RC Powers F18 V4 build started... :)

Hi everyone -

I have all the foam cut out for my RC Powers F18 V4... :)

I weighed the raw foam parts and discovered they are 60 grams/2.1 oz heavier than the raw parts for the F18 V3.  So I will have to be very careful to build light but strong.  

My build will follow this basic plan -

• All depron this time, the way the leading edge of the wing/KF2 comes down as a slat, using dollar store foam for the KF like I normally do would be too flexible.  Foam Tac glue will be used as much as possible to keep it light;
• power system will be the Focal Price 2700 motor with a 6x3 EMP prop, Turnigy Plush 40A ESC and I will probably use a 2200 3S battery if it doesn't cause me any wing loading/wing flex problems as I like that little bit of extra weight on the F18 V3 for stability and high alpha performance;
• I will originally set up my mixes to test elevons only, the elevons and ailerons and will also play around with flaps/spoilers/flaperons/spoilerons, so six servos in total, all RC Timer 9 gram nylon gear servos;
• I have modified the rudder surface slightly by making the bottom part of the rudder parallel to the wing plate and extending the hinge line down slightly;
• I will be running all my servos and pushrods outside the prop slot and prop wash area, so some slight modification will have to be done to the elevons to allow the pushrod to move freely; and
• leading and trailing edges will be bevelled symmetrically as much as possible.

I will extend the wing spar over plans, but use 3mm carbon tube for lightness instead of 4mm carbon rod that I normally use, hopefully giving the wing enough strength once the KF is added on also.  I will put some 3mm carbon tube in the vert stabs and elevons.  On my V3 I see a lot of flutter in the vert stabs at times in high alpha, so I want to avoid that if I can.

The build looks fairly straight forward, so I will continue to post as I go along discussing any new techniques I might use and any likes and dislikes.

Cheers,

Scott

More wind testing with the RC Powers Mig29 V4

Hi everyone -

I had my two favorite Russian park jets at the field today... :)

Unfortunately I didn't get to complete as many flights as I would have liked because it started to rain, but the weather front moving in provided me with a good opportunity for some flying in gusty, swirling winds.  The wind was probably around 10-15 mph, but gusty and variable in direction, so a great "laboratory" to assess the Mig29 V4's handling in these conditions.  I managed to get 6 good flights in the wind with the Mig V4 today before the rain chased me away.

I tried one flight with a 1600 battery (AUW of 19 oz) and it was a pretty good handful, getting bounced around pretty well, so I put a 2200 in it (AUW of 20.5 oz) and it's behavior became much tamer and more stable.  The KF airfoil extended forward along the LERX on top has proven once again to be a real winner in helping with wind stability, I have tried this on the last three planes I built before the Mig29 V4, so once again it is a real bonus for flying in the wind.  

I was also very happy with the lack of "wind vaning" or "fish tailing" when turning through the wind.  One of the problems I sometimes would notice with the Mig29 V3 was with the bigger elevons and wider elevon span, that sometimes the back end would get pushed out in turns, causing it to kind of "fish tail" late in turns and not hold the same track all the way through the maneuver.  The reduced size and span of the elevons on the Mig29 V4 seems to have eliminated this tendency, it tracked solid and true like it was on rails all the way through the turn.

I also spent some time getting my throws and expos more dialed in today.  I tend to like to fly in a more scale fashion, so if you like to really thrash and hammer around, these throws and expos might be too tame for you, but I find they are working well for me.

I have about 4" total travel on my elevons right now (2" each way) in the pitch which gives me great authority and a little extra if I really need to yank it to keep from running into the ground or a tree.  In my Turnigy er9x setup, this equates to about 80% throws.

On the ailerons, I have about 2" total travel (1" each way) and I may even reduce this a little further.  I have the linkage already 50% mechanically reduced by putting my pushrod about the middle of the servo arm, so I might reduce the throws down from about 80% to 65-70% just to soften things in the roll a bit more.  The new aileron design is so effective that it takes very little movement when it is working in concert with the elevons to make the plane turn or roll.  Just to keep my inputs smooth, I use about 50% expo in the pitch and about 60% expo in the roll to prevent over control.

I haven't really done much playing around with the rudders thus far, so they are still at about 80% throws with 50% expo which is plenty to help with the odd coordinated turn in the wind or with some hammerhead stall turns I have been practicing.  I haven't really explored any high alpha with this plane yet and not sure that I will.  I will probably wait til I have my F18 V4 completed to do any serious high alpha.

So even though today was cut short by mother nature, still some good flying, testing and evaluation completed with my Mig29 V4.  Much more to come in the weeks ahead.  Unfortunately or fortunately depending on how I look at it, the weather may stay wet for a few more days, so I may get a good start on my F18 V4 build... :)

Cheers,

Scott

RC Powers Mig29 V4 walkaround and flight video

Hi everyone -

As promised, here is a walkaround and some flight video of my new RC Powers Mig29 V4.  Unfortunately due to lighting and the camo paint scheme, it gets lost against the trees and the grass at times.  Imagine, a camo pattern actually working... :)  Best viewed on YouTube with a larger viewer if possible.

Cheers,

Scott

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

RCP F18 V3M3e3 flies great!

Hi everyone -

Playing a bit of catch up today, the mods I made on my F18 V3M3e3 worked awesome!  I took it out and did a bit of a "fly off" with my old reliable 300+ flight stock built F18 V3 for comparison.

I'm a bit disappointed in myself as I ended up about an oz heavier than I wanted to, but it still flies great.  It flies very tight and precise with the downsized control surfaces and the KF extended along the LERX make it very smooth and stable in the air.  I can feel how it is more "slippery" with the symmetrical leading and trailing edges on everything and the reduced drag of smaller elevons.

I have yet to be able to fully assess it's high alpha performance as flying conditions have been a bit too windy, but it still has the amazing slow flying capabilities I have come to know and love in the stock F18 V3.

The reinforcement in the vert stabs got rid of the "vert stab flutter" problem I was having with the stock setup and with the enlarged rudder surface, I now have almost "super rudders", so I am still getting used to the responsiveness I have there.

So I am very pleased with the changes I made and now that the RC Powers V4s are released, I am excited to do a fly off between my stock F18 V3, the F18 V4 and the F18 V3M3e3... :)

Here is some video I shot the day I flew it's maiden flight.

Cheers,

Scott

RC Powers F18 V3 modification tests - initial ideas

Hi everyone -

I seem to be in a modification mood lately, but after seeing how great the FRC Su35 MK2 and the Mig29 V3 fly with some of the mods made, I decided maybe it was time to apply them to another favorite plane of mine, the F18 V3.  I will probably never recycle my 300+ flight stock F18 V3 due to sentimental reasons, but after flying it and my FRC Su35 MK2, I started to think about how making some control surface mods and trying some other build techniques might tighten up it's performance even more.

So essentially I will again be going with smaller more scale size elevons.  The picture below shows my new elevon compared to stock

I also have downsized the ailerons and will make them inboard, mimicking the size and location of the flaps on the F18.  Since the F18 V3 is based most closely on the F18 E/F Super Hornet, that is what I drew my inspiration from when measuring and designing the new control surfaces.

I actually went out to 6" on my final mod, but forgot to take a picture of the new drawing... :/  This will make it very much the same scale size as the flaps on the real Super Hornet.  Since it is a carrier based aircraft, it does have pretty big flaps.  I am hoping that these will still be sufficient to give me good spoiler/flap/spoileron/flaperon input for high alpha but will maybe help reduce some wing rock at higher angles of attack.  It will be fun to try out anyway!

I re-sized the rudders a bit as well, making them deeper and more inboard.  I am confident they will still give me plenty of rudder authority.  The hinge line at the bottom is parallel to the wing plate as in my previous F18, I find this gives good control at slow speed and high alpha.

I cut the rudder on the yellow line at the top.  Initially I was going to leave the top part of the vert stab that encloses the rudder at 5/8", but was worried that might make it a bit too flimsy, so I went with 1" instead.  Still considerably larger rudder than stock.

Although I know the F18 V3 will never be a speed demon since it is so weight sensitive and not conducive to large, heavy power setups, I will do whatever I can to reduce drag.  The smaller elevons will help and I also plan on symmetrically shaping and sanding the leading and trailing edges on the wing/aileron, elevons and vert stab/rudders.

I will also be playing around with larger Kf airfoils.  I will still go with Kf4 airfoils, paperless dollar store foam top and bottom, but they will be extended back about 1/4", this will give me about 50% Kf.  Stephan Moran (sgmoran) who I worked with on many of the mods on the FRC Su35 MK2 and the Mig29 V3, has been doing considerable study on the Kf airfoils and told me that 50% is considered ideal for more straight wing planes like the F18, so I am excited to see if it makes much difference.  I will also be extending the Kf forward along the leading edge root extension (LERX), another winning addition I have been liking on several of my recent planes.

I will be using the Focal Price 2700 motor with a 6x3 EMP prop, 40A ESC and will experiment with 1600 and 2200 batteries to see how they affect performance of this modified plane.  I am also going to use an 8 ch receiver so that each servo gets it's own channel to maximize my ability to play with different mixes.

I want to see if it will still fly well with elevons only, so I will have ailerons switch selectable as well as playing with flaps/flaperons/spoilers/spoilerons to find the best combination for high alpha.

Anyway, I am excited to get this plane flying and see if the smaller surfaces give me that bit more tightness and precision I have been finding on other planes I have modified recently.  

More fun in the future!

Cheers,

Scott

RC Powers MIG29V3M3e3 Modifications

Hi everyone -

Playing a little bit of catch up today.  Been very busy building and flying the latest addition to my hangar.

Yes, I know it is a very long name with a lot of acronyms (M3 for Moran Modified Mig and e3 for my contributions).  Thread with more details as well as build and walk around videos and pictures of how to cut the mods are in the original post of this thread on the RC Powers forum http://www.rcpowers.com/community/threads/mig29-v3m3e3-modification-thread.16759/

Stephan (sgmoran from the RC Powers forum) and I have been bouncing ideas off each other for about a month sharing ideas for different mods to planes we were building at the time.  Stephan had been working on a Mig initially playing with the rudders to get his Mig to knife edge and I was working on mods to an FRC Foamies Su35 MK2 which are documented already on this blog.  Anyway, many of the ideas morphed together and Stephan did a lot of work to re size the elevons, ailerons and vertical stabs and rudders.

With the mods and build techniques you can read about in the link above, we got our Migs going pretty darn fast, we both got them up to 109 mph with the NTM Prop Drive 2700 motor with a 6x4 APC prop on 4S!

This video is not the best, but there are a couple runs from left to right where you can get a sense for how fast this thing is!

It is by far my most favorite version of the RC Powers Mig29 V3 and many of the mods and techniques worked so well that I will be carrying them over to many of my future builds!

Cheers,

Scott