Ultra Micro J-3 Cub RTF

Reader Reviews
While this was recommended to me by a dealer as a good, first RC airplane for beginners, the dealer could not have been more wrong. If you are a newbie at this, get something else that is more durable, at least in regards to the motor, shaft, and prop, and also that has parts available from a local store.Overall, it would probably be fine as long as you don't crash it at all. Even the slightest crash causes the prop shaft to break. If that wasn't bad enough, because of the way the shaft screws on to the propeller, this means you have to replace both the shaft and propeller (because part of the shaft becomes permanently stuck inside the prop) at a cost of about $3 per item, $6 total per incident.Thinking that I must have gotten a bad shaft in the original package, I mail ordered (none were available locally in Indianapolis) three new shafts along with three props and a bigger battery. I figured I would rather have some extra parts I might never use than to have to continue to mail order parts and wait a couple weeks for them to arrive. The parts arrived, I installed a new shaft and prop, and discovered the same thing, three times. After just a minor crash (into a bush, on the grass, or on pavement), the shaft would break at the end of the screw threads rendering both the shaft and prop unusable. The problem is that the shaft is so thin, there is probably little material left after the Chinese manufacturer cuts the threads, making the shaft extremely fragile.I got a good "deal" on this product at $110, tax included, then spent almost $40 on parts and shipping. In all, I flew it for about 5 - 10 minutes total and it is now grounded once again. It wasn't a deal at all and I have a useless product. At this rate, flying the real thing is actually cheaper per hour by about a factor of 10!