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I said that I was not going to write about unpacking the RVJET but I think that there is a lot in the box to be excited about.  I will disclose that I personally have a RVJET and the one that I am unpacking is sponsored to us from Range Video.  The company that had the RVJET commissioned for design and manufacturing.  The Swedish engineering team that designed the RVJET are second to none.

In the first picture you can see that the RVJET is packed nicely in the carton.  The carton can be used as a handy carrying case as the RVJET breaks down for transport.  I do not recommend throwing away the box.  The little bits like carbons stiffeners and control rods are inside the carbon spars you see on top.  Don't let your kids play swords with the spars.  Or at least not until you have properly unpacked them.

These are the wings and the extensions.  On my first build I glued the sections together.  This build we will make plugs on either side of the extensions so that we can fly with them in either a short or long wing configuration.  This also makes the wings and fuselage pack just the same as shipping.  This will come in handy.  I will show a picture below of the plane packed as if were ready to go to or from the field.  The foam has a good feel to it and is manufactured to tight tolerances.  The entire package is obvious that pride went into the providing something of quality and value.

This is the fuselage.  It is cradled nicely.  This kit comes in a lot of pieces.  The fuselage has a top with lid, and a bottom with two panels on the bottom to be glued after servo extensions are in place.  We are going to be doing some cool hot iron grooves to place radio equipment out on the wings.  This will be in subsequent build blogs.  Finally their are two vertical fins on either side that complete the fuselage.  In the top left hand side of this picture you can see the foam nose cone.  For your maiden flights it is wise to use the foam cone instead of the camera gimbal while you are trimming out the plane.  This is especially recommended if you are just moving into wings or are otherwise inexperienced.  

I also would like to add with this picture that you can see the black gimbal housing and three clear domes.  We will talk more about the domes when I blog about the gimbal.  We will give the camera setup its own blog post for sure.

This to me is where it really gets exciting.  You open the lid and you realize that it is not all foam.  inside the fuselage there is a smorgasbord of plastic and metal parts.  It is all packed well and if you order other parts they are great about placing placing what they can in the box so that you are not paying for extra shipping of additional packing.  So if you ordered the power pack, OSD or other FPV equipment, do not throw out any packing material without first unfolding it.  You might find yourself wondering where the rest of your order is and realizing that the trash guy just hauled off your new AV transmitter.

All of the items in the picture except the red anti-vibration kit are what come standard with the RVJET.  The plane is a complete system.  I think this is what sets the RVJET apart from other companies "complete" set up.  The kit has all the parts to setup the camera gimbal in three complete configurations, four if you count that the GoPro set has the parts for all three generations of the HD Camera.  The mini camera setup can be configured in either pan/tilt or tilt/pan.  We will get into that in the gimbal blog.  All the linkages for the different configurations and the control horns and connections are included.  The servo extensions for the wing are in the box and all the servos that you need for the gimbal and wings are in the package.  

I think this makes it an incredible value at $250.  For $99 more you get the power pack.  I regret that I do not have a picture of the power pack from my first build.  I will provide some pictures as soon as I get the two for these planes.  The powerpack has the motor, 65A esc, spinner, carbon fiber prop, and prop stop to avoid over folding.  That is a complete kit with everything but the Radio Equipment, Glue and Batteries to get you in the air.  The plane and the parts were extensively tested for quality, price, and ability to perform.  There is not many other planes out there and certainly not with a camera gimbal that I would recommend to purchase the stock equipment.  These are relabeled quality parts.  The servos are all metal gear and the motor and speed control are commonly available RC parts that can be bought elsewhere not complete with spinner and carbon fiber prop for $99.

This picture are the parts that would make the finished air frame packed back into the box.  It will transport nicely to and from the field this way.  I do not recommend throwing away the box when you get the plane out.  I am personally thinking about Rhino lining the exterior of the box to make a rugged water proof shipping case out of the box.  If I do it will be in a later blog.

IN conclusion the first impressions of opening the box are the same as the first RVJET that I ordered.  We are a sponsored team but we chose this air frame because of the extensive testing that it underwent before it went to market.  Having already owned and flown an RVJET I was already a happy customer.  There are a few things that we will do to make our build go a little smoother and I think there are few areas of improvement that we can discuss.  Overall though I would give Range Video and the design team an A+ for this kit.  I think this wing is the standard by which other wings should be judged.  Thank you Range Video for sponsoring the Aerial Vista Challenge Team in the 2014 Wildlife Conservation UAV Challenge.  Thank you again for reading our blog.  I hope that you all have a wonderful day and Happy Flying.