Horizon Hobby - F-18 80mm Blue Angels - Unbox, Build, Radio Setup, Maidens 

I have another video too, we flew as low as 3200mAh and it was awwwwwesome! Takeoffs and Landings from the driveway. Soon I will be giving sunburn with the F-18 too, thanks to someone ;)

This was really solid advice. I have this jet and it's one of my favorites to fly. The sound is incredible. I fly mine with a 4500 pushed to the back battery strap to the front. You have to fly it in with the nose high power on and full flaps. It will land slow and in control every time. Take off full flaps. Get rid of the missiles lol

Thanks Tommy L - I promise to try to ruin many more of your weekends ;) LOL

They had us in the first half ngl

He's got me too!

Thanks Gary! Everyone misses the runway from time to time, especially if you're flying off a 10 foot wide paved driveway. Most flying fields are 3-4 times longer, and 2-3 times wider. I have a lot of money sunk into that driveway, and we're about to put more into it too ;) It's gonna be cool!

100% So dang cool!!!

Glad you enjoy them ;)

LOL - I end up in the BUSH all the time ;)

Yeah...mine? yes ;)

Totally agree!

Glad you liked it! I always question sharing this part of the experience, as it can be very tedious and sometimes frustrating. Thanks for the feedback!!!

Coming soon - already in the can ;) Hope you'll check it out when we publish, but not 100% sure of time line.

It is sick! All metal!!!!!

yeah, they are great!

I don't think that wife would approuve it 😂😂😂

Thanks Victor RC Jet ;)

Thanks a lot!

Me too! Can't wait to hear a TWIN 80mm!!!

Yeah, it's awesome, and thanks!!!

Thanks a lot!

Thank you very much!

Thanks!

Nice! Thanks ;)

Me too!

Glad you like them! I always wonder how much my audience will tolerate ;)

Haha ya well if I'm not flying, I'm watching videos of other people flying. and here in south dakota it's usually very windy so I get a lot of video watching in! ;)

Sure is, Thanks!

I would love it, except it would be all dead this year...don't think it does good with drought, but maybe you could tell me more?

@@BrianPhillipsRC There are some Bentgrass does ok ir drought but you could set up a water system to water it. Toro makes home water system that you could do. Do you like in sanded soil or heavy Clay? There a company has a great Bentgrass to help up. Check out you you can afford a reel mower! They run $300 to $1000 if you want New. You don’t have to cut it every day like a golf course. Let me know if you want me to help! Thanks I love to learn to fly but China Virus is making it hard. PS look at the V1200 or V900. Super fast planes

You and me both! Main gear bogeys are game changers on this plane!!!

I totally agree!!!

Nice! You'll love it!

Thanks! I was close to losing her, but what a beauty!!!

Awesome! You'll love it. P.S. We have another video coming all takeoffs and landings from the Driveway ;)

This is true

Glad it was helpful - Thanks Rc Maniac!

Totally beautiful! She looks even better in person. Very nice finish, and she puts on a good show too!

@@BrianPhillipsRC now add the LED's...

Thanks William! That's three hours you'll never get back, you know - LOL ;) Thank you!!!

Thanks, and yes, V1200 coming soon ;)

Really? I've never seen such a touchup pen / marker...but that would be nice!

@@BrianPhillipsRC Nope! I’vr never seen such a pen! But if balsa companies can send patch samples then foam companies can send touchup (patch) pens.

Glad I could help! ;)

Good idea, but on the STOCK rx???

@@BrianPhillipsRC yea, fair call. I dont use multi protocol Tx So I usually toss the Rx or just go arf or pnf and use my brand of Rx Horus x12s user + opentx

Thanks a lot! She sure is!!!

Thanks again!

Perfect! Glad the video helps!!!

Glad we could cover one of your favorites!!!

Thanks, but still getting the hang of her...better will come soon :)

Thank you!

Glad you enjoyed ;)

Thanks!

Thanks!

Thanks, will do!

Good point!

Yeah!!!

I appreciate that! Thanks Terry!!! Hope I never have to land a real plane on the crown of that road out front, but if I need too, it's 1220 feet long, before the bend ;)

We agree! It was VERY long - More coming too!!! This plane is GREAT, and when they're expensive, my expectations are sometimes unreasonably high...but this plane lived up to most all of them and then beat some expectations!

That's what I was thinking. Especially on a modern plane, but speaking to the price of an F-18, a $200,000 drop tank would be a small price to pay to save the expensive plane, and also priceless life, and cost of training for pilot... Also, if a plane were flying so far to necessitate fuel like that, we'd expect them to do aerial refueling, something that wasn't practical in WWI. Thanks for answering the question for me Greg!!!

Brian Phillips you’re right about the price being a drop in the bucket, but out on a carrier, there’s only so many of them. To get another could take months to get shipped (literally) out to a carrier. So, they’re only jettisoned if it’s an emergency that requires it.

In the park, we could have done it ;) ....maybe...

That's a good idea.

I did a lot of tinkering with mixes to get throttle cuts to work on my FT Cruiser with differential thrust

LOL

Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks Keith - glad you're here with us (still) ;)

I really appreciate you asking, and want to help you out. Part of your issue, which I was in the same boat, by the way, just a few short years ago...is that much of the technology has changed from the last time you were into RC. If you can ask me direct questions, as you think of them, I'll help you out. Expo, is short for Exponential. This speaks to a feature on many computerized transmitters, allowing us to "soften" the response to our thumb inputs (or finger inputs) to make for a more controllable plane. For example, if you want to make the plane fly more tame, but still want to be able to yank the stick all the way back, and still get 100% output from your elevator to pull out the way from a tree, for example, you could use expo at 30%, which means that the output from the elevator stick will be less for the first 1/3 or so of the stick. This is massively simplified, for easy understanding, but you can also check out my video about Expo. It's a hard one to explain. It will come better from FLYING a plane with and without expo. Ask away, and I'll help you. I do it for thousands of other new to RC or freshly back to rc pilots.

Cudos to you for your patience!!!

It's a battery eater, be forewarned ;)

Me too! One of my favorite part!

It sure is! looks great, and flies well, but would like to see more power, so I can get out of the throttle and save my batteries life ;)

Thanks! Both are wonderful plane, but having flown both, the F-16 is a slightly better flying plane. The F-18 while AMAZING, is a bit of a battery eater ;) She could have a bit more power, and then she'd be near flawless!

if I understand that correctly, it would be much better with a 90 mm EDF ✈✈✈✈✈

Do they go and recover them??? Are they all beat up?

@@BrianPhillipsRC , they would normally only be dropped in combat. WWII, they would empty the drops before on-board fuel, . If they went into combat, they'd drop them, but if on patrol, and never had combat, they'd return with them attached. Normally you'd never recover them as they would be who-knows-where on the battlefield. Were probably used more in the Pacific, thus normally dropped in the ocean.

It was VERY bad!!! I'm sorry. I promise to make it up to you ASAP!!!!! Putin would be disgusted - LOL

This plane is super fun, but she can be a handful ;)

He did a thunderbird review a month or two ago. Its in his videos if you scroll down a bit

@@camomaster6316 okay thank you appreciate the heads-up

@@chriswoods8812 no problem, looks like a great plane. Its on my list!

@@camomaster6316 I picked up the Airbus A380 and the al37 from motion RC. But I am missing some military planes. The first once I want are the Thunderbolt, Blue Angels, and Thunderbirds. They are definitely eluding me. But hopefully I will pick them up sometime soon. I started looking at helicopters yesterday so I may get a 700 or 800 series on that. Just got to save up a little bit more

Awesome - Do it ;)

Interesting fact here

Totally agree.... but you need to get used to the way it flies with this stock set up first.

Hey Brian, check out Gooniac (Ray's) custom setup mod for elevators so they don't slip out of the plastic shaft otherwise its great.... Plane is prone to elevator lockup and the occasional elevator servo going bad.. Horns are quick ... 👊👊

Also might want to toss a 6k lipo and a fms v2 platinum 2100 fan when you want to make it have reserve piwer Ray has this too.... Good luck....

STANG 1981 that’s what I said lol

I don't usually recommend PNF for this reason, but if I was doing it, I'd just do the forward programming, and start with 1X GAIN and work it to where you want it to be. This is highly subjective, and you'll find that the default will get you in the ballpark. Make sure you have loads of room to drag out your landings if you're not sure.

You gotta see one in person...so much more value than you can see on a package ;)

I've done it many times before, BUT if you do it on a plane like this (all painted) you'll have it ripping off quicker than we want to admit. This plane is just heavy, and not a great place to hold it, in my experience.

I had a few that are really hard to get started, but work okay, once you get it lined up right. If you're battery is below something like 2.8VDC on any one cell, you'll have to get pretty creative to get it charged. I've done it, and know you can too ;) I don't want you to say I told you to try something and burned your house down, so you need to just play with batter types and get charger to pump a small amount of power into the pack at a very low rate, then and only after you get each cell high enough, you can go ahead and setup a lipo charge again.

@@BrianPhillipsRC Ok thank you Brian, my neighbor helped me charge the battery again over like 3 volts. It was at 1% 😂

sure is!

I would never be able to have 40 planes and NOT fly all 40 ;)

Brian Phillips yea sucks but there’s no where to fly by me and it’s always a drive to get to a field plus I work seven days a week the graveyard shift so I sleep pretty much all day lol have to have funds to continue my hobby

The NON - Blue Angels livery? I'd go with 4000mAh 6S 50C Gen1 if you can find it, then if you do an afterburner, it's easier to use ;) Wont' need a second lipo! I only suggest the 50C since this F-18 CAN be a battery eater - seriously...only plane that consistently want so puff my SMART packs. Be sparring on your throttle to help avoid this issue and 30C might be okay. Good luck with your decision! 4000 6S bit.ly/3zGrhh8

I don't download models. I build them from scratch ;) Watch the UNBOX, BUILD, and RADIO SETUP and you'll be doing it without ANY help in no time at all. TRUST ME, you want to work through it a few times. It will suck at first, but you'll be very happy I encouraged you to do it. Do it Ken ;) You will thank me. Use that VERY EXPENSIVE and AWESOME transmitter to it's full potential. Do it Ken, you KNOW you want to learn it!!!

Great plane, but might be a bit tricky to fly. you CAN do it, but I might encourage you to try something easier, OR just get small lipos so that you can keep the wing loading down. Twin Otter 1.2m bit.ly/2Zvn5AI Have you considered something like this??? Great plane, and wonderful middle step - Cirrus SR22T 1.5m bit.ly/3fKjO60

Brian Phillips which do you think would handle wind better? I live in Texas and there’s pretty much always a 7-10 mph wind. It’s a pain trying to find a not windy time to fly the cub. Thanks for the feedback. Being a noobie I’ve actually learned a lot from your videos.

I think the wing area is fine, but I think this plane needs either 8S Power System or a 90mm EDF to get into the correct slightly over 1:1 power to weight we have recently come to expect on EDF Jets. I know this plane is a bit under-powered, but you can still make it SCREAM ;)

@@BrianPhillipsRC 8s and bigger edf = even more weight thus requiring even more wing area...im all about wing to weight ratio,s for better behaving planes n jets.

I've heard the suggestion, but keep forgetting to try it, so I can't speak to how well it works or not.

Red Bat F-18? Not sure what that is??? AR631 might be worth consideration due to the longer antenna, but 630 would be almost as good, and Spektrum claims it's AS GOOD. Not a huge difference in price, but AR630 has END PINS...might be nice in some planes...vs TOP PINS on the AR631, fyi. AR630 bit.ly/3zpdgVR - AS3X & SAFE with limited telemetry + INTERNAL Antenna AR631 bit.ly/3v0w3Fy - AS3X & SAFE with limited telemetry + EXTERNAL Antenna ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ AR410 bit.ly/3z5hT75 - Simple 4 Channel Air Rx with limited telemetry - No AS3X & SAFE AR620 bit.ly/3z7WDO0 - Simple 6 Channel Air Rx with limited telemetry - No AS3X & SAFE AR6610T bit.ly/3z37ysk - More telemetry - No AS3X & SAFE AR630 bit.ly/3zpdgVR - AS3X & SAFE with limited telemetry + INTERNAL Antenna AR631 bit.ly/3v0w3Fy - AS3X & SAFE with limited telemetry + EXTERNAL Antenna AR637T bit.ly/3OlgIpB - AS3X & SAFE with FULL RANGE telemetry + EXTERNAL Diversity Antennas AR8020T bit.ly/3vgCnbV - FULL RANGE telemetry + EXTERNAL Diversity Antennas AR8360T bit.ly/3crfA6H - AS3X & SAFE with FULL RANGE telemetry + EXTERNAL Diversity Antennas ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

@@BrianPhillipsRC yeah its the f18 with the red vertical stabilizers and has the bats on them just the different livery from the blue angel. Wish i would have gotten into the hobby sooner but hopefully another blue angel will pop up. Thanks for the direction amd just want to let you know your videos and info have seriously helped guide me along the unboxing and setup portions really helped educate so thank you to your and your wife (camera crew) have a good day man!

thanks again

Not yet, but I heard some have had this issue. I believe there's a pretty simple way to help prevent this from becoming an issue.

Thanks so much Janosch!!

I might be pushing my luck with that idea ;)

Thanks!

Better late than never ;) 3200 or 4000 makes for a GREAT experience.

yeah, but does some poor guy have to go recover it?!?!

I only know it exists.

yes

I do use audio events now-a-days. This is a pretty old video.

Thanks, and good luck with that big 90mm with SAFE ;)

@@BrianPhillipsRC I haven’t taken it up yet only thing I’ve done is made a top gun video with it LOL three videos are put on RU-vid it looks good I’ll have the old timers at the airfield talk me through it LOL .. i’ve noticed that safe doesn’t give me much throws on anything I have to have it in hi rates then I did some adjustments when it’s in safe for high rates so I have a little bit better throws!!

I had a REALLY hard landing in my SU-30.....it was so hard I ruined the 7000mAh lipo, and the whole plane ;( LOL - What a bummer.

@@BrianPhillipsRC oh man..I saw your vid on that it’s gone?

I like that f18. Now I want one

I can't say for sure, but the flaps and flare on this F-18 really help put down in a tight spot.

This plane is a handful. It takes off well, but landings are tough. If you get the CG back far enough, it's no problem to land her, but then if you have ANY roll out, she wants to tip over due to the rear bogeys being spring loaded like they are. Also, as for power - she's somewhat anemic compared to some of her piers in 80mm size class, in that you have to really trade off some altitude for airspeed to get some built up for the coolest maneuvers. If she was 8S, I think she would be WAY easier to fly - power saves lives in RC planes ;) But she's a great flying experience non the less. I love her, but she is not perfect.

It's a BAD system, and needs attention ;) I have hundreds...they're ALL over the place!!!

She made it with mucho room to spare ;)

Yeah, but I was being lazy