New to RC Jet Planes and have a lot of ?

[JJLITNC@Gmail.Com]

Hi, I am new to all of this RC jet plane hobby stuff. I just purchased the Free-Wing F-14 Tomcat with the twin 12 blade 80 MM EDF's the other day and I have a few questions for the folks with some experience in building and modifying these planes into more of what specifically you want to set your planes apart from all of the rest out there that are originally the same thing.........

1. Has anyone has ever attempted to make a "Drop Tank" for any of the military jets (or really any plane for that matter) and house your batteries in it to make it easier to change/charge and so on?
2. I looked around and see some others are on the same page with me, the EDF jets, they are putting Nerf and other types of "Turbine" sounding whistles either under the plane or in the exhaust ports or under the wings etc. Has anyone done this with good results as well as not having to drill holes and damage the jet? I dont want to make a 600 dollar mistake for a 88 cent whistle.....
3. I am an airbrush artist and wanted to see if anyone has done any fancy graphics and if its not going to hurt the performance of the plane by painting and then clear coating the ENTIRE plane from front to back?
4. I thought Motion would provide some suggestions when purchasing a jet such as this like for types of glue to use, Do's and Don'ts? Suggestions for Radios and Receivers and battery sizes vs. flight times (Bigger batteries don't necessarily allow you to fly longer or do they? I would not think so, the weight might not be worth the extra 20 seconds of flight time or would bumping from a 4800 to 6000 or higher yield a substantial increase in flight time? Programming help, and best Gyros and other things that might make a plane easier to fly for a beginner vs. a seasoned 99 year veteran? Range of a transmitter that should be taken into account (I would think you would want as much range as possible to never lose connectivity and be able to bring the plane back towards the Transmitter if you do automatically?
5. How much extra weight can these carry? Like for instance if I did manage to stuff 2 batteries in a molded drop tank under the fuselage and stuff the 2 batteries in the plane itself and be able to switch over from battery cluster pair #1 to Battery clustered pair #2 mid flight to allow me to fly for 10-15 minutes or so vs 5-6 min with just the standard 2?
6. Any suggestions on POV cameras for these planes?
7. Any flight simulator to practice before taking a maiden flight to get used to everything????
8. Anyone know of any inexpensive jets for 100 bucks or less to practice with and be able to learn what to do and more importantly what NOT to do when learning? Do not want to develop any bad habits if I can prevent it.
9. Do these batteries or electric motors, circuit boards, Wiring etc. get extremely hot while in use or is everything able to be touched while running and just after landing?

That's all I can think of at the moment. I really appreciate any assistance and answers to these questions because like anyone, I do not want to just jump behind the sticks and go up, and then come down and not be able to ever go up again because of a huge OOPS OH $HIT moment and experience a boom Crash and burn or equivalent to getting shot down by some enemy and the state department (Caco officer Casualty Assistance Calls Officer) regrets to inform you that your kid is dead because he flew his new F-14 into the ground because he was stupid....HAH!
Seriously if anyone could provide some help I would be forever grateful
Thank you all for your time

Best Regards,

J

[crxmanpat]

J,

Welcome to Hobby Squawk! Do you have any RC experience at all, or are you just new to jets? If you are brand new to RC, put this thing away for a while and learn the basics on a good trainer aircraft, then move your way up to the point you can fly the F-14 with confidence (warning, this will take some time). If you try to fly this jet without the proper experience, you WILL crash it on the first flight. With that, I'll answer your questions as asked.

1. Yes, underslung drop tanks have been made for this F-14 and are available as a 3D print file (you'll either need your own 3D printer, or know someone who can print them for you). However, they are nowhere near big enough to put a battery in, so that plan is out the door. Besides, you'll need your batteries in the locations created under the canopy in order to have your plane balance. They are very easy to install and remove, so putting them in tanks won't make things any easier.

2. I have only put Nerf whistles in my A-10 as the full scale has more of the turbine "whine" than other military jets because the engines are not ducted. No need for whistles in the F-14, you want the nice whoosh sounds it already produces.

3. Callie at Callie Graphics has done several sets of vinyl decals for different schemes. I repainted mine into the old VF-1 Wolfpack scheme and used her decals. https://callie-graphics.com/collections/f-14-tomcat

4. If you scroll down on the F-14 product page, you'll see the recommendations for radio, RX, batteries, etc. As far as glue, what you need is already included in the box. There is very little gluing on this, it's mostly assembled with screws. Then there are tabs that talk about Upgrades, Support and Product Q & A. Lots of good info there. There is also a thread here regarding the F-14. Lots of good info in there too. It's worth the read. https://www.hobbysquawk.com/forum/rc...-tomcat-thread

5. The bird is already pretty heavy in stock form. Definitely will not be able to carry 4 battery packs.

6. There are plenty of good cameras available for POV. The RunCam 2 seems to be pretty popular.

7. As I stated above, you will need to progress your RC skills on trainers before attempting to fly this bird.

8. There are inexpensive jets out there, and Motion carries several that are $98-$159. But again, I would start with a prop trainer first (something like the E-Flite Apprentice or similar) before moving up to a jet trainer, and then on to the F-14.

9. Yes, the batteries/electronics can get hot. There are several factors that contribute to how hot they get, and if you push things too hard you can even burn them up. In the F-14 the only thing you'll ever touch are the batteries as all the other electronics are not accessible after assembly.

I can't stress enough to start off slow with a trainer and build your RC skills before attempting to fly this jet.

Good luck!

[Quickstop]

Please don’t take this the wrong way, but what is your actual rc plane experience?

[JJLITNC@Gmail.Com]

J,

Welcome to Hobby Squawk! Do you have any RC experience at all, or are you just new to jets? If you are brand new to RC, put this thing away for a while and learn the basics on a good trainer aircraft, then move your way up to the point you can fly the F-14 with confidence (warning, this will take some time). If you try to fly this jet without the proper experience, you WILL crash it on the first flight. With that, I'll answer your questions as asked.

1. Yes, underslung drop tanks have been made for this F-14 and are available as a 3D print file (you'll either need your own 3D printer, or know someone who can print them for you). However, they are nowhere near big enough to put a battery in, so that plan is out the door. Besides, you'll need your batteries in the locations created under the canopy in order to have your plane balance. They are very easy to install and remove, so putting them in tanks won't make things any easier.

2. I have only put Nerf whistles in my A-10 as the full scale has more of the turbine "whine" than other military jets because the engines are not ducted. No need for whistles in the F-14, you want the nice whoosh sounds it already produces.

3. Callie at Callie Graphics has done several sets of vinyl decals for different schemes. I repainted mine into the old VF-1 Wolfpack scheme and used her decals. https://callie-graphics.com/collections/f-14-tomcat

4. If you scroll down on the F-14 product page, you'll see the recommendations for radio, RX, batteries, etc. As far as glue, what you need is already included in the box. There is very little gluing on this, it's mostly assembled with screws. Then there are tabs that talk about Upgrades, Support and Product Q & A. Lots of good info there. There is also a thread here regarding the F-14. Lots of good info in there too. It's worth the read. https://www.hobbysquawk.com/forum/rc...-tomcat-thread

5. The bird is already pretty heavy in stock form. Definitely will not be able to carry 4 battery packs.

6. There are plenty of good cameras available for POV. The RunCam 2 seems to be pretty popular.

7. As I stated above, you will need to progress your RC skills on trainers before attempting to fly this bird.

8. There are inexpensive jets out there, and Motion carries several that are $98-$159. But again, I would start with a prop trainer first (something like the E-Flite Apprentice or similar) before moving up to a jet trainer, and then on to the F-14.

9. Yes, the batteries/electronics can get hot. There are several factors that contribute to how hot they get, and if you push things too hard you can even burn them up. In the F-14 the only thing you'll ever touch are the batteries as all the other electronics are not accessible after assembly.

I can't stress enough to start off slow with a trainer and build your RC skills before attempting to fly this jet.

Good luck!

I totally understand Pat, and I sincerely thank you for ALL of this information.
As far as my flight experience, I have flown drones, Helo's and little tiny kids toys planes like little 2-4 channel little junk things absolutely NOTHING to this scale. I have a relationship with this particular plane because my brother flew them in the late 80s and early 90s for quite a few years. I wanted to honor him since he is no longer with us, the lord called him home too early but thats a different story. I wanted to follow in his footsteps and join the Navy as well but I wanted to go to Medical school and you have to join an open ended contract and I just had nightmares of being head of Laundry or something on an aircraft carrier for 50 years instead of being allowed to go to medical school.
Anyway I bought this to honor my brother.......... So I will get another small cheap training type of plane first to learn on and learn what to do especially when there is some sort of issue you do not anticipate which is usually most important so you can bring your bird down safely and with as minimal if any damage as possible when something goes awry. (It always will, just a matter of when)
Ill find a small trainer to fly and if possible, see if I can get a 8-12 ch transmitter and link it to any small toy to train on so I can get comfortable and do not have to change transmitters and have to get used to something else before I fly the Tom Cat.
I am going to order the Afterburner LED's and wire them into this plane too and paint the exhaust ducts to try to increase the glow of the lights for added effect.
I will go review the TomCat page again to see recommendations as well as see if I can talk to Chris (RC Geek) who has done quite a few videos on YouTube about this plane, programming it, getting it setup and ready to fly as well as doing some modifications like eliminating the internal flaps when the wings are retracted so they dont touch the fuselage and some I see have eliminated them entirely and fly solely on the tailerons when the wings are retracted as well.

As far as decals, You are talking to an airbrush artist, Decals and stickers are taboo for someone like me that does everything from cars, boats, trucks, helmets, engine parts, boat trailers, dash panels for offshore racing boats (Cigarette boats) and mailboxes, T Shirts, Toolboxes and everything else I can get my hands on. So I will dig up the carrier group my bother was in and paint and airbrush the plane to match his as well as putting his name and his RIO's name on it as well.

one other question that popped into my mind if you can answer this it would be helpful, on Ebay for like 20-25 bucks they sell plans, blueprints etc. for an F-14 TomCat
Has anyone ever purchased these that anyone knows of (The plane when finished according to the info is like a "Giant Scale" monster like 110-115 inches long and about 108 or so inches wide when wings are extended fully? Now I would only build that in model capacity because while ti sounds killer to bump to full on mini Jet engines which consume various types of liquid fuels, Something in that scale range would probably run between 4 grand to probably 8 on the high end. While that would be awesome, I am not prepared to deal with that because as it is I have 2 full time jobs and I do not have the time to dedicate to that and I restore antique corvettes with a friend of mine and would prefer to put my $ into that to make $ than to make something cool but ultimately a waste and mind blowing how fast those mini jets consume fuel. Need to strap a 2 liter Pepsi bottle under the plane and you might get 7 minutes out of it if you are lucky. So I dont see going to full jets being a smart idea. Maybe later in life but at this time no.

So thank you again for all of the information, I really appreciate it and ill take a look at the links and see about those decals and perhaps I can use a photo and trace them onto some frisket film and re-create airbrush stencils to repaint my plane. I really dont like the scheme it came with unfortunately and Motion did not have anything else, it was the only one they make even though they have quite a few variations of paint schemes pictured, they only sell and produce the one. So i will have to strip it, and repaint it from scratch. So while I am doing this ill pickup that training type or toy to learn more on prior to getting this Tomcat up in the air.

Thanks again, Greatly appreciate the info and help..

J

[long-love-rc]

Consider how much weight a 6s 5000, mah is, I am not opmistics you will be able to carry it and still have good fly traits.

I am not expert though, by that battery will be about 700grams. It will be a question if takeoff can be achieved.

[long-love-rc]

And landing will be more risky if it can takeoff...

[xviper]

The Freewing F-14 has been flown successfully and easily on quite large capacity batteries. It should handle over 6000mah, 6s X 2. RC Informer has videos showing this. He even built his plane modified to accept the bigger batteries, as I have done. Some 5000mah, 6s, 70C LiPos can weight close to 900g.
On this note, my F-14 is on the table now ready to be programmed. Just waiting on my 9 channel radio to arrive. I've been reluctant to get the Tomcat till now and this is 150 planes later. I think even flying a trainer plane will not be enough to fly an F-14, especially if changing transmitters can cause a new distraction. However, I don't know your mental and digital dexterity. It could very well be that jumping into an F-14 will be "child's play". But then, it could also easily be a 30 second maiden.

[Dwr302]

Are you flying anything fixed wing at a controlled RC club? Belong to AMA? You can get a lot of help at a club and have the use of a good field. Getting a small trainer sounds like a good idea. After mastering that I would suggest an intermediate step. The Freewing L39 would be a good example. When you have mastered that then you may have success with the F14. I have seen many good fixed wing pilots have trouble with the heavier wing loaded edf foamy jets. They are not forgiving in the landing pattern and damage easily. But after you learn how to fly them they are fun. Take it slow and you can get there.