ddennison

My Feedback: (15)

thanks Tom!

Looking forward to hearing your CG location. Mine is pretty far forward I think, between 6-6.5" have to measure again but I have not moved it back since the first flight and would like to try.

Thanks for sharing,

Dave

ALso, I have been looking at visiting Charlotte area, any where close to fly jets?

Thanks!

gunradd

My Feedback: (9)

Thanks for the info Tom!

Ian and Dave thanks for checking the turbine to bell mouth distance.

After a ton of sanding I got the inlets painted. They look pretty good. I also got the entire fuel system installed and done. I will order the paint tomorrow and paint it next weekend. I am ordering the elevator 8711 servos this week also. So provided everything shows up in time I am looking at a maiden flight in 2 weeks.

Ian R

thanks for the update Tom let us know where you flew it  in terms of C of C. Like Dave mine is still where I first set it 25 odd flights ago. will need to re- measure mine to remind myself where I have it.

Gunradd yours is  looking very good, let us know if you manage to tint the canopy, not plucked up the courage to do mine yet.

Shaun I sent you another pm did you get it ? i am not getting a reply if your are sending one

Ian
 

cycross

Same here. Been sending email and pm to Shaun but didn't get a response. Even self-tested my inbox to check if it is indeed working.
I am excited to know the ETA of my 22 from him.

Shaun Evans

Hey,

Sorry guys. I've been hitting 'reply' to your PMs on my iPhone, but I forget that 'blackhole@rcuniverse' doesn't send you the reply. Ian, your tires are inbound. Cycross, your kit will be going out at the end of the coming week.

Thanks!

Ian R

Ok thanks Shaun guessed it was a tech issue

Ian

tp777fo

My Feedback: (28)

DOH! got my jet on the balancer this morning. The new cg is 6 3/4 from the wing panel/fuselage joint. Right where it should be. Guess when I did the build balance I used the fuselage/wing transition as the reference point. Anyways it flies even nicer than before. Guess I need to stop drinking beer when I balance. Sorry about the false alarm guys.

ddennison

My Feedback: (15)

Thanks Tom,

I will be moving mine back a bit and also flying with a little less fuel next season...

Dave

gunradd

My Feedback: (9)

Took the raptor to work today to do some taxi tests and engine runs. All went well. I set up the nose steering trim and she is getting close to being airworthy! Engine ran great and made plenty of thrust with nice cool temps inside the fuselage.

I tinted the canopy with some testers tint paint. It came out a little dark. I tested it on some scrap and made sure I could remove it. With some paint thinner it will all come 100% off and not harm the canopy. So I will leave it like it is until I save up enough for a cockpit.

I ordered the paint today and hope to paint it this weekend if it shows up in time.

Tonight I will start to get a feel for the CG.

gunradd

My Feedback: (9)

Well tonight I got lucky. I was unhappy with how dark the canopy was after the tint job so I started to rub it with paint thinner and to my surprise it started to look real good so I stopped before I got all tint off and ended up with the perfect tint! Very happy with it now.

tp777fo

My Feedback: (28)

Gunradd, your jet is looking great, cant wait to see the finished product and the successful test flight.

Ian R

Hi

Can you give me some more details of the testors paint you used and did you spray it?

thanks Ian

gunradd

My Feedback: (9)

Thanks Tom. Right now I plan on flying it in 2 weeks. That will give me time to work out any bugs before flying it at Florida jets.

Ian here is a pic of the can of paint I used.

In pic 1 is the plain canopy.

pic 2 is the can of tint spray.

pic 3 is when I first did it and it was to dark.

pic 4 is after I rubbed it with paint thinner and it came out nice and even. Looks perfect!


Like I said it was a total mistake that it worked. When I first did it I thought I ruined the canopy.

Here is how I did it.
First clean the canopy. Next do light coats on the inside of the canopy with the spray. It took me 3 coats and in order to make it look decent and even I had to make it pretty dark. I then let it sit over night. Next I got a rag with paint thinner and rubbed it on the paint. At first it didn't do anything but after it soaked a little the paint turned wet again and thinned out. I kept wiping it until it got to the way it looks now. I then let the thinner dry and cleaned the canopy with plexus plastic cleaner.

smchale

My Feedback: (67)

All great discoveries are made by mistake.

Looks great Kris. I know it goes without saying but make sure you sand the surface to prep it for paint, and clean that well. I think 400 or 600 grit wet dry sanded dry would do the trick to remove the sheen of the gel coat. You shouldn't need a primer coat, the surface looks uniform in color as it is.

It's really coming together quickly....you're going to be so bored when its done.

Ian R

thanks Kris

Is it a smoke color or gold tint, I thought the fullsize  22 had a gold tint

Ian

gunradd

My Feedback: (9)

I used smoke because the gold was to hard to replicate.

Also looking at real raptors it all depends on the angle you see them from. Allot of the time the canopy does look like its just smoke. Sometimes they look gold. I guess its all where you are standing.

The grills on the top of the fuselage right behind the cockpit also change colors depending on the view. Most of the time they are black sometimes they look gold. I will just do black.

Ian R

yes I see what you are saying.

thanks Ian

gunradd

My Feedback: (9)

Got some more stuff done!

I got the air gauges mounted and the rest of the equipment done. My elevator servos and door aircyclinders shipped out today and are on the way.

I didnt want to fly around with nothing in the cockpit and so far the CG is looking a little aft and I need nose weight. So I decided to scratch build a cockpit. Wasent really going for anyuthing crazy just something decent. I tried to use pics of the yellow aircraft cockpit but its a long way from scale I have found. So I compared with pics of the real one on the internet.

Its simple and light made with balsa and other things I found around my hanger. I also had some special NVG glass from one of my avionics equipment at the hanger thats not being used anymore and it makes the perfect HUD with the green tint. I was not planning on adding a instrument panel but now I think I will add a simple one since its basically just 5 monitors.

If the paint shows up tomorrow she will get paint this weekend.

tp777fo

My Feedback: (28)

Canopy/cockpit look great. Im flying again tomorrow...I love this jet!

cycross

Gunradd, from your photos the pilot looks a tad oversized in terms of scale. I read somewhere this plane is closer to 1:11.5

There was another thread where the pilot was trimmed down to make it look closer to scale. You might want to try that too?

jlmaviation

My Feedback: (54)

I am amazed on how fast you put the F22 together. How much time did you spend per day?


By the way excellant job!!

gunradd

My Feedback: (9)

The yellow F22 is about 1/8.5 scale. My pilot is about 1/7th scale. So he is a little big but not to far off I dont think.

But this is just a temp solution until I get enough money to buy a cockpit anyway. I just dont have the funds right now for one and I needed nose weight and I had him sitting around so put him to work. Also the seat and glare shield was all made from stuff I had sitting around. Its not perfect but it will do the job until I get money to buy one.

JLMaviation
The only reason I am going so fast is because I set a goal last year to be flying a turbine by Florida jets and I am trying to make that goal. I put around 1 to 2 hours a day on average ot it. I have 6 kids so its hard sometimes to get stuff done. I try to get something done everyday even if its something small. Also the kit is really more of an unpainted ARF with a little more work. After building the yellow F16 and having to glass wings and stabs this was a breeze.

Shaun Evans

Whoa...

You have six kids?? And you still haven't figured out how that happens?

gunradd

My Feedback: (9)

Yea Shaun I did figure it out but was a little late.........

But for the record 3 are mine and 3 are my wife's so that's how we have 6.



I got the temporary instrument panel done.

gunradd

My Feedback: (9)

Ordered some A123s for the receiver today and bought some JR8711s for the elevator and some JR8611s for the rudder.

I have some good hitechs on the rudder now but unhappy with the gear play on them and I will move them to the flaps and install the 8611s in the rudder. After seeing others have flutter and hearing about some of them coming off its clear that the F22 has a lot of stress on the rudders so I want a little over kill on it.