Official Freewing 70mm F-35 Lightning Thread

[Aros]

Motion RC is pleased to announce the release of the Freewing 70mm F-35 Lightning. This is the official message thread to post photos, videos, flight reviews and any questions about this aircraft.

[Kloverzero]

Very fun plane. Stock, with a 4S 2200 Admiral PRO you can have a lot of fun with the vectoring. I could get decent hovers, and insane flat spins. Full throttle pop ups are neat, and it will almost loop within the length of the plane. Make sure that you keep good altitude when you are playing with the vectoring. It is easy to have too much fun and totally stall the plane, and it takes a lot of altitude to recover. Have fun, and Happy Landings!!

[Nickc2023]

Has anyone tried to upgrade the F35 with the 70mm power system from the new F16?

[Bjkeith13]

I just was curious and opened up the motor bay. It is the 12 fin motor and speed control from the new F-16. I was a little concerned because the spare part section has a 5 fin edf, but it does come with an installed 12 fin edf 4 cell assembly.

i haven't flown it yet because I ordered an 8 channel receiver that won't dock with my 6 channel transmitter. This weekend I hope to get it in the air.

[dahawk]

I have a V1 version that a club member gave to me. He had been hand launching and belly landing. As a proof of concept I wanted to prove that by adding retracts, she would be able to rotate off a grass field. So that's what I did.except made a few mods along the way. For the mains, I used the skinny spoked wheels that run through the grass more easily with less friction. For the nose gear, I used a single wheel on slightly longer oleo strut. Again less friction and it gave me a few degrees more positive AOA. Had to carve out some foam to fit. Set up flapperons. I've found take-off flaps to be a must-do for edf's on grass ops.

I actually disabled the TV for now and just taped the nozzle for straight line thrust. Too many variables to worry about for now. Will tend to that later.

I replaced the stock motor/fan with the new 70mm FMS 12b setup. Comes balanced out of the box. Upped the esc to 80 amps. Pulled about 900watts on the wattmeter test. This EPS airframe is pretty light so it has more than ample power and thrust. Added some bling with nav lights, beacons and a landing light. I had an extra Freewing light board, so why not?

On maiden, she rolled down the runway just fine but and when she rotated, popped up at a high aoa . Startled me at first. Thought she was bit tail heavy and was able to nurse her down after a few trim circuits.

The landing was a bit too fast and I ripped out one of the mains and the nose gear. Didn't have them secured as good as should have been but I've fixed everything now with lots of epoxy. If I prang another landing there will be a lot of foam coming off. LOL I've added 7g to the nose and she seems to balance better. The LG design in the first place puts the mains behind the CG which is generally not considered good design practice. Hey, I started with free and have not invested too much. Having fun showing our guys that they can actually fly small edf's off grass with LG versus hand launching.

Hawk

[Kloverzero]

. Having fun showing our guys that they can actually fly small edf's off grass with LG versus hand launching.

Hawk[/QUOTE]
I fly off of grass exclusively, there isn't a paved runway within 200 miles of me. On the stock power system, the V2 F-35 with retracts had no trouble with the grass. Neither does my 64mm A-10, my 70mm F-16, 70mm F-104(now deceased), and 64mm FMS F-15.

I have to say, I have had almost no problem getting the smaller jets out of the grass. The larger ones are another ball of wax completely. My F-14, -15, -16, EF-2000, T-45, and SU-35 require 70-80 yds at times to get airborne, and that is with a decent headwind. I have upgraded all of them to either the 6S inrunner, or the 8S inrunner, and have cut the takeoff roll considerably. The only large jet that I have, or have had, that didn't have a problem with the grass is the DH-112 Venom. The wing loading is so light on that plane, that it lifts off with ease.

My 80mm F-5 and A-6 also struggled in the grass. I wound up hand launching and belly landing the A-6 for most of her life span after replacing the rotating mains several times. The F-5 never did like the grass, and it eventually led to a tip stall on takeoff, and her demise.

I am highly anticipating this 1700mm A-10 as a grass friendly, large(did I say large, I meant HUGE) EDF. It looks to be the plane I have been waiting for, and I hope that it will set a new standard for keeping us grass flyers in the air.

Happy Landings guys!!

[bradl4648]

I have the F-35 as well and I cut the little battery stopper on the battery tray out. By doing this it allowed me to use a 3600 mah admiral lipo just fine. The other thing I did I hated the pop it did on take off. So take out the nose retract add 3 flat washers between the fuse and the retract this will lift the nose up more and dropping the tail down giving the elevator a chance to see the air flow. Now it uses less runway and does not pop of the ground. I used to fly off grass as well and I have the A-6 I have been lucky I guess no issues with retracts and grass. I use the Admiral 40006's pro 60C this is the best for all 80 mm edf that i have found. I tried the 40006 40 C and that was terrible.took a lot to come off grass and half the power I do not suggest that but each to their own.

[Bjkeith13]

And have I mentioned that it is gorgeous?

absolutely the best looking airplane I have seen. Hopefully someday freewing will find a way to make the vtol/stol system of the real plane work.

just in case someone is reading this and is concerned that it might be using a five fin edf setup, it does not. The V2 has a twelve fin edf. And it sounds incredible. Since there's so much insulation from the motor, it's near the center of the airplane, all you really hear when it's in the air is the whoosh and a little whistle. It really grabs the eyes of anybody watching you fly it. Even at a big club, people will want to see it up close and ask questions.

[Bjkeith13]

Question.

has anybody swapped out the stock motor and used the 4000 kv motor from a 64mm 12 fin edf?

[dusmmdb]

I just was curious and opened up the motor bay. It is the 12 fin motor and speed control from the new F-16. I was a little concerned because the spare part section has a 5 fin edf, but it does come with an installed 12 fin edf 4 cell assembly.

i haven't flown it yet because I ordered an 8 channel receiver that won't dock with my 6 channel transmitter. This weekend I hope to get it in the air.

Yours came with the 12b 3500kv?????

[Bjkeith13]

No it came with the 2850kv. No it's not the 6s F-16, but it is the same as the new 4s F-16.

[Bjkeith13]

No wait. I'm confused. Doesn't the F-16 V2 come with a 2850kv?

[dusmmdb]

Yeah but I think it comes with the six blade 70mm

im wondering why they show the 12b "64mm" 3500kv as an upgrade

[Bjkeith13]

No it comes with a 12b 2850kv motor.

[dusmmdb]

now you have me curious... I thought mine had a six blade.... going out to look!!

[dusmmdb]

Mine has the six blade fan

[Bjkeith13]

Six blade with 3000kv motor? I think it was pretty recent that they upgraded it. They come with a 2850kv motor and 12 blade. It sounds amazing for sure, but I'm not sure if it flys as fast.

[Bjkeith13]

And I have no idea why they have a 64mm fan as an upgrade... maybe the 3500kv motor is an upgrade, but you wouldn't buy the whole system if you were going to do that since the fan won't fit.

[Bjkeith13]

And I see why I got confused. The actual 12 fin upgrade is the 2850kv motor system. Unless you upgrade to 6s battery, then there's the 2100kv system. I wonder if he 3500kv motor would be too fast for it?

[Nick1956]

The 3500kv motor will probably too high of a kv for the 12 blade, but check with Wayne at Motion. In fact call any of the service reps before you do anything.....they will ALWAYS be able to help you and make sure you are running the correct systems. Plus they are a great bunch of guys to talk to.....they are the best in the business.