direct from Anton (skymaster)

I'm often puzzled as to why these companies keep coming out with the same old jets. It seems that there are already enough large F-18's available; Skymaster, Jetlegends, Tam/BVM, Fei Bao, and Yellow. Looks like FEJ's will be slightly bigger than the others, but not significantly.

I would think that they would sell a lot more planes if they came out with something unique. I thought they were on the right track with their Rafale and AT-3. A smaller F-18, about the size of a Yellow single, for 17-23 lbs. turbines would be nice.

Joe

Ahh but if they were to do that they'd have to make up their own design, do testing and work out the bugs which would drive the price up. to keep the price down they simply follow Chinese business ethics and borrow someone Else's design/molds.

I thought of that. The FEJ one is enough bigger than the others that they couldn't simply splash the molds off an existing model. The point I wanted to make is that this is a small market. Only so many guys want a large F-18, so why do one that directly competes with five others already on the market. Theirs would probably be cheaper than the others, but it seems that market is already saturated.

It's not that difficult to copy someone else's design and scale it up or down. So while they are at it, instead of going a little bit bigger, why not go smaller where there is no competetion?

Joe

i personally don't feel the market is saturated with larger F-18s, if the price was considerably cheaper I'm sure there would be allot more people with them. there are allot of 1/8th scale F-16s out there and have been for a number of yrs so the market should of been more then saturated with people wanting one but when FEJ popped up with a bargain price, they got a ton of orders, I'm sure the same will happen for the F-18 if the price is right.

i fully agree I'd much rather see something new and wouldn't mind a few new jets in the 10-14 lbs thrust class.

Hi

When it comes to jets, I think that the bigger the better in every way.
Wing load is always lower in the bigger planes and that makes allthe diference. unless smaller jets will become significantly lighter (as happened with the 3D planes) they will never fly well.

As for the F-18 - definately a plane to have....

Zivo

The F15, F16, and F18 are always going to be in demand despite the fact that there are more competitors. It's the high cost that keeps the demand low. When Fly Eagle rolled out the F16, I thought that gees, don't we have enough F16s. But the reality proved me wrong. My idea of pickup planes for our club turned out to be almost a full time job for me trying to organize the orders and shipment, etc. Luckily, I have a lot of spare time at this moment and love doing that.

I talked to Fly Eagle's manager about the F18. They still need about 2 months of validation, flight test, etc. I am sure I would like to get their first prototype and test them out while I am still in China. I plan to get 2 Jet Joes and try them out on this F18. I heard that JET JOE is improving a lot, but I want to make sure they are ok before I stuff them in my BVM jets. If the F18 cost is low enough, I will take that risk.

My view about these factories competing is that it's all good for us and for them too. We won't be able to buy so many jets if the price don't come down so much. We are not afraid to fly more because the replacement cost is a lot lower.

Yes, BIGGER IS ALWAYS BETTER.

Mike

Mike,

I assume it is an engine but I never heard of ir, so what is a Jet Joe? Do you know their website address?

Thanks,
Allen

Phantoman,

This is a link to JetJoe US rep.

http://www.jetjoeus.com/
If you search on RCU, there is a lot of discussions regarding this engine.

Regards,
Mike

i thought everyone flying turbines who isn't a gazillionare had heard of JetJoe, but i guess not [8D]

I agree with a lot of what has been said. Unless you can fly at an airport, have plenty of storage space, and a large vehicle or trailer then bigger is not necessarily better. My club has a 380 ft. paved runway and we fly KingCats, Flashs, and Gripens there. We couldn't fly anything larger or that lands long off that field. So I won't invest in a large plane that requires me to drive out of town to a jet meet in order to fly it. My situatiion is not unique. I have read quite a few threads from guys asking what jets they can fly off short runways or smaller fields.

I like the F-18 and large planes are very impressive. I'm sure that if the price is right they will sell a bunch of then. However, I believe that they could sell a lot more F-18's if they came out a smaller one. A friend of mine has a Skymaster F-18. He has over $8000 invested and one flight on it in a year. Even if FEJ charged $1000 less for theirs you are still looking at a $7000 investment. For $8000 he could put two of their F-16's in the air.

It gets down to their marketing strategy. Obviously they are attacking and undercutting the competetion. I just think they would make more money if they came out with something desireable, that no one else has, at a reasonasble price.

Joe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9dFCChS2lI

Check out this test--at full throttle, it takes forever to reach max RPM...

Mr DJ

To be honest Joe, you'd be much more likely to get a big F-18 into that field than a small one. The big one is actually going to be able to land slower and in a more controlled fashion than a smaller one with a heavier wing loading. If the power is right, then getting it out would be easier too.

Bob

Hi All, today i gave my F16 it,s second flight despite a 20mph head wind and a temp of 10c i went ahead with the c/g now at 145mm back it flew very well ,elevator felt a lot better,roll rate was very responcesive.i had two problems the undercart would not retract with 120psi it just would not go away,yet after the landing it worked fine!! and i have an issue with the tanks not feeding the uat there was still a fair bit left in them yet the uat ran dry and the engine quit after 4 mins,i think this prob is do to a clunk problem and that i will sort out,there is a video which i will try and load up some where and will get back with the url regards Keith

You might be right, Bob. But I'm still not going to run out and buy one. Initially I was concerned about landing my Gripen there, but it hasn't been a problem. Various planes land differently, however the concern in general with larger jets is that there is no margin for error. I can be spot on most of the time, but nobody bats 1000. If you come in a little hot or a little too high you're off the end into the rough. In the past a few guys have flown Yellow F-18 single ducted fans there with no problem. Except for a couple Boomerangs and a few medium sized jets most of us are sticking with planes small enough for 14-18# turbines.

Joe

Keith,

Congrats on the second flight. That's good info on the CG. Were you using the recommended throws and are they about right?

I bought a pair of these tapered clunks for my saddle tanks.
http://dreamworksrc.com/catalog/prod...roducts_id=534
Those tanks are pretty long and flat and I thought the taper would allow it to pick up fuel better as the tanks get low. I'd also suggest trying to elevate the front of the tanks a little to force more fuel towards the rear during straight and level flight.

Joe

are you using restrictors on the air lines? I've seen that happen quiet a few times on forward retracting gear that had restrictors on the lines, there just isn't enough volume through the restrictors to counteract the air resistance. just a thought.

Hi No i am not using any restrictors and i am using both tanks to give me volume,i can only thnk that the air pressure might be stopping things from moving,next time out i will slow the model up first,but i do not think this is really the problem.i was relectant to keep trying to put them away in case i ran out of air and could not get them down again Regards Keith

usually if the air flow is the problem then rolling to inverted pulls them on up.

Hi All i recived two more F16s to day one Tiger meet, one Thunder Birds which i had ordered for a friend,guess what wood work turned up with them i guess the early kits were sent with out.One kit had a big hole in box with some damage,any body else suffer with this prob,what did Eagle Jet do about the problem regards Keith

Hi Keith,

That's interesting. About 4 weeks after reading your posting about balancing your F-16 I weighed my components and did some calculations and determined that I was going to have to put my batteries as far forward in the nose as possible to balance mine.

I sent FEJ an email with a picture of Skymaster's nose formers and asked if something similar should have been included with my kit. The US rep. responded that he discussed the issue with the factory and that they would design and make up a set of nose formers and send them to me.

A couple weeks later I received a set identical to those in your picture. I had to knock out the forward former in the fuse and grind down the epoxy fillet in order to mount them. The problem with the way FEJ designed it is that the horizontal former is in the middle, which doesn't leave room for a very large battery pack. If you look at Skymasters nose formers (see picture) you'll notice that the horizontal piece is lower, allowing more room for a battery pack or two.

I'm not done with mine yet. When I get to balancing I'll probably get a couple of custom packs made up to fit. That certainly is preferable to adding lead.

My fin was damaged in shipping and FEJ was very accomodating about sending me a replacement. I also had a couple of other minor issues which they quickly resolved.

By the way, do you have any comments on how good the recommended throws are?

Joe

Hi Joe the throws i used were 35mm each way low rate on elevator with 40% exp,ailerons were too much as recommend and i have now set them to 12mm each way with 30% exp on low rate,have not tryed rudder for effect yet,tank clunks are to light use heavy ones with tygon tube regards Keith

Hi Keith,

Send a picture of what you have to them and show them the damges, they are very helpful and will go out of their way to make you happy. WRT to the front formers, I made one from the skymaster webpage and Joe is correct the horizental former is tilted down, so it holds my batteries with no problem.

WRT to fuel tank, did you ditch the black tubing that they provide? Did you have any problems with them?

Regards,
Mike

I had requested Fly Eagles to send me these formers for my orders.

Mike

I've had my F-16 on order for almost a month and today received a message from FEJ about contacting paypal to verify the delivery terms or paypal may return my money. It sounds legit but anymore you just have to check things out. Has anyone else received a notice about your paypal payment? Here is what the notice said.

Hi Sir:
The Chinese New Year is coming. Happy New Year to all of your families
We have received your payment already via Paypal. Your payment was clear, but we have a problem with our Paypal account. Since the 2008, Paypal changed the policy. Paypal require us to ship your jet in 7 days after you paid the money. So my paypal account was limited now. The way to resolve the problem is that you send an email to paypal resolution center ([email protected] ) and tell them that you accept to receive your item until 03/20/2008. Actually we have agreed the schedule already, but Paypal still required this. I know you are not supposed to do this for us, but if I don’t resolve this problem, paypal might return the payment to you. That will have another problem to repay the payment again.

If you accept to do this for us, please also give PayPal regarding Case ID xx-xxx-xxx-xxx to them.
Best regards,
FLY EAGLE JET MODEL FACTORY