XF-18 Supersized

Well I finished my latest foam board jet project yesterday and maiden the XF-18 this afternoon. Basically it is a slightly modified Parkjet.com F-18 that I have blown up to about 150%.

It has a 41" wingspan and is about 61" in length. I am using a Turnigy 3648 motor with 1450KV, 60 amp Exceed Volcano ESC and a 2200 4S 30C battery. Currently I have a 7X6 TGS prop on it which makes it pull about 55 amps. This set up gives it a 1:1 power ratio using about 3/4 throttle.

Using just elevons it does extremely tight loops but roll rate is smooth but slow. I will probably add ailerons in the future. Now that it has successfully flown I will either go up to a 5S battery or go to a 8X6 prop to get some addition speed and thrust. Either change will require at least an 80 amp esc. I need to take it slow since the only reinforcement to the foam is a single 3mm carbon fiber ribbon to stop wing flexing.

One more attempt at EDF

Well I took the Hangar Queen (Max F-117 Camo)out last weekend and tried one more time to get it air borne. It finally took off after reworking the landing gear and drilling new holes on the elevon horns to increase upward travel.

It was able to do a few slow rolls but no loops even at full throttle. Just like it stalled out trying to do loops it stalled again landing and damaged landing gear beyond repair. Without landing gear and unable to be hand launch I trashed it for EDF and electronics.

Have now mounted EDF and electronics on a new foamboard jet. In process of checking amp draw, found out that ESC was not allowing for full load. Reset throttle throw setting several time with no increase. It would appear that it was about 25% off maximum (258watts vs 200watts) when compare to another ESC off another EDF jet. Might have been the problem with the F-117 all along.

Should be able to maiden new jet this weekend. It has little more than a 1 to 1 thrust ratio which should allow for hand launch

All Quite on the RC Front

Not much happening lately. No new planes/jets to report on. Have about 30 flights on the MegaJet II with no crashes. Jonnie has reworked his Giant SR-71 and added stearable landing gear making it possible to take and land in the parking lot when empty.

Have a more powerful motor for the MegaJet II but enjoy flying it right now with the existing motor. The additional speed would be nice but it would cut my fling time in half if I prop it out as planned.

FYI Jonnie's experience with the new Turnigy Nano batteries has been less than desirable. It would seem they don't like being pushed to their burst limit. He has fried both of the Nano's but regular batteries pushed to their stated limits seem to hold up. It would seem that the Nano's double the normal rating for a burst limit is over optimistic.

Flying High and Large

Well we finally had good weather this weekend for a change. No wind and upper 80's made flying a joy. Only down side was fighting off the mosquitoes at dusk. Been a while since so many people showed up for flying.

Jonnie brought out and maiden his giant SR-71. It has a 36" wingspan and is 60" nose to tail. The only casualty after several successful flights was a puffed up battery. He was pulling too many amps for the 2200mah 4S Nano-Tech battery. With an 8X6 prop he was pulling close to 1,000 watts at WOT. Several changes are in the works to get the full 1500 watts that the motor is capable of handling.

Hopefully the dark days are just about over for me. I have been without a good transmitter for over 3 weeks. My Spektrum DX6I is due back this week so I can launch my MegaJet F-22 with Jonnie's Giant SR-71. Should be fun seeing these two monster foamies this up coming weekend.

Speaking of dark days there are not too many days left for flying after 6 pm without lights. Everyone is or needs to be ramping up with leds to extend our night flying.

Everyone was up!

Finally had some good flying weather this weekend except for the mosquitoes. We are trying to figure out a way to mount a receiver on one of them to see how well they fly. We will need 6 channels receiver to have functioning blood sucker and retractable landing gear.

Everyone was flying Sunday night. Jonnie launched his new improved SR-71. This monster is approximately 60" in length with a 38" wingspan. He completed several successful flights with no problems other than a puffed 4S nano-tech lipo battery. It needs a higher capacity battery to handle extended high speed runs. Should have video soon.

I crumpled a couple of older foamies this week using the cheap radio that came with an EDF jet. Can't wait for my DX6I to arrive back this week from the repair shop. You can fly with those cheap radios but you can't get too attached to the planes your flying on them. The receivers seem to have a problem with emf off the motors. Had to be careful when coming off throttle because elevons would jump then reset. Not a problem when at 50 feet but deadly

Slow and Painful week

Weather has not been good for flying the last couple of weeks. Wind and rain has limited my flying time. Then I went and dropped my DX6I radio this week and put it out of commission.

Still doing a limited amount of flying using a 2.4 GHz radio that came with a EDF jet purchased recently. Limited in the fact that this radio seems to have a mind of its own every now and then. It was responsible for the demise of the JeTiger and has tried to eliminate my scratch built foamies a couple of times. They were better handling so I was able to save them before hitting the ground. I'll take a prop pusher over an EDF jet everytime when it comes to using thrust to overcome gravity.

On a more positive note, I have completed all the changes to the MegaJet II. When I get my DX6I repaired I will take it out. I was able to put a 9X6 prop on it and still have over a 1 to 1 thrust ratio. It also dropped the watts down to around 450 which is good. Motor sounds like it is producing higher rpms so I should be able to get a little more speed. Hope the airframe can handle it since I used a limited amount of carbon fiber on the wings.

Slow Week

Not much happening the last week. Only flew a couple times with temperatures well over 100 at 8:00 in the evening. Built a couple new jets this week. One looks similar to the F-15 and another has it own look. Both were rigged with Turnigy 2836 motor w/2350kv (6X4 prop). Matched with a 60 amp Vocano ESC and 4S30C 2200mah BlueLipo battery. Maiden flights were trouble free.

On another note, I have ordered new larger metal gear servos for the MegaJet II. Had insufficient torque on previous servos to perform any stunts other than a few slow rolls. Also going to go to a smaller prop(9x6) with more pitch to increase speed. Hoping to get something near 60 mph in the future.

MegaJet II a Success

Well I finally completed and maiden the MegaJet II this past weekend. It was rigged out just like the original MegaJet. I used a HobbyPartz Monster 15 motor (950KV), 60 amp Volcano ESC, 2200 mah 4S BlueLipo with a 10X3.8 prop. While it had enough thrust for verticle take offs, it could use some additional speed. Planning on dropping down to a 9 inch prop with a 5 or 6 pitch for the next launch. It currently pulls just short of 40 amps on the 10" prop giving it an output of 550 watts. That is just 2 amps short of the rated maximum for this motor.

Kept the first 5 flights mainly level with the occasional roll. Jet has plenty of up and down using the current elevon configuration but lacks a little in the roll department. Next build I will either seperate the functions or possibly add ailerons onto the existing servos.

Bad weather on Sunday left it and it's smaller counterparts in the hangar. You can see maiden in the attached 5 minute video.

MegaJet Flies and Dies

Well I finally flew the MegaJet F-22 last weekend. It was a F-22 that I enlarged by 40% which gave it a 38" wingspan and total length of 50". I outfitted it with a HobbyPartz Monster 15 motor, 60 amp ESC, 4S2200mah battery and a 10X4 prop. Full throttle produced approximately 550 watts. I hand launched and flew it several times before an elevon pushrod failure (Note to Bruce, use Z-bends on big jets). The attached video is of that short final flight. Not to worry, I have already built the MegaJet II and it now max's out at 40" wingspan and a total length of 58".

Hotter than 40amp motor pulling 60amp

Well not much flying going on with 100 degree heat. We have been trying out the newer Helicopter Turnigy 450 size H2218 series motor lately. So far the motor seems to be a winner. Motor comes with nothing but an x-mount but at less tham $11 that leaves you with $6 to put on connectors and a prop adapter and cost the same as the 2836-2350KV motors. Not that you can get any of them for the last month. The 1860-2900KV motors are well suited for parkjet foamies. The only hold back is the shaft cannot be reversed which limits your mounting options. Using 11.1v batteries the prop maximum diameter seem to fall as follows: 1860=8", 2100=7", 2500=6", and 2900=5" not to exceed a 5 blade pitch. Bump it up to 14.8v and you might have to come down an inch in diameter but it really screams and you fall right at the rated 500 watt maximum.

Limbo at the Park

Well it was Limbo at the Park tonight. It wasn't very pretty. An F-22 and a modified Wolverine hit one of the uprights signaling their demise. They had performed well for several months so not all was lost. Their parts will live on in new models. Several other jets also came to an early demise during hand launches and stunts making one wonder if it was more of a Twilight Zone than Limbo Land.

Welcome to RC Foam Fliers!

Thanks for stopping by. I hope this becomes a resource for all of you foam fliers out there. I have added some links to aid in your quest to build or purchase R/C equipment and aircraft.

Hobby King is a large provider of R/C supplies. Extremely good pricing on most parts as long as weight and size reasonable. They are located in mainland China so delivery times can exceed several weeks depending on shipment type selected. Higher shipping costs need to take into consideration when comparing costs.

Hobby Partz is a good source for R/C parts. Their prices are slightly higher than Hobby King but they are located in California and usually get your parts to you in less than 5 weekdays if not on backorder. Popular size batteries go quick when in stock!

IMAA site will help you get an understanding of electrical calculations needed to size your motor/ESC and battery properly.

NitroPlanes sells a large array of R/C aircraft. Their prices are usually as low as they get. I have purchased several planes from them. My only complaint so far has been with the MaxJet EDF jets. They were severely under powered and either never flew or limped around.

Park Jets has numerous free/donate pdf plans. They also sell some of these plans in kit form aka already cut out but you have to assemble and buy electronics

RC Foam Fighters is a excellent source for R/C information and videos dealing with jets aircraft builds. Have numerous free PDF plans for foamboard and EPP foam jets. Their quest for speed has exceeded a true not scale 140 mph on jet design plans you can download

RC Powers is a good source for R/C information and videos dealing mainly with flat foam aircraft.