pvtzemerak

http://www.hobbyzone.com/rc-planes-e...gle-df-arf.htm
Wow, this guy looks really cool! and the compleation package saves you alot. Has anyone seen a review on this guy? Ive found this really really cool video on it.
[media]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-607887538206491570&q=E-flite+F-15+Eagle&ei=iw9TSOH4JoTErwKZreHpDg[/media]

Do you guys think this one will be able to take off short grass?

Larry3215

I havent heard anything about it yet, but a buddy of mine is going to maiden one this Sunday. I'll let you know how it goes

Most small EDF's with landing gear have a hard time on any kind of grass. The wheels are very small and they dont produce much thrust.

The Don

I have heard that guys were not able to take off grass. Off pavement they were off in about 100 feet, and the speed is kind of slow on stock power.

Don

hyperdynelabs

I havent tried grass, but she takes off pavement just fine. With upgraded motors, I am pulling 960W sustained on 4s. Speed is very good IMO, just as fast as some of my smaller EDFs. I need to get some speed runs done for accurate measurements.

Larry3215

My buddy had technical issues and didnt not have a successfull maiden. It looked under powered to me on the stock setup, but he never really got a chance to try it out.

He was not impressed with the kit and did not recomend it as far as quality controll and things fitting together etc. Said it was a lot of trouble.

hyperdynelabs

The fit and finish is on par with the SFM executive jet IMO. In fact many of the parts are SF parts on the e-flite F-15. It took way longer than the time e-flite says to finish the bird. But once it is done, it is a nice looking airplane (and pretty big!).

My maiden went fine, the plane flew just awesome. Landing was a different story though, the plane touched down gracefully and then decided to lurch upward and bounce down the runway 4 times before turning over. I never experienced anything like this before, I am still puzzled why it happened.

I am probably going to add spoilerons so I can flip them on once I touchdown to keep this thing planted.

The retractable gear was also pretty impressive, it held throughout all that abuse. I cant wait to fly this thing again and try out some basic aerobatics.

Larry3215

One thing you can count on with any kit, arf, motor, etc - some will love it and some will hate it

For what its worth - I thought it was a good looking bird sitting on the bench. Better than the GWS F-15 which I owned as far as looks. The retracts also seemed pretty tough. They held up to a couple of rough aborted take off/arrivals/runoffs into the grass that would have killed the GWS gear.

My GWS F-15 had much better performance but it was also way over powered compared to this one so thats not a fair comparison either.

USMC_VTOL_Mech

hyperdynelabs

I just finished mine and am close to a maiden
I have to change out a bum castle 45 and I am ready to go
How does it fly on the recommended CG?
I got mine balancing perfectly level at 85mm the cg the manual says
Thanks

Bill G

USMC,
He's not here yet.

Bill
(EDF30 from the other place)

hyperdynelabs

It flies well at the recommended CG. I have mine pretty much spot on and I didnt see any bad tendencies. Although my landings tend to be quite bouncy for some reason (could be gear related).

I was going to try a more nose heavy CG by shifting batteries 1/2" forward but havent done that yet. That may help landings but not sure how it will fly. My E-do F-15 didnt like to be nose heavy, it would dive while turning. Then again it didnt have full moving elevator stabs.

Here is a shot of my F-15 right before takeoff:

Larry3215

Check your angle of attack. The nose gear strut may be a tad too long or the mains too short.

That can cause porposing on landing when the nose bounces back up a tad and your still going fast enough.

The situation can be agravated when the mains sit too far behind the CG. That causes the nose to hit harder and bounce higher when you touch down on the mains first.

joncuse

Hi all, new member here, old flyer.
The f-15 is my first foamie flyer and second electric (DV-VII the first)
I won this on ebay as "parts". Includes everything except fans & landing gear.
First impression, It's going to be hard getting used to the look of foam planes. Don't know if I will. Too many years of balsa, monocote and Nitro.
Anyway, what size are the fans in this bird? I have a set of 55's with a full set of motors, esc and connections I aquired but this seems way small for this config.
Any help is appreciated. I need to plan this out or just sell and build the real nitro F-15 (JDD) I have in the attic.
Anyway, thanks in advance.

Larry3215

I dont know the size of these fans for sure - buts 55's will be way too small. Im guessing 64mm or so.

My buddy got his in the air last weekend. It flys just fine once its trimmed out. Not a speed daemon on the stock gear but not a slow poke either.

madatme

has anybody built this bird, had a problem with the stabilators vibrating at 2/3 throttle and up, vibrating bad, not sure if i should fly this thing.
Also I installed the recommend parts from e-flite and my spectrum receiver has a slow constant flash with fully charged batteries

Larry3215

Are you getting interference or is this due to motor vibrations?

Either way I would NOT fly it until its fixed.

Larry3215

Is this radio interference or vibration caused by the motors being out of balance?

Either way I would not fly it untill you get it solved.

I dont know on the flashing - dont use those rx's.

D B Cooper

The slow flashing is the Spektrum receiver telling you it saw an undervoltage and reset at some point. Are you getting this after flight ? Or before ? Does it flash if you leave the tx off, connect the battery, then turn the tx on ?

madatme

it is motor vibration, you can feel the whole fuse has a stinging vibration about 2/3 throttle and up, the rear stabilators start to shake about 1" in travel, and not sure what to do about it

madatme

ok, I figured out what is does but not why it does
when I plug in the packs(tp2100) like getting ready for a flight, every thing is all normal. With the dx7 still turned on, unplug both packs(doesn't matter if you try one or both at reconnect, all the same) now plug in one pack(doesn't matter how long in time)the reciever with boot up with the esc(esc program settings didn't matter) and the rec led will have a slow flash but all controls work ok. The led will flash slowly at 1sec intervals. I did try and disconnect 1 red wire from a esc, no help. Ok, now what I figured out was if I unplug the packs,turn of the trans and start over like getting ready for a first flight again it's all ok. Ok so trans on, plug in packs--oops forgot something--unplug packs--fix strap--plug in packs--rec starts flashing, ahhh crap forgot to turn off/on trans--fresh restart--lets fly. I have 2 other ar7000(1year older rec) in heli's and they doen't do this, At hobby shop tried another ar7000 still same. Oh well at least I know what to do
Thanks

D B Cooper

IIRC that flashing function came with the latest firmware update on the Spektrum receivers (v1.6, Jan 2008). This is the update that enabled the receivers to reconnect quickly if the voltage dips below 3.5v and then recovers. The flashing was added to let you know the receiver had seen an undervoltage and needed to reconnect. If you unplug the battery and plug it back in, the receiver will start flashing thinking it saw a 'burp' in the supply voltage.

madatme

Thanks for the info and straighten things out. Makes sense now

madatme

Larry, got the problem fixed, what happened was during the build the stabilators were way too tight to rotate so I loosened them up some with drill bit so they rotate very nice but not loose, well I guess they were too loose so to speak, so were the ball/lever is underneath that connects to the rod/servo I loosened the set screw and pushed the parts together, re tightened the screw, still rotates nicely and all is good now
Thanks

billdor

Hi Guys
I recently built and flew this machine and had similar problems with the elevators. I traced it down to excessive play in the servo gear train of the recommended eflite servos. I replaced them with HS 65's and that ended the problem. I talked to Eflite about this and all they could recommend was to change the linkage to a shorter hole in the servo arm to try to mask the problem with their cheap servos.
By the way the F-15 flys quite well but has very little speed. I am going to try a pair of HET 6904's and will let you know how it turns out.

Bill

madatme

Thanks for the heads up about the servo's, I did not have a speed problem with this plane, I aggree it's no speed demon but seemed ok
During landing I did have a problem with too much speed on 3 seperate pass's into lite wind. I tried to just kinda float in with elevator up a little to nose it up, but seemed too fast, that's why I tried a 3rd pass. As it landed it porposed 3 times and finally stopped which broke off the steering gear clasp and a slight bend in the nose landing gear. What are your recomendations when trying to land the F-15, as in your speed, throttle, any thing else I might apply

billdor

Hi Madatme:
I am not using any landing gear on mine (just hand launching) so I don't have your problem. However from past experience I can tell you that your problem is most often caused by the nose gear leg being too long. What actually happens is that when you touch down the long nose gear lifts the nose to a more positive angle of attack and causes it to balloon. By shortening the gear leg it will allow the nose to drop to a negative angle and keep you on the runway

Bill