100th flight for my RC Powers Mig29 V4 and NAMC patch

Hi everyone -

Again a bit late with this update, but several days ago, I had a bit of a "Mig marathon" at the field... :)  I managed to get 19 flights in total with two of my RCP Mig, 7 with the red, white and blue Mig 29 V3M3e3 in the picture below and 12 with the camo Mig 29 V4.

I reached a bit of a milestone with my Mig29 V4, surpassing 100 flights in total (113 and counting) since it's maiden flight just over four weeks ago.  Other than a couple blemishes on the nose that needed a little foam, glue and a new coat of paint and a crack in the bottom of the battery bay it has help up exceptionally well to the the punishment I have put it through.  Sorry, no video, dark skies+dark trees+camo paint scheme = bad video mojo... :/

Since my last discussion about my setup, I reduced the throws on the elevator portion of my elevons down just a bit as I found I didn't need as much travel to fly the way I like to and sometimes if I got too aggressive I would get a touch of thrust vectoring stalling going on where the elevons would act like speed brakes.  I now have about 2" of travel (4" total) and that allows me plenty of response in the pitch for nice snappy aerobatics, but helps get rid of most of the TV stalling if I get over exuberant with the sticks.

I have had plenty of opportunity to fly it in the wind and I have noticed a bit of "fish tailing" in crosswind situations where if I am a bit slow towards the end of a turn, the wind will push the back end out in a kind of a "drift car" type turn.  I'm not sure if this is caused by the fixed portion of the horizontal stabilizer.  It is not uncontrollable or as exaggerated as it could be sometimes on the Mig V3 in crosswind conditions but it is noticeable.  I found that by just applying a bit more throttle about halfway through the turn like you would accelerate through a turn with your car that it helped get rid of most of this problem and it would track very true despite the wind.

My good friend Stephan and I have been talking about making a few little tweaks and mods to the V4 Mig like we did with the V3 Mig.  Stephan awhile back coined our partnership in modifying our planes as the "North American Mig Consortium" (NAMC) as he lives in the US and I in Canada.  So he made this awesome patch for us to put on our planes that we work on together...looks very cool!

So we have already been bouncing some ideas off each other for fine tuning the Mig V4 to the way we both like to fly and have our planes handle, so that will be my next project and I will post about that here on my blog and video will be up on my You Tube channel.

For those that might also follow me or read my posts on the RC Powers forum, I am taking a bit of a break from that site for awhile, but will continue to update my blog on a more regular basis with projects I am working on.

Cheers,

Scott

Some High Alpha Fun with my RCP Mig29 V4

Hi everyone -

I finally had a bit of a break in the breezy weather yesterday, so I was able to start practicing some decent high alpha with my new Mig29 V4... :)

I had a bit of a "gonk" :( on about the second or third practice flight before I shot the video below, but all is good and once the glue dries, a quick sand, a dab of paint and it should be ready to "slip the surly bonds of earth" in one piece again tomorrow.

For my preference and high alpha abilities, my setup is as follows

• I flew with a 2200 Mah 3S battery for the extra bit of weight.  I found that moving the battery about 3/8 to 1/2" forward of where I normally fly with it gave me the best stability and angle of attack.  Flying with it where the battery normally was did not allow me to get the nose up as high without wing rock starting.  I did not really have to add any up elevator trim to fly the plane, but I did notice a difference in getting the nose to respond in more snappy type aerobatics.  So I might continue to use both battery positions, one for everyday flying and the other when I feel like having the option to do some high alpha;
• I have always found spoilerons work well for me for high alpha, only one switch to play around with to go from my normal flying mode to high alpha mode.  I found very little deflection is required to help keep the nose up, I only have about 5/8" deflection.  I found any more than that and wing rock came on much more quickly, this amount of deflection just helped me feel more in the "groove" as I tried to maintain any sustained high alpha; and
• I found that I didn't need a lot of power to keep it in high alpha, throttle was ranging between probably 45-55% dependent on what I needed to do to maintain the right attitude while minimizing wing rock and other adverse behaviors.

With about 6 flights of high alpha practice under my belt today, this plane does high alpha very, very well.  Main limitation now is the pilot... :/  Wing rock when it does come on is quite subtle, so it allows me to stay a bit more relaxed and make subtle adjustments.

Where I struggled to get the Mig29 V3 to do decent sustained high alpha, the Mig29 V4 just got in the saddle fairly quickly and easily and it was easier to keep it there for sustained periods of time.  Despite the little fixable "blemish", 63 flights and counting now on this amazing park jet  :)

Cheers,

Scott

RC Powers F18 V4 walkaround and post flight report

Hi everyone -

As usual, I am playing a bit of catch up... :/  I maidened my new F18 V4 about 4 days ago and have now flown a total of about 16 flights on this great little plane.

Another awesome plane in the V4 lineup for sure!  In all honesty, the improvements on the F18 V4 didn't jump right out like the improvements on the Mig29 V4, but as I flew it more and more, the amazing improvements became more and more evident.

Unfortunately I cannot really give much feedback on high alpha capabilities just yet, winds were 10-15 mph every time I have flown it, so very tough to get any consistent high alpha.

Build - Very straight forward, maybe a little bit more challenging dependent on your build experience than the V3, but only the part with the KF2 and slats/fronterons, but the new instructions are very straight forward and helpful.

Stability - More stable in all areas of the flight regime than the V3 especially at very slow speeds and higher speeds.  Even in a wind with no lift aids like flaps, spoilers, etc I felt comfortable flying it down to about 30% throttle, it stayed very well behaved and then as speed increased, the stability just continued to get better.  Although not as stable as the Mig29 V4 in the wind, overall at close to the same weight, it handled the wind better than the F18 V3.

Speed - The F18 will really not be a speed demon, but that is probably what the Mig is for if you really want to burn up the skies.  However, at first I was skeptical that the leading edge slats/fronterons were going to significantly impact speed, but I noticed no apparent difference in speed and acceleration between the V3 and the V4 and they have the exact same power setup.  I would not recommend loading the F18 V4 up with an NTM Prop Drive 2700 and big ESC, too much weight and excess wing loading.  Similar to the V3 in my humble opinion, any prop/motor/ESC/battery combo that allows you to have decent punch out from high alpha or good pop for aerobatics is all you really need dependent on your final weight.  Again, just my opinion.

Overall handling - Just like the V3, the V4 is a "smart plane" with even better self-stabilizing tendencies, however the really cool thing I found is with the motor moved a bit forward and the redesigned control surfaces it was more responsive and agile in all three axes, so aerobatics are even crisper and quicker...yay!  It took me a few flights to get used to the slight "floatiness" of the KF2 airfoil as all my other F18s have all had KF4, but after about 6 flights or so, I wasn't really noticing the floatiness anymore.

So once again, Dave Powers and Scott Lott managed to take one of my favorite park jets of all time, the F18 V3 and make it better, amazing... :)

Hopefully this video will cover anything else I have forgotten to mention.  Lots more flights to come as I take the F18 and Mig29 V4s to the field and "fly the wings off" them... :)

Cheers,

Scott

RC Powers F18 V4 build complete... :)

Hi everyone -

I just put the finishing touches on my RC Powers F18 V4... :)

I am really happy with how the paint scheme turned out.  In 1994, 441 Tactical Fighter Squadron (TFS) with whom I was attached to and worked with numerous times during my military career, did a 50th Anniversary of D-Day paint scheme and since the 70th anniversary of D-Day is upcoming in two days, I thought what better paint scheme?!  I have always wanted to do a grey CF18 schemed model, but discovered early in my RC career that grey pattern camo was too tough on my poor old eyes against a cloudy sky that we often have through most of the year here.  So with the invasion stripes giving me great contrast, I thought it was just what I needed to do.  

441 Sqn flew Spitfires in WWII at the time of D-Day, and all RCAF planes displayed the RAF roundel at that time, so I put the WWII RAF roundel on the left wing and the current RCAF roundel on the right wing.

Unfortunately 441 has been stood down now due to infrastructure changes in the RCAF, but served with distinction during WWII, in Europe after WWII flying the Canadair Sabre, the CF104 Starfighter and later in Cold Lake, Alberta flying the CF18 Hornet.  More history of 441 Sqn can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/441_Tactical_Fighter_Squadron

My build -

• 6mm depron for the entire build, including the KF2 airfoil constructed primarily with Foam Tac with a dab of hot glue or epoxy as needed;
• Power setup is the Focal Price 2700 motor with a 6x3 EMP prop, Turnigy Plush 40A ESC and I will use 1600 or 2200 3S batteries dependant on conditions;
• 6 servo setup for elevons/ailerons/rudders.  Rudders are connected with a Y harness, all other servos have their own channel in my Turnigy er9x setup.  I will experiment with elevons only, flaps/spoilers/flaperons and spoilerons, so those have all been programmed and mixed and are switch selectable; and
• all leading and trailing edges have been sanded, except for the slats/fronterons, all leading and trailing edges are symmetrically shaped to reduce drag as much as possible.  Paint is brushed on acrylic craft paint from the dollar store/Walmart/craft store.

I made a few additions/modifications to the build from the plans to suit my preferences and building style and from lessons I learned from 300+ flights on my F18 V3.

• I opened up the prop slot just a bit, so the wing spar had to be moved back just a bit;
• I lengthened the wing spar quite a bit, since I was 2 oz heavier in raw foam alone at the start of the build, I wanted to make sure the wing was good and strong;
• I added 3mm carbon tube to the elevons and the vertical stabilizers for added strength.  With my F18 V3, I would get considerable vertical stab flutter, especially as the plane got older and the foam got a bit more flexible, so I wanted those to be good and strong;
• I made the bottom of the rudder hinge parallel to the wing plate and extended the hinge down just a bit, other than that, hinge placement on the rudder is stock angle and location; 
• In order to keep the prop slot and prop wash area as clean as possible, I ran all servos and pushrods outside the prop slot/prop wash area, this required that I cut a bit off the elevon where it is close to the fuselage to allow room for the surface and pushrod to move freely without interference; and
• after reading some great feedback from RobDavis on the RC Powers forum, I wanted to keep the back of the electronics bay area as free as I could to allow the flexibility of using a 2200 battery, so I put my ESC external between the intakes and secured it using a zip tie.

My AUW with battery is 

• 1600 Mah battery - 575 gr/20.3 oz; and
• 2200 Mah battery - 621 gr/21.9 oz.

Here is a picture of where my 1600 battery will be with the plane balanced right on stock CofG, so I will have plenty of room fore and aft to adjust once I get to the field and start flying... :)

I am very excited to get this plane flying, if the F18 V4 is as much as an improvement over the F18 V3 as the Mig V4 was over the Mig V3, then I am ready to be blown away... :)  

I hope to maiden tomorrow or Friday which will be the actual 70th anniversary of D-Day.  

I will do a walkaround/comparison video between this plane and my F18 V3 like I did with the Mig 29 V3/V4 when I go to fly and will at some point also post a more detailed walkaround video discussing my thoughts on the build, some tips and techniques I used and my final "dialed in" setup.

Cheers,

Scott

RC Powers Mig29 V4 build discussion and final setup

Hi everyone -

I shot a walkaround/build video to discuss more in detail my thoughts and some of my failures (which luckily were all fixable... :/) and success during the build.  I also discuss some of the techniques I used to help maximize the speed of my Mig29 V4 "Speedmaster" as well as my final control setup now that I have it dialed in to suit my flying preferences and style.

Cheers,

Scott