Official Freewing F/A-18C Hornet 90mm EDF Thread

[T-CAT]

T, I have 30% taileron mixed to aileron. I found that the role was not axial, so I mixed a little down elevator in to either direction roll, 8%. Some people showed me that the real airplane doesn’t roll axial so you may not want to do that. I found that I needed 14% elevator mix at half flap and 20% at full flap with full span flaps. Regular flaps needed 7 and 12. Let me know what else you want to know.

Fantastic info., thanks Evan. I'll start programming the aircraft next week when it arrives.

[e4dragongunner]

I replaced all the important servos (aileron, flaps and elevator) and eliminated the blue box. That may have been slight over kill but I wanted to make sure it worked as I wanted. I will be using the blue box to get the LEDs working as they should. I also reglued the servo plates with extra thick CA and it made a huge difference!

Yup! what you said Gooniac! Going same route. also adding the CC 20 BEC.

[Aros]

Evan would you mind sending me your SPM file? I would love tinkering around with that mix, and I am terrible at mixing so it would be a great help! If you don't mind feel free to PM me and I will send my email. Thanks!

[Aros]

Dagnabbin' son-of-a-flubbin' dirty crosswind-havin'....

[Skyboom]

Any real damage? Looks like you almost had her landed.

[Aros]

Just cosmetic thankfully. Both tops of the VStabs took the brunt of the impact so I will probably just replace those. Canopy is scratched pretty good so might replace that too...Other than that some knicks on the nose and front of the fuse that can easily be painted over. Definitely better than having the gear get destroyed that's for sure.

[Evan D]

Mine did the exact same on like the third flight. A perfect bounce. flip, three point landing... inverted.

[Skyboom]

Still waiting to put mine together. But not the Blue Angel's one. Putting it together for Ferndale Washington. Next week.

[Aros]

So after my flip over it really took a substantial amount out of the top LE of the Vstabs thanks to the pavement. I am trying to think the best route to go as far as repairs. Would love to hear anyone’s thoughts. I am thinking adding foam and sculpting, sanding and painting...Any ideas?

[fredmdbud]

Perhaps something along the lines of "caps" - sculpt or 3-D print the forward corners of the vertical tails, then vacuum-mold plastic sheet for something to ablate before taking out the foam. But that would be a longer-term solution.

For an immediate fix, could make a plastic former (like they do with concrete) fitted along the forward corners, then fill with foam filler or epoxy mixed with micro beads, smoothing out the top before it sets. Then sand, apply filler, sand again, then paint.

[T-CAT]

So after my flip over it really took a substantial amount out of the top LE of the Vstabs thanks to the pavement. I am trying to think the best route to go as far as repairs. Would love to hear anyone’s thoughts. I am thinking adding foam and sculpting, sanding and painting...Any ideas?

Awe man, sorry to hear about the flip. The good thing is it looks like the damage is really minimal.

If it were me, I'd use a piece of sandable foam (not EPO, ha-ha) glued in place (after I slice just a bit below the frayed damaged foam with a new hobby knife to ensure a clean and non-frayed foam surface to work from), reshape it to fit via sanding, then use balsa filler and sand to shape, and finish it with a repaint. Some steps sometimes require repeating. More balsa filler brands and types has sanded better for me than most spackle type fillers. Many lightweight spackles (even the non latex ones) I find sand only decent, and the texture isn't quite as smooth as I like. That's just one opinion though, and it's likely worth less than 2 cents.

[Aros]

Thanks for the info gents! Some good stuff here!

[Evan D]

I just bought new stabs...

[killickb]

My recent taxiing back "tip up" broke the missile rail in half but amazingly the force was transmitted thru the wing great enough to move the front wing out about an 1/8 inch at the front wing mount position. Not sure yet what component has been over stressed but points to a good call by Peter to 3D print some new rails and mount using magnets. Still cannot buy rails only as a spare part from anyone.

[gooniac33]

I was able to get a remaiden on a buddies plane this weekend and also got more flights on mine this and I tried using flaps as well. The bird is a blast with the set up I am using! Its a 3 year old F-15 set up. it climbs up and out of sight and handles like a dream!! Callie sent me my graphics to I will get the #6 and Andre Webb's name planted on the side of it. Got to see them fly at SF Fleet week on friday as well! They had a camera ship up flying to take pix and it was an epic show!! I will have my videos from yesterday uploaded in a bit....

[rcSpanky]

Almost done! - I screwed up the large graphic on the top of the plane.. (it stuck down before I was ready, got committed on placement) - Looks pretty nice tho.. now onto the wiring and final assembly!

[john2kx]

That looks nice!

[Elbee]

Almost done!]

RCS, Lookin' good. Truly nice work. Bravo Zulu, Sir. Best, LB

[fredmdbud]

Some un-hatcam videos :)

Takeoffs and landing without flaps for a change (one connector frayed, so disconnected both and flew with them unpowered w/o incident)

[rcSpanky]

OK guys - I have some issues: I've made a ticket at MRC, but maybe someone here has insight.. Here's the ticket:

Hello,
So I've been working on customizing this plane since I received it, and had some but not all the surfaces connected and operating thru this process.. I had the gear swinging and all the lights were on..Ive now finished the customizing and now I was going onto electronics and assembly. So All of a sudden, with no warning, no smell of electronics, no symptoms, The LED lights on the right side are dark, the landing light on the gear is dark, the gear doesnt react or retract to the radio. Throttle, Aileron, rudder, elevator and flaps work.

Here's the odd stuff:
I plugged the gear wire into every working channel and got no response on any of them
I then bypassed the blue box and went directly to receiver to all known working channels and no response
I did wait a considerable amount of time to see if it was just a delay.
All three gear are stuck down.

As far as the lights,
The green is just dead, doesnt light up no matter where its plugged in
the strobe light works, but not in the strobe channel on the blue box
the red works but only in two places in the blue box
the nose gear works but not in its channel

I have ensured I have a charged battery
I have re-bound the receiver and checked all the channels for operation.
I've moved all working wires to other channels to ensure the channel was reacting to radio inputs.

This is pretty upsetting guys, I've got a TON of hours into this plane, and it hasnt left the ground.
Im truly stumped here, as the blue box seems to be only one issue, unless it has a history of taking out
the landing gear if it decides to self destruct.


Any ideas???