New Eflite F4 Phantom ll 80mm

[Woodcock]

Congrats on the successful maiden Russ! I Wish you many many successful flights mate.

Woody

[Aros]

Congrats Russ! Sounds like you have a fine model there. Enjoy and happy landings!

[Ron1950]

nice job russ just put mine together and all seems good just have to get the stones to take it out on a good wind day

[curlyculp]

Hey Curly, is it true a dog is the only thing that can love a fighter pilot more then they love themselves?? Congrats on the new plane mate. Break a leg!

Best Regards
Woody

It is absolutely true.

[curlyculp]

Maidened mine today. A bit more wind and a little gusty but it was right down the runway so gave it a shot. I talked about changing the stab to align it with the wing but ended up putting in a bunch of nose up trim, so will likely be 80% back towards the original setup. The field is manicured grass and was fine.

As it was gusty and a bit turbulent I left the gear down. Took off at half flaps. Flew around for a while and dropped the rest and the nose up bias I'd ball-parked was perfect. Landed great. If the wind had been lower and I'd had a couple more batteries I'd have tried it again.

[Woodcock]

Maidened mine today. A bit more wind and a little gusty but it was right down the runway so gave it a shot. I talked about changing the stab to align it with the wing but ended up putting in a bunch of nose up trim, so will likely be 80% back towards the original setup. The field is manicured grass and was fine.

As it was gusty and a bit turbulent I left the gear down. Took off at half flaps. Flew around for a while and dropped the rest and the nose up bias I'd ball-parked was perfect. Landed great. If the wind had been lower and I'd had a couple more batteries I'd have tried it again.

Congratulations on the successful maiden Curly.

Woody

[Russ]

Forgot to mention that I put two coats of water-based polyurethane, clear with satin finish. Brand is Varethane. Applied with foam brush and it left no brush marks.

Also a buddy maidemed his new F4 today but he left in his AS3X and had a good maiden and was in stabilize mode and on landing approach he put in full flaps and said the nose dropped quickly but he compensated . He has since dialed in some flaps elevator programming.

P.S. Found YouTube Maiden video

https://youtu.be/dGLuUkgHhcw

[Alpha]

Congrats on your maiden, Curly, and to your friend too, Russ!

[curlyculp]

I will eventually peel the decals and repaint the whole thing. Anyone have a link to a good source for either? I know about Calli graphics and will use them for some of the detail.

[Alpha]

I paint right over the stock decals on all of my foamies, from all brands. Eflite's waterslide decals are thin like many others, which is very convenient when it comes to painting over them. In my experience, removing decals can be tedious, and oftentimes can mar the underlying foam, creating an uneven surface if the foam cells become shorn. At that point, you'll need filler or WBPU and sanding to return the surface to a uniform level. As an example, I painted directly over this FlightLine FW-190 with its prominent serpent decal and this Freewing F-14 with its approximately sixty decals. Painting directly over all of them was quick and easy, and the end result is convincing. I'd recommend trying this approach to see if it fits your needs.

If you did want to go the route of removing the decals and refinishing the surface, I recommend checking out Chris Wolfe's excellent guide on TheRCGeek.com. He made an excellent tutorial to refinishing foamies using an FMS Mustang.

[Ron1950]

curly looks like you have a ton of down elevator in it in the pic is that the way it flew or just not adjusted for flight (like u moved it picking it up etc)

[Ron1950]

probably will need some radar help when I fly my f4 so had to put a rio in the back seat

[curlyculp]

probably will need some radar help when I fly my f4 so had to put a rio in the back seat

I assume you used the "hatch" that was built in to put the RIO in there. Is there a way to get to the front pilot other than cutting him out? I gotta paint the helmets at the very least, and might go whole new figures with the proper helmet designs.

[curlyculp]

So... playing with the stab. The attached pics who what I THOUGHT it should be, what worked at full flaps, and what I think is intended to be a reference mark....

[Ron1950]

thanks curly… have to ask ya.. did u ever fly the f4 solo ? no rio ever?

[vdanger]

I have a good story about a Phantom flying with no RIO. True story.

My good friend John was a Phantom pilot during Vietnam. One day Bob Hope and his group flew out to the carrier to do a show. Ann Margaret missed the shuttle flight. John's squadron commander ordered him to fly to the shore in his F4 and pick her up! This was the late 60's so John was only about 20 at the time and Ann was probably only a year or two older.

[vdanger]

By the way, he said she looked really good in a flight suit!

[curlyculp]

By the way, he said she looked really good in a flight suit!

Probably smelled a lot better than the average RIO too...

[Pilot.Vrf201]

Any grass op reports yet :)?

[Russ]

Curly...yes that mark on fuselage is reference point for the mid-line of the elevator...I maidened with mine a bit below that mark and had to click in about 4 clicks of down to bring her perfectly level.