sbaugz

My Feedback: (37)

Maybe this is in the wrong forum but I figure you guys that frequent this area of RCU are my best option.
Anyways, I am looking to obtain a prop jet. It should have the following traits, not necessarily in order if importance:

1) number one is that it should land and take-off fairly easily and it has to be an ARF. I don't want something that is a beast to fly. I do have experience with sport planes (extreme flight YAK, Kangke monocoupe and Waco, VQ mustang, 3d Profile plane, etc, etc), so I am fairly competant in skills. Nonetheless, I want a prop jet that I don't have to land at 60MPH to keep from stalling.
2) should be in the 40-50 engine range. I plan on using an economical tower .46, magnum.46 or similar, no Jett's or YS's.
3) should be somethat scale and have the cool factor in appearance. Don't care about retracts.
4) doesn't need to be a rocket. I am not interested in breaking the sound barrier here or anything. I would like it to scoot along, but speed is not my primary concern.

with all that being said. What do you think about the Lanier F4? It definately pours out the cool factor. I really like Kangke ARF's, but I am not overly crazy about the all red F20. Looks kinda weird.

bob27s

My Feedback: (19)

Hi sbaugz

Welcome.....

I think you are on the right track there. My personal 'econo' engine suggestion for this is the Thunder Tiger 46, Irvine 53, Webra 50. The ones you listed are fine too. Always a smart way to go. You can also usually get a good deal on a Rossi or NovaRossi 45/53 too. If you want more performance, you can bolt a jett-stream muffler onto any of these and get a bit more 'go'

In general, there are not many prop-jets you will find that land at 60 mph, unless someone built them extreamly heavy. With proper throttle managment on approach, get the nose up about 4 deg on final......let it settle out.....they tend to slow down fairly well.

This list of currently available, decent flying ARF prop-jets is a bit limited... but there are a few.

The Kange or Sportsman Aviation F-20 are good choices.

The Lanier F-4 flys pretty well. Its a bit 'slow' which disappoints some, but it performs nicely and is well behaved. Razor and a few others here have flown them. Avoid the Lanier F-86H

The Magnum is a wondeful plane. Although not scale, it is clean looking, small, light, very quick. No landing gear. Will fly with basically any decent "40" up front. Lot of photos of this can be found on here.

You can find photos of any of the above by searching through the Extream Speed forum here.

Hard to find....
These are great, if you can find them. Patriot 40 ARF, Cermark F-20 ARF (kange seems to be nearly identical)

Also...... as another alternative.... if you are game for something like the Magnum...
send a PM to Angel Perez [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/showProfile.asp?memid=92292]angelrcdesign[/link]. He produces a sweet little speedster called the Rifle, and he also makes a nice T-38 (larger). He offers the planes are built to order and covered - so they are ARF. You can find photos of these in the threads here and also in [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/gallery/galleryCat.cfm?memID=92292]Angel's gallery[/link]. The plane can be fast, but the way its designed, the Rifle will fly with just about any engine up front.

Its always worth while keeping an eye on the market place for previously owned Kougars, Patriot, DC F-20, GP F-15, DC F-18 type aircraft.

I'm sure some folks can help suggest a few more along these lines.

Bob

AirGar

My Feedback: (7)

Man, it's always hard to add/improve on the info Ol' Bob gives anyone, he's right on the money!

Judging from the requirements you listed, I'd have to say go with the Lanier F-4. I've seen these fly with 46 FX's and while they do not burn up the atmosphere, they do fly good with nice slow speed habits. Fixed gear also offers up simplicity.

And as Bob also suggested, you can always add a different muffler to give it a little more "oomph", or you could change the motor completely.

Best of luck to ya!

Gary

bob27s

My Feedback: (19)

sad part...... is that there really was not too much to list !

Where is my ARF Mig 21 ?

sbaugz

My Feedback: (37)

You can also add F4 and A4 from VMAR to the list but I think I will probably avoid these. I didn't even mention these earlier because I really never considered them. These are expensive at $299 and $249 respectively.

Anyways, I appreciated the advice. I think I will pursue the Lanier F4 with a Thunder Tiger Pro.46. With the deals Tower has going on right now, I can pick both up pretty reasonably priced.

bob27s

My Feedback: (19)

Good deal.....

be sure to tell us how things work out for you.

I have personally not seen much on the Vmar aircraft, other than a few posts here last winter.

Razor-RCU

My Feedback: (50)

I wrote a big post on the Lanier F-4 and my comp. timed out at work...

Let me get home and I'll try again-

James

Razor-RCU

My Feedback: (50)

OK.....(as best as I can remember- rest in piece my F-4)

ARF quality: The ARF is high quality with GLUE in the joints! The fuse, cowl, and tail joining piece are prepainted fbrglss with outstanding panel lines- the wing is 1 piece, with 1 ail. servo/torquerod required, it goes together easily and quickly. The tail section is unscale and too large, maybe it tames it down or something--- At more than a few feet away it is a great looking prop-jet!

Fligh report and performance:

I flew the Lanier F-4 with a YS-45SE both with the stock muffler (low-noise) and with a full macs pipe that never got tuned quite properly- It was never very quick 75MPH perhaps? Would have enjoyed trying the Jett-50 just to see the airplanes limitations. Takeoffs were uneventful, landings were a bit fast (Nose heavy) and the stall speed seemed fairly low- Rolls were sorta barrel-lish, the wing is flat-bottom so inverted flight was laborious and I was able to induce the airplane into a 1 turn spin that resulted in 5 spins roughly and VERY difficult to get out [X(] BEWARE! and I was nose-heavy


I would not buy another (retract would be a hassle and I love retracts-) but you get alot for your money- keep the elevator throws LOW, AIL. slightly higher than called for- (I max it on every airplane I have-) you fly 3D, just dial in expo.

The YS-45 on a stock muffler is about the same as the 46FX so it will fly fine but you would quickly outgrow that powerplant- I got a Rossi-45 used for like $55- a Webra-50GT for $70 (roughly) and an Irvine-53 for $75, through the marketplace and the other auction site- all would be upgrades from the FX-

Hope this helps, and keep us posted!

james
P.S. Just try to find a built Patriot or F-20 in the classifieds!

Leadfoot-RCU

My Feedback: (5)

Bob,

If you find that ARF Mig-21 (or preferably a kit!!), let me know!!

I love that plane and think that it would look awesome screaming around.

Steve

sbaugz

My Feedback: (37)

thanks for all the info. I will have to think about it for a bit. still cant decide between the f20 and the f4. My LHS has a lanier f4 ARF on hand, so I may run over and take a look at it.

sbaugz

My Feedback: (37)

are there things to look out for when buying an older cermark f20 ARF or patriot ARF? ie, are there different versions (newer or older) that are better or worse?

THEGRINCMAN

My Feedback: (41)

I just wanted to add about the motor choice. I have one of the magnum XL52 with a tower muffler.
Overall pretty cheap performer, around a hundred bucks. It turns a apc 11x7 13800.

AirGar

My Feedback: (7)

I don't know of any problems with the old Patriot ARF (other than the cheap plastic), but there were problems with the Cermark F-20 (40 and 60 size). You'd probably be better off going with the Kangke or Sportsman Aviation...or Direct Connection (this is no longer available either).

Good luck finding any of 'em..... they've been gone for a while now.

Gary