The Blade XL, an EPP foam 3D plane is large, light and from all evidence flies well. This “kit” came from Northeast Sailplanes, aka Sal. Even though it’s an ARF (Almost Ready to Fly) it is not a plane to be assembled without some experience. Things could go wrong for anyone without knowledge of EPP, hook ups and an ability to improvise.
The kit I received had a decoration scheme I truly didn’t like. I began work on the plane by painting it with many coats of white spray paint; it barely covered the sinful color scheme. I’d rather fly heavy than have a plane not look so good; say no more.
The nose was rebuilt with a 5/16″ diameter carbon tube inserted through the front of the fuselage for reinforcement. Probing into the rear of the fuselage I found that some plugs in the rear bulkheads had not been removed. When I took them out I was trying to figure out how to improve the front, firewall of the plane. One of the plugs fit perfectly onto the nose and so was epoxied in place to act as a backup for the fiberglass firewall; it gave the plane a porcine aspect (however, hopefully, it will fly like a bird). The motor, a Hacker A30-12XL was mounted on the kit firewall and rubber banded into place, the bands looping around the 5/16″ carbon tube through the front end.
Most of the plane was assembled according to the instructions with very few changes though due to the translation, it was a struggle. The Hacker will be powered by a 4S 2100 TP Prolite pack controlled by a Jeti 40 amp opto controller. A Ubec will feed the receiver from the flight pack. The propeller for first flights will be an APC 14 x 7E. The receiver is a Berg 5 channel controlling ailerons, elevator and rudder.