Ducted Fan F-18 First Flight

[Roop]

Here's a quick video of the first flight of my ducted fan F-18. Powered by a Rhino 1350 3S 25C LiPo through a 30A controller and inrunner brushless driving a 64mm fan. Radio is a super-cheap 2.4GHz 6ch jobbie...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4NOExFj4Fw

[Lost soul]

that take off had me clenching my butt cheeks

I was sure you were going to go through that snow drift (mini) not over it

Edited by Lost soul on Saturday 30th January 18:24

[Roop]

Lost soul said:

that take off had me clenching my butt cheeks

I was sure you were going to go through that snow drift (mini) not over it

Yeah, the nosewheel steering got a bit light and it went into terminal understeer No rudder on the plane to correct the yaw. so I just hauled back on the elevator and hoped for the best. Thank goodness it went.

[Lost soul]

Its a good vid , looks like she flys very well

But what about the landing ,, where did you land her i could not see any obvious sites ??

Edited by Lost soul on Saturday 30th January 19:00

[Roop]

Lost soul said:

Its a good vid , looks like she flys very well

Tnx. SWMBO to thank for the video. A couple of niggles to sort. Roll is asymmetrical (much faster one way than the other) so I need to check the throws but other than that flies great. Stall is totally benign - just mushes out and slowly sinks nose-high.

[Eric Mc]

Tell the missus she did a great job on the camerawork, She must have been following the sound.

Looks great.

[Roop]

Eric Mc said:

Tell the missus she did a great job on the camerawork, She must have been following the sound.

Looks great.

Will do...! She couldn't see a thing on the screen, so it was a fine effort, I agree...!

Thanks for the kind comments. For the money (peanuts) it goes great guns.

Here's the landing. I elected to drop it in the field as those people shortened my impromptu runway's LDA...!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V2QAddh9GQ

[Lost soul]

Roop said:

Here's the landing. I elected to drop it in the field as those people shortened my impromptu runway's LDA...!!!

Thats a sudden stop

[CAD Monkey]

That is an aeroplane that needs rudders for ground handling and to help in the rolls, they looked quite barrelley; also where is the CoG set, she looks a little pitch sensitive?

Good Maiden flight though, what sort of duration are you getting?

[Roop]

CAD Monkey said:

That is an aeroplane that needs rudders for ground handling and to help in the rolls, they looked quite barrelley; also where is the CoG set, she looks a little pitch sensitive?

Good Maiden flight though, what sort of duration are you getting?

It would be possible to fit rudders quite easily I think, but then the weight goes up, so you need more power and then you need a bigger battery etc. The usual viscious circle. I might investigate it in the future though with a little 9g servo. The airframe's got the space and modding the vertical stabs wouldn't be too hard.

CoG is around bang on the recommended position, wasn't overly pitch sensitive, although the aileron roll wasn't very axial. I might have a fiddle about with it although changing it will be very tricky without adding weight.

[CAD Monkey]

They were just a few observations, quite with you on adding rudders/weight. What kit/ARTF is this, is it the perkins one?

[Roop]

It's the Art-Tech Hobby King one.