The F16 has always caught my eye whether at the flying field, full size display or on the television. The lines are great and the under-slung intake ducting make for an excellent grip when hand-launching the models. The last time I saw one for real was at Farnham but on the telly they can pop up right out of the blue - a recent viewing of the film 'The Rock' had four flying in formation under the Golden Gate Bridge on the way to flatten out Alcatraz prison. The F15 was always good to look at, and always brings 'Top Gun' to the mind but the F16 has been more of a winner to me (must be a 'younger' generation thing?).
The box comes is presented with pics of the completed model and stages of construction on the outside along with specs and additional stuff required to complete. I was particularly pleased to see a picture and the words 'brushless motor included' in the top corner. Inside the box and there are two massive sheets of decals (full box length!) on top of lots of white polystyrene and a box of fittings/fixtures to complete (including a bottle of 'foam' glue). The instructions start out well with a nice forward explaining the development of the model but unfortunately that's where the words stop, just leaving pictures to show you what you should have in the box, what's needed and hopefully how to complete your new jet. Someone must have a sense of humor as in the 'before you begin' section the first step instructs you to 'read through the manual'.
We start out with the canopy which is a foam structure with a plastic screen stuck to it, an iron plate glued to the bottom to meet a magnet on the base and a plastic 'stud' assembly glued to the front to locate in position. The counterparts of the stud and plate are then attached to the fus.
The wings utilize simple 'torque rod' affairs to guide the ailerons and don't need much thought to complete but the elevator control requires a lot of accuracy with four bends and two angles as well as a horn to line up. Helpfully, they have devoted a full page with 1:1 scale of the finished article in both plan and side views and it really pays to get this bit right as it will make the difference between a 'pussy cat' and a 'dog' in the air.
The servos (I used HS-55's) sit very well in the cutout provided, almost to the extent that you don't need any glue but I put some on anyway. The wing and aileron are one piece that you have to cut apart but this is not difficult as long as you have a very sharp knife and some idea of what it should look like. The hinges are just pushed into slots you cut with a 'dab' of that foam glue supplied.
The tail assembly is next and this is where some information would have been very useful. What you have is a piece of wire coming out from both sides of the fus which you are supposed to attach four pieces of flat depron to. Now this is the first 'all moving' tailplane I can remember building and it's not clear in the instructions if your supposed to sink the wire into the depron or just glue the two pieces either side of it with just the sandwich effect holding it all together. I started out by pressing some spare wire onto the depron where the rods would sit but the characteristic of the material was working against me 'springing' back when I lifted it. I then tried to carefully cut a groove but found it very difficult indeed to keep from going right through the material. I settled on getting a soldering iron out and burning a channel along the marks I had made - not actually touching the depron but just hovering over it allowing the heat to do the work for me. This made the resulting groove very strong and rigid and the wire fitted all the way into it allowing the top sheet to glue flat to it. Once all this was set properly it was time to get the sandpaper out and chamfer the edges, top and bottom, forward and back (would have been a lot easier to do before mounting on the model but didn't present too much of a problem).
Now we get to the spinny thing which makes this thing tick. There is a nice gearbox assembly, 2.38:1, which mounts on a square stick which is attached to the fus and is suitable for both brushed and brushless powerhouses. A neat addition to the gearbox housing is a small slot where you pass the wires from the brushless motor to prevent them from rubbing on the rotating can (the stock BL motor is an outrunner). The holes didn't line up for the supplied motor but only needing extending slightly outwards with a small needle file to fettle. The stick is stuck to the back end of the fus in the cutout and the fin glued on top to complete.
Finally comes the belly pan where another problem is met. A nut is glued into a plastic plate which is mounted to the fus and another plate is stuck to the bottom of the pan where a screw passes through to screw to the nut. Now the first problem is that there are no guides as to where these two parts fix. I figured they obviously had to be sunk into the foam to make them flush but even then the screw wasn't long enough for the job. I mounted them as far forward as I could and cut the foam away accordingly, I then found a suitable M3 bolt from my salvage box. I figured the motor 'cowl' would suitably hold the pan at the rear and keep everything in place. The cowl is made from clear plastic and I sprayed it 'smoke' colour before fitting as I couldn't find any black. Secured in place with two small screws and it was time to finish off the leccy bits.
The HS55 leads are plenty long enough to reach up to the top canopy which seemed a good place to plant the Rx. I soldered up some extra long leads to go between the Jeti 30A Advance ESC I used and the motor and found I could mount the controller to the belly pan facing the servos and feed the power leads up to the canopy with the rest of the wires. A new JR77S PCM Rx fitted a little too snuggly behind the magnet so a small amount of foam was removed to allow the leads to be plugged in, I fed the arial forward to the front of the canopy and made a hole to feed out and taped the end to the fin making sure there wasn't enough slack for it to contact the path of the prop. There was a perfectly sized tray cutout at the front of the cockpit bay for a FlightPower 3S1200EVO20 pack which delivered plenty of power to the back end. In fact, there was a surprising amount of 'push' at the front when the throttle stick was raised. The ailerons were just about stalling at 100% of travel and the elevator was going up and down like the back end of a dolphin, I just love those all moving tailplanes and sat there for a minute or two just enjoying my latest creation.
A quick check on the C of G proved to be at the rearmost position and I made my first big mistake - packed up for the field with the stickers and a couple of knives.
A beautiful day was forecast and sure enough the blue sky and calm conditions were met at the patch so I sat myself down on one of the picnic benches and went to work to finish her off, taking a break to fly my heli every now and then. It was now that I should have re-checked that 'rearmost' C of G before getting a clubmate to launch her for me as it was immediately blatantly obvious I had a problem. She had plenty of power but the nose was all over the place - far too much elevator travel and too much weight at the tail end. Wasn't so much a landing, more of a dumping in the long grass! Back to the pits for a bigger battery, it just so happens that the 1800EVO20 pack is the same plan size as the 1200 but around 50g heavier so in it went and straight back out for another go.
This time away she went perfectly from the launch and with the elevator rates on she had perfect pitch. One circuit and she was trimmed for a straight and level so it was time for some pics and some 'slow' flight was explored which proved a bit wallowy to say the least and there was a slight 'lag' between throwing the power on and seeing her accelerate out of any trouble so following a premature landing, another launch was undertaken. This time the speed was kept on and the grin on my face started to grow ever wider but the strain on my eyes grew also, not so bad in the deep blue but against a white cloud there was very little to see!
She flies great down low to the deck and close up she's as fast as you would want but soon she's at the end of the field and you've got to think about turning to come back again before she turns into a dot.
For the first few flights I didn't have the brake enabled and the glide, although respectable, was hampered by the spinning disc. Once the brake was enabled, and the prop stopped, the glide was very impressive indeed.
Every subsequent flight I have made with this baby has resulted in a bigger, sillier grin each time. Of course, you can't do all this low, fast flying this time of year without clipping the odd bush here and there and I don't really expect a long life out of this model seeing as it's nothing more than a lump of foam.
The elevator feels very fragile on the bench but does a very good job keeping her steady while tearing up the strip. The plastic belly-pan cover has been fitted to the model to try and hold off the wear and tear as much as possible even though I have only been flying off grass but you can't see it when she's in the air, same with the prop/gearbox at the back end.
A few measurements later and we've got a weight of 411g empty with 147g for the FP1800EVO20 LiPo totaling 558g AUW with a CofG at 95mm from the leading edge of the wing. Using my trusty 'Whatts-Up' I measured just 14A at WOT and a friends RPM counter showed up 11,200RPM at the prop (APC7x5E supplied). Now with 1800mAh total power divided by 14A draw (static WOT and this isn't the type of model you use the throttle control 'sensibly') gives 0.128571 which multiplied by 60 minutes tells us that we'll have a flat battery after 7.7 minutes. With a timer on the Tx set at 8 minutes I've found that the battery is hot but within safe discharge limits. With no real way of getting any airflow over the battery without compromising the strength of the airframe I wouldn't like to use anything less than the 20C1800 pack even though I'm drawing less than 8C.
The manual suggests a flying weight of 590g so this is one of the few models you should be able to achieve an AUW well within the suggested figure. The length is 835mm with a wingspan of 633mm giving a wing area of 9dm2.
I've racked up a massive 30+ flights on this model before completing this report which equates to over four hours in the air. I have crashed it twice - the first time was an inverted pass resulting in the battery ejecting from around five feet up over the main strip, the model did a couple of summersaults with the massive change of balance and just nosed in with no damage anywhere (the model landed twenty feet to my left and the battery ended up twenty feet to my right). Lesson number one is don't trust the magnet to hold it all in. Second crash was due to a small shrub reaching up and grabbing at the wingtip as I flew flatout down the edge of the strip resulting in a cartwheel into the long grass and the only damage was an inch or so of the wing tip departing where the triffid dealt its fatal blow - fatal only for a couple of hours before some glue could be applied and a little tape to try and hide the scars.
This is a superb model which is extremely maneuverable and yet very steady for those low, high speed, 'chicken run' passes down the strip. I can launch it with ease (javelin style) and she lands at my feet - well, most of the time. It states on the instructions 'For Advance Flyers' and, without trying to blow my own trumpet, I would very much agree. With all the fun I've had with her she does get very small very quickly and if you want to keep the speed up and fly 'jet' style you've got to use plenty of sky - in certain conditions she's really tested my eyesight and abilities to keep her in one piece.
Richard Fry
The box comes is presented with pics of the completed model and stages of construction on the outside along with specs and additional stuff required to complete. I was particularly pleased to see a picture and the words 'brushless motor included' in the top corner. Inside the box and there are two massive sheets of decals (full box length!) on top of lots of white polystyrene and a box of fittings/fixtures to complete (including a bottle of 'foam' glue). The instructions start out well with a nice forward explaining the development of the model but unfortunately that's where the words stop, just leaving pictures to show you what you should have in the box, what's needed and hopefully how to complete your new jet. Someone must have a sense of humor as in the 'before you begin' section the first step instructs you to 'read through the manual'.
We start out with the canopy which is a foam structure with a plastic screen stuck to it, an iron plate glued to the bottom to meet a magnet on the base and a plastic 'stud' assembly glued to the front to locate in position. The counterparts of the stud and plate are then attached to the fus.
The wings utilize simple 'torque rod' affairs to guide the ailerons and don't need much thought to complete but the elevator control requires a lot of accuracy with four bends and two angles as well as a horn to line up. Helpfully, they have devoted a full page with 1:1 scale of the finished article in both plan and side views and it really pays to get this bit right as it will make the difference between a 'pussy cat' and a 'dog' in the air.
The servos (I used HS-55's) sit very well in the cutout provided, almost to the extent that you don't need any glue but I put some on anyway. The wing and aileron are one piece that you have to cut apart but this is not difficult as long as you have a very sharp knife and some idea of what it should look like. The hinges are just pushed into slots you cut with a 'dab' of that foam glue supplied.
The tail assembly is next and this is where some information would have been very useful. What you have is a piece of wire coming out from both sides of the fus which you are supposed to attach four pieces of flat depron to. Now this is the first 'all moving' tailplane I can remember building and it's not clear in the instructions if your supposed to sink the wire into the depron or just glue the two pieces either side of it with just the sandwich effect holding it all together. I started out by pressing some spare wire onto the depron where the rods would sit but the characteristic of the material was working against me 'springing' back when I lifted it. I then tried to carefully cut a groove but found it very difficult indeed to keep from going right through the material. I settled on getting a soldering iron out and burning a channel along the marks I had made - not actually touching the depron but just hovering over it allowing the heat to do the work for me. This made the resulting groove very strong and rigid and the wire fitted all the way into it allowing the top sheet to glue flat to it. Once all this was set properly it was time to get the sandpaper out and chamfer the edges, top and bottom, forward and back (would have been a lot easier to do before mounting on the model but didn't present too much of a problem).
Now we get to the spinny thing which makes this thing tick. There is a nice gearbox assembly, 2.38:1, which mounts on a square stick which is attached to the fus and is suitable for both brushed and brushless powerhouses. A neat addition to the gearbox housing is a small slot where you pass the wires from the brushless motor to prevent them from rubbing on the rotating can (the stock BL motor is an outrunner). The holes didn't line up for the supplied motor but only needing extending slightly outwards with a small needle file to fettle. The stick is stuck to the back end of the fus in the cutout and the fin glued on top to complete.
Finally comes the belly pan where another problem is met. A nut is glued into a plastic plate which is mounted to the fus and another plate is stuck to the bottom of the pan where a screw passes through to screw to the nut. Now the first problem is that there are no guides as to where these two parts fix. I figured they obviously had to be sunk into the foam to make them flush but even then the screw wasn't long enough for the job. I mounted them as far forward as I could and cut the foam away accordingly, I then found a suitable M3 bolt from my salvage box. I figured the motor 'cowl' would suitably hold the pan at the rear and keep everything in place. The cowl is made from clear plastic and I sprayed it 'smoke' colour before fitting as I couldn't find any black. Secured in place with two small screws and it was time to finish off the leccy bits.
The HS55 leads are plenty long enough to reach up to the top canopy which seemed a good place to plant the Rx. I soldered up some extra long leads to go between the Jeti 30A Advance ESC I used and the motor and found I could mount the controller to the belly pan facing the servos and feed the power leads up to the canopy with the rest of the wires. A new JR77S PCM Rx fitted a little too snuggly behind the magnet so a small amount of foam was removed to allow the leads to be plugged in, I fed the arial forward to the front of the canopy and made a hole to feed out and taped the end to the fin making sure there wasn't enough slack for it to contact the path of the prop. There was a perfectly sized tray cutout at the front of the cockpit bay for a FlightPower 3S1200EVO20 pack which delivered plenty of power to the back end. In fact, there was a surprising amount of 'push' at the front when the throttle stick was raised. The ailerons were just about stalling at 100% of travel and the elevator was going up and down like the back end of a dolphin, I just love those all moving tailplanes and sat there for a minute or two just enjoying my latest creation.
A quick check on the C of G proved to be at the rearmost position and I made my first big mistake - packed up for the field with the stickers and a couple of knives.
A beautiful day was forecast and sure enough the blue sky and calm conditions were met at the patch so I sat myself down on one of the picnic benches and went to work to finish her off, taking a break to fly my heli every now and then. It was now that I should have re-checked that 'rearmost' C of G before getting a clubmate to launch her for me as it was immediately blatantly obvious I had a problem. She had plenty of power but the nose was all over the place - far too much elevator travel and too much weight at the tail end. Wasn't so much a landing, more of a dumping in the long grass! Back to the pits for a bigger battery, it just so happens that the 1800EVO20 pack is the same plan size as the 1200 but around 50g heavier so in it went and straight back out for another go.
This time away she went perfectly from the launch and with the elevator rates on she had perfect pitch. One circuit and she was trimmed for a straight and level so it was time for some pics and some 'slow' flight was explored which proved a bit wallowy to say the least and there was a slight 'lag' between throwing the power on and seeing her accelerate out of any trouble so following a premature landing, another launch was undertaken. This time the speed was kept on and the grin on my face started to grow ever wider but the strain on my eyes grew also, not so bad in the deep blue but against a white cloud there was very little to see!
She flies great down low to the deck and close up she's as fast as you would want but soon she's at the end of the field and you've got to think about turning to come back again before she turns into a dot.
For the first few flights I didn't have the brake enabled and the glide, although respectable, was hampered by the spinning disc. Once the brake was enabled, and the prop stopped, the glide was very impressive indeed.
Every subsequent flight I have made with this baby has resulted in a bigger, sillier grin each time. Of course, you can't do all this low, fast flying this time of year without clipping the odd bush here and there and I don't really expect a long life out of this model seeing as it's nothing more than a lump of foam.
The elevator feels very fragile on the bench but does a very good job keeping her steady while tearing up the strip. The plastic belly-pan cover has been fitted to the model to try and hold off the wear and tear as much as possible even though I have only been flying off grass but you can't see it when she's in the air, same with the prop/gearbox at the back end.
A few measurements later and we've got a weight of 411g empty with 147g for the FP1800EVO20 LiPo totaling 558g AUW with a CofG at 95mm from the leading edge of the wing. Using my trusty 'Whatts-Up' I measured just 14A at WOT and a friends RPM counter showed up 11,200RPM at the prop (APC7x5E supplied). Now with 1800mAh total power divided by 14A draw (static WOT and this isn't the type of model you use the throttle control 'sensibly') gives 0.128571 which multiplied by 60 minutes tells us that we'll have a flat battery after 7.7 minutes. With a timer on the Tx set at 8 minutes I've found that the battery is hot but within safe discharge limits. With no real way of getting any airflow over the battery without compromising the strength of the airframe I wouldn't like to use anything less than the 20C1800 pack even though I'm drawing less than 8C.
The manual suggests a flying weight of 590g so this is one of the few models you should be able to achieve an AUW well within the suggested figure. The length is 835mm with a wingspan of 633mm giving a wing area of 9dm2.
I've racked up a massive 30+ flights on this model before completing this report which equates to over four hours in the air. I have crashed it twice - the first time was an inverted pass resulting in the battery ejecting from around five feet up over the main strip, the model did a couple of summersaults with the massive change of balance and just nosed in with no damage anywhere (the model landed twenty feet to my left and the battery ended up twenty feet to my right). Lesson number one is don't trust the magnet to hold it all in. Second crash was due to a small shrub reaching up and grabbing at the wingtip as I flew flatout down the edge of the strip resulting in a cartwheel into the long grass and the only damage was an inch or so of the wing tip departing where the triffid dealt its fatal blow - fatal only for a couple of hours before some glue could be applied and a little tape to try and hide the scars.
This is a superb model which is extremely maneuverable and yet very steady for those low, high speed, 'chicken run' passes down the strip. I can launch it with ease (javelin style) and she lands at my feet - well, most of the time. It states on the instructions 'For Advance Flyers' and, without trying to blow my own trumpet, I would very much agree. With all the fun I've had with her she does get very small very quickly and if you want to keep the speed up and fly 'jet' style you've got to use plenty of sky - in certain conditions she's really tested my eyesight and abilities to keep her in one piece.
Richard Fry