funflyerf4

My Feedback: (6)

Boy I'am glad I found this thread, I have mine balanced at 7" and it took about 10oz in the tale even with 5 cell and reciever in the rear now I'am thinking about moving it to 6" for the first flight tommorrow.


Frank

funflyerf4

My Feedback: (6)

Well to day was the day.I had it balanced at 7"" back,I decieded to take some wait out,quit a bit too 7oz I still have 3oz in the back. The plane is balanced at 5 3/4 in. back from the leading edge the flew pretty good at that point.It was frigin hot to day.I had two good flights to day.I might add 1or two oz back in to help flair on landings.It did not want to flaire to day,but the landings were good as is.I fly off real soft sood grass it took off in about 100+ feet.The roll rate on high rates is fasttt.I like it.All in all so far great flying plane.

i3dm

My Feedback: (51)

Our plane flares like there's no tommorow - flys slow and high alpha really well, probably due to the slightly rearward CG compared to yours.

I agree - roll rate is very high.

phjoker

My Feedback: (4)

Congrats on the Maiden Wish I could have seen it.
Hopefully next time

pilot727

Hi Guy's
Have you ever checked with Merle Hyde, he makes well over 600 dofferent mounts and has now come out with a new mount, take's all of the vibration out of your jet or whatever your going to fly, i have them on all of my airplanes and now would not mount an engine without the hyde mount, makes all the difference in the world. If you like i could check on it if your interested.

LUDS96

My Feedback: (23)

JUST an FYI for all new to Cermark arf Jet's Take the time to take all the screws out of the landing gear and Loctite them all. It will save you lots of agravation in the future. I had 1 Main gear fall right out of my F-16 came in on two legs no damage but surprize. Landing gear mount in the plane Empty. OOPs.Cermark was kind enough to sell me new landing gear.

i3dm

My Feedback: (51)

LUDS96 - is that the old F-16 modified with new gear ? all the new F-16s i saw dont have a bottom hatch like yours does.

funflyerf4

My Feedback: (6)

Well I have several more flights with the 18 cg is now at 6" back. I'm going to move it back another 1/2",the plane requires down elevator while inverted now.The same happened to me with the landing gear.Put the wheels down for a landing and bombs away,there goes one main strut and wheel.I put the gear back up and landed a nice belly landing.

JustABigKid

My Feedback: (3)

What servos are good for this plane? Mini size, or standard?

i3dm

My Feedback: (51)

All standard size with 2 minis in the rudders.

LUDS96

My Feedback: (23)

I think it has been upgraded. This is an early version with the air retract upgrade. Plane lands fine on two as long as one is the nose gear. Just hard to take back off ;<{) I had to buy a complete new set. Plus a bottle of loctite. Take ALL THE SCREWS OUT AND LOCTITE THEM ALL Then no more problems.

hummingbird111

i had the same thing happen to me ,, the retract pivot with the wheel and wire was still attached . all of it fell out during flight,, i managed to do a perfect belly flopp,, no harm done,,, found the retract section and JB welded it so it wouldn't slide out ,,, it's all good now

CrashPro

My Feedback: (1)

Just curious.....anyone been on a radar gun yet?....any idea what speed you're getting out of this plane?
Any flight videos yet?

dotdigital

My Feedback: (41)

Has anyone noticed that on the leading edge of the F18's wing and the formed fuselage 'leading edge' there is a full 1/2" difference? Where are you guys taking your 'leading edge' measurements from for the CG??? Off the wing itself or from the fuse edge? See pix to view the issue.... comments welcomed...

I lost my first F18 to being too tail heavy... on the new bird I need to be certain ( plus I am going to maiden nose heavy to play it safe anyway!)

CrashPro

My Feedback: (1)

Ordered my F-18 Monday online. I called Cermark today and asked them when it would ship. I was told they are out of retracts, and it will be 30 days at least before they get them.[&o]
Ordered a .90LX too,...looks like I'll be getting the engine before I get the plane.

funflyerf4

My Feedback: (6)

I called Cermark they said they would send out a new retract and wire strut and wheel.They did the right thing.I have left the cg at 6" .I lost my throtle linkage last night in flight landed dead stick again one of the only times my JETT 90 quit when out if fuel.The plan glided in fairly nice.Man does this plane in the blue angel colors looks sweet way up there in the air.Mine was clocked at 117 in 100deg. weather.

dotdigital

My Feedback: (41)

TO ALL- I HAVE MY CERMARK F-18 FOR SALE- GOING TO A TAMJET F-16.

SEE AD:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/market/item.cfm?itemId=318948

THANKS!

cutter-nj

My Feedback: (4)

Hi all I just purchased the cermark F-18 that was for sale on Rc universe. The guy that build this plane did not install rudder servos telling me that on his fried Cermark F-18 the rudder did not function to yaw the plane but it creates a roll like the ailerons. He is recommending that I do not install the rudder servos. Just like to see what the experience has been from guys that have flown this airplane. Please post your comments I need the advice.

CrashPro

My Feedback: (1)

Well,..my F-18 finally showed up Tuesday. One wing has about an inch and a half round hole in the covering, easy fix though, and the air tank is missing. Informed Hobby store I bought from but they haven't got back to me yet. Other than that, everything looks good. My .90LX showed up yesterday too.

NoFlaps

My Feedback: (131)

Where are you guys getting your jet pilot busts fopr these planes ?
I just got the prop F-16, and haven't sen any pilots.
Suggestions?

CrashPro

My Feedback: (1)

Question to you guys who have assembled one of these already.
I'm to the point of assembling the stabilators now, and I'm not sure how you go about setting the stabilators in a level (neutral) position....Should I put the wings on and set to same incidence as the wings?...Thanks for any help anyone can give me.

virtualvictum

Hello Crash Pro and all happy F-18 owners. I maidened my F-18 today. O.S. 91 FX and Ultrathrust muffler combo. I am swinging a 13x8 APC with this combo and am very impressed. With a rich setting on high end this thing had unlimited vertical on climb out. I was a bit nervous on maiden because of the c.g. issue that this thread has brought up. I had my c.g. at 6 1/2 inches back resting slightly nose high on my great planes c.g. balancer. Of course I had the flameout about 4 mins. into the maiden and proceeded to line it up for a landing approach. I was fairly high and downwind. Even going upwind on the landing speed blead off slowly. Slightly nose high attitude was achieved and just before touchdown she flared beautifully and settled down very smoothly. I was very happy with the c.g. at this position and will leave it that way. I went with the Cermark recommended throws and they work well. On low rates this thing rolls lightning fast, I was shocked at the roll rate. I never tried high rates as the low was more than enough. The elevator could use a bit more throw on low but not a whole bunch, you just have to experiment on that to see what suits you. As far as setting the elevators up CrashPro I simply eyeballed them to be level from the side and the rear and added 1/8 up. This worked really well. I had a total of 4 flights on her today and was very excited. On landings start way out and let this thing blead off speed because it is very fast and takes a while to do. The only thing I noticed was that the canopy was very loose after the flights. I simply drilled a small hole in the back of the canopy and inserted a small wood screw. I ca'd a small wood block under the canopy lip and screwed the rear of the canopy on. I will post pics of this easy mod if you like.

CrashPro

My Feedback: (1)

Hi virtualvictum

Congrats on the maiden and the following 3 flights.

Regarding the stabilators: ..you say you just 'eyeballed' them to be level from the side and the rear ....I assume thats in relation to the wing angle?...

I talked to a couple of the more experienced builders/pilots at the field yesterday and they gave me a few tips how to do it.

Do you have any expo in the stabilator and ailerons?

Thanks for the tip about the canopy...can't wait to get this thing in the air.

virtualvictum

Hello Crash Pro, and yes, sorry I forgot to mention that. I was using the wings as a reference point. This will get you extremely close and remember to add just a touch of up from neutral to maintain level flight. The F-18 needs a little up to fly level. I have no expo in either control surface. I just like to get used to flying the model and learning how much to use. I set up my elevator as follows: At normal cruisning speed I leave my dual rates on the radio up on the program screen. I fly with a 7CAP. I apply full up elevator and watch what the plane does. If it stalls I dial a little throw out until I can do a hard loop without stalling out. I then set my low rate to this setting and add about 10% more on high for flaring on landing. So far this has worked really well for me. I simply adjust the ailerons until I like the roll speed and leave it at this setting for both low and high rates. If you set your throws on the ailerons as Cermark suggests then I believe you will find that it is more than adequate. I don't think there is any need to go any higher it is extremely fast in the roll department as you will see. One other significant mod I recommend is with the wing tube. The ends are plugged with very soft balsa or a crappy grade of plywood. I think it is balsa though. After saturating the plugs with thin ca and allowing it to harden I then screwed the wings on. I pulled the screws back out and re soaked the screw holes with more thin ca. This seemed to work pretty well but I was kind of leary about how long this would last. What I did was completely drilled the hole through the wing tube. I then flipped the wing tube over and using a 1/2 inch drill bit I drilled through the back side of the wing tube aprox. 1/4 inch. I then found 2 blind nuts out of my spare parts box and used my dremel to open up the aluminum enough to allow the blind nut to just pass through into the wood. After another soaking with thin ca I then set the blind nut and pulled it threw until it was past the aluminum wing tube into the wood, remember the wing tube has to pass through the fiberglass tube in the fuse still. I let the ca harden and tried this setup and now feel much better about the take down and reassembly process. A machine screw and nut should hold up far longer then just a wood screw. I can show pics of this mod as well if you like.

LUDS96

My Feedback: (23)

Look at the f-16 post. Lots of pilot and cockpit info. I got mine from Cermark.

Revver 52