I am on the verge of buying my first gas-powered airplane and am torn between the above two from Hobby Lobby. They both have six foot wingspans and are ARFS. I really like the telemaster better, but can anybody tell me why such similer planes have very different prices? Telemaster a whopping $350 while the cub is $150. Hobby Lobby says the Tele is "european made". Is that worth the extra $$$$? I've been flying electric gliders and parkflyers for awhile, but the county put in an R/C airport a mile from my house. Fresh blacktop runway, carpeted tables galore with shade, windsocks, no money spared. Paid for by gambling at south Lake Tahoe! Thank You Nevada! I have to "put up" with the far-off sound of two and four stroke's ripping up the sky every calm morning. Can't beat 'em so I'll join 'em. Speaking of four stroke's, would anybody reccomend one to a first timer? I'd think they'd work great in a cub or telemaster. Dan Cutter
First nitro plane; Cub or Telemaster?
Aug 03, 2004
9 Replies
Wow, what a lucky guy!
I agree that the price tag on the Telemaster may be a bit extreme. I would look elsewhere such as Tower Hobbies. They have a warehouse close to you. One plane to look at is the Goldberg Tiger II. If you have been flying anything for a while you can handle this.
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Unless you are leaning toward "scale", the Telemaster will make you smile for years. It's a perfect first gas airplane, and even when you get good with it, it's still a lot of relaxing, fun-flying, airplane. I became an experienced flyer years ago but still grab my Telemaster Senior once every few weekends and take it to the field because it's so darn fun. With a .61 engine, a 20oz tank, and a 1400mah battery pack, I sit in a folding chair at the edge of the runway and take it up to "altitude" where I pull back to idle and fly it like a glider looking for thermals for a good
20 minutes. When it nears the ground, I power up to take it up again and repeat.. and repeat... and repeat; until my butt gets sore or I run out of ice in my Coke.MJC
Have you considered building the Sr. Telemaster Kit? It sells for abou
$110
-- wrenwrigh
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I've had two Telemaster 40s built from kits, and they're great planes.
Some of the Cubs may be a little squirrely on takeoff because of thei relatively short tail moments. Does HL still sell the Telemaster 4 kit? As far as 4-strokes go, my personal favorites are Saito and O.S. My current Telemaster is powered by an old O.S. 48FS that i reliability personafied
-- lee292
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I believe they do still sell the 40 kit. I'm getting ready to build
6' Telemaster from foam. I've built an 8' Sr. this way and a 4' a well. All of these are powered with electric motors. About the only suggestion that I would have to make the Telemasters better flying plane would be to increase the size of the rudder b about 50%. Also, adding a slight about of washout usually helps too-- wrenwrigh
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I also plan to build a Telmaster Senior electric. I am curious as to what you used for power. I have several 8 cell rc2400 ni cad packs and would like to come up with a setup that would let me use these packs (even if I have to make some 2 or 4 cell supplemental packs to add to the 8's. this would give me 16 or 20 cell packs. any input appreciated. TIA Ken.
I fly a Kadet Sr. with a Saito .80 and my Telemaster .40 is electric powered. As far as which one is the best trainer... The Kadet flys slower, but a Telemaster will handle a bit more wind so I think it would depend on your local average weather conditions.
Ken, I have a web page that shows some of my Telemaster E-conversion, stop by there and give me an e-holler..
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I stopped by and found you have done some nice stuff. Your Telemaster 40 is shown with the same setup as I used in my Sig Kadet LT-25. A Geared Astro 40 with 16 cells. I am looking for a setup for the Senior Telemaster. Regards, Ken.
Ken
My Telemaster is powered with a DeWalt 18V motor, 18 cells of GP3300's
3:1 gear ratio, 15x10 prop. I get 5700 rpm with this setup and hav adequate power. I think I'm going to go up to 21 cells to get a littl more power though. My plane weighs 9 pounds ROT. Are you building the kit?Wre
-- wrenwrigh
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