Starmax 90mm F-16 maiden yesterday!

[4stripes]

Finally had decent weather to do the maiden flight of my second F-16 (if you can call -5 degrees C in 10km/hr wind decent)! This is my second F-16 after I crashed the first when a leading edge linkage buckled at high speed (rolling inverted during a dive). The lessons learned from the first were incorporated to improve this one. It still has the stock V2 motor and ESC. I'm using a better shroud and Turnigy Nano-tech 5000mah 6S 45-90C battery.
It flies fantastic, in fact better than my first one. The home made thrust tube reducing the exit to 75mm gives better performance. I flew it with all the extra fuel tanks and missiles on the maiden. It flies quite realistically. The extra drag does slow it down but there is still enough thrust to do fairly large loops out of level flight (about 150'). With the fuel tanks and inner missiles removed, it really moves. From level flight it will climb straight up for about 300' and has a pretty quick roll rate. You will notice it needs a lot of up elevator on take off (which I anticipated as I didn't install the thrust vectoring this time).
I had some thrust hesitation occasionally at full throttle until I disconnected the "afterburner lights". Not a big loss as they aren't that visible in daylight anyway.
My first landing got a bit hairy as my thumbs were frozen after five minutes in the cold wind but it still landed without a scratch. The 20 lb fishing line strung between the main gear legs worked perfectly (keeps the long legs from splaying out on hard landings but doesn't restrict retraction). The legs didn't need any re-bending after any of the four flights we made. The photos are from the first flight...

[Wildflyer]

That looks great!! The flybys look like a full size, on an attack run. I'll bet the landing made you hold your breath for a while.
I will have to try one of these some day.

[JetPlaneFlyer]

Very impressive! I'd be frightened to fly it.

[4stripes]

It flies very well and would make a fine second EDF. The flaps allow you to fly it on with some power which gives predictable landings (most of the time). In the air it flies like it is on rails but the colour scheme keeps you glued to try and keep orientation.
Cheers

[Angler-Hi]

Who makes it? Congrats on the maiden friend.

[4stripes]

Starmax also known as Hawkwere makes it and it is available at Hobby king in China. I believe they also have a USA warehouse but I ordered it straight from China as the US warehouse doesn't ship to Canada. There aren't any other 90mm plug-n-fly models near the price of this model at HK. It does have some shortcommings but the basic equipment does the job very nicely. Just be sure to balance the fan and replace the shroud with one that can hold your motor with 4 screws (and not just 2). Reinforce the leading edge flap linkage to prevent it buckling at speed as I lost my first F-16 that way after 60+ flights.
Cheers

[Angler-Hi]

Originally Posted by 4stripes

Starmax also known as Hawkwere makes it and it is available at Hobby king in China. I believe they also have a USA warehouse but I ordered it straight from China as the US warehouse doesn't ship to Canada. There aren't any other 90mm plug-n-fly models near the price of this model at HK. It does have some shortcommings but the basic equipment does the job very nicely. Just be sure to balance the fan and replace the shroud with one that can hold your motor with 4 screws (and not just 2). Reinforce the leading edge flap linkage to prevent it buckling at speed as I lost my first F-16 that way after 60+ flights.
Cheers

AHHH! Ok. I have actually looked at that model before. Thanks for the tips friend.

Mike