Official Freewing 80mm EDF L-39 Albatros Thread

[jetpltrich]

[ianl1201]

Thanks DCorsair...I went ahead and did as you (and MotionRC Customer Services) suggested - when I by-pass the blue box and connect the gear straight into my receiver, it works perfectly!! I have asked Motion if they'll send me a replacement blue box as I'm not to happy flying my nice new jet with a known defective part! If they aren't up for that, I'll go ahead and by-pass it... Of course I only have one short y-lead pulled out of one of my other aeroplanes so I could test it, but need to order leads if this is my solution! 🤨

[DCORSAIR]

First post on here but I've joined the L-39 club at last after lusting after one for a long time! 😁

Hit it with the airbrush straight out of the box with some light weathering and also have the 3D cockpit detailing parts and nose gear brace to be fitted. Only negative was I have a landing gear issue - Extension and retraction is intermittent or not at all. Sometimes the landing lights come on and no gear and few times it worked as it should. I checked all the connections and cables, changed channel and also tried a different receiver and still got the same problem so possibly a suspect blue box. Of course I can't fly as it is so I've a ticket in with Motion RC...let's see what happens. Worst case, I'll by pass the box for the gear. Everything else works just fine, but it's frustrating I'm grounded for now....although I can detail the cockpit while I wait

I would just bypass the gear, it has that stupid delay anyway that I hated when they switched over to the new style blue boxes, I love pulling gear up as soon as my jet leaves the ground like the real ones do, I bypassed every jet I've had except the nose gear on the 90mm F-22, I did the mains straight to the rx but left the nose gear on the blue box because it actually looked scale like the real one, mains go up before the nose gear does, landing gear is a big thing for me, I like it right...

[Evan D]

Welcome!

[ianl1201]

First post on here but I've joined the L-39 club at last after lusting after one for a long time! 😁

Hit it with the airbrush straight out of the box with some light weathering and also have the 3D cockpit detailing parts and nose gear brace to be fitted. Only negative was I have a landing gear issue - Extension and retraction is intermittent or not at all. Sometimes the landing lights come on and no gear and few times it worked as it should. I checked all the connections and cables, changed channel and also tried a different receiver and still got the same problem so possibly a suspect blue box. Of course I can't fly as it is so I've a ticket in with Motion RC...let's see what happens. Worst case, I'll by pass the box for the gear. Everything else works just fine, but it's frustrating I'm grounded for now....although I can detail the cockpit while I wait

[paulrkytek]

I would still like to test it. I have had around 20 flights with it and experimented with CG. Definitely helps with aft CG, but when the fan is not 100% clean the takeoff run is a bit longer than I like for our strip. It often pops up then and climb out fine.

Has anyone done a mod for this?

Not done any nose mods for mine and I fly off grass, 1/2 flaps take off. Other than that, recalibrate esc and cut the grass or add stiffer and/or longer nose spring to resist nose wheel dipping on take off. You could add washers under the retract mount but then the nose door may foul.

[haklis76]

You don't need to do anything with the nose gear. This plane will take off easily as is, 1/2 flaps off grass. Just balance it correctly and NOT nose heavy. Do a YouTube search and you'll see.

I would still like to test it. I have had around 20 flights with it and experimented with CG. Definitely helps with aft CG, but when the fan is not 100% clean the takeoff run is a bit longer than I like for our strip. It often pops up then and climb out fine.

Has anyone done a mod for this?

[xviper]

Hi, I am looking for a way to increase the height of the nose strut in order to get a more nose up attitude for better grass takeoffs. Any good tips out there?

You don't need to do anything with the nose gear. This plane will take off easily as is, 1/2 flaps off grass. Just balance it correctly and NOT nose heavy. Do a YouTube search and you'll see.

[haklis76]

Hi, I am looking for a way to increase the height of the nose strut in order to get a more nose up attitude for better grass takeoffs. Any good tips out there?

[DCORSAIR]

Hello fellow Motion RC fans,
The Wallsburg Warbird Works is proud to announce the acquisition of an L-39 in the Slovakian Air Force markings.

Haven't had a chance to read the full column yet, but have heard nothing but great things about this plane and am very excited about discovering the flight criteria necessary for successful operation.
Will be doing lots of late night reading of this column for your advice gentlemen.
thanks in advance,
Spad Driver

Not much to worry about with the L-39, I didn't use the book throws on the control surfaces, of course I never do anyway, cut them back a little and she flies great, I say it's one of the best flying EDF jets out there, you will enjoy it I'm sure, had both paint schemes and liked them both.

[Spad Driver]

Hello fellow Motion RC fans,
The Wallsburg Warbird Works is proud to announce the acquisition of an L-39 in the Slovakian Air Force markings.

Haven't had a chance to read the full column yet, but have heard nothing but great things about this plane and am very excited about discovering the flight criteria necessary for successful operation.
Will be doing lots of late night reading of this column for your advice gentlemen.
thanks in advance,
Spad Driver

[Koko]

You may want to contact Motion's customer service about this. Do it through their web site.

The reason that gear don't extend 95% of the time is you have had a rough landing and bent the strut to retract unit pin slightly so the gear, when retracted, doesn't sense the retraction so it won't extend. After you get the gear to extend bend the strut forward slightly and it won't happen again until your next rough landing.

Interesting term "minor rough landing".

Thanks for the info, I’ll look into the retract issue, although I did cycle the gear several times before this flight and it worked fine on the ground.

As for “minor rough landing” yes a bit of a lol. I was sort of inferring that I wouldn’t have expected this much damage from the low speed/altitude vs soft grass. I’ve landed harder and faster and not encountered this much damage.

per your recommendation, I’ve also submitted a ticket to Motion.

Thanks!

[Evan D]

You may want to contact Motion's customer service about this. Do it through their web site.

The reason that gear don't extend 95% of the time is you have had a rough landing and bent the strut to retract unit pin slightly so the gear, when retracted, doesn't sense the retraction so it won't extend. After you get the gear to extend bend the strut forward slightly and it won't happen again until your next rough landing.

Interesting term "minor rough landing".

[Koko]

Alpha

Im not sure if this is normal but my L-39 has a major weak point in the fuselage. I had a minor rough landing into the weeds and encountered a partial fuselage break.

I was on approach for landing, flaps down, gear down and the plane was banking slightly to port(I believe a flap servo had malfunctioned causing this), but correctable with ail input. As the L-39 passed in front of me I saw the gear hadn’t deployed and I was unable to get it to come out (blue box problem?). I ditched the plane in the tall grass at very low speeds and when recovered I found the fuselage had split just in front of the front wing screws.

When I got home I surgically separated the rest of the forward fuselage so I could make better repairs. That’s when I noticed that there was no glue between the forward wing screw mount and the fuselage on either side of the plastic mount. This means the entire forward fuselage was connected to the rear by two lengths of foam 1/2 inch wide and 3 inch long forming the side walls of the fuselage. This was “reinforced” with the two round carbon fiber tubes that had broke loose during the crash. In the pictures below you can see there is not glue on the foam or plastic where the wing mount is. The port side of the fuselage is where it broke on its own and the starboard side I cut with a razor.

I feel that this is an exceptionally weak point, especially with no glue in the 1x3 inch spot where the wing mount resides. I’ve crashed planes faster and hard and not had a fuselage with so little actual foam at the point of breakage.

Alpha, help!

[Louierc]

I'm done with my L-39. I have some parts for sale. Main gear, the fan and ESC, the stab and rudder assembly. Contact me if you need spares.

[urrl]

Flight using my new Galaxy S22 Ultra

[Skosh25]

I have an xfly 2200kv in mine and no complaints. Will probably swap out the 8s system from my Gripen soon (jetfan80 + HET 1865)

[Radar-Guy]

So my question...is there really a hot "drop in fit" power system for the L-39 and would that same power system fit in the T-33?

Sorry I tried to search and just couldn't find what I was looking for. I'm a newish EDF pilot, but have been flying RC for well over 25 years...off and on. Really old guy who is not so hot with computers an such.

The 80mm WeMoTec unit is a „drop in fit“, but it requires a slightly smaller nozzle. Here‘s my 8s powered L-39. 50% more power than stock.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQRFn1dhZwQ

[One_eye]

Hi Guys,

Does anyone 3D printed this wingtip for the L39 just like the actual plane?

https://hpaircraftblog.wordpress.com...ochody-l-39-2/

[Sideslip]

OK, well I thought I'd ask. I'm kind of a hot rod and the performance of the T-33 was really disappointing. But I'll just keep looing for something better in a scale warbird. I keep hoping that someday they'll one of the product developer will have a look at the F-106. I have a soft spot in my heart for that one as I crewed them while in the USAF. With a hot 90 I think it would be a sweetheart.