Just got back from the F/A-18 maiden. Taxi and takeoff went smoothly. But then it needed a ton of "up" trim. I had set the elevators where they looked to be faired with the stabs...but I had to put full "up" trim on the transmitter before it felt neutral. The next problem was that my throws were too small...the roll rate was so slow that doing a full roll was out of the question.

The worst problem was that this plane with the Blue Angels paint-job looks virtually the same from the top or the bottom. Combine that with it's small size, and it was terribly hard to orient on. I was constantly losing orientation. So I decided to bring it in before I crashed it, and on final approach, I lost orientation one more time, and got too slow while trying to get it back. I ended up just chopping the power and letting it fall into some long grass. Damage was not too bad...gear mounts yanked loose and a bit of nose damage.

So I'm going to put some bright-colored packing tape on the bottom, and move the pushrods for increased throws.

Should be easier to tell the difference between top and bottom now!

Hey Don! I have a few questions about the F-18 build. The first would be When installing one of your wicked combos do you remove any foam from the -fuse- to fit the fan unit other than the slot for the wemo fan? I felt like I had a bad thrust angle or something like that on my last F-18. I think I read somewhere on the threads here that you used regular ca on these models to put them together. Can you confirm this? Hot glue has warped two of my epo models so I would like to try something new. Thanks in advance

Sometmes you need to remove a little piece of foam near the front of the fan unit. If you use a pen and trace the ends of the fan housing you cen see if there is a foam bump that needs to be removed. Also I have forgotten to make sure the access hatch was also modified like the body as well. Yes I do use Ca, I use Pacer Zap medium CA+.

Originally Posted by The Don

Sometmes you need to remove a little piece of foam near the front of the fan unit. If you use a pen and trace the ends of the fan housing you cen see if there is a foam bump that needs to be removed. Also I have forgotten to make sure the access hatch was also modified like the body as well. Yes I do use Ca, I use Pacer Zap medium CA+.

Thanks Don! You are always helpfull I removed some foam from the rear of the stock fan cradle. I think thats where I went wrong..

don , i just got one of these used w/ your setup in it. any chance u still know the cg spec, i cant find it anywhere.

tia , chuck.

chas650r,

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/attac...mentid=3051278

thanks!!

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