Raf,

Remember your cg experiment with the Tam Hornet! The further aft you move the cg, the less up elevator deflection you need to raise the nose. Be sure and have some expo at 55mm and a quick rate change down to say 40mm if she feels touchy.

Best of Luck!!!


David S

PS: I put my cell # in the PM if you want to call.

Hi Raf,

David is spot on. I did the test flights with 270mm - 300mm. 290mm was a good feel for me. But we always sugest a more nose heavy configuration for mainden flights. Just to tame her a bit and get the feel of her. But some exsperience pilots might like to go straight into 3D flights on their maidens. For them i recommend 300mm!

Have fun. Very good flyer!

Regards

Morne

.
3D flight in this heavy metal? I prefer do it in my F-16 that with 225mm CG and GYA-352 controled

Guys,

I've talked to Dan Gill about possibly making a full ordinance load including pylons for the F-4. He's open to it if there is enough interest. I love this plane but it reallyneeds to be "LOADED FOR BEAR" & I haven't seen anything on the SkyMaster sight about armament. If you're interested drop me a note or post here and maybe I can get Dan to move forward. The quality of his stuff is EXCELLENT!

David S

He David,
I am intresting by a full ordinance for my F4 E, but the price?. You can see my construction on:
http://aamc80.frbb.net/Les-forums-de...-du-F4E-t9.htm
best regards
Michel J.

Raf, are you going to bring her out this Sunday to maiden at South County? I am going to shoot to have my F-16 to maiden then too.

Raf,

Bring the Phantom to CA Jets! We'll do some formation flying!

David S

I'm not entirely sure that Tomcats is the place for an F-4 phantom maiden. I was thinking tracy. But, I also said that for my JL F-18c and the 18 turned out to be a big *****cat after I saw how Dave was landing.... So who knows?

I have to go to fresno this weekend for a day so I might even try to maiden her out there...

David, that F-4 will be there!

Raf

I am potentially interested. We don't have access to the base this weekend, so my maiden is put off a week.

ravill, be carefull with the elevator before your maiden, if u have the elevator neutral, i mind, parallel to the fuse flight line move your elev trim all the way down (nose up in flight) and this have to be your new neutral position, if u fly with the elevators parallel to the fly line the elev trim wont be enought, take a look at the picture, that should be your neutral position for the first flight, take care...

I am wondering if this elevator trim is due to nose heavy OR pipe thrust line as shown here?

HMMMMM.... That is an interesting though Ehab. The pipe points down a bit. And also the CG at 290mm could be moved a bit backwards and see what happens. I guess testing will give the answer.

Michel

David S, is this what you found as well?

Any word on Ravill's crash ? Apparently all skymaster F4's in CA Jets didn't do well.

David told me the airplane flew beautifully for 4 minutes until the engine flamed out. Downwind, worst spot. David had an engine problem as well, again, not the aircraft. He may chime in here.

Keith,

You are correct. Raf was very happy with the flight characteristics untill the flame out, which was unfortunately low and downwind. Too close to the runway to complete a turn back so had to land way out in the desert. Damaged the wings badly.

I also suffered a flameout, but was high and turning upwind when it quit. The airplane glides quite well with takeoff flap setting and lands softly. I waited a little late to put the gear down in order to stretch the glide and one gear didn't get fully down before I touched down, causing it to rip out.
[:@]
As for the elevator trim, my trim was also as shown, but because I flew with 285 mm cg which was nose heavy. Moving the cg back will get rid of a lot of that trim. But, on first flights I'd much rather the plane take a little extra runway to lift off because it's nose heavy, than have it jump off early, and do silly things, because it's tail heavy.

David S

What motors were in the aircraft and did you find out the cause of the flameouts?
Thanks
Scott

Raf has a JetCat Titan and I have a Jet Central Rhino. Mine was probably an air bubble, as the turbine ran fine after bringing it back to the pits, can't speak for Raf.

David S

Raf is in Paris now may be getting married to his nice GF so all I can tell you is the UAT on his F4 was almost empty! I have an idea but I will wait for Raf to tell his opinion when he is back. I can tell you that David S. F4 glided forever and Raf's F4 flew great, so at this point it seems that the plane is of a good design.

My f-4 suffered a "fuel fail" off condition as per the ECU. My SBB also had a "fuel fail" off condition. I was able to find the culprit in my SBB as being a pinched line.

The F-4 flew great, for about two minutes. Then the flame out happened. I think I could have made the runway but, I some around me thought that I should go straight. So straight I went. She kept going, and going, and going and going....When I finally thought that she was ready to touch down (and boy was that WAYYYYY out there) she touched down and hopped back in the air!![X(] I held her off and then she stayed down.

The gear was completely ripped out taking the ailerons and flaps with them as they punched backwards. I gotta thank Darcy for picking Ehab and I up in his truck on the "trail of tears." [] I also gotta thank those that were there for moral support as well. The fuse is fine, with a few scratches here and there. The nose gear former got ripped out and the radar dome(?) under the nose got ripped off.

I think this airplane flys great and I bet I could have brought her in to a crawl on approach had I an engine in the "on" position and working gear.

My complaint is that the gear doors are really complicating this airplane too much. I had the whole mechanism working AWSOME on the ground just before take off and I still had a gear sticking for the flight. I droped the gear back down as I did not want to loose air pressure and then the nose did not come down. Oh, and then I had a flame out.

I also saw Dave's F-4 with sticking gear. When I rebuild, I'm going to skip the gear doors for the first 50 flights.

Like I've said before, I think this is a great flying airplane, although a bit over priced.

I'll post about my next, more successful maiden!!

Raf

Raffi's UAT was half empty with air bubbles all throught the lines.

My f-4 had a cool smoke system (that I didn't even install) just before it flamed out. I'm lead to believe I've got some sort of air leak.

Raf

Are you going to do another one?

Dave

My fuse is OK and I already asked Michel if he can get me new wings. Ofcourse I'm gonna have an F-4 and its gotta be in a jolly rogers!!

Wait, you mean a 1 second smoke system just before a flame out? Well, then no, I'm not going to get another one of those smoke systems, if I can!

Raf

I was not sure just what survived on the plane,,, and I am sorry it had to happen to such a sweet looking bird, when will the new wing be in?

Dave