Airplanes and for airplanes
Airplanes and flying wings
Mini Skyhunter
Flying wings are cool, but sometimes a more traditional airplane is just a better option. Especially with a pusher propeller and long tail for extra pitch stability even at high speeds. Sonicmodell Mini Skyhunter gives you that and as a bonus adds plenty of space inside the fuselage for all the things you might need.
Sonicmodell Binary
Flying wings are cool and all, but traditional airplanes with a tail and 2 motors can be even cooler! Why? More pitch authority, yaw control, differential thrust and smoother flight in general. Sonicmodell Binary is one of the examples of twin-motor RC airplanes that down not ruin your wallet and still functions great. I could only wish for a better FPV integration. Transparent canopy is not the best option in my opinion...
AR Wing Pro
Another flying wing? Yes. AR Wing Pro is small, flies great and for the size has surprisingly, a lot of space inside the fuselage to fit flight controller, relatively big battery, GPS, and FPV setup. Probably one of the most interesting flying wings on the market.
ZOHD Dart 250g
Upcoming, very restrictive, drone regulations are not making RC hobbyist life any simpler. This is why sub 250g designs will be getting more and more popular. Like this ZOHD Dart 250g. Super small, super light, yet with decent flight capabilities! Watch out, this thing is very touchy on the stick and needs very little servo travel! Works best with INAV inside!
Flight Controllers
Matek F722-WPX
Is Matek F405-WING too big and you need something with STM32 F7 series CPU? Connect telemetry or SBUS to any serial port you want! F722-WPX can have any serial inverted! On top of that, integrated camera switcher, "power on a switch" and 4 ADC inputs so you can connect Vbat, Current, RSSI, and analog Pitot meter at the same time! Plus, it has a Pixel OSD and smal form factor.
Matek F411 WING SE
Matek F411 WING SE packs all that is required on a small RC airplane in
incredibly small form factor. Stable BECs, 2 UARTs, SoftwareSerial and OSD. Full INAV
support.
Matek F405-WING
This is the flight controller that made the whole WING series. Created for INAV and Ardupilot shines in terms of the number of UARTs, built-in BECs, and overall build quality. The only thing you need extra is a radio receiver, camera, and video transmitter. BEC, OSD, PDB, FC, everything else is just there.
Servos, pushrods, horns, clevises
TowerPro MG90S
TowerPro MG90S is probably the cheapest servo I consider worth buying. Everything else is just crap. MG90S have metal gears (if low weight is not the prime factor, metal gears are the thing!) and is precise enough for most airplanes. Not great, not terrible: 3.5.
EMAX ES9051 micro servo
Need smaller servo than standard 9g? EMAX ES9051 weights only around 4.1g, has nylon gears as is small enough to perfectly fit all models that need to be light and small.
Pushrod Clevis
In theory, pushrod clevises are only an option. But they help to make servo linkages lighter, tighter and more secure comparing to other methods. And you know the pilot knows his stuff when you see nice and tidy servo-horn connectors!
EMAX ES08MD
EMAX ES08MD are noticeably better, smoother and more reliable servos that cheap MG90S. Sometimes it's worth investing in better servos, after all, servo failure usually results in a kinetic disassembly known as a common crash. On the flying wing, servo failure always results in a crash!
Pushrod connectors
The usage of a servo pushrod connector is quite self-descriptive, right? Very useful things!
Other pushrod clevises
Screw-mounted clevis too complicated and expensive? Maybe clenched clevises suit your needs better. Not as good as machined and secured with crews, but still good enough!
Motors
Sunnysky X2216-7 1400KV
This is my motor of choice for 1000-1300g (roughly 2-3 pound) general-purpose flying wings. The price does not kill, with an 8060 propeller on 4S allows going as fast as 120-130km/h (75mph). This is the motor I use on my Ritewing Mini Drak and it's great!
Sunnysky X2814
Sunnysky X2814 has more oomph that X2216 and you can not deny it. Put it together with 9060 propeller in 1250KV on 4S or even 12" prop in lower KV and oh boy... If you do not have any special speed requirements, it should fit all up to 2kg flying wings.
Sensors and all the rest
Matek M9N-5883
Probably the best GPS module on the market! Ublox M9N delivers 1.5 times better sensitivity and tracking accuracy than the previous generation. This, combined with a faster protocol, allows up to 25Hz update rates and exceptional fix speed and GPS tracking accuracy. The only downsize that the older versions of INAV do not support the new protocol... Works great with Ardupilot and future INAV releases!
Analog Pitot tube / airspeed sensor
Airspeed sensors aka Pitot tubes based on MPXV7002 differential pressure sensors are the simplest way to bring airspeed to your model airplane. Supported by APM, Pixhawk, and INAV. All you need is a flight controller with at least one free analog input and done. If you want to know how to connect a pitot tube to INAV, you can use this guide.
Matek SAM-M8Q + HMC5883l GPS Module
State of the art GPS module for FPV drones? Matek SAM-M8Q maybe is not the perfect one, but it's pretty close! Small form factor, good quality components, built-in magnetometer. Everything that you FPV drone might ever need.
Beitian BN-180 GPS
If BN-880 is too big, BN-180 comes to the rescue! Airplanes do not require magnetometers, so BN-180 meets all the requirements! It's hard to find something smaller than BN-180.
Vifly Finder V2
Finding a downed drone or airplane can be a major pain in the ass. Especially when the main battery disconnected and a buzzer is not working. ViFly Finder partially solves the problem: it has own battery and starts to emit a loud noise and LED flashes when it detects disconnected main battery. Of course, it can act as a standard buzzer too! And yes, it's bloody loud!
