I need some help here. I got my FEJ F-16 today, and I want to set it on the gear. This is my first turbine, and my first experience with these style retracts. I'm probablly going to look stupid for asking, but how do I drop the gear without hooking up the air system?

Sign Guy,

Use your hand pump and attach to each indivdual line and drop one gear at a time. No problem man, stupid is when people don't ask and just do and make a mess of things.

Regards,
Mike

Thank you very much This forum has been great in getting me ready for this undertaking, and I am excited!!!

Sign Guy

How did TBM deliver your bird: UPS, DHL, FedEx, What? And how long did it take from their ship date?

Mr DJ

hello
have you see the price on flyeaglejet !! the rafale and the f-16 are 100$ more [:@]

Jeremy

I still do not have the valve for the doors. I have completed the fit out except for this valve. I attach a picture so you can see how I have tackled it. I cannot see your tank and the canard servo. This sure complicates things.
Fortunately as you can see the brake and retract valve are very small. There is enough room along side for the door valve. I am not using a UAT thank goodness.

John

John

A little dickie bird told me that Dave was gonna test fly your rafelle at R on Sunday 16th if the weather is ok is this correct ?

Dennis

Hi John,
The tank will go in last (I have to just unbolt the turbine to get it in. The Canard servo will fit, I did some careful measuring and checking, it will go in without to much trouble. My UAT is sitting verticle behind the right inlet, right beside the fuel tank (in front of the turbine hatch front former). I was able to get the pushrods for the nose gear steering hooked up, the trick is to put the ball links on upside down on the servo (so they face towards the canopy hatch) and then snap the pushrods onto them first through the nose gear opening, then you can easily snap them onto the ball link on the steering mechanism.
The only thing I can't figure out is how to keep the nose gear straight when it comes down so that the pin actually engages in the steering assembly. The nose gear can swivel the entire travel up or down, and half the time when it comes down, it doesn't go into the slot to engage it. This would be a huge problem if it happened in flight.

Jeremy

It is always so interesting how 2 people can come up with different solutions that both work! Looks like we are in a bit of a race to be the first one ready. I just got some 1:8 scale Skymaster wingtip F16 missiles. They look pretty good to me. I will paint them white and fluorescent red to help the poor pilots orientation when flying against our gray skies. I expect that Flyeagles will come up with their own in due course.

The Nose leg has also exercised my mind. I think a spring to help its alignment would make me feel happier. I like the solution they have come up with as I have not seen it before. In all the static tests the leg has not been a problem though. Perhaps it will be different when there is an air flow.

Dennis

Yes we hoped for a flight on Sunday but I am still minus the valve and I have some small things left to do.

John

Jeremy

One thing I firgot to mention was the programming of the Tx. I am lucky and have plenty of channels. I have the canards on a separate channel from the elevon/elevator. This channel is mixed to the elevator but has of course a restricted range of movement. The dual rate switch increases/decreases both surfaces together. As a special feature I have used one of the spare trims for the canard and a separate one for the elevator. (We will not use this inititally). This might be interesting to try with a raised canard at takeoff reduced to the midpoint for flying. The U/C wheels like most Rafales are a bit behind CG and it may well tend to leap off the runway suddenly.

John

Delivered UPS Ground. It took a week from the day the shipped it. IT actually showed up early, as the scheduled delivery date was supposed to be 3/17/08. All was in great shape, and I haven't found anything broken or missing yet

Hi Mike,
I am sure the rudders are on the plane and all matches there.

Attached are some pictures of the flap problem and the rudders

Kool Beans

I’ve three planes in route from TBM:

- 118� Yak Gasser
- 97� Gee Bee Gasser
- 80" ShokJet Turbine

The Yak is so huge; it is delivered via an 18 wheeler. The other two will be UPS I suppose. Thanks…

Mr DJ

I have a question on the F16 with regards to mounting the turbine in the tail. Should the thrust line or angle be at "0" deg. in relation to the wing?
The reason I ask is when I dry fit the tail mount it is "-" several degrees.

Thanks
Cody

Topgun24,

I see you got the cat scheme, Yeh there is no way to mix that up. Wow, I would send a copy of the second picture to FEJ, I am sure they will either send you new flaps, or just a new set of wing. I would not cut from the ends, I believe there is a ply former at the ends, and by the look of the picture, you got to take 1/2" off. FEJ customer service is pretty darn good.

Regards,
Mike

Anyone know if the Skymaster cockpit kit will fit in the FEJ F-16? I'm looking at the two, and the Skymaster one "looks" to be of greater detail, but it is $100 more. Opinions, ideas?[

hello
i put the skymaster in mine..perfect...


Sébastien

Hi all I had three more flights with the F16 yesterday thats 15 now but the last three were with wheels away and doors closedat last i got it sorted,the differance was great with a top speed at around 170/180mph and 7/8 minute flights,i really was giving it some,and she was great, no one will be dissapointed with this baby no nasty,s and easy landingsregards Keith

i have the FEJ pilot/seat/cockpit in mine looks well,skymaster may have more detail but for $100 bucks naaa

Sounds good, Keith. Please post the elevator and aileron throws you are using and specify where you are taking the measurements (inboard, outboard, front, back, etc.).

Also how's the ground handling? Are you flying off of pavement?

Mine has been all set to go for a while now. Still waiting for the rest of the snow to melt and the field to dry out. It'll probably be May before the maiden happends.

Thanks,
Joe

Any one know of a scale cockpit for the FEJ Rafale

Dennis

hi keith and mike,

i need some help from you guys on a couple of questions i have ....first one is that the two air tanks supplied from fej i think they are small. i plan to fit one of that and one i have in stock a medium size from robart.does it matter if it is larger?? the second one is about the two servos for the elevons do i position them with the gear being nearest to the tail or nearest to the ldg gears(sounds stupid q??)..third quest ..the wooden base where the valves and their servo are mounted is it glued on top of the other wood frame already glued by factory??? i am not sure if i made it clear so tomorrow i will post some pictures.

i also want to know if you cut ot trimmed the excess fibre where the rudder and ailerons(flaps) fitted on the wing as it seems that it blocks the movement of both???

thats all for know..tomorrow i will show you my cockpit!!!

thanks

Hi Lookielook, first the tanks supplied are plenty big enough,i linked them both together and feed retrack,s,doors and brakes from both,for the elevon,s look at FEJ web site instuction manual F16 there are clear pic,s of how the servo,s are installed,just screw base plate in so that you can remove if required,do not remove excess fibre glass the aileron sits inside this to stop flutter,recess the pin hinge into aileron so that the pin is 5mm from leading edge of aileron then glue but check for proper rotation of aileron first regards Keith

Well, I reached my first stumbling block with the Rafale and I'm now kicking myself. After spending hours putting everything in neat and tidy, I finally put air in the system. I have leaks from at least one valve and the nose gear retract Tomorrow I will start going through it by pinching off lines and trying to find where all the leaks are, but have you guys found that lubricating the gear and valves is helping? The air system will only hold the pressure for about 1 minute before it's down to about 30psi and then that's all leaked out in another couple minutes. I don't want to have to pull everything out again
Before I started I thought I should check everything but didn't bother, wish I had now
It shouldn't be that tough of a fix, but it's still a major pain in the butt.
Jeremy

I feel your pain, Jeremy!! I have learned to do a couple things with Chinese ARF pnuematics before installation:

1. Toss the retract/door valves for Robart, BVM, UP, etc.
2. Take the retract and door cylinders apart, clean up any debris/ metal bits, and lube O-rings and mating surfaces with O-ring or "thin" lube. Ditto for brake assemblies,
3. Apply a drop of thin CA to the base joint of all air nipples or metal fittings...if they are threaded in, I'll pull them, clean with acetone, and re-install with a touch of Hysol on the male threads. The end caps on air cylinders (if threaded) I seal with liquid Teflon (used very sparingly).

I've had leak issues with Skymaster, Fei Bao, Cermark, and Jet Legend pnuematics in the past. Doing the above, plus the usual wire wrapping of all airline joints, has greatly reduced the leakage to almost nil in all cases. My new JL L39 holds air for weeks with almost no loss.

I know it's probably too late to do all of this on your project now....but do what you can get access to. Good luck!

Barry

You have the Wren SS in your's correct?