New to the Hobby and FliteTest, here's my FT-22 build

[makattack]

I'm fairly new to the hobby, having only started flying in the Fall of 2013 with the Horizon Hobby/EFlite Delta Ray. That was a great platform to learn to fly on my own. When I was growing up, one of my passions was model building. I had built up a small fleet of plastic planes, tanks, ships, cars, and space craft. I had also dabbled with remote line modeling and built a balsa and tissue free flight/rubber band powered plane.

Well, this marks my first ever RC "scratch" build -- I put it in quotes because I ordered the speed build kit and Lazertoys power package: https://www.lazertoyz.com/F22-Powerelectronics-_p_500.html

The build was fun and a great learning experience for me. I had never handled hot glue before, nor this type of foam board, so it was all new to me. Learning about and connecting the electronics was also a new experience. I decided to get all fancy with the graphics, and lacking any artistic ability, went with vinyl decals. A mix of FliteTest (for the canopy) and Calli Graphics (for the USAF Thunderbirds style) decals. Working with Callie was great, as her specialty is with RC aircraft graphics, and all I needed to do was give her a rough idea and point her to the FliteTest site for the planes I wanted decals for (FT-22 and VersaWing) and she had mock ups ready the following day.

Here's the end result:


I like that the Thunderbird graphics makes for a unique, stripped Red, White and Blue top surface.



With a distinctive "wing" look for the bottom with the Native American Thunderbird graphic.

I actually maidened this plane this past weekend, before the vinyl graphics arrived because I just got impatient and a small flying window of opportunity opened before more snow hit the area. All the snow that was already on the ground had frozen to a crusty ice, so I figured water damage risk was lower. During that beautiful flight, I learned how great this plane handles and how durable it was due to a "nose in" incident with the ground. This happened on the very first flight, when I realized I wasn't hearing the TX timer counting down, and momentarily took my eyes off the plane in-flight, to look down at the TX. Ooops, it rolled onto it's back and headed straight down. I was able to recover slightly by chopping throttle and pulling back. The nose touched ground with a glancing blow which only caused a few creases in the foam.

Phew. A relaunch and short flight followed by a nice soft landing was my consolation for the newbie mistake.

I returned home to find a tube from Callie Graphics waiting for me to fancy up this build. Perfect timing, actually, as I had noticed that the mostly white fuselage with black canopy and orange prop. made for a slightly challenging flying situation against the snow-white backdrop of my flying field.

I just wanted to post this from a stock beginner point of view. Here's a summary of my lessons learned:

• Patience is a virtue when building. I got too impatient with building, so I didn't properly follow directions and got myself into a few awkward positions during the build and initial flight. I had watched the build video once, and thought it sufficient, but I should have had it nearby and handy.
  1. When mounting the control horns and push rods, I glued the control horns on before threading the push rods through the EZ Justers on the servo arms. I had to awkardly bend them into place after the fact.
  2. I didn't pay attention to the video where Josh B talks about mounting the motor with the grub screw facing up. I hadn't even known that's how the motor is secured to the mount. I had to redo the mounting to the firewall when I finally figured out how to secure the motor.
  3. Forgot some of the build tips about which surfaces to glue, and how to best do so. It still worked, but she's not the prettiest one in the barn.
• Patience is a virtue when flying. I got too impatient with flying my newly built F-22, so I went out while the ground was still covered with frozen H2O and forgot the following:
  1. Forgot to bring my Mobius to document the first flight
  2. Forgot to range check my newly built F-22 with AR400 RX, until I had already launched it, and thought "oh, better keep it close."
  3. Forgot that flying a white airplane against white snow and a dawn Sun makes for a visually challenging flight.
  4. Forgot to turn on the timer, so I got distracted and took my eyes off the plane.
  5. Forgot to land the plane instead of taking my eyes off the plane in-flight to look at my TX.

All in all, this was a great experience, where I learned a lot and had to re-learn a lot. Thanks to FliteTest, Lazertoys, and Callie Graphics for such great products that help a new hobbiest be successful despite his own tendencies towards self-destruction! I still have some general questions that I just have to figure out myself, such as how to measure the recommended control surfaces deflection (specifically, what the origin should be based on) and how to best water proof these foam boards without messy minwax or covering it with heavy tape.

Related links:

http://callie-graphics.com/

https://www.lazertoyz.com/Flite-Test-Power-Packs_c_78.html

 

[Foam Addict]

Nice build! I LOVE the T-birds scheme on the FT-22.

 

[Ron B]

Welcome to the forum
Nice looking plane
Lessons learned without to much damage makes a great day.

 

[dwardio]

Wow! Excellent build. One question, though-- did you waterproof it at all?

 

[Flynn]

Welcome Aboard! Great looking FT-22!

 

[makattack]

Thanks everyone for the compliments. I will definitely be spending a little more for some of the planes I really like with Callie Graphics! To answer @dwardio, I actually just saw the snowball FT videos, and happen to have a can of Tectron Waterproofing spray for fabric that I tried on a sample section of foam, and it seemed successful, so I just sprayed the FT-22 and am waiting for it to dry before flying it in the snow tomorrow!

Edited to add:
Well, today is "tomorrow" and I have a few additional lessons to add to the original post:

• If you are charging your TX batteries, do remember to take them out of the charger or always pack an extra set.
• Keep a bind plug either attached to the TX or something you always have with you when flying.

This morning was great. Calm winds, bright blue sky, if only a bit cold. Would have been a great time to fly. Fortunately, where I fly is only a 5 minute walk from home. Unfortunately, two back and forth trips before discovering my RX / TX lost bind and needed a rebind resulted in a no-go. I need to head into work now. Oh well. Next time, I hope to be more prepared.

 

[AustinFurey]

Loving the Thunderbird look! Great job with the graphics.

 

[Freaky_1]

Nice!

 

[Flynn]

I did check out the Callie site. Nice stuff, great reference site. thanks!

 

[ViperTech]

Sharp looking plane! You have been in this about the same amount of time as me got started in sept 2013! Welcome!

 

[BuckE67]

What an awesome looking plane! Great job!

 

[makattack]

So, I've updated the FT-22 a bit more, after watching the FliteTest Snowball videos, I sprayed it with a camp / boot water repellent spray that I already had called Tectron DWR -- it really seems pretty effective for protecting it while flying and belly landing on firm/packed snow. I've not tried it on wet or powder snow.

I had ironed the leading edges, but left the trailing and bottom edges bare paper with the laser cut channels, but have now filled them in with hot glue using the technique demonstrated in the Snowball Project videos. I like the additional rigidity and protection, especially on the bottom landing surfaces.

Anyway, I posted a short flight video (actually had much more, but I'm a terrible hatcam-cameraman, and had to cut out all the footage where the plane went out of frame. This spares everyone from seeing the snowy scenery pan back and forth. I realized I wasn't looking high enough, and made a second flight at low level with just a quick loop and landing.