bweight

Well, I know I'm new to the forum (registered anyways), but I thought I'd show everyone some pics of my Patriot. It's not quite done yet as I didn't have time to install the canopy, but it flew for the very first time today and I noticed a few things.

1. The nose gear rod wasn't fully tightened down and when I pulled the gear up, the wing retracts went in, but the nose didn't.. go figure

2. When checking over the plane for the final time before that inaugural flight, make sure you check reversing.. Taxiid on the runway and all was good.. Throttled up and when I pulled back on the elevator, it kinda nosed forward.. DOH! forgot to switch the reverse.. Also, found out that reverse aileron doesn't help either. Made that fix as well..

3. These things are FAST..

4. When flying these beasts for the very first time, holding onto the radio to the point where your knuckles get white sure makes for an interesting flight.

5. Blue shades suck

Well, there ya have it.. 5 things I never knew aboute this plane before my first flight.. or at least experienced before

As I said, the first flight was postponed as I fixed my bonehead errors then fired her up once more. taxiid great, even on our field which needs to be cut soon. It was a little tail heavy by the way it wanted to keep the tail on the ground during takeoff, and once it was airborne the dual rates make this thing a very nimble plane. I only did one circuit before bringing it to the ground (can't hold my breath that long) and man am I glad we have 800ft of runway space because I seriously misjudged how damn fast these things come down. it did come down and was one of the smoothest landings I've ever had in my short RC plane career (4 years).

The 2nd flight was a little better but it was pretty breezy and I didn't want to push the envelope just yet. We had a radar gun on hand, but the engine was not running the best so I decided to bring it down and try again tomorrow after some adjustments to the engine. I'll tune it up tonight and bring it out for her third flight tomorrow. Hopefully I'll have a vid-cam this time to upload..

Anyways, here's a pic of the patriot and my own airbrushed paintscheme on it.. nothing special but I like it. Expect more soon!

FlooredCOBRA

How did you go about airbrushing? Did you air brush over the covering or glass it then airbrush? Looks really good!

Razor-RCU

My Feedback: (50)

Beautiful! You are gonna get hooked on Patriots now-

bweight

FlooredCOBRA: Thanks for the compliments.. To be quite honest, I'm not sure what the material I used to cover the plain actually is.. It's 3mm thick monokote like plastic.. It's made for the planes and all, but I just don't know the make of it.. All i did was cover the plane, sand it with 220 to scuff it up good so that the paint would take and then spray it. I used 2pints of blue and 2 pints of white water based acrylic enamel. On the wing I was using too much pressure while spraying and so if you look up close you can see the mistakes..

The only problem I was told that I could run into would be the glow fuel would be hard on the enamel so I picked up 2 cans of clear coat.. Only time will tell if it holds up, but tomorrow I'll be spraying a couple more coats of clear on it just to be sure.

Razor-RCU: hehe.. I'm already hooked.. next flight is tomorrow pending on the weather.. Hopefully I can get some of the kinks ironed out in the afternoon before heading to the field. They're minor so it shouldn't be tough. I might stick some decals on it because, well, I couldn't differentiate top from bottom up in the air. All in all, it flew fairly well and I'm gonna get the radar gun to the field to clock it once i am comfortable with running it wide open.

davbow

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bweight,
Wanna have more fun with the patriot??!! Drop the os 46fx and put a ys45 in it. You won;t regret it . I promise!!!!!

Razor-RCU

My Feedback: (50)

Well, if were talkin' powerplants... try a Jett-50

Mine was faster than a Turbine Hotspot

daven

My Feedback: (1)

Looks great.

Is that a 3 bladed prop on there?

Just curious, it would be faster with a two bladed prop.

bweight

Thanks for the advice on the powerplants.. Right now, I'm tapped out and the os46 stays on.. Down the road later in the season I might drop a jett 50 on it though, since I've heard it screams with that..

As for the prop, it's a standard 10x6 Master Airscrew.. not a 3 bladed prop.. It might look like 3 because in the top picture, the engine is running

Thanks for the compliments as well. Put the decals on today and the canopy (no pilot) and well, it's gonna rain tonight possibly so I'm not sure if I'll make it to the field or not.

Razor-RCU

My Feedback: (50)

More pics

Have fun!

WYDAH

Hi,

Looks great! Mind if I ask what retracts you are using? Did they hold up well on your grass field? Lastly, what was the total finished weight?
I've got a Patriot under my workbench and it is next in line...

Thanks,

bweight

Regarding the retracts, I'm not exactly sure what they are, but I believe they are the hobbico low profile set.. They came with the kit when I bought it at an RC swap show a couple of years back. As for the weight, again, not 100% sure as I haven't yet weighed it.. If I had to guess, I would say that it's roughly 7-9 pounds or in that range anyways.. Judging from the first couple of flights, I'd say it's a little tail heavy so I've got a friend meeting me at the field later on tonight with a weighted spinner we're going to try.

The Retracts bent a little bit but it was only because I was coming in fast for an approach. It was nothing to fix, and I modified the wheel wells in the wing to accomodate for a little bending.. We'll see later tonight how it holds up and maybe I can rip it across the field full tilt for the very first time..