Bix3 Community Review

by FliteTest | October 13, 2014 | (19) Posted in Reviews

After much anticipation, our Bix3 arrived! Three of them infact! But more on that later. 

We were very excited to check out this long awaited upgrade to Hobby King's trainer. It was like seeing an old friend after they got a facelift. 

Specs:
Wingspan: 1550mm
Length: 948mm
ESC20A
Flying Weight: 890g
Motor: 2620-1400kv Brushless Outrunner
Prop: 8x5
Servo: 4 x 9g

RTF model also includes:

Radio: HK -T6A 6 Channel 2.4ghz Mode 1
Battery: 3S 11.1V 2200mAh Turnigy LiPo

One of our favorite additions was the integration of these cool wing fasteners. 

They simply twist and lock the wings into place. 

Hobby King also includes this FPV platform. It replaces the canopy and slides right into the same grooves. 

If you want to leave the canopy on, the nose removes for the addition of a board camera. 

The servos are nested inside the fuselage, which looks great aesthetically but makes it a pain to get to the servos if you ever need to service them. 

The carbon fiber reinforcement is always nice to see. Especially on a trainer where the pilot might be landing on the nose instead of the wheels. But more on that later. 

And nothing makes us happier than cute litte wheel pants. Everybody at once.....aawwwwwwww. 

If you'd like to take your pants off, wheel pants that is, the landing gear is friction fit into a pocket on the belly making it impressively easy to remove if the grass is just a little to long for take off.  

So why did we order three separate Bix3 kits? Because we didn't just want to give you our opinion on them.

We traveled to South Carolina for E-week and brought our fleet of Bix3's with us for the community to fly for themselves!

We all know that Josh was going to love this plane no matter what so we decided to get as many different opinions as possible. 

We had two seperate lines flying two seperate setups. One was a beginner setup and the other, a more advanced. 

We passed the transmitter and let you guys show us what you could do!

We gave the power to the people and they spoke! The reviews where overwhelmingly positive.

Check out the episode to hear the opinions straight from the pilots themselves. 

But there was one more pilot who we had to let fly. 

And as we expected, Josh Scott agrees that is plane has the classic Bixler feel we all know and love. 

With a Bixler style plane comes a Scott style landing. But remember that carbon fiber reinforcement?

It definitely was a worth while addition. 

A special thanks goes out to Caleb from Flight Budz. We were short a camera man and a should rig on this trip and he was a huge help in shooting this episode. Be sure to check our more of his own work on YouTube here!

Thanks again Caleb! We couldn't have done this episode without you. 

 

More thanks to all the pilots who flew for this review! Your opinions are the ones who matter and it was amazing to get to experience them with you first hand at E-week. 

If you like this syle of review make sure to leave a comment and let us know. As always thanks for watching and happy flying!

COMMENTS

Grearson on October 13, 2014
1st, iv highly awaited this review. Thanx a bunch from good old germany, and keep up your awesome work, ... all of you =)
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engineer on October 13, 2014
Great format!
I was skeptical about the Community review idea, but it turned out great! Very helpful with real, honest reactions!
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earthsciteach on October 13, 2014
Hey! There's Dan-o! Nice job with the kid, sir!

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Ano Pilot on October 13, 2014
Magic, really excellent.
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udo789 on October 13, 2014
How does it compare to the Bixler 2? I'm in the market for either the Bixler 2 or the Bix3. I'm leaning towards the Bixler 2 because it has a longer track record and is less expensive, but I don't want to miss out on the Bix3 if it is an all around better/more advanced plane.
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Ano Pilot on October 14, 2014
I have the SAME question.
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10-Ring on October 14, 2014
I really liked the way this was reviewed. A broad spectrum of skill levels giving their take on a model. I think it gives great weight to the review, because someone like Josh, with years of flying under his belt and a lot of ability,may see a model and say that it is easy to handle, but a beginner or novice may find it challenging. BTW, I plan to buy a BIX3 now.

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808aerosquadron on October 14, 2014
I enjoyed the new review format. It was good to hear opinions from beginner and novice pilots about a trainer airplane.

I was also glad to hear that HK has kept the excellent trainer attributes of the old Bixler in the new Bix 3. I learned to fly on the Bixler ver. 1 RTF three years ago. I still have that plane, regularly fly it and it is still my favorite airplane.

Good jobs to both HK and Flitetest. Keep up the good work.
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andre on October 14, 2014
Great job with the kids!
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andre on October 14, 2014
I just bought a used 9X radio so now I can buddy box my planes with my son...
Might use the Bixler 2 and try that out.
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TimmyGT on October 14, 2014
What were the different setups on each plane? Was it just rates and expo on the radios or how the planes were setup?
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Dari on October 15, 2014
Hello
I have order the Bix 3 and our lipos aren`t good.
so can i fly with a 4s?
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enivid on October 19, 2014
This is the best format flitetest has used for reviews. Just great!
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terry1 on December 30, 2015
Hi I just ordered the Bixler 3 and it was recommended the use of reversible 9 gram servos for the flaps. Any recommendations
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terry1 on January 9, 2016
never mind!
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WallyDad on May 23, 2016
Help! I've flown my Bix3 from a grass field after having added larger wheels, including a larger tail wheel. Recently, the rudder servo seems to have failed, perhaps due to the stress of steering on the grass during taxi and takeoff. Does anyone have any ideas on how to best remove and replace the rudder servo? I assume that a more robust metal gear servo would take the load better. Any suggestions on a candidate? Thanks!
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WallyDad on May 25, 2016
Hello. For those that are interested, I was able to push on the control arm from the outside and the servo (rudder/tail wheel) popped out without much trouble. Inspection of the servo confirmed stripped gears. I plan to replace it with a metal gear analog servo. Hopefully, that solves the issue.
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Bix3 Community Review