coreyg

Worst construction I have ever come across and most disgusting customer service. This write up is intended to make others really think before wasting money on FEJ but if you decide to still purchase, to make sure that you go over and strengthen the hell out of your model like I have.

Never having bought a FEJ model before and hearing all the bad press about them, I thought I would give them a try in the hope that all the negativity was unfairly given. How I was wrong.
I ordered the 1/6 F18F with full ordinance and cockpit detail back in early September 2014, it finally arrived in March 2015 but without the ordinance kit.
I won’t lie and say that externally it didn’t look ok,because the paint job and detail was reasonably good. On closer inspection though and especially when I started the build, this is when I was absolutely appalled.
There is clearly no quality control, the parts are simply put in with a ‘that will do attitude’, to make life easier in getting the model complete and they simply have no concept of how strong a model has to be due to the high stresses of speed and weight, never lone the costs involved.

Starting with the simple defects that can be fixed but are still no excuse, include;
-- The canopy not shutting properly due to bad alignment

-- Bubbles in the wing and vertical stab surfaces

-- Formers in the front end of the fuselage were just glued in badly with no specify location, which meant that the ply plates supplied for all equipment could not be used and therefore more had to made at all different shapes and sizes.

-- Rear landing gear was in the wrong (non-scale) location. This took quite a number of days to rectify with the ripping out and redoing three times until I was happy. The gear was set back too far from the C of G which would have made it a bit more difficult for the model to rotate on take-off. I can see why they have put it in the spot they did and that’s simply because if the gear was retracted in the more scale location, the wheels wouldn’t have cleared the gear doors as well as a main ply former in the fuselage. Like I said, it makes life easier for them and as long as the gear retracts then ‘that will do’, so I guess for them it doesn’t matter where the gear was put.
With a bit of effort in modifying the gear, the doors and the former, I managed to get the gear right in the location its meant to be, further in the fuselage so the model is lower, much like the full sized aircraft and also achieved an 80mm wider wheel base then previous.

-- As for the pipe, I wasn’t even going to take a risk with that, as it was flimsy and welded poorly. It was easy to just make my own pipe whereby I could have no sharp edges and made the diameter at all ends larger so the P300 could breathe better.

-- Now for the worst part which I guarantee would not have even lasted the first flight and is probably the same reason for why I have read of other models having crashed due to elevator failure.
Firstly, the block that the elevator shaft slots into is made of nylon and for some unknown reason they have recessed all sides in. It’s not as if you needed to save on weight with a model this size. Between the bottom of the recessed sides and the hole for the elevator shaft, there is only 2mm of nylon. Personally that is weak as hell and not good enough.
The block is meant to bolted in with 4 bolts on either side, as you can see the bolt are of all different lengths. Only 3 bolts actually had a bite in the block of only 3mm and the others didn’t even get past the ply.
An aluminium block with bearing should be standard practice, of which I had made up and now bolted with longer stainless bolts.

At the back, they have doubled up on ply formers in order to give extra strength but clearly don’t like to glue them together, thus leaving a large gap. Due to this gap, the bolts cannot be done up tight as the ply flex’s and therefore doesn’t hold the block securely. All I could do is fill the gaps with strong epoxy glue. In one spot it obviously wasn’t enough so after tightening the bolts and leaving it overnight, the ply compressed together and in turn pulled the side of the fuselage in, warping it. This had to be then filled, sanded and painted.
All the ply formers for the supporting the elevator and servo rails are extremely weak, flexible 3mm cheap ply. There is very little use of aircraft ply in this model but this is what fired me up the most since you’re paying a fair price for the kit, as you can see, nearly all the formers are not even touching the wall of the fuselage and have only little dribbles of glue which do nothing. Every former flex’s and moves and this includes the elevator servo mounting plate which should be pretty damn solid. When you want all the servo torque working on the control surface, the last thing you want is the servo moving around on flexible ply. This particular plate on both sides, as you can see in one of the pics, does not even slot into the the slit in the former, theyre actually just floating on the other side.








What on earth are they really thinking; clearly they don’t want the models to last.
Of course, this required a lot of reinforcing and strengthening with carbon and aircraft ply.

When I emailed them about the poor construction, the only reply I got was that I should go over itand make it stronger myself and there was no such compensation offered. It shouldn’t be made so poorly that I have to go over it in the first place.
As for the missile set. For six months after receiving the model and a stupid amount of emails, they continuously said the company is making them and they need more time. It doesn’t take six months to make a few very simply missiles and underwing tanks. After that time, I started emailing demanding something be done or a refund, they said more time or they’ll refund me.
It got to the point where I was threatening that I contact PayPal and my bank and I’ll have them recoup my money. They said they will get onto it but wrong again. Long story short, I finally said that’s enough and if I don’t get a refund, not only willI contact PayPal but I will also post a large article on R/C Universe telling how bad the construction is and with many photos. Literally 5 minutes after that email, I had a refund in my PayPal account which from the time I ordered the model, has been a year and a half.

I will never buy from FEJ again and I’ll just get the ordinance kit from Skymaster.

DrScoles

My Feedback: (18)

Curious why you did this after the mountains of evidence against them. Was there not a similar F-18 available from someone else?

afterburner

My Feedback: (18)

Although I haven't checked, it is usually the price that lures people in to say to themselves "how bad can it be" and then a costly lesson is learned.

ravill

My Feedback: (11)

Did you think we were kidding? Can I sell you a brand new F-14 from FEJ that I've got laying around?

coreyg

I wish skymaster wasnt so slow at developing models but unfortunately FEJ was the only one with the 1/6 size.

Bob_B

My Feedback: (11)

Maybe the owners of FEJ should tout how good these jets are, then people wont believe them and not buy them.

ravill

My Feedback: (11)

Welcome to RCU.

Sorry you had to learn a lesson from one of the hard ways.

Atleast you haven't lost all your equipment in a big ball of smoke.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMZwYHJFDe0

You aren't going to try to fly that thing are ya?

coreyg

Well from the amount of time spent on it and what ive done to it, its basically my own built model now, so I have all the confidence. The disappointing part about it, is no one should have to go to that much effort to make it airworthy

Eagle Driver

how much for this piece of fibreglass garbage ?

dubd

+10000

rhklenke

My Feedback: (24)

A Flyeagle 1/6 F-18 with a P300 - man that thing is going to make one hell of a hole! Be sure to video it! (I can say that because he's not in the US...)

Bob

RCFlyerDan

My Feedback: (54)

Didn't know that JPO was limited to the USA only? But, I agree that; unfortunately, the OP got what he deserves by buying a jet from a known bad product company that most USA Jet CD's will ban from attending a jet show or even flying one.

rhklenke

My Feedback: (24)

No its not - although our members are currently limited to the US and Canada, but all are welcome.

That comment was definitely tongue-in-cheek though as I seriously hope he doesn't fly it - if for no other reason that there is an expensive P300 engine as well as other equipment to loose when the inevitable happens...

Clearly he has not read all of the information on FEJ here and seen the x-ray evidence that clearly shows that many of the most critical defects in their jets are not visible from the outside...

Bob

mackeyjones

Sorry to hear that Corey, I looked into the FEJ one early on when I was looking at a larger one. Read the posts here and changed my mind. With the amount of work you have done I am quite sure it will be strong, and have no issues.

When I found out that SM was making a larger size and the F18 C I decided to wait, although it is quite painful to have to wait for SM to develop theirs since they first talked about it, you can be a lot more confident in the strength, as well as knowing by the time you get it, their models will have been well and truly tested.

Regards Iain

FalconWings

My Feedback: (57)

Clarification, this is not a bad QC FEJ model. This is a prefectly compliying QC FEJ model.

rhklenke

My Feedback: (24)

Unless he's cut open all of the internals of the wings and tails and fixed what's in there, there's still a very good chance its a crash waiting to happen...

Bob

mackeyjones

Yes, fair enough,but at the same time sucker punching a guy who has come on here brave enough to admit his mistake and is putting the info out there for others that FEJ still isn't doing anything to fix the issues with their Jets isn't my style.

If you took notice of everyone who posts about model aircraft manufacturers on here, you would never buy another model again. This particular manufacturer is an exception. Although I know people who fly their FEJ Jets with no issues, and you see the same thing in these threads as well, trying to find out the facts amongst all the bull is sometimes very difficult on here.

raron455

My Feedback: (38)

"that most USA Jet CD's will ban from attending a jet show or even flying one"


NOT TRUE, its actually more like a few, just stating the facts,and im not defending FEJ, their reputation remains solid,, Tainted. But there are still quite a few well proven pre-honeycomb FEJ jets flying out there.

ravill

My Feedback: (11)

Give me $2500 and its alllll yours!!

I don't think anyone has sucker punched this poor chap.

It's his money to do with it what he wants.

If I want to put a bunch of cash in an airplane and then set fire to it, it will be my prerogative. I just hope that I wouldn't kill anyone doing it.

dbsonic

My Feedback: (3)

Agree with Bob, best to boroscope those wings etc before risking that P300...

coreyg

lol im sure if I left it as is straight out of the box it certainly would be. Its definately not their model any more

coreyg

Its funny reading the comments actually. The aim wasnt to get comments about my hornet as it stands now, because I can assure you it would probably s**t over skymaster. The point was simply to show what i have found prior to all my work and for others who wish to buy FEJ, to really look over their models thoroughly.
In saying that, despite the reputation of other companies, you would be an absolute idiot to not go over any model, regardless of the brand. Even skymaster has weak crap coming out of their factory for which ive seen

Ceeray

Not to defend FEJ, but as stated above about other manufacturers..


Skymaster small EDF version F-15 glasswork was not the best compared to my JetTeng Viperjet. JTM has a really light and smooth insides too, F-15 is much rougher look and finish, also seams are badly done on my SM.

rhklenke

My Feedback: (24)

So you're saying that you cut open the wings and tails and reinforced the sub-standard construction in there as well? If you've read all of the threads on FEJ and sen them fly and come apart, you will realize that most of the failures occur in those areas. Also, have you check the pivot points of the stabilators? Previous experience documented on here indicates that those are incorrectly placed and its unclear if they have moved these to the correct location...

Bob

coreyg

With the wings yes, plus i hated how unscale looking they were so a big portion of the trailing edge of the wing from where the control surfaces are hinged was cut back in order to make it scale whereby both ail/flaps are hinged the same way and come down the same and has the shroud to cover the gap. That was another spot where the wings could be strengthened.
The pivot points of the stabs can be easily checked tomorrow.
Despite what people say, the construction inside the wings is not that bad. For instance, look at the inside the wing of a comparf aerobatic plane, same skinning as the hornet and yet it has only one sub rib and one spar, its all hollow. I fly 3D and the G's i have put these wings in, for instance going flat out at level flight or vertically down and pulling full elev to a complete stop, and yet the only thing i have broke many of, is the carbon tube. Nothing wrong with the wings. Jets have nowhere near those forces.
Ive also seen skymaster F16 vertical fin sheer off half way down. Now you call that good construction.

The problem is, those people who have had failures more than likely were to lazy to reinforce them, much like that F14 video shown earlier, no doubt that construction in the aft end was probably much like what i found, so his crash was simply his own fault.