JetsRC

There is a video on Skymaster web site from someone in Taiwan that is landing with flaps and airbrakes deployed, the F-16 look really nice on this configuration and it seems to be very stable also.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLaPCRGK4Ng

icepilot

Bob - you will love this plane! You can do almost anything you want and it will still fly great! Mine has 90 flights with a GBooster 160 (same thrust as yours),
all fuel tanks + 1 l of water in the plane (55 lb wet), serial connections on the tanks, no problem at all! I have been in the air for almost 15 minutes at a time and landed
with almost empty tanks, and have landed 1 minute after take-off with all tanks full, never a problem. I have tested my flaps 2 times in the air, but this plane
does not need them - I have never had another plane that lands so nicely.

I changed to Jetcat p180 for more power on verticals and high alpha, but she flies great on 160N, so taking out a tank is a good idea for those 8-minute flights.
I have the JetTronic valves and sequencer, but I have the old locking UC..

Good luck, and feel free to ask any question, we are here to help you get another of these beauties in the air!!

Tor

Bob.R

My Feedback: (2)

Thanks Tor. I finally started work on the F-16 - presently working on the servos and control horn installation. I'm going to do a couple of mods, including your rudder setup. The P-160sx is sitting on the bench ready for installation. I'm getting pumped about finishing this beauty and putting it in the air.

JetsRC

Hi Tor, glad you are still enjoying that F-16 of yours...

icepilot

Michel - it is still my pride and joy, and I feel great every time I fly it!
I will be going to 3 big jet meets here in the near future, and there are many
people who enjoy seeing the F-16 in the air, I know I will always have an F-16
in my stable!!

JetsRC

Excelent my friend... I am glad you are happy with the jet...

Craig B.

Hi Guys,

Well...success at last!! After the disaster of my last maiden flight and the month long full-on repairs she took to the air today for her first full flight and finish it off with a greaser of a landing !!

I had my c of g at 220 and landed with around 10mm of flap (I am flying with flaperons). I replaced my live hinging with Nelson Hobby Hinges.....a really good mod if I do say so myself as one of my smaller F16's has shown signs of this tearing on the inboard end. I can get full throw without worrying about stressing the hinges.

Engine was a P180. Take off was like a carrier launch!! Cut back to half throttle on the first crosswind leg. The flight was a bit all over the place .....late in the day, lowsy light, and it took me a while to get the elevator trim right in all three flight modes. Landing flare was smooth an very predictable. No sign of being tail heavy.

I must say a big thank you to LiKai for sorting me out with a new main strut. I had no sooner sent him a couple of PM's and he had a new strut on his way to me within a day or so and it was on my door step within a further four days!! Thanks Likai, you are a valuable asset to skymaster and that is some of the best after sales service I have ever received.

I can post some pics of my repairs or aileron hinge mods if anyone is interested.

Craig.

Bob.R

My Feedback: (2)

Craig, I'd appreciate a couple of pics of your aileron mod. Thanks.

icepilot

Congratulations, Craig - that's great news!! I will be flying mine now at 2 big jet meets here, and it's always a joy!
I agree that the P180 pushes this bird around pretty nicely, I am going to rehearse a power takeoff where I taxi all the way down the runway
(for both these meets we have a full GA airport at our disposal), take off to 3 feet and retracts the wheels, then keep the plane at 3 feet
for the entire length of the runway before pulling a vertical!! It looks great when the full-size guys do it, it should look great with our planes
as well!

Now, start logging flights on that beauty!
Tor

Craig B.

Thanks Tor,

That sounds like the go with your F16! I have done the same over here with my F15......we get kangaroos loitering around the field late in the afternoon and it is a bit of fun to pull that sort of takeoff and watch them scatter!!

Do you prefer flying with the 180?? Loads of power!

Here are some pics of the aileron mod.... I first cut the ailerons off with a box cutter and then trimmed 1mm off the wing trailing edge on the upper skin and the aileron leading edge skin that formerly formed the live hinging. I then glued 0.5cm wide strips of 0.6mm thick glass board to the trailing edge of the upper wing skin and the leading edge of the aileron. This was done to lower the hinge flanges so that the top of the hinge barrel housing did not protrude above the top wing skin. I then drilled a bunch of holes into each flange of the hinge and used BSI IC2000 black cyano (rubber reinforced product designed for glued non-porous surfaces) to glue the hinges to the glass board. I then glued contoured plywood tongues over the hinge flange on the wing side and blocks over the hinge flange on the aileron side. There is no way those puppies are coming out!! That cyano stuff sticks like ***** to a blanket!

Nelson hobby hinges used in 10" lengths. Hope that helps Bob.

BTW....the black blobs you see are where glue extruded through the locking holes I drilled through the hinge flange. To ensure that I got each hole keyed with the glue, I put a blob on top of each hole and over the edge of the hinge flange. Looks messy but functions well and you never see it. Another benefit.....you can flex that hinge wide open any time you like and inspect for integrity!

Bob.R

My Feedback: (2)

Thanks Craig. I'm assembling my Tiger Meet now and have a couple of small cracks in the aileron hinge line at the root. May never become a problem, but planning ahead just in case. Your mod looks very solid.

Congrats on the remaiden!

icepilot

Well - I was real happy flying with the GBooster 160 even with my very heavy plane, but it is great fun doing as high verticals as you want,
and flying real high alpha's and just powering out of them instead of having to drop the nose to get her flying again!

Bob.R

My Feedback: (2)

Will this bird hold knife edge at speed with the suggested 25 mm of rudder throw?

rcjet lynch

Hi Bob

I can tell you about the knife edge quality tommorrow. I just flew mine Sunday and man what a sweet bird.

pilot tw

Hi, all F-16 fans

Here is new color scheme for F-16 1/6 that we just finished it,

Best Regards

Anton

Bob.R

My Feedback: (2)

I need a little advice regarding placement of a P160 in a full bypass setup. The first pic shows the turbine placed so that adequate bypass air can flow around the front of the turbine without a choke point. The second pic shows that the back of the turbine is about one inch from the back of the bypass. Is 1" sufficient for a full bypass setup? I'm going to call Bob Wilcox in a couple of hours, but I also wanted to get thoughts or advice from those who have used the Skymaster supplied bypass.

Thanks,
Bob

Craig B.

My advice....don't bother with the top half. You don't need it and you will get more cooling air past the turbine. Flew mine at our jet rally last weekend with the 180 in it. The repairs went well and it was good to see her in the air again. This thing is awesome with the 180 in her!! A big "THANK YOU" to Likai for sorting me out with a new main strut damper in time for the event.,,,,,,excellent customer service!!

Regards,

Craig.

SpiderJets

I will start building mine next week. Finally. I look forward to it !

jayman618

My Feedback: (5)

Mine has the turbine back from where you show it 1 inch and works great.

Jay

Bob.R

My Feedback: (2)

Thanks Jay. Bob Wilcox gave some guidance as well. Appears that 1" would be the minimum for the 160.

aljets1

aljets1

Dear guest,

SpiderJets

Hello Alain,

Sorry I could not download/see your pictures, but I must say undoubtedly we all feel sad about your loss.
Losing a jet is hard but it's the risk we take enjoying the hobby.
Please allow me to tell you that I have been manufacturing over 150kits of the SpiderJets F-16 in a long gone past, and the rudder flutter was always a big technical challenge on any F-16.
There have been here many posts on this thread about the rudder links (by Icepilot and others), did you make these recommendations for improvement, or this is the first time you enter this thread while venting about your crash ?
I find it hard to blame a manufacturer after 31succesfull flights, even more because your attack is very personal and should be held off-line, but yes, I would like to hear from others if they experienced a technical problem, in order to make my own SM 1/6 F-16 better, if possible. As far as I can remember, you are the only one having had this fatal flutter, although there are a LOT of SM F-16's around. I have one myself in my workshop and can only say the quality is excellent and the engineering very well thought out by Mr. Anton Lin and Dr. Likai.
I have witnessed two high speed rudder flutters of F-16's (one on a Gleichauf F-16 and one of an early SJ-F-16). Both landed safe, fortunately.
The SJ-16 had aluminum wing spars of 4mm wide and 20mm high and were both bent with the wings about 8° degrees up, caused by the rudder flutter of only a few seconds.
We have tried to reproduce this effectin our factory workshop as a structural test, but needed two people pushing full force and a steel lever of about 2 meters long to do so.
No structure can really stand such forces, reinforced with carbon fibre or not.
After that event, we changed our wing spars to laser cut steel ones.

Please allow me to tell you also that rudder flutter is NOT caused by a structural weak fin, but by slop and play on the rudder. The swept angle of the F-16 rudder only makes it worse.

Again, sorry about your loss.

Best Regards,
Nicolas.

pilot tw

Hi, Alain

I have sent these pictures to my partner Mr. Lee (who made all ARF PLUS airframe for Skymaster) for check it out, Please wait a few days that i will let you know his reply..

Sorry for hear your F-16 was crashed.

Best regards

Anton

MNModels

Hello Alain,

Firstly let me tell you how sorry i am for your loss.

I just want to see if i understand everything correctly:

I remember you flying your F16 at jetpower about 3 years ago and you were very pleased withperformance and power i think. You had a problem with wings and SM send you free replacement wings if i am not mistaken...

Since then i know of two F16 that had flutter due to the piano wire slop in the belcrank. All flutter issues took place in the 1st 10 flights! Both pilots lost 1/2 fin and still landed without any problems. Video to proof that. SM have changed the structure of the fin and redone the linkage after 1st production. So all f16 since 2006 already changed. From the pictures you have the 1st version.

Many other pilots have opted for servo push pull direct control- not scale but very effective. Al this was well documented and word of mouth all around the world 2 years ago.

Now 1 day after you send PM to Anton you post to rcu - "no reply". This is rather short time to give a company to come up with a resolution...

Now after 3 years and 31 flights without trouble on rudder you ask for a complete replacement large arf plus pro hawk with servo's and all electronic valves fitted incl shippingfor free to compensate?

Sorry but i do not understand that logic... I have seen pictures and the most logic will beanother f16 fuselage.

Anton has replied and i trust him to do the right thing as he always done in the past - i know what i would have done, but that is just me

Regards

Morne