FT-22 Raptor... LOVIN' IT!!!!!

by Redazrael | February 10, 2014 | (9) Posted in Reviews

Well it may be dead of winter, cold, and windy as all get out. BUT...I have found the solution with the help of Flite Test yet again!!! Let me start out by saying, when I started this project, I downloaded the plans thinking that it would be a 2 dollar airframe that I could build easy (beings I have already built and experimented with the previous 22 design much like my other article on the Old Fogey) and if the wind knocked it into a crash no biggie. So I got it together...and waited....and waited...kept searching YouTube for anyone else maybe posting their experience, found a video from Robert Vaughan wringing out his FT-22, asked a couple questions of him, got some info from him, watched his videos some more..waited some more for ideal weather...watched the Flite Test video a couple more times lol...waited...(you get the point I'm sure) Finally I just couldn't take it anymore and I slapped a 2s 1300Mah on it like a scaredy cat and went and pulled a maiden in less than ideal conditions at my park. Was I ever surprised!!! Unfortunately I didn't film it much like most of my flying days, but it did remarkably well for being under powered in the wind. So I ran home grabbed my 1600Mah 3s packs. My son happened to be visiting and saw the plane and asked if I was gonna fly it again. He said he would go and check it out and use my phone to video it...well...in my excitement I forgot to put the good 16gb SD card in it and the video got cut rather short, but there is some halfway decent footage (when in focus) of how great this design is!!!!


Since I was already there, I went ahead and flew out the rest of my battery packs and came home to recharge, warm up and change the prop to see what differences it may make. My anticipation was mounting and I just wanted to fly this plane again, so I found another set of hands to man the phone/camera and back to the park...well I was greeted by some rather robust wind gusts . By this point I just had to do it! I wanted a video of it from launch to land !!!

After flying it with No crash and no damage to the airframe i decided to do some mods to it for niteflite. I am not as experienced as i would like to be at night so anything other than perfect windless conditions it will stay grounded after dark. So all I have is some stills of the lighting, it's nothing special just some modified LED strips from advance auto parts. Thanks again Flite Test for another Great plane and Great experience in this hobby!!

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COMMENTS

Aquanot on February 27, 2014
yeah, like your color scheme and the led's!

i still have to try my ft22, seen it in the forum?
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Redazrael on February 27, 2014
give me a link and I'll check it out
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Aquanot on February 28, 2014
http://forum.flitetest.com/showthread.php?7112-FT-22-Raptor-BUILD&p=87089&viewfull=1#post87089
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Redazrael on February 28, 2014
very nice my friend! I really dig that scheme alot! I see you did something a little different with your motor and with type of foam...you have to let me know how that bird does in the air!! I am currently building #3 and have decided to take paper off in strategic places and re-laminate with light weight tape and am wondering how a much lighter version flies, and it seems yours might be quite light without all that heavy paper. I have an EDF version of this plane too and am wondering if lowering the position of the motor on the prop and slot version (like yours) changes anything or maybe makes it track more like the EDF. The stock setup with motor on the FT Elements mount seems kinda "floaty" and very docile as I am sure Josh B and Chad were intending thru the designing phase.
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kpd on February 26, 2014
I too have a f22 and I was amazed with its performance and durability. Its a great beater for the cold Massachusetts winters. I have never seen one with LEDs now I definitely have to install them on mine now! Great job!!!
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Redazrael on February 26, 2014
Thank you man!! Hey try it with a 64mm EDF LOL! It gets even better for sure!!!!!!
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Bellows on February 26, 2014
Excellent build. I like your color scheme and the LEDs look fantastic! I just built one and am waiting for my motor. Any details or links on how you did the LEDs? Thanks for sharing,
LooseBruce
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Redazrael on February 26, 2014
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!! The LEDs are the ones from Advance Auto (2 12in strips w/18 diodes in ea) my son bought a used car and someone had them in it and he ripped em out and gave them to me. I simply took clear tape and put it over the last 5 or so and used a sharpie to tint the tape so i would have all white again if i wanted. I cut my wire to length and have powered it with a very light, low mah homeade 3s lipo and have run it with a homemade connecter plugged into the flight battery monitoring plug for an even lighter setup. The nose/fuselage light is just a dollar tree 3 LED flashlight stripped to just the 3 diodes and the silver reflector then used a couple pancake lithium cells out of the dollar tree flameless candles to have extremely lightweight power and a lil velcro to hold it where i want it. The LED strips are just affixed with a small drop of hot glue here and there. I hope that helps you out, and answers your questions about it. Any other questions about this plane or my other FT-22s just ask and I'll be more than happy to help!!! Happy Flyin!!!
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sailorJohn on February 26, 2014
The stills are great! I always like to see multiple views of the plane and just enough flying too see if it preforms well. 27 degrees here in sunny TN.
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Redazrael on February 26, 2014
Thanks sailorJohn! I have since built and tested a fully "skinned" (HK wing tape) version of it with the aerodrive 2217/16 1050kv and just this past week converted it over to 64mm EDF. Just haven't compiled pictures and all that to make another article until I see if people are even interested. Oh and it's sunny here in MD for the last few days but that darned wind is killing me!! The EDF version FT-22 takes it like a champ but it's next to gale force today!!
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Isaac Mac on April 15, 2014
you have to buy all the electronics separate with the ft-22 raptor right? just want to make sure because i ordered on and i don't want to wait another week for everything because the nearest rc hobby is 2 hours away and i am join to the sand duns next week so in other words i don't want to drive 2 hours to buy 3 things.

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FT-22 Raptor... LOVIN' IT!!!!!