Originally Posted by Dionysus

Some final questions before the big day, I may fly this thing this coming weekend! Anyone think I should bring a video camera?

Now the question, what is the procedure for tightening the fan to the motor? I worry about it coming loose or something. Is it as simple as just tightening it, or do I have to apply lock tight or something?

Thanks in advance for any help

If it's a pinch collet like the 6904's use you don't need loctitie. Basically snug it up and spin it up to about 1/2 throttle. If you feel vibration the collet is not seated yet. Loosen it, turn the collet about 1/4 turn, retighten and run again. Repeat until it's smooth then tighten securely.

Dionysys. You have done a wonderful job with that F-100. You should get the maiden out of the way and then take a collection up from the group here to sponsor you to Top Gun just to say that a "Foamy" can compete. I would be in for $40 towards gas!!

Now that I have that off my chest I have a question for the masses. I ordered the motor today and the retracts are on the way. Do I need to order JST extensions for the Fly Fly electric retracts or does it come with wires long enough? I see that most are putting the controller box in the wing and the separate 2S battery somewhere in the nose. Is that correct? I have all the wires ran (man is there a lot). I have two for the ailerons, two for the elevators, two for the wing tip lights, one for the rudder, and the wires for my CC 125 ESC.

BigGuyJT - Yes you MUST get video! If I was closer I would do it for you!

I was taxing the F-100 around and my son didn't even look at it, so not sure!

Thanks bill, yea it’s a pinch collet, got it working now and feel confident about it.

Kc135boomer, you crack me up man, I was laughing so hard at the image I had of me going to Top Gun with this thing! I take it as a compliment and a joke, so thanks bro! I can see it now, me going down the road in my wood paneled station wagon, F-100 in the back and a sign saying Foamies at Top Gun or bust!

I’ve learned a lot from this thing, like how I need to plan ahead for certain things with so many wires. I had to carefully work a hot wire inside the fuselage to remove foam so all the wires could be moved to the side, stuff like that.

These rear shock struts suck, that is all I have to say. I taxied my jet around today in my driveway and it was actually moving sideways doing the crab walk thing. That is not going to work for me, on top of that the wheels lock up randomly sometimes. So I’m going to a solid piece of spring steel wire for the main gear for now. I may try and work with the struts for later flights if I can get something to work, some kind of mod I guess.

After reading about flex in the stock stab linkage I decided to completely redo mine. I went with 2-56 rods and DuBro connectors. Very short and very strong, I trust my soldering, so not to worry! It has to stick over to one side to clear the stabs, no play at all, so I think it’ll work.

Superb job on this, just beautiful. I have been looking at this model and you did all the stuff i would do with it. Good luck with your first flight, you should be fine

Originally Posted by SilentHunter

Superb job on this, just beautiful. I have been looking at this model and you did all the stuff i would do with it. Good luck with your first flight, you should be fine

Appreciate that Silenthunter, now get yours and start bashing! As far as the flight, it’s just that it’s a new experience for me and I don’t trust the equipment yet, if the battery, motor and the retracts work I should be fine.

I decided to upgrade the gear legs to 1/8” spring steel. I had to add new brass bushings to the wheels, drill out the square wheel collars and drill out the retracts. The original shock struts were made out of to soft of aluminum, as they are used the slop got more and more until the plane was actually moving sideways when taxiing. I believe this plane will land very smooth, I have endless paved runway so I can bring it in as fast as I want. My gear mounts are definitely strong enough, but what I like is that they are strong with no slop whatsoever. One other picture of the weathering, not quite complete in the picture, but I finished it tonight.

You might consider these for main struts, if the dimensions work. They I think are made for 3.2mm, aka 1/8" :

http://www.sonicelectric.com/Merchan...nGearSet-S.jpg

They have others from Lander, whom see to make nice aluminum components. Although I have yet to use/beat on them they seem really "hard" or not of soft aluminum.

Well unlimited paved runway... i envy you

Good luck man

Thanks for the link, that is the kind of struts I’m looking for, need to take some measurements. And thanks for the well wishes, I’m hoping for a good report on this thing! Here is a picture of my flying site:

Now thats a flying site!

My F100 is progressing along slowly, the weather has been rubbish for me to go outside and start sanding so progress hasn't moved on much. I'm also about to start racing motorbikes so my time has been taken up by that. I did however start to get the wiring layed out for signal lights, afterburner etc....... I'm probably going to cheat with the landing light and add that to the nose gear. Slowly but surely!

Here's a scheme I'm thinking about, still not sure though.

Originally Posted by awood12345

Now thats a flying site!

My F100 is progressing along slowly, the weather has been rubbish for me to go outside and start sanding so progress hasn't moved on much. I'm also about to start racing motorbikes so my time has been taken up by that. I did however start to get the wiring layed out for signal lights, afterburner etc....... I'm probably going to cheat with the landing light and add that to the nose gear. Slowly but surely!

Here's a scheme I'm thinking about, still not sure though.

If you were to fly your model to the end of the runway, you would not be able to see it anymore! The UK has some good places to fly, I used to live in Bicester near Oxford, and we would fly from old WWII RAF bases.

Just work a little at a time, I'll try and remind you to get back to it every now and then. Yea the landing lights would add to much complexity and weight to do them scale. I love that color scheme, I may steal it from you for my second Hun sitting under my bench! I've never seen a model F-100 painted like that.

I keep looking at this thread... i think im gonna have to do one of these

Hey where did you get the neat tailcone for the het motor/fan?

Anyone got any ideas for replacement wheels? Since mine locked up a couple of times, I have bad flat spots and the hubs are loose. has anyone tried other wheels yet or know of a source for some?


Turbulence

Good news is that I finally finished this bird! I kept is the stock colors just to get it airborne. I ended up going with an HET Typhoon 600-37-2 motor, HET Fan, and two 30C 3S 4000 Batteries, CC 125A ESC and a UBEC.





The bad news... I checked every connection as I went to make sure it worked (which it did) and upon installing the motor and making the test run, POOF! The esc flashed, fire and yellow smoke came out and once again I am not flight ready.


I love the less hassle part of electrics but sometimes I hate the gremlins that comes with them! Thankfully it happened on the ground and not airborne!

Hey Boomer

Do you have a Watt Meter? MPI has one, model #MX8120, for around $50.00, there are others....It'll keep the 'BBQ' to a minimum...I finally got one and use it all the time...a must if you plan on flying EDF's.

Joe

Yes I have one and no I never got that far to check. I plugged in the motor, it armed and when I went to make sure the blades were spinning the correct way it went POOF! I contacted Castle and they said I should not have used my 1500 MAH batteries (two seperate 3 cells in series to make a 6s 1500 test pack). It was not enough power for the HET motor and fan and the ESC fried because of that fact. I know better for next time and I will send it in for repair. The next go will be with my new 3 cell, 30C, 4000 MaH batteries (2 X 3s 4000 Mah). I just did not have the deans soldiered on them yet.

That's really interesting. While I was checking things out on my F-86 like the retracts and such I had hooked up a 4S 2200 just to run the the radio. On one of those times I had pushed the throttle up and started the fan. Never had that happen. It doesn't make sense to me.