Official Freewing 90mm F-4 Phantom II Thread

[locharrow]

Totaled............... pure pilot error ...got too far out and lost the plot. Thought I had it recovered at least three times heading towards me but it would not gather speed, just mushed into a another direction, finally went below tree height so I cut the motor. Fortunately it crashed into a field beside the paddock of a friends house. Naturally I suffered at his "jokes" about my piloting skills. So.... get the parts and repair it, or, and more likely. give the new one an airing.

[GliderGuy]

Ouch…Locharrow. Sorry to hear that.

Just depends…You will weigh the cost of parts against a totally new bird. And, are you able to devote the time involved? Sometimes I repair and sometimes not. If it is an old airframe (lots of hours), I more strongly consider treating myself to a NIB bird. However, if it is a relatively new bird and not too costly for parts, I will repair it.

Let us know what you decide.

One additional thing to consider…I rarely reuse receivers that have been in a crash. Just my thing. Unless I know the impact was not to hard, I will put in a new receiver. A lesson I learned a long time ago and have always followed. Receivers are too inexpensive to risk flying a potentially damaged receiver.

-GG

[Elbee]

:Totaled...pure pilot error...:

LA. Pilot error or not, I feel your pain. Knowing your skills, I figure you'll check ride the new Phantom and rebuild the crash victim. Best as always, LB

[locharrow]

The victim need a new fuselage, cockpit and nose cone ...the wings and tail feathers are all good so we will see how much my three kids love me coming up to Christmas. If they repay the amount they have "borrowed" over the years I'll be able to by a new full size Cessna!

[Hugh Wiedman]

see how much my three kids love me coming up to Christmas. If they repay the amount they have "borrowed" over the years I'll be able to by a new full size Cessna!

Don't Hold your Breath. If my kids paid me back I'd be cruising the Caribbean in a yacht (large enough to have a 200 foot grass runway on top so I can fly whenever I want-maybe just one of the new Ford Class Carriers), with enough servants to address my every whim.

[locharrow]

Black Friday may have some deals so

[locharrow]

Got a great deal on my parts for the F4 so I'll have to get cracking and posh up the rest of the bits to match the new stuff...never ends !!

[Hugh Wiedman]

A quick video from last week on my F-4 Blue Angel with the 12 blade 1835 Kv inrunner. Love that fan in this bird and have it in my other F-4 as well. I'm flying it on an SMC 6200 mah 40C and get 4 minutes of useful throttle time. He she is with a few close friends!

[Dwalkerp47]

A quick video from last week on my F-4 Blue Angel with the 12 blade 1835 Kv inrunner. Love that fan in this bird and have it in my other F-4 as well. I'm flying it on an SMC 6200 mah 40C and get 4 minutes of useful throttle time. He she is with a few close friends!

Beautiful Birds Hugh!

[Rcrob56$@%+]

Would you know what a good futaba servo would work for elevator? thanks

[GliderGuy]

Would you know what a good futaba servo would work for elevator? thanks

I fly the F-4 with the high torque MKS HV-69. It is smaller in size, so some fill-in mount is required. It is compatible with my Futaba gear.

I also use this same servo on my MiG-29 and P-38.

Also, get some 4-40 threaded rod and heavy duty DuBro hardware to put on it. The tiny plastic stock stuff has been known to break. I lost an F-4 once when the plastic ball fitting broke at the elevator ball.

-GG

[jasmith41]

This may be an odd request and I already have 10 or more Freewing jets, but if anyone has or know someone that has the Eflite F4 and would be willing to sell it, please pm me. I’d like to learn on that before I put up my new Freewing F4… thanks in advance…

[GliderGuy]

This may be an odd request and I already have 10 or more Freewing jets, but if anyone has or know someone that has the Eflite F4 and would be willing to sell it, please pm me. I’d like to learn on that before I put up my new Freewing F4… thanks in advance…

If you have EDF jet time, the F-4 is not much different. Next to the MiG-29, the F-4 is my favorite EDF. Nothing beats an F-4 for brute looks!

Some tips:
- Every one I have flown takes some right aileron trim right out of the box. See photo below. I have owned 3 F-4s….all needed this! Fail to start with this trim and you will be surprised by a hard left roll after lift-off….not fun.
- Buy some spare nose gear pins…they are brittle metal.
- CG and throws by the book are fine to start with.
- Elevator and flap mix BY THE BOOK.
- Flight times are relatively short…6000 mAh = about 3 min. throttle setting depending.
- Use pattern discipline….Here is what I do: 1/2 throttle on down wind then 4-5 clicks lower on base then adjust on final as needed to maintain glide slope. Typically this means 2-3 clicks lower on final. Ease the throttle to cut-off once in ground effect touching down slightly nose high. Careful not to hit nose gear first.
- If you rapidly cut power on final, the nose will drop…so make changes smoothly.
- Embed some wire or hardwood or carbon into the bottom surface of the under nose radome. If the nose gear pin snaps, the skid surface saves the radome.
- No flaps on takeoff, full flaps on downwind to landing.
- READ / SEARCH Hobby Squawk for RF Chokes, Ferrite Chokes and learn! USE THEM!!!! (Amazon has them). I lost an A-10 and an F-4 due to radio glitches before I started using them. No crashes since I started using them….due to radio glitches. HIGH CURRENT ESCs splay out a lot of RF noise and can trip up your receiver = crash.
- See the post above….replace your elevator hardware!!! Stock stuff is too weak. I lost an F-4 due to breakage.
- Consider upgrading the elevator servo. Stock is fine, but a higher quality servo adds peace of mind. I crashed an F-4 when a stock servo failed (repaired and still flying). Hard to beat the MKS HV-69 high torque servo. Upgrading costs $$, but you sleep better. But I fly a lot, so probably wore the stock servo out. LOL. The HV-69 is smaller in size, so some fill work will be needed to the stock mounting cavity.
- She doesn’t have any bad habits.

-GG

[Hugh Wiedman]

This may be an odd request and I already have 10 or more Freewing jets, but if anyone has or know someone that has the Eflite F4 and would be willing to sell it, please pm me. I’d like to learn on that before I put up my new Freewing F4… thanks in advance…

Not so sure you'll need to buy an F-4 E-flight trainer, especially if you already have 10 Freewing jets. The Stinger 90 was my first EDF, and then I immediately went to the F-4. And I'm basically an average pilot so you should be able to handle it. Obviously take off and fly around shouldn't be a problem, just mastering the landing. If you line up the runway, bring it in around 25% throttle to about 2 feet off the ground, drop the throttle to 10% and let it slow down and flare, you should be fine. I basically feel the F-4 is just as easy to fly/land as the Stinger 90. The only thing to watch for is getting too slow and dropping like a rock on the runway (as it doesn't "float" as much as say the Avanti).

[locharrow]

"Nothing beats an F-4 for brute looks!" Couldn't have put it better myself (and I'm good )

[edge_pilot]

how do you get the correct placement for all the nomenclature decals?? I have searched the internet for detailed photos and found nothing that would help. Bought the decals from Callie but have no clue where the 1000 little decals go.

[Elbee]

how do you get the correct placement for all the nomenclature decals?? I have searched the internet for detailed photos and found nothing that would help. Bought the decals from Callie but have no clue where the 1000 little decals go.

EP, Are you building an Air Force or Navy variant? Though most would be similar. I used the Nomenclature from Callie and got about 90% of the 'little boogers' located using a decal sheet as reference. Best, LB

[Elbee]

edge_pilot If you'll send me a PM here at the Squawk, I will try to send you a PDF (it is a large file) of the Decal Sheet I used and some reference photos of my build. Otherwise I would need to send via your email account. As I wrote it is a large file. Best, LB

[locharrow]

Guys, mix yourselves a Rusty Nail ( whisky and Drambuie 50/50) and put this on your biggest screen,sit back and enjoy !!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mzv1bsDi6V8 (You Tube... "Mix F4 Phantom Forever" if link doesn't work)

[jasmith41]

Not so sure you'll need to buy an F-4 E-flight trainer, especially if you already have 10 Freewing jets. The Stinger 90 was my first EDF, and then I immediately went to the F-4. And I'm basically an average pilot so you should be able to handle it. Obviously take off and fly around shouldn't be a problem, just mastering the landing. If you line up the runway, bring it in around 25% throttle to about 2 feet off the ground, drop the throttle to 10% and let it slow down and flare, you should be fine. I basically feel the F-4 is just as easy to fly/land as the Stinger 90. The only thing to watch for is getting too slow and dropping like a rock on the runway (as it doesn't "float" as much as say the Avanti).

Hugh Wiedman - thank you so much for the very excellent advice. I'm just getting back on since I posted that last one and see your feedback. again, thank you - very good advice...