Hold your breath , the wait’s finally over. Vortex-RC is proud to announce availability of Precision Laser cut Paper laminated FoamBoard kits, originally designed by FliteTest,  but modified and adapted to improve upon and suit the available materials. These kits are as close to the actual Flite Test Speed build kits as one can get and are manufactured in India.



Several months of hard work, planning and execution have gone into building these kits, and this goes all in the direction to make this wonderful hobby and sport, more popular, more accessible, more affordable, and above all much more fun. We want to inspire and encourage our Indian aeromodeller friends and pilots to not only just build and fly but also experiment, modify, and learn through the process. Our kits help speed up the build process many times and also reduces the number of mistakes that can be made during the build. Apart from the laser cutting, our kits include accessories ( like piano wire pushrods, landing gear wires, pushrod guides etc ) , which though sometimes look easy to find, but are hard to actually source locally ( for the majority of us ).

When we thought about doing the Laser cut Foamboard kits of FliteTest models, we were confronted with many challenges:

Challenge 1: Paper laminated foamboards were not available .
This was the biggest one ! In India you get Coro, Depron, Sunboard and what-not, but No lightweight paper laminated foam boards that our US friends make us so jealous of !.
So we started making our own Foamboards and FliteBoard PRO and FliteBoard Lite was created. Read FliteBoard announcement here.

Challenge 2: Models when built with the FliteTest plans, do not balance properly, when built with a slightly heavier material.

Even making our own FliteBoards, our material is very slightly heavier than DollarTree Foamboard. Well, it’s not just us who have faced this problem, our counterparts in Europe and Australia too have had heavier Foamboards:

UK: http://www.flitetest.com/articles/flitetest-aeroplanes-for-heavy-foamboard
Australia: http://www.flitetest.com/articles/don-t-let-heavy-foamboard-get-you-down
http://www.flitetest.com/articles/foamboard-in-australia

What that means is, if you simply printed out the the FliteTest FT plans, and made your models,  most likely, in fact always the Centre of Gravity (CoG) CG of models will not come in the right place. This leads to a tail heavy plane, that either flies bad or requires modification, sometimes out of scope for the first time builder.

http://www.flitetest.com/articles/how-to-get-the-cg-right-with-heavy-foam-board
http://flitetest.com/articles/ft-explorer-nose-balance-mod
http://www.flitetest.com/articles/flitetest-aeroplanes-for-heavy-foamboard

What we wanted to give out was something that works. out of the box. That is a kit that has been  built, flown, proven and tested by an experienced aeromodeller.

All of our FliteTest based Laser cut kits have modifications made on them to make the m balance correctly. Nose has been extended , FliteBoard Lite has been used on the tail to keep the weight down.

Each of the kits that we offer, have gone through weeks of efforts in modifying, flying testing, again modifying, testing, before coming up with something that flies well.

Challenge 3: Dollar tree foam is 3/16” (4.76mm) versus our material is 5.5MM

The other thing was that all of the plans required modification to adjust and compensate for the thickness of material. In US, they use the standard system so Dollar stree foamboard is 3/16 in which is 4.7MM whereas our boards are 5MM-5.5MM So that needed to be changed.

Challenge 4: Laser cutting is expensive and inaccessible

Laser cutting was expensive ( well, it still is ).
We made our own laser cutter ! Yes, completely DIY. And after hundreds of hours of operation, we can confirm it works well ! We plan to release plans for making one soon.
If not anything else, all this goes to help us to make our kits more and more affordable.

Challenge 5: Sheets are fragile, delicate hard to ship without getting damaged.

We got special custom boxes with double corrugated sheets ( 5-Ply ), Apart from that, we use a cling film to tightly package the sheets together. We hope our customers will get the kits in the same way as when we pack them.

Challenge 6:  Kit accessories are very hard to find.

Small kit accessories like Rubber bands, piano wire for pushrods and landing gear, sounds easy to get. But try finding locally in India, and you would be hard pressed to find something of even a usable quality. We have spent weeks in getting the right kind of pushrod piano wire – Something that is rigid, and straight, yet can be bent with the use of pliers, and of course that does not rust !.

Enough of writing , The first two kits available are :

FT-Explorer – A versatile trainer/sport 3-4 Channel airplane, that is extremely modular. Includes a full set of laser cut sheets along with 2 Wings ; a Trainer 3 Channel without ailerons and a Sport 4 channel with ailerons.

FT-Bloody Baron – The Bloody Baron is an extremely easy to build kit, that will take less than 3 hours to build  and a true Bank -n– Yank plane to fly. Small, portable and zippy to fly around in small parks and places, the Bloody Baron can be flown with streamers to do some combat flying with friends . Choice of decals include a Nazi Ugly Stick Style or a Batman theme.

Each kit will include, well packaged laser cut sheets, a datasheet that lists all of the kit contents, and important information about that plane – ie weight/CG location/ control surface throws etc,, a sheet of custom designed decals, and of course any kit accessories as may be required.




To those of you who may be concerned on what FliteTest has to say on our endeavours: we have contacted FliteTest and informed them about our plans to make these kits in India, and they are one wonderful / open group, that truly believes in encouraging the aeromodelling sport. We continue to give them full credits for their work. We have not renamed any of their models. We link back directly to their site. The Build Video and Review on the products page are directly of their YouTube Channel. We do not copy or put in any of FliteTest’s plans, images or content on our website.

In essence, through our efforts, the hobby is what benefits – Aeromodelling becomes much more accessable, affordable and more fun in India. FliteTest gets more website hits, their videos get seen by many more, their planes become more famous, Lots of aeromodellers in India will become aware of FliteTest brand, their ultra cool videos and their contribution to the hobby. To re-iterate, we are not just downloading, printing and selling kits. We are innovating. We have solved several problems , we have tried to add value, and we have done a lot of hard work before any of the kits becomes available, each model goes through several test iterations, before we deem fit for production ( did we tell you that we design and give a sheet of free decals too with each kit ?) . And needless to say, we are not going to encroach upon any of the FliteTest’s current market ( USA ), and we are currently limited to sales within India only.

Lastly, and to conclude:

Vortex-RC is committed to innovating, and trying to make things here in India, instead of being just another LHS (Local Hobby Store) reseller of Chinese products. We started out by making our own VT-Allrounder which is a Laser-Cut Coroplast electric airplane kit with a CNC Airfoil wing, ideal for beginners,  and the VT-Speedster which is a CNC cut Flying wing for intermediate and sport fliers.

We hope that our current efforts of making the Lasercut foamboard plane kits to India will be appreciated by Indian aeromodellors.

Great work sir.....

Its really nice to have these planes in india

Very good effort.
Wish you all the best !

Truly great efforts! 
This is exactly what our hobby needs right now! 

this is good show!going DIY even on the laser cutter is awsome. good show guys and keep it up. waiting for more on this and some videos.

Great job.

wow they are providing good kits for beginners and also great stock of depron.

Great initiative Gaurav. I was very gratified to learn that you informed FT and have all encouragement from them. So different from the Chinese who would just copy without acknowledgement!

Wish you all the best! (And yes, ordering soon )

great work sir. looking for more models.

awesome

I need a Ft Super bee model. Let me know when you can make it

Very soon ! Stay tuned.
As stated, before we release the kits we build them, mody them , fly and only once satisfied we bring them to our site.

Next up is the Nutball/Flyer/Delta .

Go ahead members, post which kit you want first, so we can prioritize what we do first..

Much appreciated. FliteTest is indeed a wonderful bunch. and they have given a great contribution to the hobby. Salute to them.  We hope that through all of my efforts through Vortex-RC.com we can make kit building fun and rewarding.

Nothing like opening a box, and converting a few sheets of foamboards into an airplane that flies incredibly well. And that too, in a matter of hours. Such a fun activity to do with friends, and family alike.

Congrats and Kudos for the commendable achievements Gaurav. 

Providing a Kit with Form board and that too laser cut to assemble right out of the box is a boon for beginners.

Waiting to lay hands on one of your kits. I need to copy your laser cutter soon before I move far away from you.  . In the meantime I know where to approach for cutting one of our parkjet plans. 

FT STORCH Will be a nice one, good flier.

Hi All,

Being a big fan of FT i had downloaded all the plans & videos however due to lack of good & suitable boards it never went beyond printed plans.
Thanks to Gaurav Sir & his efforts for bringing this wonderful opportunity to the us.
Ordered the FT-Explorer last night & got a confirmation that the same is being shipped today.
Thanks for the additional freebie Gaurav Sir :-)

Regards,
KK

Ft mini series especially the arrow and sportster would be bang on!

Quick update :
We have 2 new models available.

#1. The FT-22 Raptor Kit.

This airplane truly is a stunner. Flies beautifully and looks Epic. We have made sure this balances properly on the CG point, and have added some patriotic Tricolour decals with our kit.


More more details check it out here:

http://www.vortex-rc.com/product/ft-22-f-22-raptor-lasercut-foamboard-rc-plane-speed-build-kit/


#2. 3 Pack Swappable set.
This set includes 3 great flying airplanes: FT-Nutball, FT-Flyer and the FT-Delta. Super amazing  value at just Rs 2,250/- for the set of Three airplanes.


We have made several modifications to the original FliteTest designs to make these fly and balance correctly. We have also upgraded the wheels to plastic-foam wheels instead of the paper wheels as originally given by Flite Test.
Small accessories like Wheel Collars are part of standard equipment too !

For more information, click here :
http://www.vortex-rc.com/product/3-pack-swappable-nutball-flyer-delta/

I was waiting for long for it. Ordered one today.

Thanks ! Your F-22 shall be on its way tomorrow ! Do share pictures of build and flight !.

Amazin Work guys , all the kits are looking good . Hope to see them flying soon .

Best wishes Gaurav

Its time we added a new member to our family.

FT-Spear - Lasercut Paper laminated Foamboard Flying Wing.

http://www.vortex-rc.com/product/ft-spear/



Features a Huge battery Bay:


Smart Decals Included:


Laser Cut - Assembles in 4 hours.

Really happy to see Made In India stuff 

wishes
sahil

Good work done gauravag feeling proud to be an Indian 

Thanks all for the appreciation.

Our latest additions :

Guinea Pig



Storch



Old Fogey


For more information check out www.Vortex-RC.com
Stay updated by liking us on Facebook : www.facebook.com/vortexrc

 

Another Lovely Twin out . And yes its Swappable !



As usual Decals are included !



BTW All our kits include quality accessories - Upgraded from the original FliteTest Speed Build Kits.


For instance, we include Plastic/Foam Wheels . Original FliteTest plans include Foamboard wheels which we felt were too flimsy, and wore out very quickly. So we made it a point to give durable "real" wheels instead.

Likewise, we include nickel plated wheel collars for all landing gear equipped planes. The Original FliteTest way was to use Hot glue to retain the wheels. While that sort of works, it often came apart on the flying field, and looked ugly.
The Wheel collars are much more secure, they look good and are durable.

We hope our fellow hobbyists shall appreciate these upgrades offered on all our kits !

My FT spear bought from Vortex RC .

Thanx Gaurav Sir for providing such a beautiful and stable Model 

Vortex-RC Offering 10% discount on all Lasercut Foamboard kits.
Whats a best time to build a kit than now and also show your support to Make In India !

Use Coupon Code MadeInIndia on website www.Vortex-RC.com




Go on build a plane now !!!

Gaurav sir, I know it must have taken tremendous efforts on your part to make all those amazing kits available. But, it would be really great if you could also stock the compatible electronics for all or most of the kits.
Even if you just stock motors and servos (as ESCs and LiPos seem to be readily available), lazy bums like me won't have to go through all the other sites looking for the appropriate stuff!

Yes correct.

Thanks for your appreciation and feedback. Yes ! we are working on bringing the powerpacks - proven set of ESCs/motors. props and servos as optional extras.
Hope to start offering these by end of January.

That's great Gaurav sir!
I was about to spend an insane amount on FPV gear, but those goggles give me headaches. I'd rather wait for a month and buy all those kits instead!

Hope there'll be more build videos from local flyers then.

Great...

Yeah looking out for the RC community to make the most of our efforts . Thats the idea. Trying to finalise the right set of electronics that are cost effective yet work great.
With so many choices at hand, this is in itself a task !

Stay tuned though !

Good news everyone !

Our first Biplane is here. The Baby Blender !!!







Super amazing to fly. Quite small and can be extremely aerobatic. Does not need a big ground. Fly it low, fly it slow and close to the ground. Can do 3D as well !

We are having an amazing time with this brilliant airplane. Thanks Flite Test and hope everyone will enjoy this plane as much as we did !

Hi Gaurav sir ,

May I ask when will India get Mikey's V3-slow flyer

Sent from my Lenovo A7010a48 using Tapatalk

@Funze
Thanks for your interest. We will do the Mikey V3 Slow flyer within the next 2 months.

For now, we are focussing on improving upon and adding value to Our FliteTest lineup of Speed Build kits
We take feedback positively. Heres what has been improved and what we are working on :

-- For all our kits the Pushrods now include a Z-Bend on one side. Thanks Sukalyan Ghosh of Kolktata for pointing out that Z-bends sometimes becomes v difficult for first timers.

-- Packaging. In addition to our original packaging, we are further adding a level of bubble wrap and also double box packaging for some kits. This should really make the kits bullet proof !
Here is how we package.
All the foamboard sheets are shrinkwrapped together.
Then this package with the decals, datasheet and other accy go into a think poly bag which is sealed.
Then this goes into a bubble wrap
Which goes in a 5 ply cardboard box
which further goes into another 3 ply carboard box ( for some kits )

Hope this further improves the way people get the kits !

-- Modification to all designs.
Laser cut kits have an inherant problem. If we cut all the cut lines the parts fall out and become prone to getting lost in packaging and difficult pack and easily damaged. Earlier on some kits we used some small pieces of paper tape to hold the pieces down.
Now all designs are modified to have small retainer tabs that hold the pieces together, and yet one can easily pop them out .
always best to run the included knife through the cuts to make a clean seperation.

Also, designs modified to include extra material in the kits. ie instead of throwing the cut-away parts we keep them in the package . This keeps all sheets of the similar sizes and also protects the edges of the parts.

I shall illustrate this with a picture shortly...

Thanks all ! we keep on improving every day !!!

@gauravag,
Sir,
Great to see attention to fine points, that separate a world class product from ordinary ones.
Hope you can export to areas not serviced by FliteTest, or supply to FT itself. Or Hobbyking?
I wish you well in the new year.
Regards.

Thanks for the kind words.  One more thing.  Based on feedback,  we are doing a simple build manual for each kit.  This will have step by step illustrated build steps that one can follow to complete the build.

We have received feedback that people do not have reliable Internet access for watching videos. Also sometimes the foreign accent is difficult to catch by some. Lastly it's bothersome sometimes and prone to making mistakes to watching the build on YouTube while building.

A lot of effort will be put into doing these illustrated manuals which  will be made available in pdf form. 

All this to help see many more successful builds and people flying !!!

We now offer 14 different Laser Cut kits on our website !
From Trainers to Jets, from Biplane to Twin Motor. From FPV to Park fliers.
Do Like us on https://www.facebook.com/VortexRC/ to stay connected .
There's a lot more coming up !