HOW DOES THE FRC F15 MK2 COMPARE TO THE RC POWERS V3s?

Hi everyone -

I managed to get out to the field yesterday and get in another 9 flights on my FRC Foamies F15 MK2 before the rain started up again... :), :(, happy to fly, sad it started raining)

Through my You Tube channel I have had a couple of questions on how I feel this plane compares to the RC Powers V3 lineup.  Tough question to answer really as each plane is unique in it's characteristics and I have thus far only 18 flights on my F15 and 250+ flights each on my F18s and Mig29s.  I have also not had a chance to fly the F15 in any sort of windy conditions to evaluate it's performance there.  I also have not flown the F15 very much below 50% throttle nor have I tried any high alpha with it, but I haven't seen too many real F15s do a lot of high alpha, so I'm not sure that is a flight regime I will explore for reasons explained in the next paragraph.  I won't compare it to the RCP F22 V3 as that plane is kind of in another category, not bad, just more challenging to set up and fly correctly and less forgiving than the Mig, F18 or FRC F15 by far.

I should caveat that as of late I have been trying to fly my planes more scale (ie more like the real thing).  Thrashing a plane around doing flips, tumbles and crazy aerobatics is a lot of fun, don't get me wrong and is one of the reasons I recently built another RCP Mig29 V1, but I find that trying to fly my planes more smoothly and in a more scale fashion is a great challenge and actually gives me a much better feel of how my plane is flying and responding to inputs.  So what I am about to say is based on personal opinion and flying style.  In truth, I love flying all three of these planes, each for their own characteristics, but perhaps you have already flown the Mig29 and F18 V3s, this might put the FRC F15 MK2 in context depending on what sort of flying experience you might seek.  Or if you are looking for an alternative plane not in the RC Powers V3 lineup, perhaps this will help.

So, where do I start?  Well, I do fly a Mig29 at almost the same weight as my F15, so I will compare those two, they both have the same power setup (NTM Prop Drive 2700 with a 6x4 APC prop) and all the same control surfaces (elevons, ailerons and rudder).  The F18 unfortunately is much more weight sensitive and when I tried to fly my first F18 in the 25-26 oz range, bad things happened...broken wing, horrible death spiral...blah, blah, blah...:(

So perhaps because of the lighter weight, the F18 V3 feels just a little more floaty than the F15 and the heavier Mig.  Not floaty in any way that in my opinion is detrimental to flight characteristics, but rather makes it very easy to handle at low speed and in high alpha.  The F18 in my humble opinion is a great second plane after say the F35 if you are just getting started as it's handling and tracking are still amazing, but since you really need to build it light to keep the weight and wing loading down, it will be "floatier" in comparison to the Mig and the F15 and therefore give you a little more time to react to a situation.  Plus as I have written in the F18 V3 thread of the RC Powers website and on my blog, it almost has self correcting tendencies without the benefit of on board stabilization.  Also I find that with the right weight and power setup (I like to fly mine around 21.5 oz with the Focal Price 2700 motor with a 6x3 EMP prop), the F18 can be very responsive and aerobatic but is never going to be a speed demon.

The Mig29 could also be a good choice for a second plane if you are just learning, but I would keep it light with low wing loading to make it a little easier to handle and then work your way up if you want to get it going fast.  The Mig29 V3 of all the parkjets I have ever flown is by far the most flexible from the standpoint of weight and wing loading, proven to fly well from 15.5 oz to 40+ oz with very light setups like the MJV2 all the way up to huge powerful 6 cell setups.  The Mig29 built at a heavier weight and with the higher speed of a big power setup might make it a bit too challenging if  you are still learning.  Not that this is a bad thing, but the difference between my lighter Mig at 21 oz with a 2200 battery and my heavier Mig at 25 oz is significant in the feel I get in the sticks when flying aerobatics and turns, more stick travel and pressure required for the heavier Mig than the light Mig (and the F15 for that matter).  Even at 25 oz the Mig does feel just a little more agile and snappier than the F15, but again, just my humble opinion.

The F15 MK2 would probably be a good choice for maybe a third plane, not because it is difficult to fly, but it is a bit more advanced and challenging build than both the F18 and Mig29 V3s.  In handling, the F15 tracks maybe even a tiny bit better than the heavier Mig29 (again just my opinion), yet it feels much lighter on the sticks.  The extra lift from the body of the F15 makes it feel more like my 21 oz Mig29 rather than it's 26 oz AUW.  Not sure if that makes sense, but if feels and handles like a lighter plane that it is.  The weight and wing loading still keep it exceptionally stable and smooth, but not as much input required to maintain the same amount of turn rate as with the 25 oz Mig.  I have yet to find any bad habits with the F15 MK2 and not only does it look very scale, it flies very scale as well (at least in the setup I have).  In the regimes I have flown it, I would say it is the most scale looking, feeling and stable yet responsive (not as agile as the FRC Su jets of course... :)) of all the FRC Foamies planes I have built and flown (again, my opinion, I have built and flown the F15 MK1 in 100 and 120% sizes, Su37 MK1, Su37 and Su35 MK2s and the F35 600).

As I said earlier, I love all three of these planes for their own unique characteristics, but boiled down, here is how the F15 compares in my opinion -

• tracks and handles a bit more smoothly than both the F18 and Mig29 V3s (Mig29 is very close);
• doesn't handle quite as well at slow speeds as either the Mig29 or F18 and a little bit less agile than the Mig29;
• with the extra lift of the body, flies lighter than it is, lighter than the Mig29 of comparable weight;
• it is fast, very close in speed to the Mig29, I'm excited to see how it handles 4S;
• more challenging build than the F18 and Mig29, good choice for maybe a third plane if you are just getting into the hobby and are learning to scratch build; and
• in my humble opinion, it really deserves a heavy power system like the NTM Prop Drive 2700, you could build much lighter I'm sure and use a lighter power system, but some planes just deserve some good old raw horsepower and I think this is one of them... :)

So if you are looking for an amazing looking and amazing flying classic US designed and built fighter jet to add to your hangar, the FRC Foamies F15 MK2 would make an excellent addition in my humble opinion... :)

Cheers,

Scott

FRC FOAMIES F15 MK2 MAIDEN COMPLETE... :)

Hi everyone -

Well, with the help of some transparent duct tape to cover my ESC on the bottom of the plane from the snow, I managed to get the maiden of my FRC Foamies F15 MK2 completed... :)

This plane is amazingly smooth and stable.  When I launched it, I needed about 1 click of up trim and two clicks of right trim and it was solid as a rock!  It tracks like it is on rails and holds it's energy very well, with throttle at 50% or higher, there is absolutely no nose drop in the turns.

I had no problems with zooming at full throttle, the nose just buried itself and it zipped straight ahead, so that is a relief as I was worried I might have to tweak my motor tilt to compensate for the extra lift the F15 body provides.

It looks and flies very, very scale.  I played around a bit with the expos and throws, but I think I will leave it with this setup for smooth, scale flying 

• rudder - 50% expo, 75% throws;
• elevator - 55% expo, 85% throws; and
• aileron - 60% expo, 70% throws.

In the roll axis, I like to keep the expo up a bit more and the throws down, helps me make smoother turns and prevents overbanking.

I did some speed runs and clocked some pretty respectable speeds on a 3S battery, 74/76/77 and a top speed of 79 mph clocked on the HK Data logger app on my phone.  It stayed rock solid stable at high speed, no zooming or torque roll, so I am excited to see what it will do on a 4S... :)

Due to the extra lift of the body, it flies and feels much "lighter" than I expected since I am sure the wing loading is reduced somewhat by the lifting body carrying some of the load, making it even easier to fly smoothly and solidly.

I am sure that with a lighter build than I did, a lighter power setup would work just fine, but this just seems to be the type of plane that deserves the raw horsepower of the NTM Prop Drive 2700 motor on a 6x4 APC prop...:)

All the mods and extra reinforcements I made seemed to work out really well, I didn't notice any wing flex at all and other than a little waffling when I got a bit too slow in a turn, it is exceptionally stable.  I didn't really explore the slow speed regime of this plane, but quite honestly it just looks and flies so well at 50% throttle or higher, I'm not sure I will be testing those aspects of it's flight envelope.

This is an exceptionally well designed parkjet, I am very, very happy with how it flew, it is definitely an improvement both in looks and performance over the F15 MK1 in my humble opinion  :)

Here is some video of one of my flights today.  Not the best quality, but there is just something about the planform of an F15 in the sky that says "Air Power"...:)

Cheers,

Scott

RC POWERS F18 V3 250 FLIGHTS AND COUNTING... :)

Hi everyone -

Now that some of the snow from our recent storm has gone, I managed to get out today and burn through a few lipos... :)  Been almost a week since I got flying, so I was starting to go through withdrawals...!

I'll have to talk to airfield maintenance though, not only did they not plow the runway, they let "Bigfoot" walk all over the place!

Today I surpassed 250 flights on this particular F18 V3.  It has been through a lot, and although it is kind of the "ugly duckling" in my hangar, it still flies so awesome, I don't have the heart to "recycle" it.

I have learned a lot from this particular F18 V3.  After months of building far too heavy with the mindset that would make my planes more durable, the 12 step program of "over builder's anonymous" finally kicked in and this was the first plane I decided to build light but strong, so away went too much glue, too much tape and too much carbon.  It was a very enlightening experience for me as I discovered that by building light when I crashed or gonked the plane, the damage was far less severe and much easier to fix, so light but strong in the right places is definitely the way to go for me.

I also discovered by building light that I give myself far more options with respect to the light to medium weight power setups I can use in this plane.  I tested 8 motors in total in this plane and learned a lot about motor and prop combos and which work best depending on what type of flying I want to do.

This plane really helped me learn, develop and maintain pretty decent high alpha flying skills, once I developed the basic touch, it was very easy to work on my skills as the plane did most of the work... :)

I learned that although light setups and light batteries are great for whipping around in calm winds, sometimes planes just need a little bit of weight and wing loading by using heavier (2200) batteries to give the correct wing loading for aerobatics or special flight envelopes like high alpha.

Like her aging pilot, she does need a little bit more attention after a hard workout as the foam and glue joints creak and groan a little more than they did 6 months ago, but a little dab of Foam Tac or hot glue now and then and she is raring to go again!  Too bad it wasn't that easy for the pilot!

She has lots of character and her magic marker "paint job" is fading somewhat, but if I keep flying her with the respect she is due, I might just get another 250 flights out of her!

With the V4 planes on the horizon at RC Powers, the bar has been set very high by the F18 V3, so they will have their work cut out for them to make improvements, but I am sure they have something up their sleeves!

Cheers,

Scott

RC POWERS MIG 29 V1 COMPLETE

Hi everyone -

I managed to get my RC Powers Mig 29 V1 finished up yesterday... :)  My paint scheme is inspired by/loosely based on a paint scheme I found for a Mig 29 from  the 1st Fighter Aviation Regiment of the Czech Republic Air Force (CZAF).  The Mig 29 had a very short history in the CZAF from 1992-1995.  The government determined that the maintenance costs of 10 Mig 29s at the time would be too high, so they sold them to Poland in exchange for Polish Sokol utility helicopters.  The CZAF continued to fly Mig 23s (the last of which they retired in 1998) and Mig 21s (the last of which was retired in 2005) until they replaced the Mig 21s with SAAB JAS 39 Gripens on lease from the Swedish Air Force.  Anyway, interesting little bit of history I thought.

My build -

• 6mm depron constructed primarily with Foam Tac with a few dabs of hot glue and epoxy here and there.  Wing spar is 4mm carbon rod (wing is very strong and stiff :)) and the elevons are reinforced with 3mm carbon tube;
• power setup is the Focal Price 2700 Kv motor with a 6x3 EMP prop, Turnigy Plush 40A ESC and 30C discharge batteries in 1600, 1800 and 2200 Mah sizes.  Heavier batteries will be used when needed for the wind;
• control surfaces are elevons only, hinges made with Foam Tac and fiberglass mesh drywall tape;
• all leading edges bevelled and sanded; and
• paint is acrylic craft paint from the dollar store/Walmart/craft store.

My AUW with an 1800 Mah battery is 14.4 oz/408 grams, with this weight, my thrust to weight ratio with the power setup I am using will be about 2.5:1...yikes!

This is the third of these great little planes I have built and by using Foam Tac and not using tape everywhere for reinforcement, I am 71 gr/2.5 oz lighter than before, so I should get some pretty decent speed and crazy punch and acceleration with the power setup I am using!

Lots of snow still on the ground right now, so once that is gone and the ground dries up, will have some flight video to post, I'm excited to see her fly!

Cheers,

Scott

TIME TO BUILD ANOTHER RC POWERS MIG29 V1!

Hi everyone -

After finishing up my FRC Foamies F15 MK2 and while watching the snow fall steadily for the last couple days in the midst of a winter storm, I decided to give my workshop a bit of a clean up.  Then while cleaning up, I realized I had a copy of the plans for the RC Powers Mig29 V1... :)  I have flown two of these in the past and it was a really important plane in the development of my skills and confidence a few months after I got started flying parkjets.  It is also one of the most fun planes I have ever flown and is perfect when you are in the mood for lots of "dash and thrash" (speed and aerobatics...:))  So I thought, "time to have one of these in my hangar again"!  Besides, I would rather build than clean up!

So, I cut out the foam and building has started!

By using Foam Tac glue and some keeping the airframe as light as possible, I'm interested to see what weight I end up with.  When I built my last two, I used the D2826/6 2200 Kv motor with a 6x4 APC prop and that was a great combo at 17 oz with a 1600 Mah battery, I am hoping to get lighter than that and use the Focal Price 2700 Kv motor with a 6x3 EMP prop, should give me some pretty crazy speed and great pop and acceleration for aerobatics.

I will be repeating the German Air Force JG73 paint scheme that I currently have on one of my RC Powers Mig29 V3s.

It is pretty easy to do, looks really cool and I find that the contrast of color makes it pretty easy to keep track of in the sky.  Weather is staying bad for another day or two... :( , so should get lots of building done!

Cheers,

Scott

FRC FOAMIES F15 MK2 BUILD/WALKAROUND VIDEO

Hi everyone -

As mentioned in my previous post, here is a build/walkaround video of my recently completed FRC Foamies F15 MK2  :)

Cheers,

Scott

FRC FOAMIES F15 MK2 COMPLETE

Hi everyone -

After almost a month, I finally got around to finishing off my FRC Foamies F15 MK2...:)

My paint scheme was inspired by/loosely based on a paint scheme I found for the Israeli Air Force version of the F15E Strike Eagle, the F15I Ra'am (Thunder).  The real paint scheme is much more muted than mine, but I think having a little extra contrast will help me keep track of it in the sky.  I left the bottom mostly unpainted for contrast and to save a bit of weight.

My build -

• 6mm depron with 4mm dollar store foam for Kf4 airfoils.  Constructed primarily with Foam Tac glue with a few dabs of hot glue, epoxy, Gorilla glue and 3M Super77 spray adhesive here and there as needed.  I used 4mm carbon rod for my wing spar and used 3mm carbon tube to reinforce my elevons, vertical stabilizers and a small piece across the back deck behind the prop slot;
• my power setup is the NTM Prop Drive 2700 with a 6x4 APC prop, Turnigy Plush 60A ESC and 2200 3S battery;
• I'm using a 6 channel receiver from Hobby King compatible with my Turnigy er9x, the rudders are attached with a Y harness, all other servos each have their own channel which makes setup and fine tuning so much easier.  I used 9 gram metal gear servos for the elevons and 9 gram nylon gear servos for the ailerons and rudders; and
• all leading edges are bevelled and sanded along with a good overall sanding and smoothing of the plane and all sharp edges for looks and to help it be a bit sleeker as it goes through the air.  Paint is acrylic craft paint from the dollar store/Walmart/craft store.

A few mods I made to the build -

• as I did on my F15 MK1 and as recommended by Jay from FRC Foamies, I put my elevons on the wing plate, not on the piece of foam from the plans.  It might now look quite as scale, but it eliminates a piece of foam from the prop wash, gives more clearance for the elevons on landing and made it easier for me to install my servos and pushrods for the elevon servos;
• I extended the prop slot back about 5/8" to 3/4" and bevelled the back edge to help with smoother airflow;
• I went with one 4mm carbon spar for my wing and did not use the two other spars recommended in the plan that run parallel to the leading edge of the wing;
• I cut some small triangular vents behind the canopy and on the back of the electronics bay door to encourage airflow through the electronics bay.  As such and because I ended up with my battery so far forward, I didn't use the middle fuse support per the plans;
• I put my ESC on the bottom of the plane, I cut a hole in the bottom of the fuse in which to recess the ESC, then cut holes in the wing plate to put the wires through and to run a zip tie to secure it in place.  Stealing and idea from Flitetest, I put a small piece of popsicle stick under the zip tie so it wouldn't chew up the foam too bad when I cinched it down, works great!;
• since the way I built I ended up with considerable weight behind the CofG, I had to put my battery way forward under the canopy.  To make access to the battery easier, I had to cut off my canopy, but it is held on with magnets.  It actually makes life a little easier as it is easier to get at and manipulate the battery there than moving it around in the narrow electronics bay; and
• there is a section of the Kf2 airfoil that extends back along the fuselage to the prop slot, I cut that off and also did not use the "upper engine nacelle" piece from the plans to cut down on weight and keep the profile sleek.

Overall I am very impressed with the looks of this new plane, very sleek and more scale looking than the MK1 and it looks fast just sitting on the work table!  I have shot a walkaround video to discuss my build process/techniques in greater detail and will be publishing that when it has finished processing.

Weather forecast does not look great for the next few days, maiden will occur as soon as the weather Gods permit!

Cheers,

Scott