My Phase 3 F-16 upgraded with a Don's RC Wicked 4400+ motor, 60mm dynamically balance fan, Hobbywing Platinum 60 Amp ESC, and will use Gens Ace 2200 and 2500 4S 25C packs. Roughly 49 amps and 750 watts of power, hoping for around 120mph.

Since I got this jet I had been flying it with Hyperion G3 4S 4000 packs, but they were slightly too heavy for the stock battery box location, although it did still fly quite well. I did, however, get some new 4S 2200's for another plane that I wanted to put to double duty on this plane as well, using 2 in parallel making a 4400 pack. The only problem was they would be far too heavy for the stock location.

So, while I had the jet on the bench adding a CC BEC and replacing a damaged main gear (my fault), I figured I'd mod the battery box location by cutting about 2" block of foam out immediately behind the battery box, move the box aft, and then re-glue the foam block in, now forward of the battery box. I figured this would move the CG back to the proper position recommended by Freewing. It turned out quite nice, and flies even better now with either battery.


And here is the video of the re-maiden.

SU-34 Flight Video (6 min 31 sec)

Trucks are not really my thing, I'm pretty much an aerial guy! But I must say, the Traxxax Stampede XL-5 I got my 6 year old for Christmas has been a ton of fun, both for him and I! It's got to be one of the best deals on a truck out there, and for a fantastic truck at that! I got it from Advantage Hobby 10% with free shipping for just under $160 for everything you absolutely need. The only upgrades I've done have been adding a wheelie bar and made slight modifications to the frame to accept a Turnigy 2S 5000mah pack (with a 2S lipo alarm). The bigger pack increases your run time by more than half, and gives you tremendous power all the way to the end of the charge, whereas the stock NiMH shows significant power loss in the last 40% of the discharge. The only other thing I would add, the stock charger takes FOREVER, a better charger is almost a must if you want to run much more than once, and is a must if you go lipo. Enjoy the video, I enjoyed making it!

Stampede XL-5! (3 min 45 sec)

Here's a short video of how I setup the thrust vectoring on my transmitter. I setup Flight Mode- N (normal) to have no thrust vectoring. Flight Mode-1 I setup to only have vectoring on the rudder. With no working rudder, adding this thrust vectoring I figured could help in directional control during take-off, mainly after rotation when the steerable nose wheel is off the ground. Flight Mode-2 is with all directions of the thrust vectoring activated. This takes an 8 ch tx and rx, although the model comes with a few different y connectors to hard wire these vectors to certain channels, mainly the rudder, so that you can use a DX7 and still have 360* vectoring, but the ability to turn it off is lost in that case. Also, the way I have programmed it uses 5 custom mixes for the full 360* vectoring, since each vectoring servo is on a separate channel, 2 mixes for elevator, 2 mixes for aileron, and 1 mix for rudder. Again, a radio not as capable could likely still do it, just not with as much flexibility. The manual HL puts out for this jet has a complete walk through for the DX7, Freewing (like mine) came with directions for the Futaba 9CAP. I had to figure it out myself for my Airtronics SD-10G. A little testament to the intuitiveness of this radio's programming, I figured I'd be flying a little bit before I was able to figure this complex programming out, but it really was not difficult on my radio, a few references to the manual and I was done in about 20 minutes.

...Continue Reading

Well, my temptation to hold off buying this jet reach it's pinnacle when I found it at a place out of Hong Kong that had it for $249 including shipping, nearly $150 off Hobby Lobby's price if you account for tax and shipping. The only difference HL's comes with a 4S 3000mah 20C pack, although from my experience with RTF packs, they are usually junk. I had gotten a couple Hyperion G3 4S 4000's from Tom during his before Christmas sale for either this very plane, or another something like it.

Anyway, it's the Freewing SU-34 Fullback with 360* thrust vectoring, 2 64mm fans w/3500kv motors, 2 45 amp ESC's, retracts, and 11 pre-installed servos. This plane truly comes 90% built. All the servos are mounted, with all but the elevator servos already connected with control rods. You simply have to epoxy the wings on, the vertical and horizontal stabs, canards, pilots and canopy, put the control rods on the elevators, install a Rx, and program your transmitter. The retracts work flawlessly out of the box, and the thrust vectoring servos were near perfect, only needing adjusted on one control rod to center the exhaust. All told I have about 3-4 hours and it's about 1 hour away from being airworthy.

About the only mod I made was trimming off the small foam tabs that mount the large under wing ordinance and installed rare earth magnets so that the missiles can be removed easily to fly with or without them. To be honest, I'm not sure how they will do flying, they seem to...Continue Reading

Unfortunately, the Knoxville area recently lost a good friend and RC'er in Bill Elliot. Bill was part owner in TNT Hobbies in Oak Ridge, NW of Knoxville. Bill was visiting family in TX and was killed in a single motorcycle accident. He lived for a few hours, and through at least one surgery before he passed. Bill was also a full time firefighter with the ORFD. Along with his partner in TNT Hobbies, they had been working on a 12 Ft. wingspan scratch built Sunderland flying boat. Bill was never able it to see it fly, and in a tribute to Bill, Tom, his partner at TNT Hobbies, got the plane in flying condition just days after Bill's passing. This is the video commemorating the tribute flight Tom made to our friend. Bill will certainly be missed!

Bill Elliott Tribute Flight Video (4 min 20 sec)

--Hobby Lobby Executive Jet--
Powered by two 6 bladed 70mm fans, twin 3900kv inrunner motors, 2 CC Thunderbird 54 ESC's, 1 CC BEC, 2 3S 25C 2200mah lipos. Covering foam with Silkspan and water based polyurethane, and a custom paint job....Continue Reading

--SU-27--
Paint job progress.
Plane will be powered by a Don's Wicked 2700, an APC 6x4E prop, a CC Thunderbird 36, and Fusion Pack 3S 25C 1800mah batteries....Continue Reading