Durafly Junior Review

Hey everyone, today we’re reviewing the Durafly Junior from HobbyKing. Please watch the video above first before reading the text.

The box it comes in aesthetically pleasing and also ergonomic on the inside. The fuselage is held in by Velcro straps and all other pieces being in plastic bags which are taped shut to keep them secure. Also in the box is a screwdriver, spanner, weight, instructions, spare control horns and the rubber bands for holding the wings on.

The Junior went together in about 30 minutes and required no glue to assemble, so is only held together by nylon bolts, screws and mounting brackets. The first step in the instructions did throw me as it said remove the screws off the landing gear which should be already installed in the fuselage. In fact they weren’t in the fuse but rather the spare parts bag. Other than that this the well illustrated manual came in very useful when the assembly of the plane.

The wings are held together using plastic mounting brackets and a metal spar between them with a bend in it makes sure that the wings maintain the dihedral. The wings are mounted to the fuselage by four nylon screws (two long ones at the front and two shorter ones at the rear), when tightening these be careful as they do thread easily. Sadly I found out the hard way, although the wing is also held on securely by rubber bands which are supplied in the kit.

The horizontal tail plane and the vertical stabiliser are held on securely with a mounting bracket and screws. After doing this you attach the plastic control clevises which are fairly low quality although two spares are included in the kit, I did put some 2.5mm zip ties over the clevises to make sure that  they did not fall off mid flight. I would recommend to have the clevises in the hole closest to the surface as it does require maximum movement on the rudder and elevator.

The propellers which are supplied are 7x4 (no markings), even though the box and website says it comes with an 8x6, so if I got an odd shipment I don't know, with this prop it has a slow climb rate and about nine minutes of flight time. There isn't much room inside but there is just enough to mount a receiver and the weight inside (potentially needed to shift the CG further forward). I installed the weight (included in the kit) on the inside and it now flies allot smoother than before. The 1300mAh fits snugly inside the battery hatch to balance the CG out.

Wingspan: 1100mm
Length: 765mm
Flying weight: 695g
Motor: Turnigy DST-1100 brushless outrunner
Prop: 8x6
Servos: 9g x 4
ESC: 20A ESC with 3A BEC and XT-60 connector

Furthermore you'll need a four channel transmitter and receiver at least, and also a 1,300mAh battery (we used the Turnigy 45-90C but 25-50C will suffice).

Links:

• Durafly Junior:

(International warehouse): http://goo.gl/OFlq5E

(USA warehouse): http://goo.gl/qZmaJW

(UK warehouse): http://goo.gl/6Ohq5G

(European warehouse): http://goo.gl/NeM4uV

(Australian warehouse): http://goo.gl/4nJTMj

• Turnigy 45-90C (25-50C is enough) 1,300mAh pack:

(International warehouse): http://goo.gl/k8dJZQ

I would not recommend flying this plane in anything more than an 11mph wind as it will get thrown around a lot by the wind, perhaps leading to a crash if you’re not careful. As a result when taking off because the Junior has a small rudder and no steerable tail wheel you really need to give it full throttle and then correct it as it takes off, as you see in the flight video. If you try taking off at half throttle it doesn't have any rudder control to steer it with and then spins out (hand break turn).

Once in the air you will quickly notice that the ailerons don't have a massive amount of authority over the plane. Furthermore if you don't use rudder it’s likely you’ll crash, so make sure to do coordinated turns giving it up elevator to avoid getting into a spin. An idea would be to mix ailerons to rudder, however in general I don’t really like having mixes when flying (hinders learning in my opinion).

The plane can do basic aerobatics such as loops and stall turns but I'm yet to do a smooth roll or fly it inverted. When stalling it doesn't tip stall but simply dips down then levels out. With this being said the Junior is designed for gentle, easy flying. The Junior is good for beginners learning how to do coordinated turns , but can be challenging in other areas such as landing and taking off due to not having a steerable tail wheel as noted earlier.

Due to the dihedral (upward angle of the wings, creating a shallow V) it will self level so if you get in trouble it will slowly level out again. Power is just about enough but on a bigger prop (recommended 8x6) I'm sure it would have enough power. I guess one advantage of the smaller prop is that I’m getting flight times of about 9-11 minutes on the Turnigy 45-90C (25-50C is enough) 1,300mAh pack, which is pretty respectable considering it’s fairly small capcity. When landing it’s exceptionally smooth and requires very little speed making it good for the newer pilot. The only caveat is that – as mentioned when discussing take-off - once on the ground it will spin out due to not having any steering. Fortunately this won’t scrape the tail as it does have a plastic skid plate pre-installed to stop this.

Ratings:

• Pilot level: beginner-intermediate

• Build quality: 7/10

It went together really easily and with no glue there is no worry about mess on the plane or your build surface. Looks nice and scale (nearly balsa-like), fairly good quality parts, all pre-soldered with XT-60 and bullet connectors for the motor to ESC connection.

• Flying characteristics: 8/10

I would recommend this as a person's second plane, or first if you’ve got an experienced flier on hand. It’s an easy plane to fly but not the easiest plane as it requires coordinated turns rather than being bank and yank. Moreover taxing is difficult with the omission of a tail wheel. Flies for 9-11 minutes on a 1300mAh 3s battery which is pretty darn good.

• Value for money: 8/10

For around $130/£78 it’s pretty hard to fault this kit!

• Overall >> 8/10

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