My advanced F-16 had its maiden flight today!

I flew it with the gears down, I flew for about 5 minutes then landed. Everything went just fine the landing was perfect except the stupid nose gear collapsed when I dropped the nose and I scraped the nose door and nose cone... I swear my landing gear set was assembled on a friday night shift...

I found the problem was coming from the nose gear drag link adjustment, if you guys are flying from a rough field you might want to check the adjustment of that link, when you hit the nose gear with a rearward motion make sure it doesnt collapse easily as mine did when it hit the first crack in the runway. I had to remove the upper aluminum block that is on the cylinder pivot and file a flat spot at an other location on the brass shaft to stiffen the drag link to prevent it from collapsing under rearward load.


Here is my setup if anyone cares:

C.G. 145mm (I think I like it at this spot)

Control travels:

Elevators: 50mm up/down 10% expo (flew with 30%, way too much for me)
Ailerons: 15mm up/down (10% expo, flew with 20%, too much)
Rudder: 25mm each side (10% expo)

Servos: Hitec 5985s all around except JR 3301 for the rudder

Engine: Jetcentral rabbit (awesome engine, perfect for this aircraft)

Radio: Futaba FASST

Air system: Replaced the FEJ door cylinders with Air power 1 inch cylinders as the stock ones were leaking, silicone oil didnt help. The airpower cylinders use a smaller mounting bolt than the FEJ ones, I oversized the hole in the cylinders with the proper size drill. You have to be extra careful but it works. The FEJ air valves I got were useless as well, I used a UP-3 gear valve and have an electronic brake valve on order.

Electrical: 1x TBM li-ion 5200mah 7.4v battery for the ECU
2x 2700mah 5cell nimh batteries for the receiver



I'll post some pics/ video later.

Good luck to those of you who are about to maiden the F-16! Its a great flying aircraft and it looks awesome. (mine has the tiger meet scheme)

Thanks to Bill Hatcher at TBM, Eric Clapp at Jet Central USA and fly eagle jet customer support, I got excellent service from all of them.