FT 22 mods to fix cg and slow speed flying

frogs84ss

Junior Member
When I first built this plane I was so excited because I love flitetest and I like park jets. I was stoked to fly and build a flitetest park jet. As per per all the other flitetest planes it when together perfectly and looks awesome.

but then I started to try to get the cg where it was marked. hmmmm did I do something wrong? No but I did have to shove the 1300 mah 3cell way back and up on the shelf in the rear of the fuse. I figured ok well that's not so bad. but I started thinking, I cant fly a bigger battery. I'm stuck using the 1300 which is fine I can get 7.5 minutes on a 1300 mah battery and my 2212-10 1400 kv rctimer motor on an 8x4 prop. but I only have 2 of those so now I'm limited on how many flights I can do.

So I went to do the maiden the first time I just had it nose heavy to see how it would fly. as soon as I tossed it I knew, I was super nose heavy. now I was kind of bummed. I had to fly with constant up elevator just to fly level. which made it fly slow and really unstable, making it stall in turns and falling out of the sky if you let off the throttle, It just would not glide. it also had a nose heavy feel on the throttle( prop above the wing)

so with my park jet knowledge I set out to fix the issues.

first to fix the cg problem and make it so I can put the battery more in the middle of the fuse so I can run bigger batteries if I wanted. so My plan of attack was to get more weight to the rear.

1. I added 1" to the rear of plane pushing the rudders elevons and the trailing edge of the main wing back.( this added a little more wing area as well).
2. I moved the motor and prop back 2". basically as close to the rudders as possible.
this also made me extend the turtle deck on the fuse.
3. I moved the motor to inline with the wing, and changed the motor mount to the regular flitetest fire wall.
4. I moved the servos back 3" shortening the control rods and moving more weight back
5. I moved the leading edge of the wing forward 1". this added more wing area with out changing the overall look and I also changed the wing tips slightly to add a bit more wing area.

the results?

WOW. this things fly's just amazing. no up trim for level flight, glides for days, doesn't go nose up in the turns resulting in a stall. it flies slow with lots of control. and no its fast with the same motor and battery. speaking of battery its now towards the front of the fuse which means I can now fly with a 1300 mah 1800 mah or a 2200 mah battery.

the cg is exactly where it was marked on the original plans. I actually increased the throws and reduced the expo.

let me explain why I could do that. on the original plane everything was stuffed in a length of about 12". Now the weight is spread out over 18 ". This slows do the movement of the plane making less twitchy and transition slower making it fly much smoother with much more control.

This is on just a 1400 kv motor and 8x4 prop. I cant wait to get my 2200 kv park jet motor on a 6x4 prop on here and an 1800 mah battery. This plane will be awesome

I hope Josh reads this and tries my ides and makes a v2 FT22. I think he would agree this is a very nice flying plane.

20140423_133314.jpg
here you can see the extended under plate and the servos moved back
20140423_133255.jpg
servos moved back compared to the original
20140423_133225.jpg
this shows the extra length and the extended turtle deck and motor mount change and the new motor position and the slight changes made to the wing to add area.
20140423_133207.jpg
here you can see how much farter forward the batter sits now
20140422_134915.jpg
just a nice shot of the completed plane

I'll be posting videos of the before and after flying on my youtube once they get edited

if this helped or you liked it let me know I thought about making this an article but not sure. let me know what you think.
 

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I too am unhappy with the way the F22 flies . On the second one, I have all of the pieces cutout and painted but have not cut the motor slot ,so I can easily move the motor back. I also found the stress on the hinges and horn mounts giving me trouble so more hinge glue and gift card reinforcements to horns. I used a 2200kv motor and a 2200mah and still had to put the battery as far to the rear as possible. Tip stalls ,slow rolls are not what I hoped for but it will glide when it wants to----into the fence ouch! It seems that you can not let go of the sticks to scratch you nose. I'm going to put a second floor in the next one to raise the battery for easier access but still clear the canopy and extend it to the nose like a horizontal brace as the second bad launch bent the nose with a less than heavy strike. One more try then I will build something with less scale but fun to fly.
 

frogs84ss

Junior Member
I too am unhappy with the way the F22 flies . On the second one, I have all of the pieces cutout and painted but have not cut the motor slot ,so I can easily move the motor back. I also found the stress on the hinges and horn mounts giving me trouble so more hinge glue and gift card reinforcements to horns. I used a 2200kv motor and a 2200mah and still had to put the battery as far to the rear as possible. Tip stalls ,slow rolls are not what I hoped for but it will glide when it wants to----into the fence ouch! It seems that you can not let go of the sticks to scratch you nose. I'm going to put a second floor in the next one to raise the battery for easier access but still clear the canopy and extend it to the nose like a horizontal brace as the second bad launch bent the nose with a less than heavy strike. One more try then I will build something with less scale but fun to fly.

Good luck I hope it works out for you. definitely move the motor back and put it inline with the wing that alone will make a big difference. adding the extra length helps move the motor back farther too. and try to get the servos back too. I really need another person to build one like mine and try it out to verify my mods work better what your doing is close enough. make sure you let me know how it works please. thank you and good luck.
 
Very good problem solving skills brother. Well done! :) I also managed to find the sweet spot of my CG due to a spar glued under the fins and servos being at the back + a heavier prop. Flies way way better but definitely can't glide or fly with absolutely no uptrim. I guess I have to move the batter back more to get to that point but I gotta be super precise - like you mentioned in your other post, it's a super tight spot to get it right.
 
He ,He I let my friend fly my original F22 after I had all but destroyed it hitting a wire fence. He asked does it glide -----sure---it went straight in from six feet and making more space on the shelf for my next one.
 

frogs84ss

Junior Member
He ,He I let my friend fly my original F22 after I had all but destroyed it hitting a wire fence. He asked does it glide -----sure---it went straight in from six feet and making more space on the shelf for my next one.

lol yeah when I couldn't land with out nosing into the ground I scraped it and built my new one it just fly's so much better now. I love it.
 

Foam Addict

Squirrel member
Excellent work! I love it when some one sees a problem and corrects it!

That being said, I'm a little confused, my 3 F-22s didn't have any of the habits you described. Mine glided great, and were very locked In with a 4s 2000 and 2826 motor. I never use stock CGs though, and mine were both tail heavy compared to FT's.
 

frogs84ss

Junior Member
Excellent work! I love it when some one sees a problem and corrects it!

That being said, I'm a little confused, my 3 F-22s didn't have any of the habits you described. Mine glided great, and were very locked In with a 4s 2000 and 2826 motor. I never use stock CGs though, and mine were both tail heavy compared to FT's.

its possible that your setup just works better in the stock configuration. although with such a big battery and a 2826 motor I cant believe you where tail heavy. I had to put my battery so far back and it was still nose heavy and that was with a 1300 3s. so I find this interesting. that being said I have never built a plane that ended up nose heavy lol they are always tail heavy and use the battery to level it out. and yeah flitetest cg's seem to always be off but Josh has said he usually makes them nose heavy to start with. but mine just wouldn't go tail heavy It had no adjustment and I didn't like that. but I have heard a few other people say they had a similar issue so I wonder if it's a scaling issue when it gets printed. perhaps yours ended up alittle bigger making it balance better.
 
modified F22

First attempt to upload picture to forum---shorten F22 with motor moved back compared to first F22
 

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Fred98050

Member
When I first built this plane I was so excited because I love flitetest and I like park jets. I was stoked to fly and build a flitetest park jet. As per per all the other flitetest planes it when together perfectly and looks awesome.

but then I started to try to get the cg where it was marked. hmmmm did I do something wrong? No but I did have to shove the 1300 mah 3cell way back and up on the shelf in the rear of the fuse. I figured ok well that's not so bad. but I started thinking, I cant fly a bigger battery. I'm stuck using the 1300 which is fine I can get 7.5 minutes on a 1300 mah battery and my 2212-10 1400 kv rctimer motor on an 8x4 prop. but I only have 2 of those so now I'm limited on how many flights I can do.

So I went to do the maiden the first time I just had it nose heavy to see how it would fly. as soon as I tossed it I knew, I was super nose heavy. now I was kind of bummed. I had to fly with constant up elevator just to fly level. which made it fly slow and really unstable, making it stall in turns and falling out of the sky if you let off the throttle, It just would not glide. it also had a nose heavy feel on the throttle( prop above the wing)

so with my park jet knowledge I set out to fix the issues.

first to fix the cg problem and make it so I can put the battery more in the middle of the fuse so I can run bigger batteries if I wanted. so My plan of attack was to get more weight to the rear.

1. I added 1" to the rear of plane pushing the rudders elevons and the trailing edge of the main wing back.( this added a little more wing area as well).
2. I moved the motor and prop back 2". basically as close to the rudders as possible.
this also made me extend the turtle deck on the fuse.
3. I moved the motor to inline with the wing, and changed the motor mount to the regular flitetest fire wall.
4. I moved the servos back 3" shortening the control rods and moving more weight back
5. I moved the leading edge of the wing forward 1". this added more wing area with out changing the overall look and I also changed the wing tips slightly to add a bit more wing area.

the results?

WOW. this things fly's just amazing. no up trim for level flight, glides for days, doesn't go nose up in the turns resulting in a stall. it flies slow with lots of control. and no its fast with the same motor and battery. speaking of battery its now towards the front of the fuse which means I can now fly with a 1300 mah 1800 mah or a 2200 mah battery.

the cg is exactly where it was marked on the original plans. I actually increased the throws and reduced the expo.

let me explain why I could do that. on the original plane everything was stuffed in a length of about 12". Now the weight is spread out over 18 ". This slows do the movement of the plane making less twitchy and transition slower making it fly much smoother with much more control.

This is on just a 1400 kv motor and 8x4 prop. I cant wait to get my 2200 kv park jet motor on a 6x4 prop on here and an 1800 mah battery. This plane will be awesome

I hope Josh reads this and tries my ides and makes a v2 FT22. I think he would agree this is a very nice flying plane.

View attachment 22313
here you can see the extended under plate and the servos moved back
View attachment 22312
servos moved back compared to the original
View attachment 22311
this shows the extra length and the extended turtle deck and motor mount change and the new motor position and the slight changes made to the wing to add area.
View attachment 22310
here you can see how much farter forward the batter sits now
View attachment 22309
just a nice shot of the completed plane

I'll be posting videos of the before and after flying on my youtube once they get edited

if this helped or you liked it let me know I thought about making this an article but not sure. let me know what you think.



Quick question:

I don't understand #3, what "3. I moved the motor to inline with the wing,"
means, I don't see any difference between the mod and the original aside from the position being more aft for the motor.

Can someone explain this to me.

Thanks a lot.

Frederic.
 

Flynn

Member
Quick question:

I don't understand #3, what "3. I moved the motor to inline with the wing,"
means, I don't see any difference between the mod and the original aside from the position being more aft for the motor.

Can someone explain this to me.

Thanks a lot.

Frederic.

I think he means, as looking from the side of the aircraft, he moved the motor down. The motor sits lower in the plane. The FT firewall mounts the motor higher, and he used the regular firewall to lower its position. I think . . .
 

Flynn

Member
I have had no luck with this plane either. I built 2 and they both flew bad and with the exact same tendencies. I think the motor was a bit underpowered, but its the same motor I flew in my original F-22 (the profile version). I want have to make some time to try the mods listed here.

Thank you Frog84ss!!
 

Fred98050

Member
I have had no luck with this plane either. I built 2 and they both flew bad and with the exact same tendencies. I think the motor was a bit underpowered, but its the same motor I flew in my original F-22 (the profile version). I want have to make some time to try the mods listed here.

Thank you Frog84ss!!

My first one was under power as well and I had some CG issues, I found this thread and realized that Frog84ss had had the same issues and fixed it with his ingenuity and design.

I am building his setup right now and couldn't understand the "motor inline with wing" , I think you right, this is probably what he means.

Thanks guys.
 

rider

Junior Member
Hi all,

I've had a play around with the CG of the FT-22 also. My first one was a speed build kit and balanced nicely with a 1300 battery, but I wanted to be able to put a 2200 in it also.

I built a second one using Australian foamboard and shifted the motor and prop slot back 15mm, plus to get a bit of extra weight rearwards I moved to servos back and mounted then so the linkages are on the top. This also removed the need to have the extra bits of foam to stop the control linkages flexing under load.

I haven't had a chance to fly it yet (very windy in Melbourne), but it balances nicely with either a 1300 or 2200 mAh battery as planned.

20140626_184402.jpg
 

Fred98050

Member
Hi all,

I've had a play around with the CG of the FT-22 also. My first one was a speed build kit and balanced nicely with a 1300 battery, but I wanted to be able to put a 2200 in it also.

I built a second one using Australian foamboard and shifted the motor and prop slot back 15mm, plus to get a bit of extra weight rearwards I moved to servos back and mounted then so the linkages are on the top. This also removed the need to have the extra bits of foam to stop the control linkages flexing under load.

I haven't had a chance to fly it yet (very windy in Melbourne), but it balances nicely with either a 1300 or 2200 mAh battery as planned.

View attachment 25950

Very very nice rider!!
 

Fred98050

Member
Just built our new f22 according to frogs84ss plans. we just added some reinforcement in the neck and added some foam in the nose as well.

Waiting for motor and electronics to be delivered next week.

Thanks Frogs84ss, we already had a great time building the F22.;)

IMG_1602.jpg IMG_1604.jpg Screen Shot 2014-06-28 at 8.47.42 PM.jpg
 

Fred98050

Member
Maiden flight !!!!

Gorgeous weather here this evening and went for the maiden flight of new F22. It flew really really well. With my poor skills level the bigger wing span and extra aft weight made a huge difference. To balance the plane the 3S 1300mAh was all the way forward in the nose.
It can fly slower than the original without stalling while turning (which was my issue with the original design and limited experience).

Anyway, loved it!!!! No crash either!!!! That was a first, which was quickly noticed by my 8 year old son "no, horrible crash tonight!!) :D

I second Frogs84ss with the characteristics of his design and congratulate him for his ingenuity.

Frederic