Electric Ducted Fan R/C Jet

There are a lot of airplanes in the Schmidt household, and Jacob certainly seems to have taken to them. I'm sure Dylan will be wanting to fly them soon too. Just after Christmas 2004, I went out (eager to spend a gift certificate) and bought a Golden Hawks R/C jet at Radio Shack (just before the changed their names to The Source). While it's a nice looking airplane, out of the box it did nothing but crash.

This particular jet is made by Estes-Cox of EPP foam, so it's reasonable durable. But after 5 to 10 nosefirst, full power dives into the ground, it was clear the single channel rudder only control was a no-go. Without any elevator control, the airplane was super sensitive to balance - put the battery pack a little too far forward and it would crash, too far back and it would crash. Once, and only once, did we have a nice flight. Balanced perfectly, Jacob fly it around the park before flying it into the swingset. Every landing - good or bad, would jar the battery pack and necessitate rebalancing. So what to do?

Well - convert to full blown R/C control was the only way to go. I dusted off my old 6 channel Futaba radio, invested in a Electrifly receiver with integrated speed control, installed two NARO servos, and rewired for the speed control. Of course, there were other issues too - build an elevator, beef up the rudder. Also an aborted attempt to go for aileron control too.

Since the conversion, it's been flown on two days (both with hurricane force winds - well, at least it always seems that way). Both days have ended with damage - but relatively minor compared to previous outings. The end result though is that the plane has plenty of power, it's nice and controllable, and the throttle means when it does land (crash), at least the power isn't on.

Now we're just waiting for spring/summer/fall and some calm days to fly it. The sort of day where Jacob can take the controls without having to fight the wind. Maybe we'll get some video of it in flight too.

Kyle