aviator24

I just got this new model from RICCS, Riccs Electronic Technology CO.,LTD. http://www.riccs.cn It is an ARF Ducted Fan Jet. Upon unpacking the jet, I was very impressed with the initial views. Everything was very high quality and looked to be very well built. It is a 5 Servo/ 4 Channel design. Mine came with a 3 cell 2000 Mah LiPo, Brushless Ducted Fan Motor, 25 A ESC and 2.4G Radio System already installed! This beauty came with everything needed, even the glue and neck strap for the transmitter, talk about complete!! Very impressive.
Assembly went off without a hitch.
All that is required is gluing on the control surfaces, plugging in the servos and snapping on the landing gear. It can all be done with ease in under an hour! You have the option of removing the main landing gear with NO TOOLS. Nice touch.
Once I had my wings, tail and rudder glued on, I tested out the electronics. It is obvious this plane is built for speed and will be very responsive. With a servo for EACH aileron and two on the elevator, high speed maneuvers will be a breeze.
Outside I ran up the engine and tested the steerable nose gear while I taxied the T-38 Jet. Very nice, responsive, quick control. It was all I could do not to give her full throttle and go airborne, it looked that impressive. I never have attracted such a crowd on a taxi test before. They were quickly disappointed when I had to announce I would not be flying as it was nearly dark and I was not at my usual flying field. Speaking of my flying field, it is under water compliments of Hurricane Ike, not good. It will be a few days before I am able to report on how well this new model from RICCS will fly...stay tuned!

jmir

My Feedback: (1)

Hurry up! Don't wait for your field to dry up!
We are anxious to learn how it flies!

[email protected]

I really expect to see how you fly it.

Jetdktr

My Feedback: (21)

$$$$$$$$ ? not on the website how much was yours shipped to you?

aviator24

This is a pre production model I received to evaluate.
It as manufactured from RICCS in China, ww.riccs.cn.
You can get it soon from http://www.sicorpusa.com/ if all goes well!

Stay tuned, I will keep everyone updated when they are available,as well as my flight review...

aviator24

Finally...flew this rocket! Well, I went out to a small airport I fly full scale from. I wanted all the runway I needed to get this new T-38 in the air and back down with no trouble. I took my sidekick with me armed with a digital camera to get some in flight action. Take off was nice and smooth. What little correction I needed was easily accomplished with the steerable nose wheel. It was only about 25 yards of runway that required more than sufficient speed to lift off. This jet accelerates unbelievable fast. Once airborne, all that was needed was a bit of left aileron trim and the T-38 was flying beautifully. The speed was extreme. After leveling off I brought the jet around for a photo pass. Well, I am sorry to report, my photographer was UNABLE to keep this jet airplane in the frame!!! As I was flying all I could hear was, "I cannot get it, it is too fast!" I tried another pass, then another. Not much I could do as my attention was focused on having a blast flying this High Powered Electric Ducted Beast.
Just a touch of aileron was all that is need and it rolls with such precision and speed. This is by far the quickest roll rate I have ever experienced. Straight and level flight was not a problem as well. Even with half throttle, this jet was very fast. What a sight it is to see it fly.
Since this was my maiden flight, I limited it to some high speed passes, rolls and only one loop. It turns as if it is on rails. The dual servo action on both the aileron and elevator is quick and precise. There is just no lag whatsoever. The response is instant and very secure.
My flight was done in no wind so this was never a factor. From what I am able to tell, wind will not be much of a concern for this very aerodynamic airframe. It simply flies as good as it looks.
Landing was uneventful as the landing gear are more than adequate for a model of this size.
Well, as I speak, my battery is charging, getting ready for another awesome flight. I cannot wait.
For the next flight, I will have my digital camcorder ready to document this bird in flight. I promise to have nice video footage showing just what I have described.
Stay tuned...

aviator24

Well...flew the T-38 a few times today.
I took off the landing gear and did a hand launch. I do not recommend doing this all by yourself. I was the only one at the field and was too impatient to wait. To my surprise, I launched it and got on the controls and did OK. First thing I must admit, the roll rate on this is ridiculously FAST! Even with the servos and linkages at the lowest settings, this jet will do a roll or five in the blink of an eye. It is as responsive as anything I have ever flown. Not saying this is a bad thing, but this is no trainer. When it is screaming through the sky, it is a very cool sight. No photos or video can truly do this jet justice. It simply has to be seen to believe how fast and sweet it looks ripping through the sky. It is that fun to watch. It sounds as good as it looks. Of course, for this flight, there was not a person around to enjoy it with me.
Later on the field began to get crowded. Finally, the Lipo was charged and ready to go. It felt like all the field suddenly became quiet and all eyes were on me and the T-38. Everyone wanted to see it fly. Well, I choked! In my haste to hand launch it and jump on the controls, I gave a bad toss. I pretty much threw the plane into the ground! It snapped in half just in front of the wings! DANG IT! How embarrassing. Well, I had some quick drying CA glue with me and 10 minutes later, it was all ready for another try! A fellow RC flier took pitty on my solo efforts and offered to do the hand launch for me. That was all I needed to get this jet screaming through the sky yet again. By this time the sun was setting and it was beginning to get dark. Well, this combine with a totally black Jet Rocket did not make for a good combination! I was having a very difficult time determining the orientation of the plane. In the future, I will paint the bottom Yellow, this would have helped greatly. But by the time I realized it, I was in trouble. I was able to make few nice high speed passes. Next thing I knew, I thought I was heading for the ground too fast. I pulled up, only up was down. The T-38 did a nice job of nose planting in the ground at a very high rate of speed. The nose cone was actually stuck about 3 inches into the ground. The fuselage was destroyed from the wings forward. All the electronics were fine, I was lucky. Well, as SOON as I can get a new airframe from my friends at RICCS, I will be back in the air. It cannot come soon enough. Till then...

[email protected]

Dear Sir,

You can contact with Mark [email protected] about the T-38Talon,he is our usa dealer.

[email protected]

What's going on with the airplane now?

aviator24

I have it all together! The fan was making contact with the outer engine shroud under power. It would not do this when I hand turned it? I have read this has happened to another person on a different RC thread? Also been hearing I need to put a bigger ESC in it as well?
I want to make sure it is 100% perfect before I fly. I do not want to crash another one.
On a positive note, I did put some Yellow Stripes on my new T-38. It looks really nice and will be much easier to see when I fly it!

EDFFanatic

My Feedback: (32)

Interesting start about a neat airplane. I'm still learning EDF's myself, but one thing I was told is to make sure the motor has no play in the cavity it fits in. If there is a gap, it can vibrate and cause the rotor to touch the shroud. Did you check this? If there is a gap, then a few wraps of electrical/plastic tape will snug things up nicely. I've done that on my Wemotec Midi Fan and it is solid, so solid I could barely get the motor out of the cavity when needed. Good luck on your testing. I think a lot of people are hoping this is a great one, and one that can fulfill their need for speed. Caley

aviator24

Thank You. I have a few flights on this. It is very nice, and fast.
I cannot wait to fly it again. As soon as I do, I will give details here...

n00bflyer

I have flown this plane about 9 times and crashed it bad three times due to bad glitches with my radio equipment. SEE VID http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_fD9yUUctg

It is fun to fly though. I have recently purchased 2.4ghz radio gear and REALLY hope this solves my problem. Make sure to range check your model after building it. This is the first model I have had such bad issues with my 72mhz equipment. Also the CG is somewhere around 2.25 and 2.5 inches back from where the wing meets the intake duct.

If you want to see the details on my rebuild of the whole front end of the plane see here.
http://www.wattflyer.com/forums/show...t=39371&page=9

I can't wait till it's available in the US! I want a complete back up plane! =)

aviator24

Man that was hard to watch. Gave me flashbacks from when I turned mine into a lawn dart.
How are you cutting the foam?
Very nice!

EDFFanatic

My Feedback: (32)

Wow! That is really a bummer. Where did you run your antenna? Is it possible it could have been interference from the drive system. It sounded like when you advanced the trottle, your signal started making weird things happen. Wonder if there is any way to shield the antenna from the drive system. I was told that you need to locate the reciever as far forward as possible also. I hope you get another and figure out how to get the buggies out. Caley

aviator24

It was "human error". I am flying it with a 2.4G radio system. I was flying it at dusk and totally lost orientation. I have a new airframe and it is ready to go. Just waiting for Michigan weather to break...

n00bflyer

Aviator24, I cut all the foam with exacto knife or long kitchen knife. After the cutting there was usually substantial clean up or sculpting to be done. Make sure to make the rough cut way away from the actual outline of the shape you want. I have started to research home made hot wires for cutting foam as I have a growing pile of styrofoam that I plan on making planes out of.

EDFFanatic, I tried routing the antenna in three different locations. One below the jet along the belly, one above the fuse running out the the rear and one towards the nose of the plane. Surprisingly the routing that was the least problematic was the routing along the belly right next to the ESC. However that routing did ultimately lead to the crash on the video. Yes I too thought the motor might have been playing some part in the interference and I think it was a partial contributor. However the range check with the antenna out to the nose of the plane with the motor not even running (of course) still had pathetic results. I also tried two different RX's. I was starting to loose faith in my nice JR S700 RX however swapping that RX for a different one provided the same results on the jet and when the JR RX was re-installed in a different plane worked just fine flying the plane to the edge of visual range. So I have to conclude there is something about the jet giving my radio equip a hard time and unfortunately you don't have many options for alternate locations of equip on this jet. I even MacGuyvered an RF shield around my RX. Used a soda can to make a metal enclosure around the RX. That didn't seem to help, and this method has helped before on a different plane when I was running my fairly high powered FPV video transmitting equip. I didn't try routing the antenna across the wing. Maybe that would help though I have given up on my 72mhz equip. for this plane.

aviator24

WOW, very impressive. On my maiden flight at the local airport, I lost signal for some reason? Landed in a tree with only a cracked wing. This was with a 2.4G. I did not have the receiver placed very well. I had it stuffed in the back compartment, do not know why I did that? Since then, I have put the Rx in top just under the pilot heads. Never had a problem.
Your video was one of the clearest I have seen. Must be a very good camera! I am using a 4 year old Digital 8 from sony. I finally put up my first video on youtube of me flying my parkzone spitfire. My GF was taking pictures of my maiden flight of the T-38 and could never get it in the frame. She was new to the camera, did not bring the camcorder? It was pretty funny, she was yelling, "I can't see it!", I was yelling, "I can't slow down!".
Now I am not flying this jet without a good video person and I have a tripod!! May be thursday according to the Wx...

EDFFanatic

My Feedback: (32)

Guys, If you two are having difficulties with interference, maybe you should do a poll with others with the same airframe.

n00bflyer, I got through you whole reply and you pretty much did in what I was going to suggest, rerouting all of your wires. Are there any loops in them? I'm an ex-radio operator and I know what a loop in an antenna can do to things. Many people in RC purchase all these extensions and when they have lots of extra length, just coil them up. That can cause problems, though it isn't etched in stone that it will. You've got to keep all your leads as short as possible, and if you can run your servo leads on one side of the inside of the fuse and the power stuff on the other, that can help, even if it is only an inch or so apart. I really hope you guys figure out where the Gremlin is, as those who come after you will definitely appreciate your efforts. Good luck. Caley