HSD F-16 105mm EDF Jet

[RickVB]

Aros, what battery(s) are you using to get a flight time of only 3 minutes?

[Aros]

Two Admiral 6S 5000's...

[RickVB]

Ouch... is there any potential for using something bigger (i.e., is their room and would it fly OK at a heavier weight)?

[Aros]

Honestly I am not sure...It was a tight fit with both Admiral 6S 5000's and the 2S receiver battery. I think most people are getting 3 to 3-and-a-half minute flights on average, regardless of batteries.

[RickVB]

Ack... maybe I'll stick to my smaller stuff (where I'm getting 5 or 6 at least).

Sorry, I fly mostly giant scale gas, where a 10-15 minute flight is the norm.

[Aros]

Oh yeah, if you are used to gas, EDF flying is a shock to the system. 3 minutes is normal for most EDF flights. If you like this model I recommend the turbine version.

[Porkster]

I've flown mine with 2 x 6200 zippy compacts 40c. Approx 860g each. If you move the rx battery into the middle hatch, I've velcro'd mine to the underside then it balances very well. I reckon 4 minutes flight time but you limit your potential landing / aborted landings to two. My rx battery is a 2s 3400.

[spec450]

This plane looks so damn awesome but I'm having some trouble bringing myself to spending 1K! on foam, not to mention the added major cost of batteries which could lead to closer to $1300 or more. I think I'll stand by to stand by for now :(

[Aros]

Understood. It IS a lot of money for foam but for what it's worth I believe it's worth the price tag. Really quality, dense foam. I always forgot it was foam until I would see the gear doors (which ironically should be plastic). The quality is outstanding. Still, I get the hesitancy for a foam jet. My biggest regret after purchasing was not having a large, completely unobstructed place to fly her. I was always on edge flying her due to the buildings and trees, light poles, etc, etc. I will get another one down the road though.

[TSHobbies]

I'll probably end up getting one as well....UNLESS Motion brings us that new 70mm in Tbird scheme...my current 90mm is starting to yellow really bad ,not to mention the out of whack ailerons. so Ive been considering this one now.

[Blewbayou]

The foam on my HSD f16 is way better and denser than on my fms 1700mm p51, quality is superb, add in the nice retracts and the awesomeness and it's worth it.

[Aros]

So did Banana ever get more of them in stock? Last I checked it was still on pre-order...

[Afterburner01]

I have one of these jets and just couldn't leave it alone. I bought it off rcgroups a few months ago and got it for 300 bucks and its a version 2 with 100 flights with the oil gear the gear blocks were re glued in I figured it was a bad landing. I built the conformal slipper tanks to convert it to a Block 60 F-16 and added pylons and ordinance from my 1/8 F-15 that I had an ordinance kit for .I had a set of ferry tanks from a Byron F-16 that got used in the build and I made silicon molds of the bombs and made MERs and TERs and poured the new parts out of 2 part foam and spackling and a coat of minwax. They look great Im expecting a 2 minute hop for the shake down flight Im not using the gyro Ive seen too many crashes soo far when they fail but Im using 50c 5300mah 6s packs and the 16- amp Castle ESC with the cooling fan was going to modify the inlet to get the area rule for the intake to the fan correct but the darn foam is too thin and now seeing the problems with the retract blocks pulling out thanks guys btw I will have to go another route . Hoping to get the bugs out early

[Blewbayou]

So did Banana ever get more of them in stock? Last I checked it was still on pre-order...

No, the order that came in was a sold out pre order, I happen to call checking on another order and asked when they would have any in stock, they told me that they had just got the sold out order in and had 1 arctic extra from the order so i bought the extra.

[Aros]

Nice!

[Blewbayou]

Yeah, I've been waiting 5 months to get one, so it was nice to luck out. Doesn't appear anyone else is going to sell this jet other than BH in this country and appears it's going to be hard to get unless you want to deal with an overseas dealer in Singapore or china. You can find turbine versions, but not edf.

[Aros]

Toucanhobby.com is the place to go if people want a shot at one if they don't want to wait for them to get back in stock (or will they ever truly be IN stock) at BH. That's where I got mine, and was the first one in the US to get the Arctic Camo theme as far as I know. I've sent at least four people their way since and each of them said they worked great for them. You can even finagle a price. Now this was last year so I don't know if it's still the same.

[Blewbayou]

What I can say without a doubt is HSD provides a nicely packaged plane and quality is the best I've seen on a foam airplane.
I finally decided to assemble my f16 since I finished my 1700mm p51. The mustang had the typical packaging damaged I've seen on other ones for a couple years, I had to fix these and touch up the paint best I could, got it close, but I'm redoing as a blue nose this winter. Top of the mustang fuselage where the halves are joined had a nice 3" gap I had to fill with glue, touch up etc. Then the delicate foam, very easy to get hanger rash, so i have a lot of time in the mustang.
the HSD f16 is excellent out of the box, no damage, foam is way tougher, paint is very nice except white isn't white. Very easy to go together, most work is done by HSD.
only areas that I don't like is the foam gear doors, other than that, worth the price in my opinion. Again, the foam density is outstanding for foam.
my only question is there are no instructions for the gyro, I see it is hooked to a knob, I assume is the gain. Can someone give me a quick rundown on the function of the gyro?

[Blewbayou]

Another question, do you balance right side up or upside down with gear extended.

[Aros]

Trying to remember the gyro...I didn't fuss with it much. I had it turned on and activated via a rocker switch on my radio. When I did activate it I would turn the rocker switch to about 1/4 or so. I never noticed any difference with the gyro on or off for the record.

As for balancing, right side up gear down.