Discussion F-16 Fighting Falcon ARF

[mjbennett9]

Thanks for all the info, Pete. I'm going to check with hobby shop and see what kind of balancer they recommend. Hobby Lobby is going to swap my plan out. I plan on using my own electronics. I am very tempted to use my own servos too. Use the stock ones in a slow stick or something. :-)

[mjbennett9]

Below link looks like my ESC. For $21 (50A--43A actual), it makes me think the electronics are a real issue.

http://lightflightrc.com/ Check out products, motors/escs. then click on the 50A ESC.

A good 40A ESC is about $60.

[AtTheMet]

Yep, that looks like mine as well. Mine also had what looked like an inline BEC on the receiver wire. Really cheese looking stuff. When I first saw it my initial reaction was "no way this is a 45 amp ESC".

Here is what I replaced it with, was a little over $50.
http://www.electrifly.com/escs/gpmm1840-2.jpg

[lashmett75]

Well I got my F-16 last Thurs. Spent 3 hours putting this bird together. Making sure everything was good and square. Check the fan blade connection to the motor even though the manual said it didnt need to be. Long story short, after takeoff the fan disconnected from the motor shaft and she went nose into the tera ferma. The battery is shot, nose is trashed from 3 prior to start of the ducting forward. Not pretty at all. I have filed a defective product complaint with Hobby Lobby. So we will see what the outcome is. I have 2 other ducted jets. The Learjet by Hobby Lobby and the L-39 by Freewing. So it is safe to say that it wasnt pilot error.

[mjbennett9]

It may be the housing is pushed in a little, but just visually checking, it looks like one of my fan ends is approx. .5mm longer than the other ones. Interesting! :-)

[mjbennett9]

Do you think it's worth buy the fuse/parts and building from scratch with all good electronics/motor, servos, etc.? The complete fuse, wings, etc. is about $100. I'm guessing it would add $200, but should be worth it. I just don't know enought about DF to make a good motor/fan selection to fit this plane. hobby lobby does have an upgrade on their site, but WAY over priced--IMHO.

[AtTheMet]

Sounds like the fan blade nut was not tightened from the factory. When I took mine apart to balance the fan blade I did notice that the nut came loose without a whole lot of effort.

[AtTheMet]

MJ,

I would build it from a kit, I think it looks that good until something else better comes along. I'd like to see bolt on wings with carbon tubes though instead of glue, but that may be a design issue and not possible with this type plane. Also I agree, the upgrade HL offers is WAY overpriced. One issue I have with the upgrade is, my fuselage cutout was made specifically the size to fit the 2100 mAh 4S that came with the kit. I got a TP 2600 as a second battery, but it is 1 1/4 " longer and I had to cut out the front section to make the battery fit. The Enerland battery they show as the "upgraded" version is even longer than my TP. So does that mean the upgraded version has a different fuselage design ? Just curious.

[mjbennett9]

On a positive note, Pete... I got my replacement F16 today. yes! I have not opened it yet, but hoping all is ok. I'll spend better part of this week checking it out from top to bottom... full movement of all parts, CA'ng the servos (I'll give stock ones a try, but may swap out later), replacing linkages with 2/56 rods (I think that's the size), solder on clevis', replace control horns, use shielding I purchased above to wrap around electrical wires, servos leads, etc. to block interference. I am also waiting on a dual conversion receiver (neutron 6s dual conversion--more of an extra layer of protection). I also with replace ESC/BEC with a brand name one. Finally, I'll check/balance the fan and check that all nuts are tightened. Once all that's done, I'll finally get to build it. LOL

[db4kids]

Flew the Hobby-lobby F-16 today or should i say I tried to. On full throttle taxing the ESC Burned up on the ground Smoked poured from the plane.

[AtTheMet]

Michael,

Ain't flying fun ? Sounds like you've got all the bases covered. I bought my new elev linkage yesterday (going with metal clevis as well) and thicker rods that won't bend in flight.

Oh, and here's another little gotcha I discovered. I was going to install some longer elev servo arms I had left from some HT-55's on another build. But they don't fit the F-16 servos, too small. So the F-16 factory servos are who-knows-what brand. I think the Chinese are doing this on purpose just to drive us nuts

Post us when you get it built and up again. Hope it all goes well.

Patience, Grasshopper

[AtTheMet]

Originally Posted by db4kids

Flew the Hobby-lobby F-16 today or should i say I tried to. On full throttle taxing the ESC Burned up on the ground Smoked poured from the plane.

I was just waiting on someone to make this post, saw this one coming. Now I consider myself extremely lucky to get two flights in before swapping out the ESC.

[mjbennett9]

Something to druel over... :-)

http://www.tamjets.com/original/prod...roducts_id=365

[ARF Guy]

I also have the Hobby Lobby 70MM F-16 and I had to add lead in the nose to get it to balance at the 78MM. I also contacted HB's tech support since there were no control throws in the book and they told me the one they fly on their online video is set up with the linkage on all surfaces on the outer-most hole of the control horn and the servo and with low rates set at 40% for rudder, aileron and elevators. The elevators didn't seem to have much movement so I made the D/R 45% for them.

First flight was yesterday and it wanted to roll left pretty strong so I added 80% right trim to keep it level and quite a bit of up trim and it was flying nicely. Landing, I cut the throttle to about 40% and it started a good predictable decent and I kept slowly reduced power and pulled the nose up as it got closer to the ground. It flared into a nice "mains first", nose high landing. The roll problem was the rudder not returning to center after steering for take-off. I took the push "wire" out and wiped it with silicone plus tightened up the quick connects on the rudder and servo since they seemed quite loose and sloppy. I removed most of the right trim before flying today and it took-off and flew nicely. The wind had picked up to about 10 knots before the battery was recharged and I found the plane wants to climb fairly strong into the wind. Also downwind landings are out of the question unless you have unlimited space. I too had some motor glitches. Wonder if Hobby Lobby would replace the ESC?

The low rates make for fairly slow rolls but until I have a few more flights, I appreciate the milder response. I have no problems with enough elevator throw for flying or landing. The plane will slow down really quite slow and show no tendency to drop a wing. Landings are pretty easy. Just line her up and start backing the throttle off till you flare at about a foot above the ground. Carry some power all the way because the light weight and that big duct will slow it down quickly.

Bottom line is you want mild controls at least until you get comfortable with the plane. It seems to like to fly fairly fast if you want it to be responsive and it's not a plane I would fly in any wind over 8-10 knots and then only if you have experience. Gray is a tough color for me to see, even in the clear, dark blue skies of Prescott. Another note of interest; our field is at 5200+ feet and I felt the plane's performance was very good and scale-like.

[mjbennett9]

got the new kit. I'm taking my time this go around. 1 hour build will be more like 10 this time. Going to redo with all new control horns, clevis', etc. Tempted to do new servos, but I think I'll just CA in for more strength and leave alone for now. I yanked out the electronics and will replace shortly.
Upon opening box/inspection, I did notice some fuse cracking near tail, nose wheel was wobbly and missing spacers, and that fan shroud was pretty worn from factory testing I'm guessing. Looks like one or more blades were/are hitting the shroud. I have not started up yet, but once I check blade balance later, I'll know if there's an issue or not. If out of balance, then most likely the fan would have caused serious problems out of the box. "AtTheMet" had loose screw issues which I have yet to check.
"Arf Guy", I too had rudder/nose steering issues. The problem is the 36" piece of tubing is too flexible. It will never be perfect. Ideally they could be on two servos for centering, but of course there's no way to do that, that I know of. However, my transmitter can be programmed for before/after take-off sequences via a switch(es). I may have one switch set to keep steering wheel centered, then upon take-off, flip the switch to center the rudder, and vice versa upon landing. It's a lot to remember, but no more than to remember to put the landing gear down if this was equipped with retracts.

My first build was lined up 90% with rudder/nose gear, but I could not get 100% because of flexible tubing. I'll try to replace with something better but I'm not sure it's possible. I opt for straight steering as take-off/landing is critical. I can always correct for rudder, etc. via the transmitter sticks.

I'm also going to apply a lot of EXPO on the rudder since I have to correct a lot on runway because of the rudder/gear issue. That way I can apply a lot of stick for little movement to keep it straight down the runway.

I'll post more pics later, but attached are some of my issues like too much movement in nose gear, worn out fan shroud, and cracked fuse, etc.