Hi, I am afraid I listened to a review on Utube and bought an F-22 Raptor 64mm EDF foam plane. Its 4 channel model. I should mention this is my first model plane and I’m not sure it was a good first choice.
I have built the plane but have not flown it yet as I am still practicing on FMS.
What concerns me is the way the ailerons and rudder are configured.
The left aileron and rudder are controlled on one wire and the same on the opposite side. This results in the control stick being up on a diagonal to control both simultaneously. I don’t know if this is correct, it doesn’t seem right.
I have seen lots of utube videos that show these planes crashing to total destruction on their first flight, this is what I want to avoid.
If anyone out there has one of these planes and can let me know how all the channels should be configured and how to go about my initial flight it would be appreciated. I am happy with the throttle and the front jockey wheel on the left stick; it is really the aileron and rudder configuration.
I have found my local model club which I will go to for the initial flight but I don’t think any of them fly this type; it is a much more traditional type of model plane flown there.
My instruction book is extremely minimal to say the least and no one seems to have any setup guides for this type of plane on utube.
Any help would be appreciated.

First of all put that plane on a shelf for a while. It is very unlikely you will have any success flying it. Having the FMS simulator is a very good first step but it will not teach you to handle your F-22.

Definitely go to the local club and ask for advice on a good trainer plane. Everyone here wants you to have a successful start in the RC hobby. Get a good trainer and work with an instructor to have the best chance of success.

Did the F-22 come with a transmitter? If not what transmitter so you have? What airplane did you buy? Can you provide a link?

Your description of the connections of the rudder and ailerons is not very clear. Could you be a bit more specific?

Glen

I guess your set-up look a bit like this?
Aileron and Elevator, not Rudder operated from one servo on each side?
With a setup like this, the control surfaces on the main wing and on the horizontal part of the empennage functions as both ailerons and elevator.

If this is the case, your radio should be set up to use these control surfaces as elevons/delta wing mix:
Right stick down, all four control surfaces up
Right stick up, all four control surfaces down
Right stick right, control surfaces on right up, left down
Right stick left, control surfaces on right down, left up

If it is in fact ailerons and rudder that is connected, i'm in the open...

And in any case, this is quite far from being a good "first plane" - the advice about "shelfing" it for a while is probably the only one you should listen to

oh baby your gonna destory that beautiful plane in less then 10 seconds. ask me how I know (i have first hand experience in destorying 200 dollar beautiful planes cuz my skill level was just not there...)

do yourself a favor and shelf it and either build an easier to fly plane or buy a pusher powered glider like the skysurfer or bixler to learn on which will be a fraction of the price, hell buy a few of them, the frames are like 30-40 bucks adn the arf is like 60ish.


these types of planes (edf and jets) are 4th or 5th planes after you have mastered the much easier ones. the guys in the videos problaly have 5-10+ years experience.

If you do fly be sure to video it and post. I have a edf and am waiting to fly it after 1 or 2 more planes under my belt.

Thanks, the setup shown above is exactly what i have. I am going to research some trainer models.
I do have a controller with it is ready to fly (i am not!)
here is a link to the site http://www.bananahobby.com/2131.html
it just looks so easy!
and as its sales pitch mentions:
Perfect parkflyer EDF jet!
Excellent Flight Performance
Excellent stability and aerobatic capability
Easy to Fly, Easy to Control, Super stable for beginner

Well, at least you are in good company.

Many folks have purchased such planes and seen this on the Banana Hobby site:

"Easy to Fly, Easy to Control, Super stable for beginner"

Put this on the shelf for a while and admire its good looks.

See if there is a club or experienced RC pilot in your area. I've been flying for a year and a half and still wouldn't fly an EDF like this just yet. EDFs fly fast (which is death for beginners), heck, that's part of the appeal, yes?

Find an nice, slow, stable, self correcting trainer on which to begin (I like the Champ). As you begin your training, read up on the EDF section on RCGroups for tips for your eventual first flight of the EDF. They are hard to fly (for non-obvious reasons). There are 25 guys in my local, electric-flight RC club (great bunch of guys). There's not a single EDF being flown by any of those guys.

By The Way, your training can be fun too. It can be quite satisfying as you begin to master the elements of flying RC. You'll enjoy it more if you aren't destroying a $140 EDF on every flight.

Originally Posted by jase118

Thanks, the setup shown above is exactly what i have. I am going to research some trainer models.
I do have a controller with it is ready to fly (i am not!)
here is a link to the site http://www.bananahobby.com/2131.html
it just looks so easy!
and as its sales pitch mentions:
Perfect parkflyer EDF jet!
Excellent Flight Performance
Excellent stability and aerobatic capability
Easy to Fly, Easy to Control, Super stable for beginner

The key words are Sales Pitch. Remember, they want to sell planes. They really aren't too concerned what happens once they have your money.
"Super stable for beginner" Most planes are stable once you get them up in the air and flying straight and level but that's just a small portion of the flight.

Speaking of sales pitch, my favorite thing to tell people about stuff like this is like what an old buddy told me he taught his daughter. Salesmen and polititians are like teenage boys on a date: they'll tell you WHATEVER you want to hear to get ehat they want...

I'm amazed at how many planes are 'stable enough for first-time beginners, but will perform all the aerobatics an experienced pilot could desire'. BS! I also noticed lately how many planes list in their requirements a 5 channel transmitter with a 6 ch rcvr! ???

The EDF could be quite stable but they leave out the bit about it needs to be trimmed correctly to be stable otherwise it will roll, turn or pitch up or down with out any input from you. To get your super stable EDF in a state where it is stable for a beginner you have to be able to fly it while it is unstable while you are trimming it out. This is the biggest irony in RC flying. Of course if you can find an experienced pilot to trim it for you then your flight time will be a lot longer and if you are a naturally gifted pilot you might even get it down in one piece.

I got suckered by the same sales pitch, and got the 50mm version of the F22 from BH as a "perfect for beginners" plane. 3 tries at flying it lead to 3 patchup jobs, and it got put in the cupboard before I did any major damage to it. I then got a simulator, and a Bixler (a.k.a Sky Surfer) and have had a bunch of fun learning on those. Next I scratch built a foamy prop-jet, which made me learn a bunch about how these things actually work. Crashed that a few times, but the beauty of those is you can rebuild them from the shattered pieces very easily.... Now I can (mostly) control the prop-jet I'm wondering if I should give the EDF another try.

Originally Posted by jase118

Easy to Fly, Easy to Control, Super stable for beginner

Banana Hobbies has a big reputation for "exaggerating" claims. I haven't seen an EDF yet (from them or anyone else) that is appropriate for someone learning to fly. There is such a thing as an "EDF trainer", but a person needs to be proficient at flying sport planes before attempting even an EDF trainer. The biggest problem is that beginners like to fly slow so that they can think ahead of the plane, but EDFs have high stall speeds and if you slow them down too much they will violently stall just like their full-sized counterparts. The speed needs to be kept up throughout the flight, there's a lot less room for error and there's a lot more risk of losing orientation because they get downfield so fast. Add in the fact that they are challenging to launch and land and you've got just a heck of a lot that can go wrong even for experienced pilots.

Hi Jase118, whatever you do, get a mate to video your first flight, and post it here.
It'll be funny, and it will be the last time you see it in one piece.
BTW, the peeps u see flying planes on promotionai videos are expert pilots, that's why it looks so easy.they should be done under trade descriptions, saying it is suitable for beginners.
(edit) Oh, I just noticed you may not be ready to fly it.

Originally Posted by Tres Wright

Banana Hobbies has a big reputation for "exaggerating" claims. I haven't seen an EDF yet (from them or anyone else) that is appropriate for someone learning to fly.

I have.

I recall someone installed a small EDF on a Pico Stick, once.

It flew like a regular Pico Stick equipped with much cheaper gear. In other words...not all that excitingly.

At any speed below ~40mph, a propeller makes more sense. Heck, even on full-scale aircraft, propellers are still more efficient below 300 miles an hour or so.

It's simple physics. EDFs are wonderful and all, but in all but the fastest and most expensive of models they're outperformed by propellers every time.

Originally Posted by Cheesehead

I recall someone installed a small EDF on a Pico Stick, once.

Right, I guess I should have specified "EDF jet" since people have strapped EDFs on everything from Slow Sticks to sailplanes, LOL! I tried strapping a pair of EDF50's onto a little balsa sport plane once over a decade ago and quickly learned that strapping EDFs onto any ol' airframe does not convert it into a jet EDFs need to move fast to provide proper thrust and when they're thrown on a draggy airframe they become just about the most ineffecient means of propulsion out there