Another milestone for me today at the field, I flew my 200th flight (201 and counting) with my stock built RC Powers Mig29 V4. Here it is dutifully guarding the pilot's "jet fuel", a cup of black coffee from Tim Horton's which apparently is now getting bought out by Burger King worldwide for $11.4 billion USD... :/ Wonder if that means I can get a double Whopper and fries with my coffee and maple dip donut?! That will be great for the nutrition plan...yikes! But, I digress... :)
This plane has seen a lot of flying over the summer as I have evaluated it beside my Mig29 V3M3e3, my Mig29 V4M3e3 and my FRC Su35 MK2 NAMC V1.
I have mentioned several times that without a doubt this is the best stock (ie built to plans without major modifications) built plane I have ever flown and is a major improvement over the Mig29 V3 in all categories. You can read and see my comparisons between the stock Mig29 V3 and V4 in these two posts
One thing I have noticed now with this many flights accumulated is that the CofG seems best about 5/8" of an inch ahead of the stock CofG on the plans. On my modified Mig29 V4M3e3, it is actually more like 3/4" ahead of stock. As Stephan explained, this shift on the V4M3e3 is probably caused by us moving the center of lift due to modifying the back end and moving the trailing edge of the KF airfoil back about 1/4".
Here is a picture showing where my current CofG is on the plane. The hex driver is pointing to where the stock CofG is and the ziptie is pointing to where my CofG is now. I know not the best of teaching aids...but they are what I had handy... :)
So keeping in mind that this trend will probably continue, I will use this information to adjust a few things on my current Mig29 build in order to be able to use lighter weight 1600 and 1800 Mah batteries.
Today I was flying with some Zippy Compact 2200 3S https://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=21346 batteries that are about 33 gr/1 oz lighter than the usual 2200s that I use http://hobbyking.com/hobbycity/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=9942 I am using weight comparisons based on what I have weighed on my home scale, not what HK says the weights are.
As you can see in the pictures below, I had to have this lighter battery all the way up against the bulkhead, quite far forward to get the plane to stay balanced in the pitch.
With fall approaching, we actually tend to have a lot calmer days wind wise, so I won't need to worry so much about having extra weight to help with wind stability in my planes. As such, I want to be able to use my 1600 batteries http://hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__9456__Turnigy_1600mAh_3S_30C_Lipo_Pack.html which are 18 gr/0.6 oz lighter than the yellow battery shown above to really be able to get some good speed and slightly lower wing loading when I want.
As such I think I will need to move some weight forward to allow the plane to still balance with the 1600 battery as I can't really put it any further forward without needing down trim. I have some leeway with my new build to move the Rx further forward as well as my aileron and elevon servos. The picture below shows where they are on the stock Mig29 V4.
Even though the modified Mig29 V4s that Stephan and I have been working on fly faster, sharper and more precise with less bad habits than the stock Mig29 V4 (at least for how we like our planes to respond and behave), this stock Mig29 V4 is still a blast to fly and I hope to have it around to compare with the Mig29 V5 if and when that should come out... :)
Cheers,
Scott
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