john, i have maidened my f16 advanced with p80SE 3 weeks ago and this plane is already way too heavy. avoid that dead weight at all cost. i balanced mine without the need for any weights. turbine almost max forward, with batteries at nose.

BTW, just for everyone, on the second flight the whole vertical stab fluttered violently on a pass and luckly the plane flew ok and landed fine. the whole veritcal stab with the rudder including the fin base were like butter. i was luck it didnt blow off in flight.

upon inspection back at home, the two formers on the pics were shattered making the fin base soft and thus flutter. i glued them back in and made 2 formers as attached in the other pic and increased their length so they go deep in the fin base and glued them behind each of those formers. Rock solid now. flew it later with no issues.

the pics aren't the best but i hope you all get what i mean

KAON

Hi, havnt' posted for a while but noticed your additions to the thread. Firstly get the weight down, I flew mine with a Wren 54 in the tail and batts in the front (NiMh x 3) from what I remember mine was 17 lbs dry and my C of G was 160mm from L/E and I found it perfect at that, it sat beautifully on landing. The one thing about them is they do take a good run up to get off and they land like an express train!!! Be warned, make sure your brakes work and I mean work on a switch that is easy to get at such as your trainer switch, don't put them on down elevator, put them on a switch it's far easier. Have fun flying it, they do look and fly awesome.

Wow 17lbs?? Do you still have it? I keep hearing about people who have had problems with the vert stabs yet mine is rock solid.

Am i right in saying the only difference between the standard and advanced versions is the undercarrige, the rest of the aeroplane is identical ?

I thought the Advanced Version also included the canopy lift. When they did that they added a lot more weight in extra formers, cylinders for locking etc. So you had the extra weight of the scale gear plus the extra weight of all of that.

Ah, of coarse, i forgot all about the lifting canopy.

Yes the canopy, undercarriage etc and all the anc's added quite a bit of weight. Mine was one of the first and flew with a tail mounted turbine and tailerons. By comparison my mate has just bought the F15C which is about the same size, but has ailerons and flaps, opening canopy, FEJ 5 way valve and its a heavy old brute. Hes thinking of putting the new Wren 100 in it, if he can get one! as we think it definately needs a 23lb plus turbine.
I sold my F16 after about 5 flights because everytime I flew it something broke or collapsed and getting parts was ridiculous, so I sold it. I now have a Bandit and it is stunning absolutely no comparison to a FEJ kit

They are heavy, my good friend and flying buddy has just finished their L-39. It also weighs 25lb dry.

I managed to fly my f-16 at the weekend which showed up a couple of minor issues with the undercarrige. I`ll post a couple of pics of the problems later if it`s of any interest.

What were the issues?

The first issue was the front retract would not fully retract. causing the door not to close properly.


The solution was to drill another hole in the crank closer to the pivot point, effectivley giving a longer stroke.


After the mod.

I should maybe say here that this is the original 'silver' undercarrage, i painted it white just because i think it looks better.

Here is a picture half done for comparison.

The second issue is a bit trickier to resolve, which is there is a fair amount of 'toe out' on the main wheels. I noticed when pushing it by the fin on the smooth tarmac there was a fair bit of resistance. With a take-off weight of 29lb with a p70, drag was the last thing i needed.

hi john,
how did you fix that "toe out" cuz i had a rough landing and one of the mains has this now but couldn't get over it.
KAON

It simply comes from the fact that the drag link is too long.


The unmodified lenth is almost 21mm


Reducing it to this size gives a very slightly 'toe-in' angle.


But this obviously puts the hole for the pin in the wrong place so i have filled the hole with JB weld and hopefully after that sets i can drill the hole at the correct spacing.

The former that the main retracts are bolted too, has been glued in squint so the two sides are different lenths and will have to be done individually.

Hi KAON,

If yours only happened after a rough landing, it may just be the bolt that goes through the ball end of the drag link thats bent ? Or maybe the 'stepped pin' from the leg to the wheel hub is bent ?

that ball link was bent a little, straightened it up but still, not sure what u mean by that 'stepped pin' ?
KAON

The stepped pin is under the piece that rotates with the two cap head screws, with the grub screws either side holding the pin in place.

ahh ok i get it now.. i'll check and see thanx

How did you get on, was it bent ?

If flyeagle would supply a new draglink 'blank' we could drill our own 3mm hole.....problem solved !

that aluminum ball link in the pic is bent and also where it sits got little oversized, so i have too much play... still brainstorming on how to replace that.

As you know i tried to fill the existing hole with JB weld and drill a new hole, but it didn`t work, the JB weld was too soft as the new hole had to be drilled halfway over the old.

So i`m in the same boat as you, i need to find a way of shortning that ball link. Tha amount of drag that this is creating is huge and if nothing else, will wear out the tires in no time !

hi guys, its been a long time to post something on this thread so i thought i should let you know that i have transformed my pneumatic ldg gears to electric while keeping the doors pneumatic. since i was one of the first to receive the f16 1/8 when fej started their business i since then had some problems with air cylinders generally. now everything work just fine and enjoying flying more!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPE1cbuOAT0

Nicos

Very scale like and a positive lock every time, yip impressive.

I know of 2 or 3 people that have purchased one of their kits over the past year or so and they all have problems with the retract cylinders leaking and have not had good luck getting good cyclindrs replaced