RC Powers Mig29 V4 build and post flight report

Hi everyone -

It was RC Powers Mig day today at the field!

The German flag paint scheme Mig on the left is my stock Mig29 V3 with over 300+ flights on it.  The camo Mig on the right is my new RC Powers Mig29 V4 which flew amazing I am happy to say!  I just put the finishing touches on it yesterday and here are the basic details of my build

• 6mm depron with paperless dollar store foam for KF airfoils, I used the KF4 per the plans.  Construction is primarily with Foam Tac glue with a little bit of hot glue and epoxy here and there as required;
• I went with full controls, 6 servos in total giving me elevons, ailerons and rudders;
• power system is the Focal Price 2700 motor with a 6x3 EMP prop, Turnigy Plush 40A ESC and I will run 1600 or 2200 Mah 3S batteries depending on wind conditions and/or how I want the plane to fly; 
• I bevelled and shaped all leading and trailing edges of the wing, horizontal and vert stabs and rudders and elevons to be symmetrical and as sleek as possible;
• AUW with a 1600 Mah battery is 538 gr/19 oz.

Some minor changes I made to the stock build

• I opened up the prop slot to the rear a bit, just something I like to do on all my planes;
• I extended the rudder hinge downwards just a bit and put the bottom of the hinge parallel with the wing plate, just a personal preference and makes aligning my rudder control horn a little simpler;
• to keep the prop slot and prop wash area as tidy as possible, I ran all pushrods externally; and
• to accommodate the rudder and elevon pushrods, I had to trim 3/4" off the inside of the aileron and attach it to the fuselage so that it would be stationary and not interfere with the pushrods. (picture below)

So as luck would have it, I managed to get a good 10 flights in with it today trying out both 1600 and 2200 size batteries to get initial assessment of the handling and performance characteristics.

This plane flew amazing right from the time it left my hand... :)  The stock CofG is bang on for me, I balanced it right on that before launch and never had to put any trim in the pitch at all.  I had to make a couple minor adjustments to battery position laterally to get neutral balance in the roll, but that took only a couple flights and it was dialed in... :)

The smaller control surfaces (elevon and aileron) make for even greater crispness, tightness and precision when maneuvering this plane.  No tip stall or thrust vectoring stalls detected in any portion of the flight regime.  I was very comfortable flying it down to 35% throttle and was able to still make very gentle turns with ailerons and elevons, plane stayed very stable and was still very responsive to control inputs.

At medium to higher speeds, it again was very stable, yet very "quick on the sticks", it goes where you want it to, when you want it to with no argument or bad characteristics.  With the top KF extending forward along the LERX, the faster it got, the more stable it got, very impressive.  I detected no torque roll, zooming, flutter, just rock solid control and performance.

And speaking of speed... :)  I got 4 good solid speed runs of 82, 80, 80 and 78 mph clocked with HK data logger app on my phone.  The best top speed I had with my V3 Mig at basically the same weight with the same motor was 74 mph, so pretty significant increase in speed!

As my flying session progressed, the wind picked up a bit, so I tried it with a 2200 battery for a bit more stability and wow, it is even more stable than the V3 which I had found to previously be the most stable plane I had ever flown in the wind.

I'm not sure how RC Powers does it, but they took my favorite stock parkjet of all time, the Mig29 V3 and made it even better and replaced it at the top of my list of stock built parkjets... :)

How can you go wrong with

• easier build;
• greater overall stability in all areas of the speed envelope, and the faster you go, the more stable it gets, a good trait for a park jet dubbed "the Speedmaster";
• more crisp, tight, precise control for aerobatics, giving even more direct feel and feedback with what is happening with the plane; and
• just plain faster with more stability and more control...hard to ask for a better combination than that!

I currently have a video processing where I did a walkaround and comparison of the V3 and V4 Migs as well as some flight video, I will post that as soon as it is finished.

The Mig29 V4 "the Speedmaster", another amazing winner from RC Powers!

Cheers,

Scott