Fuselages.

RC-AirWarriors · Post by **RC-AirWarriors** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 11:45 pm

I wish some of you guys could stop worrying about us poor saps and our Frail flat foam aircraft. If we didnâ€™t think they were competitive, we wouldnâ€™t build them. Why donâ€™t you just run us out of town with your plane and not your personal hatred of FFF.

irone · Post by **irone** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 11:50 pm

Guys...We flew some combat today....My FFF plane mid aired a full bodied plane such as Slam and drew build. My left wing contacted the other plane just in front of his wing. The full bodied plane broke in half and fell out of the air. My FFF plane just kept flying but did require a little CA after the sorte. Nothing I've seen here yet is bullet proof despite what some may think. No not even FFF.

I sure thought that I was telling the truth.
I even called Bob this morning to see what he remembered anything. He seemed unsure but he said he thought Gunfighter hit him. If so, I stand corrected. I did hit someone with the Zero and had damage to my left wing and some chunks knocked out of my rudder from prop hits.

Lee Liddle · Post by **Lee Liddle** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 2:50 pm

Irone, I don`t remember the midair that you describe. There were no full bodied planes there, only the 1" fat profile planes that Bob and I flew.
Bob broke the nose on his after a mid air with Chuck. that midair totaled Chuck`s plane. I don`t know who hit who.
Chuck and I also had a midair. Chuck hit me in the right side of my nose hard enough to total my gearbox and spur gear. I repaired the damage to my plane in 15min at the house, and flew it in some night combat later that night. Oh yeah, Chuck took the gear off of his plane and left the remains in my trash can[:0]

Chuck totaled all three of his FF planes in a matter of a few hours. Everything else that was involved in crashes or midairs was quickly repairable.
Here are the photos.

gunfighter · Post by **gunfighter** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 8:22 pm

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">My FFF plane mid aired a full bodied plane such as Slam and drew build. My left wing contacted the other plane just in front of his wing. The full bodied plane broke in half and fell out of the air. My FFF plane just kept flying but did require a little CA after the sorte.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

IRONE - I have done everything I could, and encouraged others to do the same, to make you welcome on this site. I have promoted your planes and encouraged other pilots to try them. However, one thing I cannot condone is telling stories that did not happen in order to sell a product!

There were 2 mustangs with 1" foam fuses broken in front of the wing at our gathering yesterday. One of Lee's and one of Bob's. My planes broke them both and my plane was totaled in the impact with Lee and severely damaged when I hit Bob's. I did major repair work to my planes after almost every heat because I was "in the mix" getting cuts and having mid-airs. I managed to keep flying till the last heat after going through almost a full bottle of CA and "Kikker". By the end of the day each plane had gained several ounces due to repairs. After the flying all 3 planes were totaled.

Pilots present at the gathering were -
Lee "The Knife" Liddle
Roy "Which way is up" Appleton
Chuck "Gunfighter" Waller
Bob "Buttercup" Leone
Max "Mad Max" McGee
Mark "RV6" LaBoyteaux
John "Irone" Brodie

A full report will be placed in a separate thread soon along with more pictures and further commentary!

EDITORIAL - IMHO!
The FFF planes fly good and they will be a great starter plane for pilots new to combat just like the coro planes were several years ago, but they are not going to be a competitive plane for the "serious" combat junkie. They just will not stand up to the rigors of Full out combat! IMHO!

RC-AirWarriors · Post by **RC-AirWarriors** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 9:49 pm

What is the difference in the way a low wing versus a mid wing flyâ€™s in air combat?

Cajun · Post by **Cajun** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 10:56 pm

It appears, as we should have suspected, that all of these designs, whether FFF, thicker foam profile, or full foam fuse will need some stiffening from thin glass rods, CF shafts, or bamboo skewers. And, yes, perhaps a small dose of filament tape will be called for. Granted these ships weigh only 10 oz. but when the cutouts for electronic gear are made in the foam the fuses lose a lot of integrity.

Surprise....Surprise. Even a ten oz ship flying at 25 MPH still has inertia[:0]

Now comes the hard part. How to put the armor in without ballooning the weight.

I find the silence of today from yesterdays participants almost deafening[:p]

thojo · Post by **thojo** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 10:59 pm

Knowing Lee, he's already got version 2 built to toughen the front of the fuse and somehow REMOVE an once in the process!

Which_way_is_up · Post by **Which_way_is_up** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 11:40 pm

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Cajun
 

I find the silence of today from yesterdays participants almost deafening[:p]
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Too much partying last night![:0][:o)][:D]

Lee Liddle · Post by **Lee Liddle** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 1:19 am

I`m pretty happy with the durability of my planes. The hit with Chuck was a T-Bone right square on my gear box. This will be a rare hit. If I`d have had my epoxy at the field, I could have fixed it and flown it in the next heat. I might add a 1" wide strip of bidi across the area where the crutch ends. There are other things that could be done, but I don`t think that they are needed. Bob`s mustang didn`t even have a crutch, just a motor stick glued into the foam.
I had a TX going bad and lost the Spitfire twice. It went straight in both times at full throtle and only broke the prop.
After Mexican and refreshments we went night flying. Mark L got some of the hottest action on video and says he will post it soon. Velcro made it in from Houston so I let him fly the Spit. He and I(flying the same Mustang that is in the picture) had a head-on. We hit wing root to wing root at full tilt. It did knock the wing loose on both planes, but after about an hour in the shop, they are both ready to go for tomorrow. There will be very little wind tomorrow, but it will be in the 30`s. I plan on flying.
Roy, bring your gloves and the Stang with a 555 in it for E-combat lessons. I`ve fully recovered.[:D]

Lee Liddle · Post by **Lee Liddle** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 1:21 am

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Knowing Lee, he's already got version 2 built to toughen the front of the fuse and somehow REMOVE an once in the process!<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Joe, I`m already on version 4 [8D]

irone · Post by **irone** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 7:28 pm

I sure thought that I was telling the truth.
I even called Bob this morning to see what he remembered anything. He seemed unsure but he said he thought Gunfighter hit him. If so, I stand corrected. I did hit someone with the Zero and had damage to my left wing and some chunks knocked out of my rudder from prop hits.

Cajun · Post by **Cajun** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 11:25 pm

No problem Irone. In Texas we overlook a memory loss caused by partaking of too many RITAS.[:D][:o)]

MLaBoyteaux · Post by **MLaBoyteaux** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 11:35 pm

Too many toys showed up in my mailbox this weekend. Anyway, I finally got the e-combat video clip edited. There are 2 versions, a hi quality for broadband and a lo quality. I don't think you'll be able to play them over a dial-up connection, but they stream good on my DSL.

The video is 5 minutes long. The Hi quality file is 20 MB:
http://www.rccombat.com/video/e-combat_hiq.wmv

The low quality one is 6 MB:
http://www.rccombat.com/video/e-combat_loq.wmv

I don't have an electric plane. Yet. I'm thinking the Osama Bomber is right up my alley...

catboater · Post by **catboater** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 11:47 pm

Cool video! The night shots are down right funny. You can't see anything but you can sure hear it when one smacks the ground.

Lee Liddle · Post by **Lee Liddle** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 4:50 am

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">My FFF plane mid aired a full bodied plane such as Slam and drew build. My left wing contacted the other plane just in front of his wing. The full bodied plane broke in half and fell out of the air. My FFF plane just kept flying <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

When you start talking about your design breaking other planes in half and flying happily off into the sunset, you need to be SHURE that it happened that way. Posting inaccurate information on a thread dedicated to comparing different construction methods doesn`t help anyone.

What I am shure of is that 4 FFF planes were damaged badly enough that their owners had no plans to repair them. The two 1" foam profile planes that were damaged are still flying after about 20 min of shop time each. Those are facts that help people decide what style of plane fits their needs the best.