For a long time, I’ve been looking for small, cheap, and lightweight RC plane. Here’s how I made one.

The Plan

My goals for the plane were :

  • So cheap that crashing is OK, so it can be used to learn RC flight and aerobatics.
  • Super simple : no autopilot, maybe gyro/stabilization but should be flyable without it.
  • Small + light : fit in a backpack to take everywhere (we now have crazy portable RC Controllers, we need matching planes !)
  • Powerful enough to have fun !
  • Bonus points for being able to glide properly / do soaring flights.

The Plane !

The plane turned out to be an amazing machine that checks almost all the boxes ! It is very lightweight and capable, costs around €30 to build and almost nothing to repair. Together with the Radiomaster Pocket Crush, it’s the perfect RC plane to carry everywhere !

Making the plane

There is a lot of information so I divided the post by topics :

Shopping list

The various parts are listed in the associated sections, but here is a quick list of the main components :