F4 Phantom

[yohay@aol.com]

Hello all,
I wanted to take a moment and express my deepest disappointment of the motion RC F4 phantom with 6s setup.
Set the plane up exactly as manufacture call for in the book, full battery 6s-5000 milliamp fully charged. The plane came off the ground like a slow bus and within 3 minutes there was no more power in the battery. The plane flew terrible compared to other edf's that I own from the same factory. I will no longer buy the F4 phantom from motion RC or anybody else.

[SanExup]

Did you crash it? Perhaps there is a way to make it fly better.

[yohay@aol.com]

It took off very slowly, like a bus. ran out of power within 2.5 min( 6S-5000), had a fairly hard landing, can easily be repaired, but I am DONE with the MRC F-4

[Evan D]

What battery? Calibrated ESC?

[kallend]

Oh dear.

Pack telemetry.

[GliderGuy]

Had that exact experience and feel on a flight last year. Got it down. Post flight determined a bad cell connection internally to the LiPo was the cause. Admiral Carbon 5100.

Not a good day for F-4s. Was on final approach today about 20 ft up and totally lost elevator. Went in at about a 40 degree angle. On my way home to do some digging to find out why. 1,000+ Flights on this bird. No wind no thermal gusts. Just reinforcement of why you should not fly over people. UGH! Open spaces- just hit the ground.

Thinking about moving to an F-22. Or....maybe order a new fuselage. Love the way the F-4 looks and flies good.

Made additional flights with other birds after this, so pretty much rules out X-mitter issues.

-GG

Discovered the problem....intermittent elevator servo. The bird is easily fixed. Main repair is the broken back ahead of the intakes. A few scratch/dent repairs and will be as good as new.

[Ks.jetflyer]

On 6s 5000 mah batt. I have my timer set for 2.5 minutes. That gives me enough batt for 1 go around. Flying mixed throttle my batt come in around 3.74 volts per cell. A 5000mah batt will not give you 3 min. of full throttle flying. At least mine won't.

[Quickstop]

Makes you wonder how the 4 people at my field fly theirs with no problems

[GliderGuy]

Update - Repair is going well. Broken back rejoined so nicely that the canopy fits perfect. New elevator servo installed and decided to put on all new landing gear hardware and servos while working on it....tons of gear cycles on the ones I am pulling off post impact.

Getting there! Fill/sand/paint damaged areas is next. LOL - Too windy today to be flying anyway.

Was sooooo lucky (a) was very low (b) 15% power and slow (c) level wings on impact so no wing damage. The aft fuselage broke behind the exhaust nozzles, but it was a clean break. No damage to the rudder or FFSs.

-GG

[GliderGuy]

Update:

The F-4 post repair flying was perfect. Even required a tiny bit less up elevator set (I have marks on the fuselage).

20 hrs of work well spent.

-GG

[SanExup]

Nice GG!

[Madness]

Hello all,
I wanted to take a moment and express my deepest disappointment of the motion RC F4 phantom with 6s setup.
Set the plane up exactly as manufacture call for in the book, full battery 6s-5000 milliamp fully charged. The plane came off the ground like a slow bus and within 3 minutes there was no more power in the battery. The plane flew terrible compared to other edf's that I own from the same factory. I will no longer buy the F4 phantom from motion RC or anybody else.

Had the same experience with mine. On my maiden I put the timer on 2.50 on a 6,000 HRB battery. The power was just not there, flew slow and lethargic. Came back with 22% battery even flying the plane conservatively to get to know it and make trim adjustments. In contrast, I have Eflite's F4 and that thing flies like a dream even with more than 100 flights on it. Bought the Freewing because of it, I wanted to have a bigger version of the plane which I now regret. I didn't bother calling MRC, I did not had a great experience with a previous model I bought from them.

[GliderGuy]

Not sure what’s going on here??!!

This is not the official F-4 thread. Shoot me down, but I have had 3 MRC F-4 EDF jets and flown them on several different battery brands, capacity and C ratings from 5000 to 6000 mAh.

While not a perfect EDF (elevator pushrod needs improvement to DU-BRO heavy duty hardware and a 4-40 pushrod), none of the 3 have been slow bus lethargic except one flight when a LiPo had a failed internal cell connection. AND smaller batteries won’t allow for long flight times....DUH.

Maybe there is a reason these two bash posts were not made on the official F-4 thread. Just saying....

Folks on that thread don’t post about poor F-4 performance or make generalized bad comments about MRC products. If there is a product issue, substantiating facts are typically posted or provided when asked for. Nobody is answering the questions that have been posted here...no facts!

I hope the moderators close this unofficial F-4 thread. Something seems fishy to me about the intent of starting this bashing thread instead of posting on the official F-4 thread where more F-4 pilots’ eyes would see.

-GG

PS...Why 3?
#1 Elevator servo not glued in at the factory. My bad for not catching this. MRC was supportive on this.
#2 Radio transmitter/receiver glitch
#3 Looks and flies so nice....had to have another. Crashed last Saturday and repaired. Elevator servo failed, but only after 1000+ flights (closer to 2,000). Servos do wear out. Post repair flight went very well.

[Evan D]

Not all threads have to be the official thread GG. They have as much right to post as anyone as long as they, and we, all stay respectful.

I agree that the F-4, while a bit on the heavy side if 6S, especially with a heavy 6S battery, flies good when built and set up properly. I asked earlier about batteries and throttle calibration and got no answer. When flying a high power EDF you need good batteries, not necessarily high C (C ratings are anyone's guess) but batteries that are capable of delivering the amps for the full flight. And just because another jet flew great and had no issues doesn't mean another will. Plus a 80 is usually easier on batteries than a 90 so hard to do that comparison too.

[GliderGuy]

Not all threads have to be the official thread GG. They have as much right to post as anyone as long as they, and we, all stay respectful
.

Thanks Evan for the clarification. Quite true what you say, but it all struck me as being out of character for the F-4.

-GG

[yohay@aol.com]

I use HRB 6s-5000 50c. Batterid are great.
f4 was simply flying very slow very cumbersome very unstable. I set it up as per factory exactly and it was perfectly balanced as well. I'm not new to edf's and I fly other motion RC edf's very successfully. The F4 is simply way too heavy at 6s power setup. At least that is my experience

[Evan D]

Sorry, I beg to differ, HRB are hit and miss and don't always age well.

Very cumbersome, very unstable could both be because of the batteries performance or a ESC not set up properly or calibrated. You could have received a bad motor or ESC too, or have a bad connector somewhere.

"I set it up as per factory exactly and it was perfectly balanced as well."... Really?

That you fly other things, have been flying many years, or stayed in a Holiday Inn last night are all besides the point.

In the end you MAY have not been powering the plane at full potential for various reasons. That said if you aren't happy move on to something else. Many of us are flying, or have flown this same plane without difficulty, just saying.

I use HRB 6s-5000 50c. Batterid are great.
f4 was simply flying very slow very cumbersome very unstable. I set it up as per factory exactly and it was perfectly balanced as well. I'm not new to edf's and I fly other motion RC edf's very successfully. The F4 is simply way too heavy at 6s power setup. At least that is my experience

[DaFlyingSnek]

Hello all,
I wanted to take a moment and express my deepest disappointment of the motion RC F4 phantom with 6s setup.
Set the plane up exactly as manufacture call for in the book, full battery 6s-5000 milliamp fully charged. The plane came off the ground like a slow bus and within 3 minutes there was no more power in the battery. The plane flew terrible compared to other edf's that I own from the same factory. I will no longer buy the F4 phantom from motion RC or anybody else.

When I was considering which 90mm I should buy, between the (6 cell versions on all) F-22, F-4, and F-15, I did see some things about the F-4 which led me to not buying it and going with the F-22.
What you're describing doesn't seem to be a fault with the battery your using, or how you set it up (assuming it was done exactly and perfectly). You have to remember the F-4 is quite the hefty plane. It doesn't have a huge wing or lifting body like the F-22 does, or enough power to punch through the sky like the F-15. The F-4 is also the biggest out of the 3, and the heaviest.
Now I don't know what version you have, the old outrunner, new inrunner HP, or even your own setup. but from watching videos and seeing reviews, there's a reason why most pilots who buy an F-4 use an 8S setup. The 6S setup just doesn't have the power to really let the F-4 loose. 6S, yes it can fly, but it won't fly all that great. As far as landing, you might wanna keep your speed up more to have a lower angle to the ground.
My advice would be to give the F-4 another shot. Sell the 6S edf unit and ESC, or put it in another aircraft, and get the 8S setup and a 2S 5000mAh. The F-4 will fly like a truck on 6S, but is an absolute rocket on 8S.

[Aros]

yohay@aol.com assuming you purchased the F4 through us, I would highly suggest you contact our Customer Service team and open a ticket so they can help you to see if they can determine cause and proper course of action. Just be prepared to offer thorough information so they can best assess your case. Personally, my experience with the F4 was nothing like yours so it's too hard to say what could have caused your poor experience.

[yohay@aol.com]

If think you are 100 percent correct.
personally, I am done with the f4. On to others.
MRC should PULL theF4 6s out of the lineup for all the reasons above