Thursday, October 16, 2008

The "4D-Lite" from tufflight.com - The Plane That Taught Me 3D!






Wow… it’s hard to explain just how important this plane is to me! Let me say it this way. If it weren’t for this plane from tufflight.com I wouldn’t still be flying. That’s the straight up – flat out truth! I wouldn’t be in this hobby still if it weren’t for this plane!

I had been flying all Depron (the enemy! of aspiring pilots) planes and crashing regularly as all new pilots do… and I could neither afford the CONSTANT repairs, nor the nerves!

“NERVES” you say, “What’s that about?”

Glad you asked! ☺ I was getting pretty good on my flight simulator, but, when flying “the real thing” my nerves were just SHOT because I knew that if I crashed on the sim – you just hit reset & you’re off. With the Depron (the enemy!) planes I knew that if I crashed – I was not only DONE for the day – but that I was heading home for an hour or more of repairs via a glue-y gooey mess… every ounce of which (glue) I was adding more and more weight to the plane (3D planes MUST be light to fly 3D well indoors, say 6oz or less). Needless to say, that made for nervous “thumbs” as I flew – as all I could think about was “don’t crash” instead of focusing on my flying / development of skills. ☹

I was about to quit the whole hobby when God (I believe) allowed a “chance” meeting with Mark & Joe – the owners of tufflight.com both great guys, great pilots – and engineers! ☺ They introduced me to their plane, this plane – the 4D-Lite. It’s gone through several revisions from that initial plane (the one I have pictured here) but, all the improvements have been very beneficial.

To me, this is hands down the best plane for making the jump to 3D flying. Its as the owners purport – TOUGH! Yes, like an unbreakable comb… you can break it – but, doing serious damage… is something you will have to really work at to accomplish! ☺ Mine has taken serious crashes – hundreds probably – and keeps flying! Epp is good like that! ☺ Hence this entire blog! ☺ This plane however, makes the most of the material, combining it with carbon fiber supports in all the right places, a virtually indestructible landing gear design – and…

…HERE IS THE BEST – the motor mount is “sacrificial.” ☺ What that means is when you crash nose 1st, the motor mount breaks cleanly – which protects your motor, propeller & plane from serious damage. The mount can be swapped out in less than a minute and you are back in the air. This is a BRILLIANT idea that saved my bacon bunches of time – and – kept me flying rather than repairing – which rocks in my book!

If you enjoy the workbench – have at it – buy whatever junk you want. If you want to learn to fly – and are serious about learning 3D – this is the plane to make the jump.

I think they still have my initial reaction to my first flight with it up on their “testimonies” page. Check that out… it’s a funny read! ☺ The skinny is, I really screwed up my first flight with it and SLAMMED it in hard. ZERO damage! ☺ THAT was my baptism into epp!

Check out tufflight.com & my testimonial (CLICK HERE) on my first flight with it! BAD Crash - but a fun read! :-) (you’ll have to scroll down till you see the one in Pepsi colors, Red & Blue – as I’m a Pepsi nut too! ☺)

They have several other video's - and some design changes to the exact plane I have shown here... for instance - the current design now has a FULL FUSE!!! How cool is that! These guys are always improving their designs! Do check out their page for several great videos of this plane in action. Nice!