wtmcgehee

I can't give a accurate speed because I got a bad motor from the factory. It should be in by the end of the week and I will let you know. As of right now it goes about 50.

wtmcgehee

I am running the E-flite 30 Pro. I run E-flite ESC in all my electrics and have never had a issue. I think E-flite's electic systems are easier to hook up and to understand.

wedgewing

saw on the RCG thread that a flyer is looking at 60 - 65 mph which is docile for the hair on fire crowd, but good comments on the plane otherwise.

I think I am locking onto the SAPAC F-16 which is in a similar size range as this one but will be specd with a 70 mm fan and use a 4S instead of the 3S. The plane is expected in November and they estimate stock speed to be close to 100 mph. I was reading about some of the guys making mods to the E Flite including glassing and bolting everything down in sight so they could add a wicked EDF from DonsRC and run off of 4S

It sounded like most liked the plane stock and besides some gripes about the chubbiness, larger than scale wings, and lack of moving tail plane but I was pretty impressed with how the plane shook out over on RCG

The aesthetics and scale arguments on the exact realness of the aircraft were a chore to page through but you may want to check out some of the comments.

tonight I think I moved closer to the SAPAC, but closer to this plane than the Hobby Lobby F16

WildBlueYawnder

I'm boring I guess. I usually go with the manufacturers specs.

So far I've never had a problem with E-Flite servos or ESC's and I have six of their model aircraft. For my F-16 I went with the recommended S60 servos and 30amp Pro ESC. I've been very happy with E-Flite electronics. The only bad receiver I've ever had was on a Parkzone Stryker F-27C that failed on the maiden flight and damaged the Strykers nose (tough foam - it went straight in from 100' up). It was enough to push me to a Spektrum DX7 and I'm sure glad it did. It's amazing how relaxing this hobby gets when you don't have to worry about someone shooting you out of the sky, glitches, frequency pins, etc. Yeah, I realize there might be a problem where I can lose power to the receiver but if that's my only worry I won't worry too much. I feel confident to fly anything I own in town, at the lake, at a park, etc.

I hope to maiden my F-16 this weekend.

For those of you that haven't seen one in person yet you're missing out. It's gorgeous! Don't look if you can't resist temptation. If I hadn't already ordered one I'd have bought it on the spot when the box was opened. Yes it might be small, not fast enough, wrong color scheme etc. for some. But for me it's perfect as it is. I only wish I didn't have to modify it if I want to add a rudder. It's a success in my book if that's my only complaint.

Rick_H

I took mine out for it's maiden flight this morning with the stock config using CC Pheonix 35 speed controller, Spektrum DX7 with 6200 Receiver and the S60 servo's. Had a range check issue and have to move the receiver about an inch away from the ESC to resolve the problem. Had a 6 mph wind with light gusting on take off. Once I got up to speed the plane leaped from the ground it took very little to trim it out, flew some circuits, rolls, and loops very well. Tired a power climb and she stalled out pretty quick but recovered very quickly. Would have liked to have more power but over all I am happy with it. It looks cool in the air and the landing are very easy. Could use some breaks or reverse thrust to slow it down on the roll out. I need to play with the ESC programming features to see if I can get a little more power out of the motor by adjusting the timing.

Anyone know what color the bottom sticker is? It rips very easy and I would like to touch up some of them.

WildBlueYawnder

OK. I give. Why are the 5's upside down on the bottom of the fuselage. I'm sure some of you scale experts can explain that one. At first I thought mine was assembled incorrectly then I looked at the box again and it's the same way on the pictures there.

I hope to get mine out Sunday at the club if I can get it done tomorrow.

Rick_H

They fly by center stage upside down so the 5 is right side up for the crowd.

WildBlueYawnder

Thank you. I figured it was something like that but I wanted to know for sure.

bearcatf8

My Feedback: (4)

5 & 6 are the solo part of the team and # 5 is inverted much of the time .Like when you see the upright and inverted pass .

Rick_H

Well, i flew mine at the Las Vegas Superfly today, Great Day with no wind. It flew very well but compared to the Hobby People F-16's that people hopped up it was very very very, oh yes did I mention very slow. These hopped up jets were clocked via radar gun at around 170+ MPH. Can't wait for someone to hope up this jet. I did find out that they glide very well, I ran mine out of charge and had to dead stick it in after a 5 minute flight full power most of the flight.

Rick

wtmcgehee

Still waiting for my new motor from Horizon Hobby. I pulled the broke motor out and I have to say, take your time with. It is a pain. The book said that the company only glued it in sections. Mine was glued all around and tore some foam. Might have to get a new motor cover. I am said to here from others that it is slow. I was hoping it was just my bad motor. I think I am going to try a motor upgrade now that I have an extra fan unit. I will see what will fit and let you know!

Rick_H

Well!!!!, I was just doing a post flight on it getting ready for the second day of the funfly and found out the motor is bad. I thought I ran out of battery power but in the post flight I brought it up to 1/4 stick and let it run for a minute and the motor kept slowing down then stopped hard and started again. I put a meter on it and it starts out around 6 amps when I get to half stick it spikes to 30 + amps then shuts down and I can smell the motor is over heating. I will be contacting Horizon Hobby on Monday. Looks like they may have a bad batch of motors.

Rick

WildBlueYawnder

I have an ALFA A-4 too and they are very clear in the manual that you shouldn't run the motor for more than a few seconds on the bench (ie: not in free flight). They say it's very hard on the motor and esc. I would have to assume the same is true for the F-16. Perhaps David Eichstedt or John Redman from Horizon could make a comment here and give us some advice in regards to bench running the motor.

wtmcgehee

Welcome to the club!! Your lucky, mine happen in flight. I was lucky to bring it back to the runway. My field is surrounded by hills and fences for cows. Mine died at about 30 feet and it barely cleared the fence to make it back to the runway. Was yours making a high pitch noise when it shut down.

bearcatf8

My Feedback: (4)

I knoticed a tip rub of the fan at the 11 o-clock position ,enough to cause a noticeable change in the motor sound. Or could this be a timing problem ? do I need to change the Timing for a 2 pole motor . I think mine (esc) is at 15 degrees .

wedgewing

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...0#post10816346

interesting to note that 3 guys within the RCGroups threads have reported cooked motors (outside of the obvious offense of throwing a 4S on them). surprised about the lack of vids out there other than the nice one that was done by Horizon.

similar comments as here throughout the thread

wtmcgehee

Yes you need to change your speed controller to a 2 pole.

WildBlueYawnder

Drat. Weather was perfect. Sunny, clear, with a light breeze. Stayed up until 3:30 this morning assembling the kit (didn't start until midnight after company left and so excited to fly it I had to get it done). Spent another couple of hours Sunday AM finishing things and programming my DX7 (the manual shows DX6i setup and the DX7 is a bit different). Finally packed up and headed for the field (about a 30 minute drive). Got to the field and finished the final hookups. I hadn't velcroed the speed controller or the receiver yet so I finished that up. The servo extensions for the ailerons are kind of short and it took me a while to get the servos attached to the receiver (large clumsy hands). Everything checked out great. Put in a flight with my T-28 and my T-34 to get my feet wet.

Now I'm ready for the F-16. I hadn't put the decal over the wiring yet. I wanted to make sure everything was working before putting the decal on. I decided at the field to cover the wires up with cellophane tape to hold them in place and put in the maiden flight. Hooked up the battery and verified the balance and noticed the left aileron was drooping. Technical difficulties!!! The servo is crapped out. No movement at all. It was working 10 minutes ago!!! I used the E-Flite S60's per the recommedations. Drat again. I checked the receiver and everything is still plugged in. I wondered if something had come loose as I was positioning the receiver in the fuselage (a tight fit for my large hands). I pulled the receiver back out of the fuselage and disconnected the left aileron servo and left elevator servo from it and pulled the cellophane tape off from the wire channel. I pulled the wires back out of the fuselage. There it is. Two of the wires are pulled out of the servo connector and no way to fix it at the field. If only the wires had pulled out on the extension I could have replaced that but they pulled out on the servo side. I like the size of the S60 servos but I dislike the miniature wires (I've had some sub-micro Blue Arrow servos in the past that if you looked at them sideways the wires snapped off the connectors).

There's not many wire strands to crimp to even if I had a crimper and it sure didn't take much pressure to pull those wires loose from the connector. I just gently pulled the wire into the channel prior to taping over it. I guess I should have left the tape off! At least I'd of gotten the maiden flight in.

I might have pulled the wires loose when positioning the receiver in the fuselage. Anyway, no flying the F-16 today.

I would strongly suggest using 6" servo extensions on the aileron servos rather than the recommended 3" extensions (the 9" extensions for the elevator servos are long enough). The 3" aileron servo extensions will reach but just barely. My fingers are too big to get into the fuselage and connect the servos to the receiver easily. I had to do it by feel because there wasn't enough room to connect the wires to the receiver unless it was upside down. With a 6" extension I would have been able to turn the receiver over and connect the wires. It may have been when connecting the servo to the receiver that I pulled the wires out of the connector. I couldn't see it so I can't be sure.

Also, with 6" extensions you could push the extensions into the fuselage, leave the receiver outside the fuselage where you can get at it, hook the extensions to the receiver, position the receiver in the fuselage where it needs to go, and then connect the extensions to the aileron and elevator servos.

I used a Spektrum AR6200 receiver. I generally use AR6100e's but I went with the AR6200 full range dual receiver for the F-16. The AR6100e would be easier to attach the 3" extensions to (the AR6100e has pins on the end rather than the top like the AR6100 and AR6200).

This F-16 sure looks good! It got a lot of attention at the field. Even from a guy who is still all nitro. He was preparing to leave the field as I was arriving. He waited around to see it fly and I had to disappoint him (along with myself). I think he was ready to head to the hobby shop to buy one.

Oh well, next time.

The fan sounds more like a jet than my SuperAirliner. The SuperAirliner only uses three blades on the twin fans and the F-16 uses all six blades. It makes a difference in the sound in my opinion. But the twin EDF's on the SuperAirliner sound pretty darn good too.

With the exception of the servo problem everything went together pretty easily.

It would have been great to maiden the F-16 today but at least I got some fun T-28 and T-34 flights in the sunshine (probably not to many days like this left here). The E-Flite T-34 has become my favorite but there's room at the top for the F-16.

Rick_H

I just spoke with Horizon and they don't expect the motors in until middle to late November. :-( Three and a half flights and now it's down for a while, Everyone loved the looks of it at the Superfly but it did not go over too well when the motor failed. We pulled the DF unit and found that the motor had melted the DF unit around the mounting holes. I was flying it at 1/2 to 3/4 power most of the flight.

Not too happy right now.

Rick

wtmcgehee

Sound like there is a lot of others with the same problem as us. They said my motor should be here today. I hope they didn't lie!

wedgewing

This starting to sound like the Gore mobile.

Still looks like a nice plane and I hope as more use it better stuff is posted.

I don't know if I am waiting for the Holy Grail plane, but I think I am going to hang out and see what becomes of the SAPAC F-16 which is supposed to hit the US in November?



US site has little to offer

http://shop.sapacamerica.com/browse.cfm/4,1239.html

More detailed pics are on the China site. This is the home site and the US version will not be the Thunderbirds, but the Tiger meet plane. similar sized to the E Flite but with flyable tail planes. Youtube video out there is run with stock set up and looks fast on 3S

http://www.sapac.com.cn/prodshowe.as...29548&action=2

wtmcgehee

I think the SAPAC F-16 looks more scale in the air compared to the E-flite. The front intake looks identical to the real one. I also like the verical stab.

wedgewing

I think it looks really slick too. there is a write up on one of the threads as some guys really get into scale appearance arguments. I like that the plane has the closest "scale look" IMHO and the wings look to be in proportion to the body and it doesn't look all squished from the side. Hey, I will be happy if it flies nice and it sounds like the SAPAC one does.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1fBrFFc10I

Here is the Dean Eberley test video on the prototype painted with Thunderbirds colors. Pretty cool. Hope Horizon gets the bugs out of theirs too. You can see the advantage of the flying tail planes in the higher alpha slow flight

29904

I am now wondering if my motor is burning out. The first two flights were uneventful. Then I tried the third and the motor would pulse. Any ideas? Is it a timing issue?
Larry

wtmcgehee

That sounds more like your lipos need to be balanced. If not your speed controller is not set to 2 pole