Just Shy of Greatness, But Pretty Good - XFly T-7A Red Hawk 80mm

[@D430-x4n]

I love how this looks like an F-18(one of my favorites) at a distance.

[@lordjoechu]

I am so glad you posted this plane today. I think I saw your comments at RC groups and hope you had a video out soon.

[@AL-RCjunkie]

Love the additional commentary from the filming crew, too 👍

[@sendit_rc]

I love my T-7a with over 150 flights.I slap a smc 5900 all the way to the back for 4:30 min flight. Xfly did amazing on the gear! Best Landing Gear I've Found So Far!! You do have to cycle the gear before takeoff each time.

[@TwoBrosRC]

The gear struts are definitely next-level engineering.

[@M4rkmcc21]

This is one of my favourite flying and best sounding jets I have. It flies in a way that keeps me on my toes but isn't too scary where it'll drop on every bank. Does everything scale and a little above very well. It flies very similar to the little brother which so happens to be one of the best sounding 64mm. You are right the thrust is down in comparison but the top speed isn't far behind other 80mm jets. Great new score method 👍🏾

[@miskaknapek]

great video! enjoying your detailed notes. very cool a T-7 model is out already.

[@tomheetderks9997]

Great review! I have and love the 64 mm, flies and sounds awesome especially for a sub $200 jet, so I'm not surprised this one flies well. It might be time for an upgrade..

[@stephenthomas2311]

Great review. Diggin' the added mods with comment. Best, LB

[@ParaglidingManiac]

What a beautiful plane!

[@double_0_6ix26]

love my baby version. It surprised me as looks like it could be trouble to fly (the 64mm version) but complete opposite. Not to say you can get yourself into trouble within a second, but very forgiving. I have always wanted the 80mm but a high price to pay if its not friendly to grass runways due to the gears (curse of where i live). Either way its a sexy jet 😍. Great flight demo @TwoBrosRC (Jon) 👋

[@Hype_RC]

Awesome flying display, mods, setup and review as usual Jon! I’ve been wondering about this one since it’s the closest thing out to an 80 f-18. I love xflys 70mm edf motors they’re in all my 70mm birds. Nice to see how the 80 behaves in a capable airframe. Scoring system is great too thank you for always giving us your all and improving your process!

[@userTJ39780]

This is a wonderful review format. Thanks for upgrading to this. I will definitely tune in to your new reviews!

[@TwoBrosRC]

Happy to hear, thanks!

[@jyates1396]

Love it....looking into one now. New review love it as well

[@TheSkinon]

Great flight Jon! I've got a small suggestion from a longtime subba... I reckon you should do more tutorials with the popular planes (70mm f16's, 18-viper etc), get real technical into there quirks and features, I think you'd be able to add valuable info to how they fly and different setups for different flying styles / weights, I know you do it already, but the diff setups would be awesome, especially focusing on the everyman jets heaps of us "daily" too the field. Just a thought, love ya content either way 👌

[@Bill14886]

I like your. We score system. More detailed. Thanks for taking the extra time to spell it out. I’m still dealing with getting my Viper to stay straight on the run way. I’m gunna crank up the gyro to assist rudder corrects in forward programming and see if I can get this bird to steer well on grass . Shit even on a road for that matter. Once I master the Viper 70 . Time to move up into a 80mm F16 Thunderbird. 😊

[@rafaeltorres2886]

You guys did a great job of talking me out of this plane, Ill pass not good design after all ,I dont plan on modifing anything, poor landing gear design. Thanks for your honesty.

[@TwoBrosRC]

Didn't want to talk anyone out of it, just didn't want to gloss over the issues it has.

[@noobiekush]

Was Waiting for this one

[@AL-RCjunkie]

Might not Cobra well, or at all. But it does a damn fine cartwheel! That qualifies as "aerobatic enough" for me😊👍

[@OregunAdventure]

Was searching all day yesterday for a decent budget servo upgrade for my super cub. Just ordered the servos from your link! Thanks!

[@TwoBrosRC]

Which servos did you go with, and what Super Cub was it?

[@OregunAdventure]

@@TwoBrosRC I ordered the exact ones in the link. The 9g agfrc metal gear. They’ll go in my FMS super cub 1300.

[@RaGeRC]

One of my favorite planes I have in my hangar! I did notice with mine I had to cycle my gear if they were already down when powered on. Didn't have that gear door issue you had they just wouldn't go up at all until I flicked the switch A couple times. Also I liked mine with flapperons full at landing. For me the plane would bounce a lot when I came in to fast so getting it slow(wings level) for the landing worked best for me.(I fly off grass) Overall an awesome plane other than the stock servos seemed to move pretty slow. I took it out on a really cold day once and the servos were barely moving! I honestly think they're pretty weak. I had one of the gear door servos fail when I got it and was first programming the plane. It spun 180° the opposite direction when the plane was just sitting there powered on. Other than that it's a pretty fun easy and forgiving plane to fly for its size I would say.

[@TwoBrosRC]

The gear door issue is unfortunate, but hopefully they'll fix it at some point. The hard plastic wheels definitely don't help with bouncing, either.

[@FredWeaver-b3k]

I saw on one of the other RC channels that this jet also has a reverse for the motor to help stop it for shorter roll outs on landing.

[@TwoBrosRC]

We didn't have the channels for that, so we opted for differential stabilators and flaperons, which tend to be significantly more useful in general.

[@neilhands1708]

I've tried the reverse thrust, it's pretty weak TBH, ended up using using the channel for tailerons and flaperons instead as I didn't feel the need for the reverse thrust after trying it. It will slow down for alnding with a bit of practice, bur keep the power on all the way to the ground or it will drop short of the runway.

[@nirlachman007]

Great review Jon! I really like your new review system. I’m not sure that the flight time for 5+ mins is so fair, after all with a solid 4000-5000mah battery, it’s almost impossible to reach 5 mins :) (at least in my experience). 4 mins plus for those jet is something I would take always!

[@TwoBrosRC]

Think of it as subtle pressure on manufacturers to make more efficient jets that reach 5+ minutes 😉

[@nirlachman007]

@@TwoBrosRC amen to that 😉

[@tomheetderks9997]

@@TwoBrosRC Getting 5 min in Banana Hobby baltic bee 64mm L-39 with smc 6s 3600 HV -:) But after the 10 paragraph angry tirade, I don't see you buying from BH anytime soon, haha..

[@daxdadog]

Could the thrust be increased with a change to the nozzle size? In other words...how does the fan swept area compare to the nozzle area?

[@TwoBrosRC]

That's a question better asked on RC Groups - Kallend would probably know the answer.

[@RichardMiller-oq3zo]

Hi Jon, been watching your channel for a while now and you have been such a massive inspiration for me! Really appreciate your hard work and commitment to the hobby! I’ve recently got the Xfly t7-a and was wondering if the stock esc will handle high voltage Lipo. It’s been a bit tricky in the past getting decent batteries here in the UK, but at last have found a suitable with decent batteries. I’m tempted with the Hv but don’t want to blow the esc! Hope you can shed some light! Regards Richard 😎

[@TwoBrosRC]

Most of the flying here was on SMC HV batteries, pretty sure we included a shot of it! The ESC is stock in our jet and handled it perfectly.

[@RichardMiller-oq3zo]

@@TwoBrosRC Thanks for the response! And yes you are right, you did mention the HV smc in the video my apologies! Anyway going to give the GNB hv a go! Cheers Richard 👍🏻

[@lars9966]

great vid

[@skosh25]

Interesting...I've not had that nose gear issue with mine yet.

[@TwoBrosRC]

Are you sure? Several other people have reported the same issue. Try powering on the jet with its gear dropped, then see if you can move the nose door. If you can, that's the problem.

[@skosh25]

@@TwoBrosRC I regularly leave it on its gear between flights. I’m using an ag-61 steering gyro. Perhaps that’s why.

[@vichetdragoncars3186]

So cool

[@davidgerlach1132]

Beautiful EDF, I'm on the fence. At 2:00, to your thrust question, with the same motor, are you speaking to the difference in power/energy needed to push a 12-blade ducted fan opposed to a 9-blade ducted fan? Having said that, you recommend a 9-Blade Ducted Fan?

[@TwoBrosRC]

9 blade fans are faster but lack low end thrust. The stock motor is a better choice for most kinds of flying.

[@davidgerlach1132]

​@@TwoBrosRC I'm curious as to if you have an opinion, or and comments on the similar class FMS EDF Jet 80mm BAE Hawk? I like this Red Hawk, a solid 4/5.

[@stainjah]

I have te 64 mm as a hand launch. And that one also sounds amazing compared to other 64mm. Is it possible to program in flaperons on these?

[@TwoBrosRC]

We demoed flaperons on this jet several times. ;)

[@stainjah]

@@TwoBrosRC i asked bsforw i watcjed the whole thing :p is it done only by programming or do i need to mosify inside the plane?

[@TwoBrosRC]

It's better to ask on Discord so your follow-up messages don't get lost in the YT comment void: bit.ly/TBRCDiscord

[@IceMan2035]

Does all the modification make it worth flying? I have modified most of my EDF planes and jets. I don't own too many bc I like gas and turbine jets. I do have quite a a few SMC batteries from 2s to 7s the 2s work great in my Skymaster jets.

[@TwoBrosRC]

It's worth flying mods, we just did ours to get it to high alpha.

[@parodyverse]

Hey Jon, I like the new rating system at the end of the video. what would rate this jet on the difficulty scale?

[@TwoBrosRC]

Happy to hear you're enjoying it! Difficulty is related to pilot skill. It's not particularly hard for us to fly, but a newer pilot or one who's less confident with their skills would probably want to wait a bit before moving up to this jet.

[@parodyverse]

@@TwoBrosRCthanks for your reply. Also, are you guys planning on flying the Flexjet TV? I’d love to see how you mod it and how long you can hold the high alphas. Keep up the great flights, they are fun to watch.

[@TwoBrosRC]

If it's ever in stock when we remember that it's a thing someone can buy, yeah, it'd be neat to have!

[@walharbay9383]

Great flying......she looks good.....to bad you did not love it....

[@TwoBrosRC]

Don't get us wrong, it's a great jet. It just had a few issues to be aware of. This is why we moved to a standardized scoring system so we can hold each plane accountable with a very specific set of criteria.

[@Lukas_Mh]

Hi Jon, I wanted to ask you if the eflite F-16 80mm is made by Fms bcs fms has a f16 80mm that looks the same as the eflite? Best regards Lukas

[@TwoBrosRC]

It is.

[@Lukas_Mh]

Ok thanks for your answer 👍🏻​@@TwoBrosRC

[@kianwong4625]

Hi john -was looking forward to a new video. Can i ask you if you placed gyro RX in front of the battery near the nose. ? That’s of course if you used one. Or does the gyro RX neeed to be near CG? Thanks kian

[@TwoBrosRC]

Look closely at 1:30 and you'll see where the receiver with its integrated gyro is placed.

[@kianwong4625]

Thanks john. Appreciate it @@TwoBrosRC

[@bradleyhuebner68]

I work on this program at Boeing. It doesn't seem like your model has speed breaks. Also on landing our pilots ride a wheelie and let's the jet set itself down

[@TwoBrosRC]

No brakes, and aerodynamic braking is not easy with mode aircraft.

[@IanChen-m1o]

I thought there will be some flat spin or cobra spin 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@TwoBrosRC]

Nah, the CG isn't far enough back for that.

[@IanChen-m1o]

@@TwoBrosRC why is the better sound the lower thrust?

[@TwoBrosRC]

It usually means air is exiting slower than it should be, so you're hearing more of the air and less of the motor. Sounds great, but doesn't provide as much thrust as if it were optimized. There may be an explanation that's more accurate, but this has been our experience with all jets that sound amazing.