skywarrior

Hi,
Saturday brought the maiden flight! One wheel failed to raise despite repeated testing in the workshop as usual. This gave a heavy trim problem in the stiff breeze that was blowing at the time. Tried to trim instead of flying the model out of it and nearly lost it as it was flying too slow and flicked !
My spotter shouted POWER and I duly thrust the stick as far as it would go. The little J/M 140 BXL burst into to life and shoved it all skywards. From there on in it was a steady process with gear retract and gear down to get one thing or the other. Finally sorted it flew well.
A few clicks of aileron and elevator for level flight without the Royal gyro doing its thing and a few good circuits were complete. Then on with the gyro and this smoothed out the bumps in the wind and it tracked rock steady in all senses.
Had 4 flights and ended up having to put appx 4mm of down elev via the trim at full flap which was then up to the end of the trim stop so I applied a mix in this condition of 4 mm and re centred the trim. This gave me full control over trim for the future.
All flights were at the recommended CG point and full flap was around 80' and needed 3/4 throttle to sustain penetrating flight in this breeze for landing.

So I then took it home in one piece and had a large glass of red wine !!

Cheers
David

RCISFUN

My Feedback: (44)

Very Nice David
Glad it all worked out
I see from the photos you have lights installed, can you take some close up photos and post them of the lights?
Thanks

skywarrior

Hi,
Enclose shots of lights from Unilight Austria.
I have used these lights in all my models and they are a great aid in the UK grey skies IN SUMMER !
They are very bright and easy to set up

LANDING LIGHTS 8Wx2 Ultra-Power Spotlight, 12mm, T-Fuse

WINGS 16Wx2 Navigation & Strobe, 11mm, T-Fuse

http://www.unilight.at/shop/eu/controls/index.php

skywarrior

Here is something that is in better focus

RCISFUN

My Feedback: (44)

Very cool!

leventx

dolphin says Hi from Beijing day end up with heavy rain so couldnt do maiden , and this weekend strong wind.. still waiting .... k140 inside and this time i wanted to try savox sa1256 s, so they are all around ..i follow exactly the manual , and done well , (special Thanks to Rich Miller for great manual ) also really satisfied with quality and painting , great customer service, so will continue to get more FB planes ... (already having hawk and viper though

RCISFUN

My Feedback: (44)

Leventx, you Dolphin looks great!

That is a cool shelter for keeping the sun off

Chris_WaterBoy

Interesting all the Dolphin S's reviewed so far on this forum have been fitted with 140 size turbines (please correct me if I'm wrong). I would be interested to know what the dry weights are?
Likewise for those fitted with the 100 size, as mine will be.

leventx

firstfull this plane looks big , , i havent check but take off weight should be 15-16kg sure has nice big wings to create nice lift too... before i was thinking to use 120 , after i got plane i put 140 in directly,, for me the reason is we fly on grass field and its 350m long ... so i prefer to take off about 100m with a nice climb speed ... sure it will fly with 100 turbine on a nice concreate field but sure 120 is better , as my jetlegend viper also flies great with k80 but it takes of almost 250m on the grass than climbing speed is very slow and need to keep low angle , so it scares me especially in hot days , as hot bites my thrust a little... so i prefer be on safe side, after it took off i believe half throttle will be very enough to fly ...

skywarrior

Hi,
Had 10 flights over this weekend with the Dolphin S.
Flies very well and gradually getting to know her a little better.
I find that I need lots of flap and 5 mm of crow to slow this plane down without any headwind. She is quite slippery in these conditions but only one small bounce landing, however a few long glides before touching asphalt. The JM 140 XBL is an ideal turbine i.m.o.and she flies at half throttle most of the time. 3/4 and she will go for a reversal with authority then slips through the air on the way down with ease and a good turn of speed if you wish. Landing with it all hanging still needs 3/4 throttle to keep authority once again.
I changed the fuel tank fittings for BVM units on advice from a good flyer. These get rid of any tank bubbles and the annoying overflow when filled up.Now the tanks are full to the top and give 7 mins of lively performance and landing with 1/3 on the main, which to me means safe flying. Had to play around with the offset on the brake mix which is "down elev into brake" in order to unbind the brakes when taxiing.
Seems ok now.
One tip when wiring elec retracts to the wings to the plugs on the fuselage. Make the wires long enough to be able to retract the wheels when still on the wing tube prior to bagging or storing them or you have to hold them whilst plugging and unplugging etc etc etc..... I also made an extension wire for this purpose but make sure its the same plug wiring for both sides or you might pug into a servo line in reverse polarity by mistake and burn it !!

dmattmul

skywarrior

Mine weighs in at 16 .3 kg with 2x 4500 Rx batteries and 1x 5800 2S for Ecu plus 1x 4500 for brakes and lights
This is all day flying without charging !

saillplane77

Great flying airframe !

tp777fo

My Feedback: (28)

Be careful how you cradle/transport your Dolphin S. I cracked the fuselage (Dolphin L)on both sides at the nose gear opening due to poor placement of the cross member of my transport cradle. The airex is brittle and cant handle the stress at that point. I repaired it with CF strips on the inside of the nose wheel opening.

dmattmul

These covers are the best I have seen and do a great job of protecting the Dolphins. (Not that we have never had any hangar rash) Made by Revoc. He has the patterns for the 2 FB Dolphins in his data base now. The colors are steched on fabric not printed or dyed. I think I would rather crash a jet than to ding it up transporting. The Dolphins are big jets and already have hit the covers getting them into and out of my workshop. If they would have not had covers for sure a ding in the paint ! He uses the design from pictures you send him. Felt lines and great quality. Just make sure you do a control check so you don't try and take-off with them on. One wing and one stab are not covered and hard to tell the difference !!

RCISFUN

My Feedback: (44)

FB has made some improvements, they are now including saddle tank mounts, main tank mount and front battery trays with the latest production kits.
I will be making an addendum to the manual.

BluFox

My Feedback: (10)

Thank you for posting the three updates. I have examined them closely for fit, finish and functionality. FB Jets is constantly taking the pro-active stance on all their new Airex / carbon fiber laminate construction processes. These three parts were added due to the excellent design work by Rich (RCISFUN).
A & E Jets, exclusive sales agent for the Dolphin S offers the "complete a pak" laser cut wood parts for both Dolphin and Dolphin S. While an option, they are a valued added upgrade to these two kits. Referrals available.

Contact me at [email protected] to order yours OR call me @ 941-468-1246. . .I love to talk !

Thank you,
Eric Clapp
A & E Jets USA
formally jet central USA

yellowbird911

Does anyone know for sure what the radio tray is made of? It looks like carbon fiber but the fibers do not conduct electricity but the formers do. Unless FB figured out a way to make carbon fiber nonconductive I'm thinking it is fiberglass. I hope so because I'm using it instead of switching it out. Will maiden next weekend.

Custmachr

My Feedback: (3)

I do not know, but I just tested that panel and it is not conductive as you said. All the other parts including the tank mounts and the formers are very conductive. I believe you are correct in your assumption that the radio tray is a fiberglass vs carbon in the other components.
Tim

Custmachr

My Feedback: (3)

Are there any updates on your maiden flight?

yellowbird911

Sorry for the delay. Maiden could have gone better or much worse depending how you look at it. AUW dry is 30.1lbs, recommended CG, ICEMAN gyro, Kingtech 140. First flight was going great and turned on the gyro which made if fly even better, wind was up a little. After 5 minutes of easy flying I put gear down, flaps full for landing I noticed no trim change. Did one approach which felt perfect but the wind was shifting so I powered up to land from opposite direction. The plane never "felt" slow even though I was thinking it looked slow. Turning downwind I got visual confirmation when it abruptly stalled away from the turn from 100 feet up. So pulled up about 15 feet above ground according to telemetry. Almost got away with it but hit a power line then spun around and landed in a big tree. After all that the only damage was a bite out of the wing and some damage to the left intake. The repair was easy, quick and it flew twice the next weekend with out any drama at all.

The crash was not the fault of the Dolphin it was all me. I've had gyros in other planes but they were added after I had several flights on them and they were trimmed to each flap position before the gyro was ever turned on. The gyro covered up the feeling of numbness I normally experience when it gets slow. Also with out the gyro my Dolphin needs several clicks of down trim with full flaps but with the gyro on it needed none. This kept the plane at altitude instead of sinking. Will never use a gyro on a maiden again and learned a few things that day. Would prefer to learn lessons on old s%&* planes I care nothing about instead of a brand new first flight jet but again it could have been much worse.

tp777fo

My Feedback: (28)

There are old pilots and bold pilots...but no old bold pilots

Chris_WaterBoy

skywarrior - 10 months on, do you have any more experiences to share, please?
After a move from the UK to Australia, my example is still under construction, but hopefully not too far away now.
Although I have been reassured to the contrary by experienced pilots here, I am a little concerned that my JetsMunt 100XBL may not be quite enough for a 150M grass strip - we shall see....

Lerch32

Just ordered mine.

sewergod

My Feedback: (15)

I've designed a cradle for the dolphin s for transport in a smaller package. The cradle holds all of the dolphins components protected by industrial foam. The formers of the cradle align with the fuselage formers to prevent point load damage to the airframe. The rear support rotates to the horizontal position to assist in the assembly process. Also the wings can be plugged in and the gear operated for assembly. I've posted an ad on RCU if anyone is interested. I'm working with Eric Clapp to design one for the big Dolphin. If anyone is intersted, please let me know. I'll also try to post some pictures on this thread. Thanks