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