We all know....
....how it is when you buy something and then decide that you want something else better. You haven't even had your new toy for five days, and it's already old. Ok, it doesn't always happen that way. But in the RC flying world, we all have our personal preferences as to what we like and don't like. Flying styles, radio equipment, types of planes, these are all just a few of the things that drive our selection of aircraft to hangar in our garage...or in my case the storage closet in my apartment. There are planes that come boxed as a pile of sticks and those that come with everything pre-installed and ready to fly. And those are the ones I will be talking about today.
If you are reading this article, it is likely you are some what familiar with the ParkZone Ultra Micro T-28 Trojan. Therefore, you may already know that it comes with a Spektrum AR6410 receiver and ESC already installed for you. Like I stated earlier, we all have our preferences as to what we like and don't like. And me personally, I've had a bad spill with Spektrum's technology. In their defense, however, I'm willing to admit that I was using an after market receiver on the plane I lost while using the Spektrum DX5e transmitter. Nevertheless, having recently taken a liking to Tactic's radios, I decided to replace all the parts, less the motor, in my nearly two year old T-28.
After comparing the Tactic TR1424 to the AR6410, it became clear to me that Tactic was sure to be a good fit for this model. Boasting a 4A brushed ESC, it also gave me the room to upgrade the motor size in the future, though, I may not do that. Spektrum's receiver was only rated for 2A. The Tactic comes short of Spektrum in number of channels, limiting its versatility in that respect, but this model, only needs four channels to start with. The receiver comes with two integrated 1 gram servos with interchangeable servo arms, though it did not come with extra. Installing this new receiver was easy as well. The components are held in with a rubbery glue that peels off quite easily. One draw back to the TR1424 is the canister for the brushed motors in the servos protrude from the bottom of the circuit board. This meant that some foam had to be carved out in a couple of places for the board to set flat in the bottom of the plane. I also found out the hard way, that not all micro servos use the same connection points, so this meant ordering a new Tactic servo to match, the TSx1.9. Mounting it was just as easy with the removal of a bit of foam so it can lay flat on its side. One draw back to this brand of equipment is the servo arms do not have the same size holes. This forced me to use .032" control rod wire to properly mate the push rods with their respective servos. The Tactic TR1424 has a short range of only 725 feet, but for such a small model as this, that is more than enough. At 16" of wingspan, it will practically disappear long before it gets that far.
All in all, this new upgrade worked out very well, much to my pleasant surprise. I won't deny, the last ultra micro P-51 I had was taken apart this far and never put back together, so this is the most extensive amount of work I have ever done to one of these, considering I'm used to the larger 60" wingspan models. So this was a bit of a project for me. One of the greatest things about RC planes is they don't have to be done a certain way. With such a vast variety of brands and technology, you can do almost anything to your model. Just because an RTF model comes with a certain brand of motor or receiver, doesn't mean you have to stick with that for the rest of the planes lifespan. And that is what makes this hobby so much fun.