Official Freewing 90mm F-4 Phantom II Thread

[amgsky1]

It's all good.....Thanks Paul!

[crxmanpat]

After two months of not flying, finally getting back out tomorrow. Taking the F-4 and will get that drag chute working!

[Woodcock]

Ya know as I get closer and closer to maybe pulling the trigger on one of these F-4's. I can't help but wonder why they haven't offered this plane with a classic US Navy livery. Not that the camo looks bad or anything, I think it looks great. So if I were to purchase this plane, I would immediately have a brand new project. Re painting it, as I'm a Navy guy. The painting of one of these, and doing a good job is a serious commitment in time and effort. Simply time I don't have. I'm sure I'm not the first one to bring this up, but has any heard about a possible new livery some time down the road?

Woody

[dahawk]

Bravo Zulu Woodcock! You'll be waiting for the cows to come home before that happens. Re-painting was not difficult and did not take very long. I did mine in the VF-111 Sundowners livery.

One large can of rustoleum white primer. It'll cover the SEA camo. 3 small cans of model master gull gray. I left gthe bottom white. A small bottle of black. A small bottle of insignia red. A small bottle of white for the ailerons and flaps.

I used yellow frog tape for masking. Add Callie Graphics. Took less than a day putzing around. Graphics took the longest especially with the big rising sun on the vstab and the sharks in the nose cone. Other schemes would take less time.

As a Navy guy, you owe it to yourself to make your Phantom look like she's ready to cross the beach. Just saying...

Hawk

[Woodcock]

Da ya almost got me talked into it. Yea, yur right don't want to be waiting on them cows, we all know how slow they are.

On another note, while looking yesterday, I noticed FMS has a new Goshawk. Well I've always kinda wanted one of these too. So I take a closer look, wanted to make sure FMS painted the white sections of the paint job, and not just left it a bare foam finish. Well of course they did, bare foam in all the white areas of the plane. Please indulge me here. So this FMS Goshawk is around $250 I think , I'm not sure to be honest. So I'm thinking hey I'm not buying a Goshawk if it has a bare foam finish. So I move on over to MRC and I'm all primed and ready to pull the trigger on there D*** expensive, "SUPER SCALE"
Goshawk, and guess what? It's a bare foam finish in the white areas too!! I couldn't believe it man. Could someone please explain to me, in basic gunther English. Exactly how a bare foam finish equates to SUPER SCALE!! Last time I looked at one of these little jets on our flight line here at North Island it did not look like it was made out of Styrofoam in the white areas of the paint. IT WAS WHITE PAINT!

Now in all fairness, this isn't an MRC issue, it's and industry issue, and it's my issue. If it's white, Doh we don't have to paint it. Everyone does it. But let me say this, If I see the title, "SUPER SCALE" on a model that uses a white paint job that if you want me to buy it? It better be painted heal to toe. Even if it requires white paint. Just saying, not trying to piss anyone off. I'm not paying in excess of 5 bills and getting a Super Scale EDF that's a bare foam finish. That is unless I want to order something bare foam for custom painting.

Super Scale, and Bare foam finish is mutually incompatible.

Best Regards
Woody

[Dirty Dee]

Woody, they moved away from painting white and leaving it bare foam due to yellowing/discoloration in the sun. Here is an example.

[Woodcock]

Woody, they moved away from painting white and leaving it bare foam due to yellowing/discoloration in the sun. Here is an example.

Ok. I think all paints age in some way. All colors change. Thanks for the input mate. I guess I'll just never own a white jet. LOL
Ya know it's funny, all my US Navy painted planes all have a white painted underbelly. My 99 Dollar F-8 has the white painted. I think they yellow or change color over time, all of em. I'll live with the yellowing.
Woody

[e4dragongunner]

Lost her today..... Hazy day.... Ailerons a bit too hot... Right Hand Pattern. Downwind leg. Lost orientation, in she went, Into a bean field...... If you saw it go in.. you would have said TOTAL LOSS. HA..
Built like a tank. Gear ripped out trashed the fuse cosmetically but all in one piece..... New ARF on the way. MARINE scheme this time... Little brighter.... The last photo is of the new Livery i will be doing....

[Dirty Dee]

good thing it was beans and not corn :). The beans helped save my erj last year from total loss when i had the brownout.

[Evoman]

I found it interesting that a bean field kinda prevented the crash from being worse. I have crashed into a few bushes of an unknown type before that minimized the damage.
It might start to be a benefit to an airfield and its pilots if they plant some type of plants best suited to help absorb the impacts. :Thinking:

[Elbee]

I found it interesting that a bean field kinda prevented the crash from being worse. I have crashed into a few bushes of an unknown type before that minimized the damage.
It might start to be a benefit to an airfield and its pilots if they plant some type of plants best suited to help absorb the impacts. :Thinking:

Evoman, I'm thinking peanut packing foam plants. Best. LB

[RCjetdude]

Sponge farming!

[Boots Whirlygig]

Have you thought of just wrapping planes in bubble wrap?LOL

[e4dragongunner]

The less than pleased look on my mug is from treking 250 meters in the bean field in shorts.... The guy with the smile on his face ( the one who ultimately found it) was wearing flip flops....
Going to get him a bottle of "Makers" for his help! He kept the loss from being $1K. All internals survived, so the Arf will get me back in the game, with a bonus of spares stripped off the original carcass.

I am actually glad this happened..... constantly asking my self ... " WHAT DID I LEARN"
There were necessary lessons that I needed.
I feel driven like never before!

1. Separate Elevator and Aileron Dual rates on different switches. ( ROOKIE MOVE) Elevator was perfect. Roll was a bit hot.

2. Camouflage Works. :-)

3. Fly a tighter pattern this jet can do it. I am amazed how tight she can turn with out tucking in.

4. Pay attention

5. Breathe

6. Aviate

7. Navigate

8. Communicate

[seaviper]

Man sorry to hear about the F-4. All jets can bite you like that. I nearly lost my F-4 in the same manner by extending the downwind too far one evening. Luckily, my guess as to it's orientation was correct and she completed the turn and came home. But I was flying blind for a moment.

[e4dragongunner]

This is a great forum with lots a wonderful support!

Like all of you I love this S**T!!! always challenging, always learning, and when you get it RIGHT!!! there is nothing like it!

[Elbee]

[QUOTE=e4dragongunner;n147768]Going to get him a bottle of "Makers" for his help!... " WHAT DID I LEARN"There were necessary lessons that I needed. I feel driven like never before!
Aviate & Breathe QUOTE]

E4DG, No Alpha Charlie today, sir. Top-notch debrief. Best, LB

[EA-6B Geek]

I think the downwind leg before starting that turn to final is THE most challenging part of flying these edfs! At least it is for me. I remember someone mentioning developing a "jet eye" over time, to get us through that little spot that can be so disorienting. I'm getting better, but it's still tough.
Can't wait to see your F-4 in Marine colors!! SF

[fhhuber]

That turn from downwind to base is the killer of many models.

the aircraft is in a position where judging airspeed is about as difficult as possible.
Usually you have tailwind to complicate judging airspeed.

Airspeed is what counts, not speed over ground. If you had airspeed by pitot tube, you'd want THAT "indicated airspeed", not GPS speed which is what your 20/20 eyeball is telling you.
With tailwind, 20/20 eyeball is trying to tell you the airplane is moving faster than the airspeed, at a bad angle for judging the speed by eye.
Bank, yank, stall-snap-spin.

Then judging airspeed on final by eye is difficult.
First time with a big gas powered model, I thought I was doing fine, on glide-path, low idle (there's the problem. Low idle on a 55 cc is an air-brake) Picture looked right and it just fell out of the air from lack of airspeed. dropped from about 25 ft up, 50 ft short of the end of the 300 ft paved runway.

Its not just "jet eye" its learning how each different model should look and sound at any flight attitude. EDFs just tend to be a bit heavy and unforgiving of stalls. (less forgiving than WWII prop driven fighters)
So I make sure to fly a bit of each type as often as I can, to "keep current"

[TomPatton]

Anyone have an extra $3.9 mill laying around???