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

[SanExup]

Nice! The floats make it look like a fast duck coming in for a landing!

[xviper]

I finally maidened the Mirage with floats. The maiden was quite scary as I rotated suddenly at the end of the smooth patch. The little bump on the snow drift didn't help either and the plane went nose up and headed for the clouds. Luckily, with all the power on tap, it kept going till I was able to level it out. The floats also made it badly out of trim on the ELE, but by the time the maiden was over, I got the thing trimmed out and knew which rates worked best (medium on AIL and low on ELE - this was with A3L gyro activated after trim). Landing was also entertaining as it really wanted to go very high alpha when the throttle was lowered. My last Mirage never did that so I think the floats may have contributed to this trait. Neverless, it floated in high alpha and with some application of throttle just before touchdown, it landed very nicely without damage. The second flight was much better with the rates chosen and gyro activated from the start. Take off is still challenging on the lumping snow but I was more prepared to level out after it left the ground. Even with those giant floats, the Mirage is a very powerful and very fast airplane. Here is the video of the 2nd flight.

[SanExup]

I wish our lakes would freeze smoothly. We get too much snow for them to be nice runway surfaces.

I know I'm glad our hemisphere has turned the corner and the days are getting longer.

[xviper]

Did some winterflying with the Mirage. This is north of the arctic circle so its no sun during the day at this time of the year ;-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjmVR29xxKM

Very nice flying. I've seen guys here fly off a frozen lake and after landing, the plane continues to go what seems like "miles".

[rms]

Did some winterflying with the Mirage. This is north of the arctic circle so its no sun during the day at this time of the year ;-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjmVR29xxKM

[SanExup]

Sweet! Nice cockpit! What did you use to get that heated metal nozzle look?

[MANFRED]

Here is my efforts to improve visibility. Afterburner, gyro, 3d parts, ready to maiden

[Mizer67]

I have the outrunner version, with the landing gear removed it has at least1-1 thrust. Slight overhand toss and it's gone. That said, I do have someone launch it for me. Need two hands to launch.

Mine will under hand launch with the gear intact running the FMS 2100kv EDF.

Just needs a little under handed throw holding it by the coke-bottle section of the fuse and off it goes. I'm left handed so throw with my left, with my fingers on the elevons after I advance the throttle. I used to do that to save wear and tear on the gear when I flew off of grass.

[SanExup]

It sounds like if I'm going to try.the hand launch I should wait for a deep snow day and stand on the cab of my truck. I've abused my shoulders on dirt bikes over the years, so over launching overhand is more of a risk to my rotator cuff than to the plane.

[Ks.jetflyer]

I have the outrunner version, with the landing gear removed it has at least1-1 thrust. Slight overhand toss and it's gone. That said, I do have someone launch it for me. Need two hands to launch.

[xviper]

My hand launch technique for this jet is quite lacking. My last Mirage was launched underhanded and it befell total destruction in the first 5 seconds. The only success I've ever had hand launching a Mirage was if someone else did it for me and he was standing on top of one of the set up tables and overhand threw it in the direction of a slight terrain decline.

[TangoVector]

Great project!
If the snowfloats aren't working for take off, it is very easy to hand-launch. Just underhand with a 45 deg angle and happy flying. Great protection for landing though. Maybe modify the cheater-hole so it doesn't turn into a snow-scoop. It sucks up quite a lot of grass during summer so I imagine a lot of loose snow and ice pellets will go through the EDF during take off.

[xviper]

The ability to rotate is a very good point. I'm hoping that this won't be too much of a problem. If you look at the floats on my Mirage, you can see that the bottom of the floats are 2 tiered - there's the front, bigger part and then there's the rear, smaller part which is "stepped" higher. As it sits on the table, the CG is just in front of the step and in that position, there is a slight nose up attitude. On snow and under power, it settles down onto the rear of the floats, giving it an even more nose up attitude. I'm hoping it'll lift off once it gets up to speed. This is the inrunner version, so it should have plenty of zip to get going on a slippery surface.

[SanExup]

Yeah, I think I forsee making a bungee launcher in my future. It would solve some flying site issues for me.

[Evan D]

I tried and determined, as XViper has, that the snow has to be perfect for skis. And snow skis are different than you would use for water skis if you would do that... They have to be wide and long to skim the snow.

[SanExup]

Have you used skis for any of your planes? It seems.like the conditions have to be just right for them to work, but they would mount to a wider selection of planes, edfs in particular, better than floats I think. Though I'm glad xviper has jumped on this. It was just coincidence that I am painting my Mirage and itching to fly it.

[Evan D]

A delta compounds the issue because it needs more pitch leverage than a piper cub or something. I fly this off snow, among other planes...


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[SanExup]

Ah, thanks Evan! Yeah that makes sense, I wouldn't have caught that. It's leveraging against the aft point of the floats instead of pivoting near the CG. As you say, angling/tapering the rear of the floats seems the way to go, keeping the surface area but allowing rotation.

[Evan D]

Floats on snow are picky because you have to have a way for the plane to rotate and take off. On the water the float aft ends can sink in the water giving you the AOA to take off. On snow you need to have that angle or shorten the aft section of the floats...

[xviper]

Yeah, I would worry about drag too but those drop tanks are huge. And the weight of the floats probably isn't all that different from the tanks. And without the gear, it's probably all up lighter.

We get into a cycle of new snow and then cold temperatures here that most of the winter its light density and then light density with crust on top. I think I'll need to find a hard pack road to fly from. I'm eager to hear how it goes!

That's one reason why I didn't go for skis. I've flown planes with skis and on anything except really hard snow/ice, the skis tend to submarine. When it snows here, we get a good depth that stays around for a long time. Powder snow is the worst for skis but floats are good for all kinds of surfaces.