iGull aro review

by Scrapbuilder | July 3, 2016 | (0) Posted in Reviews

TL;DR This plane is good, and is definitely worth your money.

The iGull aro is a flying wing that was "inspired by" the ft mini arrow. It is made by a company called iGull, a laser cutter's operating out of Edinburgh, UK. 

I could only find a UK ebay link: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/291793415852?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

It is made out of lasercut depron, and costs £25, or about $35.

The Build

This was a fairly tricky build for me, even by someone who has built a couple of FT planes (a mini guinea and a pun jet for a mate) and 4 miniquads (the same one 4 times after I broke it again and again). The build process was complicated by my own incompetence in failing to find the instructions, which are normally emailed to the buyer, but i didnt recieve the instructions thanks to some unknown being wanting to ruin my day and so I couldn't find a place for 2 identical pieces. It flew fine without them, so I omitted them. I built it up using mostly the recommended components, but I substituted the 2204 2300kv motor for an 1806 2300kv I had lying around, and the 5030 was swapped for a 5045bn for more power. Another problem I noticed was there was no obvious place to put the battery.

It was also my first time trying foam safe CA over hot glue. It was completely awful for building planes, but it suitable for repairing things like my UMX whipit DLG. Im back to hot glue for building foam planes. 

iGull-Aro-v5-0-Depron-Flying-Wing

These are the accessories, three firewalls, two ft control horns, a carbon spar and two pushrods.

AMENDMENT:
The communication with the seller was excellent, and after reading the manual, which he sent as soon as he was aware there were problems, the battery is meant to go just next to where I put it, but with it in my position the cg was almost perfect. The manual also specifies using spray adhesive or double sided tape instead of hot glue or foamsafe, which I think is a very good choice, However, I do think it could have more pictures, as the instructions are a little hard to follow. The grey pieces are to cover the winglets, purely for aesthetic purposes, so I decided not to add them as any plane looks ruined after I've flown it for 5 mins

 

Finished plane

It look really beaten up because I've been flying it a bit.

Flight

I'm a not too bad horrible plane pilot, and that is shown in my piloting, I have flown into a couple of trees, and mashed the nose more times than i can count, but it shrugged it off reasonably well. Given that there was no place shown to put the battery, I tried a variety of places, from right at the front, to the little shelf by the motor. In the end, I hacked away at part of the depron and put some velcro there to mount the battery in it's current position, which works pretty well, with the caveat that I needed to take a knife to it to make it work

This was my first recorded flight, my garden is really a little too cramped for this, but at my other flying spot there were cricketers, who told me to "go away" after about 30s of flight, which distracted me just long enough to crash.  

The tree came out of nowhere :D 

Launching it is a bit of an adventure, the wingtips are bent downwards to the main body, and it's a rather floppy plane, even with the little carbon spar in the wing, so you have to launch it from the handhold given. my preferred technique involves throwing it off a hill with no power, then giving power to make it climb out. 

The winglets seem a little weak, and mine have been glued together about five times now, and the main pod could be more securely attached, but maybe the plane is not meant for such an intermediate pilot as me. My bonsai, which was retired after i managed to snap it in two pieces, so it never flew straight again, was a little more robust, but much harder to repair.

Crash testing has proven the motor mount to be a weak spot, the whole pod is prone to breaking off, so DON'T reinforce it with lots of hot glue as I thought, use something like gorilla glue or foam2foam

 

Conclusion

It's pretty good, and is certainly worth your money

I wish the instructions were just included in paper, but it is quite fun to fly. I tried FPV on it and it was a total catastrophe, where I very nearly hit my father, my sister, and my dead pet's gravestone (RIP poley). I blame my fpv piloting as it was the first time I flew a wing fpv, but I removed the FPV kit quickly as it's awesome LOS. It is easily the best flying plane i've ever owned, but I think the original multiplex easystar was a little better at slow speeds, but it costs twice the price and needs more expensive electronics.

The frame alone is certainly worth the £25, it is a nice quality and flies awesome, and if you follow the manual, it's simple to build. 

I have a few other reviews going up soon, including the S.wing, another ebay flying wing, the K.quad which is a 3d printed quad, the UMX whipit, Eflite's cheap DLG and the qav210. 

COMMENTS

johanjonker on August 30, 2016
a little cramped in flying space. But non the less, well done, and some good flying to avoid the trees,..
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iGull aro review