RC POWERS V3 SIZE PLANES AND WEIGHT

Hi everyone -

I have been doing quite a bit of flying and testing with 4 of my planes in recent weeks, the RC Powers F18 and Mig29 V3s and the FRC Foamies Su37/35 MK2s.  I have been trying to fly my planes in a more scale manner, smooth turns, aerobatics, pin point rolls, that sort of thing and have discovered that all these planes being a little heavier helps make this type of flying easier.

With a 2200 Mah battery, these 4 planes are in the 20.5 to 21.5 weight category.  I do lose some top end speed, with the Mig for example I lose about 10 mph over using a 1600 Mah battery, but the flying and handling feels much smoother to me at the heavier weight.  I have written that with the F18 I have always felt that about 21.5 oz is my favorite weight for handling, aerobatics and high alpha, so not much change there.

I know at one time I published my thoughts on having a wing loading of 6.4 oz/sq ft on the F18/Mig 29 and F22 seemed to be an ideal place to be, but now it seems that even though the wing loading on the 4 planes mentioned above won't be the same, they all handle more smoothly and more scale at weights above 20.5 oz in my opinion.

I also think that this performance has much to do with the power setup that I use, that is the Focal Price 2700Kv motor with a 6x3 EMP prop.  This is by far my favorite motor for all the V3 size planes.  I do build a few with the NTM Prop Drive, but overall I personally like the FP 2700 motor the best.  It weights about the same as all the other popular parkjet 2200 Kv motors like the Turnigy D2826/6 and the RC Timer 2212/6, but has 8-10 more ounces of thrust.  I do like to use a heavier (40A) ESC with this motor than would be required with the Turnigy or RC Timer motors, but I have found with experimentation a 40A works the best.

Getting about 36 oz of thrust from this motor, my thrust to weight ratios in the 20.5-21.5 oz range is about 1.7:1 which still gives pretty decent top end speed, but the pop and acceleration for aerobatic is what I really like as well as at 50% throttle I have a thrust to weight ratio of almost 1:1, so that is great overall performance.

The nice thing about this 20.5-21.5 oz range is that the planes fly smooth and stable in just about all conditions.  The RCP Mig29 V3 and the FRC Su35 MK2 handle very well in windy conditions up to about 15 mph/25 km/h at this weight, so that allows me to fly in almost any situation.

Granted there are calm days when I just love to put the lighter battery in there and really rip around the skies, but for overall smooth, scale flying, I have found this to be a great weight for these planes.  Good stability, good penetration through the air and smoother handling and with the 2200 Mah battery, slightly longer flights as well.

Cheers,

Scott