JAS-39 Gripen ✈️ Hands on Transmitter & 'Air to Air' Behind The Scenes
19Watch me fly the Freewing Gripen, showing my hands on the transmitter!!
There are two very different types of flight in the video, first half shows me doing my usual crazy aerobatics stuff... second half shows two of the flights I made with Tuckie for my latest 'air to air' video which you can go watch in the link below if you haven't already!
JAS-39 Gripen 'air to air' video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIWycdTHZN8
The last two sorties in the video show a totally different approach to flight, where everything is much more calculated, all the movements need to be smooth and communicated for our cooperation in formation flight to function properly. You can barely hear Tuckie talking but you can hear me giving instructions as to the maneuvers I am about to execute, the direction of execution and a countdown. For the most aggressive maneuvers I also wait for Tuckie's confirmation. Usually we space our commands more and double check everything for each maneuver, but my Gripen has such a terrible flight time that we need to rush it all so it is not the best example anyway. ( :
On another note, you can hear my transmitter constantly complaining about low battery voltage even from the take-off. That's normal though as my EDF demands so many amps that it makes the batteries fall below threshold. That said, I have 3 different warnings and you only ever get to hear the first of the three, so that's pretty much as expected on my end, nothing to worry about. I use the warnings to control my throttle usage.
Also, these flights are old, notice in some of them the nose LG is still in the stock position ;)
Shameless plug: if you want to contribute to my work, please consider having a look at some of my merch! ;)
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These were flights 75th to 77th on 'Jana'.
Pilot: RC4ever
DJI FPV pilot: Tuckie
Ground video: Luis Ibáñez
Airfield: Club Els Cards
Music: Gamma Ray
Chapters:
0:00 - Normal aerobatic flight
2:55 - Replay in slowmo
6:22 - 1st FPV Formation flight
9:28 - 2nd FPV Formation flight
SPECS (Reflecting my setup):
Model Scale: 1/9th
Wingspan: 882mm
Length: 1613mm
Weight: 2350g (w/o batteries)
TOW: 3400g
*CG: 40mm aft of factory recommended position (molded into the wings)
*Current CG is temporarily more nose heavy.
Material: EPO
Motor: HET-1865kv inrunner motor (added as a mod)
EDF: 9-blade 80mm Jetfan (added as a mod)
ESC: Freewing/Hobbywing Flyfun 150A 8S (added as a mod)
Servos: Stock servos on the canards, ALZRC DS452MG on TV yaw, JX servos on elevons, rudders and TV pitch. (added as a mod)
Landing Gear: Electronic retractable w/ aluminum trailing link struts
Receiver: FrSky X8R (user choice)
Gyro: Hobby Eagle A3S3 (added as a mod)
Canards gyro: GWS PG-03 (added as a mod)
Separate UBEC: Freewing 8A (added as a mod)
Receiver battery: Rhino 2S 610mAh (added as a mod)
Main battery pack:
- HRB 2x 4S 4200mAh 50C
- Turnigy Nanotech 2x 4S 3300mAh 70C
The jet is powered with an upgraded 8S 80mm Jetfan EDF with a 1865kv HET motor. I had to cover the cheater hole with a mosquito net to protect my expensive investment from an otherwise inevitable FOD considering the conditions of my gravel-dirt runway so the jet isn't even displaying it's full thrust potential. This obviously has an effect on performance and current draw. Sadly this setup is too amp hungry and can only get two and a half to three minute flights with throttle management and 3Ah packs. The batteries also struggle to deliver the amps, despite being Panther packs that are pretty heavy/capable. Overall the Jetfan is indeed an improvement in performance over stock setup, but the short resulting flight time kinda defeats the purpose, need to go to higher capacity batteries, and using lower-C packs to keep the weight in check.
More setup details:
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=46318505&postcount=2099
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