This rainy winter, I added a new aircraft to my indoor arsenal. I was interested in a durable, light model I could use to expand my indoor flying abilities. The Twisted Hobbys Extra Slick is a light indoor/outdoor aerobatic model. It is part of Twisted Hobbys’ “32” Standard” series of aircraft. This means it has a 32 inch wingspan, and the EPP Foam the model is mostly constructed of is the standard thickness, 10mm foam, compared to Twisted Hobbys’ (TH) “Crack LITE” models, where the foam is much thinner. The Extra Slick can be flown on a two or three cell battery with the change of a prop for a different flying experience.
It is a light model, so it can be flown in a medium to large indoor space or outside in calm conditions. The Extra Slick is designed as a beginner to intermediate 3D/extreme aerobatic model. It is a good model to learn 3D on because of its forgiving characteristics and incredible durability. If you’re looking for a plane to kick about when the weather gets worse or on a still summer night in the backyard, then the Extra Slick might fill a void in your hangar.
Manufacturer Specs
Wingspan - 812mm
Length - 762mm
Spec Weight - 204g
Motor - Brushless Outrunner, 20-30g 40-60 watts
Servos - 2x 5g, 1x 9g
ESC - 10-20 Amp
Battery - 2s 450mah
Prop - 8x4.3 or 9x4.7
Flying Characteristics
Being an incredibly precise and aerobatic flying model, the Extra Slick truly lives up to its name. For the most part I fly this model indoors (in a decommissioned WWII naval fighter hangar, not my living room) due to its light construction and ability to maneuver in tight spaces. I have also flown at my local park with this model, but the main problem that plagues the Extra Slick outdoors is wind. Due to its weight relative to its size, it struggles to penetrate the wind. It's not unflyable; it just gets tossed around a bit and is quite slow on the upwind leg.
The Extra Slick has shined indoors with just the right amount of power (on two cell) for the aforementioned space. The electronics will run on three cell with a prop change from the 9x4.7 2s prop to a 8x4.7 prop. I personally have not tried three cell as I think it would be much too fast for my flying space. Slow flight is quite stable with the Extra Slick. All you need to do is ease off the throttle, pull back, and really use small amounts of rudder and aileron with constant throttle management to cruise around nice and slow in high alpha.
If you fly outside and there’s a bit of a breeze, you can put in a bit more work and fly backwards. The Extra Slick on 2s is plenty fast for my indoor environment. However, outdoors it isn't very impressive. I don't take issue with the lack of top end speed because, when flying indoors (my main purpose for this model), the model is precise at speed. Outdoors, I don’t need top end because that’s not the point of this plane for me. The point of this model is to have a plane I can take out, have a good time flying some aerobatics, bash up, and keep flying. It has the power to hold knife edge, unlimited vertical, and many other aerobatics; that’s what I care about. The Extra Slick is quite the refined aerobatic model and has incredibly responsive controls due to the massive amounts of control surface deflection. Because of the large range of possible rates, you can tune the controllability to your personal liking.
Skill Required
I am a beginner to 3D flying, but I would consider myself an intermediate pilot overall. This plane is wonderful for anyone wanting to learn to fly a more aerobatic plane. Because it is so durable, you can experiment with different maneuvers without worrying about crashing and destroying your plane.
Versatility
As a light, mid-wing, aerobatic model, it’s not super versatile; it works well for indoor flying and outdoors in a light breeze. Any more wind would throw it around to the point where it wouldn't really be flyable. Outdoor winter flying is out of the picture for me (a Seattlite) as the tiny landing gear would only accept tiny skis, which would make little difference on snow. Furthermore, fitting larger skis to deal with that issue would just weigh the plane down.
Another thing the Extra Slick has going for it is its ability to fly in tight spaces. Its potential to go extremely slow and still perform tight maneuvers allows it to be flown where many aircraft its size could not.
Weight
My Plane weighs in at 221g with a battery compared to the spec. 204g w/ battery weight—I have a little more glue in mine from run-ins with the ground. As it’s my first proper indoor kit, I don't have much to base my judgment of weight off of. However, the Extra Slick is light enough to fly well inside and just heavy enough to still be fun outside, even with a light breeze. This is by no means a heavy model for its role, nor is it as light as you can go. Twisted Hobbys (TH) themselves make “LITE” and “SUPER LITE” versions of many of their models. The reason I went with the standard thickness model is the ability to fly outdoors and the added durability of the thicker foam.
Durability
Due to the Kit’s construction mostly of EPP foam, it may not look as good as an EPO plane, but it is much lighter and more durable. EPP has some play in it, so it just bends if it hits anything hard. When it does break, foam tack or hot glue make it pretty much new again. My plane has taken part in two mid-air collisions and has suffered little damage.
The Extra Slick comes with Twisted’s HD (Heavy Duty) carbon fiber landing gear, which truly stands up to its name. People at my indoor club have models with the standard thin carbon rod X-configuration landing gear, and after two or three rough landings, the light duty landing gear gives way and is a pain to repair.
The HD landing gear has stood up to a ton of really hard landings onto concrete. The section of foam the landing gear is attached to has even ripped out, and the landing gear has been fine. A bit of glue, and I was back flying again.
The HD landing gear is a MUST for any TH plane and is included as standard in the Extra Slick. If you need a replacement set of HD landing gear or would like to put it on another model, the kit is $17.99 with wheels and wheel pants. My only issue with the HD landing gear is the axle setup. The tiny nuts holding the screw axle in place were a pain and were either too tight, to the point that the wheel wouldn't turn, or too loose, where they came off. This problem can be fixed by simply drilling out the wheel’s hole more or replacing the entire axle assembly with a servo screw, which I did.
Flight time
On a 450mah 2s battery and 2204 24g TMW motor swinging a 9x4.5 slow fly prop, I get from 5 to 6 minutes of flight time indoors.
This can change with the flying style, with a more aggressive flight being around 5 minutes and a conservative one about 7. I personally set my radio’s timer to 5 minutes and land about 20 seconds after the timer runs out on a normal flight.
Build Process
Build Time
The build process is very straightforward. Twisted Hobbys provides a digital instruction manual in the form of a PDF, so you can either read it off the computer or print it out.
The instructions consist of pictures with text describing the picture, so they are very easy to follow. If you use the recommended welders or foam tack glue, it can take longer for the glue to dry. I used hot glue and may have sacrificed a little on weight, but the build went much quicker.
Full assembly including electronics setup took about 4 to 5 hours. This is pretty reasonable for a foam kit.
Skill required
As it’s a profile plane, assembly is relatively simple. However, it’s not the best choice for your first kit build since the servo placement and setup are a bit strange.
Electronics Availability and Compatibility
A two cell 450mah battery and corresponding propeller is a great combination for indoor or park flying, providing plenty of power for any acrobatic maneuvers. The recommended motors and ESCs should also handle three cell (provided you go down a prop size) for more aggressive flying. The 5g and 9g servos and 12amp ESC sizes are standard, and you can find lots of different options at different price points, so it’s easy to find replacement parts.
Overall build cost
This kit is not the cheapest option to achieve this sort of indoor acrobatic flying (Value Hobby offers much less expensive kits), but the $69.99 price for the foam and hardware is reasonable because of the attention to detail in creating quality build instructions for a good build experience. Twisted Hobbys’ planes are also refined when it comes to flying characteristics, with great overall stability and solid tracking. The electronics for this build can be found at a range of different prices. Twisted Hobbys themselves sell power packs for most of their models, but they are generally a little pricey, at $93.99 including one two cell spec prop and no receiver or battery. My build is mid-price range when it comes to electronics, using Emax servos, a Twisted Hobbys motor, an Emax ESC, and Spektrum 4 channel receiver. The overall cost for my electronics was as follows:
Motor* and prop saver bands: $29.75
1 9g and 2 5g servos: $14.00
ESC: $9.75
Receiver: $29.99
Three 2s 450mah batteries: $17.97
Two 9x4.7 tuff props: $3.90
*note, the motor I used is no longer available as TH has phased it out in favor of a slightly beefier motor.
This brings the overall cost for my build to $175.35. That is without shipping. This is also if you had to buy everything new; I already had the servos, receiver, motor, prop, ESC, and batteries.
Replacement Parts, Cost, and Availability
As many of the parts on the aircraft are to standard specification, it’s very easy to find replacements. However there are some select parts, namely the control horns, servo arms, and linkages that are proprietary to TH planes. The plastic parts included have taken the abuse I have put them through well, and TH sells a carbon fiber upgrade option (a bit expensive at $19.99) in the event you break the included parts.
You can also buy a replacement plastic hardware set for $12.99. I personally have no need to upgrade to carbon at the moment as the included parts are still working very well. The use of a prop saver (a method of attaching the prop to the motor shaft by the use of a stiff rubber band) means that in the event of a crash or prop strike, the prop usually just bends and gets off the center of the shaft, leaving no damage to the prop itself.
The prop savers are usually the first to break if something does; however, they are cheap to replace, a 5 pack being $3.50. The props themselves are bendy and can take a hit even without a prop saver. In the rare case you do break a prop, they’re quite inexpensive at $1.95 a peice.
Finish
The foam’s finish and detail application is quite good for an EPP model. While paint scheme keeps some elements from traditional 3D/aerobatic schemes, it has a much more appealing design than the traditional splotches, stripes and checkers. The overall design consists of flowing gradients of cosmic colors and streaming lines of light energy.
Other materials
There are a few more basic materials you will need for this build. The first one is some sort of foam-safe adhesive, be it foam tac, welders, hot glue, or foam-safe CA. Different adhesives will have different results when it comes to drying time, so just choose what you want or are comfortable using. I personally used small amounts of high temperature hot glue. You have to be careful with high temp hot glue, as if it is applied too heavily, it could begin to melt the foam, so small beads are key. You will also need a drill with a drill bit the size of the axle to make the holes for the wheel axles in the landing gear.
A reasonably small-sized screwdriver is also required for adjusting the linkage stoppers. Additionally, pliers will be useful when building the Extra Slick.
Is this plane for you? In a nutshell the Twisted Hobbys Extra Slick is a fun indoor/outdoor aerobatic model that is not intimidating for someone new to indoor flying or 3D. I will now rate the Extra Slick on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being low and 10 being high) on six criteria: durability, versatility, flying experience, build experience, fun factor, and value.
Durability: Being constructed of EPP foam, the Extra Slick is very durable and easy to repair. Also, the HD landing gear takes a real beating if you choose to use it. This earns the Extra Slick an 8.5 out of 10.
Versatility: The Extra Slick is incredibly light, which allows indoor slow flight but inhibits the ability to fly in any sort of wind. Also, the tiny wheels are unable to operate on any rough surface, limiting it to concrete takeoff only. This earns the Extra Slick a 5 out of 10.
Flying Experience: The Extra Slick is fun to fly because of the massive control surfaces and enough power for unlimited vertical. I can chuck it around indoors and out and can’t keep a smile off my face. This earns it a 9 out of 10.
Build Experience: The build is straightforward thanks to easy-to-follow instructions and simple techniques. The only issue with the build process is the tricky pushrods. This earns the Extra Slick an 8 out of 10.
Fun Factor: The Extra Slick is an all-around fun model to build and fly. It also is easy to maintain and repair. This earns it a 9 out of 10.
Value: The Extra Slick is definitely not a budget option for this style of flying, but you are really paying for a quality build and flight experience. This earns it a 7 out of 10.
This brings the Extra Slick’s overall score to a 46.5 out of 60. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my experience building and flying the Extra Slick, and it has earned its spot as one of the top 3 models in my hangar.
No Comments Yet
Be the first to leave one!