FresnoJay

Well here is my build thread of sorts for my new X-Flight EuroFighter Typhoon 2 EDF.

Specs from X-flight:
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD id=variableholder colSpan=2>specification

</TD></TR><TR><TD id=detailholder colSpan=2><TABLE id=detailholder2><TBODY><TR><TD id=v1 style="PADDING-RIGHT: 15px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: top; WHITE-SPACE: nowrap">• Wing Span</TD><TD id=v2>730mm</TD></TR><TR><TD id=v1 style="PADDING-RIGHT: 15px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: top; WHITE-SPACE: nowrap">• Length</TD><TD id=v2>1000mm</TD></TR><TR><TD id=v1 style="PADDING-RIGHT: 15px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: top; WHITE-SPACE: nowrap">• Flying Weight</TD><TD id=v2>600 ~ 1000g</TD></TR><TR><TD id=v1 style="PADDING-RIGHT: 15px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: top; WHITE-SPACE: nowrap">• Material</TD><TD id=v2>Styrofoam (EPS)</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD id=variableholder colSpan=2>recommended power system

</TD></TR><TR><TD id=detailholder colSpan=2><TABLE id=detailholder2><TBODY><TR><TD id=v1 style="PADDING-RIGHT: 15px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: top; WHITE-SPACE: nowrap">• Propeller</TD><TD id=v2>68mm Ducted Fan</TD></TR><TR><TD id=v1 style="PADDING-RIGHT: 15px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: top; WHITE-SPACE: nowrap">• Battery</TD><TD id=v2>11.1V 2200 mAh 20C Li-Poly</TD></TR><TR><TD id=v1 style="PADDING-RIGHT: 15px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: top; WHITE-SPACE: nowrap">• Motor</TD><TD id=v2>2W / 3700kV Outrunner Motor</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Ok First pics shows how it comes out of the box. The small package of white stuff is the supplied light weight spackle for smoothing the body out as is does have some dimples in the foam. Foam is larger cell type so the spackle is welcome.

Now for first empressions. It really caught me by surprise as to the size. It is fairly close in size to the GWS A-4 that I just finished. The second pick is a comparison pic to the A-4.

My setup that will be used in this plane will be:
EDF: HET 6904
Motor: HET 2W-18 3700Kv
ESC: Turnigy 60A Plush ESC with switching BEC
Battery: Loong Max 4s 2250 25C

Now to the build of the plane.

Jason

FresnoJay

Ok first thing on the list is to cut out the Vertical Stab and the Canards. In the first pic in the first post you can see the sheet of depron. That sheet has the Vertical Stab and Canard drawn on it and you must cut them out. Very easy as long as you use a nice new or still sharp hobby knife of some sort.

Next I went on to cut out the canopy to access the the electronics bay. In the first pic you can see the canopy lines that you cut along. Cut along and pull up. The Second and third pics show the electronics bay and just how much room there is inside the fuse. I put 3 4S LM 4S 2250 25C packs end to end. Each pack had about 3/4" to 1" of space on either side of the packs depending on the area inside the fuse.

Jason

FresnoJay

Now to explain what is seen in some of the previous pics.

The black pieces seen in the previous pics are my various pieces of my canopy hold down system I used as its left to you in this kit how you do it. I used various parts left over from my GWS A-4 parts tree.

First is the front hatch hold down. I used what normally used in GWS planes to line up and hold down the front edge of wings or back edge of canopies. The good ole Pin and hole plate set shown in pic 1. The set I used was the smallest set on the parts tree. I placed and recessed the hole plate on the fuse side and placed the pin plate on the canopy side shown in pics 2 and 3 respectively.

Second was the Rear canopy hold down. I again went to the GWS A-4 parts tree and took a part from it to hold the rare earth magnet on the fuse side of the hold down. I am not sure what this part is used for in the GWS models but works well for a magnet holder seen in pic 4. I also used a plate and screw and nut from the GWS plane as well to keep the magnet holder in place and hid the plate as it was on the outside of the fuse seen in pics 5,6, and 7. Next I just cut out and sunk in the rare earth magnet on the canopy side seen in pic 8.

The way I setup the canopy hold downs produced a very strong system by going magnet to magnet. Strong enough to be ably to hold the fuse up by seen in pic 9.

Thats all for now. More to come.

Jason

babylon5

Hi Jay, very nice plane. If possible please post a video of the maiden

Cheers and all the best
B5

FresnoJay

Babylon5, Nice name and will do. She is probably about at least a month from maiden but progress is slowly moving along. Got the fan access hatch cut out and sanded today. Waiting on pics till I can get the fan mounting plates and hold down magnets installed so I can show the complete installation.

Jason

FresnoJay

Well got time and got a little more done on her. Joined the aft fuse end to the main fuse section. And mounted 1 of the canards and prepped the tail and second canard.

First the fuse section went together pretty easy. A few gaps here and there but nothing a little light weight spackle wont fix. In the pix you can also see my fan access area and hatch cover. No magnets installed yet but to come shortly. Still no fan as funds for hobby stuff is really tight.

Second Canard and Tail have a little addition to the assembly to aid in alignment and also give a bit of additional support. I took some good ole household toothpicks and stuck them in the canards and Tail. Aligned them to the proper location and pressed them into the fuse then cut them off at the desired length.

Only got one canard attatched to the fuse as I ran out of glue:o. Off to the hobby shop for essentials tomorrow.

More to come.

Jason

FresnoJay

Ok well my flying today of my other planes was a no go due to weather. So it allowed me to get a bit more done on the Typhoon.

First off I got the other canard attatched.

Second, I filled all joint seem lines and gave the whole airframe a once over sanding.

Third, coated the entire fuse with the supplied light weight filler. Now I used a trick that made the application a snap. Cut open the top of the bag and added just a bit of water. Just enough to make the filler about the consistancy of drywall mud. Then using my hands as applicators applied over the entire fuse in a similair fashion to frosting a cake. Thing looks like an over grown Airplane shaped cake now.

Finally, The last thing I have done at this time is I have cut, taped, painted, and cleaned up the clear canopy supplied with the kit. Wasn't going to use it at first but after studying pics of the real plane decided it wouldn't look right without it.

Pics in a bit of my progress.

Jason

FresnoJay

Ok have finally returned to work on this lovely plane. Other projects I thought were done ended up needing more work. But are now done and allowed me to finish the major airframe contruction.

1. First filling and sanding complete.

2. Wing filler pieces made installed and sanded to shape desired (Had an issue wing a gap between the LE of the wing and the fuse).

3. Cut the Elevons and Attatched the wings.

Bare Airframe current weight is 10.25oz. Figure it will be around 12-13oz after finaly filling/sanding, Paint, and WBPU.

She looks great.

Jason

FresnoJay

Ok Got bored waiting for the funds to get the finishing materials for this beauty. So I am starting to detail her out.

First off is the Wing Tip pods. I started off with a sandwich of 2 pieces of 6mm depron (Scrap left overs from the sheet that came with this kit). Sanded to a round and rounded tips. At present I have only done the Right wing pod which is the flat ended one for the deployable towed radar decoy. But the Left one will be done in similair fashion but rounded at both ends per the Full Scale aircraft.

Next will be the DA-7 IR pod, refueling probe bump, And the flared Vertical stab Base Leading Edge.

Pics of what the tip pods start from and end up as attatched. More to come.

Jason
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FresnoJay

Completed the tip pods and attatched them to the plane. Also made the IR pod and working on the Fuel probe blister. The Vertical stab flared base is in aq holding pattern due to the need for 3mm depron as I only have 6mm depron and no hotwire cutting device.

She is looking good and looks like a Eurofighter now. Suprised me how much life a few pieces of foam detail bring to a build. Detailing is starting to bite me and think my next builds ARF or otherwise are going to be getting some to set them off.

Ok some pics of the work done. Man it looks good. The IR pod will get its black eye ball after polyc and paint.

Jason
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FresnoJay

I figured time for a quick update. 2 coats of PolyC on this bird. Sanded the second coat and will wait till morning to put the third on it. It is looking very nice and smooth.

Have the HET fan unit and have installed the fan mounting blocks in the fuse for it. Working on the fan intake lip as there is a gap around the front of the fan and the ducting.

Picking up a new compressor and airbrush kit tomorrow as well as the paint for her. I am going scale grey color for her. Will also be ordering the decals for her from callie graphics.

Jason

FresnoJay

Ok got some more done on the bird. PolyC is not done and just finished filling the little dings and knicks from all the handling of the plane during the application process that the PolyC didn't fill in. This sucker is gonna be nice and slick.

The fan has been mounted and am installing the magnets for the hatch securing system. She will also be getting painted today and have the control surfaces installed as I know have the RX for her as well.

Jason

Alpea42

FresnoJay really like the look of the Euro Fighter. heres a cool pic. of one that flew up to a C-130 open rear door for a photo op.

FresnoJay

Alpea, I would be having a heart attack if I was that guy. Nice pics, thanks for posting them. Also thanks for the comments on the plane. It has been a long build and its finally drawing to a close. Here is a pic of how she looks after the first coats of paint today.

Jason

Alpea42

Here's a Shumate micro pusher parkjet I'm building for F B I like it too.A Saab Gripen

FresnoJay

Ok we are nearing maiden time with this bird. She has taken a beating with all the equipment installation. But at this point I only have 1 more issue to work out. Which happens to be the ESC will not stay double sided taped in the recess I made for it in the ducting. Compounding the problem is the lack of access to it. So I an going to have to make a hatch to access the ESC just forward of where the Fan Hatch is. But at least this is the last issue to work out.

The controll surfaces are installed. Linkages connected and working. Motor/Fan assembled and tested. Intake ring installed and sanded to fit. Mixing setup and working properly.

Pics below show the work done over the last week. She will recieve her final paint and decals after the maiden. I will get her all pretty for her service life and to join the fleet.

Jason

P.S. The motor has been chosen and installed. It is the new Little Screamers JS-1400.

**EDIT** My AUW is currently 45.55 oz or 1291g.<!-- / message --><!-- attachments -->

Alpea42

Good luck with the 1st flight 45oz seems heavy keep the speed up. Getting it to launch will be challenging.

FresnoJay

Aplea, The weight is a bit heavier than I wanted but the weight is all power train and batteries. This setup will put out around 56oz of thrust so I have the flying weight more than covered. I have had almost 50oz planes handlaunched with less thrust and had them fly successfully. I am pretty confident that the weight wont be an issue.

Jason

FresnoJay

Ok just finished testing the power setup in this plane. All I can say is WOW!!!

Fan : HET 6904
Motor : JS-1400
ESC : Turnigy Plush 60A
Battery : 2 X Loong Max 4S 25C 2250 in parallel (4500)
Amps : 88.2 After 10 seconds
Volts : 14.21 After 10 seconds
Watts : 1253 After 10 seconds

Charged packs back up and they took 213mah each after 3 X 10 second runs or 30 seconds. Should get around 4-5 minutes of mixed flying with this setup.

Jason

Alpea42

Well Jason if you're a 100MPH foamy pilot sounds like you'll fly this jet no prob.

FresnoJay

Aplea, I got the badge with my MPX Funjet. The A-4 in my avatar with the Typhoon it close to 100mph. So I have decent speed aircraft but the first couple flights on the typhoon will determine if the airframe has to be glassed. I am thinking with the amount of power and the relatively light weight for the power it has. Glassing will be needed to keep it together.

Jason

FresnoJay

Well the maiden went well bad. She is now repaired from the amount of damage sustained from the crash. She is getting ready to be glassed atm. Here the video of the maiden/impact.

Jason

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-utKbOeeIQ

Firestem4

what does Being glassed mean?

That sucks though =( Atleast the damage (from the video) doesnt look bad. Good luck next time mate!

Alpea42

Sorry it went like that Jay. Launcher needs to really heave it. To get up flying speed on that heavy of an airframe. Tell him to throw it like he wants it to fly.LOL Or try from the back of a moving pick up going about 25 MPH I would say.

FresnoJay

Firestem, Glassing = Fiberglassing the Airframe. I have finished the application of the fiberglass to the intake area. Which happens to be the area it needed it the most and should have been done off the bat. I will post some pics to show the before and after repairs damage.

Aplea, Yeah I agree but things happen and he did toss it as I had told him to. Lessons learned I guess. But all its good.

The glass is drying atm and fter it is dry will take more pics to show how it turned out. This is my first attempt at glassing anything. It doesn't look to bad either. Will just take a bit of finish filling and sanding to hide it and I am done. Then time to paint again.

Jason