Originally Posted by Josef086

About a month ago I lost my FMS Stuka to a bird strike. Sometimes when birds are flying near the field I get bored and chase then off. This time however I picked on the wrong birds. Turns out the birds I tried to chase off where a couple of Bald Eagles and they were not at all happy about it. One of them went into attack mode and flew at the model killing it.

LOL!! Hillarious! Although I'm sure you weren't laughing at the time...thanks for sharing.

My experience with my Habu v1 was that I could slow down the throttle completely on approach (mainly because I tend to fly WOT) and it would take turning off throttle completely to slow her down enough to be manageable on landing. I'm excited to see what flaps would do for me if I take the plunge to buy this newer version. Has anyone configured theirs for flapperons (combining the flaps and ailerons for T/O and landings to take advantage of the whole wing surface?). I noticed on the HH site there is a demo picture...?

Originally Posted by dreisinger

Just did my build yesterday and maiden flight today. I used the E-Flite retracts. The manual states to cut the mains to 2.25" but I found this was a bit short. This was mentioned on a previous post, I believe. Anyway, I cut mine to 2.5" and they centered much better in the wheel wells.

Also, unless I was looking at something wrong in the manual, it appears the method of attaching the clevis to the nose retract seems to be wrong. I assembled it as shown but it bound up when the nose gear was retracted. I looked at the pin in the clevis and the slot on the nose gear steering unit and decided the head of the shoulder bolt should be towards the retract unit and not outboard towards the wheel well. I switched it around and now it is smooth with no binding when using the rudder with the nose gear retracted.

The manual states 4" aft of the leading edge for the CG. I am using a 3300 mAH 4S battery and if I use 4" as the CG, my CG Machine tells me I am seriously nose heavy. I had to put 2 oz. of weight under ther horizontal stab.

On the maiden, it felt like the nose heavy condition caused my take-off roll to be longer than I like and it took a while to reach Vr. It climbed reasonably well but I doubt it would have flown on anything less than 75% power.

I am going to seriously look into moving the ESC or even dropping in an 80 amp ESC (I have a HobbyWing 80A with 5 amp UBEC) and using a 5S pack.

I like the appearance of the plane but wish it had more snot.

I cut my retract struts at 2.25" as the manual states and the wheels were dead center in the wells. Where did you measure from? The manual states to measure 2.25" from BELOW THE COIL OF THE STRUT...

As for the nose gear, the manual for me was correct. BUT, I have the steering servo on a seperate channel (Aux 1). I'm using a rudder to aux 1 mix that is active only when the gear is down. That way there's no movement of the nose gear when it's retracted, thus no chance of binding.

Yesterday I collected my Habu 2 from the LHS. Decided to go for two Overlander 4S 3700 60C batteries - should be plenty of oomph!

The week before, I purchased the new MiG 15 UMX so can't wait to fly both of these awesome models as soon as the weather improves.

Originally Posted by Mugen4Lfe

I cut my retract struts at 2.25" as the manual states and the wheels were dead center in the wells. Where did you measure from? The manual states to measure 2.25" from BELOW THE COIL OF THE STRUT...

As for the nose gear, the manual for me was correct. BUT, I have the steering servo on a seperate channel (Aux 1). I'm using a rudder to aux 1 mix that is active only when the gear is down. That way there's no movement of the nose gear when it's retracted, thus no chance of binding.

I cut mine at 2.25 from the bottom of the coil and they are too short. I would suggest to everyone to cut 2.5 to be safe.

I would like to put a Gens Ace 25C or Skylipo 40c 4S 4000mah in her, has anyone tried either of these. Will they fit and was there much foam mod required?

hey guys

I went ahead and installed retracts, moved the ESC back and installed two skids for belly landing. As pointed out early, mine was initially nose heavy with stock landing gear. Swapping out fixed landing gears with retracts didn't help one bit (as another had mentioned).

Anyway, to accommodate the extra weight up front, I temporary moved the ESC behind the receiver and mounted it outside. I've included pics so you can see what I mean. It's not the prettiest setup but for the short term it works until I can come up with a more permanent solution.

I've also included a brief video of my first habu 2 belly landing with retracts installed.

Reef-RC Habu2-Belly-Landing-n-Retracts (4 min 35 sec)

Enjoy...I had a great weekend with this plane. Crap...there's still Sunday evening...what was I thinking. Gotta go. I could use another 1/2 dozen flights

This may be lengthy. I hope this may be helpful for others; especially if you're like me who wanted Habu v1 and waited too long only to find out it was discontinued.

Weekend Summary:
Overall it's a fun plane. Nice introduction into EDF and addition to my hangar. It's not something I can take everywhere due to it's size, speed and take-off/landing requirements. With retracts and belly landing options installed, I will have more opportunities and stick time.

Power / Speed -
Power is adequate but I keep wishing it had more, especially in a loop (from level flight). Mine seems to struggle even on WOT. I have the feeling it wants to fall out.

It's capable of both moderate and fast speed. Wide flight envelope is the term most would used. Since I am new to both EDF and jet, my flights have been rather fast and could be slower...but why?

Agility -
Rolls are relative fast and nice. It's not crazy like a stryker or scimitar but for what it is it's fast enough. Loops could be improved with slightly more power . Inverted flight does require slight elevator to keep level.

Take-off/Landing -
With landing gears (fixed or retracts), does seem to require sufficient runway before there is sufficient air over the wings to lift up with confidence.
I had around 20 take-offs/landings/flights over the weekend. Grass landings were great for me. I had 4-5 belly landings. 1 retracts landing on concrete runway. Belly landing is my favorite by far since it's relatively stress free. Flaps are good although I have to admit I am still getting use to them and have a few times caught surprise by the abrupt lift on landing when engaged.

I look forward to hand launching this baby in coming weeks.

Turns -
Coordinated turns with ailerons and rudder seems to better than ailerons alone. In today's morning flights, I mixed ailerons/rudder and assigned it to one of my channel and it worked great. I can also do it manually but it's great if I want to be lazy about it. Typically I do this manually with most of my other planes.

Pro:

• Nice setup, build and quality
• Fun to fly (fast or moderate speed)
• Retracts are fun. Retracts setup per instructions @ 2" front and 2.25 rear. Having struts slight longer is also a safe bet. You could always trim shorter if needed versus the other way around.
• Belly landing option is a plus
• Faps also a plus (great for slowing her down)

Cons:

• Standard setup is nose heavy (by this I mean overly nose heavy). I like my planes slightly nose heavy also but this is too much. With retracts, I just don't see how she balance with CG @ 4". If I didn't move the ESC back, a heavy amount of tail weight would have been needed besides moving battery back as far as possible.
• Speed is fast but I was expecting slightly faster. Performing loop while in level flight is doable but could use more power.
• the plastic post in the nose gear plate with front standard strut and fix landing gear may be prone to crack if front wheel gets too many hard landings. As recommended, rear landing wheels should first touch the ground before front wheel.

well I maidened mine this morning using 4s 4000mah nano tech's and a 80amp eflight esc flew very nice only needed 4 clicks up trim. then I flew it with the 5s 3300mah turnigy and WOW night and day. I dont think I will ever fly it again on 4s. only one small problem I almost lost it ,the bec on the 80amp eflight was acting up guess I am going to pick up a CC BEC.

Below you can see where I removed just a little foam from the canopy and the battery tray to fit the 4s 4000mah and 5s 3300mah and the 80amp esc

Who is selling the foam kit's only ??

Originally Posted by stvinvegas

I would like to put a Gens Ace 25C or Skylipo 40c 4S 4000mah in her, has anyone tried either of these. Will they fit and was there much foam mod required?

I have a 3300mah 25c 5s gens ace and it fits just fine. No foam cutting needed. So i am sure that 4s battery will fit just fine.

Great review and video RC Reef, keep them coming

FCA

@reef_rc

Nice review. Did you fly it at all before you moved the esc from the stock position?

Pulled the stock fan, motor and esc (for sale...\ ;^ )

Installed a TamJets TJ70 unit with a 6S 3300 battery. Bench test showed 1615 watts @ 69 Amps. Ready to rock and roll ! ! !

thx...I've enjoyed 2 dozens flights since the weekend and all good time.

Srry I couldn't stop by on Sunday. Weather was 2 hot after 8:30.

Originally Posted by FLAME747

Great review and video RC Reef, keep them coming

FCA

Hey Mugen4Lfe - yes. I had over a dozen or so flights before adding retracts the following day. It was then that I had to moved the ESC after checking the CG. I checked CG multiple times and it just didn't balance out while inverted with retracts in or out. I just wasn't going to chance it. I hate to cut into the new foam plane but I need to so I can use the retracts and belly land.

On the positive side, moving the ESC helped cooled the ESC a lot. Texas hot summer weather doesn't help.

Maybe the CG thing is isolated to just mine.

Originally Posted by Mugen4Lfe

@reef_rc

Nice review. Did you fly it at all before you moved the esc from the stock position?

Originally Posted by Reef_rc

Hey Mugen4Lfe - yes. I had over a dozen or so flights before adding retracts the following day. It was then that I had to moved the ESC after checking the CG. I checked CG multiple times and it just didn't balance out while inverted with retracts in or out. I just wasn't going to chance it. I hate to cut into the new foam plane but I need to so I can use the retracts and belly land.

On the positive side, moving the ESC helped cooled the ESC a lot. Texas hot summer weather doesn't help.

Maybe the CG thing is isolated to just mine.

What I meant was, did you fly it WITH the retracts installed and the esc in the STOCK position?