Flex Innovations F-100 Thunderbird, 90mm

[T-CAT]

Thanks. Hate Facebook, but will make an exception for this...:)

Or message him on his YouTube channel. Maybe he'll answer there as well.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZNEk0kfvF1Sw32lZf1mudg

[pullupnow]

Mine shipped.. be here Friday

[tab28682]

The F-100 has arrived. Overall, very impressed. A great looking model. Have had a burning desire for a good F-100 for years and this fills the need!

I have it assembled and have tested the power system and the sequenced retracts. All in good shape. Have not yet hooked the RX up to the Aura and will be doing that tonight. The fan sounded and felt balanced and sweet.

Paint and foam is very good, right up there with FW and FMS. Better than my Flex Cypher VTOL.
All basic decals are applied. With the SEA scheme, you get the choice of four different aircraft markings and you do the tail and nose and other special markings yourself.
Oversize panel lines, but that is unfortunately common in scale foam aircraft. These seem a little larger than FW applies.
Decals were done fairly well, with only 4-5 small ones applied crooked out of dozens.
Quality linkages and hardware.

Assembly is as easy as we expect these days. The only glue joints are the wing fences.

As we get to the small issues, it is worth remembering that every aircraft is a large cloud of compromises flying in close formation...:)

Very minor nit pics:

-The ESC was not connected to the motor. Not a real problem for me, as I usually disconnect the bullets and tape the connections.
-The rudder hinges had an offset that put the hinge line area of the rudder on the left side about 1/8" out from the side of fin. Was able to massage the hinges in the foam enough to make the rudder line up.
-There were a number of small glue smears under the paint, a few more than any of my FW jets.
-The cockpit "floor" is raised above the canopy glass line. They were leaving some battery space at the rear area of the hatch, but the tub could deeper in front of the seat. To be fair, the cockpit floor to hatch bottom area is only about 1.125" thick. so some of this was due to structural strength issues Could be modded with some thin ply.
-They put a midget in the cockpit. He needs to be about 50% larger, with a shorter upper torso.

Hope to maiden tomorrow.

The pic shows the model assembled except for fences, pitot tube and refueling boom. the other pic shows the unusual cockpit treatment and space saving pilot.

[T-CAT]

That is a great first-look report. Let us know how it flies, positives and negatives, any idiosyncrasies encountered. If I ever get one, it would be in the Thunderbirds livery, out of personal preference, but I love both schemes they chose.

[Rosytime]

I put two flights on mine today. It flew right out of the box with just a little down trim. Flew both flights at around half throttle with no problem. I will have to add a little down elevator with the flaps deployed since it balloons when they are deployed. People noted how quiet it is and I agree. There was a bit of a crosswind and gusty winds for both flights but the Aura worked well and you could see it keeping the jet stable. I'm using a 5500 mah Roaring Top and the first flight was for a little over 3 minutes and it landed with 42% in the battery. The second flight I had the timer set at 3 minutes and after 3 go-arounds I landed for a total of 4:30 with 16% left. The reason for the go-arounds is that when I approached I didn't have the nose high enough and the nose gear hit first and cause the dreaded kangaroo hop. Luckily the jet has plenty of power to fly out of it. The third approach was the charm. I realize that this F-100 has a scale stance which is nose high. You will have to hold the nose higher than most sport jets to hit the mains first. My first landing had 3 hops but the gear held up well. I can't wait to put some flights on it.
A side note, I fly Futaba and had to reverse the gear switch. The gear sequencer is set up so that when the nose gear is up, it shuts off the nose wheel steering servo. You will have to go to mixes in the Aura and switch that operation or you will get the field like i did and find out the nose wheel doesn't steer when the gear is down.

[tab28682]

Thanks for the flight report, Rosytime.

I am using Spektrum with an AR8010. No nose gear sequencing issues.

I noticed that the amount of elevator/flap compensation set up in the Aura was quite small. Not surprised you needed a little more.

The Aura was plug and play, as advertised in the instructions. I spent some time getting good control surface positions without subtrim.

Mine is finished except for the scale wing fences. Will add those after I fly it tomorrow.

Another nice feature I forgot to mention is the Mylar thrust tube. Very clean.

Will maiden on some HRB 5000 packs I have ready,or on a RT 5000 70c.

[Alpha]

Thanks for sharing your setup tips and flight report, Rosytime ! Best of luck to you, Tab, I hope to see more of these birds in the air.

[T-CAT]

I wonder what manufacturers create some Flex parts and airframes. For example, the EDF that is being used in this F-100 (and appears to be used in some other jets) looks like the same one Taft Hobby uses.

[Rosytime]

I put two more flights in today and the flap mix is perfect. I put about 3mm of down and it seems perfect. The mix was done in the radio. It was gusty and a slight crosswind today while flying. On the first flight the jet seemed to be getting bounced around. After landing I noticed the Aura switch was in mode 1, no gyro. The second flight was in mode 2 and it flew much better and was locked in. A few loops and ailerons rolls were done. Of course the landings again were not so great since I have to get the right amount of throttle to keep the nose high and not stall the jet. Since this jet has a nose high stance on level ground, you have to put more up angle of attack when landing to keep from hitting the nose wheel first. I'm working on finding that sweet spot. Bouncy landings are not a recommended way to land. Good thing the gear is stout.

[Dwalkerp47]

Guys, will the Flex F-100 fly off a well manicured grass runway?

[Rosytime]

I don't see why not. It has plenty of power and the takeoff flaps work well.

[tab28682]

I wrote this earlier today.....


Sitting in the shade cooling off after the first flight, still smiling!

Flying with some friends up at the Texoma RC club field, near Sherman, TX today, about 80 miles from home base.

All was quite uneventful for a first day out with a new model.

Bolted the wings on, installed the HRB 50c 5000, did a control check and a gyro response check in all three Aura modes. All worked as advertised. The Aura in the F-100 is definitely super-easy plug and play with Spektrum. On my DX9, I used switch B for the Aura. It defaulted to mode 3 (high rate/advanced mode) being towards the pilot, mode 2 (low rate) is in the middle and mode 1 (gyro off) was away from the pilot. By the way, first time Aura user here. Had never touched one before.

Did a multi-aspect range check on the model with the AR8010 installed. All good.

Wind was about 3-4 mph out of the east, light crosswind.

Takeoff was uneventful using half flaps. Good acceleration. Great sound in the air.

Feels very slippery/low drag.

Stayed in mode 2 for most of the flight, with one lap in mode 3. Trim was very good, needed a whisper of down and left roll. Felt very locked in.

Felt fantastic in the air. The only thing I plan on changing is the pitch response. The default pitch setting is just a little more active than I prefer. Will need to program in a just a bit more expo In the elevator for my personal taste. Felt perfect to me in roll and yaw.

Did a loop, two rolls and a four point roll, and a number of low and fast passes and a low and slow flyby.

Timer for landing sounded. Slowed down, gear down and then full flaps on downwind. I found that if you slow down, the flap pitch effect is almost unnoticeable when the flaps go down, using the default Aura settings.

Eased down final with a couple of clicks of throttle and went to idle in ground effect. Settled down mains first without a bounce. I was a touch fast and it rolled out about 250 feet in the near calm conditions.

It is a keeper! Great presence in the air. After watching mine fly, Woody Woods, a long time flying buddy from the North Dallas RC Club, hauled out his smart phone and ordered one on the spot.....
Your welcome, Flex...

My F-100 itch is well scratched, at last!

More later. Going home soon to cool off.

[tab28682]

There are some reports over at the other place that the fan unit is hitting the battery pretty hard for the power the unit is making.. I have not done any measurements yet, but my pack was a little warmer than expected after the flight. Bears some more investigation.

[krakenreleaser]

Flex F-100D bone stock flight video. Decent view of its vertical capabilities, speed, and overall maneuverability. Using a 6s HRB 5000. Setup per manual. I love it.

Thanks tailskid for taking the video.

https://youtu.be/lxtJ89x4EmE

[xviper]

Flex F-100D bone stock flight video. Decent view of its vertical capabilities, speed, and overall maneuverability. Using a 6s HRB 5000. Setup per manual. I love it.

Thanks tailskid for taking the video.

https://youtu.be/lxtJ89x4EmE

Very nice flight. That 3 minute flight time, although not a deal breaker, is a little off putting. Was the HRB hot at the end as some others have reported. Would a 6200mah or larger fit in there and still balance the plane?

[tab28682]

Very nice flight. That 3 minute flight time, although not a deal breaker, is a little off putting. Was the HRB hot at the end as some others have reported. Would a 6200mah or larger fit in there and still balance the plane?

Dave Ribbe reported over on RCG that he is using Potenza 6200 6s. They fit and balance is not a problem.

I tend to bend the throttle stick on most of my 80-90mm jets, so all my timers are set at 3 minutes. using 5000 lipos. I just take two battteries to the runway with me and fly for 6 minutes, with a short break for the pack swap.

[tab28682]

Guys, will the Flex F-100 fly off a well manicured grass runway?

The two fairly small wheels on the nose gear might be an issue, even on a well manicured grass runway. The good news is that the model has a nice positive deck stance, which will help.

[xviper]

Dave Ribbe reported over on RCG that he is using Potenza 6200 6s. They fit and balance is not a problem.

I tend to bend the throttle stick on most of my 80-90mm jets, so all my timers are set at 3 minutes. using 5000 lipos. I just take two battteries to the runway with me and fly for 6 minutes, with a short break for the pack swap.

I have noted that those Potenzas are generally much lighter than the "average" LiPo battery of the same mah. Nevertheless, I guess with my style of flying, I could likely squeeze another minute or so out of the same size battery.
I do the same as you when I go flying. I take 2 batteries per plane to the field and as many planes as will fit comfortably into the car. However, in my case, don't usually fly the same plane twice in a row.

[Dwalkerp47]

The two fairly small wheels on the nose gear might be an issue, even on a well manicured grass runway. The good news is that the model has a nice positive deck stance, which will help.

Well, I will get mine later in the week. There are several of us that have been flying EDF's for quite a while now on our grass strip. I will give all of you a "Grass Ops Status"when I maiden this beautiful Bird.

[krakenreleaser]

Very nice flight. That 3 minute flight time, although not a deal breaker, is a little off putting. Was the HRB hot at the end as some others have reported. Would a 6200mah or larger fit in there and still balance the plane?

Thank you! It was warm but nothing crazy. I also flew it with a 6000 CHNL 70c pushed all the way aft and it flew great as well. I flew it for 4 min and it came down at 33%.