gunradd

My Feedback: (9)

Dave did you get it apart yet? If not I will take mine apart and grab some pics for you.


I got the yellow Cockpit.......
Well needless to say for 265 dollars its subpar at best. But it atleast gives a good starting point for a good cockpit.

First off the pilot looks tiny sitting in the cockpit and his little arms can hardly reach the panel in front of him. This is a good thing because I wanted to install a bigger pilot anyway. So I had to cut the pilot seat in half and make it taller to support the new pilot. I then gutted the pilot and stuffed him and made him a little smaller. After working with it for a while I was happy with the fit.

Next up. The color. They send this cockpit prepainted. Well they prepainted it in all the wrong colors. All raptors have flat black cockpits. So I repainted the cockpit and repianted all the little buttons. It looks much better now.

The glare sheild had almost no detail at all. I started by making some panels with metal tape. I then put some fake screws on the metal tape and painted.

So far I am very happy how its comming out. I still have a ton of little details to do but its a good start.

In the first pic you can see how awkward the stock cockpit looks........[X(]

smchale

My Feedback: (67)

Nice addition Kris, NOW it looks like an airplane! [8D]
This has been a great addition to your hanger.

Bob_B

My Feedback: (11)

kris the scmale cockpit police have approved! Whew, now go fly that bird. It really does look good. Good work.

smchale

My Feedback: (67)

Only because I care.

ddennison

My Feedback: (15)

Hi,
No luck for me getting the nose gear axle out. The one side screw is out and the other is stuck and I am not sure if the one side is stripped.

I may have to call Yellow/Shaun about this and see if I can get a new part - if I can get it out...

Otherwise she is ready for her 5th season!

Thanks
Dave

gunradd

My Feedback: (9)

Dave here is a few pics.

You are only going to get one screw out. Both screws thread into a hollow axle. When you get one side out then the entire axle assembly will press out the other side. (note) My axle was froze up in the bearing thanks to the wet grass at FL jets. So I removed one side then supported the lower nose gear and then threaded the screw I took out part way into the axle so its sticking out. I then lightly tapped the partly threaded screw to get the axle moving out the other side. After I got it moving I removed the acrew that was part threaded in and then used a small pic to push the axle out the rest of the way.

I hope this helps Dave.


Thanks Sean and Bob.
Sean I didnt know you where the cockpit police...................

gunradd

My Feedback: (9)

Another great day flying with the Raptor.

I did a little practice doing tailslides and the raptor does them with ease with the thrust vectoring and is totaly controllable. I did add a little bit of aileron into the thrust vectoring. I did not like the feeling when doing high alpha slow passes the ailerons are non responsive. Very happy with this set up.

To do a tail slide all you really do is start at level flight nice and slow then give it almost full power into a vertical. Let it climb some and slowly pull a little power back until she slows down and then goes backwards. When its going backwards keep the power into it so you can still control the thrust vectoring. You can hold the nose straight up while its drifting backwards. Then when ready to pull out just nose it over a little and the plane will level off.

I have some pics but RCU does not freaking WORK!

ddennison

My Feedback: (15)

Shaun,

PERFECT- thanks!

I just wnated to make sure I could remove it that way with a few taps!

THANKS!!!

ddennison

My Feedback: (15)

Woops, I think I thanked the wrong person!

Thanks gunradd!!

gunradd

My Feedback: (9)

No problem Dave glad I could help.

Here is a pic from the weekend.

smchale

My Feedback: (67)

Very cool Kris. Would love to see some video of that stunt. Like the color in the picture, looks great!

gunradd

My Feedback: (9)

Had to send the turbine in for service so while it was out I decided to scale out the cockpit a little better. Added all kinds of airlines and wire bundels. Not really sure what it is under the canopy actuator looks like air distrubution or something so what ever it is I made it also .

In the first pic you can see how it started. The HUD was totaly redone since the one from yellow looks like it comes from a different aircraft not a raptor. I also cut a 2 little bottle of sprite and used it with the HUD glass to give it the green tint.

gunradd

My Feedback: (9)

Got my turbine back from service and took the raptor out to make sure everything was in order before I head to Kentucky jets next week. All worked great and I am ready to go!!!

I removed the rubber bands ffrom the inner main gear doors and replaced them with springs. Looks much better and works better. I used springs out of an old 72mhz radio for the sticks. They where the perfect size. I also did some other fine tunning on the gear doors and it paid off. The doors close nice and tight now and dont fly open at high speeds.

I also replaced the aileron servos (hitech) with some JR servos.

k_sonn

My Feedback: (32)

Nice Kris.  Have fun at KY Jets.

Kirk

Ian R

Hi Kris

If you get chance can you take a picture of the main legs with the spring mod.

The bands work ok but are a bit crude for a model that is so well engineered everywhere else. I normally support the "KISS" principle but the springs sound a good idea. What else did you do to the doors to improve things? Mine are ok but don't close as tight as I would like

thanks Ian

tp777fo

My Feedback: (28)

One of the best flying models I have ever owned. Great job YA!!

gunradd

My Feedback: (9)

Ian here is a pic.

I have a small zip tie around the strut that the spring hooks too. I also use this same zip tie to hold the brake line. The other side of the spring hooks to the gear door in the same place the rubber band did.

To make the doors close better I used a heat gun to form them better then glued small peices of ply inside the doors so they kept thier shape. Took some time needles to say

Thanks Kirk.

Ian R

Thanks Kris

the picture and description helps,

 I see your tyres are wearing like mine I have a spare set of tyres when mine finally needs changing.  I may look for an alternative tyre as I did on my Yellow F15 which I used Sullivan skylites the trouble is the 22's are wider

If I find a solution I will let you know

many thanks Ian

gunradd

My Feedback: (9)

Ian I have also been searching for a different tire. I used the skylites on my YAF16 and loved them but like you said dont fit the raptor.
I think BVM might have the right size tire on the BVM Raffel. I need to check still. I am contemplating getting a set before I head out to Kentucky jets.

smchale

My Feedback: (67)

Kris,
What is the dia and width you need?

ddennison

My Feedback: (15)

In the other thread "yellow CG hinge" I think are the serach terms that will find it - there is a description of other tires being modified to fit...

While I dont like how mine wear (like yours in the picture and the nose wheel shreds even faster) I have to say that like the ground handling with these foam tires...I have a set to change when necessary too.

Dave

gunradd

My Feedback: (9)

So far I have close to 30 flights on the raptor in the last 4 days at Kentucky jets! Its doing very good. Some very good video was taken also.

The only bad part is the TIRES!! They did ok the first two days then on the one real hot day on the black runway they got all messed up and now it rolls like I have square wheels.

A friend of mine Mike bought a yellow F22 ARF so I got some pics of them together. Also had 3 other people looking over the plane because they where building the kits at home. So we will be seeing many more F22s soon!

One thing to be carefull of is using to much rudder in a 4 point roll. I was full throttle doing a 4 point roll and when I got hard on the rudder the plane did a nasty snap roll but I then flew out of it. I thought I broke a rudder at first. Well it turns out you can only give so much rudder on the f22 before it snaps. My friend tried the same thing on his skymaster F22 and had the same result with too much rudder. I still do the 4 point rolls and slow rolls but I am very carefull on how much rudder I put into it.

I will have more later to tired to post. Had 10 flights today alone.

cycross

Thanks for sharing this info Kris. Seems like there is alot of coupling of roll and yaw axes with rudder application. You think a 2-axis gyro could help?

Also looking forth to learn how everyone address the tires replacement to be more durable.

Mine's still boxed up, in case you wanted to ask.

gunradd

My Feedback: (9)

I give up on the tires and will just have to order lots of foam I guess. A friend just bought a Raptor arf with the Glennis wheels on it and he lost a tire on two takeoffs.

For the Gyro I dont really think its needed. Its a super stable plane. I can still do long 4 point rolls from straight and level flight. It takes around 20 flights to get the mixes right for decent knife edge. It takes allot of down elevator mix and oppisite aileron mix with the rudders. Also Knife edge on the left has a very different values the knife edge on right.

After flying the plane more on thrust vectoring I highly recomend mixing aileron in with it. It just takes to long to get your speed back up and have effective ailerons after doing hard thrust vectoring manuvers. I have been putting the flaps down for high alpha thrust vectoring passes. It helps keep the plane from picking up speed.

I did almost 40 flights in 2 days and over 30 gallons of fuel this week with the raptor. It just goes and goes. Just a great all around plane.

mr_matt

My Feedback: (10)

That too bad I know a guy with one and I think he was thinking Glennis wheels. What was the problem, design?

I really like this plane!! And my experience with Yellow products has been excellent.