Official Freewing 90mm F-4 Phantom II Thread

[locharrow]

Nearly had a pile of spares meeeself last week GG.....thought I would take it way out and up and come in fast for a really low fast roll. Usually practice after a normal passing roll I pull straight up and half loop and roll level. Well, came in like a rocket, very fast roll and pulled up a wee bit too late hard banking left! The plane disappeared behind trees, totally out of sight for what felt like ten seconds but probably only a couple. It appeared again fortunately going vertical and I sorted it from there. Apart from a change of underwear it all ended OK.

[GliderGuy]

With any single-servo critical control…it is good insurance to go with higher quality servos. And yes…upgrade to heavy duty hardware for the linkages and pushrod on the elevator.

1) I crashed an F-4 due to stock servo failure after a VERY large number of flights. Actually repaired this one.
2) I crashed again due to the ball connection failing.
3) I crashed an F-4 due to RF noise. Strongly advise you install RF chokes near the ESC.

With heavy duty linkages and push rod, higher quality servo and RF chokes, she is now my “old reliable” F-4 number 3. The other two are in a pile for spare parts.

-GG

PS Search on RF choke or choke in this forum to learn all about these marvelous add-ons.

[locharrow]

This was my post when I first fitted the FMS fan, it has been in long grass,.in bushes, up a tree and generally abused but it still runs great!

#5134
Nov 3, 2021, 10:12 AM
"Maiden " today with the FMS 1850 ....to be honest, compared to the Freewing 1835 ........nothing in it. The grass is longer now than the last outing with the latter which might make a difference but in the air a difference was not apparent. HRB 6000 cells all above 3.8 so no change there either. So there we have it . What it does have going for it is a very nice sound.........Time wise I just stuck to my normal 3 1/2 min. from wheels up to wheels down.

[rlcamden]

I fly off a grass field. 6S with a 4068-1835Kv Inrunner Motor. Plenty of power to get off the grass. Try and get the CG as neutral as you can with gear down, and you will be fine. Changed the elevator servo and linkage as a little added insurance.

[Evan D]

I fly off pavement. Mine has a Jetfan/ HET 8S system. I still have the stock servo but changed the linkage. To be honest FW may be sending this out with improvements, mine was one of the very first ones.

[fetzer]

Hello

Greetings from Germany.
Does anyone have experience with the FMS 90mm 12 Blade Pro Ducted Fan / Impeller incl. Brushless Motor 4068 KV185 as a drive? I'll get my 6s version of my Phantom tomorrow, but I'm not sure if it has enough power for the grass runway. According to the description, the FMS drive would bring 4.2kg of thrust. I don't want to go on 8s because of the weight.

I've also read that many replace the elevator servo - is the original really that bad, I mean should I replace it immediately?

Thanks

[SanExup]

Spoiler and full span flaps? When are you using the spoilers with the F4?

[Gravythe clown]

Delete wrong thread.

Gravy

[Highhorse]

They changed it after my complaint then…which is what they said they’d do.

[Evan D]

Interesting, today I looked up all three versions and it didn’t say say that. But I looked at the US Motion site.

[Highhorse]

Duplicate Removed

[Highhorse]

“
#5477
Today, 05:53 AM
It used to be plain grey but it's been advertised as having decals applied for at least six months if not much longer. Most of us get paint matched at home depot or lowes.


No sir. I don’t know which ad you referred to but the current ad which I ordered from clearly stated the two sets of decals were included, which quite obviously means that neither is applied. Additionally, MRC has agreed via email that the ad mis-states the facts and indicated that they will edit same to avoid future confusion.

Is there no exact match touch-up available from MRC? If not, I will go the paint store route.

[Evan D]

It used to be plain grey but it's been advertised as having decals applied for at least six months if not much longer. Most of us get paint matched at home depot or lowes.

[Highhorse]

So….MRC sent me a Ghost Grey Phantom that was advertised as having two sets of unapplied water slide decals, but the advertising was false. You can have any scheme you want as long as it’s the Marine version, already applied. If I want Navy I have to spend hours stripping the current decals and repainting, then applying decals purchased at my own expanse from Callie…

Question: Exactly which of the Grey paints MRC sells -if any- is the exact match for the Ghost Grey?

Thanks.

[locharrow]

Do other F4 remote jockeys forget all about the actual flight after they really grease a landing..........or just me yesterday!

[locharrow]

" I believe you'll like the HiV 5900's in your Phantom like I did. I have the same power setup in both my Phantoms, the 1835Kv 12b so I'm interested to learn your reaction."

E-mailed to get some of these and just my luck the factory is out of stock till mid September. Confirming sods law, one of my 6000s has started to puff a wee bit so that will be relegated to ground work. A short session with the F4 this afternoon, lovely light grey sky, ...no sun and nice light breeze in the right direction for a change!

[Hugh Wiedman]

I finally get a chance to fly the SMC tomorrow.
I will try them in my Phantom on the 1835kv 12b.

rlcamden , I believe you'll like the HiV 5900's in your Phantom like I did. I have the same power setup in both my Phantoms, the 1835Kv 12b so I'm interested to learn your reaction.

[rlcamden]

The stock BEC that comes with the ESC will be fine. The only Freewing aircraft I bypassed the stock BEC/UBEC on was the Mig 29 and ended up putting a Castle 20 Amp BEC in, only because I upgraded the elevator servos with ProModelers and installed the Trust Vectoring nozzles which added an additional 4 servos. The Mig flies on HiV batteries as well, which the 2 stock ESC's handled with no reprogramming.

I have to say regarding the HiV batteries, I was skeptical at first but now I use them exclusively in every aircraft I have, from Freewing/Flightline (jets/props), anything from Horizon Hobby/Hangar Nine or FMS as well as all my Extreme Flight 3D planes, and I have not a single horror story to tell. SMC just made some 8S HiV packs that I use in my 8S Eurofighter and it's a lot easier than dealing with 2 4S packs, saves some weight as well. With the SMC HiV packs, not only are they high volt but the chemistry Danny has worked out results in High Life Cycles, much better than your average cell. He prides himself on labeling the actual C of the battery at what it really is, unlike everyone else. You can check out the actual testing and ratings on his batteries and all the others major brands in the RC Group thread done by MCSGUY labeled "Battery Load Test Comparisons" and Danny's thread called "SMC Lipos for Flight" where he will answer any question you have. He also has some of the best customer service I've ever seen. His batteries have the highest actual C and lowest weight at a price that is very competitive. He just came out with the HiV 5900's that are slightly lower in C than the HiV 5300's or 6200's (2 of my favorite packs) but at a weight that is the same as the 5300 (740gr) which give my EDF's almost the same flight time as I get on the 6200's with 75 less gr. In the Mig that takes 2 packs, I'm now using 2 5900's instead of 2 5300's without adding any weight. Sorry to go on about SMC, I'm just completely sold on them. I've only had 1 have the IR of a cell deteriorate yet Danny replaced it even after 1 year!!

I think the most important consideration if you're going to use HiV batteries though is your charger. I have 2 Prodigy 610 Quad chargers that allows me to charge 8 HiV packs at once, however, it only charges to 4.3 volts per cell. I top them off to 4.35 v per cell with my Progressive 4010 Dual "Professional" case charger (and also take that one to field), which is a wonderful piece of equipment but damn expensive. It was given to me by a friend who had 2 given to him, so without this charger, I most likely would not have gotten into HiV batteries and I clearly wouldn't have spent almost $1000 on that charger on my own, so I got lucky. With that machine, you can program your storage level and charging final cell voltage and rate with ease as well as charge up to a 10S.

Hugh,

I really appreciate the info. As for chargers, I have a Hitec X2 AC Pro for my 4 cells and a SkyRC D400 for my 6 cells which both support LiHVs. I went with the SMC 5900s due to the weight being close to the Admiral 5000 which I have several. They were purchased when I got my 80mm A-10 in 2017. Kinda figured it was time to by new and just keep those for my prop planes. I finally get a chance to fly the SMC tomorrow.

To everyone that follows this thread, I apologize for turning it into talk about SMCs. No issues on the ground test, so on that note, I will try them in my Phantom on the 1835kv 12b.

[Hugh Wiedman]

They other question I have recently thought about is regarding the BEC/UBEC. Will I need to replace the stock 8A that comes with most freewing ESCs? I know I am probably over thinking things. I seem to have gotten my thought process scrambled reading posts, watching videos, and listening/reading all the horror stories with the high voltage packs.

The stock BEC that comes with the ESC will be fine. The only Freewing aircraft I bypassed the stock BEC/UBEC on was the Mig 29 and ended up putting a Castle 20 Amp BEC in, only because I upgraded the elevator servos with ProModelers and installed the Trust Vectoring nozzles which added an additional 4 servos. The Mig flies on HiV batteries as well, which the 2 stock ESC's handled with no reprogramming.

I have to say regarding the HiV batteries, I was skeptical at first but now I use them exclusively in every aircraft I have, from Freewing/Flightline (jets/props), anything from Horizon Hobby/Hangar Nine or FMS as well as all my Extreme Flight 3D planes, and I have not a single horror story to tell. SMC just made some 8S HiV packs that I use in my 8S Eurofighter and it's a lot easier than dealing with 2 4S packs, saves some weight as well. With the SMC HiV packs, not only are they high volt but the chemistry Danny has worked out results in High Life Cycles, much better than your average cell. He prides himself on labeling the actual C of the battery at what it really is, unlike everyone else. You can check out the actual testing and ratings on his batteries and all the others major brands in the RC Group thread done by MCSGUY labeled "Battery Load Test Comparisons" and Danny's thread called "SMC Lipos for Flight" where he will answer any question you have. He also has some of the best customer service I've ever seen. His batteries have the highest actual C and lowest weight at a price that is very competitive. He just came out with the HiV 5900's that are slightly lower in C than the HiV 5300's or 6200's (2 of my favorite packs) but at a weight that is the same as the 5300 (740gr) which give my EDF's almost the same flight time as I get on the 6200's with 75 less gr. In the Mig that takes 2 packs, I'm now using 2 5900's instead of 2 5300's without adding any weight. Sorry to go on about SMC, I'm just completely sold on them. I've only had 1 have the IR of a cell deteriorate yet Danny replaced it even after 1 year!!

I think the most important consideration if you're going to use HiV batteries though is your charger. I have 2 Prodigy 610 Quad chargers that allows me to charge 8 HiV packs at once, however, it only charges to 4.3 volts per cell. I top them off to 4.35 v per cell with my Progressive 4010 Dual "Professional" case charger (and also take that one to field), which is a wonderful piece of equipment but damn expensive. It was given to me by a friend who had 2 given to him, so without this charger, I most likely would not have gotten into HiV batteries and I clearly wouldn't have spent almost $1000 on that charger on my own, so I got lucky. With that machine, you can program your storage level and charging final cell voltage and rate with ease as well as charge up to a 10S.

[rlcamden]

First just plug in a fully charged HiV and count the number of beeps from the ESC to make sure it beeps 6 times. If so, you're good to go. If not, then the ESC believes it is a 7S and the low voltage safeguard will kick in too early (with about 50-60% of battery left). It does this by first pulsing the throttle and eventually will cut off completely (saving your battery but destroying your plane ) I have 2 of the early F-4's, one the ESC gives me 6 beeps (it's good to go), the other did not. Same thing with 2 early F-18's. My old Avanti/Stinger90/F16/A-10/Corsair/Spitfire/B-24/Mig 29 and Eurofighter all worked without re-programming, so it's not 100% either way.

I then had a buddy who really knows electronics reprogram the ESC to get rid of the low voltage cutoff all together . With that one, the ESC does not beep at all when you first plug it in with a fully charged HiV (but beeps 6 times with a battery that is at a maximum of 4.28 v per cell), but you can drain the battery to 0 without the ESC cutting off early. If you have that issue of not getting the correct beeps, let me know and I'll have him give you a rundown on what he did, but I do remember he first got the online manual for the particular Freewing ESC and just followed directions (something I'm not very good at, according to my CO). I'm thinking the newer ESC's all handle the HiV's. The Castle ESC's I have are easily programmed for HiV with their Castle Link and following instructions on their website. My buddy has reprogrammed several Freewing ESC's (as that's all we use now are the HiV batteries) with the exception of a Freewing 8S ESC in his F22, which for some reason it couldn't be done. The 8S ESC in my Eurofighter handled HiV just fine.

I would also recommend before flying, charge up the HiV fully, put it in the jet and do a "simulated" flight on the bench to make sure the cutoff isn't affecting it. Drain it down to 3.7 per cell or lower then you won't have any concerns that it's good to go.

Thanks for the info. I will finally get a chance to bench test it this weekend and will let you know. On all of my new planes, I always reset the ESCs to default through the stick and beep method after I have assembled it. I then go in and set for Lipo, low timing, low cut-off, brake off, and normal start-up for a piece of mind, followed by the throttle calibration. I have received a few that had different settings from the factory. I guess for testing/programming before assembly/shipping. I recently bought the freewing programming card to make it easier, but some of my receivers are mounted in the airframes and not easily accessible.

They other question I have recently thought about is regarding the BEC/UBEC. Will I need to replace the stock 8A that comes with most freewing ESCs? I know I am probably over thinking things. I seem to have gotten my thought process scrambled reading posts, watching videos, and listening/reading all the horror stories with the high voltage packs.