Official Freewing 90mm F-4 Phantom II Thread

[GliderGuy]

Well, I like to keep it simple. I just grabbed it's neck and said "now listen jack straighten up and fly right". Seemed to work, good flight yesterday, no trouble at all.

That works best for me when I grab the neck of the reflection I see in a mirror.

-GG

[Elbee]

locharrow

[locharrow]

Well, I like to keep it simple. I just grabbed it's neck and said "now listen jack straighten up and fly right". Seemed to work, good flight yesterday, no trouble at all.

[Evan D]

Usually I will put in the recommended elevator to flap mix and fly it with normal trims, not on F-Mode. If I find flaps cause more or less elevator compensation I'll just put it in the mix. If I note a roll with flaps that's when I go in and to the F-Mode as you are saying. I keep flaps on a slider and it's nice how it keeps the trim proportional as you apply or reduce flaps.

[Hugh Wiedman]

Well, I found out today the gyro does not compensate for trim!! Took off half flap as usual, gear up OK...flaps up ... wanted to roll right in a big way. Put in left trim which sort of half fixed it but still having to hold a lot of left stick. Flew a couple of passes but not pleasant. I had planned to land into the wind on the short football pitch but that would mean flying the crippled crate " good phrase that " low over guys building houses so chose a downwind half flap fast-ish landing. . Put the flaps down and lo and behold it started to behave a lot better. Landed OK, fast but fine and I taxied it back to the car. Raised the flaps and the left one stayed down. I thought it would be a pull apart job but it turned out to be just a faulty connector on the board, fairly easy fix so onwards and upwards ....

I agree with Evan D. I have every aircraft with flaps set up that way. On a Spektrum transmitter, that ability is found under F-Mode setup (not to be confused with gyro Flight Modes set up with a Spektrum RX), where you assign Flight Modes to a switch, in this case, I assign that switch as D, which is my Flap switch. Then go down to Trim Setup and you can see each surface default set as unassigned. Next to the ailerons, I change it to F-Mode and even more important change the elevator to F-Mode. That way I can trim ail/ele at each flap setting and the trim is retained. Makes flying with flaps so much easier, but of course you are quite busy on the maiden trimming both Aileron and Elevator at each flap setting. When finished, the aircraft remains level as does the AoA at each flap setting.

[Evan D]

On my radio I can have where there are separate trims for different functions and if flaps cause a roll I have were the flap lever changes the roll trim as flaps go up and down. Simple as a click in my radios trim function.

But that is only a last resort after making sure flap travel is identical.

[GliderGuy]

Yep! As we stated…regarding the gyro.

It’s a forgiving bird. I had the rudder servo jam at full throw when I did my 180 degree turn around from taxi to take-off heading a few weeks ago.

As you say, she wanted to roll, but the aileron compensated. After I settled down and realized she could still fly, brought her in for a landing.

Rudder servo was replaced before the next flight.

Love the F-4

-GG

[locharrow]

Well, I found out today the gyro does not compensate for trim!! Took off half flap as usual, gear up OK...flaps up ... wanted to roll right in a big way. Put in left trim which sort of half fixed it but still having to hold a lot of left stick. Flew a couple of passes but not pleasant. I had planned to land into the wind on the short football pitch but that would mean flying the crippled crate " good phrase that " low over guys building houses so chose a downwind half flap fast-ish landing. . Put the flaps down and lo and behold it started to behave a lot better. Landed OK, fast but fine and I taxied it back to the car. Raised the flaps and the left one stayed down. I thought it would be a pull apart job but it turned out to be just a faulty connector on the board, fairly easy fix so onwards and upwards ....

[locharrow]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZdScd...UJTG9jaGFycm93 Well they shifted the goal posts to the middle of my take off and landing strip so I might add a battery operated grinder to my flight box ….😎

[Evan D]

I remember your posts...

[locharrow]

E D , I was flying around in some kind of safety mode last week when it would not let me roll so I wont be there again!!

Another great flying morning, light grey sky and park to myself. Did all the trims that needed doing after last flight. I set the battery back 1/4" from my usual mark. I was expecting to use trim to bring the nose down but it settled into nice level flight after flaps up. Very pleased with the set up now, if it gets any better I will try landing between the goal posts ! ...

[Evan D]

I gyro counteracts bumps so it won't level out the plane. If you have a self leveling gyro (SAFE) then in that mode it will.

[GliderGuy]

Hi Locharrow,

I had a PJ-50 flap horn working loose. So I was getting a slight asymmetric flap deployment.

I can tell you from experience that the gyro DID NOT stop the slight roll. It may have reduced the amount of toll, but she still rolled. Maybe because I had the gyro gain at 30 to 40%. A higher setting may have locked down the roll….probably would have.

Others with more gyro knowledge will need to add their comments.

-GG

[locharrow]

GG, if I use half flap on take off and it is in trim then on landing come through half flap to full flap and the plane dips a wing, how does the gyro know whether it was a gust of wind or one flap a few degrees out of trim? Would the gyro not bring it back to level fight using ailerons to compensate or is the gyro only a single momentary correction? Just asking, don't have the problem. !

[GliderGuy]

Gentlemen,hipeothitile hypathitilechypotheatrice ..a wee question. While making adjustments to my flaps it crossed my mind that if one flap was a bit more effective would the gyro correct any bank induced by the discrepancy?

No sir….it is not the way they function.
The gyro will counter gust upsets and dynamic instability. It won’t fix out-of-rig planes. Rig/trim manually as always.

-GG

[Elbee]

LA, Hypothetice loquendo. Best, LB

[locharrow]

Gentlemen,hipeothitile hypathitilechypotheatrice ..a wee question. While making adjustments to my flaps it crossed my mind that if one flap was a bit more effective would the gyro correct any bank induced by the discrepancy?

[locharrow]

Just grabbed a quick flight with the switch at the correct position.... I forgot how agile this F4 is! Nearly had heart attack after yesterday's sedate fly round! Needs a few wee adjustments but it flies very smoothly, not a lot of wind but enough to know the difference with the gyro.

[Elbee]

I would love to get the F4

CC, Just Do It. Best, LB

[Evan D]

I still have the original servo and it's mounting. I did upgrade the pushrod and links.