Yellow Aircraft F-16 Turbine
#1
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Yellow Aircraft F-16 Turbine
I Built this jet over the last year from a ducted fan Yellow kit. I did some mods to it and made it turbine powered. I have a Wren 54 MK4 in her and she moves pretty good. The flight on the video is with the nose gear door hanging open and twisted acting like a speed brake. I will do some work on that this winter. Any way Thanks to Billy D for making the video. I thought I would post because I really haven't been able to find any vids of the Yellow AC F-16 with a turbine in it.
Enjoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=7r72utIMD74
Joe
Enjoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=7r72utIMD74
Joe
#3
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RE: Yellow Aircraft F-16 Turbine
Hi Joe
Thank you for sharing it. It is very good to see it fly almost like a rocket
and it feels to me that we have done the right thing, converting ours to a turbine.
We (my partner and I) have the ya f-16 almost 13 years and it was left aside
in the workshop, so eventually it was decided that instead of leaving it to die,
to convert it, and we are happy with it.
Now, the plane is just before painting and we have done also many modifications,
like changing the elevators yoke, move the turbine to the nozzle, strengthening the wings.
We have almost the same setup as you, our turbine is the Wren 53 Mk 3.
By the way, are you using the landing gear with the new oleos with shock absorber?
or the old one without?
Best Regards
Avi
Thank you for sharing it. It is very good to see it fly almost like a rocket
and it feels to me that we have done the right thing, converting ours to a turbine.
We (my partner and I) have the ya f-16 almost 13 years and it was left aside
in the workshop, so eventually it was decided that instead of leaving it to die,
to convert it, and we are happy with it.
Now, the plane is just before painting and we have done also many modifications,
like changing the elevators yoke, move the turbine to the nozzle, strengthening the wings.
We have almost the same setup as you, our turbine is the Wren 53 Mk 3.
By the way, are you using the landing gear with the new oleos with shock absorber?
or the old one without?
Best Regards
Avi
#6
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RE: Yellow Aircraft F-16 Turbine
Very nice flight. Flew very well!
The only yellow F16 retracts with oleos where the real old ones. The newer sets have no oleos. They also dont need them. Its hard enough in a crosswind to keep the plane from scraping wingtips. Oleos would make the plane even more unstable.
The only yellow F16 retracts with oleos where the real old ones. The newer sets have no oleos. They also dont need them. Its hard enough in a crosswind to keep the plane from scraping wingtips. Oleos would make the plane even more unstable.
#9
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RE: Yellow Aircraft F-16 Turbine
ORIGINAL: gunradd
Very nice flight. Flew very well!
The only yellow F16 retracts with oleos where the real old ones. The newer sets have no oleos. They also dont need them. Its hard enough in a crosswind to keep the plane from scraping wingtips. Oleos would make the plane even more unstable.
Very nice flight. Flew very well!
The only yellow F16 retracts with oleos where the real old ones. The newer sets have no oleos. They also dont need them. Its hard enough in a crosswind to keep the plane from scraping wingtips. Oleos would make the plane even more unstable.
I mean, using wheels with very soft rubber or inflatable wheels or rubber wheels with hollow (the ones which it was used to be filled with sponge) ,
and not like the hard full rubber which we are using in our jets today .
Now, we have a dilemma... which type of wheels to use.
We used to use the Yellow hard sponge, but all the time we had to put the plane on a stand and not on his wheels, because we were afraid
that after a long sitting on the wheels without moving it will be a little bit flat, and the second reason and the main one is their erosion is much
more than rubber wheels.
Avi
#10
RE: Yellow Aircraft F-16 Turbine
Avi,
You are correct on all counts. If you leave the plane sitting on the foam tires for long, they'll flatten. Once they've run they'll shape back out, though. They do provide a bit of dampening...not much but enough. Remember that when you first started flying, most of your airplanes were sans shocks, but you managed to taxi back without the airplane being in pieces. They're nice to have, and since most jets have them, people think of them as necessary equipment, but this plane proves that they're not necessarily necessary. I've slammed this bird down hard (even on some very heavy ones) and the absence of shocks didn't seem to bother anything. Also, the plane wingtip-danced and such back in the oleo days. This F-16 tracks arrow-straight in spite of the narrow stance and short-coupling, and the rigid gear is part of that.
You are correct on all counts. If you leave the plane sitting on the foam tires for long, they'll flatten. Once they've run they'll shape back out, though. They do provide a bit of dampening...not much but enough. Remember that when you first started flying, most of your airplanes were sans shocks, but you managed to taxi back without the airplane being in pieces. They're nice to have, and since most jets have them, people think of them as necessary equipment, but this plane proves that they're not necessarily necessary. I've slammed this bird down hard (even on some very heavy ones) and the absence of shocks didn't seem to bother anything. Also, the plane wingtip-danced and such back in the oleo days. This F-16 tracks arrow-straight in spite of the narrow stance and short-coupling, and the rigid gear is part of that.
#11
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RE: Yellow Aircraft F-16 Turbine
Thank you for the compliments. Weight is 14.5lbs without fuel. That includes 7.5ozs of lead in the tail for balance. The wheels and brakes are BVM On the scale gear without oleos. I will get some pics later and show some of the mods which include removable wings.
Joe
Joe
#16
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RE: Yellow Aircraft F-16 Turbine
I used some dubro tires with the centers trimmed out and some round weather strip foam from homedepot on my F16. The tires lasted way longer then the foam ones from yellow. Down here in florida landing on a black runway in the summer would kill the foam tires in one landing with flat spots.
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RE: Yellow Aircraft F-16 Turbine
Joe,
Nice F-16 and nice flight. Can't wait to see it in person.
Be careful with those trees on the other side of the runway there. I hear they like to eat F-16's! DOH!
Mike
Nice F-16 and nice flight. Can't wait to see it in person.
Be careful with those trees on the other side of the runway there. I hear they like to eat F-16's! DOH!
Mike
#21
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RE: Yellow Aircraft F-16 Turbine
Mike and Airplanes400 Thank You
Mike those trees have eaten more then just F-16's. they are like the Kite Eating Tree from Charlie Brown
Any way Here are some pics and I will try to explain some of the Mods that I did but can't take pics of because of the tail pipe.
I did use the stock elevator yoke but I moved the ball link that was on it to the left side of it (looking from the rear of the jet). I filed a flat spot on it and drilled and tapped it. This was done so I could install the Elevator servo in the tail of the jet just in front of where the rudder servo sits.
The other mod that was done was a removable wing. I used a set of BVM carbon fiber wing guides form the Electra jet that have the bolt hole on the bottom (you can see them in the pic). I did have to cut them down some to get them to fit in the narrow spot on the fuse. Once they were set to the proper position, I bolted them in then supported them top and bottom with 1/4 ply pieces glued to the bulk head. The spars on the wing are a combination of 1/8 inch ply laminated to 1/8 carbon fiber spar. they go into the wing as far as the stock spar. On the wing itself, just above and below the spars front and rear is a piece of 3oz. Carbon fiber weav that extends aboet1 inch on either side of the spar and 1 inch past the end of the spar. This was also done to the stab top and bottom of the pivot tube. After this was done the wing and stab were glassed with 3/4oz fiber glass.
Also the aileron is done with a tab and slot set up for removal of the wing. There are no electronics in the wing. Everything is in the fuse.
Another mod is I like to make sure that the vertical fin is tied into a former in the fuse. I ran a piece of 1/8th inch ply into the vertical then glued it to the one former in the fuse.
I added the mounting plate for the RX and Batt and made a simple fuel tank from a 64oz juice bottle. This gives me 7 minutes of flight time.
Here are the pics.
Mike those trees have eaten more then just F-16's. they are like the Kite Eating Tree from Charlie Brown
Any way Here are some pics and I will try to explain some of the Mods that I did but can't take pics of because of the tail pipe.
I did use the stock elevator yoke but I moved the ball link that was on it to the left side of it (looking from the rear of the jet). I filed a flat spot on it and drilled and tapped it. This was done so I could install the Elevator servo in the tail of the jet just in front of where the rudder servo sits.
The other mod that was done was a removable wing. I used a set of BVM carbon fiber wing guides form the Electra jet that have the bolt hole on the bottom (you can see them in the pic). I did have to cut them down some to get them to fit in the narrow spot on the fuse. Once they were set to the proper position, I bolted them in then supported them top and bottom with 1/4 ply pieces glued to the bulk head. The spars on the wing are a combination of 1/8 inch ply laminated to 1/8 carbon fiber spar. they go into the wing as far as the stock spar. On the wing itself, just above and below the spars front and rear is a piece of 3oz. Carbon fiber weav that extends aboet1 inch on either side of the spar and 1 inch past the end of the spar. This was also done to the stab top and bottom of the pivot tube. After this was done the wing and stab were glassed with 3/4oz fiber glass.
Also the aileron is done with a tab and slot set up for removal of the wing. There are no electronics in the wing. Everything is in the fuse.
Another mod is I like to make sure that the vertical fin is tied into a former in the fuse. I ran a piece of 1/8th inch ply into the vertical then glued it to the one former in the fuse.
I added the mounting plate for the RX and Batt and made a simple fuel tank from a 64oz juice bottle. This gives me 7 minutes of flight time.
Here are the pics.
#22
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RE: Yellow Aircraft F-16 Turbine
One other thing I did was to add rails to mount the turbine. They are made from 1/4 inch ply, slotted to fit the bulkheads and epoxied with Triangle stock under them. Then the turbine is mounted to 1/4 inch spacers to bring it up to the center of the jet.
Joe
Joe
#23
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RE: Yellow Aircraft F-16 Turbine
Thank you Joe
for sharing your mods pictures.
In ours my partner and I we had decided to install the turbine in the rear without any tail pipe,
and he made some c.g. calculations that in the end it will be needed only minor of ballast in the
front.
I hope that eventually the plane will be around 7kg, almost as the same as yours.
by the way, I like your painting scheme, your plane is beautiful, good job! enjoy with it.
Ours started as Thunderbirds and a it will be painted as it started.
Joe, I have another question, what have you dune with the inlet? I mean the inlet diameter was designed to DF size.
Best regards
Avi
for sharing your mods pictures.
In ours my partner and I we had decided to install the turbine in the rear without any tail pipe,
and he made some c.g. calculations that in the end it will be needed only minor of ballast in the
front.
I hope that eventually the plane will be around 7kg, almost as the same as yours.
by the way, I like your painting scheme, your plane is beautiful, good job! enjoy with it.
Ours started as Thunderbirds and a it will be painted as it started.
Joe, I have another question, what have you dune with the inlet? I mean the inlet diameter was designed to DF size.
Best regards
Avi