Amazing Lightweight 3D Performance + Durability
= The 4D Lite

December 2011

HI Joe thanks for all your help. I have used the computer link via the field programmer which has a usb port on it.... it still starts a little roughly but now i'm flying it on a 2s setup i am happy enough with it. It is a great little plane. I appreciate all the thought that has gone into. I have attached two pictures of two modifications. One being to the bottom wire on the landing gear because i fly mostly outside and wanted to cut down on the trip factor in long grass, and the other is making the fuse from some plastic sections from the local hobby store. Thanks again for all your helpfulness. Michael Dwyer

September 2010

Joe, Thanks for another quality DURABLE kit!! I finished mine back in the late winter in just few evenings. This was my first airbrush experience. Gregg's plane is in one of the pics. hanks again, Josh

March 2008

Hi, I really enjoyed building your 4 D-lite I like the idea of the battery on top so I customized the canopy to hinge at the front there is a lot of room in there for a battery. Thanks again for a fantastic kit. You may share my Mods and photos on your site John From Kent Washington.

January 2008

Hi Joe,

My son really enjoyed his new plane, thought you might want to see the end product.

Thanks again,
Matt
Syracuse, NY

March 2007

Mark, Here is a picture of my 4D-Lite completed. I decided to stick with the graphics similar to your's on the web site. This again was all done with markers and turned out looking great!! Feel free to post this picture with the other on your site so people can see just how awsome the graphics look by simply using what they probably all have in their homes, markers!

I took it to an all night fly in last night and got home at 6:00 AM this morning. It was the first flight. The dome was 300x300x100Ft. tall! It was the biggest indoor deal that I've ever seen. The problem was there were so many planes in the air at all times it was like a 6 hour combat! I flew the 4D only after things settled down a little toward the end becouse I did'nt want it destroyed right off the bat. The flight I had to add a few clicks on up elevator and just a couple of clicks of aileron to get it to fly straight. After that I was just trying to get the feel for it. Before you know it I threw it into a hover , to the best of my ability, and it felt pretty good. I then pulled off the tightest water falls that I've ever seen before! This thing will loop in it's on lenght I would say. I mean wicked, wicked tight! I did have a nose hit that would have broke most planes I would think. I picked it up and took right off again. After landing I took a look at the nose and saw the motor stick was loose. I have'nt pulled the cowl yet to fix it. I was amazes the way the plane flew after seeing how the motor was moving around, never knew it in the air. I hope to get some more time on it today in the backyard. Just enough room to practice hovering back there but not enough to take off from the ground I dont think. All in all this is a bad little plane and I'm sure the more time I get on it the more I will love it. Thanks again for the great service you provide and an awsome plane you guys produce.

Scott Baker
Valparaiso, IN

February 2007

Hi Joe,

The pictures I'm sending are of my 4D lite graphics. It isn't as nice as airbrushing but as you can see they still look awsome. I thought you might want to use these on your site to show just how good graphics can look by simply using markers for those who don't airbrush.

I think people need to know just how easy it can be to have an awsome looking graphic package on the 4D lite airplane. I used yellow and red markers as shown. I outlined in red and filled in with the yellow. At the tips of the flames I ran the yellow marker over the red which blended together to give myself an orange look at the flame tips which really look cool. I'll be doing more of this with different colors on the canopy area and a few other areas as well. This adds no weight and gives a great look and is by far better than using a can of spray paint which would add weight and thats not what we are after in a foamie type airplane. Keep them light and they will fly right! I never thought building an electric kit would be so much fun. This is not by no means hard to do and it is really alot of fun. This will be a new favorite of mine I can see already. Light weight, low wing loading equals one heck of a 3D airplane. Keep up the wonderful service and the great products.

A Happy Customer,
Scott Baker
Valparaiso, IN

April 2006

Hi Joe,

Last week's snow melted and it was a bit gusty, but I couldn't wait any longer. I had to give this 4D-lite a try. I took it over to the field across from the house so I'd have some room to trim it out. A few clicks of the elevator is all it needed. I do think I will experiment a bit with the CG setting, though. It is a bit pitch sensative although some of that is likely related to the wind. Man does it fly nicely. I wasn't sure what to expect after I plopped it down in the field a few times. No real place to land and it is rough over there. Even though it fell on its side once, or plopped onto the gear, there was no damage. One gust caught it while I was close to the ground and pushed it down on its nose. It hit mostly on the gear and flipped over, but no damage. None of these "landings" were hard enough to break the stick mount. I was pretty pleased.

I decided the real test would be to see if I could "fly" it in my back yard. There isn't a lot of room back there, but there are a lot of trees. Wow! I could harrier the plane all over the yard. It really does turn in its own length. I harriered it down for landings, dropping it in the grass. Twice it nosed over, but other times it actually landed nicely, even though the wheels are quite small. I know I was grinning at this point. Let the fun begin!

All I can say at this point is that you guys have made a believer out of me. This plane is everything you claim it to be.

Thanks!

Dave Harbula
(http://www.mdvl.net/~dharbula/)
Cambridge Springs, PA

February 2006

Joe and Mark,

The 4D Lite rocks! I'm a long time flyer and have been recently trying to learn some aspects of 3D flight but have had little success because I've not had an airplane that I can fly close and low without sweating and heart palpatations. I built my Morris Hobbbies Su-do-koi fun fly airplane from a kit so due to the amount of time I have into building it, I'm too chicken to fly it low and wild.

That is NOT the case with the 4D Lite. I have 10 flights on it so far with at least 50 far less than perfect "landings". No damage other than props and motor mounts. Each time I fly it, I notice a significant improvement in my 3D flying ability and am doing a lot of manuevers at eye level. Very cool! High alpha knife-edge is a blast, especially with a little wind. Hovers still need some work but I'm able to get longer hovers than I've ever been able to with other planes. Harriers still need a lot of work but I'm getting there.

I have to admit that when I opened the box (which by the way I ordered on a Saturday and it was at my doorstep on Monday) I was a little skeptical. The design and construction was very different from what I'm used to and my skepticism centered around durability and flyability. After my second or third flight, durability concerns went right out the window. As for flyability, as long as I don't chop throttle completely and keep at least a little throttle on, the 4D Lite flies alot like my Su-do-koi. Once I get the basics of 3D worked out on my 4D, it will be great to see what I can do with my Su-do-koi.

For a 9.75 oz. airplane, I am amazed by how well the 4D Lite flies in the wind. I've had it out in 5-10 mph and it flies fine. I'm from Chicago originally though; there you either fly in the wind or you don't fly. It gets knocked around of course but it's still a very solid flyer. And I love just bringing it in right in front of me and playing the wind to land with a virtually vertical approach.

I had been getting bored with just boring holes in the sky and wanted to learn 3D badly. The 4D Lite is perfect for that. This is the most fun I've EVER had with an R/C transmitter. Great job guys! Great design!

Steve Mark
Chandler, AZ

Joe,

Thursday, I received the new motor and ESC that you sent. That was quick and I really appreciate it. I hope that by now you've received the motor and ESC that I sent back to you. I sent it Tuesday by Priority Mail.

I also wanted to let you know that I flew my little 4D-Lite tonight with the new motor and ESC and it seems like it works much better than the first motor and ESC. I programmed the ESC as you recommended; it's much nicer without the voltage cutoff and brake.

Something I found odd is that the range check with the new motor and ESC is MUCH better. With the first one, the servos would start to jitter when I was only 20 or 30 feet away from the airplane and I sometimes experienced quite a few minor jitters during flight and even had the receiver stop responding completely a couple times which cost me a few drops of CA. I moved the ESC as far from the receiver as possible which helped slightly but I still had problems. With the new motor and ESC however, the servos were rock solid with me 75-100 feet away and I flew two pretty long flights practicing Harriers with no glitches or jitters at all. So maybe something was wrong with that first motor or ESC from day one.

The 4D-Lite will be great in the summer here. I love Fall, Winter, and Spring in Arizona but it just gets too friggin' hot here in the summer to enjoy flying during the day. With the 4D-Lite, I can go out to the park across the street after dark when it's cooled down a bit and get in some flight time.

So far, 17 outings, countless mishaps and bad landings, a few drops of CA, still flyin' like new, and improving my skills with each flight!

So that's it! Just wanted to say thanks for the outstanding service and let you know how everything worked out. My Harriers are almost respectable now; I can drag the tail occasionally. And I'd never even done one until I got my 4D-Lite.

Steve Mark
Chandler, AZ

January 2006

Joe,

I LOVE THIS THING!!!!! I finally got tired of waiting for the wind to die down and just went to a good open field at a local park and threw caution to the wind.

Man, what a plane!!!!

The 4D Lite is an amazing performer.

In wind gusts from 15 to 20mph it was a handfull, but it would do anything I asked it to do.

Even a couple of hard landing didnt stop it.

I was able to cut power before it went in, and the little plane just bounced off the ground and was ready to go for more.

Thanks for a great product.

Once I went to the 11.1V battery pack this thing came alive.

I will charge the 7.2V pack again and go see if I can hadn launch it for some lazy flying around the yard.

Thanks again.

Bobby Stringfellow
Columbus, GA.

Hey Joe,

I purchased a 4-D Lite plane from you guys a few weeks ago and i just wanted to congradulate you and Mark on the awesome design! the plane flies different than a shop flyer but that is why its constructed the way it is, Perfect for crashing!

This is an awesome plane for learning to fly 3-d. I flew today and crashed about a dozen times getting used to the throttle control but once i got the hang of it man the thing flies like a champ, awesome hovers, knife edges, barrel rolls, torque rolls, and waterfalls!! this plane deserves an A++!!!

Thanks again and good luck flying, maybe i will see you guys flying sometime! see ya!

Rob Waters
Syracuse, NY

November 2005

Joe...

I can't BELIEVE how GREAT this plane is!!! I finally got to fly it (Saturday, but wasn't able to email till now) and got immediate feedback on how great a plane it is! :-)

I had checked out all the controls & such, then throttled up & hand launched. It climbed out impressively at the 45 degree angle I launched it at... and then I gave left input to the ailerons... and it rolled to the right!!! :-( Oops! In my excitement to get flying... I forgot that I had needed to go in and do the servo reversing on that! :-( My brain tried to quickly reorient to the new stick configuration and I brought the plane back around to myself and tried to harrier in for a landing. I say "tried" to! :-( While still about 7 or 8 feet off the ground I made a critical error in aileron input, then overcompensated the other direction... and rolled her in really hard.

The result...
...you ready...
...get this...
...the damage...
...nothing! :-) No problems! :-) No damage - I mean zip! :-)

All the depron planes I've flown... that landing would have sheared off the landing gear and severely damaged the nose and probably "realigned" the wing orientation! :-( But... :-) ...not the 4D-Lite!!! :-) WOW!!! What a change from all "those" other flying days! You know... the ones that would have ended at that moment!!!! ...with me going home such a "landing!"

NOT ANYMORE!!!

I unplugged the battery - made the change to ailerons on the transmitter - plugged the battery back in - double checked everything and then hand launched again... :-) ...and had an absolutely awesome 8 - 10 minutes of 3D flying bliss!!!

Thank you THANK you THANK YOU for making this plane!

I flew through both my batteries - and the plane flew exceptionally well - easily performing all of the maneuvers I know! Even the ones I've been struggling to even squeak through on the sim... this plane made them easy!

I am thrilled with this plane Joe - I cannot say enough about this plane! I am very VERY grateful to have found such a great product that performs as advertised! Thank you! Keep up the great work... and know that I am going to be talking up this plane every chance I get! :-)

Awesome! My only "dilemma" is in trying to understand why this plane wasn't recommended to me earlier by others "in the know" within the hobby! I've flown many depron planes... and hands down... NOTHING compares to the 4D-Lite! This should be everyone's 1st plane - when crossing over to 3D flying! No question agout it!

Why would you start with anything else!?!

This plane is awesome! :-)

OK... can you tell that I'm excited! :-) Ah... this was just so much fun! I've been so discouraged with each of these other planes and their excessive fragileness... and then... me making a dumb "servo reversing" error... and crashing in hard... and having no damage... man... I'm just not used to this kind of resiliency! Awesome!

Man I love this plane! Thanks Joe!
Having a blast,

Mark
Camillus, NY

---- Flying Update #2 ----------

Hey guys, I figured I'd weigh in on my first gym flying experience. I snuck up to the Cicero gym yesterday for a couple hours and got in several flights. Damage report - 2 props - and one balsa "break away" stick mount as per design! :-) That's it! :-) Awesome!

"The props" you ask... well, flying as much as I do on the sim - I still struggle to remember to shut the throttle off when getting to close to the ground (during possible or impending crash) - instead I automatically try to fly out of EVERYTHING no matter how impossible! :-( So, my motor is still humming - and usually full throttle - trying to fly out of something and the prop touches ground shattering the prop! :-( The sim is good - but it has taught me this bad habit - a habit I am struggling to break! :-(

Again though - the depron planes... the motor would rip off / detach from the depron and I'd having a gluing mess. With the 4D-Lite, I quickly changed out the prop and I was up & flying.

The time I broke the "break away" stick mount - interestingly, the prop didn't break. So, I switched out sticks and was up & flying again. :-)

The plane - ZERO damage! :-)

Well - gym flying - in that small of a gym was sure challenging - but that's part of what I like about 3D flying - the challenge! :-)

Thanks guys! I appreciate you keeping me in the air rather than at the repair bench! :-) Grateful,
Mark