Spacey

Anyone flown this bird? It is hanging in my LHS and it sure is cheap and nice looking. I need a quick replacement bird for my Irvine .39 and this thing seems light enough. Quality is obviously not great but for the money it is not bad at all. I can not find anything at all on the net. Not even a picture. I think us poor saps here in SA are like testing grounds for these companys.

Any inputs would be a great help. I really just want to know if it is 3D capable at all, all these arfs that say 3D and can't even pull a hover really upsets me? I need something that will harrier well and so on? HELP?

gpar

I've flown the Future from Phoenix Models. About ten flights only.
I like :
The price. is really cheap
The fuselage shape
The plane is very light. About 1800 grms.
I don't like :
The wing area should be higher for a 3D.
The wing span is too short, 126 cm for a 138 cm fuse.
The main gear is too low for taking off .Should be bent to make it taller.

I've used 2 futuba 3001 servos for the tail and 2 hs 81 hitec micro for ailerons. Engine is a TT 46. It cames with a very heavy engine support which should be replaced for a standard one.

It flies fine so far. I was able to torque roll it, but I still have to test it with more throws and move the c.g. further back. (Ignore the manual recommendations on c.g.).

Spacey

Looks like it's going along the route of all the other say 3D but doesn't .40 sized stuff from vmarr and phoenix etc. Kinda got my mind off of it already. Thank you very much for your reply. I'd love to hear more though to pass it on to the LHS for future buyers to come. I think I'll rather stick to the profiles for 3D flying.

But yes like I said keep me posted on your finds with the model please? The price is right and alot of guys are interested in it but I can never give anyone a solid answer when asked on how it flies.

yanival

I fly the Future3D, and love it !! (I usually fly Dazzler - horrible plane, Hobbico spectrum - nice, Dave Patrick Extra 330 - no need to say more)

The plane is beautifully built and professionally covered with high quality matterial. The fuselage is beautiful, and looks big for a .40 size plane. It is VERY light. The wing and stabs are fully built and hinged. All I had to do is to drop the fin and horizontal stabilizers into the slots in the fuselage, install the servos and engine. This is the easiest ARF to build. One thing that took some time was the servos installation. The servo holes are meant for mini servos (go figure..), so I had to enlarge the holes and reinforce - pretty annoying. I also did not like the large fuel tank compartment. It is too big to hold the fuel tank in place, so I had to glue some ply to support the fuel tank (nothing special, but the airplane is built so fast, that this kind of simple tasks got my attention).

Accessories: everything is supplied, but the fuel tank and engine mount must be replaced. The fuel tank is so funny - they built the lightest airplane, but supplied the heaviest fuel tank that could ever be invented !! The tank stopper is made from rubber with two HEAVY metal disks. It worth buying this plane just to get the chance to see that fuel tank stopper. I think it weight the same as a standard servo. Just replace it with the cheapest fuel tank you can find, and save a lot of weight. I am still flying with the original tank (just did not had the chance to replace it).
The engine mount is also very heavy. It weights more the the whole airplane frame. Just replace it with nylon mount.

Flight characteristics: At first I thought that it would not fly well because of the short, narrow wings. But, WOW, thins thing fly nice. It does harriers really easy. Hovers are also easy. I just love flying in harrier all day long, and transition to hover from time to time. If the nose fall from the hover, I just add a bit of power, and pull full elevator, and it gets back to 90 degrees in a second. The control surfaces are just huge, and you feel it while flying. Knife edge needs lot of ailerons mix. Never drops a wing during stalls. Landing are very easy - it never dropped a wing during my slow landings. I had a lot of dead stick landings with it, and all were easy.

Because of it's short wings, I thought that it is unstable during the initial flight. I even thought that I had some kind of radio interference. After few minutes I got used to it, and now I think that this is the MOST PREDICTABLE airplane that I ever had (that includes my first trainer and my DP Extra).

CG: Make sure to put it back enough. Don't even think of using the recommended CG noted in the manual - not even for initial flight (I never used it - my CG is much behind the recommended one). I don't know what the guys in Phoenix models thought when they recommended that CG for a 3D machine.

Takeoffs: The wing is parallel to the ground (zero alpha angle), so takeoffs takes about 30 meters. Be sure not to pull the elevator too much - it wont help. Just be patient and let the Future3D take off by it's own will.

I fly with 46 fx, Master 12x4 and APC 12W. Hovers with much power to spare. Vertical accelerations are good, but not fast enough, so I will soon replace to MVVS .49. I mounted the engine inverted, which puts the muffler exit just in front of the wing servo - not a good thing, but nothing that a mufller deflector can not solve.

I bought it in about 200$ here in Israel (for reference, UcanDo .60 costs about 190$ in here), and I think that it worth every penny.

Hope it will help someone,
Yaniv.

Spacey

Hehe funny you pop the thread up after all this time. Yesterday a buddy of mine got one from the LHS so we could finally see what it could get up to. I'll update the thread as soon as we get it in the air and sorted out. We were very scared with the weight they said it would come to but we'll have to see for the end result if its all true. Thanks for you very detailed post. I'll be sure to organise one as well as soon as the bird flies.

Cheers!

yanival

Forgot to mention: I use standard sevos with 6 volts battery. I think that the 6v really matters.

Yaniv.

yanival

My Future3D is gone. The wing blew out in while tring to abraptly transition from vertical descent to elevator. I used falpron, and 45 degrees deflection on the elevator. The vertical descent was with idle engine of course. Then I pulled full up, and the wing broke in the root.

Spacey

You reckon it was structural problems or was the Future just reaching expiration date? Sorry about your loss. My bud still doesn't have hes ready to go, nearly there though.

yanival

Absolutely structural problem. The wing was in great condition - never touched the ground or anything like that. I suppose that most of the airplanes (3D intended) will not survive the presure I was holding on it. So I guess Phoenix does not have to be blaimed on this. I have done a lot of other demanding aerobatics, and the plane was fine with it, so your friend does not have to worry about it. Just don't put full elevator and flapron on high rates when gaining speed in vertical descent.

Yaniv.

gpar

The Phoenix Models Future is great for torque rolling. It flies very slow in small areas. Knife edge needs some aileron correction. Flat spins are not very flat, so far ( I haven't tried it much ).

I think enlarging the ailerons chord would help a lot the 3d performances (so increasing wing area..).

One of my elevators halves broke down the balsa at the hinge location when torque rolling 2 meter high causing a crash without any more damage. I`ve reinforced the balsa already.

So far, a lot of fun for a cheap price.