RC Powers F-22 V5 build and review - Take 2

Hi Everyone -

I had this little beauty out for a good thrash, reaching the 100 flight milestone on this plane😊  Between the two RC Powers F-22 V5s I have built, I now have 300+ flights, it is my favorite of the RC Powers V5 series of park jets.

This is the second F-22 V5 I have built, the first one was built of MPF, this one is build mostly of Dollar Tree foam (DTF or Adams Readi-board) and some Depron, I'll cover more details in a bit.  Here is some video of my first build with a discussion of the mods I made.  You can also read further details on the NAMC blog, hence why I called this blog post "take 2"😊

Here is some flight video of my current plane shot just awhile ago with the current setup I am still using.

Here is a "table talk" video I did that discusses much of what is below, however as mentioned in the video, you will find more pictures and actual measurements below if you are looking for ideas or inspiration to try your own mods😊

So learning from the first build and some of the DTF builds I have done recently, when I decided to build another, I chose to build the wing plate, fuselage and vertical stabs of DTF.  The "engine/nacelles" on the bottom are made of 6 mm Depron  (the parts with the black lines and light blue paint in the picture below)  The "under rudders" are also made of Depron.  

I again downsized the plans by 5%, so my wingspan is now 27"/686 mm and my plane is 36 and 1/4"/921 mm long.  I like this size as it fits in well with most of the other planes I have in my "hangar".

Current power setup -

Motor - DYS BE2208 2600 Kv;

Prop - 6x4 APC gas;

ESC - Turnigy Plush 30A;

Battery - 2200 3S 40 or 45C, I have a couple different types I use.

Controls -

Elevons controlled by two RC Timer 9 gr nylon gear servos;

Ailerons and rudders controlled by a total of four RC Timer 5 gr nylon gear servos.

My current AUW with a 2200 3S battery is 20.9 oz/592 gr.

My current throws are as follows, I should mention that I fly with fairly low expo, 15% in the pitch and roll and 20% in the yaw, setting them at "just enough" to allow me to fly how I like to fly with a little extra in the pitch if I need to avoid contact with the ground, tree, fence, me😉  -

Pitch - 3/4" one way;

Roll - Elevon - 5/8" one way, Aileron 1/2" one way; and

Yaw - 1 and 1/2" one way.

Here is a series of pictures showing where I held the ruler to make these measurements for reference.

Build modifications

I will start at the nose of the plane and work backwards.

As I did with the first F-22 V5 I built, I made several mods not including downsizing it by 5%.  Some of the same mods followed into this build with one or two more.

KF airfoils.  I resized the KF4 airfoils somewhat, mine are about 40% of wing chord at the wing root measured where the wing meets the fuselage and about 35% of wing chord at the tip.  From all the testing done with the NAMC Mig-FA and Mig-35A, this is my favorite setup for the majority of park jets I fly.  I did have to do some careful checking since I was moving the motor forward by 1" and adjusting the leading edge of the prop slot to accommodate shorter quad racing motors as you can see in this picture, not a whole lot of room there😊

The measurement of my top KF airfoil along the fuselage where the ruler is showing below is 10 and 5/16"/262 mm.

At the wingtip, the KF measures 7/8"/23 mm.

On the bottom KF, along the side of the "engines", it measures 4 and 7/8"/120.6 mm, same measurement at the wing tip as the top KF.

Ailerons.  As mentioned in the video above, I resized my ailerons to suit how I like my planes to handle.  I have found that ailerons that span 60% of the trailing edge of the wing gives me the "feel" that I like in my park jets.  I put the inside of the aileron where the red line is shown where it was on the plans and lengthened it to 1 and 3/4"/44.5mm.  Where the white line is along the trailing edge of the aileron, it measures 5 and 7/8"/149mm (I think I said the wrong number of mm in the video, sorry😞.  Where the black line is on the outer edge of the aileron, it measures 1 and 1/8"/28.5 mm

As mentioned in the video, I lowered the battery down as low as I could get it while still keeping good strength in the bottom of the fuselage.  Where my battery attaches to the plane is now 1 and 1/4"/31.75 mm below the bottom of the wing plate.  I think this is crucial to making this plane as stable as possible without causing any handling issues.  It definitely makes it far more stable and "self righting" if I get too slow or get myself into trouble.

The motor is moved forward by 1" and I trimmed about 3/8"/9.5mm off the leading edge of the prop slot after moving the motor forward.  This is to help accommodate shorter quad racing motors.  This ensures proper clearance between the leading edge of the prop slot and the prop, improving performance and reducing noise.

As mentioned in the video, I "shimmed" the motor so that it angles down to help prevent "zooming" as the plane accelerates to top speed.  Hopefully you can see the washer where the tip of the hex driver is pointing.  This washer is about 1mm thick.  I would still always mount the motor and motor mount square and straight first, then shim as you need to so that you don't have to purposefully fly nose heavy or carry around a bunch of down trim.  I just like my planes to stay level and blast ahead full speed when I hammer the throttle and not climb or dive as they accelerate😎

As mentioned in the video, I trimmed about 1/2" off the top of the vertical stabilizers to help reduce drag a bit and improve roll performance.  I might experiment with downsizing them even more in a future build, I'm not sure.

As mentioned in the video, current CG location as balanced now is about 1/2" ahead of the stock location or the center of the "CG spectrum" that RC Powers puts on their plans these days.  Here is a picture of the "CG spectrum" for reference, I think this was from my first F-22 V5.

On all my V5s from RC Powers, I start off with my CG marked dead center of the solid black rectangle, so looking back at this picture, the CG moved forward considerably on both my F-22s.  Here is where the CG is located on the current Raptor.  The toothpick indicates where the starting point was, the "T" pin indicates where my plane balances best.

I can't think of much else to share with you at this point that hasn't been either covered in the video or in this blog post.  

I am certainly very pleased with the DTF and Depron build, both foams working and holding up very well.  This version certainly is "slipperier" than my first one built out of 6mm MPF (Model Plane Foam), so it flies really well even with smaller quad style racing motors with the reduced drag.  It is holding up much better than the original all DTF Mig-35B I built and is strong and stiff, so as I learned from previous builds and carried over to builds after this one, combining DTF with other foams for strength and drag reduction is definitely the way ahead for me😊

The F-22 V5 is my favorite of the V5 series as it is such a great all round flier and that F-22 plan form looks pretty cool in the sky😎

If you have any other questions about my build or setup, please leave them below, or if you want other pictures I might have of my build as it went along, please feel free to e-mail me at scott.parkjet@gmail.com.

Park Jet noise...the "other" sound of freedom😎

Cheers,

Scott