Specifications:
Name: Twin Star II
Manufacturer: Multiplex
Type of product: Model Kit
Airplane type: Trainer
For: Beginner to intermediate pilots
Flying weight: ~1500 g (53 oz)
Length: 1085 mm (43”)
Wingspan: 1420 mm (56”)
Wing area: 43 dm² (4.7 sq. ft.)
Wing loading: ~35 g/dm² (11.5 oz./sq. ft.)
Prop: 2 x 5*4” Included
Motor: 2 x Permax Speed 400 Included
Servos: 4 ~9-20g servos
CG: 85 mm from the leading edge of the wing
First impressions:
This thing is massive! It feels so much bigger and robust than the Easy Star, even if the difference in wingspan is only 5 cm. I like the simplicity of the design and lines of this airplane, it’s really appealing to me.
The build:
The complete build log of the Twin Star can be found here.
The build was a joy, just as simple as the Easy Star. The manual is very detailed and easy to follow. The build can easily be done in a few hours. The wings on the Twin Star are separable just like on ones on the Easy Star, but are screwed down on top of the fuselage rather than interlocked inside of it. Since this model has both a motor and a servo in each wing you have a few connectors to hook up every time you want to fly. I would have liked a better solution for this, like on the Blizzard where the connectors automatically hooks together when you mount the wing.
I needed to make modification to the motor mounts to make my brushless motors fit. Read more about it in the build log.
If you use a motor with a smaller diameter than me you don’t need to do this modification.
I also had to modify the Super Simple 30A ESC’s to work with my 3s A123 pack. This was nothing fancy, just adding a 1uF capacitor and a 100K resistor to the PCB.
I added a few stripes of monokote to make it more visible.
Motor: 2 x TP2409-12D 1600kV motors
ESC: 2 x 30A SuperSimple ESC’s modified
Battery: 3s A123
Servos: 4 x HXT900
Prop: 2 x 8*4DD GWS
Power: [email protected] = 201W (Measured during flight) (313W Peak static)
All up weight: 1199 grams
Flying:
Launching the Twin Star is super easy, just full throttle and it struggles to get out of your hand, just toss it ever so gently and of it goes. The Twin Star flies like a dream. It is stable and easy to maneuver but it is also capable of aerobatics. In windy weather, it’s super stable, with much less wing rocking than the Easy Star. The ailerons helps a lot when flying in extreme winds and with the combination of rudder it’s a lot of fun flying both in a dead calm or a high wind. It is so much fun doing harriers (hanging still in the wind).
The Twin Star is fully capable of doing advanced aerobatics and with some throttle management it easy to make it look scale like. The speed envelope is super wide and stall speed is extremely low, when it does stall it’s very gentle and easy to manage. The Twin Star does glide quite well, not quite as well as the Easy Star, but that is hardly surprising considering the weight difference. If this airplane has any bad habits I have not managed to find them, it flies like a dream.
I fly my Twin Star with the same amount of power as my Easy Star, and the Twin Star feels more powerful, in spite of the fact that it weights about 500 grams more. I am planning to get a bigger set of props with more pitch when I start FPV flying this airplane but for the moment I don’t feel any need for more speed nor thrust.
The Twin Star is the perfect step up from the Easy Star in my opinion, but for a total beginner I still would recommend the Easy Star because of its simplicity. Less controls to confuse and less parts to break in a crash.
Flight time is about 15 minutes of mixed flying on my setup.
The lifting capabilities of the Twin Star is enormous! It can carry all my FPV gear without me even noticing a difference. There is a lot more room inside of the fuselage compared to the Easy Star and another bonus while FPV flying is the awesome view of the motors and propellers when looking to the right or left.
Landing:
Landing is as easy as they can be, just glide it in and put it down. If you want even shorter landings you can set up the ailerons as either flaps or spoilers which both works great with this airplane.
Here is a video of the Twin Star II in action:
Conclusion:
This is the best airplane I have flown so far! It’s so versatile, fly slow or fast, cruise around or do crazy aerobatics, take it up to heights and glide or fly crazy low, fly in howling winds or a dead calm. The list can be made very long. I really like the look of it too. The Elapor makes it crash resilient and easy to fix. The extra room in the fuselage is a bonus when FPV flying. The only thing I wish for is a good connector plate for the wing connectors, other than that I would not change anything on this airplane.
“The best airplane I have flown so far!”
