JAS-39 Gripen ✈️ BCN JETS 2021 + Moonflight

Another of my own flights at Barcelona Jets 2021, this time with the JAS-39 Gripen (which was the closure flight for Saturday) and a bonus flight at my usual Club dancing with the Moon... looks like the MiG-29 is not the only one who's in love with the goddess of the night-sky! :)

These were flights 84th and 92nd on 'Jana'.

Pilot: Airguardian
Ground video: Luis Ibáñez
Airfields: RACBSA / Club Els Cards

Barcelona jets is an international R/C jet meeting organized in Catalonia, at the RACBSA model aircraft Club in Montcada i Reixac, next to Ripollet in Catalonia, just a short drive from Barcelona. The original idea was to celebrate another 'Cerdanya Jets' (which got cancelled back in 2020 due to the global pandemic) but there were problems with the new aerodrome manager so instead the event came back to its origins... sad to an extent, as the organization was forced to limit assistance, but it was also cool to have this amazing event back at our local Club! :)

Official site of the BCN Jets meeting:
https://cerdanyajets.wixsite.com/barcelonajets2021

BTW, I had been previously flying this jet with CG 32mm aft of what the manufacturer recommends... but now I made that a wh00ping 40mm! :D

Well, you may already know me for one who complains and whines about manufacturer CG recommendations being EXCESSIVELY nose heavy and I have long made it my crusade to try and show that planes can (and actually DO) fly better with more neutral CGs... Getting it aft on the Gripen has been quite a nightmare so far due to the inherent design of the jet. I added tail ballast, installed the TV unit, shifted the whole EDF installation 2.5cm back, used wingtip missiles, repositioned the nose landing gear from the stock location to the rear of the nose compartment, removed landing light, etc.

Now the CG is pretty much where I want it to be on such an airplane. It is much more responsive and agile and shows less bad tendencies, the canards, as driven by the gyro, finally move more akin to what they should, compared to the full-scale jet. Mind you, the jet is much more 'responsive' but by no means 'tail-heavy' or unstable. Maybe this is not the setup you want to go after for your first flights on this bird, but it's a huge improvement over stock if you are after top aerobatic performance. Also seems like wind turbulence handling improved somewhat.

Notice how the canards are seen 'pitching down' most of the time, even through 'pitch-up' maneuvers unless the plane runs out of authority at which the gyro 'saturates' and commands full pitch up to the canards as expected.

My Gripen features an 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. 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 pack weight in check (around 800g).

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 wings)
Material: EPO
Motor: HET-1865kv inrunner motor
EDF: 9-blade 80mm Jetfan
ESC: Freewing/Hobbywing Flyfun 150A 8S
Servos: All stock servos, 9g hybrid digital
Landing Gear: Electronic retractable w/ aluminum trailing link struts
Receiver: FrSky S8R gyro-stabilized receiver
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:
- Turnigy Nanotech 2x 4S 3300mAh 70C
- Turnigy Panther 2x 4S 3000mAh 70C

More setup details (with the older CG and no TV):
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=46318505&postcount=2099

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