Spitfire76's Build Log of Ben's XF-16

[Yankee2003]

A couple more pictures of the fuselage coming together.


Here is another situation that needs to be addressed in the motor fitting stage. The ESC is too short to reach the battery area in front of the wing.

Ideally you check this before you finish mounting your motor. If it comes up short like this, the best thing would be to extend the wires that run from the esc to the motor prior to installation.
That is in the rear view mirror for me. I am left with two, much less appealing solutions.
1) An extension to the battery from the esc. Flite Test does this on their twins, but I had heard that extending the battery leads can damage the esc. The Flite Test battery extensions can be seen in this build picture of my Boomin Flerken.

So maybe brushless escs have progressed to the point where this is okay. I don’t know about that.
Or the second and worse option.
2) Open up, cut up, or rebuild the enclosed fuselage section and extend the wires to the motor from the esc.

A heads-up for you. Don’t get caught out like I did. It is my first EDF scratch build so I use it as a learning experience.

 

[Spitfire76]

So here are a few pictures as I promised.
View attachment 238832
The dreaded nose cone.
View attachment 238833
View attachment 238834
The tail section. It can be easily fixed next time by cutting back the vertical fin, at the peak intersection, underneath the base. Not a big deal from this point forward.
View attachment 238835
View attachment 238836
The motor/thrust tube section. Pretty easy and straight forward. On display is my brick of an 80 amp esc. I can’t remember where this was used, but it is definitely overkill. The problem I had here was former #3. I failed to get it vertical when I glues it to the thrust tube.
Next time I would just not glue it to the thrust tube until I was glueing it into the fuselage section. That way it would be easy to ensure that it is flush to the back. Not a big deal, just a lesson learned.

Seems like we had the same problems with the nose and tail, and you don't know until you actually mess it up once. I'm thinking about making a 3d printed nose.

 

[Yankee2003]

Overall, the problems I have had are pretty basic and can easily be avoided once I have gone through the build process on the first one.
So build techniques and errors that are improved upon with exposure to them. This is a fun build and I am excited to finish her up and toss it in the air.
Thanks for including me on your journey Richard.
On to the wings….

 

[Spitfire76]

Overall, the problems I have had are pretty basic and can easily be avoided once I have gone through the build process on the first one.
So build techniques and errors that are improved upon with exposure to them. This is a fun build and I am excited to finish her up and toss it in the air.
Thanks for including me on your journey Richard.
On to the wings….

I am really enjoying this build too and thanks Mike for joining me on my "Journey into Jets"

 

[Spitfire76]

Got the other parts prepared for the EDF arrival - Lower Aft Fuse, Rear Fuse Cone and Nozzle Cone all from sheet 4.

 

[Spitfire76]

Completed the wings. Note: wing spars have been updated since the video, wasn't sure with this change if I still needed the bbq skewers and ended up leaving them out.


Just need to glue them together.

 

[Yankee2003]

Completed the wings. Note: wing spars have been updated since the video, wasn't sure with this change if I still needed the bbq skewers and ended up leaving them out.

View attachment 238861
Just need to glue them together.

Would you say that they could be glued together before adding the spars and doing the fold over?

 

[Crazed Scout Pilot]

I have always loved the F-16 and Been has designed an amazing one. I do have a couple of questions. The first one is I really would like to build one, but I'm still new to jets so how does it fly? The reason I ask this is because I designed my own f-16 and it flew but if your turned it a certain way it spiraled to the ground. Now I don't know if thats just my design or thats how all jets fly. My next question is I can't afford an EDF but I do have a C power pack laying around what do you think? Should I give it a try? My last question is can you tell me whats wrong with my f-16, are the wings to wide, I just know something doesn't look right on this F-16 that I designed. Thank you.

Do you see any reason It would spiral out of the sky? I ask because I'm trying to figure out if there is something wrong with the design aerodynamically, or is it my pilot skills?

 

[Spitfire76]

Would you say that they could be glued together before adding the spars and doing the fold over?

Not sure, I just followed the build video and taped and glued them together which seemed quite easy.

 

[Yankee2003]

Not sure, I just followed the build video and taped and glued them together which seemed quite easy.

You probably don’t have much to work on now.

 

[Spitfire76]

I have always loved the F-16 and Been has designed an amazing one. I do have a couple of questions. The first one is I really would like to build one, but I'm still new to jets so how does it fly? The reason I ask this is because I designed my own f-16 and it flew but if your turned it a certain way it spiraled to the ground. Now I don't know if thats just my design or thats how all jets fly. My next question is I can't afford an EDF but I do have a C power pack laying around what do you think? Should I give it a try? My last question is can you tell me whats wrong with my f-16, are the wings to wide, I just know something doesn't look right on this F-16 that I designed. Thank you.

Do you see any reason It would spiral out of the sky? I ask because I'm trying to figure out if there is something wrong with the design aerodynamically, or is it my pilot skills?

I’m also new to jets and this build is my first EDF powered plane so can’t really offer too much advice. It’s good that your F16 is your own design though, I’m not quite at that stage at the moment.

 

[Spitfire76]

You probably don’t have much to work on now.

I’ve started to work on installing the servos but don’t like the idea of glueing them in and so 3d printing some of my servo holders.

 

[AdityaPratap]

can someone tell me where the cg point is ?

 

[Yankee2003]

XF VIPER - Foamboard F-16 EDF

EDIT - 11/5/2020: Version 8 plans are UPDATED and in the "Resources" section: https://forum.flitetest.com/index.php?resources/xf-viper-foamboard-f-16-edf.47/ (also in the attachments at the bottom of this post) - Latest version is "V8" - Paper thrust tube page is still "b5". - Current...

forum.flitetest.com

I would start here. Older version, but should be close enough.

 

[Spitfire76]

can someone tell me where the cg point is ?

I assume its that small circle on the plans (V8) but I just realized I didn't poke a needle in it so it would be marked on the outside of the wing after it’s folded.



Just had to print the corresponding sheet and use it as a template to mark the CG point.

 

[Spitfire76]

As there are no markings on the plans for the servos and control horn I was trying to work out how to position them as it wasn't clear in the build video until a bit later on with this screen shot



Positioned 3d printed control horn (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3094387)


I was going to use the servos salvaged from my Noob Wonder that I sacrificed to FF23 combat but now considering some new metal gear servos since everything depends on these guys.

This is the stl file for the servo mount I am using.

 

[Crazed Scout Pilot]

Nice looking really good!

 

[Spitfire76]

3d printed the canopy but with regular PLA it weights 27g compared to the foam board one of 5g. Could use LW-PLA but will likley stick with the foam board version at least for this build.

3D design F-16 Canopy - Tinkercad

3D design F-16 Canopy created by mrjdstewart with Tinkercad

www.tinkercad.com

Also noticed that the canopy plate from sheet 3 must have changed since the video and now has some flanges

 

[Spitfire76]

EDF and ESC should be here sometime today.

In the meantime, I've setup an elevon configuration on the Aura 5 lite and tested that the directions are correct.

May need to adjust throws. I wonder if there are some recommendations ?

 

[Yankee2003]

XF VIPER - Foamboard F-16 EDF

Calling it a day on building... I'm not a big fan of tape for securing hatches, so I used popsicle sticks instead....

forum.flitetest.com

Here are Ben’s recommendations.