Preparing for a Sunday morning sortie mission in the park against remaining wild life. Global warming has kept some boggies around in the sky that need a reminder that Canada is a cold and hostile place in the winter. The only warmth here is the warm efflux of a full throttle 70mm jet.

OK fellow "Canucks", Winnipeg and London, ON are Exceed "Rhino" represented; soon Nova Scotia will witness the mighty "SuperBug".
I broke down from the positive acclaims on this thread and ordered the ARF from Nitro this week - Thanks to all on this thread for great reviews of this jet - I'm bust'in with excitement to get it now !!!!

welcome to the club from the states.

Hey dann, what servos did you say you are using?

Originally Posted by "TIMBITS"

OK fellow "Canucks", Winnipeg and London, ON are Exceed "Rhino" represented; soon Nova Scotia will witness the mighty "SuperBug".
I broke down from the positive acclaims on this thread and ordered the ARF from Nitro this week - Thanks to all on this thread for great reviews of this jet - I'm bust'in with excitement to get it now !!!!

"Positive acclaims"?? You mean like this one:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...postcount=1867
??

Maybe you were like me and made the mistake of reading only the early part of the thread before making a buying decision....because in that early part of the thread there was a review by one of those people who apparently gets airplanes for free and then issues reports/reviews which seem to inevitably be of the, as you say, "positive acclaim" variety. I got suckered in by that misleading load of too. Truth is, this plane is one of those planes which should only be bought as airframe-only. The ARF version is a stinker. Weak power, "dollar-store-quality" retracts, junk hardware (horns, pushrods, etc.), inadequate wing spar support, and assorted other boo-boos/deficiencies to deal with. Once you gut the plane of the junk internals and rekit it and fix it up some, the plane is fine....but the money spent to get the ARF version versus the airframe-only version is wasted. JMO.

Originally Posted by RustySpork

Hey dann, what servos did you say you are using?

hs65mg for ailerons hs65hb for elevator hs55 for rudder and nose steering

Originally Posted by herk1

"Positive acclaims"?? You mean like this one:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...postcount=1867
??

Maybe you were like me and made the mistake of reading only the early part of the thread before making a buying decision....because in that early part of the thread there was a review by one of those people who apparently gets airplanes for free and then issues reports/reviews which seem to inevitably be of the, as you say, "positive acclaim" variety. I got suckered in by that misleading load of too. Truth is, this plane is one of those planes which should only be bought as airframe-only. The ARF version is a stinker. Weak power, "dollar-store-quality" retracts, junk hardware (horns, pushrods, etc.), inadequate wing spar support, and assorted other boo-boos/deficiencies to deal with. Once you gut the plane of the junk internals and rekit it and fix it up some, the plane is fine....but the money spent to get the ARF version versus the airframe-only version is wasted. JMO.

Nah, I've been talking to Tim over email. He is setting up an ARF belly lander like mine. No headaches, just peer pleasure. Cold Canadian air, lower elevation, no fiddling with junk retracts, = positive F-18 Super Hornet enjoyment. I fly the bag off mine stock because it is light, the air is thick, and the retracts don't ruin the experience seeing this larger 70mm doing some scale flights.
I love this airframe. Best plane I have right now IMO. I've been flying my parkzone stuff out of loyalty, the F-18 makes my day.
You guys just might see the first 10 minute + F-18 run from this guy, he is a windy flyer. Something I'm not.

But yes the retracts are junk. I knew not to go there too. In fact the non-retracts are total junk too and the main stance is too narrow either way. As is this is a belly man's plane.

Im rockin retracts. I don't mind them, most of my issues really have been user error. We'll see this next weekend, if weather permits i will have it back up.

Originally Posted by Ispintechno

But yes the retracts are junk. I knew not to go there too. In fact the non-retracts are total junk too and the main stance is too narrow either way. As is this is a belly man's plane.

Not only is the main stance too narrow, but with the plane sitting on the gear on the ground, the wing has a negative AOA. So you have to overcome that with excessive elevator on takeoff roll to "jerk" the plane into the air. It doesn't look natural or smooth, and it takes more runway than it should for takeoff roll as a result. If the mains weren't mounted so close to the CG, it wouldn't be able to get off the ground at all. When I get around to replacing the nose retract with the E-flite one, I will make the nose strut longer (excavating forward in the nose foam as needed) to get that AOA out of the negative zone.

I lost my origional stock retracts on a take-off, if you can believe that. I wouldn't have, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. Concrete smooth tarmac too. I converted over to hand launch and it was fantastic as a belly lander. I only went back to retracts (e-flites) because I had a set of new trike eflites on the bench.
I thought the stock power system was "alright". Certainly not a speed demon but not bad with clean wings. I wanted to be able to load it up with ordinance so I needed more power and stock wasn't going to do it. I noticed a significant power loss when I put the droptanks and a few missles on.
But the servos that came with mine were absolute trash. Not one of them would center at zero and one of the elevator servos would "flutter" in the upward travel position. All of them had to be replaced.
So now mine is a complete rebuild. Real happy with it so far. Flys great and I really like the flaps on landing. Lands like a trainer now which is good since the retract wheelbase is quite narrow.

Originally Posted by xfatdannx

Im rockin retracts. I don't mind them, most of my issues really have been user error. We'll see this next weekend, if weather permits i will have it back up.

Thanks bro.

Weather's supposed to be nice this weekend. 70s. Not sure about wind.

Thanks for the "Canuck" defensive play there Matt ole' boy; Alex Keith would be proud of your support of fine Canadian "dense air" that our Hornets fly thru.
I've listened to what people say on here and watched the "stock powered" videos from other "Belly Launchers" like me and I made my buying decesion. I already take into account I'll be changing out cheap servos, ESC, and supplying higher C batteries when I purchase these relatively cheap Chinese made jets. Build them strong and install good stuff; they usually provide good results. Just getting EPO foam in this F-18 is a real bonus; you EPP/EPS foam guys know what I'm talking about I bet. I'm anxious to get on this one over the winter and I too hope it will become the one I reach for constantly over others I have.

Finally installed the E-flite nose retract in my F/A-18. I shouldn't have put it off so long. This morning, the wobbly/dodgy stock nose strut sent my model suddenly careening off the runway on takeoff roll, and when it hit the edge of the grass at almost takeoff speed, it not only tore out the nose retract (well, that kind of did me a favor...), but it broke the nose of the jet clean off, near the front of the retract well.

To prep for installing the E-flite nose retract, I dremeled down the foam underneath where the torn-out plywood mounts were....excavating all the way down to the "floor" (where the center of the old retract sat). Then I dremeled down another 1/8" to make room for the 1/8"-thick, one-piece plywood mount that I cut.

I found that the stock servo pocket for the nosewheel steering worked perfect. I hot-glued an HS-45 servo in there (my favorite servo to use for nosewheel steering) and hooked it up to the retract's steering linkage using one of the pushrod/clevis parts supplied with the F/A-18 kit for the optional rudders...which was the perfect length (photo).

I just came back from a test flight (actually I flew two flights). Everything worked perfectly. Nice to finally have rock-solid retracts all around. And steady/reliable ground steering.

Herk- nice work. You'll enjoy the peace of mind knowing that the retracts are as solid as they can be now. I've only got a few flights in on mine so far but its proven (to me) to be much improved.

Also, are yours much quieter than the stock ones were? Mine are nearly silent.

Hi all,

I would like to know something before buying the kit version.

Do the holes for the landing gears/servos less retracts are already pre cutted? Or no holes at all?

Thx!