Skymaster F18C Test Flight - 24th January, 2009

Last year a few of us headed over the the BMFA Nationals. Chris and I were flying our jets on the showline and it was here that I saw the F18 for sale. Chris, John and Alan talked me into going over to have a look at it, and once I saw it I was hooked. An F18 in the Blue Angels colours, my favorite colour for this jet. One short inspection of the model later and it was mine.

On returning home I set about a closer inspection of the model and began a short list of things that required some attention. These included a nose leg strut that had a small kink in it that prevented the nose leg from lowering, wires to the wings that had rubbed on the sharp edge of the body and exposed the copper, a canopy hatch that needed adjustment, and a few other minor issues. One by one these were addressed until I was happy.

The biggest change was to the radio. I upgraded her to 2.4GHz as I wanted the extra security of two transmittion links and satelite receivers. I also wanted more than 9 channels so I waited until the new JR12x was released in the UK just before Christmas. I tested the system in my vanquish to be sure all was well, I have had new radios fail on me in the past and you really can't risk this with a jet.

A few setup adjustments later the radio was ready, and to remove the possible single point of failure the existing receiver battery pack and switch was replaced with an independant duel power system running of two lipo packs. Batteries charged, we were now ready for the test flight.

Saturday dawned with low winds, but unfortunately also low temperture, and off we went to Langford for the test flight. Once the F18 was rigged a few photos were taken and the batteries given a top off charge as they had been sitting from the previous Tuesday. I next did a range check, first with the turbine off. I checked the data logger to find no signal loss at all, so did the same test with the turbine now running. Again the logger showed no signal loss, so everything was now ready for the test flight.

Now even though the model had flown before, every test flight has that element of the unknown about it. That said she was taxied up the runway, turned, and full throttle was applied. Given the fact that the JetCat P120 is at the bottom end of the power range for this model she still had a remarkable acceleration and as she passed me I was about to pull back on the elevator when suddenly the turbine flamed out with a most impressive white flume of smoke. Still somewhat stunned I applied the brakes and the model was returned to the pits. The turbine has been test run to full power a number of times so the cause of this was totally unknown. Fortunatly some of the guys taking photos and video had spotted the cause, she had passed through some standing water on the runway and the water had extinguished the turbine. On further inspection we found water inside the air intakes so the turbine was restarted. During the phase of the start up while the turbine cleaned itself out, two flames about a foot long were seen out of the tail pipes, it's a pity we didn't get a photo of this as it did look good. The engine was run up to full power and it performed normally so I decided to continue with the test flight, but starting the takeoff on the upwind side of the water.

This time I had no such issues and she lifted into the air on half flap with no problems and began a climbing turn. I was again surprised at the performance as she accelerated in the climb, and I quickly realised that all the set backs of battery charging and flame outs had allow the light level to drop. The F18 was very difficult to see and being dark blue made this even worse. I had raised the gear on the climb out and now began to trim first ailerons than elevator, but due to the low light opted to land before I had even completed this process.

She settled into a nice nose up approach even though I did not lower the flaps as I had not had time to test these, and settled onto the runway with no drama. Brakes applied and then a careful turn due to the narrow undercarriage on F18's, and she was taxied back to the start box and shut down. I then once again tested the data logger and found no signal packets loss on any receiver. I do like this 2.4GHz system.

Unfortunatly due to the short flight I never really got a chance to get a feel of the model so that will have to wait until the next time, but certainly with half flaps on takeoff there was no problem and even with no flap the landing was straight forward. I think I am going to like this plane.

I just want to say thanks to all the guys who helped with this project and for letting me take up so much time at the site.

Was it all worth it, oh yes.

Watch the video here

by Peter Carson