lockheed C-130 Hercules. You can read the full details of the release, click here
Continue reading Sneak Peak: Avios C-130 1600mm

How Does the Graphene Measure Up?

I’m tired. I’m worn out. My lipo test rig is tired, and after 1,980 cycles this new battery has finally worn out. Wait, did you read that correctly? 1,980 cycles? Yes, 1,980 cycles. And not limp, half-arsed cycles either but hard discharge cycles at 30C/15amp discharges. Continue reading How Does the Graphene Measure Up?

Get the Lowdown on Pagoda Antennas

If you have been in FPV for any length of time you’ll be familiar with the cloverleaf antenna which essentially made 5.8ghz viable. Before that time, we all spent time fussing around trying to get our FPV systems to work. Just tilting the plane into a banking turn was enough to lose video signal. Continue reading Get the Lowdown on Pagoda Antennas