Hey Pete,

First off congrats on a nice maiden.

Your servos are not the issue with the roll. The issue lies in the fact the gear remained down the entire flight. Once you get the gear up and the doors close you bring the real aerodynamics into play with the Viper. The wings don't give the lift like a normal bird, the fuselage is responsible for better than 58% of the lift on the Viper. Now keep in mind the gear doors were open, acting like two big holes in your wing, each catching air and causing a change in lift. Retract the gear and the roll issue will go away; I promise.

Also the stab trailing edges will will end up above the speedbrakes if the model outline is correct and the CG is close. Real Vipers are the same way.

Suck up the gear and enjoy the ride!!

Your Hitecs will work fine for you. I do believe you would love the feel of 8611a's back there on the flaperons and stabs, but what you have will work without issue.

Pete, use some expo and double check your ailerons to make sure nothing is binding ... either the linkage or the control surface. I had this same situation a while back and it turns out the control surface, which was live hinged, was catching on the gap cover occasionally. This is probably not the issue, but you should eliminate it as a potential cause.

Nice catch! That has got to be it. They are pigs with the gear down!!!

Hey Keith, I did check, the ailerons are not binding. The live hinging was catching but I took care of that a while back. Ive got 20% expo.

So it was the gear, Wow, I never would have guessed. Thanks!

Pete

Fine job pete...congrats...smooth landing. Like John said, clean her up and see how she goes then. I have owned 7 F-16`s over the many years in the hobby and they all flew crappy with the gear down.


V..

I can't imagine these new line of F-16's with speed brakes and LE Flaps. That is way MUCHO drag!!!

Hi Pete,

Got to agree with John. The differance in handeling between an aircraft with gear down, and gear up is night and day. Especially a high performance jet which at speed, will put very high loads on doors etc. ... I follow full size pratice and clean up the gear as soon as the model breaks ground. That way the aerodynamic loads are at minimum, and should the worst happen and you loose an engine on climb out, the aircraft is nice and clean for the best glide angle. There is no real reason to have the gear down at any stage of a flight, unless you are in the landing pattern, or showing off to the judges.

Enjoy it.


Roger