Official Freewing 90mm F-4 Phantom II Thread

[flyinhigh042]

Here is how I land mine......

Don't watch the whole video, its not good, just watch the last part with the landing, it was my sons first time filming me flying,,,,,,,

Its on 6S with the 12 blade 1835kv and stock ESC.

That was really a beautiful, stable approach and landing. Well done.

[davegee]

Nice looking aircraft!

[EA-6B Geek]

I hadn’t flown this in over a year, which is hard to believe, but got in a few hot laps today. Reminded me just how fun it is. I may have to invest in the WPU. ( Weideman Power Upgrade)

[davegee]

Dave, OUTSTANDING looking F-4, looks no worse for the wear. A little actual flight damage for weathering is even more realistic. Always love the "skull & crossbones" on any tail, quite nefarious!

Thanks, Hugh. Appreciate your ideas and help pushing me through this low spot. I may be wrong and prang the next landing in, but things seemed to click for me this time for the F-4 setting up on final to land. Back in the day with my SEA paint scheme F-4, I did get pretty consistent on fairly good landings, but I had definitely fallen off the wagon trying to land this thing.

Still lots more test flights to confirm I can land it safely consistently. Plan to add different, detailed pilots, redo the cockpit with the printed parts, and add the afterburner simulator from Chris Wolfe of RC Geek, when they come in stock for him again.

[Hugh Wiedman]

There's that old aviation saying that goes something like: "if you can walk away after you land an airplane, it is a good landing. If you can still fly it again, it's a Great landing!!"
Well, I haven't had many great landings lately with my jets, mostly breaking the plastic retract housings, folding the nose gear and dragging to a stop, etc., But today, after replacing the nose gear retract in my T-33, and other similar repairs to my new, but tortured F-4, I finally made some progress. Hopefully I'll climb out of this hole I've dug for myself making consistent, crappy landings. Took a couple of pics of the F-4 after today's flight, with it still resting on its gear!!

My Flightline 63 inch Corsair arrived at my home today, so I'll start on that a bit tonight.

Cheers

davegee

Dave, OUTSTANDING looking F-4, looks no worse for the wear. A little actual flight damage for weathering is even more realistic. Always love the "skull & crossbones" on any tail, quite nefarious!

[davegee]

There's that old aviation saying that goes something like: "if you can walk away after you land an airplane, it is a good landing. If you can still fly it again, it's a Great landing!!"
Well, I haven't had many great landings lately with my jets, mostly breaking the plastic retract housings, folding the nose gear and dragging to a stop, etc., But today, after replacing the nose gear retract in my T-33, and other similar repairs to my new, but tortured F-4, I finally made some progress. Hopefully I'll climb out of this hole I've dug for myself making consistent, crappy landings. Took a couple of pics of the F-4 after today's flight, with it still resting on its gear!!

My Flightline 63 inch Corsair arrived at my home today, so I'll start on that a bit tonight.

Cheers

davegee

[The43rdHammer]

Here is how I land mine......

Don't watch the whole video, its not good, just watch the last part with the landing, it was my sons first time filming me flying,,,,,,,

Its on 6S with the 12 blade 1835kv and stock ESC.

This has been my reference point for every landing since you first posted it a while back... it's easily the best rc jet landing I think I've seen (I'm including turbines in that).

If it were my landing I'd hang my flight jacket and retire, no improving on that ... 😎

[DCORSAIR]

DCORSAIR Beautiful landing, but other than the sunset, what I really liked was the smoke trail (dust) on takeoff, looked very realistic!

Thanks guys, I have since sold that F-4 and I lost that runway where it was flown as well, nothing like walking across the street and flying all day long, but thanks to the High Speed rail project here in Ca., they took it out and now I have giant concrete pillars to stare at.

[Hugh Wiedman]

DCORSAIR Beautiful landing, but other than the sunset, what I really liked was the smoke trail (dust) on takeoff, looked very realistic!

[davegee]

Here is how I land mine......

Don't watch the whole video, its not good, just watch the last part with the landing, it was my sons first time filming me flying,,,,,,,

Its on 6S with the 12 blade 1835kv and stock ESC.

Nice landing! Your son did a nice job with the filming. A lot of people have difficulty tracking the plane or keeping it in focus through a little viewing window or monitor as it speeds past. Well done!!

davegee

[Elbee]

Here is how I land mine...... Its on 6S with the 12 blade 1835kv and stock ESC.

DC, That'll do just fine. Bravo Zulu. Best, LB

[DCORSAIR]

Cool pics! Must have been fun. I just have to learn how to LAND mine first! (a required maneuver!)

Here is how I land mine......

Don't watch the whole video, its not good, just watch the last part with the landing, it was my sons first time filming me flying,,,,,,,

Its on 6S with the 12 blade 1835kv and stock ESC.

[Elbee]

No I didn't, all are using the stock FW 130 amp ESC....

I thank you, Sir. Best, LB

[The43rdHammer]

Some pix of my buddies F-4 from the warbird event last weekend...

That second to last photo is the bomb 💣! Lovely!

[The43rdHammer]

Andy, 172mm is definitely too nose heavy, except maybe for a snow plow. I seem to like 195 to 200 mm, allows for a nice nose up landing.

I know ... I really don’t know how I ended up with it so nose heavy, I like my jets tail heavy ... user error!

Andy

[Hugh Wiedman]

Hugh, I'm certain you have posted the answer to my question before, but did you change your ESC with your EDF/Motor upgrades? Best, LB

No I didn't, all are using the stock FW 130 amp ESC, except my F16 which I got the ARF and put a Castle 130 amp ESC in. I did notice after bench testing and using a high C fully charged battery, I'm pulling 128 amps. No doubt it will be less than that when running free, but it got me thinking that maybe I should have gone to a higher amp ESC. But after upgrading 5 jets with the 12 blade inrunner, couldn't get my credit card to handle 5 new ESC's as well. Besides, the 9 blade inrunner comes with the same FW 130 amp ESC, so the 12 blade can't be that much different. It is a heavier motor with a 39mm diameter vs the 36mm diameter 9 blade, so time will tell. So far have only about 30 flights on the F4's and 20 on the F18 with the new fan/old ESC, and it hasn't fried yet. I do have over 80 flights on the F16 so that combo seems safe.

[Elbee]

If it's 3-4 years old, the fan is probably the 9 blade 3748-17501 Kv outrunner that FW used to put in most of their 90mm EDF's. I used to have that fan in both my F-4's

Hugh, I'm certain you have posted the answer to my question before, but did you change your ESC with your EDF/Motor upgrades? Best, LB

[davegee]

Some pix of my buddies F-4 from the warbird event last weekend...

Cool pics! Must have been fun. I just have to learn how to LAND mine first! (a required maneuver!)

[gooniac33]

Some pix of my buddies F-4 from the warbird event last weekend...

[Hugh Wiedman]

[QUOTE=The43rdHammer;n313055 I have broken 2 nose wheel pins on perfectly good landings and suspected it was nose heavy. When I measured the CG it was at 172mm
[/QUOTE]

Andy, 172mm is definitely too nose heavy, except maybe for a snow plow. I seem to like 195 to 200 mm, allows for a nice nose up landing.

If you want, you can change the front stock nose pin to the 1600 mm Spitfire main wheel axels. Requires grinding a longer flat spot for the set screws and grinding the end to a smaller circle to allow free rotation in the retract, but no big deal. The axel is a softer metal that will bend but never break. The stock pin will take a little more abuse and never bend, but instead when it goes it just breaks. I used those for maybe the first 50 flights or so on each, but went back to the stiffer stock pins the last 50 or so flights. With your further aft CG you should get more use now out of the stock pins, but the axel is always an alternative, at least it keeps from damaging the nose and gear door with a broken pin.