Official Freewing 64mm Lippisch P.15 Thread

[xviper]

I watched the videos of Ryan throwing this plane and it doesn't look like he really hucks it that hard. There was a slight dip in the first toss but the second one was barely noticeable. Maybe Ryan is a "real" man's man and his throwing arm is built like Popeye. Like all my wings, I've got some reflex mixed in with the gear switch so will see how it goes once the snow melts a bit.

[Ole-Timer]

Flew mine today in some gusty conditions and it did very well. Having flown this type before, I cut my throws way back and used around 10mm. The preset of 1.5mm up elevator was right on the money for the 2200 I used. Flights were 5 minutes mixed throttle and landed with 3.8 per cell. It does nose dip on the throw a bit, just give it a firm toss and don’t overcompensate when you hit the controls.

Should have come with a plastic belly pan as mines already getting scuffed up.

[BobinAZ]

I had a couple of initial flights with mine today. Winds were variable at around 12-15 knots. No problem at all for this little rocket. A firm toss and it's gone! It definitely requires some reflex like most/all wings as Ryan mentions, and the low rate for the elvevons is, as Ryan also mentioned, plenty. Mine is powered by an Admiral 3S1600 30C pack and still has a slightly better than 1:1 thrust ratio. Full power during flying must be watched carefully as this thing will flat-ass disappear in a heart beat!

Bob

[Bearcat]

Mine was maidened today and I used a Turnigy 1300 45c battery, I threw this bird out and straight out it flew and man with the rates in the manual I chose the lower rates and to me it was still too high!
Speed was very good and the roll rate was snappy with the wind but the slow flying was very stable!!!! FREEWING WHY DID YOU DO THIS SMALL SCALE!? The jet screams larger scale!!!! Anyways landing with the 1300 size battery with a breeze made for a very soft landing.. not even a grass stain!!!!!

[xviper]

Not being as proficient a hand launcher as some folks here, I've addressed the situation where the plane can take a dip (and sometimes a dirt nap) after launch and when max throttle is applied when flying. I've programmed a simple mix on my gear switch for some reflex (this is for launch). Note the ELE monitor in the before and after throwing the switch. This give about 3 to 4 degrees of reflex. I've done this on all planes that tend to dip after a hand launch. It works great on all those planes. I've yet to test it on this one - still waiting for the snow to melt some.


Now for the dip when max throttle is applied, I've noticed that when I look down the exhaust hole, the motor/fan seems to be pointed up towards to the rear a bit. To me, this could mean that the exhaust air is bouncing off the top of the exhaust tube and getting thrown down upon exit. I've thinned out the foam a bit at the top of the exit and back about 2", hoping this will allow more air to exit out the top. I've also installed a small piece of plastic at the bottom of the hole to minimized some of the exhaust from escaping there and producing some up force and pushing the tail down a bit.


Finally, a picture of how I crammed an AR8000 (that's all I had and I wanted to use channel 8 - rotary knob for master gain control on the A3-L gyro). The battery you see is an Admiral 1800mah, 3s. A Graphene 1800mah, 3s also fits in there but a few mm further aft because it's a bit heavier. The sat antenna is shoved up front in the nose. Had to ream out a little foam in the canopy to fit over the the gyro. I'm hoping the gyro will also help stabilize the hand launch. (Yeah, I'm a really bad hand launcher and can use all the help I can get.)

[zorkahn]

Maidened my P.15 yesterday. Set all the control throws to the manual low rates. Set the expo to Tired Iron's posting. Added the mix for full-throttle and up elevator. Admiral 1800 3-cell battery. CG per the manual. Launched as per Ryan's videos and it still dove for the ground. I recovered and found I needed a lot of up elevator to keep flying. Slowed down and started adding a lot of up. Once I had her dialed in she flew fine. Only got the one flight in so I don't know yet if the added up elevator will help the next launch.

I also had to add a pilot!

Mark

[uscanuck1xa]

Will there be a cockpit replacement part available? The current spare part listing only shows the clear canopy and the spare fuselage does not show it coming with a cockpit.

[themudduck]

ha! MRC posted my review. Even thought I tried to lighten it up with some snide comments about how hard it was to put together. And somebody gave me a thumbs down! Geez! (I hope it wasn't YOU.)

I had a good time flying it yesterday.

[Oxotnik]

I maidened my Little Lippisch yesterday as well. Flew it on an Admiral 1800. No mixes (other than an elevon mix in my radio). Have a Lemon Stabilized 7-channel RX. I'd planned to fly with stabilization, but I couldn't get my TX elevon mix and RX stabilization controls to work properly. So, I flew sans stabilization. Winds were less than 5 knots so, I didn't expect any wind/turbulence issues. On the hand launch (luckily, my friend did the toss for me), the P.15 dove for the deck, doing to belly-touch-n-go before I she got enough airspeed and elevator to climb back into the air. I'd inadvertently started in high rates; so, I was over-correcting like crazy until I got her into the sky and flying level. Flipped to low rates and clicked in quite a bit up up elevator and right roll. Once trimmed, she was flying on rails. As others have said, she's crazy fast at WOT and you don't want large throws on the elevons. After getting a feel for her, she was a joy to fly. The second flight was even better, because she took to the air trimmed. I mostly flew at half throttle, but blazing passing down the flightline were spectacular, especially when followed by a climbing string of axial rolls.

Wow! What a fantastic 64mm flier. I also flew my 64mm MiG-15, but while fun, wasn't nearly as enjoyable as the Little Lippisch.

[Ole-Timer]

During my last visit to Udvar Hazy and all the treasures there, I took some photos of an original paint Me163 B-1a.
Paint became scarce near the end of the war and standard paint schemes were rarely accomplished as this airframe attests to.
The first picture is available online, I took all the remaining ones.
Enjoy !

[Ole-Timer]

The 1.5mm up elevator called for in the manual is to create reflex keeping the nose up during flight as this airframe has no tail. My much heavier HET Me 163 requires more up elevator in flight and a dedicated mix on the gear switch for more up reflex during catapult launch and the final glide in to land. As stated already, this model can benefit from a similar additional mix of up elevator during launch... then switch off as speed builds... There’s no need for a gyro as it’s quite stable without it.

As Viper stated earlier that his ducted fan unit is crooked, mine was also off a bit. Being a low end EDF there are no solid fan mounts and it was simply glued in a bit off, likely due to the esc wires pulling up on it during assembly. I elected to remove it and take time gluing it back in straight. I don’t believe this causes any down thrust issue but instead is more of an efficiency issue. NOTE that the fan unit is a 64mm and the opening at the exhaust pipe is 52mm which increases thrust output. Opening up the tail pipe will decrease thrust! While out I pulled the esc wires together and heat shrank them flat, aligning them with the fin making them more streamlined and less of a parasite drag on the fan unit. Make note the esc to motor wires are color coded different..., I fixed mine to match.

I was able to remove a tiny amount of fan offset and straighten it a bit but the foam is molded with some offset built in...

[xviper]

Have a Lemon Stabilized 7-channel RX. I'd planned to fly with stabilization, but I couldn't get my TX elevon mix and RX stabilization controls to work properly.

Am I reading this correctly? You have BOTH your TX AND your RX set to elevon? If this is so, you can't do this. With a stabilized RX, the elevon mix is selected only in the RX. TheTX must be set on "normal" wing. If I've misread this, then I can only suggest that you read the RX instructions carefully and make sure the switches are set correctly and also that the left and right elevons are plugged into the correct ports. Swap ports if necessary. Reverse in TX if necessary. Or reverse in RX if necessary.

[Oxotnik]

Am I reading this correctly? You have BOTH your TX AND your RX set to elevon? If this is so, you can't do this. With a stabilized RX, the elevon mix is selected only in the RX. TheTX must be set on "normal" wing. If I've misread this, then I can only suggest that you read the RX instructions carefully and make sure the switches are set correctly and also that the left and right elevons are plugged into the correct ports. Swap ports if necessary. Reverse in TX if necessary. Or reverse in RX if necessary.

TX had the elevon mix. LemonRX was put in fixed wing Stabilized mode. Switched aileron and elevator slots and played with reversing the servos on my TX. Could never get the TX commands and RX stabilization movements to both work correctly. Doesn’t matter though. I disabled the stabilization and the Little Lippisch flew just fine.

[fhhuber]

Whatever is doing the mixing:

Reverse servo directions with what does the mixing until you have correct results OR correct aileron but reversed elevator.
If at reversed elevator, then swap which servo is plugged to which port and that will fix it.

[Bearcat]

Mine had no diving to the deck tendencies, I used a 1300 3s 45c battery and she would be good for a solid 4 minutes of flying time but wind does cause some rocking at slower speeds...other than that she is rock solid!

[xviper]

Finally maidened mine today. Had 3 successful flights. The video below is my final flight of the day. Using 1800mah, 3s Graphene, some reflex on the gear switch for the launch. Mods to exhaust hole as per my previous post here. Sudden application of max throttle did not result in any dip. The use of a HobbyEagle gyro kept the wings level during launch and made for very sharp conclusion to rolls. See pictures below for before and after reflex activated. My first 2 flights had perfect launches with the plane going on a steady climb - used full throttle. 3rd launch, I didn't go full throttle and had a very minimal dip to level flight before climbing. Flew with middle rates, high expo. My middle rate is 50/50 like others have used. This is a wonderful plane for the price. I just wish it was bigger.

[davecee]

Nice flight. Man! You came a little close to the snow at the 1:58 mark, didn't you? The slide and go was a nice touch too.

[xviper]

Nice flight. Man! You came a little close to the snow at the 1:58 mark, didn't you? The slide and go was a nice touch too.

Yeah, that snow ridge has claimed a few planes already. It was close. Hard to tell when everything is white. I was trying to get the plane as low and as close to the camera as I could and sometimes, I miscalculate just how close the ground is. The slide and go was an aborted landing attempt. It was coming in a bit fast. I've buried a few planes in the snow ridge at the end of the runway. So far, the little Lippy is unscathed. Surprisingly, the first two trimming flights were more sedate.

[GBLynden]

This is my maiden flight video. You can't see the full launch in this video, but you can in the second one I will post shortly.

[GBLynden]

This is the second flight that shows off the hand launch MUCH better than the maiden. My GF recorded both launches: