Stealthily building an F117 community designed plane

[CarolineTyler]

You know that feeling, you're waiting for a plethora of bad weather to go away, a model that you have ordered back at the beginning of February to turn up at your door (currently stuck in customs I'm informed) and you see a design that just seems to cry out to be built.
This is a 64mm EDF F117 designed by Matagami Designs and from their maiden video flies real nice.
Anyway....enough chit-chat, lets's get this moving!

64mm 4S EDF ordered - It has 11 blades so should have a nice whoosh.
50A ESC ordered - the max draw of the EDF on the spec sheet is 52A static so that should be just peachy.
Plans printed
Plans glued together
Components cut out
Grabbed the only 4 Flitetest foamboards I have in the house and with some tetris skills - laid them all out

Next stage I do is to use mounting spray adhesive and gently stick the paper to the foamboard. I treat my plans as disposable as I can always print more and I feel that it's more exact since I'm not adding another level of copy/tracing that would be needed if I want to reuse the plans as templates.

 

[Matagami Designs]

You know that feeling, you're waiting for a plethora of bad weather to go away, a model that you have ordered back at the beginning of February to turn up at your door (currently stuck in customs I'm informed) and you see a design that just seems to cry out to be built.
This is a 64mm EDF F117 designed by Matagami Designs and from their maiden video flies real nice.
Anyway....enough chit-chat, lets's get this moving!

64mm 4S EDF ordered - It has 11 blades so should have a nice whoosh.
50A ESC ordered - the max draw of the EDF on the spec sheet is 52A static so that should be just peachy.
Plans printed
Plans glued together
Components cut out
Grabbed the only 4 Flitetest foamboards I have in the house and with some tetris skills - laid them all out
View attachment 195315
Next stage I do is to use mounting spray adhesive and gently stick the paper to the foamboard. I treat my plans as disposable as I can always print more and I feel that it's more exact since I'm not adding another level of copy/tracing that would be needed if I want to reuse the plans as templates.

Legendary tetris skills! Good luck!

 

[The Fopster]

You know that feeling, you're waiting for a plethora of bad weather to go away, a model that you have ordered back at the beginning of February to turn up at your door (currently stuck in customs I'm informed) and you see a design that just seems to cry out to be built.
This is a 64mm EDF F117 designed by Matagami Designs and from their maiden video flies real nice.
Anyway....enough chit-chat, lets's get this moving!

64mm 4S EDF ordered - It has 11 blades so should have a nice whoosh.
50A ESC ordered - the max draw of the EDF on the spec sheet is 52A static so that should be just peachy.
Plans printed
Plans glued together
Components cut out
Grabbed the only 4 Flitetest foamboards I have in the house and with some tetris skills - laid them all out
View attachment 195315
Next stage I do is to use mounting spray adhesive and gently stick the paper to the foamboard. I treat my plans as disposable as I can always print more and I feel that it's more exact since I'm not adding another level of copy/tracing that would be needed if I want to reuse the plans as templates.

That really is ninja level Tetris. Kudos 👌. Good luck with the build. I got a 50mm edf from Santa so just deciding what to build. Grunjet is the only sensible choice, but Grifflyer's F22 looks amazing and would fly off my fan. Decisions...
Good luck with your build. With your track record I suspect it will be "quite nice".

 

[CarolineTyler]

50mm EDF you say? - I can completely recommend this L-39 I have mine flying on a 4S 50mm EDF and it always gets admiration at the club field......

 

[The Fopster]

50mm EDF you say? - I can completely recommend this L-39 I have mine flying on a 4S 50mm EDF and it always gets admiration at the club field......

I've looked at that too! I'm an OK builder but dodgy pilot (not much opportunity to fly) so I need something easy to fly and easy to repair. Only sensible option is (I think) build a grunjet to build up stick time then build something fancy later on. In the meantime I just downloaded Picasim...
Happy building!

 

[The Hangar]

I’ll be following the build!

 

[CarolineTyler]

Two boards parts outline cutout, not doing all the slots etc. as since the build doesn't have step by step instructions I don't want to cut any small bits without being 100% sure.

 

[Ratcheeroo]

I've looked at that too! I'm an OK builder but dodgy pilot (not much opportunity to fly) so I need something easy to fly and easy to repair. Only sensible option is (I think) build a grunjet to build up stick time then build something fancy later on. In the meantime I just downloaded Picasim...
Happy building!

I just happened to have built 2 L-39s, easy build, easily repairable as well would be my guess also. Just downloaded the F-117 so I'll be following this build start to finish to see what I'm in for. Grifflyer says the L-39 is a good trainer jet , but the Grunjet looks interesting also. Good luck to both of you!

 

[CarolineTyler]

The L-39 flies super smooth, just make sure it has a good speedy launch throw, I have a launch switch on my transmitter that adds about 15% up elevator and that has made launches much better.

F117 parts all cut out.

Won't be doing much more on this build till next week as I have that Arrows Hobby Viper Jet coming in the post tomorrow and I plan on swapping out the ESC for a 40A one for 4S capability.
Also adding a rudder, I like rudders

 

[Ratcheeroo]

The L-39 flies super smooth, just make sure it has a good speedy launch throw, I have a launch switch on my transmitter that adds about 15% up elevator and that has made launches much better.

F117 parts all cut out.
View attachment 195511
Won't be doing much more on this build till next week as I have that Arrows Hobby Viper Jet coming in the post tomorrow and I plan on swapping out the ESC for a 40A one for 4S capability.
Also adding a rudder, I like rudders

Awesome thanks for the tip, my experience with the F-22s had me thinking I should probably be doing something like that. Nice work on the cutting, nice clean work!

 

[CarolineTyler]

64mm EDF arrived today, still waiting on the ESC

 

[CarolineTyler]

Bit of a delay due to other plane projects but, build has commenced. Going to take my time on this as there are no build instructions, lots of studying of the author's build pictures and a lot of dry fitting and getting my head around the fitment of parts.

 

[CarolineTyler]

This build is coming along....
Decided to replace this front EDF support with one cut from balsa which I strengthen with a couple of layers of fibreglass bonded with 5-minute epoxy.

Just pondering over whether I can now close the wings....

Wings closed up and it's becoming a thing....

Oh darn, just realised I haven't put the servo arm screws in

Little bit of wing surgery needed

 

[CarolineTyler]

Moving on.
Main cabin made but not stuck down yet.
Thrust tube and supports secured but will add some clear gorilla glue to fully fix
Awaiting some servo extension leads as I'm too lazy to solder on some extra.

 

[CarolineTyler]

With a mountain of masking tape I'm test fitting the fuselage's top panels....this is not at all easy as it's a bit of a puzzle, move any one piece and all the adjoining pieces need to be adjusted.
Tail feathers are in place needing little adjustment.

 

[Monte.C]

With a mountain of masking tape I'm test fitting the fuselage's top panels....this is not at all easy as it's a bit of a puzzle, move any one piece and all the adjoining pieces need to be adjusted.
Tail feathers are in place needing little adjustment.
View attachment 200445 View attachment 200446 View attachment 200447 View attachment 200449 View attachment 200450

Wow you're braver than I.
Hey with that blue piece he looks like he broke his nose!

 

[Matagami Designs]

Looking great! Not much left to do now. 👍

 

[SP0NZ]

That looks awesome!

 

[CarolineTyler]

Looking great! Not much left to do now. 👍

Still waiting for better weather here in Yorkshire. Seems to have been raining for the last three weeks!.
Weekend after next looks promising, by then, I will have three planes to maiden

 

[Ratcheeroo]

With a mountain of masking tape I'm test fitting the fuselage's top panels....this is not at all easy as it's a bit of a puzzle, move any one piece and all the adjoining pieces need to be adjusted.
Tail feathers are in place needing little adjustment.
View attachment 200445 View attachment 200446 View attachment 200447 View attachment 200449 View attachment 200450

Great Job!