Official Freewing 90mm F-4 Phantom II Thread

[Hugh Wiedman]

Hey guys, here's a cool before the sunrise flight from last weekend:

https://youtu.be/3OwCKV55ZTU

You got some serious skills, and incredible eyes. I can barely judge orientation in the daytime, let alone at night or before sunrise. Kudos to you, she looked very cool, especially with your afterburner.

[killickb]

Very nice flight and not even a bounce on the landing! Have always wanted to do a sunrise/sunset flight with just nav lights and maybe the A/B, as you did but with 80 year old eyes it just ain't going to happen.

[Wobisch]

I finally launched my F-4 Warlord and apart from a bended Pin it was ok. Maybe my flap and speed coordination was not the best yet. But I will work on that.

[Elbee]

I finally launched my F-4 Warlord.

Wo-B, Don't have the words, Brother. Most Excellent comes to mind. Bravo Zulu. Did you fly her with the 'tip tanks'? Best, lB

[Wobisch]

yes I flew her with the tanks. I assume I set too much flaps. I finally landed on the third approach with starting position. With full flaps it seemed to fall down when I slowed down too much. This was pretty critical. Have not found minimum speed on the first flight. Video will follow. A friend took some pictures.

[Wobisch]

honestly, took me a brave heart to launch her. My friends say this is one model to store safely, so called display model. But I say "fly it"! No room for storage only.

[Elbee]

Wo-B, The beauty is in the task and the presentation in the details. Ask me how I know... This airframe is designed to fly and look great. I figure if I've built it once, I can certainly do it again, if required, so FLY IT. I have yet to finish setup for the 1st Check Flight. We'll be back home within the new week, so lookin' forward to getting back to work on mine and get that check flight in my logbook, too. Best, LB

[RanGee]

You got some serious skills, and incredible eyes. I can barely judge orientation in the daytime, let alone at night or before sunrise. Kudos to you, she looked very cool, especially with your afterburner.

Very nice flight and not even a bounce on the landing! Have always wanted to do a sunrise/sunset flight with just nav lights and maybe the A/B, as you did but with 80 year old eyes it just ain't going to happen.

Thanks guys!

[Hardway]

honestly, took me a brave heart to launch her. My friends say this is one model to store safely, so called display model. But I say "fly it"! No room for storage only.

Fantastic!!!! Great job! And YES! Fly it and love it! Congrats! Jerry

[themudduck]

Got two flights in today, it was beautiful. I made some of the best landings ever, it doesn't get better than that! A long runway helps.

There was another fellow at the field with a FW Phantom today - both of us repainted the original camo version ourselves - mine is the Sundowner (USS Coral Sea) and his is the one closer to the camera (USS Constellation). We flew together and it was AWESOME.... well for 3 minutes anyway….

[Wobisch]

I think the tanks rescued my main landing gear from collapsing.
Way to go until I can land that fantastic Phantom in a decent way.

[Greyhound61]

Hi Wobisch, was your Maiden at the Müswangner Allmend? I am also flying the F-4, you will see, after a few flights, this plane will land like a dream!

[Elbee]

I think the tanks rescued my main landing gear from collapsing. Way to go until I can land that fantastic Phantom in a decent way.

Wo-B, My Congrats on the First Check Flight. Phabulous Phantom, Sir. Just looks and sounds 'Outstanding'! Best, LB

[Elbee]

Hi Wobisch, was your Maiden at the Müswangner Allmend? I am also flying the F-4, you will see, after a few flights, this plane will land like a dream!

GH61, Your Phantom is gorgeous, as well. Bravo Zulu. Best, LB

[Wobisch]

Hi Wobisch, was your Maiden at the Müswangner Allmend? I am also flying the F-4, you will see, after a few flights, this plane will land like a dream!

Yes, that's at my Homebase Müswangen.

[Hugh Wiedman]

I think the tanks rescued my main landing gear from collapsing.
Way to go until I can land that fantastic Phantom in a decent way.

Wobisch, outstanding repaint and the rivet and nomenclature detail is superb. Congrats on the maiden, anything you can walk away from without repairs is OK in my book. A little practice and you'll find she is sweet to land. Took me about 8 landings to dial it in. I found that if I do my approaching glide path at 30-35% throttle, It will come down nicely and still allow you to ease it to the ground or even allow you to rise it up a bit if necessary. Once I'm about a foot off the deck and level, I ease the throttle to 20-25% and then slowly reduce it to 0, trying to keep a 30% up profile as the mains touch down with throttle off. Of course it looks like you have a fairly short runway, and I-m flying off grass with an extremely long runway, so it allows me to set it down at my leisure. I have about 40 flights on my phantom and 20 on my F-4 Blue Angel, and each time I fly them, I love the plane even more. Planning on trying an Admiral 6000 next time out to see if I can get another 30 seconds or more of flight time.

[TedBull]

I just bought a Grey Ghost F4. I have a custom order in with callie graphics to do VMFA-251 graphics (my father's favorite squadron he served with).

My question is this: has freewing done anything to address the elevator servo issues some guys were having? Loose servo mounting and servos dying without warning? If not, then what do you guys recommend. I would hate to lose a bird over a mechanical reason.

[Evan D]

I really doubt it. The real issue was the pushrod wasn’t stout enough. A few also reenforced the servo mounting. Then there is the group of modelers that don’t trust the servos for whatever reason... there was no big group reporting bad servos.

I changed the pushrod to a more stout one but the rest was left as is and has been working great. Mines 8S and has about 50-60 flights on it at least.

[fhhuber]

I'm replacing all pushrods in the plane with 4-40 all-thread, ball links both ends and sleeving the threaded part between the balls with CF tube epoxied in place.

This type pushrod system withstands the forces of 80cc powered 3D aerobatic aircraft.

The elevator servo will be replaced with a Hitec digital and I'll find a way to duct in some cooling, since the real problem with the elevator servos is the servo being near its load limit in some flight conditions leading to overheating by being buried in a place where it can not cool at all.

I wouldn't trust the ball links included with the Phantom for a common .40 ci glow powered trainer. Its a bad design for the plastic part. It looks like it was designed to fail under push load that gets the least bit off from parallel to the pushrod. With the relatively light for the application pushrods, I'd expect the rd t bend under push load, providing the offset needed to fold up the ball link.

I'll also carefully file flats for the set screws. The light checkering grooves are inadequate.

[Hardway]

Going ballistic! Just a dirty girl.....