ORIGINAL: FalconWings
Jorden, the full scale F-16 is unstable because of the AFT CG. If you tried to fly it manually you'd be flying a very tail heavy jet. Then you move the CG fwd and v'oila.....you have a very forgiving flying machine.
The F-16 is very stable, almost impossible to stall (but it will!), virtually tip-stall proof, and flies very well at medium speed. It is also simple to setup and looks good.
The boomerang, Elan, etc are deffienetly easier to fly. I would reccomend those to someone whose never flown a Ducted Fan. But if you do have some experience, you will do fine with the F-16.
The BARF flies great but a typical rookie repair is $250 +. Not only that, given the right powerplant you can loose sight of it in 3 seconds. On the other hand, it would take an obnoxious amount of thrust to push an F-16 past say 170 mph, where the BARF can easily cruise at that speed. I own and fly both. F-16 is mt everyday beater...........the BARF is only for special events.
Thanks FW, that makes sense now that you explain it that way. I didn't realize it was unstable around it's CG. I thought it was unstable around pitch and axis, which required the on-board computer to make constant corrections. The hard to stall, and lack of tip stall does sound like a very desirable tenancy to have. I agree with you about the BARF and of course the Ultra Bandit too. I've seen both of those fly, at the hands of David Shulman no less, and they do groove! They look like they're breaking the sound barrier standing still!
Thanks again,
-Jorden