Craig B.

Hi Keith, so the nosegear is much more robust? I saw many had issues with shimmy on the f14 nosegear. I found lots of issues with that and did many mods on it to make it work well and guess what,....no shimmy and much better control authority. My mods included:
1. Upgraded steering torque rod to 4mm from 3mm and made new bushings to suit
2. Relocated control arm to top of torque rod to get much longer control arm on there as servo geometry was terrible and magnified gear train slop
3. Stiffened servo mounting plate with carbon plate to eliminate flex of servo mount under load
4. Machined slot for extended brass channel in steering arm on bottom end of torque rod ( steel bolt head running through Ali slot is a bad idea from a wear perspective)
5. Relocated and made a new solid rectangular section cross bar between the side frames to stiffen the whole nose retract framework under torsional load.

lots of work but it was worthwhile. I have heard of severe nosewheel shimmy on takeoff shaking the jet violently and did not want to suffer the same fate. My mods made the steering response very direct and precise and eliminated much of the elasticity and slop in the whole system. I can post some photo if anyone is interested. I am curious to see the f18 nosegear.... any chance you could post some photos? If I am going to have to do all of that again after paying a hefty price it would be a major turnoff.

FenderBean

Yeah I added a second set screw to mine and it holds okay just need to keep a check on it. The rod is about three times as large on the f-18 so getting a good tight arm shouldn’t be a problem

johnzqh

Hi All

Pls find the attached photo showing latet change about landing light position.And we double checked the travel of flaps before shipment,so that they move down smoothly and no jam.

Best reagrds

John
Skymaster

FenderBean

Could you have not added this to my f-18, I mentioned this months ago and posted on page 14 of this thread about it. My nose light is inside the fuselage, did you just make a smaller nose light piece? What did you do on the flaps, because mine do not move a few degrees before they start to bind. The carbon hinges are hitting each other they are so far off alignment.

johnzqh

Hi Keith

Yes.Nose landing light is now in design change and will be available sooner.About flaps,we guess yours is isolated issue and we apologize for it.Pls send us mail and we will find solution to satisfy you.

Best reagrds

John
Skymaster

FenderBean

Thanks for the replies and the flap issue is not isolated to me, Andrew in post# 384 talks about his, both Barry and Gunrad mention the same. Jim who lost his which was a blue angles scheme said his was the same when he built his. I made videos on the issue and the only fix I can think of is on my youtube channel along with the new issue I found today on one of the leading edge slats. Im in communication with Dirk so and he has the information. Thanks

mr_matt

My Feedback: (10)

You got it Buck, got to finish and paint it yourself if you want it even close.

they charge to hook up the retracts, I would pay them NOT to do that. In fact, I would pay extra to get one as a kit. The outer mold lines are OK, but I don't trust the structures or even the glue

FenderBean

While I would love to be able to do my own painting but like I stated above I have no workshop/painting equipment/painting experience at the moment. Plus the flap issue and now a slat issue has nothing to do with paint at all, I found one of the leading edge slats is almost a 1/4 inch off at the end closest to the jet. To fix a bad hing install they just bent the slat towards the wing till the last two hing holes lined up, this prevents the slat from functioning normal.

Basspilot

Fender,

Do you have a link to your YouTube page?

FenderBean

yes Sir its in my signature, the middle link

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE_...BAxA8bHVCw3VQQ

Pay no attention to the rant videos, its been a bad week so I had to vent
the best way to find stuff is select the video tab, latest things are at the top. I have each build broken down so videos are in the particular thread but YouTube changed its look and I’m not sure the builds show up on the left to select.

Basspilot

Thanks!

marquisvns

I think some silicone oil will sort out much of the binding issue described, and let your high torque servo and the course of breaking in to do the rest. You gotta look at this this way Keith, at least everything is nice and tight right?

Barry

FenderBean

Barry, the leading slat problem is pushing the limit on my tolerance, can’t put enough oil on it to fix bending the slat 1/4 of an inch to get the wire through the last two hinges.
l have been messing with the flaps, I can fix those but I have no idea how to fix the leading edge slat. Trying to keep up beat about it but it’s hard with everything that has to be fixed. Tight is good but right is better!

FenderBean

It double posted

Kelly Rohrbach

My Feedback: (1)

Watched your video on the flap hinge issue. What I would do is not bevel the hinge part coming from the flap, but bevel the inside surface of the hinge that is glued into the wing. You can then simply bond more carbon fibre to the outside surface to re-thicken what you removed from the inside. But you should have removed the binding.

mr_matt

My Feedback: (10)

Widen the ball either with spacers over the bolt on either side of the ball, or drilling the ball for a through spacer

Then add shims underneath each side of the carbon horn on the wing to match the new ball spacer width

andrewpohlmann

My Feedback: (6)

Hi all, just wanted to update my email sent to john at SM!here it is with the vague reply but I hope they actually try and fix all of our flap issues somehow.

Hi John, I was told by Anton to send you an email with concerning issues with the 1/6 F18f! Here is a broken down list of my issues which many others have had and have caused catastrophic malfunctions.

The canopy which I had paid to have pre installed was not even close to working properly and had to be completely taken apart and re engineered. I think I spent 5 days figuring out how to get it set up and working...

The flaps I had a major issue and actually sent them to Doug Boyle who was my rep in Canada who was great to deal with but in the end the problem is not cured. They were sent away and I didn’t get them back for 3-4months but when I did I was very un happy with what had been done because the jamming issue was not corrected and to this day I don’t think is safe to fly.

1 of the red gun decals is backwards and would have been very simple at the factory to have reversed it so it looked proper.

The assembly of the air locking system for the main gear was wrong and seemed like the builder at the factory had no idea how it was engineered to be installed.

The rear mounted turbine rails are not evenly aligned and had to be removed and re installed taking a few days to get them set up, also after I had paid to have them done.

The fuse half’s are sanded down at the joints to the point that all the rivets are removed and there are sanding marks in the paint which can’t be fixed without a repaint. No one would accept this in person if it was seen before delivery.

This is a dream jet for me and would love to keep this for many years but after all these problems and chatting with other owners I feel it could have a failure at any time cause a complete loss. I’m not sure what your thinking about doing for all us f18 owners but it would be nice to get something done to the point of knowing it is airworthy and the wing issue #1 getting corrected. Even if it means getting a new set of wings and paint so it can be matched to the rest of the fuse and the decals to go with it.

I really think you guys know how to fix these issues and as I said when I purchased this jet that I was in no rush and wanted it built right which it really seems rushed.

I’d be happy to send you pictures looking at all these issues if you require, I’m sure others have sent there problems aswell.


Thanks, Andrew Pohlmann

Hi Andrew

Thank you for your mail.

We are improving discussed points step by step.

About falp jam,can you send us photos and short video?


Best regards
John
Sales manager
Skymaster/X-Treme/Skyemaster

gunradd

My Feedback: (9)

Best part is every single issue you had I also had the same ones along with extra ones.

one of the best ones was the lights didn't work. So after trouble shooting I found all the light wires bad..... pulled the connectors apart and found the wire was never stripped lol. Such a waist of time fixing stiff like that....

bad part is I made them aware of all these same issues yet to this day it is still being sold with the same problems.

marquisvns

Just spoke with Andrew with pictures he sent, everything is good. He will be able to EASILY make those flaps working with proper geometry with instructions which I explained in a previous post. Granted, that there may be some rubbing here and there, especially towards the end of their travel, which could be corrected by lubing and if necessary some trimming on the guide arcing members, which will NOT impair the integrity of those surfaces. If anything, I believe Skymaster could provide better and more thorough instructions, as I too had to go through a couple of different rounds of configurations to make them work.

Dirk and I are heading towards Asia next week, and we'll bring up some of these issues with John and Anton and I'm happy to see that Skymaster is receptive of suggestions for improvement. We are also looking forward of reviewing their course of quality control inspections and perhaps offer constructive suggestions there as well.

Regards,
Barry

FenderBean

Same place I am, it’s either send the wings to Barry so he can verify per Anton’s request or I fix myself. I have request a refund on the extra $500 paid for the paint job, been a few days and no response to that. The jet is going to need to be repainted due the milky clear coat and the paint showing the white gel coat through in areas on the jet. The flaps I can fix and will run a lower flap setting to avoid binding. The leading edge slat is really the biggest problem at this point. It’s something that has to be done during build process at the factory since the wire hinge cannot be accessed once laid up. The G10 hinges will have to be cut out and pulled out of the slat about 1/2” then glued. It’s going to be tough since you cannot reach the hinges.

In the military we always say if your going to complain about something you should have a solution but I’m not sure what to suggest these guys do to fix this. SM needs to find a new painter, you can find anything you need for a scheme with google and spell check on decals I think is waaay past due.
The hinge issue is a simple fix, just make a simple jig or take the time to do the proper fitting process.

Barry suggest the final QC or packing use a checklist this would stop every jet missing something.

johnzqh

Hi Adrew

I just sent you email to explain the suggested flap horn location for best use of servo torque.It is not flap issue in fact.We admit the instruction missing the key photo and will add more details in future manual.

For the rest mentioned points,we add them to double-check list for future shipment.We appreciate your feedback.

Best regards

John
Skymaster

johnzqh

Thank you for feedback.The light supplier now already added resistor to light system to prevent possible burning.We will send the wires with resistor at our cost once you or other customers need.Hope this help

Best reagrds

John
Skymaster

pilot tw

scale details from Chinese builder.

Kelly Rohrbach

My Feedback: (1)

Video of that model looks fantastic, flaps, leading edge operation looks great. It would appear if customers on this side of the pond would receive theirs that looked that good there would not be to many complaints. Maybe you guys could shoot some how to videos on certain issues, maybe more helpful than trying to explain in words.
Like the old saying goes, it's the last 10% effort that makes up 90% of the build. This bird is for sure on my bucket list.

Ad Clark

My Feedback: (4)

+ 1 Please--------Thank you !