WLTOYS F949 Review

25 October 2018

This is not a new kit, it has been available on Banggood for quite some time, before I started my interest in WLTOYS' products. I bought it recently because it is cheap to have in the boot of a car for small field flying. I have a Flysky FS-i6 that works on the older WLTOYS protocol so I bought the bind-and-fly kit. It was less than SGD 60 for a bind-and-fly, about SGD10 cheaper then the RTF kit which included the toy-like transmitter. Regarding that transmitter, I have a similar looking one from buying WLTOYS V911 pro. That was about 2 years ago, I used it for other projects including those using the receiver boards of F929/939. I remember that the transmitter range is ok, but the gimbals are stiff and it does not have any mixes, reversing and other programming. I have flown F949 a few times and felt I know enough of the model's characteristics to have this to say about it.

When I unwrapped and opened up the kit box, I observed that the horizontal stabilizer was one-side-high. Over time, this became worse. In neutral trims and hands-off, it would fly in left circles. The high amount of dihedral stopped the circle tightening. Twisting the stabilizer didn't work, so it's either a heat twist or maybe a cut out and re-glue. However, it is good enough to fly so I didn't bother.

From the 2nd flight onwards, I noticed that the propeller seems to be moving away from the nose. This is confirmed when the propeller flew off later. There is a nylon piece on the geared motors to insert into the propeller. Pushing the propeller back on didn't help, because on power, the propeller would fly off the nylon shaft. I used a bit of UHU Por on the shaft and this solves the issue, at least for the last few flights that I had.

The power doesn't seem linear. The model only needs slight throttle to fly level turns, way below the 50% mark of the throttle stick position, but pushing the stick beyond the first 1/3 does not seem to get the propeller to spin much faster. Perhaps the propeller's diameter and pitch is set to slow cruising speed, i.e. slightly undersized for full range throttle performance. This trade off resulted in long flight time. It flies very long on the supplied 500mah.

The model has a tricycle undercarriage with tiny wheels. Despite the tiny wheels and the gentle power, ROG is ok on paved surface. Its take offs feels long, the roll reminds me of my Pilot QB 20H that many years ago. This is definitely not a yank and off-you-go rocket ship. You have to coax the speed up in order to perform rotation and take offs comes from having rotation at flying speed. This morning, I extended many touch-and-go to rolling on the ground and then rotating and take off again. It was pleasant and I must have performed dozens of this type of touch-and-go this morning, on the single one-cell battery.

Hand launching is easy. All it needs is a gentle level toss. Full-throttle or half-throttle doesn't make much difference. Just release the model at its flying speed, which is really quite slow.

The slow flying nature of the model makes every flight relaxing. You can make tight rudder turns, fly close by, perform touch-and-go in confined spaces. The model responds well. At glide, the slope ration is perhaps seven to one and at something like jogging speed. F949 will stall, but recovery is quick and flying it smoothly will make those occurrence rare, especially if a bit of height is traded off or when the flying speed is increased by a bit more throttle in the first place.

I have been flying in the calm mornings. Even so, I have seen the model's wings rocking which I think is its reaction to slight air turbulence. F949 has a narrow and low speed range. It flies slowly but cannot accelerate to high speed flights. I suppose I could get the model to outfly medium gusts, but that couldn't be its design intent.

All considered, this is a good beginner's plane for calm weather because it is cheap, flies slow and long, and is forgiving in nature. It practically flies hands-off!