[NorseHammer]

Life has been real hectic lately and I can't seem to get the time to build a nice detailed scale effort so today I decided to build this profile Alpha Jet, this is a rendition of the European trainer/ Ground support fighter from the early seventies. The kit is from AAF and sold here through Oilman's R/C.


It builds FAST the fuselage took 10 minutes start to finish! The wings are a little fussyer and took an hour a piece. Then another hour or so adding the control surfaces using Nelson Lite Film covering for a gapless hinging. The plane is at the wing covering stage now while supper cooks. Its not an ARF but it's a pretty easy build. Ok the instructions are three pages in poor English, probably electronicaly translated from Dutch, but this thing is so straight forward you really don't need anything more. The parts are CNC routered and come out on to the bench with a little snick of the exacto knife as needed. The only thing easier that I've built are those little speed 280 Micro Warbirds Ton Von Munstern designed and again Oilmans's sells.

Norsehammer

[cassat]

Heard these were cool. Which motor are you using ?

[NorseHammer]

Well I have a few, but first I'll drop in a brushed speed 480 mated to a WeMoTec 480 fan. Then I want to try a couple of, shall we say "unusual" things. I have two pair of GWS fans, singly even with brushless motors they don't have the poop to push a plane of this size. The first pair is GWS 50 mm fans coupled to Fiego 5300 kv 12 mm motors the second pair are GWS 55 mm fans coupled to HiMaxx 2015-5400's. I don't expect either pair to push the plane any better than the the single WeMoTec Brushed setup, but the idea of turning this into a twin jet is what I want to check out, more for theexperimentation aspect of it thananything really, and those two setups are what I have in my collection of parts. I'll make a balsa twin mount that fits the Alpha's cutouts for the single WeMoTec setup so the airframe won't be modified in any fashion. It may work, it may not, the fun is in the experimenting for me at least.

Norsehammer

[ken park]

I picked up a DF .21 Toki with a 90mm fan and pipe and that model design might fit my needs? Any one think other? Yes! - No!

[oilman]

Aff is a German outfit. I was stocking this kit. But if memory serves corect I managed to sell three over a 1 1/2 year period. So gave up on them. They are great little kits. Like most things German engineered with the Panzer approach. But still with a Minifan and brushless I can not see weight being an issue.

The IC fan would be an interesting experiment.

Lorne.

[NorseHammer]

I've seen the Toki IC setup and this plane would be hard to balance with the Toki. The Toki would be overpowering the plane in all likelyhood. To make it work move everything you can as far forward as you can, use individual servos for all control surfaces, mount aileron servo's in the wing and in the middle of it, so they can stiffen things up as much as possible. Think flutter elimination because you'll have a plane that'll be in the 130 kmh or better speed range. Very small throws as well, Oilman is right about the "Panzer" type design, its just a small 90 mm span plane that will get very small very fast if you can get the thing to balance with that Toki .15 mounted behind the C of G and its tuned pipe hanging out beyond the tail feathers.
I've built mine very light, covering just the wings with Nelson Litespan. The thing with electrics is, you can fly naked balsa if you want to. The LiPo's will be absolutly the smallest size that will deliver the goods to the motors after I check the current draw. This will be plenty fast I'm sure.

[ken park]

Good to hear your idea's on Toki being too hot for this design! I'll have to scratch something around the same basic shape as the Alpha I think!

[NorseHammer]

It could be done, the trick is getting it to balance. If you look at the planes that the Toki works in they are about the same wingspan, but they have the motor pretty much right on the CofG, without hacking the Alpha JEt too much you'd probably want to mount the fuel tank on the CofG in the wing possibly then put the receiver and its battery as far forward as you can, I think you'll end up moving the servo's forward ahead of the wing. The elevator servo is using a bowden snake anyway so moving it way up front isn't going to be difficult doing all that might help enough to get it to balance. The fuselage is plenty strong, as are the Tailfeathers and the wings certainly look up to the task, its just the weight of that Toki hanging back there that looks problematic to me. A really wild ride would be to get Oily to bring you in a 2W-20 700 watt 2 wind Typhoon motor and a Schuebler Fan, its a hotter setup than the Toki, and lighter as well. There is no next step up in this size motor/fan combo. If you want real speed in a smaller jet that's the best there is at this point in time. Next best thing and about a $150 bucks less is a toss up between the WeMoTec 480 (sometimes called mini fan) or the HET-RC EDF unit. The Toki is a nice setup if you like Nitro power, the only other small nitro setup is the hard to find .061 Norvel motor and Fan, this is a very hot little package and is light enough to work anywhere the WeMoTec will. They were sold two or three years ago as part a complete ARF kit (F85 I think) The little things were incredibly fast and not for the faint of heart. I saw one burning holes in the sky two years ago down in Chilliwack on a farm near Island 22 on the Fraser River as I was paddling by in my Canoe, I never got the name of the flyer. Someone down there must know who's it is. I personally prefer EDF's powered with LiPo's as I feel they are lighter, faster and easier to setup and maintain.
Have you considered building a SPAD for the Toki? You could quickly do something like a MUGI delta wing or a pint sized rendition of the ubiquitous "Kangaroo" out of 2 mm COROPLAST, and place the TOKI right where it needs to be for balance. whatever you decide have fun with it though.

NorseHammer

[oilman]

If anyone is intereted in one of these jets, heres a link to their site. Drop them an e-mail. There good guys to deal with. And there kits are quality!

http://www.aff-cnc.de/aff/eng/eng_alphajet.html

Lorne.

[NorseHammer]

The nice thing about electric powered planes is you don't have to cover everything if you dont want to. To keep weight down I covered just the wings, everything else is bare balsa, it works, it flys it's a little hard to see on an overcast evening.

The plane is flying with a GWS 55 fan and a HiMaxx 1500-5400 brushless motor. The comination is nice and light allowing the plane to balance perfectly when using a 2100 mah 321P Poly-Quest pack. This was why I didn't use the WeMoTec fan and the Graupner Speed 480 setup, there was no way it was going to balance with a LiPo pack, two maybe but then the AUW would have been more than I was comfortable with for a maiden. I wanted to keep the plane as light as possible initialy.

It flew like a dream! the plane is so light that it litterly flys out of your hands on thrust alone. Down trim and left trim were both needed, can't remember how many clicks. This is a plane I'm gonna love to fly for a long long time, it penetrates medium to strong gusty winds, that are too much for my 3D foamy Katana with authority. The power of the EDF was surprising, ,mor than I expected considering the flex observed in the blades when the motor was reved up and down before launch. I won't try a twin GWS 55 setup as its going to be a balancing nightmare I might still try a twin GWS 50 with Fiego brushless power in time. This setup works so well I'm reluctant to fool around with it any more I just want to fly the bag out of it!

Norsehammer