can anybody help i am thinking of buying a sky master f5 is there anyone flying one has any information on them. thanks jonathan

Hi Jonathan, the F-5 fly's great. I am sure if you do a search here you will find plenty of information about this jet.
In general it fly's great and can land with an incredible high AOA. Put a 30lbs thrust engine like the Super Eagle and you will have huge verticals and speed.
Also the F-5 is very scale and you can even have it with airbrakes.
The landing gear has been upgraded to have hydraulic shock absortion like most ARF Plus jets and it is also very scale.

Here is a small video of a customer flying the F-5.
http://www.jetsrc.com/videos/F-5_jetsRC.wmv

Michel

thanks for the information it has made my mind up cool looking jet regards jonathan

You will love it, and the new ARF Plus version has a new and more scale nose and panels lineas and rivets all over.

Hello,

Very nice looking F-5. Do you have any pictures of the_direct_side view of the model (can just be the white arf fuselage or a built plane). I am trying to guage the scale accuracy of the profile, especially the nose.

And this is 1/6th scale, correct?

Thanks in advance,

Hi Matt, I will try to get you some side pictures of it, will check my files.
This is 1/6 scale...

Michel

I do have this one right know, It is from the F-20 but it uses the same nose as the F-5. I will try to get some more...
I have also attached a pic of the new landing gear...

Michel

Here ya go , I started this thread so the F-5 drivers could add to it.
I could not find anything on the skymaster F-5 on RCU so 'we" compiled this....


http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_57...tm.htm#5792496

Hi all,

Thanks Michel and John for the info and the links.

Can either of you tell me the fuel capacity with the stock tanks? Also, from the website, it looks like only 1 plane out of 11 has outer gear doors on the mains. Is there a reason for this? Can the main gear (the ones with the new oil filled struts) retract, fit in the wings and allow flush fitting main gear doors (both inner and outer doors)?

Thanks again,

Hi Matt, fuel capacity of the F-5 is 3 liters.

In the older version retracts you required a los of air preassure for the retracts to be able to close with the outer gear doors attached. The new retracts are much stronger and will do the job great. In my F-4 I have no problems at all. The gear doors will fit great, no extra mods on this area.

Michel

I don't know the Fuel capacity, RCJI says 4.1 liters in their articule....
it could be a mis-print 3.1L could be really what they meant.

The "takeoff CG" could be moved back with the addition of two tanks under the
engine mount bays giving you more fuel and a smaller total cg shift while in flight.
They would counter balance the main tanks for takeoff and first portion of the flight.

The best gear down "Dry" landing Cg concensus is the 110mm mark,
but the "wet" Cg moves forward alot after refueling. the tanks could balance some of this.

I plan on doing this to mine to keep the Cg centered with less shift.

I'm working on that gear door issue myself, the gear sit up too high to get it flush,
I'm trying to go to sheet aluminum, with blisters over the heads of the retract mounting screws.

Hi guys

The fuel capacity is 2.85 liters for the big tank and 1.4 liters for the smaller tank. I used the smaller one as a smoke tank with two 14oz Dubro tanks, one a a hopper/UAT - these are all mounted on top of the inlet duct and main tank. CG effect is not a problem - the CG is 110mm. Don't go forward or she won't slow down properly, going back makes it snappy. My empty weight is 14.2 kgs with an AMT Pegasus HP - beautiful. The main gear doors don't close flush - not even with countersunk bolts in the gear mounts, so John's idea may be a way around the problem, evenso, all is fine.

Cheers

Springbok Flyer

As far as the main gear strut doors
go the real plane had the same issue,
they added "flaps" to the trailing edge of the strut doors to "lift" the gear up.

Good to know about the engine, I'm putting a peggy in mine to.

Well if countersinking did'nt work(which took care of the LG bolt clearance issues)
adding a 45 degree Spoiler strip to the trailing edge of the door may work (although its not scale)

This did work a friends lightning that had the same issue.


main wheel well doors.... move the aircylinders to the front wheel well wall, instead of having them mounted to the engine mount
as depicted in the instruction book, this gets them away from the engine(heat) and the gets the airlines away as well and puts them in a better position leverage wise.
credit for this goes to Scott Rowen

Hi guys,

Great info thanks, I must say I have never seen one with good reliable gear, but I have not seen the latest version of the gear and kit, I am really interested to see one. If the gear wont work to me the plane won't work, landing gear trouble completely sucks the fun out of the hobby for me.

14.2 kg that is over 31 pounds! I did not know the plane was that heavy, does it fly OK, how about turning base to final and landing? If that will work I think a P-180 weighs less than that AMT and 4 liters is plenty of fuel for a P-180.

Did you use a bypass with the AMT?

Thanks again,

Hi Matt, the jet will fly great with 30lbs of thrust, anything more is not really necesary.
Landings are incredibly easy on this one. I was very surprised the first time I flew it. I first though that becasue the small wings it will not float that much. Turning base to final peace of cake, you can come with this one with a very high AOA and slow on landing.
We did not have any issues with the landing gear other than having to use too much preassure to be able to close the doors, or having to slow up after takeoff so resistance wouldn't be too much.
The main problem here is that some times the gear door will close before the gear was up. I also think that it is important to have a bigger delay in this procedure.

Michel

For those of us still building the F-5: vent tip>>>

Putting the vent tube in the "valley" formed by the fuse and inlets,
allows you to set the plane on its belly without having it push up on the tube....
scraping or picking up dirt..... and hides it, but with easy access for connecting the overflow or taxi tank.

Hi John,

Are you going to have your F-5 at Woodland/Davis by any chance?

Regards,

Saw your post late..
Mine did not make it, I'm still installing stuff, getting decals,
but Scott Rowens F-5 flew great,
see the woodland thread

I'm doing the black one, (add white missles to help see it)

http://www.flybyaviation.com/vfC135-fallon-sep05.htm

Airpac has F-5s on sale!!! big price drop

http://www.airpacmodels.com/twe/index.php?cPath=112_115

Do gear doors come with the kit?