“i thought it would be good to test whether a 2 blade prop produces more thrust than a three blade. Using a digital strain gauge (fish weigher) I compared the static thrust at full throttle of the 3 blade which comes with the Pandora vs an APC12X6 sold by our heroes. I've 3d-printed spinner and hubs for the two blade - apparently nothing on the market will fit the shaft which came with the plane because of the hex so I made my own. They take a lot of fussing to balance them but when they are balanced they are almost as true as the one which comes with the plane.to cut to the chase, at full throttle using my FrSky transceiver and receiver, I get 1195-1200 grams with the 3 blade and 1300 grams with 2 blade. This is a static test -plane on taildragger setup with small wheels, not moving and with cowl cover installed but not wings.The 3 blade provides plenty of thrust and I generally fly at half throttle. Probably you couldn't tell the difference in the air, but ....A downside of using the 2 blade prop is that because it is pretty stout, crashes involving the prop seem harder on the plane. the 3-blade usually shears off one of the blades and in so doing does less damage to the nose of the plane.I still think this is a really good plane.”
“If you saw my last review in which I wrote about my motor self-destructing, well that's not an issue anymore. I flew my newly powered PANDORA today as a trike high-wing. She was AWSOME! She was well behaved, well mannered, and even frisky! I say that because I got her to do several barrel rolls with NO trouble. I've tried all 4 versions, and I truely LOVE this one. Shes an awsome bird, DON'T THINK TWICE, BUY ON,,,OR TWO,,,OR,,,”
“I will start by saying that the PANDORA is a great airplane. She flies well, is well mannered in all 4 configurations, and is a fun aircraft to fly. Now the bad. My freewing 3536 800kv motor that was provided in the kit, self destructed. I was flying it Sunday and the snapwasher that holds the motor together popped off. Because of that, the motor came apart and refused to run. I put it back together to no availe. She refused to run. Needless to say, I ordered a new motor so I hope that I just got a low quality motor with the airplane. We shall see. Otherwise, she is a joy to fly.”
“The nose gear is too weak, a hard landing early in my plane's life stripped the gears in the yaw servo, so I bought a better servo. more problems so I went to taildragger. another hard landing and the plastic on the gear legs shattered and I decided bare wire was good enough, but then I found that I had to bend the wire straight after every session - it's a bit soft.BUT!!!!I have crashed my Pandora about 20 times - I'm a beginner - and it has been fixable after every crash. The wing connections usually fail but are easily re-glued using a glue gun. I switched to two blade prop which seems to pull better and have been 3d printing my spinners. the nose is a bit shorter now and I finally had to buy another cowling. The spars are 10MM carbon fiber tube which can be bought on Amazon. I had shattered the end of one of them and was able to epoxy it back together using a drill-bit wrapped in wax paper as a form. I added servos for the flaps and find they really slow it down and I think actually do reduce the stall speed but i need to keep the power on if i'm not planning to come down in a hurry.As an aside, i have 3500 hours flying the usual GA stuff, but this had little effect on how long it took me to come up to speed in RC flying. Except for some early efforts with a smaller Wilga which was too small for my instructor to see easily, I've flown only the Pandora. I finally soloed yesterday. I cannot reocmmend this thing too highly, it is durable, survives the most astonishing crashes and is still fixable, everything is easy to get at, it's easy to take the wings off for trips in our small car, it seems to have enough power, and with some care in setting up the exponential and control limits flies a lot like a real p[lane --- except for the unrealistically lage amount of power.Also it costs $100 less than what everyone else out our way buys, which i think makes it a good deal. If anyone is interested in the STL file for the spinner, let me know and I'll post it if this place permits.”
“I flew my Pandora for the first and second time today. She flew well. She actually wanted to fly so bad that she lifted off at 2/3 throttle. Not bad, but, she IMEDIATELY rolled hard right into a pseudo knife-edge. Not to worry though. I corrected the uncalled for manuver and flew her for nine minutes or so.Other then the eye opening take off, she was a joy to fly.The stress inducing takeoff is the only reason I gave 4 stars, otherwise, shes a 5.”
“I have had my Pandora 3 months now and about 20 flights. So I think an update on my review is in order. It handles so predictably and so smooth that I think nothing of loops, rolls and spins. I get quite a few favorable comments from other fliers. I give it only 4 stars and I'd like to make it 5 stars if it were no for the weak nose gear. The mounting plate flexes with trike gear in grass and too fast tight turns on the runway. That is the only downside I have found with the plane in my experience with it.”
“I don't use my Pandora as a trainer per se, although it would make a very good one going from 3 to 4+ channels. It is smooth and predictable and even more so when I turn on my Hobby Eagle A3-L gyro stabilizer. It lands great in both tri and tail-dragger form. So far I have no complaints except for the two little screws on the tail-dragger main struts--they break through the plastic retainer. I really see no need for them in the first place, so I removed them. Fabulous job Freewing!”
“Relatively easy to put together, but the instructions leave much to be desired in identifying what screws go where for the RC 11ice. Flys great, but has very steep glide slope with power off. Requires significant elevator to flair in power off landing. Battery was correctly positioned for correct CG, per instructions.”
