HSD 105mm F-16 EDF Jet

[krakenreleaser]

Awesome re paint👍🏻

Thank you! It was a fun project.

[Hugh Wiedman]

Thanks Porkster and Aros, something to definitely consider, it makes perfect sense. Looked at the grass ops video, very nice and great landing!

[Aros]

Personally I think it would be fine, the gear is really stout. I've put it to the test many times, trust me. HSD is just covering themselves so they don't have to deal with replacement issues when they have no way to control or govern the actual conditions some people would fly it on. Makes sense.

[Porkster]

The F-16 is my favorite jet fighter and I love my FW 90mm F-16 but I keep looking at the HSD website and would die to get this F-16 if it weren't for the big red warning words on the product page that says: "NOT TO BE USED FROM GRASS SURFACES". Unfortunately I pretty much fly off of grass exclusively now and this warning always depresses me. I put the 12 blade 1835 KV inrunner in my 90 mm F-16 and changed the nose wheel to a 2" Hangar 9 from the original 1 3/4" wheel and it gets off of our grass in less than 100 feet. I now fly it exclusively on a heavy 8000 mah battery that gives me 5 minutes of flight time and even with that weight, the 12 blade EDF has more than enough horse power to get if off of the grass quickly and provides plenty of thrust for any vertical I care to undertake as there is virtually no difference in flight characteristics from a 6000 mah battery to the 8000 mah battery, so why not take advantage of the increased flight time. With that said, I still wonder if the HSD 105mm EDF could be flown on grass. Anyone out there given it a try? I don't want to spend $1,000 bucks just to find out their warning is on the money!

I flew mine from grass. Not great grass either. This was the version 1
search HSD F-16 grass field ops on YouTube.

[EDFjetpilot]

In short, if you choose to fly this F-16 off of grass and tear the nose gear out, don't call HSD for a warranty claim. A "well manicured grass field" is still very subjective.

I had over 120 flights from my grass field on my first HSD F-16 with no problem. In comparison, I was replacing the retract rotating pin on my FW F-16 about every 60 flights from the same grass field.

Thus, if you choose to fly the HSD F-16 from grass and you tear the nose gear out, don't call HSD; just fix it; then go fly it again.

Sean

P.S. My HSD F-16 with the Jetfan upgrade was radared straight and level at 118mph. Not necessarily fast, but great thrust for short takeoffs and nice verticals.

[Aros]

Don't get a BVM 1/5 because if you do I am going to have to come steal it from you and blame Elbee!

[Hugh Wiedman]

Thanks wolpertinger and Aros, appreciate your advice. Maybe I'll just go to Chief Aircraft or BVM and get me a 1/5th scale Turbine viper and pull my kids out of college-forget that diploma stuff, they need to just get a job and stop crimping my RC fun. Seriously, I've taken your advice to heart and will just stick with the FW F-16 until HSD decides to recognize the other 40%-50% of the market that's into grass. Far Out Man!

[Aros]

Hugh I've heard some folks have no issues flying off grass but like wolpertinger said above, clearly it can be an issue. I've only ever flown mine off pavement. The new S-EDF power system is definitely an upgrade from their old stock unit but it's still not going to win any races. Flies nice but not a speed demon. A lot of folks have turned to Jetfan 110 to power this bird. RCG has a good build thread on this model with tons of data if you ever want to peruse...

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?2229081-HSD-105mm-F-16

[wolpertinger]

The F-16 is my favorite jet fighter and I love my FW 90mm F-16 but I keep looking at the HSD website and would die to get this F-16 if it weren't for the big red warning words on the product page that says: "NOT TO BE USED FROM GRASS SURFACES". Unfortunately I pretty much fly off of grass exclusively now and this warning always depresses me. I put the 12 blade 1835 KV inrunner in my 90 mm F-16 and changed the nose wheel to a 2" Hangar 9 from the original 1 3/4" wheel and it gets off of our grass in less than 100 feet. I now fly it exclusively on a heavy 8000 mah battery that gives me 5 minutes of flight time and even with that weight, the 12 blade EDF has more than enough horse power to get if off of the grass quickly and provides plenty of thrust for any vertical I care to undertake as there is virtually no difference in flight characteristics from a 6000 mah battery to the 8000 mah battery, so why not take advantage of the increased flight time. With that said, I still wonder if the HSD 105mm EDF could be flown on grass. Anyone out there given it a try? I don't want to spend $1,000 bucks just to find out their warning is on the money!

Hugh, I had one (rip) and tried to fly it off our grass field that was not like a golf fairway but close and it ripped up the front gear both times ergo the red letter warnings. Also this plane flys scale so do not expect a screamer but a nice flyer. Looking at the new 105mm L39. Like the plane, not the colors.... so repaint for me is required....

[Hugh Wiedman]

Hi guys, just like Aros I’ve had a few of these hsd F16s and just cannot resist having a look at another.

ive been on the hsd website and was looking at the turbine version, that they are stating has a 20% bigger wing area. For tho use that know is this both the turbine and edf versions or has just the turbine been upgraded??
tempted to buy a turbine version if it’s just that as there’s quite a few other upgrades to that over the edf variant

The F-16 is my favorite jet fighter and I love my FW 90mm F-16 but I keep looking at the HSD website and would die to get this F-16 if it weren't for the big red warning words on the product page that says: "NOT TO BE USED FROM GRASS SURFACES". Unfortunately I pretty much fly off of grass exclusively now and this warning always depresses me. I put the 12 blade 1835 KV inrunner in my 90 mm F-16 and changed the nose wheel to a 2" Hangar 9 from the original 1 3/4" wheel and it gets off of our grass in less than 100 feet. I now fly it exclusively on a heavy 8000 mah battery that gives me 5 minutes of flight time and even with that weight, the 12 blade EDF has more than enough horse power to get if off of the grass quickly and provides plenty of thrust for any vertical I care to undertake as there is virtually no difference in flight characteristics from a 6000 mah battery to the 8000 mah battery, so why not take advantage of the increased flight time. With that said, I still wonder if the HSD 105mm EDF could be flown on grass. Anyone out there given it a try? I don't want to spend $1,000 bucks just to find out their warning is on the money!

[Porkster]

Looks great, aros. I love your attention to detail. She looks locked in.

I finally got out and "re-maidened" my "Dark Falcon" V3 F-16 after the re-paint. I am loving the performance of the new S-EDF on 2x 6000 HRB packs. 4 min flights.

Thanks to tailskid for the video and Glen Huck Wickell for the still shots.

Flight video:

Paint video:

Awesome re paint👍🏻

[Porkster]

Hi guys, just like Aros I’ve had a few of these hsd F16s and just cannot resist having a look at another.

ive been on the hsd website and was looking at the turbine version, that they are stating has a 20% bigger wing area. For tho use that know is this both the turbine and edf versions or has just the turbine been upgraded??
tempted to buy a turbine version if it’s just that as there’s quite a few other upgrades to that over the edf variant

[Lcacing]

Since the first flight I’m been using tailerons and flaps, CG at 175 mm gear down. I did have to remove some foam to push batteries back. Also only using 2- 2s 1000 mah for rx.

[Aros]

I am back, ordering soon! By the way, what CG did you settle at? Did you setup flaperons or no flaps at all? I did not have any on the last model.

I'm at 175mm and with the gyro it feels great. I don't have any flaperons on this latest one but I am thinking about it...

[Wild Man]

This thread gas more Battery YADA, YADA, YADA, then the 105mm HSD F-16 Info Later LOL!!!!!

[PaulZ]

Get back on that horse and ride brother! I'm on #3.

I am back, ordering soon! By the way, what CG did you settle at? Did you setup flaperons or no flaps at all? I did not have any on the last model.

[Aros]

Get back on that horse and ride brother! I'm on #3.

[PaulZ]

Hello HSD F-16 fans! I am about to get another one of these. This time I'll go for the Arctic camo paint scheme. My gray one had a bad encounter with a rut between our runway and the grass resulting in a ripped out nose gear. I sold it and now it's time for another!

[Aros]

75 landings might be it's life expectancy I am afraid to say. There's so many electronics and parts that can go wrong...I just cross my fingers every flight. Yeah, it's stupid that they won't sell the main retract motor, just the nose retract motor. What the heck?

[Lcacing]

I will have to say that after 75 plus landings, the main gear retract finally gave out. Took the assembly apart in found that the motor would work intermittently. When power was applied, I would have to give the motor pinion a push for it to start rotating.
FYI troubleshooting the retracts is really simply. Just unplug the from the MFC and apply voltage to the retract lead. Simply reversing polarity will make the retract go up or down.
Here is the part that bugs me a bit, HSD will sell you the nose retract motor for $17, but not the main retract motor, for that you have to buy the retract assembly for $40 🤬. I guess $.50 a flight is not too horrible