Forgive me...I have Banana Hobbied again.

[19000rpm]

This time with a Blitz/Star Max F/A 18C.

The PNP came as advertised. On time, complete and undamaged. Everything in working order. The foam (advanced EPS I think) is close to perfect and the very extensive, "Tiger Meet", water slides meticulously applied. The graphic scheme was one of the major reasons I purchased this plane. That may seem a bit silly, but I'm a visual kind of guy. All this for $99 with free shipping.

Free shipping is a rare event at BH. It's worth waiting for. Standard BH shipping can be a major rip.

Push comes from a 70mm, 5 Blade, with a 2836 motor and; the model includes rudders...Something that many EDF's in this size don't offer. A feature almost anybody will appreciate for aerobatics and, maybe even more so, when trying to line up a landing in a cross breeze on a narrow landing area.

OK, so it doesn't have a flying horizontal stab. It has an elevator. Not scale like. Something I will probably change. Or, maybe not.

The 45A ESC is patrtially exposed in the airflow under the fuse; complete with heat sink. It also features an external BEC. That's unusual, as well, for this type and price point. And a good feature because it runs 7, 9gm, servos. I could see potential brown outs without the external BEC.

The end point on the servos needed some radical alteration. They warn about this in the manual if you use your own radio. High rates are set at 70% and Low rates at 50%. No deflection figures given for the control surfaces since the manual is RTF with little set up info. I eyeballed the endpoints from "experience" with other models. The maiden will tell the story on that.

The Rx is a Spektrum 6110 tucked away on the underside of the plane. Power comes from a 2200 30C 4S.

The LG come off in a few minutes and there are finger holds for hand launching. I doubt I'll hand launch it, but may use a bungee launcher.

Speed should be reasonably good. Flying weight is 870g.
Length: 46"
Wingspan: 31"

The F/A 18 is an extremely stable design. I don't expect any adverse flying characteristics. Although, I try to be prepared for surprises.

Just waiting for the snow to melt for the maiden. It shouldn't be too long. Low 50's next week. Looking promising for a good spring flying season.


The 2003 Canadian Tiger Meet scheme. I painted the wing tip rockets white to help with orientation.


The tiger graphics are sharper than they appear in the photo.


You can see the Rx antenna, ESC and finger pockets for hand launching. The fixed gear installed on the fuse, as they should be, takes the load off the wing on landings.


Dual nose wheels and the nose gear long enough to add some wing incidence for take off. That helps break the ground effect. The battery box is barely large enough for the battery. It fits tightly. I put a strap under the battery to help with removal.


Elevators. Not scale. Dual elevator servos. Good choice.

[Gabe]

Very nice write up. I still have a few planes I'm eyeballing and considering from BH. I like you guys being the lab rats first though

[19000rpm]

Thanks Gabe. I've had really good luck with the BH planes. I've never spent more than $150 for one of their planes...It keeps my exposure relatively low.

I'm still leery of the big stuff with 12 channels though.

I don't mind being a lab rat as long as there's cheese at the end of the maze. With some wine of course.

[Gabe]

Haha! Agreed!

[19000rpm]

Last week I took it out for the maiden. I picked up a stray pebble and BANG there went the fan.

I contacted BH and they said they'd send me a new one even though they don't have open stock on them. Complete EDF and motor 18 bucks.

I got the new EDF 2 days ago and pulled the impeller and balanced it and put it on the original housing and motor. Boy, it sounded sweet under power.

The wind and rain finally subsided so I took it out to the school track today (No pebbles out there!) as the skies started to clear. I control and range checked it and taxied it a bit. The rain was still steaming off the track as I rolled out the bird for take off.

A good straight roll out to speed with a touch of steering input. Typical to the type; it sticks like glue for a 100 ft or so and then leaps in the air. I let go of the elevator as soon as it rotated and it lessened the accent rate to a scale like climb out.

2 clicks of aileron and it flew like it was on rails. Loops, rolls & inverted with no down elevator. It's not that often I do that much on a maiden. This plane is rock solid in the air and invites the kind of confidence in the pilot to let it all hang out right from the first flight.

It's not particularly fast. It's not slow either. It feels just right.

The plane slow speed handling is very good and after a practice final I brought it in for a landing. The track gets awfully narrow when you're landing a plane and the air currents can be tricky there because of the fences, trees and other obstacles.

I really appreciated the authority of the double rudders on the landing approach. I needed to zig zag it a bit coming within a few feet of the touch down. And those darn soccer nets line the track just a few feet away and are always in the back of my mind.

A couple feet off the ground I had a nice flair starting...But I forgot I needed to add a bit of power before touch down and it stalled from a foot above the surface. It bounced once and came to a rest. Nothing the worse for wear.

So, another good maiden. I'm a happy guy. BH comes through again.

[akent]

Nice!
They now have (or had) some 65c batteries at BH that are as good as the nano-techs. We tested some in our racers.
I just can't quite bring myself to buy anything from them, yet, but they are sounding better. It sounds like their support is getting way better.

Kent

[19000rpm]

They recently shut down their live chat. I think that was done to put more focus on getting things done in CS as opposed to fielding questions and issues on line where there was less resolution. Very time consuming too.

The CS is much more straight forward now. The communication much better. The CS reps more knowledgable. Emails with issues are answered same day and seem to get resolved very quickly.

I've never ordered batteries from them. Hobbypartz is my main battery source. GensAce has some very good high C packs.

If I was looking in from the outside, with no experience with BH, and only their reputation on line to go, by I'd be very skeptical too.

[19000rpm]

I discovered I have a BH Genesis pack after all. I'm running a 850 3S 40C in my 50mm F-16. It gives terrific discharge. Probably added 5-10mph to speed, over the other lower discharge 1000 C's I've been using, with the same flight times. I'll buy more of these batteries!

Anyway, I've flown the F-18 quite a few more times. It could use a bit more speed, but otherwise it's a very nice flying plane. I prefer to fly it when I can land into a nice breeze otherwise it floats forever. I might switch to spoilerons. I might up the fan and motor too. Just waiting for something to fail to encourage the upgrade.

The only mod I've done is to reinforce the underside of the fuse with sheet plastic around the nose wheel. I've had to land it a little hard a couple of times because I was running out of battery and landing area all at once (Better than flying it into a curb or the fence). The gear takes the impact, but bends into the foam a bit. The plastic has solved that.