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Too much power? No such thing. The structure can take pretty much whatever I can throw at it. ~Luke Edit: Sorry if that sounded somewhat brusque... I was in a bit of a hurry when I posted.

A VF-0D... One day, maybe. After Sean's SV, I've got a couple more projects in the queue. Specifically, a 42" span Beechcraft Starship, and a 5 oz. AUW fiberglass motoglider. (Designed to hit 80+MPH, with the right motor.) So, one day, in the somewhat distant future. ~Luke

Therein lies the problem. The only (major) reason to have a gerwalk mode is to do vertical landings. (Oh, and to stop in midair... But that's another story.) Anyway, if I want to land on the thrust-vector vanes, I need them splayed... If I splay them, they don't work to vector thrust anymore, so... Also, the more I vector the thrust, the greater the losses are, which wouldn't be good, if I were to do VTOL. ~Luke P.S. In re: a VF-0S... I suppose I could always drop a Ghost booster on top, to get the wing area up. It actually works out perfectly, so configured.

HEHE. The SV just looked too neat in gerwalk. However, I ran some really quick thrust vector figures, and from a flying standpoint, it looks bad... The legs are always swept forwards in gerwalk mode, which means that the plane would tend to fly backwards. (Of course, if I drop the legs straight down, it doesn't have 'the look'... Pretty much counter-productive, since this is all about looks.) The VF-0D is a good candidate for the ducted fan/thrust-vector treatment. The other variants unfortunately are rather short on wing, meaning that they would probably have to be pusher-prop designs. (No thrust vector.) Of course, the other option is to scale them up. They're only short on wing if they're the same scale as the SV. Anyway, that's all in the future, sometime, if ever. ~Luke

So............. Are you suggesting something? ~Luke

Yes, as long as you have the motors running, you'll have some control, at least. Now, if I had a better radio, I could add differential thrust, so even at zero airspeed, I'd have pitch, roll and yaw. But pitch and roll is typically enough to get out of sticky situations. I'm planning on pushing the envelope, slowly but surely. Because it is a forgiving airframe in terms of stall recovery, etc., I really do want to see how it behaves in very-low-airspeed flight. This is where you're falling, and still maneuvering, as per Shin/Nora. Starting at a high enough altitude, I may be able to get in a few good maneuvers before having to start up with normal flying again. I'd like to be Defense Minister... Where do I submit my resume..? ~Luke

Ah, thanks! I've ordered the upgraded power system. The UN 'newtype' will be no match for an upgraded SV-51! (Though, come to think of it, I haven't seen any RC VF-0s.) ~Luke

I finally watched M-0 today. Not much impressed by the story, I liked M+ much better. But the combat was great! The high-alpha fight between Nora and Shin at the end of the 5th installment is the sort of thing I wish I could get the models to do. Once upgraded, I may have to find out just how good the thrust-vector system is. I did find out there's a way to get 20 oz. of thrust on the SV... Flight time decreases to ~4 minutes, but... That would probably be about the most thrilling 4 minutes of flight I can imagine. Hard on both motors and batteries, though, so not really a good solution, in terms of reliability. The upgrade config. I'm planning on using should provide 7, maybe 8 oz. of thrust, and flight times of ~8 minutes, with some throttle management. This should be a whole lot better, in terms of power reserves. ~Luke

The music is a Hans Zimmer piece... I don't know the name, but I'm guessing it was a movie soundtrack. Possibly Gladiator? ~Luke

Sean: Ah, sounds like those F-14s have 'SV-Target' written all over them. Funny, I always thought of the SV as a small parkflyer. I guess parkflyers grow bigger stateside. ~Luke

Yes, that turn spooked me. I pulled just a bit much elevator, after banking. All the same, it shows that with a bit more power, I should be able to do some really tight maneuvers. VTOL/tailstands aren't going to possible, even with the more powerful systems. I'm hoping for 7-8 oz. of thrust, at 12.5 oz., AUW. Hey, waddyatalkinabout, what's wrong with the soundtrack?! :D I was originally going to pull some audio from Mac. Zero, but I couldn't find a sufficiently fast torrent. (Couldn't find a soundtrack snip, either.) ~Luke

Looks good! Where are the intakes for atmospheric, though? Seems like with an exhaust duct that large, you'd need pretty big intakes? ~Luke

Wait, you really have guys who fly park F-14s? Where did they get them, and what type are they? (Half the size of the SV? That's really small.) ~Luke

Glad you guys like it! I do believe I've got a solution for the underpowered issue: I'm looking at a battery that's 0.33 oz. lighter, yet has better output, and motors that should give an extra oz. of thrust, plus 5-10 MPH more airspeed, for the same weight. Current draw will go up, improving the power loading as well. Then maybe Sean can get a full loadout under the wings. "F-14, discover the power of 24 micro-missiles!" ~Luke

Yes, I was quite pleased. It's a easy thing to fly, though a bit more power would make it a whole lot easier. (Particularly at launch and landing.) Very well behaved overall, though. And no mistaking it for anything but an SV-51! ~Luke

Videos! WMV (Lowish res, 8.6 MB) Right-click and Save As DiVX (Highish res, 22 MB) Right-click and Save As The high-res file may require you download the DiVX codec. http://www.divx.com/divx/play/download/ ~Luke

Gerwalk I can see, full Battroid? I don't know. Of course, anybody willing to get me a couple Wren turbines, and a few thousand dollars worth of stability augmentation systems, and I'll give it a go. ~Luke

The SV committed aviation today...(!!!) (WOOHOO!) Flew very well, somewhat underpowered, but excellent control, which proves I've nailed all the problems the last one had. Got to use the thrust-vector, to get out of a stall... Knocked one of the downward swept tipfins off on landing, but otherwise, zero damage. (Quite different from the balsa proto, eh? ) Video will be forthcoming. Sean, I'll be switching over to a more powerful set of motors and batteries, so everything's on-track, dev. wise... I'll commence work on your ship again, now that I know the aerodynamic configuration is A-OK. Just wait 'til the 'it won't fly' fellow sees this. ~Luke

Wow. In E-RC?! Of course, I've managed to 'remove' the motor and gearbox from a slowflyer a few times. (In flight, of course.) Landed fine, but it sure was deadstick. ~Luke

Heheh... 3 deadsticks/day, huh? I hope he's an RC pilot, and not an Air Force 'Viper-driver' or something..! I've pretty much decided I'm flying tomorrow, given reasonable conditions. Absolutely still days are months away, and a ~5 MPH headwind will just help me get up to airspeed, on launch. The area I'm going to fly at is big enough so I have some time to decide whether to take the first turn or not. (Wind only gets tricky when you're not flying straight into it.) ~Luke

Thanks guys! Yes, it should be good. However, rotten luck. The wind picked up, so the flight was scratched. Maybe tomorrow. I've got to do this soon, before I get too nervous. ~Luke

The empty weight is supposed to be 5.5 oz., it came out about 6 oz., or so... I think you're right, the EDF-40s are just too small for a fiberglass ship. Now, a couple Microfans, the right brushless motors, and an all-fiberglass airframe... Back to reality: Ok, looks like the first flight may be this evening... Maybe. I finally got around to taking a little video of the flight control system. Low res, and bad contrast, but here it is: http://home.comcast.net/~we-shoppe/SVControls.avi (Don't worry, the flight video will be better.) ~Luke

Same here. If only I knew fiberglass moulding techniques, I could make a mould, crank out 4-6 of these things, and then we pilots wouldn't have to be so worried. ~Luke

Ahg, I DO wish I was there... Nothing but wind and rain around here. ~Luke

Sorry, I've been a bit busy... And the weather has been non-stop wind... I'll get to work bring your ship up to spec., hopefully very (very) soon. ~Luke