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

Quote from: satz flying on October 25, 2016, 01:02:46 PM
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..

Quote from: sanjayrai55 on October 25, 2016, 05:29:12 AM
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 )

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.

Quote from: asinghatiya on November 04, 2016, 01:16:49 PM
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