RE: FEJ very large F/A18 maiden
Hello All,
So here is the down and dirty. I need to use "Lock Tite".
The maiden ended up succesful but I could have lost the entire bird because of 2 major problems.
1. Both rudders are set up that an aluminum rod slips into a sleeve in the rudder and has 2 hex nuts holding it tight. One rudder loosened up, and the other rudder loosened up so much that the entire aluminum rod slipped out of the rudder sleeve and was dangling inside the tail section of fuse. So problem #1 I had 2 fluddering rudders, say that fast.
2. Same principle different location. Each elevator shaft is held on by an aluminum box mechanism. This box is what the 2 servos attach to, and this entire unit is bolted to a ply former with 4 hex bolts in the rear. Once again I needed locktite. The 1 bolt completey came off and was on the bottom of the fuse and the other 3 bolts where lose. By virtue that the entire elevator did not rip off is amazing. I have since gone over all area's in question and have found that there is no damage what so ever besides a wing scrap on my wing tip.
The take off was ok, it did not jump, but once in the air it needed some trim adjustments. Thanks to Vin D. my trusted wingman for correcting input into my transmitter as I am flying.
This is a really big jet, and the color scheme can be seen by a blind man. It shows up awesome in this AZ blue sky. When we realized something was fluttering, I reduced speed and was at the opposite end of where I needed to be, she slows down really nice, and the new Fire Breathing Dragon the AMT Olympus NL performed flawless and with awesome power. I did not feel this puppy was under powered for a second. I only did one higher speed fly by maybe 85-90% full throttle and she was moving.
I Hope to have all area's checked and secure for more flighty testing weather permitting this weekend.
Oh, also any comments on the fact that this bird is sucking down close to 1100 MA per a 7 minute flight and maybe 3 minute run up and down. It has 18 servos, 4 JR 8711's, 12 Hitec 7955's, 1 JR 8411, and a small servo running an air mechanism and an EV5 unit. As comparison, my Big Fej F16 uses 370 MA per flight. This is just one thirsty hungry bird.
I lOVE IT.
Kevin