vicman

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I'll drink alone.

AntonioE

Hi PilotSmith, hi all.
Its amaizing your work. I´m recenly finished mine. Please, I don´t want comparations I know mine it´s not very good finished but...
Ok, I hope like you.
Cheers.

vicman

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You got a great looking Hornet there! How does it fly? What are you using for propulsion? I got the wing and rear flying surface mounted last night and will try to get the rear deck and verticals on tonight. Then time to paint. I hope #5 flies as good as the others[sm=bananahead.gif]

AntonioE

Hi vicman, I have no fly may plane yet, I hope to fly it this weekend becouse I´m waiting for a LiPo bateries for it.
I´m using a 5.5x4.5 pusher prop and graupner 480bb speed engine with 3S2C LiPo kokam 1500.
If this configuration it´s not good, I´m going to use a brushless.
The next week I told you something about the fly.

vicman

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Is there any reason you are not using the drive systems recomended? Not picking, just curious. [8D]

All I need to do now is add the verticals and paint on mine. I was doing a little cockpit detail last night and may be able to give it a toss this weekend.

Antonio if yours flys as good as the previous ones I built it will become your new favorite model.

PilotSmith

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Hi Antonio,

Thanks! I think yours looks great! I really like your color scheme. If I have problems with orientation I might repaint my F18 with a pattern similar to yours. I am not that great of a pilot so sometimes I still get disoriented and don't know if I am right side up or upside down! Let us know when you fly your plane. My PC motherboard died Monday so I got even more behind having to fix that. The replacement motherboard was also dead so Tuesday I had to get another replacement and wasted even more time. It is torture having this plane sitting next to me ready to fly and no time right now to get out to the park. [sm=spinnyeyes.gif]

vicman

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Don't feel bad about not testing. I have a spankin new F-20 that has been waiting for around 3 weeks[:@]. Stupid wind! Maybe next weekend, since I'll be left coasting it this weekend.

AntonioE

Hi PilotSmith and vicman.
PilotSmith I think yours its a very very nice paint scheme, and like vicman says, don´t worry if you can´t fly it now, It´s more important that the plane flies good.
Monday I will give you the information about the plane fly.
Vicman, tell us all about f-20 fly. Could you send us some photo about this plane?

vicman

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Will these work?[8D]

PilotSmith

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I was driving near skid row today and noticed a bunch of small shops with cheap import toys. One place had a bunch of RC stuff. I picked this up for the kids in hopes they will lose interest in it after a while and I can recruite it into my fleet. Looks to have enough room to put a real rc radio and couple of small servos inside for a small pusher jet. For $35 it came with a cheap radio with on/off throttle and right/left control via changing the speed of the rear motors, NiMh battery and charger. Wingspan is about 23". Kids are not ready for real RC flying yet so something like this can keep them entertained while I have fun with my planes. I wonder how they can sell this for $35 when it would probably cost me more than that just to ship the box to China???

vicman

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Looks pretty good now just put another $135 worth of brushless and lipo in there.[sm=bananahead.gif]

PilotSmith

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Nooooooo! Only salvaged parts from the morgue bucket would go into that. (Except for maybe a small Lipo.)

vicman

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Aww c'mon! This from a guy who has stroked a cheap dfan foamy to death for at least a month and a half and still hasn't flown it yet!![sm=spinnyeyes.gif] I have built two planes and a rocket in that time. Quit thinking an start flying already!

You know of course I am teasing in all good fun. I do think some of those little Fiaggio motors would make that thing scoot in three languages![>:]

PilotSmith

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Hey, hey, hey - If you'd get more that a couple flights out of your planes before crashing them you wouldn't need to build 2 per week! (And don't try to convince me that you are grinding them down to a nub with so many landings on the blacktop road.) LOL! [sm=wink.gif]

Unless the weather is real bad this weekend the F18 EDF Foamy will surely fly! With my F22 smashed up for the last couple monhts, I am real anxious to get any jet flying soon. My Sopwith and Slowstick just don't generate the release of adrenaline like the jets as I can fly them with my eyes closed.

vicman

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Man that was just harsh.[X(] Of the five I have built I only flew one, the others were given to friends. I flew skully#41 for about 3 months and yes as a matter of fact I did need to replace the bottom from so many landings[>:]! I also retired it because it was beginning to look like molded epoxy with a motor in the rear. I think I will do the F-15 next.

hypersoniq

what about light landing gear? This is the main reason I want to go EDF vs. pusher. I'm hoping for ROG but would be happy with hand launch/standard landing. of course it IS an F-18... wonder if a good bottom spar the length of the fuse with a hook at the aft end would catch a spring/wire arrestor cable mounted on a plywood sheet... how cool would that be?
quick Q... how is Elmer's white glue instead of foamsafe CA? I read somewhere else that they built a foamie with that (and the owens corning "pinkcore") with a 24' wingspan and it flew!

vicman

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[:'(] Why clutter up the great looks of a nice flying airplane? This thing lands like a dream! For as little $ as I have in them I don't worry about grinding the bottom off.[sm=spinnyeyes.gif] Just build it and fly it. regarding glue, if you have all night to let it set-up and dry I would recomend some type of polyurethane (probond or gorrilla) glue. I use alot of DAP contact cement on mine. The Ca works fine too but can get a little costly.

PilotSmith

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Today was a bad day... [] It all started off fine enough. Nice sunny day with mild to moderate wind. Launched it and it was too tail heavy so I landed it right away and moved the battery forward a bit. Launched again and control was good. Did a couple circles around the field to trim it out. Only needed a couple clicks of aileron trim to fly straight and level. Now was time to try some maneuvers. Started to reach the end of the field where I normally make my turn. Then I hear silence and I have no power or controls. It starts to gently bank right and point down. In a couple seconds it is spinning nose down. Very helpless feeling for what seemed like a very long time until it smashed into the field. [sm=drowning.gif] Despite lawn dart crash, everything from rear of cockpit mount back seems fine. So maybe I will rebuild it one of these days. I think the reinforced floor modification saved it from being a total loss. In a way I would have rather dumb thumbed it into the ground than to lose it for an unknown cause.

It had a brand new HiTech Electron 6 receiver in it. I did a ground check before flight and range on ground checked out fine. After I picked up the pieces I plugged a battery back into it and control surfaces were all working fine but motor does not turn on but spins freely. So I need to do an autopsy to try to figure out what could have been the cause of the electrical power loss to the plane or shut down of the receiver. My F22 also has the same receiver and I've never had a range problem with it. My initial guess is a receiver failure. Lesson learned here is that next time I will put the flight pack on my Slow Stick and fly it a few times before putting it into the plane.

I asked my son to take some video but he only got a few seconds of it flying that was not blurred. He turned off the camera about 3 seconds before it lost power. Wish I at least had some video of it going down!

Oh, how did it fly you ask? Well, it seemed to fly at about the same speed as my F22 pusher (Mega 16/15/6 8x6 prop 4s LiPo). It did not have the vertical performance of my F22 but I didn't get much of a chance to try it out to get a full impression. It cut through the wind nicely and responded very quick to the inputs. Overall I'd say performance and speed was good. If you want a lot of speed I think the 2 turn brushless is necessary. But I really needed more time to determine if it was going to be a fun flyer or not. The Blue Angles color scheme made me have to concentrate much more than I like to concentrate when flying. If I rebuild it I am going to repaint it with a more contrasting color scheme.

I put a short video clip on my server but I warn you in advance it is rather boring and about a 8mb file for 30 seconds. http://www.smithland.com/rc/f18b.mpg

Vicman, I'll have that drink now!

PilotSmith

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Preliminary autopsy completed. Culprit appears to be the Phoenix 25 ESC. [:@] No crash damage to the ESC as it is rather light and was in the rear. Replaced it with a spare Phoenix 45 and motor and fan unit run fine now. Oh well, at least nobody got hurt. When it kept flying past the turning area it ended up going over and crashing into a field where a bunch of little kids were playing soccer. I don't even want to think what could have happended if it crashed on one of their heads. [X(] Maybe that AMA insurance in not a bad idea after all!

hypersoniq

sorry about the crash. Glad to hear it did fly!
On that video I heard someone commenting that they didn't think it was going to maneuver well...

PilotSmith

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That was my father-in-law talking to his friend saying he didn't think I was going to do any maneuvers until I got accustomed to the airplane. They don't really know what is going on but enjoy watching.

vicman

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Sorry about the damage buddy! Do you have the plans to cut another one? If not let me know. One more reason to quit thinkin and start flying. The one I am working on now is the only one I have gone the extra mile and intend to paint. Otherwise glue and go! If you are serious about being free tomorrow. I have all the parts you need to repair your plane sitting here in the shop and will throw them in my suitcase and you can pick them up in San Jose. Oh yea, the drink offer still stands even if you don't want the spares. I will land at 11:45 and my hotel is about 10 min from the airport. Unless I get a better offer I plan to go over to Ames and tour the visitor center. I have an appointment with a buyer there on Tuesday.

Like Levi (the creator of 3Dfoamy) says "Throw it again!" Go ahead and build a pusher, I promise you will love it!

Vic

PilotSmith

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Hi Vicman,

Thanks for the offer. If you get too generous I might ask you to build a front end for me! A friend of mine is an architect and has one of those huge printers for blueprints. He printed out a full size plan for me so I am good on that. I still have 2 sheets of depron I got to repair my F22. So all I need now is the motivation and time to start the repairs. You know, after about 50' you can't tell what kind of paint job or detail is put into the plane. So you are very right to blaze through it and just have fun flying. Fortunately, the time consuming build part of the plane was not damaged, so repairs should go pretty quick once I start. I'd love to go to San Jose but 400 miles is too far! If you are ever in Orange County let me know.

vicman

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I have a front end sitting on the shelf with your name on it![sm=thumbup.gif]

PilotSmith

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Are you yankin' my cord? How much $?