Official Freewing 90mm F-4 Phantom II Thread

[Hugh Wiedman]

Well was happily enjoying flight number 5 when it was time for landing. Flew by with gear and landing flap and all was good. Turned downwind and selected landing flap when all hell broke loose. Jet rolled hard left. Pulled up flaps increased power but it was still rolling left. Hard right aileron slowed it down then it departed controlled flight and cartwheeled until water impact. Luckily little damage but ill have to inspect everything. Going to add in Castle creations Pro BEC when I rebuild during fall or winter. 😞

Could it be that one of the elevator surfaces came loose? That happened to me on the 4 or 5th flight once, everything was flying great, had the landing gear down, was just about to deploy flaps and all of a sudden it did a hard left roll, and started to spiral to earth, but I was only about 50 feet off the ground as I was just starting to get on the landing glide slope. Still not sure what I did with the surfaces, but eventually gave it full up elevator, hard over ailerons and 80% throttle when it ended up in a hover position 3 feet off the ground. Stayed there for a few seconds, then I brought it down for a helicopter landing. I called it a "crazy Ivan", and the guys next to me had their jaw on the ground and all they could say was "well, that's something you don't see every day". After I cleaned the crap out of my pants, I noticed that one of the elevators was slightly loose and about 8mm off from the other. Tightened both again with lock tight and 30 flights later, no issues.

Your situation sounds eerily similar. Took me about 10 flights to get over the trauma and always expected another "crazy Ivan", but fortunately, so far no more. Every time I take the F4 out the guys always ask me if I'm going to do another hover with it.:Silly:

[DCORSAIR]

Could it be that one of the elevator surfaces came loose? That happened to me on the 4 or 5th flight once, everything was flying great, had the landing gear down, was just about to deploy flaps and all of a sudden it did a hard left roll, and started to spiral to earth, but I was only about 50 feet off the ground as I was just starting to get on the landing glide slope. Still not sure what I did with the surfaces, but eventually gave it full up elevator, hard over ailerons and 80% throttle when it ended up in a hover position 3 feet off the ground. Stayed there for a few seconds, then I brought it down for a helicopter landing. I called it a "crazy Ivan", and the guys next to me had their jaw on the ground and all they could say was "well, that's something you don't see every day". After I cleaned the crap out of my pants, I noticed that one of the elevators was slightly loose and about 8mm off from the other. Tightened both again with lock tight and 30 flights later, no issues.

Your situation sounds eerily similar. Took me about 10 flights to get over the trauma and always expected another "crazy Ivan", but fortunately, so far no more. Every time I take the F4 out the guys always ask me if I'm going to do another hover with it.:Silly:

Man that was funny, still laughing about your flight, got the fruit of the looms a little dirty did ya.?LOL

[RCjetdude]

Well was happily enjoying flight number 5 when it was time for landing. Flew by with gear and landing flap and all was good. Turned downwind and selected landing flap when all hell broke loose. Jet rolled hard left. Pulled up flaps increased power but it was still rolling left. Hard right aileron slowed it down then it departed controlled flight and cartwheeled until water impact. Luckily little damage but ill have to inspect everything. Going to add in Castle creations Pro BEC when I rebuild during fall or winter. 😞

Sorry to hear. I was just curious but in the picture the entire rear section of the fuse is detacted. Granted that could have happened on impact but I wonder if it wasn't starting to come loose and caused the crash. My gray F-4J was starting to separate and I caught it before anything catastrophic and I know of one other instance where the back of the fuse came detatched at that joint causing the total loss of the aircraft. Something to consider.

[fhhuber]

On inspecting the Phantom for assembly, I decided to add 4 long toothpicks inserted at angles to improve the joint between the main fuselage and tail section.

And I removed all paint from the surfaces to be glued, then glued it up with Gorilla white foaming glue, which fills any voids in the joint.

[Elbee]

Hey Y'all, As I am building and modding ordinance for the F-4, I ran across this "Ordinace" thread from our plastic model brethren. Good overview.

This is a abbreviated timline on MBRs, MERs, & TERs:

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/hangardeckresource/some-aircraft-and-weapons-timeline-notes-t42.html

This is a paint color guide to ordinace stripes and meaning:
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/hangardeckresource/weapons-colors-and-stripes-t13.html

Best, LB

[Elbee]

Yeppers, LB...ad nausium...The "Make Shop" is working; however, the "Paint Shop" is on vacation. Best, LB

[Hardway]

Thanks!!! Good data and nice work there!!!

[e4dragongunner]

Guys
I bit of advice needed. I maidened the F-4 Sunday. ( She is back in the hanger all in one piece) Not a Harry maiden.... but an interesting one. Had a great right seat helping me....

Check out the vid. I had her nose heavy, Not too , too much but more than a bit. All throws set to factory. 9mm up on elevator at neutral. CG at 190mm. Upon rotation an ample amount of up trim was necessary. Took off with 1/2 flaps. After I rotated, I cleaned her up and powered down to 1/2 and strted to trim her. After triming I started with flaps (take off and landing). Needed considerable MORE up trim in each flap setting than was called out in the manual....

90 Degree cross wind yesterday. Not bad 10 Knots... Still on final was pushed into the grass ( relatively short ) I really greased her nice and gentle and still sheered the nose pin. Easy fix..... upgrading these to case hardened steel.

I am thinking she is too nose heavy.. Thoughts ???

Link to set up vid.
https://youtu.be/n3aJTXkHOaU

Any assistance would be great thanks!

[e4dragongunner]

Well I found the problem! UGH Rookie mistake X10.... I was adding down elevator to compensate for Flaps not up..UGH!!! and I think I can move the battery back just a bit.
Glad I got her back safely ! :-)

[EA-6B Geek]

Bahahahah! Way to go Marine! Gotta love it.
S.F.

[EA-6B Geek]

And by the way, it looks super Jay. Nice weathering. I could use your advice with this F-18.

[e4dragongunner]

Would be glad to assist. Same theory as plastic models. e.g. Over spray darkened panel lines with base color until satisfied. I have found that Utilizing a gloss coat before applying the Callie graphics really helps adhesion. Then dull coat over the top to seal them in.

[DCORSAIR]

Guys
I bit of advice needed. I maidened the F-4 Sunday. ( She is back in the hanger all in one piece) Not a Harry maiden.... but an interesting one. Had a great right seat helping me....

Check out the vid. I had her nose heavy, Not too , too much but more than a bit. All throws set to factory. 9mm up on elevator at neutral. CG at 190mm. Upon rotation an ample amount of up trim was necessary. Took off with 1/2 flaps. After I rotated, I cleaned her up and powered down to 1/2 and strted to trim her. After triming I started with flaps (take off and landing). Needed considerable MORE up trim in each flap setting than was called out in the manual....

90 Degree cross wind yesterday. Not bad 10 Knots... Still on final was pushed into the grass ( relatively short ) I really greased her nice and gentle and still sheered the nose pin. Easy fix..... upgrading these to case hardened steel.

I am thinking she is too nose heavy.. Thoughts ???

Link to set up vid.
https://youtu.be/n3aJTXkHOaU

Any assistance would be great thanks!

I have to say, I seen your elevators go down instead of up, started to say something but you didn't show what your flaps were doing at the same time you were filming the elevator mix, I wasn't sure what mixes your were doing, sorry about that. My Phantom required a little more up elevator with full flaps than what they call for in the book but I was flying mine nose heavy, you should be good on your flights, I see in your other post that you found the problem already. Your Phantom looks great by the way.

[Stevonoles]

Is anyone using the Admiral 6000 in their F4? If so, can you post a pic to show where you are setting the battery? Been flying it with the 5000 and it flys perfectly. Just want a little more flight time.

[Evan D]

Welcome to the threads but you asked a dumb question. Where someone else places their battery means nothing in another’s airplane. Since you know where you like yours balanced with the smaller battery just balance it at the same place with the larger battery.

Is anyone using the Admiral 6000 in their F4? If so, can you post a pic to show where you are setting the battery? Been flying it with the 5000 and it flys perfectly. Just want a little more flight time.

[Stevonoles]

Thanks for the warm welcome. No need to call someone dumb or say their question is dumb. Thanks Even D for d**k.

[Evan D]

Seriously, see where it balances with the small battery and balance it at the same spot with the larger one. No two F-4’s are the same (you put your receiver in different places and different receivers weigh different amounts, gyros, after burners, etc) and even two of the same battery will be different. Mine is repainted, has different fan, motor and shroud and a different ESC. I also pulled a lot of the wire out and rewired it. I also added 3D printed exhausts...

The only way is to balance it yourself, sorry if you don’t understand that.

Thanks for the warm welcome. No need to call someone dumb or say their question is dumb. Thanks Even D for d**k.

[buffetbob]

I fly 8S with both HK Graphene 5 and Admiral 6K's and the only thing I do is I fly both as far fwd as the cockpit will allow. She's got a good CG range so all I have had to do is a couple of ticks of up. Hope this helps.

[DCORSAIR]

Is anyone using the Admiral 6000 in their F4? If so, can you post a pic to show where you are setting the battery? Been flying it with the 5000 and it flys perfectly. Just want a little more flight time.

Hey Stevonoles, Welcome.

Did you mark your balance spot with your 5000 pack? Just use the same marks for the 6000 but move it back a little at a time to see if you can get the same balance as with the 5000. It's hard to place your battery where somebody else has theirs because batteries are so different in weight, even the batteries of the same size and brand are slightly off.

[Tom Lasko]

New guy question....I was told somewhere in these 185 pages that the a Home Depot Behr flat paint codes are in here for a factory paint match.
I was hoping someone could help me identify where they might be. Thanks