For the last couple of months I have been working on assembling a Wind RC Rafale scale turbine. I picked up this airframe, along with a Wind RC Viper, late last year from Chief Aircraft. I have been contacted from one other buyer who is waiting on his Rafale to arrive. Since I have been taking photos, notes, etc. about the assembly that may of use to others, I'd like to post my results and comments here. First, I'm a regular RC flyer of all types, for the last 20 years or more mostly of large scale gas IMAC types and, since 2021, turbines. The Rafale is my third turbine, the first being a Krill AreS XL, second the Wind RC Viper. I'm still learning the ropes of assembling and flying turbines and look to your informed responses to help me with a few issues. I owe most of my turbine tutorage to the esteemed Wayne Mathews and Dan Baker of long time IMAC acquaintance. These guys are championship level F3S jet aerobatics pilots and great friends to have on my team.
For those that might look at Chief's website, this is their description (with a few incorrect items that I'll note):
2.7m Rafale PNP, single engine setup with thrust vectoring pipe configuration. (PNP in this case means servos, wiring, gear and lighting controllers, hardware included but NOT installed. A twin engine version can be special ordered)
Factory installed landing gear and doors (Correct but needed attention)
Large kevlar fuel/smoke tank with fittings (No, the tank is a large but very sturdy plastic "jug"; no smoke tank but a plastic UAT is included)
Complete hardware kit (Sort of but a lot of questionable bits as is typical of ARF hardware)
Factory installed lighting kit option with afterburner light ring (Not an option, included wing nav lights, fuselage top strobe, 2 nose gear landing lights, but no afterburner ring(s) included)
Scale Cockpit Included (Correct, actually pretty nice and scale correct)
Drop tank option available (Not optional, was included)
Custom scheme option is available for an extra fee
- Wingspan: 79" (2003mm)
- Length: 109" (2786mm)
- Weight: ~34.2 lbs (15.5kg) (Engine Dependent) [Note: from Wind RC website - 21-23 kg (46 - 51 lbs.).
Turbine Size: Single engine with Thrust Vectoring: P250 or P300 or equivalent
Scale is about 1/5.5 calculated from the full scale dimensions. I chose this Rafale over the Aviation Design 1/5 scale airframe because I wanted to keep it under the AMA LMA limit.
My intent with this thread is not to be a "build thread" as such but more of a posting of my photos, comments, likes, gripes, and questions. Here's a few photos to start:
Mugging in the shop.
Full Scale 2017 Demo
