schwatd

Hello All,

My LHS just got an F-22 PTS (Progressive Training System) from Hanger 9. I was elected to assemble and test it. I will have some pictures within a couple of days but I can tell you this is a cool package, Nice evolution motor and 6-channel JR radio system. Much more later.

MinnFlyer

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That does look like an interesting little plane

RCVFR

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I dunno. So far, I have read where it's too heavy, tries too hard to be scale, is not nearly scale enough, can't possibly be a good trainer because it's not a high wing planform, the Horizon video can't be believed becuse it was flown by a competent flyer, and on...and on...and on.

Having an actual hands on experience by an RCU member will ruin everything! I can hardly wait!

schwadt, you are carrying a heavy responsibility here. I wish you well.

BarracudaHockey

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I wonder if they will release just he airplane so I could strip off the trainer junk, put flap servos and a real engine on it, I think it would be cool looking.

gunfighter

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That is what many of us are hoping for![8D]

schwatd

OK, can't hardly type with this heavy weight on my back,...thanks Jim Dines!!!!! Anyway, have been examining this bird and actually its pretty cool.

bigedmustafa

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It's funny how all the naysayers are the guys who don't have one.

schwatd

OK, here's the poop on the assembly part.

It took me a little over an hour to assemble this birdy, it would have been less but the packaging of the hardware ment I had to spend time seperating bolts, measuring and finding all the correct fastners with their seperately packaged part. Not too big of an issue for someone who is use to having to do this but might cause some confussion with a beginner. Onward, the nose gear took some doing, the chromed wire nosegear wouldn't fit into the brass control horn. Bummer, hummm I'll force it, nope. I know I'll play a trick on it. I disconnected the control arm from the servo link and put both the nose gear and the control arm in the freezer( that'll teach to mess with me, uh huh!). Next I went on to attaching the stabilizers and then went back to the nose gear. Guess what, it fit! Very quickly I reinstalled the control arm in the nose gear bracket, slid the gear wire up through the fuselage and into place, viola!

OK, wings next, the carbon tubes fit nicely and the wings went in place easily, the nylon bolts were a little tough but that's probably cause I have fat hands and dumb thumbs. The issue I'm most concerned with is the routing of the servo wires, they are laying on the servo control arms and there isn't any mention of tidying things up. Hum, well there is plenty of room and ways to accomplish that so if the RTFer knows that in advance they should be OK. Now I have to do all the radio checks. Pictures as soon as I find the bloody cable that goes from the camera to the computer.

MAndren

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Guys,

Just announced today is the ARF version of the F-22 Raptor PTS. It will be available in two color schemes, the high visibility red and white, and a stealth gray version.

Here are the links to both of the airplanes.

http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products...ProdID=HAN4385

http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products...ProdID=HAN4375


Matt

schwatd

OK, Pictures in a few minutes, Today did taxi tests, low speed turning, high speed up to take off and aborted landing, then flew for a few minutes, was doing touch and goes to get a feel for the glide slope and approach envelope.

Tires are too hard, period. With stiff wire gear mains the little plane bounces very noticably even on a fairly smooth surface. Lost control several times during high speed tests due to wheel hop of the nose gear.

However, this is a cool plane to taxi, At idle it just sits there and purrs, add just one click of throttle and a very nice slow roll that stays just that speed, very easy to predict and control, nice turning radias.

High speed passes. Except for the bouncing tire issue, this plane goes pretty straight, a little right rudder to kickoff the engine torque but its a one time shot then a good true run.

Aborted takeoffs. Aircraft comes back down smoothly and reduces speed pretty well. Was working with a 125' runway/taxi way and continued to test the distance at which point you could get this back down safely. Looks like 35-45 feet from rotation to controllable ground speed on a paved runway. Anything shorter will probably end up as an overshoot.

OK, smooth into the throttle and wow, this little bird has plenty of get up and gone!!! Had to throttle back rather quickly to keep from dumb thumbing this one. OK , flys well, nice turns, broad wing surface easy to see aspect changes, not bad, very little trimming, and the JR Sport 600 is a dream to trim, quick clicks and all better.

Takeoff at full throttle is quick and adventuresome, I wouldn't recommend it unless you're ready for a handful. The F-22 was airborne within 20-30 feet at the most and was ready to pounce anything in its path.

Takeoff at 1/2 to 3/4 throttle very nice, climb out is very smooth and easy to predict.

Landings, again the hard tires are in need of replacement, even on my best approaches I still managed to bounce once or twice a couple of inches.

Tried one high speed touch and go, oops, though better of it with the tires, but no let my ego fly the plane,...stupid ego. Bounced once, should have just pulled up and forgotten about it but tried to let it settle down and it clipped the ground with the prop, ie, no prop now.

So that ended the first flight testing till I can get back to my drawer full of props!

In my humble opinion,... this is a very nice plane, a very nice radio system, good price, and a good trainer, now with that said anyone that is new to this hobby, even though this is a really cool plane,and a good trainer, GET an INSTRUCTOR PILOT to help you learn how to fly!!!!!! Like every plane this one can get away from you if you don't know what to expect. These first few flights have been to see where the edge of the flight control envelope is and how much warning the aircraft gives you when you approach it.

Abaco24

Just can't see putting a prop on a jet, but I'm old school.

Slap a EDF on this puppy with a Hacker as a redesign.

schwatd

Abaco24,

You're exactly correct, I looked at my LHS manager with distane when he first told me about this plane, but now that its built, its actually pretty cool. I was totally amazed. So I guess the saying, don't knock it till you try it, applies to this plane?

Doc Austin

My two friends (brothers) and I bought one each and we're going out later today. Ought to be pretty cool.

I'm not very happy about the rat's nest of wires laying on the servos, so I pulled all the wiring out and re-routed everything. I've hooked up the flaps and with those there's a lot of wires in there. Fortunately the fuselage is utterly huge inside, but it still took a bit of work to fish all the wires under the servo tray to where I wanted them. I'm still not happy with it, but it's very close, and I can tinker with it later.

Hey, this radio has digital trims! Most of the JR radios I've played with have had the old ratchet type. I've got a 6102 in my Pulse and it's got digital trims, which I like a lot. I wasn't expecting this plane to come with a radio that advanced. I thought it was going to have a Quattro or a 400 or something, so I was very pleased to find this quality of a radio in the plane. The receiver is also very small when compared to the 700 that came with my 6102. At first I was leery of the new small receivers, but now that I've flown a few I like the fact that they are really easy to jam in just about anywhere in the plane. It makes the installation a lot easier. I'm sure even after I wear out the Raptor (or worse) I'll use this radio in other projects.

I'm new to JR radios after 30 years of flying Futaba. I'm not all that familiar with the line, but Captain Ben has a bunch of them and they all work beautifully. I was so impressed with the way his radios worked, and they way they were put together, that I bought the 6102 for my Pulse PNP. Ordinarily I would haver never even considered a plane that came with anything but a Futaba radio, but now I've got two JRs.

I didn't play with the transmitter much because I wanted it to get a good charge, but it's extremely nice. I wanted to mix in a little down elevator trim with the flaps, but it looks like this radio doesn't have flap/elevator mixing. I'll know more when I have a good charge on it and get to play around with it more. Maybe I ought to read the instructions.

One thing I plan to do when I get the plane trimmed is to solder the two elevator push rod ends together where they meet just before the servo. They come held together with wheel collars, and if those work loose it could be really ugly, so I'm going to fix that. For now I locktited them and they should be fine.

I'm going to try the plane for a few flights with the wing extensions on just to check out it's training capability. I've got extensive experience with the PTS Mustang because I have a few students who own them, and I demonstrate Captain Ben's (with all the training stuff pulled off) whenever we have a fundraiser or other big event at our club. I've flown the plane in all it's possible configurations and it's really nice. I was thinking about getting one before I saw the Raptor, but I've got plenty of Mustangs to fly and I'm almost tired of them because I fly so many of them now. I really need to know if this thing will make an acceptable trainer because I've got so many students. Yeah, that's the ticket! For my students!

I like the Hangar 9 Alpha trainer, and ever better is the Hangar 9 Arrow, but students almost always want something cooler than a boring, generic Cessna looking knockoff. If the Raptor flies like a good trainer I think this could encourage a lot of the fence sitters to jump into the game and start flying.

I have wanted a new plane...........something different.... for awhile because all I've got is Ultra Sticks and Pulses in both nitro and electric. I love them, but I've been flying sticks for 30 years and I'm a little burned out on them. I also wrecked my nitro Pulse two weeks ago and I'm saving the new one for our big children's hospital fundraiser next weekend. There is simply not enough time to get another one and get it sorted if something goes wrong. I guess the Raptor, for me, is a combination of wanting something different, and having the excuse of needing and insurance policy ( I need to fly all day if we are going to raise enough money) and something show stopping for the fundraiser.

OK, to be completely honest, I really enjoy putting together a Hangar 9 plane, especially if it's something I haven't seen before. I like pulling the stuff out of the box and fondling it, and I love fitting things together because there is almost never a problem with one of these things. Every new Hangar 9 project I've tackled, especially these ready-to-fly and PNP planes, has been quick and easy with instant result. I just like the stuff. I'm sick of building (30 years worth) and it's really sweet to buy a high quality piece and go fly it the next day. I like the fact that Hangar 9 is making it so easy for so many people to go flying so effortlessly, and to do it with great flying, top quality gear. I like it that I don't have to rebuild new student's planes at the field because the Hangar 9 trainers are nearly fool proof. I Hope the kit business survives, but I think the RTF and, especially, PNP concept is the way forward for the sport.

This plane is more complex than an Alpha, Arrow, or even the Mustang, so it took a bit more work. Mostly, the project went together very well because all the Hangar 9 planes are extremely well thought-out. We'll know more later tonight when I inspect the plane after the first day's flying.

schwatd

Wow, I just read two other threads about this plane, man I guess I should just throw my plane on a fire and jump off a cliff. I have never seen so much whining about a plane they haven't seen, owned or flown. Guys lighten up! I've got well over $3000.00 in a plane that won't see a runway for atleast a year and I haven't even started looking at radio gear yet. This is a reasonable priced COMPLETE package. Add fuel and fly! Go simulator and trainer cords from JR to JR or Futaba. Man it is not as ugly as some of the other planes I've seen flying. Wow, ok I'll get off my soap box now. But I think I'll end with don't knock it till you try it.

RACJ

I have NIB EVO46 sitting here. I think the pics of this plane look great. If plane looks better in real life I better order the new ARF. If I install EVO at stock position will a tuned pipe be fairly simple and look better than stock muffler???? THANKS,RACJ

Doc Austin

I didn't at all mean for it to sound that way. We flew both of the raptors yesterday and both performed well. My friend's was left in the trainer mode and he was deleriously happy with it. I took all the training stuff off it so it would be fully aerobatic and it was a little trickey but it was still good. Of course, we were flying in 25mph winds, so it's not fair to judge the plane just yet.

One thing to be careful of is that the end point controls for the ailerons are set at 45%. This didn't look like enough to me, so I cranked them up to 100% and they are just right. She has a roll rate of three rolls in five seconds, which I think is just right. With the end point cranked back to 45% I think the thing would roll like a pig, but remember this plane comes set up for training.

Speaking of rolls, with all the fuselage area the raptor does a smooth, beautiful slow roll. I though with all the rudder force higher than the thrust line there would be a lot of roll coupling, but it surprised me how little effort it takes to knife edge the plane.

I also added the operational flaps, and while I haven't measured the deflection yet, I had to dial it back quite a bit. With a lot of flap droop the plane would rock back and forth on the roll axis when I would pull the nose up and try to settle the plane into a flair. This was probably too much lift in the center sections with the tips stalling and starting flying again. After I dialed it back the plane lands beautifully.


It's not reasonable. It's a steal! Try building something like this for yourselves and you'll see that this plane isn't a lot of money. The radio that comes with it is more advanced that the $500 radios we bought 10 years ago, and the engine package is about as reliable as you can get. If you had a plane like this built for you by a professional builder it's hard to say how expensive it would be (and a professional builder wouldn't do much nicer of a job than Hangar 9 has), but I sure couldn't afford it.

Everyone at the field dropped what they were doing to come look at our Raptors and several guys tried to buy mine from me before I had even flown it. Every time I flew it the whole club stopped, stood, and gawked at the Raptor. Everyone was begging to fly it. This plane is pretty cool and it really turns heads. Maybe some think it's not pretty, but it sure is the coolest sport plane I've ever seen.

I'm with you. I laughed when I saw the plane on the Hangar 9 website. I thought that you could sell people anything if you told them it was a trainer, but the Mustang fooled me too. I bought a Raptor just because we have a big children's cancer research fundraiser next weekend and it is definately going to make us a ton of money. People are going to pay to see their favorite plane fly, and everyone loves the Raptor.

It flies much better than I was expecting and once I get to fly it in less than Hurricane force winds I'm sure I'll be able to get her really dialed in. So far she has responded predictably to every change I've made and we are definately going the right direction with throws, balance and such.

I'll probably jam an Evolution 52 or an OS 55 under the cowling and then we will really see what she has. The evolution 46 is smooth and powerful, but this is a big plane and it deserves enough juice to go like a jet.

Photo #1 With longtime flying buddy Rich, obviously enjoying ourselves

Photo #2 Both Raptors ready for action. In the foreground is Don and Rich's, with all the training gear in place. In the background is mine with the wing extentions removed and faster 2 bladed prop installed.

Photo #3 Everyone lined up wanting to take a turn at flying the Raptor

Photo #4 And the best part about being an instructor is having someone to clean you plane.

Photo #5 Again, obviously enjoying myself

schwatd

Hey Matt,

I was talking about 2 other threads about the new Raptor, man they were brutel. Anyway, I like the pics and sounds like you're having as much fun with yours as I am with mine! Enjoy!!

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_5284388/tm.htm

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_52...mpage_2/tm.htm

Read both threads from the beginning, some of the folks think this whole plane and package are a hose job by Horizon, I don't think so.

bigedmustafa

My Feedback: (2)

Like I said...

Anyway, it's great to hear that you are both really happy with the finished product. I'm looking forward to seeing a few of these out at the field later this spring.

bassfisher

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Saw the Raptor at the LHS the other day - I was pretty impressed. A couple of the other "old" sticks like me were thinking about, when the ARF version hits the streets, stuffing a.60 in the front end and setting it up fast. It reminds me of a Shrike. I bet it will roll faster than you can imagineon high rate. Needless to say, if I buy the ARF version, all the training stuff will begin to gather dust out of the box. I'd get in the red and white - the gray would disappear to fast on a cloudy day.

p51mech38

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They did with the Mustang. So I bet they do.

fredscz

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Horizon's sight shows F-22 ARF plane only for $159.99 coming out late March. Both color combos available.

pkevinb

I don't think the grey would be a good color choice, the full scales are painted that way for a reason. Wonder how easy it will be to loose orientation or sight of the greay one?

Super Sabre

Too true.

BigBadJon

i just wanted to say i fell in love with this plane from the moment i saw it.. and i hate you all for getting one before me =) lol

schwatd

OK, new prop on the bird and back to the wild big blue!! I love to just walk the plane along at high AOA and nearly full throttle, just a few miles an hour it is really cool! This plane performs well for out of the box. It's just a lot of fun. And it looks really cool too. I think everybody needs one of these just break the menoteny(sp) I get frustrated on my other builds and think 'OH hey I just go out and fly my F-22' an hour or two later I feel sooo much better, relaxed then look at my project and go oh dumby I see what I need to do. So its a stress releif tool too! Get your doctor to write a prescription for!! hey you never know maybe the nsurance company will pay for it!! LOL OK enough silliness. Every body have fun with this plane!!!!