Well, now that I know how to land it properly....
:D
:D
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Pat -
I too enjoy (benefit) the 'Kit Plus' marketing concept we see with the jets. When I dumb thumb (and I do far too often) there rarely is much left of the airframe. Half the servos are also damaged. But as the motor, fan, and ESC are usually well packed in foam and they survive.
With the 'Kit Plus' the servos are supplied and installed. This is still an economically viable solution as I would have had to replace half of them. And being installed this saves me some effort having the recover the good ones from the totaled airframe. I keep the good used ones as spares. I've totaled both a SU-35 and Me-262 I would have liked these airframes to have been offered as Kit Plus purchases. I banged an F5-E and was pleasantly surprised with the ease in which the "rebuild" (more like replacement) went with the 'Kit Plus'. All three airframe losses did allow me to make improvements to their replacements.
Not sure how beneficial a 'Kit Plus' concept would be for prop models as the power-plant is usually the first thing at the crash site, followed by the battery crushing the ESC.
All the best,
KonradComment
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One other thing about the Kit+, you also get a spare fan/rotor in case you ever FOD the fan. At least on the F-104 anyway. I was pleasantly surprised to see it in the kit.PatComment
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Pat-I enjoyed our Starfighter formation today. It's always a pleasure flying with you.Comment
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I spent the morning with Alpha a few days ago putting the pre-production Mig-21 and Starfighter through their paces...
You guys are in for a real treat!!!
The F-104 is very easy on the eyes.
Physically bigger than I expected, not to mention, tons of 'presence' in the air.
Lots of thinking went in to this model to really make it what it is now:
- F-16 style retracts really make this bird shine
- A good balance of a scale-sized wing while maintaining controllability (even at surprisingly low speeds)
- A stock lighting system including Navs, Landing lights, and Afterburner!
- The blow-in air intakes are cleverly employed and very effective.
Performance and handling far exceeded my expectations as well.
Power on the stock 6s setup is very impressive... *very* close to unlimited vertical from static, and it'll just keep going once it's up to speed!
Speaking of speed, I was under the impression that I'd have to keep up the airspeed - at all times - but am very pleased to report that she handles very well in the slow speed regime. I shot a few approaches, both clean and 1/2 flap; I crossed the numbers at about 30mph clean and about 22-25mph 1/2 flap. Not to be outdone, Alpha mentions he "can bring her in slower with full flaps"... I wasn't gonna risk a prototype to see exactly how slow, but I'll take his word for it
Aggressive maneuvering is a treat! Tons of power coming out the tailpipe keeps you carving around some pretty tight turns, I encountered no bad tendencies upright/inverted, or even during stalls - nose drops pretty straight forward with no wing drop.
I'll admit that the last phase of my first few landings could have been better, but I'll chalk it up to a unique style airframe and my lack of experience with the bird. On my first approach I got a little slow, began to slightly oscillate in pitch and decided to go around. Second attempt I kept the power just a click higher and nailed the landing. 3rd and 4th approaches were shot clean, faster, and much more predictable. Even clean, I had the bird stopped in about 1/2 the runway length.
This thing is sweet!
I've already committed to buying the -21, but once I convince myself that I have enough space for another jet I'll be picking up one of these as well!
VicComment
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Sounds like it won't disappoint! I just ordered the kit + version of the 70mm and will be doing a few mods to make it more scale. I will also be adding a higher blade count fan, just haven't figured out which one yet. Since I already have an 85A ESC laying around, I would like to keep max current below that. Any suggestions on a fan/motor combo?Comment
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So after many retract difficulties, dead flap servos and ESC issues I finally got this one in the air! I ended up replacing the inards of the retract with those leftover from an old broken F-86 retract, and they work fine now. I just maidened it Saturday morning and I love how it flies! I know its been said many times, but it amazes me how this plane flies so well on its tiny wings. I already have the battery charged for another flight tomorrow morning. My setup is the freewing 12 blade edf: https://www.motionrc.com/collections...nt=19079390790, with an 85A gecko ESC, on a Revo 70C 3000mah. Unfortunately, since Motion has not had this unit in stock, I ended up buying the same one from RC Castle. Its moves along pretty nicely, and sounds fantastic. I was already looking at modding the gear stance, and redoing the tan on the camo.
On Sunday, I flew again. All I had to do was say that I liked it, and the technical difficulties came back with a vengeance.. After a low pass, in climb out I heard one of the other club members ask "do you have a smoke system?".. About 2 seconds later, the motor seized at the top of the climb. I pushed the nose down and dropped the gear, but I stalled as I was pushing the nose down. Luckily, right before impact I was able to flare and get the fuselage level and lose speed. Only damage was a few dents/scratches on the bottom of the fuse, and some bent struts. The motor however, is completely fried. As in windings are coming out the sides, and are burnt to a crisp. I will be contacting RC Castle about this, I really expected more quality from a Freewing product. Hopefully their CS will get this taken care of.Comment
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Sorry to hear that mishap. Hope you get it straightened out soon. I still love the sound of the EDF Hobbies 12 blade although it is in my Freewing Mirage 2000 now.
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That does sound excellent! Sorry to see the fate of your 104 though. The Freewing unit had a similar sound while it lasted. RC Castle finally agreed to send a replacement edf, so it's somewhere on the slow boat from China. They shipped it on the 15th and it still says "origin post preparing shipment".Comment
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My buddy flew the maiden flight on his today. Two clicks of up trim is all it took. Despite the 15 knot 45 degree crosswind he said it was like flying on rails.Comment
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I just finished up my repaint and rebuild after my crash. I modded the gear stance to be more scale and shortened up the gear. In addition, I added some more scale covers to the struts out of styrene in order to give the mains the box-beam like look that the real gear have. Also applied Callie graphics for the markings, and they look excellent. Callie's ability to replicate pretty much any paint scheme continues to amaze me.Comment
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Beautiful job! I like to see the creative side of the Hobby- for sure! We need more" of this these days! That's what makes the hobby special, there used to be so much special touches put into, a personal model. Great Job! A+ Matt in customer service!Comment
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Beautiful job, Delta! She looks amazing! :)Comment
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Thanks guys! Hoping to get it back up in the air this weekend. I just did a run up test with the new fan, and I guess my ESC was also destroyed when the last fan seized. It now refuses to arms, and the fan just sits there and twitches. Just for kicks, I plugged into to my computer to check the max current at failure. 364A was the result! No wonder that fan is fully crisped. I just wish the Gecko had full data logging so that I could see the average current before the failure.Comment
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Sorry about the crash! Looks like the damage was isolated to the fuselage though. It also looked really sensitive when it was flying. Were you on high rates the entire time? Better luck on the next flight.Originally posted by Sky Wolf View Post
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His rates were set how he normally sets them. He likes them low for less sensitivity. However, being such a fast planes, small, and not very large wings, like othe planes of this structure, it probably needed a little more rate change.
It it was totaled. The wings broke in the front, as well as the fuse. He's working on his replace meant as we speak. Be on the lookout for his new maiden flight video!
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My F-5 has been a hangar queen for quite some time. Never could get very comfortable with it especially on landing. But I may risk flying it soon. I need more room for my newer jets anyway so my mentality right now is to let what happens happen. It's crazy fast with the inrunner.Originally posted by Sky Wolf View PostComment
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Looking forward to seeing the next video of your F-5 Bill. Whatever happens, happens! It's part of the game. I have a feeling you'll be just fine though. You're a good pilot!Comment
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Very cool video of a walk around with former F104 pilot. His experiences and information of the aircraft that he provided are great.
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