The Hobby King Kinetic 800 Mini Glider is what Hobbyking call “a truly plug and play model”. I tend to agree, since you will be airborne within 15 minutes from box opening if you are fast. You don’t need any glue and the parts snaps together with clever interlocking parts. The Kinetic is like the Mini Swift’s big brother. We just bought two of them to have some fun.
The plane has a folding 8x5 prop, a brushless motor (2226-1250kv) and a 30A ESC. The specs says you should use a 500-1000mah 11.1v (3S1P) LiPo battery. The servo leads have small labels to know where to install each of them in your receiver. If you are using a 4ch radio, there is a y-lead supplied in the box for installation of aileron servos. If you are using a radio with 4+ channels and want to do flaperons/spoilerons you need an extension cable for the throttle.
The wings are easy to attach/detach for easy transport and storage. Also, a nice feature, a radio like Hobbyking 6ch will fit in the box, so that box is a keeper.
Just as the Multiplex Merlin, the Kinetic 800 lack a traditional elevator. The entire horizontal stabilizer is used as an elevator, which according to Hobbyking, gives you more precise control.
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| Box looks ok, no damages from shipping. |
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| Decal sheet on top, plane under the sheet and radio on the side. |
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| Decal sheet. No more, no less. The quality seems to be ok, but not better. They are pre-cut but ours was not perfect on some edges. |
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| The box for the plane is protected by a "lid". |
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| Lid open, bubble wrapping to protect the plane. They could have done a better job on this one though, read further down. |
My Kinetic 800 was broken in shipping/handling. As you can see on the image below, the fuselage is way too much to the right in that picture. The fuselage wasn't secured enough. The rudder has come loose of the vertical fin. Also, HK missed to glue the wing joiner (3rd image) on one of the wing halves. I’ve sent them a mail requesting they send a new joiner for me to glue in place myself. I’ll fix the rudder myself.
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| You can see the rudder broken off the fuselage. |
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| Closeup. |
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| And the wing joiner that's missing. |
I will install the Hobby King 2.4Ghz 6Ch Tx & Rx V2 (Mode 2) radio which is proven to work really well. The receiver weighs 9 grams and is really small. It fits way back inside the fuse.
KIT CONTENTS
• Fuselage (w/ installed motor, prop, ESC and servos for elevator and rudder)
• Main wing (2 parts, each w/ installed servo for aileron)
• Elevator (2 parts)
• Hex wrench (for adjusting rods to control surfaces)
• Phillips screwdriver
• Y-cable (for connecting aileron servos if you don’t use flaperons/spoilerons)
• Decal sheet
Specs:
Wing Span: 800 mm
Length: 620 mm
Weight: 237grams (without battery and stickers)
Servos: 4 x 4,3g (included)
Motor: brushless 2226-1250kv (included)
ESC: 30A (included)
Prop: 8x5 (Included)
Battery: 11.1v 500-1000 mah 3S1p (required), not larger than 27 mm in height
Battery Compartment:
- length: 100 mm
- width: 26 mm
- height: 27 mm
Radio equipment: 4 channel (required)
Material: EPO
Wing corda: 11,5 cm
CG placement: 4 cm from leading edge (according to manual)
Stats with fully charged 1000 mAh Turnigy 11,1V battery:
Pull: 470+ grams @ 9,25A / 109 watts
ASSEMBLY
All parts fit nicely together. Apart from the shipping/handling problems mentioned above, everything looks great. The wings are easy to detach, you just use a small screwdriver to loosen the wing joiners inside the fuselage. The elevator was a bit tricky to install because of the tight fit, be careful not to apply too much pressure.
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| Left half of the stabilizer installed. Now all that's needed is a firm push with the other half and they will fit together. |
Assembly is very simple. All electronics are mounted except for the LiPo battery and receiver. First, start by assembling the horizontal stabilizer. This model has no “normal” elevator, instead it moves the whole stabilizer. The tail comes in two pieces which you just put together with a click.
The installation of the main wing is easy. Slide the wings in from each side. Use the Y-connector for aileron servos if you’re using a 4-channel radio or if you don’t want to bother with ailerons/spoilerons. If you want to place the receiver all the way back, you might need an extension for the throttle cable. The battery compartment is long, narrow and is not high enough for many
3S batteries. I bought the Turnigy 1000mAh 3S 25C Lipo Pack because I want long flight times and lots of power. If I put the receiver waaay back I can fit that battery inside the compartment. The CG is right between the servo cable and the carbon strip. Might need to add 10 grams to the tail, but I'll find out when I maiden.
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| Clean and nice. Hatch will probably not get loose by itself. Air outlet. |
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| Hatch open. Narrow but ok. |
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| Closeup on ESC. |
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| Left main wing on. Servo cable goes into the hole and down to receiver. |
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| Above the plug to the ESC you see where the main wings is secured to the fuselage. The one to the right is missing as said above. |
RADIO
When I bought the Kinetic 800 I did so because I want a plane that is easy to transport and store, a mobile RC package essentially. The Hobby King 2.4Ghz 6Ch is a perfect choice for that kind of configuration. It’s easy to setup and program with the USB cable that is one of these “must buy” items.
I’ve put all necessary files in a zip (download link) for your convenience. I also added the configuration for my setup on the Kinetic, which has dual rates on the right switch and flaperons/spoilerons on a mix on the left switch. The left nob controls the amount of flaperon/spoileron.
First, you must use a machine running Microsoft XP or Vista, so don’t throw your old laptop I know you have laying around somewhere. Locate the “CP210xVCPInstaller.exe” in the "Windows_2K_XP_S2K3_Vista” folder. It installs the USB drivers, which can take a while on older, slower machines.
When the driver is installed you install the actual transmitter software, “t6config.exe”. If everything works out for you, then insert the USB cable in the computer. It should have a red light. Then insert the cable in the transmitter trainer input. Then start the transmitter and lastly start the T6 program from your desktop.
Click the button “open” to load the file with my settings and mixes.
FLYING
I’ll maiden the Kinetic this weekend and also upload film and photos. It's quite cold outside which is a perfect opportunity to try my new Turnigy Transmitter Glove (2,4GHz/Neckstrap Ready).
CONCLUSION
This is a really nice product that requires very little knowledge and money to get airborne. It's cheap and easy to maintain. This will be the model I will teach my 5-year old daughter to fly this spring.
Good luck and happy flying!
