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.
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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.Comment
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And still one of the fastest and fastest climbing in stock form. It's lighter than FW's 70mm F-35Originally posted by Evan D View Post
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The Mirage is a 80mm fan in a 70mm airframe and the F-35 is a 70 fan in a 80 airframe.
Originally posted by kallend View PostComment
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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!Comment
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And it flys even better than it looks!Comment
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And it is fast. Does not require a lot of throw on the control surfaces, very very little.Originally posted by Evan D View Post
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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.Comment
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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!Comment
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