FRC FOAMIES SU35 MK2 BUILD LOG - 2ND INSTALLMENT

Hi everyone -

Yesterday I managed to get quite a bit of work done on my Su35 MK2 testbed plane.  I put all the carbon fibre in, a 4mm carbon rod for the wing spar, 3mm carbon tube in the elevons and across the back deck to reduce flex in that area.

I also bevelled and attached the elevons and ailerons.  I decided after much discussion with sgmoran from the RC Powers forum to go with a more scale size aileron.  They are actually inboard, so more like flaps or spoilerons, but hopefully by not having moving surface near the wing tip, it won't be as susceptible to tip stalls.  I also hope that it will reduce it's sensitivity in the roll axis to allow me to fly it a bit more scale without crazy amounts of expo.

To see if it makes a difference in how the air flows over the plane, I also tapered all the trailing edges on the wings, vertical stabs and elevons.

I put the fiberglass drywall tape on the boom extension that is between the nozzles to give that a little extra strength as it might be susceptible to breaking.  

I have also installed the centre spine, motor mount supports and nose support pieces, so now time to build up the fuselage.

Cheers,

Scott

RCP T50 V1 WIND HANDLING AND 4S POST FLIGHT REPORT

Hi everyone -

I had a couple of speedsters out at the field yesterday to have some 4S fun.  I had already flown the F15 MK2 with a 4S battery about 6 times, but had not gotten video of it.  I had also never flown the T50 V1 on 4S either, so I was excited to do that.  It was a bit windy at the field, wind was about 10-15 mph, so I was sweating a bit flying the T50 in the wind as I was unsure of it's wind stability.  Anyway after it launched out of my hand smoothly on three consecutive flights, I reminded myself of one of the first rules of aerodynamics, launching it into the wind causes airflow to go over the wings, increased airflow causes increased lift and normally the more lift, the more stability...so all was good... :)

I flew a couple warmup flights on the T50 on 3S before trying it on 4S and was actually amazed at how stable this plane was in the wind as long as the speed stayed up.  I expected to be tossed all over the place and there were a few tricky moments, but overall I was very impressed.  Turns did need a little more speed and room as I found if I tried to turn too tightly with that large area of wing and elevons making for a lot of surface area, a 45 degree bank could become a 90 degree bank very quickly and I would have to correct back the other way (not something I want to do if I am getting too close to the trees).

Additionally, I have found especially when turning from a headwind to a tailwind there is a small part of the turn where the only air flowing over the elevons is from prop wash until the plane levels out and gets going downwind with some speed again, so if I pull too hard on the elevator, I can get thrust vectoring stalls where the elevons act a little bit like speed brakes.  Not what a I want when I am in a turn...my poor old reflexes sometimes aren't what they once were... :/

So onto the fun stuff...the 4S runs... :)  I had to take into consideration the wind today, but I am pretty confident that I had four good runs of 96/95/93 and 91 mph slowing down a bit as the battery lost it's "mojo".  The wind played a few tricks at high speed, I saw a bit of torque roll occasionally and once in awhile a bit of zooming, so I am excited to try it out when it is dead calm.  I will say that other than the wind, it is rock solid at high speed, in fact the faster it goes, the more stable it is I have found.

So it is dead equal to the F15 MK2 for 4S speed and about 6 mph slower than my fast Mig.

So of course I start asking myself why a smaller plane that weighs 1.5 oz less than the Mig and 3 oz less than the F15 not go the fastest?  Well, to be quite honest, when I see some foam and glue going that fast, 6 mph is negligible for my 52 yr old eyes to detect, my heart still pounds and my smile is just as big at 96 mph as it is at 102... :)

So as I said before in a previous post about the T50 and top speed on 3S, I think I am pushing up against a bit of a drag barrier somewhere.  At half throttle, I would say no doubt the T50 is faster and quicker than the F15 and Mig 29 with the same power setup and it accelerates like mad up to a certain point.  When I look at the picture above, I see a lot of angled leading edge on the T50 V1.  The F15 has that blunt front of the intake, then other than a very subtle curve, nothing until the swept wing.

Maybe the top engine piece that I am sure provides a lot of stability for the T50 may also cause a bit of drag?  There is surface area there although as sleek and tapered as I could get it, it could be causing some drag.  Could it be angled vertical stabs versus perpendicular causing a bit of extra drag?  Interesting stuff to think about but as I said the numbers don't mean that much until after the fact...96 or 102 mph it is still pretty darn fast and exciting for some foam and glue to go that fast when I am standing at the field with my transmitter in hand!

After I posted this on the RC Powers website, Scott Lott (the designer of this plane) told me that he thought most of my drag problem was caused by the large Kf airfoil.  In testing he did in the sim for the V3 lineup of RC Powers planes, some planes can sometimes double the frontal surface of the plane with large Kfs.  I believe that the Kf does provide considerable stability to this plane, so for the sake of a few more miles per hour, I will keep the large airfoil...:)

Anyway, this little V1 plane continues to amaze me.  I am starting to think about building another F22 V1 to compare, but several other projects to get to before then... :)

Cheers,

Scott

FRC F15 MK2 AND RCP T50 PAK FA V1 ON 4S... :)

Hi everyone -

Flying day instead of building today... :)  It was a bit windy at the field, but sometimes when you have the urge to go fast, you just can't let fear and common sense hold you back!

I apologize the light and sky conditions sometimes wash out the planes, but there are a few good runs in each video to hopefully give you a perception of how fast these two planes are on a 4 cell battery.

They are both probably best watched on full screen on your PC.  I will write up a more detailed post flight report on the T50 and how it handled in the wind and at 4S speed.  I did clock it at a top speed of 96 mph though, so very very fast!

Cheers,

Scott

FRC FOAMIES SU35 MK2 BUILD LOG - 1ST INSTALLMENT

Hi everyone -

After a few too many "gonks" and repairs, my first Su35 MK2 just wasn't flying right, I could never seem to get it balanced and trimmed just right anymore, so I decided it was time to recycle it and built another.

I love the profile of this plane and how it flies, but being on the wrong side of 50 years old, I wanted to see if there were some build mods I could make to it to smooth things out a bit to prevent having to put such insane amounts of expo (like 70-80% in the roll axis) to make it a little gentler on my old nerves!

I did a lot of studying of plan views of the real Su30/Su35 and wanted to put a couple of little scale tweaks of my own on this plane as well.

So here are a few thoughts starting from the back of the plane -

• I made the elevons a bit smaller, bringing them a bit more in scale proportion with the wingspan.  It was about a 3/4" total reduction in span and I trimmed the edges a bit, adjusted a couple of the angles and also fashioned a bit of a centre boom between the "nozzles" like on the real plane.  Mine is not as long as it would be to be totally scale, but I hope it gives the appearance of it.  In the first picture below, you can see the difference between stock and my mods.  In the second picture, I overlaid my elevon over the stock elevon.  I think in total I reduced the total elevator/elevon surface area by about 15%.  This should still give me amazing authority, but hopefully a little more gentle.

• Borrowing an idea from the RC Powers Mig29 V3, I decided to angle out the vertical stabs from front to back about 2 degrees.  As Dave Powers has discussed, this subtle "wedge" shape seems to give a lot of self stabilizing qualities to the Mig29 V3 and it will be incorporated in the new V4 series as well, so I thought why not give it a try here as well.  Since the angle is so subtle, it is hard to see, but the pictures below might show it.  In order to prevent interference with the prop slot, I widened the back deck from the back of the wing root to the elevon hinge by 1.2 cm in total and I had to angle the slots for the tabs on the bottom of the vert stabs.  So it will be a lot of dry fitting and experimenting, but I'm up to the challenge!

• In an effort to also help reduce the sensitivity in the roll a bit without needing a bunch of expo, I will also be reducing the chord width of the ailerons by about 1/2".  I kept them the same shape as I had made the ailerons on my previous Su35 straight rather than flared at the end and it rolled funny in quicker rolls, like it was trying to use a hula hoop!  I used the standard shaped ailerons on my Su37 MK2 and it rolled much cleaner and crisper, so perhaps the shape is important.  Also by having the hinge line a bit further back, I won't interfere with the bottom airfoil of the Kf airfoil.  In the bottom picture, you can see where I had to trim a little bit off the end of the bottom airfoil to prevent it from interfering with the hinge.  Nothing major, but this time I won't have to trim it.

I am also planning on making the top Kf a little larger to encompass the leading edge extension.  It is not a big area, but I have been noticing in other planes, the FRC F15 MK2, the RC Powers T50 V1 and the RC Powers F22 V1 that extending that Kf forward like that makes for a much smoother flying plane.  So we shall see... :)

The last new technique I am going to try is to taper all the trailing edges, ailerons, elevons and vertical stabs/rudders.

As a testbed plane I will take care in the build aspects that affect performance, but won't worry about a fancy paint job, probably just some color and contrast with magic marker like I did on my testbed F18 V3.  In my experience, test planes don't mind being ugly and they seem to fly awesome for a long time...I have over 250 flights on my F18 V3 and she is still going strong!

I will continue to update my blog as the build progresses along.  I'm excited to see what results I get... :)

Cheers,

Scott

RC POWERS T50 V1 WALKAROUND VIDEO

Hi everyone -

I just finished up a walkaround video on my RC Powers T50 V1.  It is not a difficult build, but I wanted to discuss my setup and mods that I made, many of which I borrowed from colorc from the RC Powers Forum, so thanks very much to colorc for those.  I think the main mods he suggested made this a much smoother flying and stable plane.

I am going to try doing my walkaround videos after I have actually flown the plane (if it survives the maiden flight... :/ from now on to be able to better discuss how I felt mods or build techniques impacted the plane's performance.  Plus it will enable me to better discuss how I felt the plane handled and flew from launch to landing without the distractions that are often at the flying field.

Cheers,

Scott

FLIGHT VIDEO OF MY RC POWERS T50 V1

Hi everyone -

I managed to get some flight footage of this awesome little plane today, unfortunately it washes out against the grey sky a few times and it hard to see side on because of it's very thin side profile.  Best viewed probably on full screen or large player on You Tube on a PC.

Next challenge up with this plane is some 4S fun!

Cheers,

Scott

RC POWERS T50 V1 BUILD AND MAIDEN COMPLETE

Hi everyone -

I'm playing a little bit of catch up here today... :)  The build and maiden of my RC Powers Sukhoi T50 PAK FA V1 are complete.  Plans are available here for $9.99  http://www.rcpowers.com/community/threads/rcpowers-t-50-v1.10082/

It is the blue and white one in the picture above.  First I will discuss my build and then talk about how it flies.

My build -

• 6mm depron for the main airframe with 4.5mm paperless dollar store foam for the Kf airfoils.  Construction is primarily with Foam Tac glue with a few dabs of hot glue, epoxy, Gorilla Glue and 3M Super 77 spray adhesive;
• Power setup is the NTM Prop Drive 2700 with 6x4 APC prop, Turnigy Plush 60A ESC, 2200 3S 40C discharge battery;
• controls are elevons and ailerons, I used 9 gram metal gear servos for the elevons from RC Timer and 9 gram nylon gear servos for the ailerons also from RC Timer.  Hinges on the elevons are Foam Tac and mesh drywall tape, hinges on the ailerons are Foam Tac with a piece of mesh tape at each end of the aileron hinge line for extra strength;
• all leading edges are bevelled and sanded, paint is acrylic craft paint from the dollar store/Walmart/craft store; and
• AUW with a 2200 battery is 667 grams/23.5 oz, thrust to weight is approximately 1.8:1 and wing loading is approximately 8.4 oz per sq ft.

Based on some suggested mods from colorc of the RC Powers forum and other ideas I also had, I made the following mods to the plan -

• moved the motor mount about 3/4" inch forward, I just left the back edge of the motor mount where it was on the plans and then cut it straight across and bevelled it to give the prop lots of room to breathe;
• I made the vertical stabs about 1/2" taller;
• I put Kf4 airfoil on it and extended the top airfoil all the way into the fuselage and forward along the intake;
• since my ultimate plan was to put the NTM Prop Drive 2700 motor on this plane, I reinforced the wing and back end significantly with carbon fibre; and

• I trimmed the engine "nozzles" to look a bit more scale rather than the squared off look.

I am very, very impressed with how well this plane flies.  As many others on the RC Powers website posted before me, it does like to be kept fast, but with the speed set just right, I was very surprised with how stable yet responsive it is.

I am still working on the hand launches, it is a bit trickier than some planes.  I haven't quite found the perfect match of throttle and toss angle but 5 out of 8 takeoffs were good, the others well...exciting... :) as it torque rolled or was very unstable until sufficient air got flowing over the wings and vertical stabs.  But once it got up to speed it was very stable even in a little bit of wind.  But fortunately the "RC Gods" were with me and no incidents, so it is completely intact to fly another day.

I found it very crisp in the loops and rolls.  I actually have only about 3/4" travel on the elevators up and down for a total of 1.5" and about the same in the roll axis.  Aileron travel is about 3/8" which gives great authority for turns and rolls.  These numbers equated to about 70% throw in both the elevator and aileron channels in my transmitter and I think they will stay there.  More throw than that and it would be too much in my humble opinion.

It is fast even at half throttle with the NTM Prop Drive 2700 motor.  I was cruising at half throttle at about 45 mph (based on my HK Data Logger app on my phone).  At full throttle it is fast and appears faster because of it's small size, but it's top speed of 86 mph is still a bit slower than the Mig29 V3 and the FRC F15 MK2 which are between 1.5 and 3 oz heavier.  I think from how it felt and looked I was pushing it right up to it's drag limit.  Perhaps 4S will push it a little bit faster...so time to try that out next time.  One really cool thing was I think the air gets going through those shallow intakes and makes a really cool, deep "howling" sound...Always like it when my planes go fast enough to make noise other than the sound of the prop and motor (as long as it is not the sound of the plane self destructing...).

What I was impressed with was how stable it stayed at full throttle, no noticeable torque roll or zooming or diving at top speed, it just stayed straight, level and fast at full throttle.  I tried a couple times slowing it down and found that one it was down about 40% throttle it just was not a happy park jet, it wobbled and wing rocked and generally started to behave like a toddler about to throw a tantrum, but give it a little candy (throttle... :)) and it got very happy again.  There was a bit of a breeze today, about 5-7 mph and it handled quite well, there was the expected "tail wag" like the F22 does in a bit of wind, but not as pronounced as I found the F22 V1 in the wind.  I actually found this plan with the speed up at 50% throttle or higher to be quicker, more agila and more stable than the F22 V1, but then as the speed bled off and it got slow, it was not as stable as the F22 V1.

The sky was a bright blue but that contrast of white and darker blue in my paint scheme helped me keep track of it very easily.  It is a paint scheme loosely based on a paint scheme I found for one of the first prototypes of this plane.  It was a bit tricky to do with all the masking to keep lines straight, but I think turned out really well.

As I started to dial it in, I found I moved the battery back quite a bit and ended up with my CofG about 1/2 to 5/8" behind stock.  Luckily, I seemed to have hit the jackpot on the roll balance by putting my 60A ESC right of centreline just behind the canopy as I needed no trim in the roll axis.  In the picture below, the pen shows where the stock CofG is and the tip of the screwdriver shows where my current CofG is.

Approaches to land were fairly fast and hot, so I needed a little more room for approach and landing than with some planes.  I chopped the throttle at about 8-10 ft in the air and let is slow and glide down with it's own sink rate keeping the wings level until I was just in ground effect and then about a foot or so off the ground, a gentle flair and it slid in nicely for a smooth landing on the grass.  Very impressed with that, but getting too slow on approach with this plane I think would be welcoming a lot of trouble as it did like to misbehave when it got slow.

So other than the fact it is not a plane that likes to to slow, I give this plane a 10 out of 10 for cool factor!  It looks and handles awesome in the air, goes fast and makes very cool noises when you really get it wound out.  Can't wait to see what it will do on 4S... :)

Cheers,

Scott

FRC FOAMIES F15 ON 4S IS FAST!

Hi everyone -

Had a couple of "heavyweight contenders" out at the field today, my 25.6 oz FRC Foamies F15 MK2 and my 25 oz RC Powers Mig29 V3.

I managed to have some 4S (4 cell) fun with my F15 today, but a bit of a "fail" on my part as I forgot to get video of it.

I am happy to report that the F15 on 4S is FAST!  I clocked 4 good speed runs on HK Datalogger of 96/93/92 and 90 mph as the battery ran down.  Not quite as fast as the Mig29 which I had up to 102 mph, but so solid!

I had a bit of torque roll as it wound out to top speed, but nothing that slowed it down or made it unmanageable.  It is rock solid on 3S, so I was worried a bit that zooming might be a problem on 4S, but I just put in one click of down trim in the pitch and when I hammered full throttle, it just buried the nose and took off straight ahead like it was in pursuit of it's prey!

It is also the coolest sounding parkjet at speed, the howl of the NTM Prop Drive 2700 on 4S with a 6x4 APC prop couple with the wind howling through those big long intakes makes for the coolest howling sound I have ever heard from a parkjet.  I can't wait to get some video shot of it as it sounds so cool!

So far I have not detected a single bad habit with this plane, it is rock solid even at very high speed, stable and tracks like it is on rails!

The FRC F15 is just an amazing plane (at least for the way I like to fly...:))

Cheers,

Scott

FRC F15 MK2 HANDLES AWESOME IN THE WIND!

Hi everyone -

Had a couple of FRC Foamies planes out at the field today

It was the first time I had a chance to fly my FRC Foamies F15 MK2 in any kind of windy conditions.  It was one of those early spring days where the wind was swirling around and going from dead calm to gusts up to 10-15 mph with very little notice!  Challenging flying, but lots of fun!  The F15 MK2 handled the wind exceptionally well as I expected it to, like most foamy parkjets I needed to keep the speed up a little higher in the turns, say about 60% throttle instead of about 50% throttle when winds are calm.  It did tend to get "waffly" or wing rock if I let the speed get down too much, but other than that it handled rock solid.

In my experience, planes with perpendicular vertical stabs like the F15/Su35/37 and Mig29 all seem to handle the wind much better than planes with angled vertical stabs like the F18, F22 and F35.  

I have about 30 flights on my F15 now and I am very happy with how it performs and I'm feeling very comfortable flying it, so I think the next time it is a bit calmer and wind isn't a factor, time for a little 4 cell fun!

Cheers,

Scott

RC POWERS MIG29 V1 SPEED TESTING

Hi everyone -

It was RC Powers Mig day at the flying field today!  I had out my "baby Mig" (14.5 oz RCP Mig29 V1 with the Focal Price 2700 motor) and my "big daddy Mig" (25 oz Mig29 V3 with the NTM Prop Drive 2700 motor).

I got a chance to do some speed runs with my Mig29 V1 today as I wanted to see truly how insanely fast it is.  I used the HK Data logger app on my phone and got in three good runs of 66/63/59/56 mph.  So I went back and checked what sort of speeds I got on my first V1 Mig that weighed 17.3 oz and had the HK D2826/6 motor with a 6x4 prop and I barely broke 50 mph, so amazing what dropping almost 3 oz and kicking up the horsepower in the motor will do.

It was also the first time in a while that I had flown the heavier 25 oz Mig as I have been flying the lighter German Mig a lot as of late.  I had forgotten how smooth, stable yet fast and responsive it is at that weight with the NTM Prop Drive 2700 motor.  I also realized I have yet to put some appropriate decals on it.  When I built it and first flew it, weather conditions were damp and cool, not too great for decals staying on, so I didn't do it then, but time to pretty it up now that spring is coming fast!

The RC Powers Migs are just too much fun!

Cheers,

Scott

FLIGHT FOOTAGE OF MY NEW RC POWERS MIG29 V1

Hi everyone -

After getting too cocky and "dumb thumbing" my Mig29 V1 into the ground at a rapid rate of knots and breaking the nose off during the maiden flight, I did some repairs and it is good to go, even some great battle scars!

At 14.5 oz with a 1600 Mah battery and the Focal Price 2700 motor on a 6x3 EMP prop, the pop, acceleration and vertical on this plane are insane!  But sometimes insane is good... :)

It will take me a while to get used to how amazingly responsive this plane is in the pitch, a couple times I did some 90 degree turns when I wasn't expecting it!  The great thing about the Mig29 V1 and really the Mig29 V3 for that matter is that if I get into a wild situation or attitude, I just just centralize the right stick, it stops doing what it is doing and then I can recover and fly out (within reason...as you can see in this next video of my first Mig29 V1).

I had forgotten how crazy I can get with this plane, so after a few flights, the g forces broke the hot glue joint that was holding my ESC in place... :(  Fortunately no catastrophe, so I stole an idea from Flitetest that I had used recently on my FRC F15 MK2 to secure my ESC.

The zip tie works awesome and the little piece of popsicle stick helps keep the foam from getting torn up... :)  The other added benefit is that it puts more weight away from the centre line to make the roll balance more neutral... :)

Just love this little plane for when I am in the mood to just go out and get some good "thrashin' and dashin' " (crazy aerobatics and high speed runs... :)) done.

Cheers,

Scott

HOW DOES THE FRC F15 MK2 COMPARE TO THE RC POWERS V3s?

Hi everyone -

I managed to get out to the field yesterday and get in another 9 flights on my FRC Foamies F15 MK2 before the rain started up again... :), :(, happy to fly, sad it started raining)

Through my You Tube channel I have had a couple of questions on how I feel this plane compares to the RC Powers V3 lineup.  Tough question to answer really as each plane is unique in it's characteristics and I have thus far only 18 flights on my F15 and 250+ flights each on my F18s and Mig29s.  I have also not had a chance to fly the F15 in any sort of windy conditions to evaluate it's performance there.  I also have not flown the F15 very much below 50% throttle nor have I tried any high alpha with it, but I haven't seen too many real F15s do a lot of high alpha, so I'm not sure that is a flight regime I will explore for reasons explained in the next paragraph.  I won't compare it to the RCP F22 V3 as that plane is kind of in another category, not bad, just more challenging to set up and fly correctly and less forgiving than the Mig, F18 or FRC F15 by far.

I should caveat that as of late I have been trying to fly my planes more scale (ie more like the real thing).  Thrashing a plane around doing flips, tumbles and crazy aerobatics is a lot of fun, don't get me wrong and is one of the reasons I recently built another RCP Mig29 V1, but I find that trying to fly my planes more smoothly and in a more scale fashion is a great challenge and actually gives me a much better feel of how my plane is flying and responding to inputs.  So what I am about to say is based on personal opinion and flying style.  In truth, I love flying all three of these planes, each for their own characteristics, but perhaps you have already flown the Mig29 and F18 V3s, this might put the FRC F15 MK2 in context depending on what sort of flying experience you might seek.  Or if you are looking for an alternative plane not in the RC Powers V3 lineup, perhaps this will help.

So, where do I start?  Well, I do fly a Mig29 at almost the same weight as my F15, so I will compare those two, they both have the same power setup (NTM Prop Drive 2700 with a 6x4 APC prop) and all the same control surfaces (elevons, ailerons and rudder).  The F18 unfortunately is much more weight sensitive and when I tried to fly my first F18 in the 25-26 oz range, bad things happened...broken wing, horrible death spiral...blah, blah, blah...:(

So perhaps because of the lighter weight, the F18 V3 feels just a little more floaty than the F15 and the heavier Mig.  Not floaty in any way that in my opinion is detrimental to flight characteristics, but rather makes it very easy to handle at low speed and in high alpha.  The F18 in my humble opinion is a great second plane after say the F35 if you are just getting started as it's handling and tracking are still amazing, but since you really need to build it light to keep the weight and wing loading down, it will be "floatier" in comparison to the Mig and the F15 and therefore give you a little more time to react to a situation.  Plus as I have written in the F18 V3 thread of the RC Powers website and on my blog, it almost has self correcting tendencies without the benefit of on board stabilization.  Also I find that with the right weight and power setup (I like to fly mine around 21.5 oz with the Focal Price 2700 motor with a 6x3 EMP prop), the F18 can be very responsive and aerobatic but is never going to be a speed demon.

The Mig29 could also be a good choice for a second plane if you are just learning, but I would keep it light with low wing loading to make it a little easier to handle and then work your way up if you want to get it going fast.  The Mig29 V3 of all the parkjets I have ever flown is by far the most flexible from the standpoint of weight and wing loading, proven to fly well from 15.5 oz to 40+ oz with very light setups like the MJV2 all the way up to huge powerful 6 cell setups.  The Mig29 built at a heavier weight and with the higher speed of a big power setup might make it a bit too challenging if  you are still learning.  Not that this is a bad thing, but the difference between my lighter Mig at 21 oz with a 2200 battery and my heavier Mig at 25 oz is significant in the feel I get in the sticks when flying aerobatics and turns, more stick travel and pressure required for the heavier Mig than the light Mig (and the F15 for that matter).  Even at 25 oz the Mig does feel just a little more agile and snappier than the F15, but again, just my humble opinion.

The F15 MK2 would probably be a good choice for maybe a third plane, not because it is difficult to fly, but it is a bit more advanced and challenging build than both the F18 and Mig29 V3s.  In handling, the F15 tracks maybe even a tiny bit better than the heavier Mig29 (again just my opinion), yet it feels much lighter on the sticks.  The extra lift from the body of the F15 makes it feel more like my 21 oz Mig29 rather than it's 26 oz AUW.  Not sure if that makes sense, but if feels and handles like a lighter plane that it is.  The weight and wing loading still keep it exceptionally stable and smooth, but not as much input required to maintain the same amount of turn rate as with the 25 oz Mig.  I have yet to find any bad habits with the F15 MK2 and not only does it look very scale, it flies very scale as well (at least in the setup I have).  In the regimes I have flown it, I would say it is the most scale looking, feeling and stable yet responsive (not as agile as the FRC Su jets of course... :)) of all the FRC Foamies planes I have built and flown (again, my opinion, I have built and flown the F15 MK1 in 100 and 120% sizes, Su37 MK1, Su37 and Su35 MK2s and the F35 600).

As I said earlier, I love all three of these planes for their own unique characteristics, but boiled down, here is how the F15 compares in my opinion -

• tracks and handles a bit more smoothly than both the F18 and Mig29 V3s (Mig29 is very close);
• doesn't handle quite as well at slow speeds as either the Mig29 or F18 and a little bit less agile than the Mig29;
• with the extra lift of the body, flies lighter than it is, lighter than the Mig29 of comparable weight;
• it is fast, very close in speed to the Mig29, I'm excited to see how it handles 4S;
• more challenging build than the F18 and Mig29, good choice for maybe a third plane if you are just getting into the hobby and are learning to scratch build; and
• in my humble opinion, it really deserves a heavy power system like the NTM Prop Drive 2700, you could build much lighter I'm sure and use a lighter power system, but some planes just deserve some good old raw horsepower and I think this is one of them... :)

So if you are looking for an amazing looking and amazing flying classic US designed and built fighter jet to add to your hangar, the FRC Foamies F15 MK2 would make an excellent addition in my humble opinion... :)

Cheers,

Scott

FRC FOAMIES F15 MK2 MAIDEN COMPLETE... :)

Hi everyone -

Well, with the help of some transparent duct tape to cover my ESC on the bottom of the plane from the snow, I managed to get the maiden of my FRC Foamies F15 MK2 completed... :)

This plane is amazingly smooth and stable.  When I launched it, I needed about 1 click of up trim and two clicks of right trim and it was solid as a rock!  It tracks like it is on rails and holds it's energy very well, with throttle at 50% or higher, there is absolutely no nose drop in the turns.

I had no problems with zooming at full throttle, the nose just buried itself and it zipped straight ahead, so that is a relief as I was worried I might have to tweak my motor tilt to compensate for the extra lift the F15 body provides.

It looks and flies very, very scale.  I played around a bit with the expos and throws, but I think I will leave it with this setup for smooth, scale flying 

• rudder - 50% expo, 75% throws;
• elevator - 55% expo, 85% throws; and
• aileron - 60% expo, 70% throws.

In the roll axis, I like to keep the expo up a bit more and the throws down, helps me make smoother turns and prevents overbanking.

I did some speed runs and clocked some pretty respectable speeds on a 3S battery, 74/76/77 and a top speed of 79 mph clocked on the HK Data logger app on my phone.  It stayed rock solid stable at high speed, no zooming or torque roll, so I am excited to see what it will do on a 4S... :)

Due to the extra lift of the body, it flies and feels much "lighter" than I expected since I am sure the wing loading is reduced somewhat by the lifting body carrying some of the load, making it even easier to fly smoothly and solidly.

I am sure that with a lighter build than I did, a lighter power setup would work just fine, but this just seems to be the type of plane that deserves the raw horsepower of the NTM Prop Drive 2700 motor on a 6x4 APC prop...:)

All the mods and extra reinforcements I made seemed to work out really well, I didn't notice any wing flex at all and other than a little waffling when I got a bit too slow in a turn, it is exceptionally stable.  I didn't really explore the slow speed regime of this plane, but quite honestly it just looks and flies so well at 50% throttle or higher, I'm not sure I will be testing those aspects of it's flight envelope.

This is an exceptionally well designed parkjet, I am very, very happy with how it flew, it is definitely an improvement both in looks and performance over the F15 MK1 in my humble opinion  :)

Here is some video of one of my flights today.  Not the best quality, but there is just something about the planform of an F15 in the sky that says "Air Power"...:)

Cheers,

Scott