Customer Reviews

Hobbyzone Firebird Commander 2 RTF Electric

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I just bought a Firebird Commander 2 today from my local hobby shop, based on recommendations here on Amazon. Now, let me first explain that I'm a beginner RC pilot, which is part of the reason I bought this plane. Initially, I had trouble getting it into the air, but after a crash or two, I was able to get it going.

Even though this has Anti-Crash Technology (ACT), it didn't prevent me from totalling the plane about 10 minutes after the first flight. Now, you can attribute this to my lack of R/C flying skills (although I am a real pilot, I realize this skill doesn't necessarily translated to R/C), but I think the big problem is not having a seperate elevator control. As it comes, it has one channel dedicated to the throttle and one channel dedicated to the aileron (tail) control for turning. This should be ideal for beginners (one less thing to worry about), but the problem is that if you are in a steep dive (because of wind, a steep turn, or whatever), your only hope to recover is to hit the throttle and hope that the speed will bring it out of the dive before it impacts the ground.

Based on this experience, my next plane will either be a 3-channel that has throttle, elevator and aileron, or a 2-channel that has elevator and aileron. I don't really care about the speed as long as it's fast enough to get airborne.

So, not so much a negative review for the plane, as to clearly lay out for people who are thinking about buying this plane: There is no elevator control! Once airborne, all altitude changes must be done with the throttle.

I got this plane for Christmas having never flown a plane before. I am relatively new to the RC scene and had previously only had a truck. This is a whole different beast. The plane is very easy to setup - less than 5 minutes and I was ready to fly (except for the 3 hour battery charge). I never flew a plane before and my first flight was about 5 minutes. Easy take off from throw and plane was easy to maneuver on the way up. At this point, I realized I was in trouble and didn't know how to land. Winds were a bit stronger than recommended 7 mph so this was a bad combination. I throttled down and caught a little down draft. Anticrash technology didn't save it from the tree. The wing is pretty easy to break. Tried again and flew for only a minute. The wing is nearly completely destroyed now but it was worth that 5 minute flight. I am addicted now and ready to buy the 11 dollar wing to start again. I have tried to tape the wing but I don't think that is going to work too well. I highly recommend this for the inexperienced flyer. Very very fun.

This plane is a blast!
Try using a computer flight simulator to get comfortable with the basic control and tracking. This is the easiest plane to fly but it is not trivial. ACT or not, there is a good chance you will crash when first learning about the direction of the plane, wind, hazards, etc. Definitely have your first flights in NO wind. Parts are easy to find and very robust.

My son got a remote controlled plane (not the Firebird Commander 2) for Christmas that was, well, pretty horrible. It could barely stay in flight and was broken within three minutes of almost flight. Since this was the case, I went to the local hobby store the next day to see what they had in alternatives. One of the salesmen recommended the Firebird Commander 2. So I bought it. I have to tell you, it was a great choice.

Like with the first R/C plane, I expected it to crash and burn on the first few tries. I was wrong. On the first try, it went right up in the air and was fairly easy to control for a novice. After going nose first into a chain link fence, and then a nose dive into the dirt at full throttle (LOL!), this plane was still in great shape outside of some small prop damage to the wing. This was easily fixed with packing tape. I even took the plane to work to show my friends, only to end up shearing the wing in half when I ran it into some tree limbs. Funny thing is, I repaired the wing with the fore mentioned packing tape, and it still flies just fine.

Wonderful R/C plane, and wonderful fun.

I like the Commander and have had mine almost 2 years now with many many flights. I moved on to 3 channel planes and higher so I gave the Commander to my nephew. Don't listen to this Amy from Colorado about the battery lasting for hours!! IT WILL NOT. HE IS LYING! Also the other reviewer from Iowa thinks you need RC experience before flying this plane he's crazy. This is as easy as it gets folks, so where would you get that experience?

This is a good plane but if I had it to do over again I would have bought the Hobbyzone Super Cub and just started with that. The Super Cub is an ENTRY LEVEL plane too and very durable but it can grow with you by turning off the Anti-crash software and has a full rudder and elevator control with adjustments for tighter turns and stunt flying. The if you want to just get airborne get the Commander if you want to get airborne and have a plane that grows along with your skills then get the Super Cub. The Commander will never be able to do ANY kind of stunt flying it just flies around in circles. At some point your going to want MORE and the Super Cub can deliver!!

This is a great first plane, Flew it the other day with success, had it in the air for around 10 minutes. one thing don't fly it in a small field especially on your first run, the field i flew on was actually larger than the 600 ft field recommended and i still almost overshot it mostly because of inexperience. Once comfortable with flight then your confidence will build, I did get an online sim, FMS and did much practice with that before the real deal. This greatly enhances your success rate. Oh and by the way i did crash land it nose down, my fault panicked on landing much to my amazement no damage, looking forward to my next flight

This plane is really fun to fly although you need a bit of space (a football field is big enough) and definitely avoid wind. Wind makes the plane very difficult to control and my crashes have been caused by such. I've had 4 crashes which incurred damage and I've been up and flying again without replacing parts. I've repaired both elevons with Tuck Tape (a construction tape used in vapor barriers that is SUPER sticky and thin). I've snapped the tail spar in half (twice) and repaired it with a chopstick splint (twice), gluegun adhesive and Tuck Tape for wrap. The plane still flies great after each repair. I might replace the tail wing though as the tuck tape doesn't have enough resistance to return the elevons to neutral thus resulting in occasional circling behaviour.

I also have a ParkZone Super Decathalon and I much prefer the Commander 2 as the prop and primary wing have suffered almost no damage after all my crashes. Rear Prop rules!

When I first flew this plane I had a not so good experience. The wind was 8+MPH and the plane was getting tossed around and I crashed it a few times, only causing the landing gear to get bent, which was easy to fix. I noticed that the plane is heavy and requires a lot of speed to hand launch successfully. Many crashes resulted from trying to launch it. It barely has enough power to be hand launched and it has no tail landing gear so I wouldn't want to do a ground take-off. Frustrated, I then put the plane away and went back to flying my Ember2 from Park Zone, which I bought at the same time and enjoy greatly because it is easy to hand launch and it flies slow. Well today I flew the Firebird Commander again and I had a great time. Now I can see why it got good reviews. Flying conditions were perfect, overcast with no wind. I still had some trouble launching it but once it was in the air it was a very smooth and easy to fly airplane. As other reviewers stated it has only two channels-one for throttle and one for turning. You throttle up to go higher and throttle down to glide and come down. It glides well. This is a beginner plane because it turns slowly. I am new to RC airplanes but I think this plane will be fun for a while. I am an 8th grade science teacher and I had some students fly this plane also. Even though they have never controlled an RC plane they were able to take over the controls and fly successfully in a matter of minutes. Word of advice when you're just starting out: Don't fly RC planes in high winds until you get experience! You'll want to because you're so excited when you get the kit that you'll want to fly it right away. All my bad crashes so far have resulted from flying in higher winds.

Insane amount of fun to fly!!! This is my first RC plane. But battery runs out quick, and the plane sinks like a stone to the ground head first, because all of the weight is concentrated in the cockpit of the plane.

I bought this a month ago. Have flown about 10 hours and LOVE IT. I have crashed MANY times and have packing tape etc holding some parts together but it still flies strong!

To beginers, I suggest flying it WITHOUT the extra main wing spacer - it will fly slower and climb/stall more often, but will recover nicely. It will not fly great without it, but it will get you used to the controls. Takeoff from ground and hand held was simple and I learned very quickly. FOOTBALL FIELD or BIGGER w/few to no light poles/trees is required (IMHO) :) Once you master it without the spacer - put the spacer in - then it is fast and a super climber with GREAT control for real flying. If you can NOT get this thing in the air, then do some reconfiguration according to the manual or, if you have it, instinctually. Must be a tickerer to own this - you will be taping/fixing etc!!! but it is not hard to do. Buy the extra wing and get ready to by a new tail (although I haven't bought either yet!!, but you can fly with a LOT of packing tape holding it together!! Also, I suggest and extra battery and the automotive quick charger. The default charger has a 3 hour charge time and I found that was fine for the first few flights as it took a couple hours in between to tape/repair from my first crashes anyway, but after you get good, you'll want more batterys to keep it in the air!!
PS. my main wing broke in half... I taped a wendy's plastic knife across the break with packing tape and it has flown many times since :) LOL
I gave this 5 stars for durability - if you had seen a couple of the crashes then you would know why :) Plus fixing it is easy enough - I consider it a durable airplane - no new parts yet and it still flies strong. I would prefer a plane like this than one that is NOT repairable without paying a LOT for new parts.
By the time you beat the crap out of this one :) and have learned a bit, you'll be ready for the next plane - I suggest "PREDATOR RC Sport Aerobat RTF Extreme Value Package" - I have that and the flying is much more real and fast... but you have to learn first!