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Old 03-05-2016 | 08:27 AM
  #31  
madmodelman's Avatar
madmodelman
 
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 2,233
Received 6 Likes on 4 Posts
From: Corby, Northants, UNITED KINGDOM
Default Some issues.

Ok, since you ask I'll talk you through some issues I've had.
Generally, as you say, it's a very nicely made model, a decent size and flies very nicely as you would expect.
I had one of the first to be produced, the fuselage is well made and faultless, unfortunately the same cannot be said about the wings and the springing side of things.
Even without a fuel load the springs bottom out very easily with just a little downward pressure on the airframe, in other words the legs bottom out which of course means that on landing, even a good one, a substantial shock goes through the wing as the springs compress so easily.
To make this situation even worse the wing root and second ribs have very large lightening holes in the front and rear. The front is not a problem but the rear hole leaves only 6mm or so material at the top and bottom of the hole which makes it very weak. The landing shock puts pressure between the main spar and rear anti rotation pin which is in the area of the oversized hole!
I have damaged the wings twice and informed the factory of this weakness and of course nothing got done about it.
At JetPower last year I looked at the FB stand and they had a very nice yellow and black one on show, now bearing in mind that this was a bare shell with no installation weight in it I pressed down lightly on the model and again it just sank the legs to full deflection. Nose gear springing is ok btw.
To cut a long story short I had to purchase a new set of wings eventually after only 19 flights and have just finished modifying them today. I am going to see if I still have any pictures and if so will post them on this reply.
The geometry of the cylinders on the air brakes means that it's only possible to get about 30 degrees opening whereas my JL one had almost 80 degrees! They were servo operated.
I don't like slagging anyone off in public which is why I have not mentioned this before but since you asked I feel guilty hence this reply.
Gary.
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