My f90 has this "balooning" effect that everyone is talking about, but who cares. It is still a *****cat to land and it flys very well in all other aspects. My suggestion to everyone that this bothers is to add a few clicks of down elevator on landing or just get used to it. I.e... don't modify the plane just to make it land a little better. It is easy enough as is, so why compromise flight characteristics. I love this plane, as much as one can love arf's anyway.

My Funtana also had a bad habit of ballooning on final approach after the throttle was cut. I am accustomed to flying nose heavy planes and found this difficult to deal with and experimented and found a solution to this problem.

I mixed in flaperons on my setup and use them when I land. It makes turning while the flaps are down real mushy but it really slows down the plane and rotates the nose downward and eliminates the ballooning effect. I couldn't believe how slow this thing flies with the flaps down. I can almost walk beside it on final approach!

If you are having trouble getting used to the ballooning effect try flaperons. It can keep you from having to add weight to the front and spoiling the 3D characteristics of the plane just so you can land it. One word of caution though, if you slow it down too much and it tip stalls, you won't see it coming so keep the throttle up just a bit until the last second.

Kenny H

Kenny, you bet me to the post. I found this out yesterday also. It gets so slow with flaperons on, I kept over shooting the runway. Spoilerons helps also if you want to come down in a harrier.

I have got to get some taller landing gear though. My prop keeps hitting the grass and cutting the motor.

What are those company's name again that sale landing gear? Fiberlite and somebody else.

Fiber-Lite makes a set specifically designed for the Funtana. [link=http://www.graphtecrc.com]Graphtec[/link] make gear than can be adapted to the Funtana.

Thinking of one of these.....can't decide what servo to use...i'm thinking Futaba 3010's but there not metal gear. What about the HS-635HB's??

Also what 2stroke would you recommend??I probably can't swing the $$ for a 4.

Thanks

I have been flying Funtana 90 for several months now. I must have spent about 5 gallons of fuel with Saito 100. I use 25% cool power and that seems enough to perform good hovering and torque roll but not a rocket.

Anyway, the balloong during the landing when the throttle was cut to idle really annoy the **** out of me. Yes I made the landing every time but did not like it at all.

Now I cut the throttle to idle at the beginning of approach (not toward to the end) of and let her glide little steeper angle initially and leveling out near the ground. Now I make almost no hand lading in the end. Similar to the dead stick landing. I like the way she lands now.

re,

Does anyone else have a problem with knife edges? My plane won't hold a ke with full deflection at about 3/4 throttle. it just loses altitude. Is this affected by center of gravity? am I too nose heavy?

nate, knife edge on this plane is affected greatly by the CG, especialy at slower speeds. To get good knife edge I have found the CG needs to be back close to the 7 1/8" mark or more, however, the more you move the CG back the more coupling is introduced and you have to compesate more with elevator and aileron.

Ed M.

I flew mine yesterday a couple of times and a fellow club member that was watching and is still fairly new wanted to fly my FT90. I thought about it and knew he could fly his trainer and foamies well so I thought it and figured this would be a little new to him but thought he could handle it on low rates and followed my instructions, so I said OK. I took the plane higher up and then even higher and gave him the 9C.

Darn it, the first thing he did was gave it full power in level flight. Remember I have a YS 1.10FZ so the thing took off like a bat out of hell screaming. WOT in level flight. By this time, the hair on my neck was standing up. I told him calmly, to pull the throttle down because he was going to fast. He moved it down 1/4" from WOT and put the plane in a dive. I'm freaking out by now, then he pulls it back into level flight while it was still screaming, so I told him again and he pull it down to about 1/2 throttle or below. I calmed down some and explained that it was not designed to be a speed plane and it needs to be flown slower than that. He said ok and floored it again. The YS was screaming again WOT in level flight, so I told him to hand it back which he did and flew it down and landed. Luckily, I beafed up the wings and used 168oz torque servos all around with a 1:1 mechanical advantage.

There was no flutter and now signs of damage, but that was more than enough for me to see that too many new flyers are buying this plane and over speeding the plane even when told how the plane should be flown, but when something happens, they blame the plane and the company when it falls apart. After my mild myocardial infarction, I was actually pleased to see that the plane held together and didn't flutter apart.

Some people are just hard headed and won't listen.

DTB

OK... here it is again... you don't need 150 oz-in servos!!

Hanger 9 FuntanaS 90
Futaba 9 ZAP
S9102 servos on rudder and each aileron
S3004 on each elevator and throttle @ 5 cell (6 volt)
OS 160 with PERRY Pump and Tank @ CG (Almost LOL)
18 x 6W apc prop
10.00 pounds with CG @ 6.125"
F'n WOW!!!
Now this thing flies like a true 3D plane. Hovers at about 60% power. It does vertical rolls at about 2 per second!! It is NOSE HEAVY, but I will trade nose heavy for power in this instance. I have NOT exposed the plane to any sustained FULL POWER LEVEL FLIGHT conditions. I HAVE done extended FULL POWER VERTICAL Flight conditions. It is as fast vertically at full power with the 160 as it was horizontally with the SAITO!!! I am gonna figure out some way to move the battery pack to the back end to get a less bad CG. Rudder effectiveness reduced in a TR by fwd CG. I had to butcher the cowl a bit on the bottom to get the exhaust to fit, but not noticaeble in the air. Very solid in AOA's up to 50 degrees or so... This plane has been awoken with this power!!! I would not be satisfied with much less power... and I think most other 3D'ers feel the same. I was at 8.6 pounds with the saito 100... so it cost me a bit of weight... but at 10 pounds it still is extremely easy to land tail wheel first... with the 18 inch prop, you MUST land tail wheel first!! LOL In fact.. don't let the tail come up on take off either... I LOVE THIS PLANE!!!!!
I know I may get a bunch of warnings about the servos I use... really guys... its OK... I DON"T FLY FAST!!! And the Rudder and Elevators... see the little bit of control surface ahead of the hinge line??? That REDUCES req'd servo torque!!!
SPEED KILLS... NOT POWER!!!!! (And besides.. I bet it vibrates LESS with the OS 160 then the SAITO 100!!!!)

Well, mithrandir you may be correct about the amount of servo power needed and my servos may be over kill to some, but I'm happy with them so far and I figure that's one issue I don't have to worry about.

DTB I a, with you on that. All the horror stories in this thread are with plastic gear servos. Flutter just Kills them.
The ones i have found to be GREAT for the $$ is Futaba 3305 which they released in Feb i think to compete with Hitec.
The only thing i did nto like about Hiteck MG servos is they contain one plasic gear. Futaba all metal and a bit faster.
And you guys a correct... BALOONING can be delt with if the landing aproach done properly.
(writing this while trying to take the dents in the balsa out from the TREE landing)
Just ordered the Hitec Optic-6 with spectra.
What do you guys think about 9C with spectra in it?

Well I have just started the construction on my Funtana 90 and I am taking every precaution I can think of. I saw a cracked rib through one of the servo holes in the wing so I called Horizon and told them about it. They first said send the wing in, I said this is a brand new plane I have not even put it together that is not an option, what else can we do? He said the wings were not expected in until October. So we ended on a compromise he would send me a couple of rolls of covering and I would do the repairs.

So I thought to myself well if I am gonna cut one wing I might as well cut the other and check em all out. Well bottom line is I am sure glad I did. As it turns out not only was the one rib cracked but the one rib outboard of that was weak as heck and this was on both wing halves. I barley touch it and it totally flexes it is not cracked but it is defintaly VERY weak. Could this be the cluprit of the wings blowing up? if there were any flutter at all that would defintaly be a very weak point and I could see how a failure could begin. Anyway, I am gonna take some 1/16 balsa and reienforce these ribs and hopefully I should be good to go.

I have included a few photos.

thats about the same for ys 1.10

What fuel did he use do you know?

I received my replacement pump, lets see what it does, but if I get anything above 10000 with 16x4 I would be happy.

Hey............can I try that??????????

An OS 1.60 on a little funtana .90?
168oz servos?
Hello.

Believe it...

This plane can handle a 1.60 with the right person behind the controls. If I had the means, I would get one and put a YS 1.60DZ on it if it would fit. I would make it fit if it didn't.

168oz servos all the way for me except throttle ofcourse. Overkill? Definately. Am I worried about not having a strong enough servo? Definately NOT....

Have you seen the control surfaces on this bird? Now apply flying forces to those. Better safe than sorry.

DTB

I love YS, but I would not opt for a large 4 stroke on this plane. They simply vibrate too much and would fatigue the airframe. It is my opinion that the flutter failures were precipitated by cracked ribs in the servo mount area. I had a 35% scale sukhoi 26 with 100 cc motor on it and I used the S9102's on the elevator and had NO problem for 200 to 300 flights. Heavy control surfaces, slop in linkage, and vibration (not to mention a servo rail mounted to cracked ribs) are the primary culprits that cause control surfaces to self destruct. Control surfaces that are not stiff TORSIONALLY are also a hazard. I am going thru a divorce right now, and if I had the $$$$$ for the whiz-band-triple-wammy-throwdown digi-servos, I would get'em.... but what I used is enuff....

YS 1.60?
Hello?
Is there anybody out there?
Who am I talking to?
Hello?

Along with the culprits for self distruction mentioned by Mithrandir, I would add the speed ingredient that has been addressed many times in this thread. The biggest problem may be that the notion of SLOW varies so widely depending on the pilot (as illustrated in DTB's post above).
Flying 3D with a bigger than average engine only means that I have a lot of power IN RESERVE. This gives me safety margines, and cannot be misused, or the plane will self-destruct.
Maybe this plane is not a good 1st 3D plane ???
I still love flying mine with the Saito 1.50

That's exactly what I mean. The YS 1.60 would vibrate way too much but could work. My 1.10 shakes the plane to a great degree, but flys great. It does have more power than a Saito 1.20, but I was making a point that the plane's power source can vary from a 90 size to a 180 class engine, which all need to be respected. I would hope the power of any engine at WOT would not be used for level flying or even considered for level flight regardless of the displacement that is used. The engine size suggested are only recommendations. The power of bigger engines is in reserve in case it is needed. Variations of speed does vary greatly from person to person and that is when I believe experience plays a big part of operating this type of plane or at least if the pilot is willing to listen to reason by someone with more experience with this type of plane can the plane be used with excess power.

If a person only knows idle and WOT, then they would need the minimum powered engine recommended for this plane. Better yet, they would do better with another plane all together

EXACTLY... if WOT is all you know... go race or get a 40 sport plane!!!!! LOL

how has it been flying as of late? I am strongly considering one for a winter project but dont know, need a replacement for the UCANDO eventually and a YS 1.10 will make its way to around the same time.

I am still cautious and waiting word on all the crazy wing breaks. [&o]

matt

Hi Matt,

I cannot say enough how much I love my F 90. Is is by far the best plane I have ever owned around that size (and it also happens to be the most affordable). I still recommend better hardware, 4-40m linkage, strong servos (mine are 111oz/in@6V), and fly it SLOW.
I think that a few unfortunate guys may have gotten models with defects not fixed before before flying, and I am truly sorry for them. But it also seems that the notions of SLOW and 3D flying are very variable upon the pilots' prior experiences. I have known a while that if I flew my 33% CAP with the DA 100 at WOT, I would likely loose a very expensive plane; even more so with the 42% extra and DA 150. So I am very cautious with throttle management, and I love all those plane!

My Friend Rioji has a little time during the week, so he probably has over 200 flights with his F 90/ Saito 1.50, and he loves it even more than me.

I hope you get to be one of the many happy F 90 owners.

Hey Guys,
got to chime in. I received my FS90 a few weeks ago and the first thing I found was a broken rib in the wing. I mean the whole middle was gone. and get this, the plastic wing bag was sealed at the ends and there were no pieces of the rib floating around in there. that means it was sent from the factory like that. leaves a lot to be disired for the QC. what kind of company let's that obvious a goof get by? I wish I had done like mpalermo and just fixed it myself, but unfortunately I sent mine back with the assurance that they would have me one back in four or five days. you can probably guess that I'm still waiting on my wing and they dont know when I'll get one. they say sometime in Oct. It really stinks having such a great plane(as many of you have stated) just sitting in the box. in the meanwhile I'm learning a great deal about how to set this beauty up when the time comes. BTW YS110 is my choice and i'm still gathering info about the servos i'll use. so you guys keep typing and i'll keep reading. hope to get this baby going before the weather turns this winter.

good stuff!
Wayne