Ok guys, you asked for it, so here it is.
Finally, an american built wood/foam/composite kit that is easy to build and has a flight performance that is second to NONE at the time of this writing. No it isn't perfect, but it's about as good as it gets!
The flight characteristics and testing have been covered extensively elsewhere, so I am going to focus on the building of the plane in this thread.
The weight is easy to make IF you follow my instructions to the letter. If you have better or more aggressive iseas, feel free to chime in, I certainly do not have all of the answers, I only know what has worked for me so I am going to share it.
First and foremost let's talk about weight management. You can NOT build a legal electric VF3 without an accurate gram scale. Unless you're the luckiest guy alive. Weigh EVERYTHING. if you can find a place to shave a few grams without sacrificing too much strength, by all means do so! But I can tell you right now, the 2 easiest ways to control the final weight of the airframe are with the sheeting and the finish.
The majority of sheeting on the VF3 uses 1/16x4x36" contest balsa. DO NOT use any piece of sheeting that weighs over 12 grams! The same goes for the capping and blocks....weigh and hollow everything. Even the leading and trailing edges, blocks for wing tips, tail blocks etc need to be hand picked contest balsa. The lighter, the better. To hedge your bets, get more wood than you need and only use the best pieces. if none are good enough, simply save them for another project and try again. Trust me on this one, this plane flies awesome so it's worth being patient and doing it right.
I'll go into specifics on the finish and sheeting in thier respective sections, but in general, just know that on a plane like this, with a LOT of surface area, you simply can't afford to get lazy. If you do it right and are careful in your execution and equipment selection, you can come out with a 10 lb plane with batteries. The plane was designed for the AXI outrunner (24-26 ounces) and 3 lb packs. it will make weight in this configuration, but you need to follow the directions. It's not hard at all, just don't get complacent.
As a general note, this plane is draggy and has a long tail moment. I strongly suggest using a DEPS system for the elevators and mini servos for the ailerons etc. You need to be thinking of an electric set up with a higher pitched prop. If you install the old industry standard hacker C50-14 and 22x12 prop, you can go have lunch during a downline. This is neat, but wait until that Nats wind comes up....not so neat. but personal preference.
For info's sake, details on the plane can be found at
www.customairframes.com
Off we go, I'll type as much as I can per day as I finish the ones I'm working on over the next few weeks.