You get the airplane, with the servos and engine already installed, a radio and even a flight simulator to fly this and other planes on your computer first. What the customer will still need to purchase is a field box, starter, battery, glow driver, battery tester, fuel and the usual collection of tools to go in the box.
The plane goes together so fast. You begin by opening up the hatch in the fuselage and charging the battery. Here's one of the few items that might confuse customers. In a traditional layout, the battery is located somewhere near the receiver and flight pack. To make the F-22 Raptor balance Hangar 9 had to put the battery way back in the fuselage and you don't see that in the instructions until much later when it comes to balancing the plane. It is tucked back in a hatch that is taped onto the fuselage. There was also no mention of the size of the battery which will come into play with multi-purpose field chargers.
Here's a heads up when it comes to installing the landing gear. You have to turn the fuselage over and the work bench surface might scratch it or put holes in the covering. What I did was used the Styrofoam that the radio came in as a cradle and that worked out well. The rest of the plane goes together pretty quick. The tail section is assembled using hex head screws and the wrench included. No glue! Since the engine is already installed, all that's needed to do is put the spinner and prop on, then its on to the wings.
The wings are attached to the fuselage with tubes and nylon bolts. This couldn't be easier since again, the servos are already in the wing. Here's something to consider. The builder has the option to make the flaps functional. I suggest that this is done at this point while working on the wing installation. The customer will have to purchase two additional servos and a Y-harness. This is covered later in the instructions in Section 14: Adding Flap Servos. A basic Y-harness will not work since both servos need to go up and down together so a Y-harness that has the ability to reverse one of the servos is needed. It's only a couple of bucks more that the standard harness. Travel is adjusted by a small screw on the harness. It will be important to let the customer know that they will have to adjust the travel on the radio which is simple. An instruction book for the radio is also included in the kit. I thought this would be easier than the flap adjustment set up covered in the instructions since changes can now be made on the radio.
Time to fly! With both batteries with a full charge, I fueled it up. Then one quick check to make sure the control surfaces were all moving in the right direction along with a range check. The Evolution engine turned over almost right away. I pointed the F-22 into the wind and off it went. With the wing configured like this, it will make a long takeoff roll so the pilot must be patient not to try to horse the F-22 off the ground. Once in the air, it is so docile. I gained some altitude and tried to stall it and it just noses over. After a couple of flights, I decided that it was time to kick off the training wheels. The leading edge droops are a little tough to get off. They are taped on the outside and with double stick tape inside. Now with the wing clean and flaps retracted, I took off again. A different plane, which makes it perfect for a beginner to learn on and then later transition to something a bit faster. I thought I'd play with the flaps to see what I could get the plane to do and with them down again, it just hang there. What fun! Keep in mind that with the flaps down, the plane will pitch up so it will have to be re-trimmed on the radio. This is a great set up and I sure wish I had this when I started out.