Customer Reviews

Estes Sky Ranger Mini Park Flyer RC Airplane

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4 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

For about 19.99, you pretty well get what you pay for. The Sky Ranger Mini Park Flyer looks great and has good power. The rudder control is designed to prevent crashes due to over-input - it does this by returning rudder to neutral if the rudder stick is held left or right longer than 1.5 seconds. A good concept until there is wind to counteract! Ideally, this airplane should be flown in near complete calm.

Another ideal feature is the 'breakaway' wing...the wing snaps in place, however, after only a few landings in which the wing breaks away, the plastic mounting plugs start to wear away the soft styrofoam wing in which they are imbedded. The result is a wing that fits looser and looser with every less-than-perfect touchdown. Eventually, the wing must be either glued on or attached with rubber bands (common for many hobby-grade RC airplanes). Aside from this problem, it takes hard landings well, but should definitely be flown over a grassy area.

Although this plane isn't the most durable (not made from EPP foam) it's very powerful. It can handle a 3-4 mph wind which most planes of this size would be no match for. Experience will be you best ally when it comes to controling this bad boy. Thankfully I bought two of these when they were $20 at walmart. Get one if you can!

We bought this for a birthday present for our l0 year old boy. After 2 short flights and landing softly the motor doesn't run smooth anymore. The propeller comes off after each run. We were very disappointed. If it would work better the toy would be fun to use.

First the good part; it's fun to fly, faster than any other $20 toy out there. But don't expect the fun to last. The aircraft is essentially designed to break. The wing attaches to the bottom of the fuselage, by way of two little peg clips. Part of the wing is a faux airscoop which serves to absorb impact on landing, preventing the propeller from digging in. This means the wing is going to get ripped off pretty much every time the thing lands, even in the softest landing. Those pegs start ripping out of the Styrofoam after a half dozen landings. Also, the propeller's position at the nose means the prop absorbs all impact of a crash or collision, and the motor shaft is very thin and easily bent. Mine didn't last one set of batteries, and I've had a lot of practice flying things like this. A high-wing, pusher-prop configuration would have probably made for a much more durable aircraft.

Also, it has a "feature" meant to prevent crashes due to user over-input, that returns the rudder to neutral if the rudder is held for more than 1.5 seconds. Nice idea, but it means you have to fly this thing on an almost completely windless day, because this feature makes it impossible to correct for gusts.