As an experienced model cub pilot of 1/3 , 1/4, & 1/5 scales - one thing I have learned is that wind changes the cub into a flying squirrel 🐿️ now add a tail heavy CG and you have a plane that will become an aerobatic happy to snap and spin plane! Get the CG (center of Gravity) to balance just slightly nose wards and go with low rates on the throws of the controls and they will be very easy and control able to fly! Note: you may need to add a few grams of nose weight forward to get that CG correct! Happy Landings! 😊
Got some great news for owners of this plane. I positioned the aerial instead of going towards the back of the plane to the front of the plane so it goes under the cockpit. It flies really good now with no glitches. Would be interesting if others have the same success.
@@bigriceburner AS above shove grey aerial wire to front of fuselage rather than back. Also sticky taped am 8gram coin inside nose cone to get the right centre of gravity. Was to tail heavy. Shove battery as far forward as possible. Now it flies perfect, loops etc. I went from hating it to loving it.
@@adrianstirn1255 Just bought this plane, watching the video it does look tail heavy in flight, notice the porpoising. Will add some nose weight myself and see about moving the aerial as suggested.
I’m using 700mah lipo from my eachine e130 heli, cut some foam so the battery is in front of the nose. No tip stal and 15 minutes flight time. Friendly regards, Theo.
THE PROBLEM IS ACTUALLY with the Gyro/Stabilization system intermittently giving full left rudder lock and if not high enough to recover will take you DOWN! I've actually tested it on the bench and was able to make it happen!
@@adamg5780 No, not the problem, the actual Gyro/flight controller has a glitch that will intermittently lock the rudder left during flight and will correct if you are high enough to pull out of it. The only way I found to correct it is to disconnect the rudder and Pin it straight!
I hope you're still here… I just got the airplane given to me. I don't need stabilization if you turn it off do you still have it kick in intermittently on its own… Because after watching the video it did look like a committed suicide there was no reason for it to crash no reason for a tip stall. I think you make sense. So what you think is it because stabilization was turned on and it's just garbage. Is it okay with stabilization off? I hope you're still out here let me know thank you
@@jeffrenman4146 It's been a while since I've flown them, but I believe unstable might not happen? Check what Adrian Stim says maybe that works, but I think it different flight controllers have the problem, you may have a good one? Fly it high to see if it happens, gives you time to recover, I think full throttle is when it happens most? Sorry can't help more. Other guys have just swapped out the radio! When it's working it fly's nice! Good luck. There is lot's of videos out there about it!
I had the exact same problem, my friend and I moved the servo connection to the middle, setting on the flaps problem solved, happy, flying excellent video. Thank you very much.
Quadcopter 101, what the receiver board for the a160 work in a scratch built airplane with the stabilization turned off or would they Chinese equivalent of as3x cause problems with a different airframe? George
I still have the XK A600 Beaver that you reviewed and featured several times some years ago now, that was a beaut' little plane :) The only starter plane that I enjoyed more was the HobbyZone Sport Cub S so easy to fly but limited to light winds.
I loved my sport cub S to death. It needs every single part replaced, which I think may be more expensive than just buying another. I could fly it in quite strong winds, but it didn't make any progress forward. Surprisingly acrobatic too, I'd love a brushless version with FPV.
I have one and like it a lot. I would post videos but I'll spare myself the embarrassment of me attempting to fly it. Out of the box it assembled fine and was in good condition minus the missing nose cone. Upon completing the plane assembly I put new batteries in the control and there was a short in the power section. It would beep then go off. I opened the controller and repaired some loose wires inside. After flying and crashing from 30+ ft nose first I can say this plane is very durable. Just a little super glue and the nose cowl and landing gear are good as new. If this is your first rc (like me) don't get discouraged by having trouble flying it , I'm sure I'll get better and thankful to have a plane that's pretty forgiving to crashes. I think in 3g mode there's too much auto rudder causing tip stalls and nose spin crashes. In 6g mode I'll take the blame for the crashes inexperienced pilot error. For the money it's worth it. But don't expect it to be simple on the first try.
Great videos, thank you! I noticed the JST connector between battery and plane is lose and keeps disconnecting intermittently and does also cause a stall. I replaced the connectors on both ends and never had disconnect again. Still can stall on turns and will try the the tips pointed out in the comment.
Mine would take off fine then not respond to the controls. It was a loose connection to the battery. I sanded a fat 1/16" off of the battery plug and that seemed to cure the bad connection.
Hello there!! I know I’m a little late to the party on this but do any of you know where I could buy new parts for this model?? My son just got it as a gift and we crashed pretty hard and the propeller piece on the engine broke apart. Any help would be much appreciated!!!
Yep. Looks like they got the colour right on this one. It's a lemon all right. Pity, as it's brushless and looks a million dollars but if you buy the brushed Volantex V761-4 Sport Cub 500 you'll spend your day out having fun flying while those of us who ordered this will be sweeping up the bits! 😟 If you want a brushless, durable EPP framed plane that flies very well in wind, try the X520 Vtol. It IS a winner from XK.
Glad to hear the x520 is good, just picked one up and waiting to maiden. Agree, spec wise this looks a winner ... but specs mean nothing if it doesn't fly well. I think the Volantex Sport Cub 500 is a brushed motor, whilst the Super Cub 750 is brushless. Reviews suggest both these would be better buys than the Skykark ☹️
@@danp2237 1 thing to watch on the X520 is, especially when switching back to Vert mode, keep the revs up or it will flutter like a wounded duck - use high rates and rip throttle up past 50%! We use throttle stick centered and also modded the dumb motor kill to a single (momentary) switch. Also dremeled out 1 to take a 3s! Flogged hell out of them for 2 years now so a bit of glue and tape here and there but all still flying with only a prop change! The Sport Cub 500 might be brushed but they are brilliant little toys. The latest issues seem to have motor failsafe now but a tiny bit of CA to lock the motor pinion on can help. The Super Cub 750 has always been too hard to find/too expensive to ship out in Oz so no knowledge of it. The protocol of the stabilized receiver in it has not been hacked yet unlike the other 2. Enjoy your X520!
This good looking Toy has a chronic habit of Farming. Mine has bought it way too many times. I'm thinking, "It's not Me, itsda Plane already!" Going to try an stick a mofo mota onit. Now to watch Your review Friend.
Nice looking Plane. It really shouldn't tip stall like that as it seemed to have plenty of speed. May be a Gyro Issue and I don't believe there is Full Manual Mode on the XK Planes. Thanks for the demo and I'll see you in the Air!
I'm two years late I wonder if you're still out here… A friend of mine just gave me this plane and he says it flies like crap tip stall problem… And sure enough I just saw your video and this plane has a serious problem. My first thought get rid of the struts… My second thought carefully check balance and incidents and make sure is not warped. The plane is a little heavier than it should be… After seeing your video I think I'll keep mine for a display only as I don't need to fly it I have others… Hey let me know if you're still out here what did you come up with? I have a feeling I'm way too late and you don't even have the airplane anymore. Thanks for the video nonetheless
The stalling while turning has been debugged, first move the receiver antenna away from the two metal rods that control the elevator and the router I hot glued mine close to the acess panel away from those two wire Rods. The next thing you need to do is listen the throws on the ailerons as well as the rudder and I even done my elevator. Since I've done these repairs zero tip stalls and it flies like a dream even in moderate wind. Now with me being a new pilot the only thing I'm lacking I can't get the damn thing to take off I have to hand launch it because whenever I give it the gas it wants to go I believe left and then whenever I let off the gas it rolls straight. However I can land it just fine so hand launching is not a big thing
Just got one of these. I want to turn off the "6G" flight stabilization system. But when I hit the button, it just blinks, and stays on, no matter what..
I've long had a soft spot for RC planes as well, though is something fixed wing the best way to learn copters? I'd like to get one for business as some point - a DJI or something of the sort. Thank you for your response!!!
Hi , very interesting review but I've ordered one of these last week (not arrived yet) it seems like I might be regretting this purchase however I'll certainly be looking forward to seeing your thinking on the rudder disabling process before I even attempt to fly this plane 🤔 many thanks for taking us through the objective review and with my best regards from Alan in the UK 😊😊👍👍❤
@@Quadcopter101 I reckon itsda tip of the wing, the super friendly foiled wing tip area on this Model has no directive pull, the tip would perform the same way as it would going backwards? Kinda need to just use drudder, an any puff of a following wind,,, Power Farming, China Style, OohH-Yeeee!
The control horns need to be to the outside hole, not the middle! That's why it's unruly! Also, in Gyro/Stable mode all surfaces are mixed, and more Throttle gives more up elevator, Rudder is mixed with the Ailerons, and Elevator and gyro/stabile system is defective causing rudder left lock, fly with rudder disconnected and pinned flies better. "Ground Control" covers it a lot!!
It's held on by a single tiny screw in the center of the prop. You'll need to pry off the nose cone from the propeller to access the screw. Regarding using the flight control board in another aircraft.. It may work with stabilization turned off. But not sure why you would do such when receiver's are cheap.
@@Quadcopter101 quadcopter 101 thank you for your reply. I looked on the picture that was associated with the ad where I bought the prop and it looked like there were several different size screws involved in some kind of a black piece of plastic I don't know what the black piece of plastic was but I wonder why there was so many different size screws. You say it only takes one screw? To answer your question about why I use a stabilize receiver it's because they originally tried a non-stabilized one which wouldn't communicate with the transmitter I had for the f949s which is all I had at the time so instead of buying a new transmitter which is relatively expensive I bought a receiver that match the transmitter but they send me the one for the a160 instead of for the f9.9s so it's a whole can of worms
@@Quadcopter101 it's a scratch Built based on a guillo's kit. What happened was I ordered a receiver for f949 and it wouldn't communicate with my f949s transmitter so I ordered a receiver for an f949s and they mistakenly sent me a receiver for a a160 so I'm trying to get that to work. Maybe some of my decisions were not well thought out I'm just going to try to get this one last attempt to work and then I'm going to hang it up
I'm beginning to think that it's not a stall, but inadvertent max rudder via the stabilization system. I'm going to do a follow on review, disabling the rudder, to see if it corrects the problem.
Can be fixed if you lessen the throws on the rudder and the ailerons I've had zero tips stalls since I've done that and also move the receiver antenna away from the metal rods that control the elevator and the rudder after those three things you won't have no stalling issues
It's actually 6 channel. Four for the standard flight control channels of aileron, elevator, rudder, and throttle. And two more for the control channels for the rates, and the 6G/3D control buttons.
Tipstall problem solved, change the position of the receiver antenna away from metal rods as far as possible. I tried it fine. My advice is not to fly in medium or strong wind because the flight controller in 6g mode is not able to stabilize the plane in case of snap and fall! In the absence of wind it is also perfect in 6g mode. To increase the range of the radio change the position of the antenna!
Hello! What you mean by pushing rx antenna away? Should we put the antenna outside or in opposite direction than it is (I mean antenna should point in front of the plane?? :) ) Thanks for your advice.
@@podstawka6525 Hi the antenna on mine was mounted near the metal rods of the controls, so the range of the radio is reduced, I made the antenna come out from the slots in the cover, so it's okay
@@podstawka6525 To check if the stalling behaviour of this plane has anything to do with loss of signal, simply turn off the Tx (while flying over soft grass!) With any UAV the first thing you should do is, before flying it anywhere, No1 Check that the motor failsafe works with loss of signal (and your plane will not simply fly away!) No2. Sit the Tx on a stump and (with plane running in hand) head down the road till you lose contact. Then you know the range limits to stay inside. You can wave it about during the trip to check if there are any problems with antenna placement. My own personal experience with this plane is that the problems are solely due to a poorly programmed flight controller and too high a wing loading. All in all it's a lemon!
Not really. But I would recommend that you start with an easier to fly plane than this one. I recommend starting with the following simple two channel plane to learn the basics of turning and using throttle. After you master that, then consider moving up to a 3 or 4 channel plane to learn elevator and aileron controls. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-9m46Y16BiP0.html
Beautiful rc plane, it's coming to me too and can't wait to try it. I saw that another youtuber also fell, a radio problem? I will also try it with a standard rx and I will do the video review
@@Quadcopter101 I tried this plane, it's a radio problem, sometimes it loses signal. I think it is due to the receiver on the model. I will try to figure out how to solve this problem. The model is fantastic and can fly very slowly
PS I find it hard to believe it flies nice when it just crashed twice😋… I'm looking forward to seeing if you're still out here and if you came up with a solution
I'm still here. But I gave up on this plane. But recommend reading through the following forum post to see if any of these folks came up with a solution. www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?3625019-XK-A-160-Skylark/page7&highlight=xk+a160
there is a permant fix for the tip stall. lessen the throws on the rudder all the way on both the rudder horn as well as the rudder servo horn. if you do this is acts and behaves as it is supposed to
Posting this on as many reviews of this turkey as I can mate. Watch this for a bench demonstration of the real root cause of the "auto crash!" XK A160-J3 Skylark 4CH 650mm EPP RTF RC Airplane from Banggood - Part 4: Serious Control Issue - RU-vid Not a great fan of his videos but he deserves kudos for this 1!
@@warmiceUT Just go to RU-vid and post "XK A160-J3 Skylark 4CH 650mm EPP RTF RC Airplane from Banggood - Part 4: Serious Control Issue" into the search box.
too much elevator in a turn will induce a tip stall. Cubs are also known to be tip stalling fools. I won't recommend a cub to a newbie. While they look easy to fly, they are not as easy as a plane designed to be a trainer. I have one of these little jewels I have not yet assembled. Thanks for the video!!
That tip stall is a bit unexpected for a cub model, LOL. Not bad though for a $110.00 RTF model! Too bad about the tip stalls. That' make this a hard pass! Thanks for review to save me the heartache. ;) Rather spend twice as much and avoid the crappy performance.
I was hoping this bird would be ideal for my indoor RC club gym flights. Don't think so. I've also experienced my share of tip stalls with one of my favorite birds, the XK X450. In fact, have two of them. One for parts. Did you move out of Kaliforny? I was hoping you would after the first earthquake and also the fires ravaging that State. Looks like you are back to PA. Not far from me here in NE Ohio..
@@Quadcopter101 I have a molder in Lake City PA I visit on occasion. I know that area well. My RC club is in Louisville, OH. You know Test Flight is not far from me in Malvern, OH. Presque Isle is a destination I take my motorcycle club rides too..
You didn't say "how do you like my shirt today folks" 😉. I like your reviews, but I don't like this plane. I like quadcopters the most, but planes are also fun. The biggest mistake people do, when they are buying their first plane, that they choose fast or too small plane. You need time for learning and fast planes wont forgive you your bad decision. Small plane is not a stable flyer. I'd choose a glider first with no stabilization min 1m wing span or more. Weight 1kg, 3s battery. No worries if the beginner pilot doesn't like the look of it, he/she will probably crash it multiple times, learn to fly and buy another one. Glider is the best beginner plane, no stabilization. This plane is not for beginners, it won't teach beginners anything. Beginner will destroy it and stay a beginner. Thanks for review, have a nice day.
Yep, some folks on RCGroups think that it may be the rudder stabilization algorithm kicking too much rudder in turns. As such, I'm going to do a follow on review of this plane, disabling/centering the rudder. Turns will only be through the ailerons. If it doesn't crash, then problem confirmed.
Hi Quad, been watching your videos for quite some time now, and have enjoyed them immensely ! First of all, I only gave this review a thumbs down solely for the performance of the plane or lack there-of !! Your reviews are always spot-on !! It seems like there is some sort of design or manufacturer flaw in this plane's stabilization system. It flew very well as far as I could see, except for the tip stall. What's your assessment ?
Some folks on RCGroups think that it may be the rudder stabilization algorithm kicking too much rudder in turns. As such, I'm going to do a follow on review of this plane, disabling/centering the rudder. Turns will only be through the ailerons. Ifit doesn't crash, then problem confirmed.
I have been flying this plane the past 3 weeks. Its actually too heavy for the wing area aka high wing loading. Then at high aoa turns with side gust it stalls straight into a spin, usually unrecoverable since the ailerons stall as well. Kind of solved it by modding with diy vortex generators on the outer wing leading edge. It stalls less now, and when it does stall its recoverable since theres still airflow over the ailerons.
Would it be possible to share what you found in the following forum? A picture of your fix would be very helpful. www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?3625019-XK-A-160-Skylark
Center of gravity,,,,, once battery is in plane, measure the wing from forward edge to rear edge very close to the fuselage. Take 20% of the value and make a black marker pen DOT under the wing from the leading edge. This will be your balance point. When you place the plane on your finger tips (tips under left and right side DOT) the plane should balance slightly nose down. Now your with in CG. Different batteries will give you a different CG...but very close. BATTERY must be forward as he stated.
Learn to spellcheck. Also please elaborate. Why? What does your all knowing holiness know that we don't 😅 make us a video as to why! Come on no -hal- work hey!
