DW Hobby SE5.A 800mm Electric Airplane Bundle

This plane is going together very smoothly.
Can’t wait to fly it.

This plane is perfect for beginners to fly. But to build it, you need a lot of experience. I've been building airplanes for over 46 years and this airplane was not easy to build. Some of the plywood parts are very fragile. And the Covering, I had to use a heat gun to set it in place. Other than that it's beautiful airplane when the build is finished.

This plane flies quite nicely and looks great in the air. Construction is another matter. The laser cut wood parts fit nicely with minimal sanding and the hardware is fine. There are some areas of contention to address. 1. The instructions leave a bit to be desired. More written instructions would be nice as the photos can leave a few details unexplained. Perhaps a more complete description could be made available as an online PDF. 2. The foam skin fits well though care should be taken to dry fit and double check check before applying the adhesive. I used the 3M super 77 spray adhesive as shown in the photos. Initial bond is good, but the foam will pull away after a day or so. Fortunately the foam accepts regular CA. I suggest using it on all skin seems to insure a complete bond. 3. Bending the wing skins to the tight radius of the leading edge is problematic. I had to carefully cut 3 V grooves in the wing skins inside to reduce the thickness and allow the tight curve. 4. No mention is made as to best location for placement of electronics and it should be noted that a Y servo extension is a good idea for the ailerons. The fuselage holes will have to be enlarged to accommodate the connectors on the Y extension. 5. I strongly suggest adding some cool holes in the firewall and adding a barrier between the motor and battery. This will prevent the battery from possibly moving forward and rubbing against the motor and burning it out (don’t ask how I know this). 6. If you want to add a battery strap do so before skinning the fuselage as the battery compartment is not roomy. The instructions make no mention of any of this. As a side note the plane flies nicely on the usual 3s-2200 battery but it’s a close fit, minimum hook and loop is recommended. There are probably other small quirks that should be noted but I believe I’ve covered the big ones. I can recommend this plane, not for the inexperienced. I hope this is helpful.

This is not a beginners kit. Wing ribs and the fuselage structure are all made from very thin, very soft, fragile parks. The parts are well cut, but aligning the fuselage bulkheads to glue the fuselage together requires some force to get things aligned. I found it quite easy to break several bulkheads and they broke into multiple pieces, which were very difficult to glue back together, due to the thinness of the "plywood".
I liked the foam covering which is already painted and the plane looks nice, but it required a lot of skill to glue on the two foam pieces for the fuselage and there was some misalignment.

I like the looks of the plane, but would not buy it if I knew how hard is to assemble. I would go for the PNP version if there is one, and avoid assembly.