I know most people think jets are like aerobatic planes on the elevators. Infact most jets require alot of up elevator as the nuetral setting. Its this way with my Phase 3 F-16. Also the electric ducted fan foam jets tend to be lacking on intial speed. You need high rates (or in your case vectored thrust) to keep the plane level until you have the airspeed to climb.

I think what the avg aerobatic pilot will find is that jets are not forgiving for over pulling and slow speed abrupt moves. They need thrust.

Can't wait to read your review.

Well Craven, at least you spent some quality time with Matt and your friends and it looks like everyone had a good time. Congratulations on that, if not on the maiden. Well done man.

+1, thanks for sharing craven, i have not pulled the pin on a jet yet but have thought about it. i just learnt something from you!

Craven, Matt & 50%,
You guys are something else...... Very entertaining! So..... The jet went home with 7 of it's 9 lives intact! Y'all did GREAT!
WT

Nice work guys. I like the way those look. I've seen the Eurofighter at my home club. That fella had a few quirks with his retracts and servos. They strip very easily. I've wondered how much better they'd be with some stronger, better built servos. It took a while to get the nose gear to come up and shut the gear door until the door broke loose. He worked on it for about 10-15 minutes until it all worked right. One of his retract servos stripped and caused a main to collapse while taxiing to the runway. Fixed it up and maidened. Flew dang nice. Quick and fairly smooth. He never tried out the vectored thrust, though. On landing, which was a decent approach and ok touchdown, the nose gear and other main folded and tore up the bottom a little. I haven't been out at the field while he's been around, if he's been around so haven't seen it again. I think with the right servos, the thrust vectored HL jets have potential. Just can't be rough with them. Looking forward to seeing you and Matt get some more flights on it and some video.

Thanks for the posts guys. I totally agree with everything you guys have said. I'll sum it all up in my review.

And, any day I get to spend time with my son is an awesome day. I love being a dad!

The main gear location in relation to the cg is critical on ground rotation, some of these just dont get enough r&d before final release, if that is the cause. Looks really neat though.

I don't know... I go to the airfield to get away from the vacuum cleaner noise.... Now I'm picturing Craven, in a skirt, heels ad pearl necklace... pushing a hoover around the field.... Way too many puns in this.

Originally Posted by reyn3545

I don't know... I go to the airfield to get away from the vacuum cleaner noise.... Now I'm picturing Craven, in a skirt, heels ad pearl necklace... pushing a hoover around the field.... Way too many puns in this.

Thats a great idea for a "goofy on the ladder" plane.

"Craven vacuuming the sky" plane.

Craven try to take off with the VT on. Also you might try to give the airplane a little more nose up attitude. It should not take much.

as usual.....a little late to the party.....but here's another perspective of the maiden "flight".

funny enough....this is the one and only video I shot Saturday.

Craven maidens a jet (0 min 24 sec)

Originally Posted by Craven

The not-so-successful maiden. After a successful taxi test earlier and a fresh battery charge it was time for the maiden. I slowly eased into the throttle and the plane tracked extremely well down the runway. As for any maiden, I made sure I had plenty of ground speed before attempting to rotate. When I did start to pull back on the right stick...it was like..nothing was there. I was on low rates without the vector thrust on and I eventually pulled the stick all the way back and it never lifted off as it should have. It should have been flying easily at this point but, it didn't. The front end broke off the airframe and it also broke the front landing gear. Here's a video of the result.

YouTube- SU 34 build 011.mov

It's just not fair.... why can't they make a $300 foamy jet that looks real, and will fly over 100 mph for at least 10 minutes?

Some things would be so easy to fix and/or understand with a decent instruction manual.

Thanks for the video Jason. It's much better than what we previously posted. Full review to follow.

Craven, sorry it did not go better for you, but appreciate the great info! Look forward to a truthful review! Now that would be something new and refreshing on these little foamies!