Henke Torphammar

Yesterday my firends George and Tony called me really exited and told me they were ready for maiden flights on their MIG-15's. I was really looking forward to see this project in action so I poped in my car and drove 250km to visit them for the test flight.

The subject of this topic is the Flyfly MIG-15 which is pretty large, 63" wingspan usually calls for a 18lb-ish turbine and AUW of maybe 28lb fueld up but this fellow uses the 5,7lb thrust Kolibri T25 and has an AUW wet of only 7lb(!)

It all went very well, both machines flew flawless, with everything working perfectly. A perfect way to convert 17oz of fuel in to 8min of pure fun :-) Sure it's not the fastest jet around, but still moves pretty well and has really good verticals. It flies very well and must be one of the best ways to get in to turbines. Just relax and fly without having to bend the sticks like mad.

The only drawback we found is when transporting the large wing, it's pretty bulky and easily gets dented, but as fixing styro is a walk in the park it's no real problem. Also as it flies very light I guess glassing the whole plane adding a couple of ounces is no prolem. Then you would end up with a good finnish too.


some pix and video of the maiden flight.

63" Mig-15 fueled up and ready to fly at only 7lb weight



Alot of space for the small Lambert Kolibri.


Looks awsome in the air :-)


Don't forget 1080p and fullscreen :-) and never mind our swedish jibberish... both Tony and George really are Swedish chefs hahaha.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDZRurkONmw[/youtube]

SJN

looks great.

quite a few of the flyflys seems to be converted.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD-AwbzfzaM[/youtube]


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0BN-PlGW04[/youtube]

Henke Torphammar

Yeah, I've seen the smaller ones before. The Mig-15 is way larger though :-)

Henke Torphammar

A year later new Mig15's are watching the skies again. The same Hobby Topgun Mig15 but this time in EPO foam which is more durable and stronger. I did use the knowledge from the previous conversions and tried to approve the install. I did cut away 0.6lb of foam from the fuselage and wing root, I also drilled 7" deep holes in the wing at CG and inserted a 1/4" CF tube as a joining wingspar as this have been the weak spot. My modifications saves about 1lb of the AUW. (thinking the 7lb AUW of the previous Migs must have been a wrong translation from grams)

Engine is still the Kolibri T25 but with a larger fuel tank of 27oz for 10min flights.

As this plane needs weight in the nose I choose to extent the wiering and mount ECU + pump all up front, I also added the fancy Nav-lights from HAB (www.hab.se) 1watt LEDs in the wings and 3watt strobes + landing light. Really bright and very visible in the air.

I got hold of a Eagle tree Guardian stabilazing system which is pretty cool, in 3D mode it keeps the airplane in the same angle as you left it while in 2D mode it automaticly levels the wings when you canter the stick. and of caurse adds all the stabilizing of a 3 axis gyro, kind of like the BNF AS3X micros.

Landing gear is the RClander electric retratcs which is capable of 16lb load, the Hobby topgun struts had to go and beafier ones were added. Turned out pretty well. Test flight was however made with stock nose gear which is too long with the larger RClander retract units

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXThCDN4KsM[/youtube]

Henke Torphammar

Test flight went perfect and the little Kolibri turbine had no problem pushing this 9lb beast around. Lift of only needed a 30ft roll or so, even with pretty high grass. It is a real floater which turns our very scal like with the nav lights too. The guardian gryo of caurse needs some fien tuning with the gain pots but it already works very well. Funny feeling haveing the gyro return the plane to level flight

Henke Torphammar

Alot of flying last weekend, all went very well and the Mig15 performs really good. It is very slow in the controlls and it's quite a challenge to manover it around the way I like. It does knifedges, 4-point rolls and very skale like slow rolls, with full flaps and less fuel onboard you can really bend it around a tight space, but with alot of work behind the sticks Really fun and relaxing flying, makeing low passes only a couple of inches of the ground, or maybe 1.5ft inverted, good for the show. It does 10min flights on 800cc of fuel with some reserve

Henke Torphammar

A couple of more pix from the meeting.

DominicM

Great projects. You put the engine in the tail for obvious reasons but don't you then have a problem with the CG shifting to the rear as the fuel is consumed? If I could get hold of a second hand P20 I'd like to do the L39.

Dr Honda

My Feedback: (4)

Very nice.

If the Kolibri turbines were so dang expensive in the USA... I'd get one. (it's hard to justify $3200 for a foamy) BUT... I know the guy from Ausi Jets hand massages the JJJ engine, and gets them to run right for $1600. (hummmmmmm)

Henke Torphammar

The thing with the Kolibri is that it does 6lb+ out of the box and weighs in at just over 9oz. This makes it possible to mount it in the tail without adding any lead to the nose. Fuel is right on CG. The P20 weighs about 4oz more and provides less thrust, the exact thrust of the P20 I won't comment as I don't own one but it's less

You will find various Kolibri thrust tests on my youtube channel, http://www.youtube.com/henke2

I will try to make a video of this bird because it flies very nice. You seldom see a Mig15 knifedge 5ft of the deck

Henke Torphammar

I forgot if we've been through this before... the T25 Kolibri is full autostart and very reliable for $2690(excl VAT). To compare with the JJJ you have to check the price of an airstarted Kolibri T15 which is much less. The T15 would be like $1950 and provide 4lb of thrust. (I own a T15 too now days)