FLEXJET SUPER PNP

[Bajora]

Here is a short video with a couple clips of ours flying ...

[Cpl. Sli]

Mine needed a lot of right trim at first. When I finally got it to fly hands off there was a lot of deflection in the stabs. I was a little concerned about that much trim and contacted Flex about a possible warped fuselage or other problem. Another flier at my field flew his and it needed no aileron trim at all. Dave got back to me and suggested that I go ahead and manually put some trim in the ailerons so that when quick trim is used there will be very little deflection. Remember, when quick trim is used it puts the ailerons back to the neutral position and moves the stabs in the appropriate way. I checked my ailerons relative to the fuselage chine and found that I had a 6mm difference between the two even though they were lined up on the wing tips. I evened them out and then went out to fly it again. Much less right was needed so I manually moved the aileron clevises to put in a bit more right trim. I'm pleased to report that today the jet flew hands off and there is very little deflection in the stabs. As Aros stated, these foamies can have subtle differences in a production run so I'm not at all worried about it.
I also want to add that using the Aura Config tool is a great way to get all the surfaces at a neutral position rather than trying to turn a clevis in a thrust tube. I too suffer from big hand syndrome. I also used it to put subtrim in the ailerons while dialing it in. Remember though, the subtrim is used to make small adjustments, not major ones. You should do that mechanically. I know that I sound like I might work for Flex, but I don't, I just have 4 other Flex planes and I am familiar with the Aura and what it can do.
And finally, this jet is the best sport jet I have flown so far. The thrust, flight time and maneuverability are awesome. Today I was again able to get it hover for a few seconds before I had to fly out of it. My fellow fliers are now asking what one I like better, the Flex Jet or the Avanti S. I told them that as I get more comfortable with the Flex Jet, other than having no flaps this jet is a winner hands down. You just have to let the speed bleed off a lot sooner to make a nice landing. And Xviper, don't worry about the Aura, it's easy to use and adjust once you look at how it works. Being able to trim and also change flight parameters without going on the computer is a plus. I've been flying RC since the early 70s and love all this new stuff.

It would be nice to see some video of your hover!? Is it easy to Hich Alpha with it?

[Rosytime]

Mine needed a lot of right trim at first. When I finally got it to fly hands off there was a lot of deflection in the stabs. I was a little concerned about that much trim and contacted Flex about a possible warped fuselage or other problem. Another flier at my field flew his and it needed no aileron trim at all. Dave got back to me and suggested that I go ahead and manually put some trim in the ailerons so that when quick trim is used there will be very little deflection. Remember, when quick trim is used it puts the ailerons back to the neutral position and moves the stabs in the appropriate way. I checked my ailerons relative to the fuselage chine and found that I had a 6mm difference between the two even though they were lined up on the wing tips. I evened them out and then went out to fly it again. Much less right was needed so I manually moved the aileron clevises to put in a bit more right trim. I'm pleased to report that today the jet flew hands off and there is very little deflection in the stabs. As Aros stated, these foamies can have subtle differences in a production run so I'm not at all worried about it.
I also want to add that using the Aura Config tool is a great way to get all the surfaces at a neutral position rather than trying to turn a clevis in a thrust tube. I too suffer from big hand syndrome. I also used it to put subtrim in the ailerons while dialing it in. Remember though, the subtrim is used to make small adjustments, not major ones. You should do that mechanically. I know that I sound like I might work for Flex, but I don't, I just have 4 other Flex planes and I am familiar with the Aura and what it can do.
And finally, this jet is the best sport jet I have flown so far. The thrust, flight time and maneuverability are awesome. Today I was again able to get it hover for a few seconds before I had to fly out of it. My fellow fliers are now asking what one I like better, the Flex Jet or the Avanti S. I told them that as I get more comfortable with the Flex Jet, other than having no flaps this jet is a winner hands down. You just have to let the speed bleed off a lot sooner to make a nice landing. And Xviper, don't worry about the Aura, it's easy to use and adjust once you look at how it works. Being able to trim and also change flight parameters without going on the computer is a plus. I've been flying RC since the early 70s and love all this new stuff.

[dribbe@gmail.com]

Thanks for the clarification, David! Much appreciated.

Your welcome.... pretty much in the opening of our WIKI....
http://wiki.flexinnovations.com/wiki.../LatestUpdates
...

Our guys also did a pretty extensive build video for those who like these things.... the youtube page has an index of times...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTJxbuKcS1I

[Alpha]

Thanks for the clarification, David! Much appreciated.

[dribbe@gmail.com]

All FlexJets Shipped in the USA are/were shipped with the latest FirmWare (1.6b). No need to update any US sourced FlexJet.

Generally firmware updates are very straight forward. Use the Config Tool, Click update firmware. Follow the onscreen instructions....

Best Regards,
David

[xviper]

As an alternative, to all the Y harness and the likes, you could install a couple of Spektrum satellite RX's and just bind them to the Aura and your TX. It's covered in the manual but not recommended by David since it is a jet. I've heard of many people doing it on the smaller 3D foamy models they sell..

I read the information about the needed update for the twin sat RX's and some of the related material on the subject. I found it very daunting to understand what was going on. Additionally, for the cost of 2 Spek sats, I could buy almost 4 Lemon 10 channel RX's. Since I had one sitting here, I didn't see the economics of going the twin sat route. I'm new to Aura and the complexity of it scares me a bit. I would have preferred going the old fashioned way of just a simple stabilizer like HobbyEagle. I know I will never do any alterations to the Aura in this plane, maybe a different one in the future.

Well, it's all done. Hanging in its final storage place, waiting for the weather to dry up the field.

[fhhuber]

As an alternative, to all the Y harness and the likes, you could install a couple of Spektrum satellite RX's and just bind them to the Aura and your TX. It's covered in the manual but not recommended by David since it is a jet. I've heard of many people doing it on the smaller 3D foamy models they sell..

I used to do multiple RXs with 72 mhz. It does a lot of good to clean up installations.

You have to take care with placements (distances of RXs from each other and antenna orientations) because every RX also has some RF output that can mess with the other RXs being that close
Do very thorough testing before flight.

I plan to do this on a Top Flite B-25 so I only have to plug a power lead to the wings when assembling. One RX each wing and one for the fuselage. 2.5 ft between wing and fuselage RXs

[bill34207]

I'm using a Lemon 10-ch Rx with sat. (that's all I had, but a 6-ch would have sufficed), so this required pulling all the servo connections from the Aura8 and re-connecting as per manual. One thing of note ................ they do not provide all the wires that go from the Rx to the Aura8. They are female to female servo type wires and you need 4 of them. You'll also need 2 "Y's" to gang the elevators and rudder/steering together.
The retracts are beautiful. The only ones that are even nicer are the ones that come on the Freewing 90mm F-16 and the FMS F7F Tigercat. I dabbed a little FoamTac on all the C-clips.
Not being one to follow convention, I chose my own "special" pilot figure.

Won't be able to maiden it for a week or so as the field is a mud bath.

As an alternative, to all the Y harness and the likes, you could install a couple of Spektrum satellite RX's and just bind them to the Aura and your TX. It's covered in the manual but not recommended by David since it is a jet. I've heard of many people doing it on the smaller 3D foamy models they sell..

[andre]

So so so tempted.

[xviper]

Got mine yesterday and worked on it in the evening. It's finished, just need to recheck CG with wheels down as per manual.
Has anyone mentioned that the box is very long? The fuse is only about 5" longer than the Avanti S but it's one piece (where the Avanti S has a detachable nose cone). The Flightline A-10 is much longer when completed but the fuse comes in sections so the box wasn't that long. It came well packaged and shipped safely.
Note that's a standard refrigerator next to the box.



Foam quality was good overall but I noticed one spot that was a little thin on the top of the wing where the carbon tube goes through. You can see the foam cells but this is not unusual for foamies.
First thing I noticed when I took off the EDF hatch was all 3 motor wires were not fully connected, so have a close look and rectify. The thrust tube was easy to take out but getting it back over the fan shroud took a bit of fiddling.
Installing and adjusting those control rods for the elevators were a bugger. Clipping onto the horns, unclipping repeatedly to adjust the length was a bit tough for me as it was such tight quarters to work in. My hand actually cramped up doing it.
Cutting out those little paper elevator calibration guides took me back to grade school. I almost felt like I should have used plastic scissors. LOL They were very handy and took the guess work out of where to set the elevators.
I'm using a Lemon 10-ch Rx with sat. (that's all I had, but a 6-ch would have sufficed), so this required pulling all the servo connections from the Aura8 and re-connecting as per manual. One thing of note ................ they do not provide all the wires that go from the Rx to the Aura8. They are female to female servo type wires and you need 4 of them. You'll also need 2 "Y's" to gang the elevators and rudder/steering together.
The retracts are beautiful. The only ones that are even nicer are the ones that come on the Freewing 90mm F-16 and the FMS F7F Tigercat. I dabbed a little FoamTac on all the C-clips.
Not being one to follow convention, I chose my own "special" pilot figure.



Won't be able to maiden it for a week or so as the field is a mud bath.

[Justin k]

This is blue leader haha. In response I was using the floureon 4500 mAh 45 C in the blue and white flexjet . it's not really my high performance pack, but just wanted to see how it would feel and the CG is perfect, and I didn't have to trim the flexjet at all from the very first flight flew beautifully!!!

[Cpl. Sli]

I was the flyer of the blue and white one, that reported top speed on the Spektrum GPS of 130 + ,and I'm proud to report that I actually put the plane in my truck with the GPS initialized. I not only have the manual speedometer in my truck but also a GPS speedometer linked to the ECM in the truck, drove around for about 20 minutes on and off the freeway and around town and the GPS matched on my truck within .2 miles an hour and would drop and lower speed almost as fast as the speedometer in the truck.

Hi Justin, What batterie were you using on this flight? Im thinking about getting this plane!

[Alpha]

Welcome, Justin! I'm excited for this plane, it's a strong entry that demonstrates the advantages of smart design unfettered by scale fidelity constraints. 130 is fast on this power system!

[goosekiller1]

I was the flyer of the blue and white one, that reported top speed on the Spektrum GPS of 130 + ,and I'm proud to report that I actually put the plane in my truck with the GPS initialized. I not only have the manual speedometer in my truck but also a GPS speedometer linked to the ECM in the truck, drove around for about 20 minutes on and off the freeway and around town and the GPS matched on my truck within .2 miles an hour and would drop and lower speed almost as fast as the speedometer in the truck.

Ya Justin about time welcome. I see the what we were talking about last night and showed you what was said well enough said. LOL:Cool::f16 Goose:bluelove

[Bajora]

I was the flyer of the blue and white one, that reported top speed on the Spektrum GPS of 130 + ,and I'm proud to report that I actually put the plane in my truck with the GPS initialized. I not only have the manual speedometer in my truck but also a GPS speedometer linked to the ECM in the truck, drove around for about 20 minutes on and off the freeway and around town and the GPS matched on my truck within .2 miles an hour and would drop and lower speed almost as fast as the speedometer in the truck.

Blue leader is now in da house! LOL Welcme Justin!

[Justin k]

I was the flyer of the blue and white one, that reported top speed on the Spektrum GPS of 130 + ,and I'm proud to report that I actually put the plane in my truck with the GPS initialized. I not only have the manual speedometer in my truck but also a GPS speedometer linked to the ECM in the truck, drove around for about 20 minutes on and off the freeway and around town and the GPS matched on my truck within .2 miles an hour and would drop and lower speed almost as fast as the speedometer in the truck.

[bill34207]

How does it fly without the gyro? Could it be a settings thing?

I've only flown mode 1 (no gyro) and mode 2 (light aerobatics with gyro) I did the maiden on mode 1 and switched to mode 2 (mild aerobatics with low gain gyro) after getting it trimmed out. Didn't really notice a lot of difference in the way it flew but have been using mode 2 ever since. Mode 3 has some serious throw in both ailerons and elevator and the gyro gains are higher. Expert mode has to be "enabled" to get the taileron mixing for roll axis. I may get there eventually but really enjoying it in mode 2 for now.

[Alpha]

How does it fly without the gyro? Could it be a settings thing?

[bill34207]

Mine needed loads of right trim on the maiden as did fellow club member Jamie. Rosytime commented either on RC Groups or here that there was another where he flies and that one did not need the right trim.
As far as the trim moving to the tailerons when you run quick trim it doesn't seem to have any adverse effects on how it flies. It tracks nice and true through a loop..