Plantraco Micro Butterfly Review

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MicroButterflyKit

When I got this  airplane in the mail, I was shocked that this little tiny thing can actually fly.  I am happy to say that this little airplane not only flew, but flew very well even outside where I tested it. Let’s go over all the pieces of this  plane.

The plane itself is constructed mainly of a carbon fiber wire for it’s fuselage and durobatic foam for it’s wings, horizontal and vertical stabilizers.  It doesn’t sound like much, but the plane is very durable even though it looks like you could and can crush it.  In normal use, it should last for years.  Just don’t step or sit on it!

MicroButterflyProfile

It’s motor is a 4mm coreless motor.  It looks like it might be the same kind of motor that would power the vibrate function in your cell phone.

MicroButterflyProp

The propeller is 32 m long and made of plastic.

The power source for the plane is a lithium polymer battery with a 5 mm bahoma connector.  This is is a magnetic connector that holds the cell on to the plane.  The only problem with this is when you crash, the battery almost always falls off.  In fact, I lost one on the first flight of the Micro Butterfly as my son was excitedly acting as a retriever and picked it up before I got there and the battery fell into the grass.

MicroButterflyBahoma

The remote is made of black plastic and holds the flight controls as well as the charge circuit for the bahoma cell.  It is pretty well constructed in almost every aspect except the control sticks themselves.  These keep falling off of mine.  Almost lost one in the grass when flying this outside.

To get ready for flight, you attach the cell to the bahoma connector on the remote.  Attaching the cell causes a tiny LED to light up while it is charging.  Once the charge cycle is complete, the LED will go out.

MicroButterflyCharge

Then you attach the battery to the plane and throw the switch to on.  Run the throttle up and down and the plane will spring to life.

MicroButterflyProp

To launch the plane, you just launch it like a paper airplane with the throttle at about 50 percent.  Then grab the remote and start flying!

Each session seems to last about 5 minutes.  I was pretty impressed with how much flight time I was able to get out of each charge. I was able to fly/crash the plane many times before the prop was not able to spin fast enough to sustain flight.  At that point,  I keep the prop running until it stops.  Pop it in the charger and about 15-20 minutes later, you are ready to fly again.

I was really impressed with this plane and the reaction I got from the neighborhood kids was incredible.  They all wanted to fly the plane!  My son Luke also was a big help retrieving the plane when Dad wrecked again.  The plane is very well constructed and after many hard landings, it still looks brand new.  The other thing that totally amazed me about the plane was the size of the rear servo.  It is so incredibly tiny that if I ever had to try and build this, I would probably buy a few extra as I’d probably lose it at least once during assembly.  Luckily this isn’t a kit so you don’t have to worry about keeping track of this servo.  The only thing that might make this better is to add some more controls, but this would make it a little more difficult to fly.  As it is, you have the throttle and the rudder and that is more than enough to fly this little plane.  This plane is not designed for stunt flying so doing loops and acrobatics are out although I imagine if you got really good you could pull off some amazing flights with this tiny plane.

As I am only one man and I couldn’t get my busy family to volunteer taking a video, below is a video Plantraco created about this amazing little plane.

The only con I can think of with this plane is price.  At $149.99 on the Plantraco website, it is a bit pricey for something that can be crushed by your foot or by accidentally sitting on it.  However, it is much less than what you would spend on a full size RC plane so this could be enough to satisfy your need for flying things.

What I liked: Small!  VERY small.  Also very durable in normal use.

What I didn’t care for: Still kind of fragile.  Could be inadvertently crushed.  Also the remote control sticks are kind of loose on my remote.  Other then the sticks, the remote is durable.

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About the Author

Joel McLaughlin
Joel is a consultant in the IT field and is located in Columbus, OH. While he loves Linux and tends to use it more than anything else, he will stoop to running closed source if it is the best tool for the job. His techno passions are Linux, Android, netbooks, GPS, podcasting and Amateur Radio.

2 Comments on "Plantraco Micro Butterfly Review"

  1. AWESOME Video. And Brave. I couldn’t see myself flying something that cost $150.00 over a river. It probably wouldn’t leave my house.

  2. Review: Plantraco Micro Butterfly http://tinyurl.com/lj536p from @iNewsApp

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