E Flite Valiant

As my first contribution to the forum I thought I'd do a review. I'm writing the review having lived with the E Flite Valiant while I learned to fly. This is not the normal 'build & test flight' review.

I got the Valiant 10 months ago as a trainer. I liked the idea of a trainer with flaps, and reviewers saw it as a good contender against the Cub, Apprentice and WOT foam trainers. One of the guys at the local MAC had one and seemed to like it. Also it had SAFE Select which might be useful for a complete noob; more about this later.

It arrived via Abergavenny Model Centre nicely packaged with everything in the box and nothing damaged. It assembled very easily apart from the tail, which was a very tight fit into the slot. The failsafe and controls set up really easily on my DX6e, and she ran up very smoothly while tethered in the garden.

Down at the MAC the club instructor test flew it before my first buddy box session. We both found it fairly easy to control. It turned smoothly, trimmed easily and was very happy stooging around in LH and RH circuits on just over half power. It trimmed nicely with a larger 3000mAh battery allowing flights of over ten minutes, which was great for my stick time but not always for my instructors' nerves.

As my lessons progressed the Valiant's niggles started to become apparent. Firstly, I found that SAFE Select was a nuisance. However many times I disabled it , SAFE would re-enable itself. I'd give a control input and the aircraft would decide the extent to which it wanted to respond. After a few weeks I removed the AR636 receiver and replaced it with an old AR600, permanently removing SAFE. It's been a much better flying experience since then.

I'm a noob and have been known to crash. Just occasionally. My first crash came so suddenly that the instructor hadn't time to react. It was a full nose-in under low throttle, just short of the runway. The foam repairs were pretty easy, but the crash revealed a weakness in the design. The undercarriage comprises an aluminium strip that goes right to the top of the battery bay. A lot of the crash energy (and heavy landing energy) is transferred through the undercarriage to a plastic structure in the battery bay, which breaks far more easily than the aluminium. A few heavy landings undid any repairs that I could do to the plastic. I was not possible to replace just the plastic so I ended up getting a new (expensive) fuselage just to replace the plastic frame.

The next niggle was a buzzing sound from the aircraft. It turned out that the four self-tappers that hold the motor in place worked loose every few flights. The remedy was to 3D print a back plate to go into the battery compartment, and run 4x50mm long M3 from the motor through to some locknuts. End of the buzz.

Further heavy landings damaged the plastic structure again. I cannibalised bits from the old fuselage and built a Frankenstructure out of the remains of the two plastic structures, strengthening it with a pair of basswood strips along the sides of the battery bay. This has solved the weakness in the battery bay, but meant that the stock undercarriage can't be used. I've recently changed the undercarriage for a Timber version and its been much more resilient.

So after many months of flying it, what do I think of the Valiant?

She flies nicely and is very stable. The valiant has loads of spare power for those noob moments when I need to get out of trouble. It's not pretty, but is not a bad looking aircraft for a trainer. I like the idea of having flaps as it adds another dimension to learning to fly. The large battery bay is a real boon. The foam repairs very easily.

I don't like SAFE and think it's not a good option for noobs. I can see why they sell it, but think a plug'n'play version with a basic receiver would be much better on a trainer. Attaching the motor with self tappers seems crazy to me. I think the undercarriage and battery bay structure are badly designed for a trainer but its not hard to modify.

Overall I think the Valiant is expensive compared to other trainers, but has a lot of nice features offset by a few weaknesses. The mods I've made haven't affected her flying performance, but they've made an adequate aircraft into a really good trainer.

You say the SAFE was enabling by it's self ? Can you describe the set up on your DX6e. I am self taught on an E flite Apprentice which uses the same tech, I think. On the DX6e there are three flight modes on a three position switch; Beginner, intermediate & expert. The safe ( or oh crap switch) is on the "I" button, which needs to be reversed in the servo set up & is available in all three flight modes. If it is not reversed SAFE would be enabled until you press it !
As far as the safe not being a good idea for beginners, I have to disagree. I found it invaluable in the early stages & it has saved on costly repairs on many occasions ! In fact, apart from parking once in a well placed tree, I have never actually crashed it ! I have however done quite a lot of damage to most of my other models, hence the name ! :whistle:

SAFE seems to be on the AR636 receiver which is common to several trainers. Yes, SAFE reactivated itself in flight. I went through the 'bind and disable' steps from the handbook and it would be OK. Sometime during flight - it seemed to correlate with going full throttle - it would reactivate itself. Whether this was a defective unit or an undocumented feature was very unclear. In the end I just removed it, not only for that unpredictable behaviour but because I never felt I was in control.

I can see why people would find the oh s..t switch useful, especially learning on their own, but the instructor and I both got fed up with its unpredictable behaviour.

Sounds like a faulty RX to me. I very rarely use it now, but nice to know it's there, just in case ![badass]

It's one of those gadgets where by the time you've remembered which switch it was, and which way to switch it - it is too late! :woohoo:

That's why it's assigned to the only push button on the DX & even I can find that. Well most of the time! :blink:

Different strokes for different folks! That's why we talk about it guys.