I had the oldest and newest planes in my "hangar" at the field today... :)
My 10 month old, 316 flight RCP F18 V3 and my 6 week old 122 flight RCP Mig29 V4 made the trip to the field together today for the first time. They are shown above dutifully guarding the lifeblood of all Canadian early morning RC fliers, a cup of Tim Horton's coffee... :) Well I guess with the number of flights I have on the Mig29 V4 it can't be considered a real rookie as it has been put through the paces and then some, but age wise it is still the junior... :)
When I loaded up the car to go to the field, the wind was calm, so I was excited to try a "high alpha fly off" between these two planes as I have lots of high alpha practice with the F18 V3 and have found the Mig29 V4 to be an excellent high alpha platform as well. But as sometimes happens, the weather Gods saw my little red car leave the driveway and from the time I left home til I got to the field, the wind had picked up... :/ So no high alpha comparison today. :(
However, as I quite often do when I take two planes to the field that I have not flown together before I am always looking for some sort of difference or something to learn from one or the other. I know it is venturing into "comparing apples to oranges" territory when comparing these two planes, but a couple of things were driven home to me once again and these are things Stephan and I have both been working on and proving since we started sharing ideas on building and modding our park jets.
Both these planes were built stock, but with some of the changes in the V4 lineup, the ailerons and elevons on the Mig29 V4 have been downsized from the V3 lineup. This is in line with the philosophy that Stephan and I have both been experimenting with and believe in, smaller elevons and ailerons make these planes fly much crisper and precise, at least in our experience and with respect to how we both like to fly.
The elevons and ailerons on the F18 V3 are quite large in comparison to the elevons and ailerons on the Mig29 V4 and this shows up in the handling. Both these planes are about the same weight and have the same power system, the Focal Price 2700, but the Mig is far crisper, tighter and more precise in it's handling. Now of course the F18 is almost 9 months older and has survived some pretty tough flying conditions caused both by weather and the pilot :/, but the Mig is hands down tighter and more precise in it's handling with the smaller surfaces. So this makes me even more excited to get the Mig29 V4M3e3 completed with it's even smaller surfaces and vertical rudder to evaluate the differences there.
The other thing that was driven home is the big difference symmetrical leading and trailing edges and a good overall sanding job make on how smooth and slippery the plane is in the air and therefore more efficient in my opinion. On the F18, I was still using the old chisel leading edge method on the wing and elevon and did not taper the trailing edge on anything.
On the Mig29 V4, the only part that has a chiseled edge is the LERX, everything else, the wing, prop slot, elevons, vert stabs/rudders, all have tapered/symmetrical leading and trailing edges and I find this makes a huge difference in how slippery the plane feels in the air. This is a new building and finishing technique I learned from Stephan since we started sharing ideas and I will use it on all my planes from now on. I am not a big fan of sanding, but the hour or so total it takes to really properly sand and finish my planes makes a huge difference in the flying experience, so it is well worth it.
So the high alpha fly off between these two planes will have to wait til another day, I think that the next flyoff I do will be between the stock Mig29 V4 and the Mig29 V4M3e3, hopefully within the week.
Well, after a couple days of rain, back to some real life chores before some more building on the Mig29 V4M3e3, was a blast to be out flying after almost a week... :/ Needed that flying fix bad! :)
Cheers,
Scott
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