Noah’s New F-16

[Andy Hoffer]

Congratulations to Noah on the successful, if hairy, maiden flight of his beautiful new F-16 fighter jet.  Noah safely managed gusty winds (S to SW, gusting to 23 kmh), aft C of G, and excessive control rates, to safely land his jet.  Everything has now been happily dialed in and Noah's pulmonary and cardiovascular functions are normal again!!

Way to go Noah!!

Andy

[Noah]

I'll post a little update and log of what I changed tomorrow unfortunately don't have the time right now

[Noah]

ok so heres all the explanation

first i decided to change out the stock freewing 23g elevator servos for AGFB24CLM high torque, speed and precision servos. these are intended to give me much more control over the airplane and much more throw when i am ready for it.

secondly due to the Ar10360t i installed i was able to put nearly every control surface on its own channel. so i have decided to use flaperons and tailerons for better handling and landings. i have also created a brake mode when i deploy the reverse thrust for the airbrakes to deploy and ailerons to flex full up like spoilers.

the gyro was tweaked with my gains ending up at 15 for roll 40 for pitch and 25 for yaw after the second flight. these gains feel at least controllable in the air although more adjustment will have to be done. eventually i will set the ailerons and elevators to correct in both pitch and roll to make sure it is constantly stabilized.

another change i did was the centre of gravity. in the aircraft the wood tray didnt extend as far as i wanted it to. so i followed the mods from TwoBrothersRC and expanded the tray to allow for a more rear CG. eventually i can push it as far as 40mm behind the marks which would allow a lot of extra maneuverability. however that will take some time to work up to. i later changed the tray to be made out of plywood for more strength and rigidity.

lastly i also changed my batteries to SMC 5900 high voltage batteries. i understand the risks and problems associated with these packs however i really like how they give me nearly 5 minute flights with mixed throttle.

regarding flight one on Sunday the plane had multiple problems. the rates were too high for the first flight and the gyro gains were double what they should have been. therefore when i was flying with the gyro the plane would uncontrollably twitch and fly towards the ground. also my CG was all the way back which made the plane extremely unstable. with the twitching it forced me to have my gyro off and therefore it was very tough to control. by some miracle it survived, i still am quite surprised it is still in one piece. after adjusting the gains, rates and CG the second flight went much better.

to sum it up a very close first flight and some mistakes i have now learned to correct. i plan on eventually tuning the rates and gains up a little as i get better but all will come in time.

i am leaving one channel open on the receiver for a small extra attachment im adding which im keeping secret at this time.

[Noah]

Congratulations to Noah on the successful, if hairy, maiden flight of his beautiful new F-16 fighter jet.  Noah safely managed gusty winds (S to SW, gusting to 23 kmh), aft C of G, and excessive control rates, to safely land his jet.  Everything has now been happily dialed in and Noah's pulmonary and cardiovascular functions are normal again!!

Way to go Noah!!

Andy

unfortunately my vitals have not returned to normal i had a heart attack after that first flight. never wanna do that again especially with a jet of this size.

(heart attack is a joke i am fine)