James Hindle

Got a couple of flights in with the rafale last night, she sure brings a big smile to your face. I retrofitted the metal retracts which stood up to our grass strip    

At least its more enthusiastic than the wife !

Mark,  Although I know someone's probably got another opinion I have always extended the battery cables as opposed to the ESC wires, mainly because I'm lazy and would rather extend two rather than 3 wires but hey its always been ok for me, the rafale requires long battery leads for both fans !   The only problem I found was with RX noise (my A7 was terrible and made me go 2.4Ghz !) but if your 2.4Ghz you won't have a problem   James 

I really enjoyed this issue, and must say the impartiality of the magazine sets is stacks above the rest, well done !

Mark, It doesn't have a sticker on it and the instructions are OEM so I guess its cheap but still kicks out the Watts and that's wattt matters I also like the D version but my favorite is the BRW

Hi Mark,    All I can say with the retract doors is spend plenty of time making sure they work, test, test and test again.   As for the servos yes the BRC 9g's are great.   Your EDF must be the 3575KV motor, please make sure that you test out the Watts before flying, it should be about:   800-830W holding about 14.7-15V and drawing around 54-57A   Remember to set the ESC timing to low and use a decent 4s pack, when I say decent I mean something that can hold the amps for the duration.        

Thanks David  I'm just too eager to help fellow EDF'ers !

Hi,   I've not flown the F16 yet but its on its way !, if its like the other lander models I've flown , the Panther and the Rafale see here for the rafale   and   here  for the panther   I used 9g servos (BRC) for all surfaces and metal gear high torque micros (giantcod) for the retracts.   What power system are you putting in her ?    

  Looking into the multitude of lithium polymer batteries available and determining from the wing loading that weight wasnt important I opted for 2Nr 6S 10,000 maH lipos from Maxamps in the USA, these were competitively priced with a good reputation, they arrived faster than some UK mail order items, upon close inspection they reminded me of my oily days and the 12v battery used for the power panel, with the exception that these were 22V and 100A continuous ! The cowl in the Taxi 2400 is massive and 70 mm of boxing was required to get the correct bit of the motor to poke out !, Ive seen many electric conversions use aluminium spacers to mount electric motors away from the bulkhead but Ive always opted for widely available plywood with 4mm threaded rod bolted through. As with all large AXI motors mo motor mount is supplied so one was knocked up using 1/16 epoxy board from Macgregor industries.   Building was completed in a sedate week of evenings, all the parts were exceptionally well cut and apart from the hardware no surprises were found   Unfortunately the terrible weather delayed the maiden for a couple of weeks but a break in the clouds one Saturday evening gave me the opportunity I was looking for, the model was put together in a few minutes and after a few static photos a range check was carried out, the range check didnt go well, the right flap and aileron appeared erratic, everyone present was baffled by this, several theories were offered but all to no avail, eventually one of the younger member, Connor asked if it was because the metal spinner was on the ground causing interference, when the model was place with the tail on the ground it passed the range check thank goodness.     The motor was armed and taxied out to the runway after a fail safe check was carried out power was applied and the model moved forward, after a few feet it took off with authority, a couple of clicks of left aileron saw the model flying straight and things settled for an innocuous first flight, the landing was uneventful, flaps were not required as the wind was quite strong.       Since completing the model I have had several flights and comfortably get 25 minutes from the batteries, the flaps make landing on the tightest strip easy. Weve done plenty of towing over the last 2 years and found the Taxi able to tow 12-16lb gliders effortlessly.  

The elevators come in two sections (left and right) and each are controlled by standard servo, connection to the main body is via a aluminium tube kept in place by a robust plastic clamp.     The rudder and a tail wheel are connected through separate closed loops, the tail wheel is joined to the closed loop via 2 springs to prevent stressing of the servo, as I chose this model as a glider tug I opted for a mighty Hitec 645mg as rudder is (from bitter experience) your best friend during take off.       The tow release was a simple piano wire loop mounted on a spruce block behind the wing, it was a bit fiddly to install as I did not want to cut the covering, always remember to use a high torque servo for the tow release !     The choice of motor was made on the basis that I wanted lots of power and lots of durations, in electric flight terms this isn’t always easy to achieve, I knew from the distant days of school that amps watts and volts were all related in some fashion so decided to opt for a 12S HV setup so I could reduce the amps and increase duration. Determined not to be beaten by the myriad of numbers associated with brushless motors I started ‘googling’ and stumbled across a great formula from Bob Boucher that assists with determining the correct prop size for desired power or amp draw, anyone interested can e-mail me for the spreadsheet I developed. After several days cogitating different setup I opted for an AXI 5345/16 and a Jeti spin 99 all purchased from the ever reliable John Emms at Puffin Models.

  A cryptic text message from my wife asking what was in the box as big as her signified the arrival of the graupner taxi, in short the box was massive ! The service from Motors and Rotors was excellent, packaging was first rate and delivery was as promised. Opening the box showed that this was a true ARF, all surfaces were pre hinged (and pinned) the only setup was required for the stab, the hardware was extensive, possibly too extensive as we will come onto.   The first job after checking all the components were present was to decipher the instructions, unfortunately this lets the kit down a bit. The instructions and photos are primarily in German, English is presented later in the manual but without pictures so you have to cross refer, especially where dimensions are present, in the end I pulled the instruction book apart and put the German / English pages side by side, perhaps Graupner will look at this for the future.   Construction was pretty simple the only things worth pointing out is the hardware packages, the control horns supplied were very large and setting up for the pivot to be on the hinge line was impossible, it wasn’t until I was fixing the close loop to the ruder that I found another set of horns that were more suitable, unfortunately I had soldered the pushrod before discovering this. The 3 point control horns supplied come with 3/4” screws so quite a lot of trimming is required, I found that making a template to fit over the horn is needed (I used a margarine tub) as covering does stand up to a freshly ‘dremeled’ end.