SPORT CUB 500

David Ashby tests a feature-packed ready-to-fly ultra-micro cub that isn't afraid of a breeze

- David Ashby

It says EPP foam on the box, but Sonic's new ultra-micro release uses EPO foam, the stuff with the smoother surface, the expanded polyolephin we've come to know and fly over the last 20 years. Nicely finished it is too; they've achieved a very smooth finish with nicely defined paint masking.

The Sport Cub 500 is a full-house, four-channel machine supplied with a compact four-channel 2.4GHz transmitter, a 1S LiPo cell, and a USB charge lead. Thoughtfully, there's a spare prop too and a user manual. The frequency protocol is proprietary, by the way, so your regular Tx won't be compatible and can have a break when this one flies.

Supplied ready-to-fly, assembly can be ignored as there's nothing to trouble you find four AA cells for the transmitter, charge the LiPo battery for a few hours and you're good to go. The charge lead's LED indicates when that task is done.

Trim pushers surround the main Tx sticks, but the control surface pushrods have arc-shaped sections so mechanical adjustments can also be made.

CLEVER BITS

Inside there's a combined ESC/Rx/gyro board that neatly supports two regular sub-micro servos for rudder and elevator. A separate aileron servo moves the wing bits. RTF models in this price range rarely come with auto-stabilisation and never with the facility to switch the feature on and off. But this Cub does both, the ‘assist’ allocated to a three-position switch where selecting ‘Manual’ turns it off, ‘Midd’ limits the bank angle, while ‘Beginner’ increases the banking limitation still further.