I never thought I would end up owing a Fly Eagle model, yet alone doing a build thread on one.. so bare with me.
I put my hands up and be the first to say that I have been less then complimentary about FEJ models over the years. Although having never owned one, I have seen quite a few that did little to impress me. Well. This all changed at Kentucky jets 2012 when I saw the first of their Giant F-16's. Long story short. I decided the that it might be time to make the plunge and try this latest generation of FEJ models for myself. After all. If they could replicate the sort of quality that I saw on the display model at KY jets, then I was sure they had turned a corner and improved their products to a level that met my expectations, and became what I considered saleable.
There is already another thread sunning on my F-16 experience. So I wont go into that. Other than to say, I was really impressed with how the F-16 turned out, and whilst not glitch free ( I have yet to have had an ARTF jet that is ) My F-16 really did open my eyes to how much FEJ had upped their game. I still always had this niggling doubt in the back of my mind that maybe the F-16 that was made for me was not truly representative of what was a "stock" fly eagle jet. Someone made a comment that maybe this was a jet they made especially as they knew it was going to a critic...
To put this to rest, I decided to get another model. This time I wanted one from their stocks. A few quick emails to James ( Who I have to say has been by far the best factory representative of any of the companies I have dealt with ) and I had one of the new large 1/4.5 Bae hawks on the way to me. With it being from stock. I had no choice as to which scheme I could get. Luckily, what was available whilst not being my first choice, was not down there with the last choices either. What they had available was the same Ferrari sport scheme that I had been flying in California just a few weeks previously. Ideally I wanted a camo hawk 100, but as I said. I wanted a model from stock and not one that had been made for me.
The model arrived in 5 days from the time it was sent. Being a stock model meant it made a pleasant change to not have to wait weeks/ months for my new toy to arrive. When it did, I was really pleased with how it was packed. I had a few tiny bits of damage, and these were
Nose light clear lens broken ( I suggested that they ship without this fixed on in the future )
one of the wing fences had a very small crack. Like the vortex generators and all the antenna's these are all pre attached very securely, and one of the big fences seems to have had a knock in shipping. Whilst the obvious fix for this is for the factory not to attach them. I know from previous hawks ( I think this is my 9th or 10 th hawk ) that fixing these fences neatly and in a secure manner can be a PIA. So I suggested that maybe a piece of foam over the wing fence may be in order.
Other than that all was good. I was delighted to see that this hawk came with all thew options. These were...
Gear installed and airlines in the wings run and fitted to the self aligning and attaching air connectors. All air cylinders ( Of which there are 7) are pre fitted and air lines attached. Speed brake fitted, hinged and attached. Complete lighting kit installed ( 7 high intensity LEDS)
Other than that, other noteworthy aspects of what I saw were...
Under carriage seemed well installed, all screws tight, and with signs of loctite used. Complete undercarriage had been painted white. In a decent fashion to boot. A scratch with a finger nail showed that the paint felt hard and well keyed
All doors were a perfect fit and seemed to hinge and actuate with ease and smoothly.
Speed brake was the same
Canopy was pre fitted and fitted well. Hatch latch felt secure and pushed home a decent way into the canopy ( Bad experiences with previous hawks shedding canopies in flight ) Canopy also had carbon tongues/ tabs that secured into the fuselage sides to make the large canopy a solid fit to the fuselage, and instil more confidence of it staying as a feature of the model in flight. Sorry to go on about this, but I have had two hawks lose their canopies in flight and both times got lucky. However. I have witnessed first hand two similar size hawks crash due to the canopy either flying off and hitting the fin, or partially detaching and causing the model to crash.
All surfaces are pre hinged.
Top hatch was also fitted, although this was not a good a fit as the canopy. It looked as if too big a hole was made in the fuselage where the pin went through from the hatch latch, which allowed a certain amount of movement in the hatch.
The cockpits had been shipped fitted inside the fuselage and the canopy attached. ( More about the cockpit fitting later ) Whilst meaning a separate box was required for the nose section, it did mean that both cockpits arrived without a scratch. Anyone who has had an ARF with these brittle plastic cockpit kits in the past will know that the likelihood of this occurring is slim to say the least, and gluing these broken cockpit kits back together is also one of those jobs that no one can enjoy??
Whilst damage free. I was not bowled over with the scale fidelity of the cockpits. As well as the fact they seem almost to be the wrong scale. Te reason for this became clear later.. I will explain.
The paint finish and surface detail are exceptional. Not a paint run, orange peel or even a masking bleed anywhere to be seen. The fear is that this high gloss and perfect finish is at the expense of lots of paint being used. I have seen this in the past, and the most tale tale sign is the loss of the surface details such as panel lines and rivets. Looking over my hawk, I was pleased to see all panel lines and rivets were clear to see.
I am waffling on now... sorry. I will start with photos and brief descriptions. It's that time of year where I actually get some time to spend in the workshop doing something other than prepping models for yet another event. This coupled with the fact that I actually wanted to put this one together for myself and see what the kit was like, and what snags arose, meant that I decided to put this one together myself.

first job once unpacked was start on the wings.

Oh. I forgot to say. I asked James if the usual cd/ file of photos were available as a guide for assembly. I am used to the usual out of focus images, no text and even manuals that contain photos of models different to that of which I am building. So when James sent me a file containing the best instruction manual that I have seen for an ARF jet other than those form a certain manufacturer based in Florida, I was amazed! I know this is an exception for FEJ, and it was obvious that an outside party had written them and taken the images. Regardless. It was a pleasant and welcome surprise.

Starting with the ailerons. My kit differed from the instructions in that the servo boxes that the manual says have to be assembled and fitted by the user, were in fact pre fitted on this one. Not sure if this is the norm or not? I guess James can weigh in on that?
This photo clearly shows the honeycomb structure and the paint finish ( This is how it came out of the box) You can also see thew pre run wires for the wing tip lights. I suggested that the factory may look at the option of running servo wires during construction. This would make pulling the servos through much easier for the end user, or one could even solder on a servo plug/ socket and be done with it. Routing the cables through the wings was not the most pleasant of jobs.

close up of wing tip lights ( Pre fitted of course ) A little bit of fogging on the inside of the perspex cover, but nothing that cant be sorted with a skew driver and a few seconds of cleaning. Of note is that there are two lights per wing tip. The usual red and light nav lights and then a white light which dilutes the colour ( Not sure if thats the correct term ) The effect it has is it gets rid of that super bright and almost too obvious red and green you sometimes see.
I meant to say earlier. This is no build thread, more of an assembly and overview thread. I am lucky enough to have some great builders who I work with, and these are the guys who post the threads worth aspiring to. Not mine

Top hatch with strobe installed. Which needs to be replaced after I had a brain fart and decided to test it by plugging a battery directly to it [:@] James has been superb in arranging another light to be shipped with the damaged nose light lens.

A random shot of the fuselage side, giving some idea of the paint finish. I am not sure if the markings are logos or painted? I do know they are not a sticker on the outside as you can feel that the top coat covers them.

Pre installed self aligning air connectors. Sure do make rigging easier. Especially as there are 5 air connections per wing!!!

Nice of the factory to make a jet with my name on it... I just need to change my surname to CE and we are good to go. My daughtger walked into the workshop and said that Mummy would not be happy that I have another girls name on the side of my jet! [&:]

Top hatch with the pre fitted antenna and other scale details pre fitted. Although something that others may see as pedantic. I had always had a bugbear with FEJ for fitting antennas to their jets that looked like they were unshaped pieces of 1/4 balsa. I am delighted to say that all of those on my hawk were slimmer and aerofoil shaped. It goes to show that they are listening, and acting on whats been said... In my experience of working with kit manufacturers, this is one of the toughest mountains to climb.

Close up of the pre fitted top strobe and lens cover.

slim antenna cleary visible in this shot.

Servo now fitted ( 8411 ) Control horns have to be glued in. Slots were routed using a Dremel and then filled with Hysol. Hardwood blocks were under the aileron skin straight back from the servo horn. Control surface horns were nicely made carbon items that even had a saw tooth pattern on the bottom side to aid adhesion. Hysol surround was painted black later to cover it up. I nearly forgot to angle the horn so the hole for the clevis was in line with the hinge pin on the surface.

One aspect that I am not over keen on is the fact that there is quite a large area of the pin hinges that are unsupported from the trailing edge of the wing backwards. I spoje with James about this in depth whilst at Best in the west, and I explained how a little support would eliminate the flex in the control surface. I have decided to go with it as standard ( I want to try the kit as standard as possible )

Another detail that some might find trivial... but as many hawk owners will know. The outer gear doors on a hawk main U/C can be a major ache to the nether regions. I have had hawks with various systems of actuating these small doors. Ranging from Elastic bands, to thin wires and springs. All with various levels of success and failure. FEJ have chosen to go with a pre fitted tiny air cylinder thats slaved to the main and nose doors. Testing during the build showed it to work perfectly, but I guess the real test will be in the field. ALl I can say is that it was a nice change to not have to waste hours of my life fiddling about with some half cocked means of making them work. Throughout the build, I found little touches such as this which really helped speed the build process along. Which if we are honest is exactly what we are looking for when we buy an ARf jet...... right ?

Shot of the main gear extended. Notice painted finish, pre run and secured air and brake lines and carbon reinforced gear mounts.

Completed wing with gear folded away. Note: Gear door fit. Pre fitted and hinged flaps with flap hinge fairings pre attached. I went with the Powerbox wire set for connection of the aileron and flap servos. ANyone who is not aware of this product and has planes with two or three servos in each wing... Should be. Its such a neat, quick, easy and solid way of hooking up servos at the field. No longer do you have to faff around matching servo plugs and fiddling with them to connect your plane up. One plug and your done. The smelted end means you can tug on the green plug with total confidence, and the fact they come with servo wires pre fitted means no hassle of soldering up the green MPX plugs with their tiny pins and meltable plastic bodies.

Also you can see the other half of the self aligning air connector... pre fitted of course !

You can also see the wing attachment. A 4mm bolt at the rear ( pre fitted to a captive nut inside the fuz ) The carbon rod at the front of the wing is glued to the wing and passes through an aluminium clamp which tightens up with a allen bolt from the underside.

Servo hooked up to the pre supplied pushrod. Only difference being that I used a 3mm Clevis at the servo end rather than the heavy duty pin through clevis that FEJ supply. The FEJ item is beter as its far heavier duty, and there is no way of the pin breaking ( as with a conventional clevis ) It's kist that the slot at the servo end differs slightly to the control surface end and is slightly too thin for the JR super servo horns which I use. I could have skimmed a bit off the horn, but didnt like that idea. In retrospect, I should have filled the slot in the clevis slightly.. Doh!
The alu 90 deg servo mount brakets were pre supplied.

Servo cover attached with the tiny self tappers ( Supplied in the hardware pack ) There is a painted fairing that goes over the control surface horn if desired.

The flap servo is an internal linkage so not really much to show. The control surface horn was fitted so it was just a case of a bit of fiddling to get the linkage made and attached.
It was then onto the elevator. The pivot system came to me factory fitted. The control horn set up differed slightly form the instructions, but James pre warned me about this and it was easy enough to work out how it goes.
The bearings used by FEJ were a little dry, and if I am honest, not the best quality I have ever seen. Some time spent with the oil syringe and things were much smoother.

Another small detail.
All of the hardware ( Of which I used most of what the factory supplied ) came in its own individually marked bags. Nothing ground breaking I know, but it does make life easier than a clear bag full of parts for which you have to work out where they all go.

I chose to go with JR 8711 HV's. Two of them should provide enough grunt for that all flying stab. Looking at the extra holes in my stab it looks as if my elevator might of originally had two pivot blocks. My kit came with one per side so thats what I am going with. I put larger than supplied washers on the bolts that go through the stab and into the block. Only as a peace of mind thing really.
It took a little time setting up the servo arms on the servo so they would not foul the fibreglass cover for the tail servo area. Push rods and clevises were all as standard. A couple of self adhesive alu clamps helped keep the servo wires out of the way.

The hole for the servo wires to go through was already there. Just be careful on the inside of the fuselage where you run the servo wires as they are very close to the tailpipe. I used heat resistant sleeving as well as a ceramic blanket. I am paranoid about servo wires melting on a hot tailpipe. Even if they dont touch, I have seen them degrade over time with the close proximity to heat.
If I was to do another one of these, I would put a thin plate of carbon or ply sheet on the inside of the fuselage where the bolts go through from the Alu 90 deg servo mounts. Currently they are honeycomb and when tightening down on them the feeling of compressing composite material was not great.

[youtube][/youtube]Hi Ali great to see a thead like this,i have built three FEJ Hawks and like you say all is not perfect but not a major disaster either,it has taken me and others a while 3/4 years infact to get fej to make some changes ie, to heavy/aerials like bricks etc and at last it seems things are coming together.
When you get to the exhaust pipe i have found it to short on all three of my Hawks.To get the C/G right with out adding weight to the nose the engine needs to be as far forward as possable,which makes the exhaust to short!! i have found that the pipe needs to be 900mm long.
I will watch with great interest how you find it,although i expect you will be fitting a 180/200 engine where i was using a 160.
After watching the video of your flight at B I T W i was quite amazed at the take off as the Hawk came off the runway like it was in a lift,not at all with the nose high,guess there was more flap than i have used,Hope to see you at CJ on the 28th regards Keith

Next up was the rudder set up. The only way to access the servo position is through the speed brake. As I am going to be there for a while I decided to un bolt the air ram and hold it open with tape.

Hi Keith. I was expecting more flak from you to be honest.. especially after all the ribbing I have given you and your FEJ's over the years... Especially those aerials LOL [&:]
If truth be known.. I am actually writing this after test flying the model this weekend. I wasn't expecting it to work out this way, but the build was so quick and hassle free that it just happened that way
Thanks for the heads up on the tailpipe. Looks like another bit of your advice has sunk in as mine fitted perfectly. No nose weight was added, and if anything. I am thinking of using lighter batteries in the nose after my test flights.
I have gone with a King tech 180 ( More on that later ) and found the power to be perfect. I am using my normal ( by sight ) flap settings and found take off and landings to be spot on. Flight number three in fact took off so quickly that it caught me and the camera man off guard.
All being well, I will have it at ABingdon on the 28th.
Regards Al