Eflite 70mm T-Bird F-16

[ZCOL]

Andrew_flyguy I sent you a pm with photos of the stock fuselage set up. Let me know if you need any others

[Rcfiddy1]

Just got to maiden mine today and wow.....it’s great. The power is what it should be. My fw f16 hp version is not even close to this plane. So it’s off to the classifieds for the freewing.

[bmoranx]

I am going to have to do some carving so that I can move the battery aft to get an acceptable CG location. With that said, clearly I will have to relocate the receiver. What did you use to secure the AS3x receiver? Double sided 3M tape, silicone adhesive etc...? Is the receiver sensitive to mounting other than the direction it is pointed in?

[F22trainer]

I am going to have to do some carving so that I can move the battery aft to get an acceptable CG location. With that said, clearly I will have to relocate the receiver. What did you use to secure the AS3x receiver? Double sided 3M tape, silicone adhesive etc...? Is the receiver sensitive to mounting other than the direction it is pointed in?

That should not be necessary. Every one I have seen flies right out of the box...especially the BNF version, if you are using the recommended battery. Might want to make sure you are checking with the gear in the recommended position - I believe DOWN.

[Drahcir]

Has anyone compared the eflite f16 vs the inrunner freewing version? Are they comparable in performance. In the eflite video it climbed vertically shortly after takeoff, can the fw inrunner do that?

[bmoranx]

I flew with the battery all the way back initially. My 60c 4400 battery weighs in at 652 grams. Aircraft quite nose heavy but it still flew. I can only assume that this was due in part to the AS3X gyro system. The airplane was difficult (almost impossible) to fly high alpha maneuvers and took a lot or runway to get airborne because of the forward CG. After I did some foam carving and extended the battery tray, I was able to obtain a 100mm CG balance point which is right in the middle of the 90-110 range. This was measured with the gear down per the manual. At 100mm, I still have a small amount of rearward travel that allows for a 108mm CG but my personal preference is to leave it at 100mm as it seems to fly really well there.

Yes I could have bought new lighter and smaller capacity batteries. I didn’t see a reason to because I have a dozen of these batteries laying around for my Goblin 500 and 700 helicopters. Removing foam is free, batteries are expensive. None the less, the minor mod was easy, worked well, and changed the flying characteristics for the better. I hope this helps others with heavy batteries and CG issues.

[JayP]

Apparently, with an ESC upgrade, this motor/fan will handle 8s.

Watch "On The Fly: E-flite F-16 8s" on YouTube https://youtu.be/UOML_AEc_bM

Makes me want one even more, definitely on the top of my 'Need to buy' list!

[adb2@suddenlink.net]

I flew with the battery all the way back initially. My 60c 4400 battery weighs in at 652 grams. Aircraft quite nose heavy but it still flew. I can only assume that this was due in part to the AS3X gyro system. The airplane was difficult (almost impossible) to fly high alpha maneuvers and took a lot or runway to get airborne because of the forward CG. After I did some foam carving and extended the battery tray, I was able to obtain a 100mm CG balance point which is right in the middle of the 90-110 range. This was measured with the gear down per the manual. At 100mm, I still have a small amount of rearward travel that allows for a 108mm CG but my personal preference is to leave it at 100mm as it seems to fly really well there.

Yes I could have bought new lighter and smaller capacity batteries. I didn’t see a reason to because I have a dozen of these batteries laying around for my Goblin 500 and 700 helicopters. Removing foam is free, batteries are expensive. None the less, the minor mod was easy, worked well, and changed the flying characteristics for the better. I hope this helps others with heavy batteries and CG issues.

I experienced almost exactly the same thing. Getting the cg back to 100 mm and now it fies well. Now it does high alpha fairly well.

[JamesonC]

Apparently, with an ESC upgrade, this motor/fan will handle 8s.

Watch "On The Fly: E-flite F-16 8s" on YouTube https://youtu.be/UOML_AEc_bM

Makes me want one even more, definitely on the top of my 'Need to buy' list!

That is some impressive flying from Ali!! :eyeswide

[JayP]

For sure. He's got a few videos of this one out, one where he flies with a 7000mah 6s pack. It still flew really well despite the extra weight.

[Plane Addicted]

ZCOL, how did you manage to get the CG right as called out in the manual? At first I had to add 48g of ballast to the tail cone to make it balance with a 6S 3300!! Then I got to carving, relocating the battery tray 3" back (as far as I possibly could without obstructing the main intake), moving the receiver (I got the BNF version) to the front of the battery bay, extending the ESC leads, and running servo lead extensions to the new receiver position.
EVEN NOW the battery needs to be all the way back on this relocated battery try to achieve the CG called out in the manual. But hey... at least I didn't need to add any weight! :)

Thanks for the pictures. I am trying to balance mine with a 6s 3700 and definitely need to do this to get it in the cg range. How did you cut the foam where the receiver sits normally? What kind of glue did you use to glue down the new plywood battery plate? What thickness of plywood did you use for the new plate?

Thanks,

[andrew_flyguy]

Thanks for the pictures. I am trying to balance mine with a 6s 3700 and definitely need to do this to get it in the cg range. How did you cut the foam where the receiver sits normally? What kind of glue did you use to glue down the new plywood battery plate? What thickness of plywood did you use for the new plate?

Thanks,

Glad they're helpful! I used a snap blade fully extended to carve out the foam and used 30 min epoxy to glue relocated plywood battery tray. The plywood came in the airplane stock. :Cool:

[vduniec]

The U.S. Air Force tested the theory of a dedicated Close Air Support (CAS) version of the F-16 in the 1980’s. A squadron at Nellis AFB wear painted in the Euro 1 scheme similar to the A-10’s during that time. An Air National Guard squadron, the 174th out of Syracuse, NY, even traded their A-10’s for F-16’s to further evaluate the concept. The pilots would wear a patch saying, “Fast ass CAS.” Their planes retained the standard gray camouflage.

This repaint is of one of the Nellis birds. I added the Jet Hangar hobbies pilot figure and reduced the width of the F-22 ejection seat .stl file and printed it on my 3D printer. The wing tanks are from the Freewing A-10 64mm mounted with the Freewing weapons attachment hardware. I’m thinking about adding a centerline tank as well as some AGM-64’s on the outboard wing stations. I also have a centerburner installed.

[Cchrissyv1]

I am about to add this plane to my hangar and I am 100% going to use a 6S 4000mAh battery based on the reviews from some of the other pilots out there. What I want to ask is do any of you have experience with RCJetworx or Roaring top 6S LiPo's? I have used G Force batteries for the longest time, never had any issues with those batteries as they seem to have held up over time. But, never went past 4S with G Force, so I am exploring other options. Any feedback is much appreciated.

[ICM]

I use 6s 4000/4500/5000 Roaring Tops from RCjetwerx in some of my larger warbirds and they've been fine so far. However, you might want to check this thread: https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...st-Comparisons. The battery guru, MSGUY, isn't crazy about them. Currently he favors SMC and likes Liperior which are comparatively cheap. I have some 3s and 4s Liperiors and they've been great.

[Cchrissyv1]

I use 6s 4000/4500/5000 Roaring Tops from RCjetwerx in some of my larger warbirds and they've been fine so far. However, you might want to check this thread: https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...st-Comparisons. The battery guru, MSGUY, isn't crazy about them. Currently he favors SMC and likes Liperior which are comparatively cheap. I have some 3s and 4s Liperiors and they've been great.

Thank you for this. I have been searching this forum as well as RCGroups for some LiPo feedback and this will definitely help. Someone on one of these forums once told me, "you get what you pay for." Which has lead me to not fall into the trap of skimping out on quality batteries due to their cheaper price - which I have done in the past.

[ICM]

Check out this thread as well: https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...LOW-prices-too

[johnsctt78]

this is a work in progress on the e flite thunderbird 70mm, installed a spektrum smart ESC and moved the rec to front. using a 3300 6S 50C