Freewing 80mm F-5E Tiger II

[gooniac33]

Just wondering is the plane hard to land? Judging from videos it seems the plane lands really hot, so just wondering how much space will I need to land this plane?

it has a small wing so landings are reasonably fast. When mine had the stock fan landings were for sure hot. But once I changed to the FMS unit the landings were much better. Still faster than most but for sure slower than in stock format.

[OV10]

it has a small wing so landings are reasonably fast. When mine had the stock fan landings were for sure hot. But once I changed to the FMS unit the landings were much better. Still faster than most but for sure slower than in stock format.

:Confused: How did changing the power sys help reduce landing speed. :Thinking:

[fieldofdreamsflyer]

Just wondering is the plane hard to land? Judging from videos it seems the plane lands really hot, so just wondering how much space will I need to land this plane?

Lands like any other jet, my friends lands really nice , not hot like you say. Doesnt need much runway

[Rcjunkey]

:Confused: How did changing the power sys help reduce landing speed. :Thinking:

The FMS power package kind of put The F-5 on a diet

[UnintetionalCrashTester]

Lol getting mixed replies here, but 2/3 are saying the plane is not too bad, so I ended up pulling the trigger. Any tips reducing the hotness of the landings? Really not looking to swap power systems...does full flaps help any?

[MOFO1]

The F-5 really doesn't need to come in that hot. The trick is to get the flap settings and elevator mix right and it will slow down. It is a great flying jet.

[crxmanpat]

Mine slows down just fine for landing. However, getting it to stop rolling on a paved runway is another story. :)

[gooniac33]

:Confused: How did changing the power sys help reduce landing speed. :Thinking:

The FMS power system is much lighter. So lower landing speed. I have flown the crap outta this plane! I don't know of anyone that has flown it more than I have on here. I just relay what I know and have learned from flying it over the last few years. It gets a lot of use!! I have seen many people kill the plane and I actually killed my first one due to an RX issue. This is not a plane you want to fly slowly and while the landings can be kept relatively slow it rolls like crazy when it does touch down.

[gooniac33]

Mine slows down just fine for landing. However, getting it to stop rolling on a paved runway is another story. :)

exactly!!! It just goes and goes and goes...

[gooniac33]

Here is my flying from last weekend.

And these are from the previous weekend...

[rifleman_btx]

I have a buddy waiting to get one of these. Minor hangup on the other end I guess. But from the videos you posted, it looks really impressive.

[UnintetionalCrashTester]

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I think for the first landing i’ll mix in about 2mm down elevator and see what happens with full flaps. I’m usually pretty good at keeping a plane above stall speed, so we’ll see what happens. And i’m Landing on grass cuz my runway is pretty much a sidewalk lol

[UnintetionalCrashTester]

What CG are ya’ll using?

[crxmanpat]

I don't know the measurement, but my CG is right near the front edge of the plastic cover you glue onto the bottom of the wing to cover the servo wiring. See the xacto knife in the pic.

[UnintetionalCrashTester]

Well I maidened her today and I have to say the verdict does stand the jet does not land hot. Full flaps, a touch of up elevator, some throttle management/blipping, and she high alpha-ed straight in. Greased it on the first flight. Landed on grass (since my runway is basically a slightly wider sidewalk) so my wheels caught a bit of grass, and the front nose gear door got ripped out. No damage tho, so I just popped it back in. I'm a bit worried, however, as the door scratched up the bottom area of the nose, and long term that can't be good for the plane. Any idea how I can prevent this? Thinking about removing the door completely, but I really like the clean look of the plane with the door closed. Any way to secure the thing in? Also pat I felt that your CG was a bit nose heavy, I shifted it back and it felt a lot better. I would suggest moving it back about 5mm so it's pretty much in line with the back of the hard point for the screw. I liked it there.

[UnintetionalCrashTester]

Alright well after about 5 flights I've noticed that the gear really do loosen up. On the 6th flight I was about to rotate when the plane suddenly veered right. Luckily it wasn't in the air yet so I quickly corrected left and was able to get off the ground. At this point I thought I had simply bumped the stick, but the plane also tilted right a lot on landing. Upon inspection I noticed the mains had a decent amount of play in them (the screws that hold the retract in weren't loose it was the little black thing that holds the shaft in the retract that was loose). I had tightened all the screws before the maiden, and I'm surprised the shaft is so loose after only 5 flights. Anyone else experiencing this? Also how can I fix the issue? Not sure if I want to use lock tight since it's a retract and I don't want to risk the stuff messing up the retract mechanism.

[crxmanpat]

So the "little black thing" you're talking about is called a grub screw. If they do not have a thread locker applied at the factory, then yes they can come loose after just a few flights and is nothing unusual. Landing gear tightness is something I usually check during pre-flight when I put the gear down after arriving at the flying field.

The fix is to use a small amount of Loctite to secure the grub screws in place. CAUTION! Loctite will degrade plastic, so make sure you only use it on metal to metal applications (should be fine for all landing gear). You want to get the Loctite Thread Locker Blue 242.



If you need to remove the grub screws in the future, take a soldering iron and heat up the grub screw for a minute to loosen the thread locker, and then it should come out.

[Quickstop]

Alright well after about 5 flights I've noticed that the gear really do loosen up. On the 6th flight I was about to rotate when the plane suddenly veered right. Luckily it wasn't in the air yet so I quickly corrected left and was able to get off the ground. At this point I thought I had simply bumped the stick, but the plane also tilted right a lot on landing. Upon inspection I noticed the mains had a decent amount of play in them (the screws that hold the retract in weren't loose it was the little black thing that holds the shaft in the retract that was loose). I had tightened all the screws before the maiden, and I'm surprised the shaft is so loose after only 5 flights. Anyone else experiencing this? Also how can I fix the issue? Not sure if I want to use lock tight since it's a retract and I don't want to risk the stuff messing up the retract mechanism.

Lock tite won’t mess up the mechanism unless you pour in in there, use just enough to coat the threads, should not be dripping with the stuff

[gooniac33]

Alright well after about 5 flights I've noticed that the gear really do loosen up. On the 6th flight I was about to rotate when the plane suddenly veered right. Luckily it wasn't in the air yet so I quickly corrected left and was able to get off the ground. At this point I thought I had simply bumped the stick, but the plane also tilted right a lot on landing. Upon inspection I noticed the mains had a decent amount of play in them (the screws that hold the retract in weren't loose it was the little black thing that holds the shaft in the retract that was loose). I had tightened all the screws before the maiden, and I'm surprised the shaft is so loose after only 5 flights. Anyone else experiencing this? Also how can I fix the issue? Not sure if I want to use lock tight since it's a retract and I don't want to risk the stuff messing up the retract mechanism.

There are two areas to tighten. The first is outside of the plane and easy to do with just simply lowering the gear. 2mm hex and you are done. The shaft is held by another screw though. You need to remove the retract and then tighten the screw inside of the retract that holds the shaft. there is a lil access area for this. 1.5mm hex needed for that. It would be a good idea to use thread lock there to prevent this from happening in the future as stated above. But the outside is not always the issue.

[DCORSAIR]

There are two areas to tighten. The first is outside of the plane and easy to do with just simply lowering the gear. 2mm hex and you are done. The shaft is held by another screw though. You need to remove the retract and then tighten the screw inside of the retract that holds the shaft. there is a lil access area for this. 1.5mm hex needed for that. It would be a good idea to use thread lock there to prevent this from happening in the future as stated above. But the outside is not always the issue.

When I had my F-5 it was horrible on tracking down the runway, I tightened everything on them too, it was better but still a problem, I then switched out the foam wheels to rubber wheels and that solved my problem, the foam wheels weren't getting any traction I guess, the rubber ones worked great.