Official Freewing 70mm F-35 V3 (2019 Version) Thread

[fredmdbud]

Spoilerons also reduce lift, net effect of making a plane less “floaty”.

For those experiencing sudden pitch-down, does your transmitter support flaperons deployment speed? Spectrum does - I usually have them deploy over 5 seconds.

[Chevpro]

Some posts make me wonder how many commenting actually own this plane.

[Scale Master]

Some posts make me wonder how many commenting actually own this plane.

lol Exactly. Plane us super easy to fly, fast ans slow... The only noticeable characteristics I noticed is on landing do not flare too long and try to hold it off too long, she tends to wing rock from tip stalling. Just plant it on the ground when you're close to mitigate any unforeseen problems. An NEVER use rudder to make a correction while in the flare. A buddy of mine did that to his and cartwheeled his bird end over end into the ground.

[EDF_Lover]

Finally! First really successful F-35 V3 flight today!

Our club has a grass field and we’ve had some rain which has made landings easier and takeoffs almost impossible due to rolling drag.

I originally had the CG forward like in the manual and only got it off the ground once. The roll rate per the manual was crazy high and it was very nose heavy. I counted myself lucky to get it back down and only bend the nose gear.

I read HobbySquawk front to back for this airplane and learned about the CG error and the need to set some up elevator as neutral trim.

But, I couldn’t get it to take off reliably. It took a full run right after the grass had been cut. I pushed the battery all the way back, set full travel on the elevator, etc.

Then I bumped the nose cone off and noticed how heavy it was! I forgot that I had put 1.5 oz of weight in the “pre-drilled nose weight hole” to get it to balance with the wrong CG!

This morning I put small wood blocks behind the struts on all 3 gear units to limit backward deflection (which I will say confidently everyone should do) and lengthened the nose strut by 1/4” and went flying.

Off the ground in about 75 feet and under control. Very tame in 5-8 knot breezes with the admiral receiver/gyro with gains set at 10 o’clock. A little long on landing but it was controllable with nose high until touchdown.

Now I need to practice slowing it down a little more on final.

[G Zod]

Hey, Motion - when are you going to have spare parts back in stock for this jet?

The motion website shows less than HALF the spares are in stock.

I've been grounded for over a month waiting for spares. I can't continue to buy motion products if there is no parts support.

[deadbug]

Are any of you F-35 flyers out there using a Hobby Eagle A3 Super 3 (A3S3)? If so...is Auto-Level working reliably for you?

I installed a brand new one in my F35. I have 15 flights now and the normal mode of the gyro works beautifully...but the auto -level mode does not work. The roll portion of the recovery seems to work, but the pitch mode is erratic and sometimes goes in the wrong direction i.e...in a dive, the AL function will attempt to INCREASE THE DIVE. When inverted, it will sometimes push the nose higher above the Horizon.

Motion customer service has been great. They sent another A3S3 for me to try out and unfortunately, it is also performing the same.

[urrl]

[Captain Moron]

HI G ZOD ,If you stuck for parts for the F35 try RC Castles .They are from Hong Kong but excellent service from them and very quick delivery times .If You order say on a Monday you have the stuff by Friday ,they are that quick and they carry a full stock list .Give them a go. I always use them

[EDF_Lover]

I got 4 more flights in yesterday with the F-35 V3. 4000 mah Admiral Pro. Without the weight in the nose cone (see earlier post) I’m noticing that the flight characteristics have really changed (for the better).

I’ll describe its flight as “slightly nose high” in level flight at 2/3 throttle and gear up. I think this makes sense because of the lifting body shape of the fuselage and clipped wings. I’ll add that this was the first time I had the gear up (I don’t raise the gear until I’m comfortable with flying the plane with it down) and I think that contributes to the “groove” being a little nose high.

I also managed to land each time with no apparent gear damage. If that sounds like “well, duh” - then try flying this model off of 4 days-of-growth grass. At typical landing speeds there is a lot of force on the mounts when it touches down.

I think the “breakthrough” in technique was to establish
high alpha turning final, modulate altitude with throttle, and get the nose even higher at touchdown. Here’s why I think this works: if the nose is higher at touchdown, the force vectors on the mains is 100% compression on the springs and 0% backwards deflection on the mounts.

Once I stumbled on this technique, I found it helpful to hold the model and “hand fly” it onto a table at different angles to see which angle did the most compressing and least deflecting, and then use that angle as my goal for touchdown.

I think you don’t want to attempt to fly the approach at this angle because I suspect it would risk a stall. But as a final flare, it works.

Also, a very experienced EDF pilot at our field - who said these landings were “textbook” advised me to be juice the throttle a tiny bit at the end to really soften touchdown.

One last observation. I could see that the nose high attitude could be established on the base leg and used to slow the plane to the speed I wanted on final. It requires a high entry to base (30 feet of altitude?) and getting off the power a little. Once the high nose and descending is established (noting this altitude gives you some recovery room if you get off the power too much) you can really use the throttle to control sink rate. Of course the turn to final needs to be fairly shallow.

(In all honesty, my downwind to base to final is getting less and less squared off. I’m finding that depth perception is an issue flying jets from a mid-field box. It’s proving to be much easier for me to try to be at about 30 feet of altitude on downwind and initiate a sweeping, descending turn when I am abeam of the threshold and hold the turn until I’m lined up on final. Doing this means a 180 degree turn puts me right over the threshold with no need to judge distance.)

And, with high alpha landings, the roll out is about 30 feet on grass. Which means you can worry less about overshooting on rollout and focus on getting the right touchdown angle.

With the nose nose heavy CG I think I had to land faster and flatter, which increased touchdown speed and the deflection forces on the mains. And, forced me to “put it down” versus “fly it down”.

I hope this is useful info...

[xviper]

I got 4 more flights in yesterday with the F-35 V3. 4000 mah Admiral Pro. Without the weight in the nose cone (see earlier post) I’m noticing that the flight characteristics have really changed (for the better).

You mean to say that you left the nose cone off during these flights? If so, why not just shift the battery back to get the same balance that you get without the nose cone. It kinda looks goofy without the nose cone. Or do you think that not having the aerodynamic effects of the nose cone helps?

[EDF_Lover]

No, I had put weight in the nose to achieve the CG in the manual which is wrong. I took the weight out.

[xviper]

No, I had put weight in the nose to achieve the CG in the manual which is wrong. I took the weight out.

Gotcha!

[G Zod]

Yes thanks - tried Rc castle but unfortunately it was $88 for shipping. Deal killer!

[Captain Moron]

Mmmm ,yes that does sound a bit steep .I live in the UK and the postage is cheaper then Motion RC Europe .For just spare parts it is about $6 but if you buy a complete kit then it does get a bit costly .So I get the model from Motion RC Europe and the spares from RC Castle

[Quax]

Crashed mine today :-( Tip stalled in a vertical climb and entered a spin. Was able to recover and get out of the spin but there was not enough altitude left to leave the dive and get her level... So I need a new fuselage, which is not available right now :-(

[urrl]

[hkduder]

Hi,

I'm very new to EDF and RC Planes.

I'm setting up the F-35 and following the manual but it can be confusing with the surface controls. For one I just discovered in the Dual Rates section the third column wasn't labeled and should be Elevator.
Now I'm confused of the relationship between H1/H2 values and D/R Rates %. Can anyone help clarify how they are related and which ones to use?

Thanks

[xviper]

Hi,

I'm very new to EDF and RC Planes.

I'm setting up the F-35 and following the manual but it can be confusing with the surface controls. For one I just discovered in the Dual Rates section the third column wasn't labeled and should be Elevator.
Now I'm confused of the relationship between H1/H2 values and D/R Rates %. Can anyone help clarify how they are related and which ones to use?

Thanks

I see your confusion. Since there are no flaps on this plane, that's mislabeled in the picture. You can also see that the picture shows "elevator" and not flaps. By the process of elimination, the unlabeled table column "should" be elevator. Forget the % numbers. Use the mm to measure the amount of deflection. The actual % figures you may end up with in your TX can be quite different to achieve the mm of throw and can be different from one TX to the next. MM throw is the important aspect of the set up. To get the desired mm AND %, you'd have to mess with which hole on the servo arm and on the control horn to place the rod ends. You'll tear your hair out trying.

[hkduder]

I see your confusion. Since there are no flaps on this plane, that's mislabeled in the picture. You can also see that the picture shows "elevator" and not flaps. By the process of elimination, the unlabeled table column "should" be elevator. Forget the % numbers. Use the mm to measure the amount of deflection. The actual % figures you may end up with in your TX can be quite different to achieve the mm of throw and can be different from one TX to the next. MM throw is the important aspect of the set up. To get the desired mm AND %, you'd have to mess with which hole on the servo arm and on the control horn to place the rod ends. You'll tear your hair out trying.

thanks. I just didn't want to assume anything even though I saw what you are saying by process of elimination. To further my confusion the mm seems to me like it should be switched around, wherein 13/13 should be for the rudder and 21/21 should be for the elevator.

[xviper]

thanks. I just didn't want to assume anything even though I saw what you are saying by process of elimination. To further my confusion the mm seems to me like it should be switched around, wherein 13/13 should be for the rudder and 21/21 should be for the elevator.

Those are purely for reference points anyway. Different flyers like different throws. If your TX has 3-position switches for the control surface rates/expo, then just make one that is a little more on one surface and one that is a little less for the other and fly it in the middle to start and flip to a more workable rate that suits you. I generally like a lot of rudder for ground steering and not so much for elevator. Others may not. Find a more suitable throw for you on the 3rd rate.