This has been great information. I just got mine yesterday. this is my fist effort with electric jets. I chose e-flight because i have seen some of their other planes and they all fly good withthe recommendations from the manufacturer. I plan on leavin all the landing gear off mine and using clear tape on he bottom. It will be a couple of weeks before i can get to it . When i get it flown i will post how it flys

Congratulations on the new plane! Isn't this a great forum!

Please let us know how it goes and which size motor, # of blades, and type of battery you use, etc. Everyones experiences are very helpful. No landing gear... it sounds like your going for speed.

Good luck w/ the build!

Charlie

I'm using the motors that Horizon recomends on their web site from e- flite. I can see here that most people are wanting something always a bit faster. I just wanted someting that would work well with the three cell packs I already have. I think if i wanted to get serious about speed i would step up into the composite airframe jets with bigger fans and batteries.

The reason I recommend 3 blades on the Wicked motors is based on testing I did. I found on the Wicked 4800 on 3 blade rotor on 3S lipo was about 32-33 amps and made about 26 oz thrust. When I installed the 6 blade rotor, the amps were 35-36 amps but the thrust was still 26 ounces, and the rpm was much lower. So to me the 6 blade rotor required more power to get the same thust.

Don

That's interesting. The paperwork that comes with the reccomended motors from e-flite says that they are to run with 3 bladed fan.

I know... it is confusing. E-flite sells the plane w/ a 6 blade but the motor specs call for 3 blade. Perhaps Don is onto something w/ the 3 blade. It sounds like all combinations might benefit from that.

I have a couple of questions if anyone can answer:

1) If using a 4s battery, how many mah would you recommend and what continuous C should be available? (e.g. 2200 mah, 20C). I'm still trying to learn this electric stuff. I understand the mah translates into total power (or flight time) in the battery, but I'm not sure if that means a 4s would burn up the mah at a faster rate requiring more mah than its 3s counterpart.

2) Any recommendations for making nozzle reduction cones? In Patrick's video he cut-up plastic cups, which seemed to work well, but I wasn't sure if that would be solid enough for a long-term solution. Plus my wife gives me crap about putting "dixie" cups on my plane :-)

Anyone's thoughts would be most appreciated.

Thanks,
Charlie

I destroyed a 3 blade fan using a high KV motor on 4S. I think the revs were just to much for a cheap fan.

Yes more cells and the higher voltage available will mean (if used) higher amp draw. Always stay within the max C rating of your cells unless you want to shorten their life by an alarming factor. See the FMA direct site for white papers on this if you are interested.

I flew with the cones and did get a bit higher speed but the vertical did suffer. You can make up more robust cones from X-ray film or overhead transparency material. I personally want good vertical so fly without at the moment. The (small frontal ram effect) inlet ducts and overall drag of the F-15 airframe are limiting factors. If you want to go faster get something with better ducting and more powerful fan potential or a bungee/no wheels job. This is just a parkflyer foamie don't forget! The retracts sold it to me. Great fun.

My 2c
Patrick

If anyone is interested I have a complete set of fixed and retractable gear for this jet. They are unused as I fly only from grass and have no use for them. If you could use them make me an offer.

Bill

Thanks for the info Patrick!! Yes... gotta love the retracts. Good point about being a foamy. I'm starting to like these foamies. One of the funnest planes I have is the parkzone T-28... super easy and forgiving plane.

- It sounds like 4s batteries might be too much for the 3 blades
- Interesting about the cones. Hopefully we will hear from Bill about his cone experience once he tries them (and good to know about the extra set of gear he has).

Does anyone have any idea how long 4s 2200 mah batteries might last in this plane? It seems like the larger size (3300 on up) get to be really expensive, so I'm hoping the 2200 might work (i.e., 5 min or more).

Thanks again!

Charlie

For me, 4 mins of managed throttle flying on 2 x 25C 4S 2200 uses up about 1950 mAh.
If you twiddle about you can get much longer. You won't though..

Hi all!!

Finishing up my plane and have a question:

Refering to Post 29, am I understanding to wire batteries parallel in to one plug, and wire ESC's in to one plug??

Thanks!!!1

Allen

The review of this model in RC Report wasn't to complimentarty about the assembly process. Did anyone else have the same problems?

There is some hacking of foam to deal with( as far as the retracts go). The wiring quickly becomes a nightmare. My overall impression is its way overpriced for what it is. The test hop went smooth. It sounded like it was going mach 2 but its just kind of flew nothing spectacular as far as I was concerned. While it handled well its just not worth they money. I built it for the LHS they had a buyer but it just didn't live up to expectations in my book. Mike

Thanks for posting the great photos! I plan on building mine with out the retracts We don't have a paved runway.

Great video and nice to see the plane performing the way I imagined it would.

Ok, I started to assemble mine... The motors bolt pattern is wider than what the holes in the shroud are drilled. I am using the recommend 420 motors from e-flite. Any body else have this problem?

lol tat canopt be good im not useing eflite motors but its no biggi to drill some holes let us know how she goes and some pics

Yes... I think everyone has that problem. Greg Covey talks about it in his build thread http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_76...tm.htm#7728664

As was mentioned above, you can widen the holes on your fan w/ a drill bit.

Good luck!

- Charlie

I finalyl got mine done and now have three flights on it. This jet is noisy but does fly well, but not as fast as one would expect. I does handle a bit of wind well also. I was not happy about having to drill out the fan units to accept the 3800 kv motors that eflite reccomends for more performance. I feel that for the price of this plane the fan units should have been made right from the beginning, or at least offer the correct units when upgrading to the 3800 kv motors. I am flying with the CG about 4.5 inches back from the leading edge of the wing. I fly off of a grass field so i didn't install the landing gear. I put clear packaging tape on the bottom instead.

Hey Foundryratjim,

Congrats on getting her airborne!!

Mine is finally about ready for her maiden, but I'm curious if everyone is using a separate battery to power the receiver and servos. I noticed that rcmiket did, but I'm a bit confused on how it works. It sounds like the 2 3S batteries (or 2 x 4S) provides too much juice to the receiver. Is that correct? So I should clip the center wire on the BEC (if I'm using the correct term) and use a separate rx battery?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Charlie

I am using Spektrum reciever in it. I do not use an extra battery. I have not had any problems. I am using Castle Creations 54 amp speed controls and two Fullymax 2200 mah 3s Lipo's

Hi guys, I have just finished mine. I have the 3800 KV motors , 10 JR SM22 Servos (With retracts and Rudders) 2100Mah batteries, and the E-flight 40amp Pro ESCs. ONe motor runs fine, the other starts....Howls.............then stops. I have switched batteries, Run it on one battery and still one will not stay running. Bad Motor? Bad ESC? Timing?

Looking at the motor at full power it acts like it is trying to chang directions whil running, then quits.
Any ideas? ? ?

make shure that the bades are not rubbing and thet there not to unblalanced

No blade rub.

Does anyone know of a supplier of better fan jnits for this jet?