RCP Mig29 V4 M3e3 complete... :)

Hi everyone -

Well, I finally got my butt in gear and finished this plane... :)  The paint scheme that I mentioned a few posts ago turned out pretty well and I think should show up nicely in the sky.

My build -

• 6mm depron for the main airframe with paperless dollar store foam for the KF airfoils, primarily used Foam Tac for construction with hot glue, epoxy, 3M Super 77 spray adhesive and Aleene's tacky glue used where needed;
• wing is reinforced with a 4mm carbon rod as the main spar with 3mm carbon tube along the leading edge to give lots of strength.  Elevons reinforced with 3mm carbon tube;
• score lines of the intakes/nacelles and the inside of the fuselage reinforced with mesh drywall tape and Foam Tac;
• All leading and trailing edges symmetrically tapered and sanded as well as a complete sanding of the whole airplane before painting.  Paint is acrylic craft paint from the dollar store/Walmart/craft store brushed on by hand;
• motor is the Focal Price 2700 with 6x3 EMP prop, Turnigy Plush 40A ESC with timing set to low.  99% of my flying will be done with a 2200 3S battery with at least 25C  rating;
• 6 RC Timer 9 gram nylon gear servos, controls are elevons, ailerons and rudders.  Ailerons are also selectable as spoilerons for high alpha.  Rudders are connected to the 6ch receiver via Y harness, elevon and aileron servos each have their own channel to allow for maximum flexibility in adjustment.  All mixing done through my Turnigy er9x transmitter; and
• AUW is 21.5 oz/610 grams with a 2200 battery which luckily for me is the perfect weight I like to fly these V3/V4 size planes.  I lose a little snap and top end speed with the bigger battery, but I find it gives me best overall stability and scale flying and performance.

Starting at the very rear of the plane, I will discuss the mods that Stephan and I worked on to give this plane it's North American Mig Consortium (NAMC) flavor... :)  Although you can't tell from this picture below, the elevons are reshaped and slightly downsized from stock, I would estimate total surface area reduction is about 10-15%.  We are hoping that this will help eliminate some of the "elevon polar pitch effect" or the tail getting pushed out in turns in windy conditions.  Additionally, we have also found that the smaller control surfaces look a bit more scale and suit our style of flying better with more precise, crisp handling.

In the next picture, you can see the modified vertical stabilizers and rudders that Stephan and I really like from our experience with the Mig29 V3M3e3.  The rudder surface has a vertical hinge and trailing edge, is approximately 4" long by 2" wide.  We find this gives us more direct response in the yaw axis when doing maneuvers where rudder is a dominant control input like flat spins, flat turns, hammerhead stall turns, knife edge, etc.  As mentioned before, it gives the plane the overall look more like the new version of the Mig29M or the Mig35 and I for one really like the look of it... :)  You can probably also see in the picture below the smaller inboard ailerons.  From our experience with other planes that have had the NAMC modifications, it allows for crisper, more precise aileron input in rolls and turns and allows for more flexibility in these surfaces acting as true flaps/spoilers/flaperons/spoilerons as they are positioned like the flaps on the real plane would be.

On the spine of the plane, I put the logo for the Romanian Air Force Mig29 Sniper program (which unfortunately was never completed due to financial constraints) and our new NAMC logo...very high on the cool factor!

A few other modifications I made include extending the back of the prop slot back another 1/2" over my stock V4 build to open up the prop slot even more and to reduce the large tail plate to hopefully help with the tail washout in windy conditions.  I also extended the KF airfoils back 1/4" from stock which now gives me about 40% KFs which for me seems to be a magic number for swept wing planes like the Mig.  It works really well on my V3M3e3, so I am expecting the same on this plane.  I also ran all servos and pushrods externally on the plane which is different from the RCP plans/instructions.  I find this not only allows the prop slot and prop wash area to remain cleaner, but makes for much easier adjustment of the servos and pushrods when needed.

So far this morning the weather is looking great, so I hope to maiden this morning and will do a walkaround video at the field to point out the differences between the stock V4 and the V4M3e3, they show up much better when the planes are side by side.  

I will publish my post flight report as soon as I return from the field and video will be posted when processing is complete... :)

Cheers,

Scott