ASRnogyroApprch

WELL... thanks Vettster for the info!! some bad fortune here this afternoon tho...lol. I took the Rafael to a local school track for some taxi tests and to finalize some control adjustments... WELL... kids screaming in my ear..(mine) OMG..lol..anyway there is a great deal of truth to the included TX being sensitive. With some minimal throttle advancement the plane was rolling and quickly approaching Vr (rotation speed). SO after turning around and taxi back to me a kid rolled a skateboard in front of it while at about 12MPH.. it bent the front gear back and broke the front gear control horn while sheering off the L main gear. NICE, eh?
After considering a TAZER application for the kid and myself, I decided to just fly the thing via hand launch. WELL.. in my haste I failed to notice that the elevons were functioning in REVERSE as the controller servo reverse was in reverse mode and/or the ailerons/elevator channel was switched. In either case I should have checked this..but again this is my first plane requiring elevons..so I obviously wasnt thinking about it enough. AT any rateI hand launched it without enough of a push..and had inadvertantly bumped some left aileron into it as it immediately rolled (at what I would estimate as around 360 deg./sec.) and "Lawn DARTED" (I LOVE THAT) into the track just adjacent the grass.
The crash resulted in the front 3rd of the Fuse being severed from the rest of the aircraft(which I subsequntly glued back together and decided to wait for another day..lol
At anyrate I will have it repaired and ready fo another attempt next wkend..! This airplane has incredible potential! I cant wait to get a sustained flight!

Vettster

LOL sorry but you tell a good story Just throw the gear in the garbage. If this is your first plane, you wont be able to land on them anyways and they just get bent up. Take them off and hand launch it. With the plane in your left hand and the elevators up about 3mm in your right hand, aim the plane about 20* up. Go to full thottle with your chin, and throw it. Itll climb straight out.

To land just line up the runway, cut the power and glide it in on its belly. This thing wants to glide forever! The other day i had 25klm winds and I had only 5% power on and it just hovered over the runway with "0" ground speed for about 10 secounds and then I just let down onto the ground.

Let us know how your next attempt goes

JeffH

My Feedback: (43)

Does anyone have a fan out of their Rafale that they want to sell?

Jeff

Vettster

check thease guys http://www.bphobbies.com/view.asp?id=V815101

Vettster

So how are you guys liking your new planes.

I tried a 4s today and holy cr@p did it go! Suprizingly well balanced too. I actually had to centre the trim. Humm I must of had the 3s to far back. Definantly needs bigger cooling holes though.

Vettster

and heres the vid

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v6...0919190908.flv

fossoman

Nice video but I would have like to seen it up close a little more you couldnt really tell what plane it was for sure. It Hauls now thats for sure I dont think I could get that wild with it Id crash for sure.

electron

My Feedback: (1)

Well got to maiden my Rafale this weekend... Great flying EDF really a blast to fly... Only problem is that on the second flight about 2 minutes into it the motor just stopped. I landed it and you could smell the tail pipe and tell the motor was toast. I have since pulled the EDF unit and the motor sure enough it's fried... Has anyone else had this problem? I have contacted Hobby Lobby about it but I have also been looking at a DON Wicked 4800kv as a replacement...

JeffH

My Feedback: (43)

I think most have had this happen at some point. It seems to be getting worse with regards to longevity. The older planes seem to last a bit longer. I know of 6 motors now that I have fried in less than 20 flights.

electron

My Feedback: (1)

Wow that’s crazy... It's a nice kit I wonder why in the world they would put a motor in them that fails so quick... Hobby Lobby did respond back and they are going to replace my motor and fan which is cool, glad to see they care about their customers... Couple bad things though they won't have the motor replacement for couple weeks and then how long will that motor last... I noticed you can get a 20mm heat sink for this size motor I wonder if that would help... I think I will just order a Don's 4800kv motor and give that a try while I wait for a stock replacement motor...

Electron

Here is a link to the motor I am talking about

http://donsrc.com/cart/index.php?act...d&productId=52

Vettster

You cant go wrong with that motor. Alot of people are useing it, but dont forget to change the ESC to a 54a and go 3s 2200 25c.

Youll have a blast!

electron

My Feedback: (1)

Well just waiting for the Don's 4800kv now.. Since I am waiting for motor I went ahead and put a AR6100 in the Rafale to run my DX7 radio with it, has anybody done this before I can't seem to find the DX7 radio mix for elevron's..

Squirrlybird

Turn on your radio while holding down and select at the same time.

Now hit the down button until you get to the [wing type] screen.

You need the "Delta" mix. This is the same as elevon/taileron.

You probably need to reverse channels 2 and 3. (assuming you have your tailerons plugged in the same as me)

Squirrlybird

Anyone got the recommended throws for this bird?

Thanks

jjman11

Yea, throw it up into the sky, if it hits the ground it wont be good. Just kidding Shane.

Squirrlybird

Hehe!

Hey buddy, you talked me into this one.

Nice avatar by the way!

electron

My Feedback: (1)

Excellent "thank you" that did the trick and yes I needed to reverse channel two and three as well.. BTW what did you set your throws at?

Squirrlybird

Glad you got it set up.

I guess I'm just going to set the throws to what "looks" good and dial in a lot of expo.

I have heard that the roll rate is really fast, but lots of elevator helps with the take off. Based on these reports, I am dialing in a lot of throw and counting on expo to save me on the first flight. After that, I will be better suited to set it up to my liking.

I will probably try 100%-130% throw (in the transmitter) and 50% expo. Be sure that when setting your throws, that you make both the aileron and elevator identical as this function only controls one servo and not the mix. However, setting expo controls the entire mix for either aileron or elevator, so you will not need identical settings in the expo menu. I would prefer to set the throw to an inch or centimeter value of deflection, but I'm sure it will be fine doing the trial and error method. Hopefully I wont have so much of the error part.

Unfortunately, its too windy here for a maiden today. Maybe things will calm down by the weekend.

fossoman

Glad to see this thread is still alive and kicking. My plane is wrecked and I wont have it in the air for a few weeks. but Im still monitoring. We need all the info we can to make this plane the best edf it can be. I know you guys say chuck the landing gear. But I would actually like to improve on it and come up with something better for it. Ive seen some edf planes about the same size that have scale realistic looking landing gear. when I figure it out I will post the info. I like landing the Rafale almost as much as flying it. Always enjoy a challenge. Anyway happy flying to everyone. Together we will figure out every tweak to make this plane Kick Tail over even the twin EDFS . EFlite F16 Twin edfs ESCs and Lipos NO Thanks.
Steve

Vettster

Sorry to hear even you! that lives so close to Hobby Nobby has been bitten by their 'Wait forever game'. I know how it feels.

on the other hand The Electric Jet Factory EJF aint all that great either! I ordered there T-45 a while back and 2 weeks! after they took my money they sent me an e-mail saying theyll be shipping it out soon, Say What!? When it finally got here it had a big dent in one wing and No decals in the box. I contacted them and they said they would ship it right out. 6 weeks later.....I contacted them again and asked were they were. "Oh Im sorry.......I told thouse guys to send it out" Ya what ever. 2 weeks after that I finally got the decals and put them on my dented up plane. Scratch another "I dont give a crap about the customer" hobby store off my list.

Squirrlybird

Finally maidened the rafale today. Flew great! Didn't even need any trim. With the main gear bent out a bit, she rose off the ground quite quickly. The rolls are crisp and axial without the need of elevator correction. Landings are a breeze with this jet as it just sits nicely in high alpha flight. The inverted flight characteristics are pretty much identical to upright.

The stock power system on the stock battery is moving it along quite nicely with a decent climb rate. It is not blazing fast but not too slow either. I am really happy with the out come of todays flight. Now I just need to mod it to fly a larger battery for more flight time. I am sure this is going to open a whole new can of worms.

Thanks for all the help.

Psycho Synapse

Hello all,

I have been following this thread for a while now...it seems to have died down a bit so I thought I would stir it up....feel free to check out my take on this plane at:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=922935

For anybody that is belly landing this plane...did you put packing tape or anything on the inlet edges to help protect them upon landing?

see ya.

Vettster

were all waiting on parts

trev

electron

My Feedback: (1)

Well I got my Don's 4800 installed into the Rafale and took if out for its maiden flight yesterday... I think it now fly’s a littler faster with Don's motor as compared to stock and best part is not a single heat issue...

Now comes the wild part of yesterdays flying, on the 3rd flight I decided to try a 2200 mah battery I had laying around for my Trex Helicopter. Flight wise all went really well, you could tell it had some added weight but the balance seemed fine and top speed wise it was about the same just a little less glide with the added weight but on the positive side was the 10 minutes of flight time I got.

Now comes the really wild part on the 5th flight I was doing some inverted passes and all sudden I see something fly off and the plane and then the plane was all over the place. I could hardly fly it all, just fighting it to get control and trying to keep it level, I shut power off and fought the thing all way down to the crash.

Well walking out to see the damage, I go by and pick up the piece that had feel off, it was the canopy and I thought hum, once I got to the plane I saw what had happen was the Velcro had come lose and the battery had dropped out of the plane. Apparently the battery got warm enough that the Velcro tape became soft and that caused the battery to fall out knocking the canopy off.

On the good side amazingly I was able to get enough control that I didn’t auger it into the ground it was more like a 25 degrees splat. After inspection I am suprised I got it down that well. I hit level so really the only things that it did was dent the heck out nose cone, broke a little piece of foam off the right wing tip, lots of scuffs from the tall grass, broke a piece of foam off around the canopy area from where the battery wire was hanging outside the plane and it also broke loose the front landing gear mount and bent the others, all and all really lucky because it could have flown again that day with just some glue on the front landing gear mount.

But now I think since it scuffed up the paint pretty bad in several places, it's time for a new cool paint job and the nose cone probably is going to need replacing if I want it to look as good as new....


Electron

Psycho Synapse

Electron,

Sorry to hear about your mishap. Hopefully you will be back in the air soon. Sounds like you are happy with the 4800.

I don't like how hot my batteries are getting inside this fuselage. I am thinking about making some air vent holes on the side of the plane near the canopy to help get some cooler air flowing around the battery. Have you considered doing this as well?

Has anybody that owns this plane tried venting the battery area at all? Just curious because I would like to keep my battery cooler without hacking the plane to death.

Any suggestions are welcome.

David