Official Freewing 90mm F-4 Phantom II Thread

[TiredIronGRB]

Outstanding Steve great job...Don

Steve is a master modeler, some of the stuff he makes blows my mind!

BTW...welcome to Hobby Squawk Low Show (Don)!

[CFIT rob]

Any of you lucky Phantom owners have the Fw mig 21 and/or the FW eurofighter to compare flight charicteristics (takeoff,flight,landing)? As in "if you can fly and land the euro, the f 4 is no problem" . Saw ryans advice about base turn (crashed my70mm 104 twice doing same thing). 3 1/2 min safe mixed flight w/5000 mah batts..correct? Will be using turnigy 5000 HD 60c batts 840g weight.

[DCORSAIR]

Well, for those who might need some info on the F-4, I put the maiden flight on it yesterday evening and then five more after that. First flight was with CG at 190mm / 7 1/2in, elevator 28mm up/down, inner hole on servo arm, aileron 25mm up/down, middle hole on servo arm, 35mm flaps with no mix on the first flight, rudder and steering I didn't bother with, felt good as is. It takes off nice and rotates very scale, climbs out nicely, not all that fast to me in the speed dept. The next five flights I did the following, added more nose weight, CG is now at 187mm, went to 30mm on the ailerons, went down to 25mm on the elevator, added 8mm of up elevator to 40mm of flaps, also my neutral elevator is now at 12mm below the seam, I did fly the first flight with my elevator at 8mm as recommended but had to trim more up for level flight, now it flies great and is rock solid now, seemed pitchy at 190mm on the CG. Also flew it with the drop tanks and weapons, flies great either way, looks way better loaded up. Landings are so easy too, 1/2 throttle for gear check and flaps down, on final pull throttle slowly back as you pull a little elevator and it will settle into a nice nose high approach, leave power on and flare for landing.
Now the bad news for me anyway, I have 10 flight old Gens Ace/Tattu 5000mah 60C, I set my timer for 2:45, batteries came down at 3.75 almost every flight, one time I even cruised around a little at 1/2 throttle, never made 3:00, sorry but my opinion is, it likes batteries, let me know if anyone else is getting 3:00 minutes or more using 5000 lipos. You will get more time with bigger packs I'm sure. So keep in mind, my setup is different than most because I don't use expo or dual rates, I set my EDF's up the old school way..........:)

[RCjetdude]

Outstanding Steve great job...Don

Thank you Don. So much to learn still.

[DCORSAIR]

Any of you lucky Phantom owners have the Fw mig 21 and/or the FW eurofighter to compare flight charicteristics (takeoff,flight,landing)? As in "if you can fly and land the euro, the f 4 is no problem" . Saw ryans advice about base turn (crashed my70mm 104 twice doing same thing). 3 1/2 min safe mixed flight w/5000 mah batts..correct? Will be using turnigy 5000 HD 60c batts 840g weight.

If you can fly and land the Euro, you won't have any problems flying the F-4
Feels like a mix between the Mig 21 and F-15, my thoughts on that.......:Cool:

[crxmanpat]

Got the JF90 installed today, and it fits like a glove! Had to do a little trimming on the hatch cover to accommodate the inlet lip and and mounting tabs, and I had to create a new ply brace for the ESC as the ZTW 150 is wider than the stock 6S ESC.

I'm just a touch nose heavy at 185mm with the lipos back as far as they can go (plenty of room for 8S in this bird!), but I think that will be OK based on DCORSAIR's post above. CG was checked inverted with gear down, no ordnance or tanks. I did run-up and taxi tests earlier. Even with batteries at 30% charge, the JF90 really sings!

My stats are:

JetFan 90 with a HET 700-68-1680kv motor
ZTW 150A Opto ESC
Castle Creations CC20 Pro UBEC
2x RoaringTop 4S 5800 35C lipos
XPS 6-ch RX

Dry weight - 6 lbs 9oz, 2977gr
AUW - 8 lbs 15 oz, 4054gr
Batteries - 2 lbs 6oz, 1077gr
Ordnance/Tanks - 6.5oz, 184gr (includes two AIM-7 missiles from the F-14)

AUW with full ordnance/tanks - 9 lbs 5.5oz, 4238gr

Now for some weathering details and decals. I have the Col. Robin Olds SCAT XXVII decals from Callie that I will use. More pics when it's completed.

Possible maiden tomorrow.

[RCjetdude]

Check out the cans on that Rhino... LOL

[runway14left]

Did the maiden on my F-4 Thursday. I put three flights on it. Used the manual settings. Like DCORSAIR I had to add two clicks of up elevator trim so I'm about 10 mm positive. Also one click of right aileron.

Flaps: I had them set at the half flaps throws and I found that she definitely dips the nose when flaps were deployed. That was with no mixing. I'm adding mixing but I'm wondering how much to add. Has anyone done this and how much did you add?

[TiredIronGRB]

Did the maiden on my F-4 Thursday. I put three flights on it. Used the manual settings. Like DCORSAIR I had to add two clicks of up elevator trim so I'm about 10 mm positive. Also one click of right aileron.

Flaps: I had them set at the half flaps throws and I found that she definitely dips the nose when flaps were deployed. That was with no mixing. I'm adding mixing but I'm wondering how much to add. Has anyone done this and how much did you add?

Did mine by the manual and added 3 sec deployment, worked perfect.

[Swarick]

Just want to make sure I did not screw something up. When I pulled the rudder, elevator and beacon wires through the fuselage they go right o
ver the ESC. Is that where they go, or is there another channel higher on the fuselage that I missed?

[crxmanpat]

All decals have been added, just need a couple coats of Testors Flat Finish and she'll be done (except for adding some details to the AIM-7, they look funny naked). I'm going to maiden tomorrow after my club finishes up some EF1 races in the morning.

[crxmanpat]

Just want to make sure I did not screw something up. When I pulled the rudder, elevator and beacon wires through the fuselage they go right over the ESC. Is that where they go, or is there another channel higher on the fuselage that I missed?

I'll call you.

[F106DeltaDart]

Looking great Pat, and good luck on the maiden! I’ve got a set of the Olds decals inbound for mine as well.

[RCjetdude]

Now this is unusual... I may have a new 3D printer but until I am up to speed on how to design stuff to make on it I still have to do some things the old school way. Here I am making a silicone mold of the tail cone to be able to make fiberglass pieces that will hold my chute. Once cured I will remove the tail cone and split the silicone to allow laying up the fiberglass in each half.

[RCjetdude]

All decals have been added, just need a couple coats of Testors Flat Finish and she'll be done (except for adding some details to the AIM-7, they look funny naked). I'm going to maiden tomorrow after my club finishes up some EF1 races in the morning.

Looks fantastic Pat... I've really gotta get with the program.

[RickVB]

So I'm up to balancing the plane... Sound system is in, want to use a Dymond 6200mAh battery. AUW with this battery and the sound system is 9.31lbs (4.22kg), so I'm a little heavy right out of the gate.

For anyone else that used a Xicoy to measure the CG - the measurements I came up with are 604mm nose axle to mains axles, 317mm nose axle to leading edge at fuse, 97mm mains axles to CG. Did anyone else get different measurements?

With the above configuration, I'm getting the CG at 175mm behind the leading edge at the fuse with the sound system battery installed, and 182mm without the sound system battery. I need about 2.8oz in the tail to get it to balance at 190mm with the battery. So should I add the weight, or fly it as is to start?

[janmb]

AUW with full ordnance/tanks - 9 lbs 5.5oz, 4238gr

wow that's not bad at all. I have flown my F-104 heavier than that lol - should be perfectly fine on the F-4

[Roy David]

Thank you Steve Betts for taking photos Yesterday. Had maiden plus six flights yesterday and it flies great.

[tcatalon]

Short Video of my maiden, now its time to get something nice to film with..https://youtu.be/bwk4urQAB_Q

[crxmanpat]

Nice flight Troy! Must be tough dealing with all that clover on the runway, but it looks like she handled it just fine.

A suggestion on your camera. Set focus to infinity. This will help keep the camera from trying to focus on the plane all the time. This has worked for every camera I've used.