Freewing Mirage 2000C V2 “Tiger Meet” 80mm EDF - Official Thread

[Husafreak]

Flight report now. I had reduced the aileron throw to maybe 5mm, much more elevator but still less than the manual. With three rates I ended up finding the low rates to be a bit too low once it was trimmed but pretty quick for a maiden. The best way to put it is the wing surfaces are sensitive and with such low aileron rates the precision is low, but after trimming it out it seems like a great flyer! Really smooth and groovy. It does go where you point it. It has no natural tendency to stabilize itself. Mine is balanced centered on the factory spec with a 4400 mAh pack slid all the way back and the Rx under the battery in the fuselage. I thought the CG was fine. I needed a gear to elevator mix so that is a first. I mean after trimming for level flight gear down I raised the gear and needed to take out the up elevator trim, so I have a mix that basically adds up elevator with the gear down. Not much maybe 1-1.5mm, like I said this thing is sensitive to small movements. You guys weren't kidding about this jet being fast! I also think it will be a great aerobatic platform. It also lands pretty slow and wasn't bothered by a stiff crosswind that popped up for a couple of flights, cool. Did I say it looks amazing? Everyone who is into foam EDF's was drooling over it. The last flight I put the tanks on. I needed six clicks of trim to compensate. That looked super in the air as well. It still flew great but with even more of a tendency to lock into an attitude, like nose high for instance, and needed to be flown back to level flight, not re trimmed. I could not completely eliminate wing waggle with my gyro. It flew fine without the gyro and the gyro could lock it in a bit and damp down oscillations but not completely. I had the gain on a knob and could dial in a sweet spot but more or less gain caused increased waggles. Next I will try varying the AER gains relative to each other. Maybe this is due to the imprecise tracking caused by having such low rates on the ailerons. Maybe I can reduce the mechanical advantage there.
Anywhoo, fascinating plane, like my slightly older English Electric Lightning I can't wait to fly it more!

[Husafreak]

I maidened mine Saturday. Whooie it was a wild ride! Turns out I was getting rudder glitches and hard overs. To be precise after landing I even had trouble taxiing in, the rudder would jerk suddenly rather than move smoothly and it would stick in an offset position for a second after I centered the stick. Of course it was a bit hard to see and fast, so getting small quick, while rolling uncontrolled, but I did realize any rudder input was a no no and a strong headwind allowed a high final power off approach to landing once I had it pointed home. I claim that it worked fine during my taxi tests and on the bench, you gotta believe me! Ha Ha. But it was glitching on the ground after the flight.
After removing the vertical stabilizer I found the rudder servo to work fine with a servo tester and spare Rx, even under load. But I noticed the cable extension came apart way too easily and I didn't like having the servo cable bunched up and pressing against the cables from the ESC to the EDF under the fin originally. I gotta be honest I am not sure what caused it. But on reassembly I added a wrap of tape around the Freewing connector even with its clips, untaped (the factory tape) and pulled the fuselage rudder extension all the way forward so the rudder servo cable was a straight run forward away from the EDF wiring, and moved the Rx back from the very nose to under the battery in the fuselage. This allowed me to get rid of a second extension. After that there were no glitches at all in testing. I went back out Sunday and got 5 flights in :)

Note that I am using the DSMX compatible Lemon 7 ch Rx with gyro.

[jetpltrich]

And it flys even better than it looks!

And it is fast. Does not require a lot of throw on the control surfaces, very very little.

[Evan D]

And it flys even better than it looks!

[Husafreak]

I got the tanks sorted. The magnets were sort of glued together. I mean when I pulled the pylons off the tanks 3 of the 4 magnets were ripped out of the tanks. after prying them apart and cleaning the glue off I reinstalled them and they work great now.
It is a very impressive FW model considering its age. I was sort of planning to paint mine but the factory paint and decals were so good I want it the way it came out of the box. I had to spray the decals with Dullcote and for some reason some water slide decals were not put on (the entire fin) so those got the Glosscote/decal/Dullcote treatment. Probably because of the optional Tiger Meet scheme. Anywhoo, it looks just great. Lots of detail. Sexy beast!

[Evan D]

The Mirage is a 80mm fan in a 70mm airframe and the F-35 is a 70 fan in a 80 airframe.

And still one of the fastest and fastest climbing in stock form. It's lighter than FW's 70mm F-35

[kallend]

It is one of the first FW jets. They first had the Stinger64 then the 90mm F/A18E and old Eurofighter and then the Mirage and F5 and shortly afterwards the A6 and F86 and then the Stinger90.

Only the Mirage is still around. I am on #10 and have a spare in the box in case something happens. Also one of the best value, what you get for the cost.

And still one of the fastest and fastest climbing in stock form. It's lighter than FW's 70mm F-35

[Evan D]

It is one of the first FW jets. They first had the Stinger64 then the 90mm F/A18E and old Eurofighter and then the Mirage and F5 and shortly afterwards the A6 and F86 and then the Stinger90.

Only the Mirage is still around. I am on #10 and have a spare in the box in case something happens. Also one of the best value, what you get for the cost.

[Husafreak]

Thank you Evan D! I didn't want to pull too hard on them but now I'm confident enough to try. Probably paint acting as glue there. I have had a few laughs trying to decipher this instruction manual "Pylons attached magnets, absorb it on the below surface of pylons" OK then :) This is obviously an older Freewing model.

[Evan D]

Pylons glue on and the tanks are magnetic to them. May have some residual glue or just be tight.

[Husafreak]

How do the wing tanks and pylons work on this jet? Are the pylons are a permanent part of the fuel tanks? And they are to either be glued onto the wings permanently or left off? I was expecting the tanks to be magnetic allowing the pylons to be glued to the wing and the tanks removable like on my Mig 21. I pulled as hard as I dared on the pylons but they are tight on the tanks. Thanks!

[Husafreak]

Good news about the fan! Thanks for answering kallend.

[kallend]

Now that I have one of these on the way, and read this thread, I have a couple of questions...
kallend There are several printed parts up on Thingiverse. Is the "Steering hold down" a useful modification or is it to replace an original part? Also cockpit tubs and seats seem to be popular with this jet, do they add a lot of weight up front? Do they drop in? I've never painted or detailed a foam jet but I really like the Desert or green and brown colors on these.
The new 80mm jets all seem to be using 12 blade fans. I remember when the T-33 came out with its 9 blade (1920kv?) fan I thought that was the best fan ever and even replaced the out runner in my Mig 21 with one. How do these new 12 blade 2150kv fans compare to them? I don't see the 9 blade fans available anymore and I expect to like the new fan so I'm just curious. FWIW I'll take thrust and efficiency over a per high speed set up...
I'll be using SMC 4400 batteries in this.

The parts don't add significant weight.

The hold down is a replacement for a part that broke on mine, I thought others might find it useful too.

[Evan D]

The 2150 is better in every way. I have a couple 9b I’d swap you.

[Husafreak]

Now that I have one of these on the way, and read this thread, I have a couple of questions...
kallend There are several printed parts up on Thingiverse. Is the "Steering hold down" a useful modification or is it to replace an original part? Also cockpit tubs and seats seem to be popular with this jet, do they add a lot of weight up front? Do they drop in? I've never painted or detailed a foam jet but I really like the Desert or green and brown colors on these.
The new 80mm jets all seem to be using 12 blade fans. I remember when the T-33 came out with its 9 blade (1920kv?) fan I thought that was the best fan ever and even replaced the out runner in my Mig 21 with one. How do these new 12 blade 2150kv fans compare to them? I don't see the 9 blade fans available anymore and I expect to like the new fan so I'm just curious. FWIW I'll take thrust and efficiency over a per high speed set up...
I'll be using SMC 4400 batteries in this.

[shortround91]

Really wish I could help don’t use throttle gains at anything, I have 3 flight modes with gains for each style of flying keeps things simple while being very effective

[VinnyCee422]

In the middle of setting up a throttle based gains mix, using a Spektrum NX7E and AR631. Prior to setting this throttle basedgains mix up, I used the stock gains and just set the roll gains down to 11.

My question is how can I determine the maximum gain value for the landing part of the curve? It can obviously be higher than 11. I’m just not sure how optimize that part of it. Any help would be appreciated thanks!

[shortround91]

You did so well on the cammo. This plane deserves a paint scheme to see it better. Thanks you.

Thank you, I’m posting my FW F5 to T-38 Talon conversion in there in a few. The main paint job isn’t complete but the conversion itself is, hoping to remaiden tomorrow. Figure better to remaiden before spending tons more time into completing the new paint scheme

[Woohoo\o/]

You did so well on the cammo. This plane deserves a paint scheme to see it better. Thanks you.

[shortround91]

I’ve always loved the ancient flyfly mirage 90mm and was about to get one but it’s just too much work to get it into freewing mirage territory so I decided to make the freewing mirage a multi role fighter with the ability to go back to a single seat fighter just switching over canopies. Still needs decals. Soon though.

Very nice job, I have 2 one just my own paint scheme then a different Camo pattern to help me see her a little better