Freewing 90mm F-22 Raptor - Official Thread

[crxmanpat]

Happy day, sad day. Got 2.75 flights on the 12S Raptor today. First flight was good, but I hadn't yet properly calibrated my throttle, so I was not seeing full throttle. But it flew just fine, tons of power. Second flight, had the throttle calibrated correctly and man what a rocket ship! Forgot to start my timer so I'm not sure how long I was up, but it was at least 5 minutes.Third flight, was going very well until a buddy called out landing. I was making a downwind pass over the runway at the time, and broke off at mid field to clear him for landing. Got a little far out on me, and I glanced down at my timer to make sure I had started it and to see how much time was left. When I looked back up, I lost orientation and wound up flying away from me, then lost it completely. Nose in 45° full-throttle dive wiped out everything. The debris field was at least 50' long, and it took me some time to find all the parts. One of the lipos wound up all the way under the tree next to the cactus in the upper left side of the pic.

I'm definitely bummed as this was a super flying plane. But I will be getting another sometime in the near future. Will also go 12S on that one. Pretty sure the motor and ESC survived, and I have another JF90 unit to stick it in. The JF90 itself was destroyed.

Some pics I took before flying today, and one of the debris field. I'm standing at the point of impact.

[Evan D]

Sorry to hear this Pat. :(

[crxmanpat]

Thanks. Just added my email to the back in stock notification for the ARF+, and will order one when they come back in.

[Skyboom]

Sorry for your loss Pat. At least, you were in a safe area.

[Hardway]

:(:(:(:(:( Wow...…….. God Bless you and your efforts.... I know it is just a hobby, but it hurts none the less!!

[crxmanpat]

It hurt, but only for a little while. Was going to wait for the ARF+ to come back in stock, but a buddy needs a 6S power system for his grey F-4 he just ordered, so I just ordered the 6S PNP and will sell him the power system for the difference.

[RCjetdude]

Dang! Sorry Pat. How did the canopy mod turn out for you?

[Elbee]

Happy day, sad day. I'm definitely bummed...impact.

crxmanpat, Sorry, too. Best, LB

[Luisito]

Love this Raptor! Have about 12 flights on it. Had either a BEC, ESC or Receiver failure in flight. All previous flights before installing the Admiral gyro was with the Spektrum 8 channel receiver. I’m leaning toward a BEC failure.

Here’s a video of the test flight. https://youtu.be/R-i8kLLWEJI

Not to badly damaged.

If you look at the video at 1:09 as the gear and flaps are coming up, it lost power for a second or two. You can hear me saying “oh no, what was that?”. But it was fine until the approach landing when it lost all control and no power. It took us around 30 minutes to recover the Raptor which was still on but wet. My friend got to it first and he unplugged it, so don’t know if any beeps or lights that could explain the cause.

The battery is a Thunder Power Rampage 5000mAh 80C and still had 42% remaining and all cells were almost equal. I have nearly a dozen flawless flights with the same sets of batteries. However, this flight was the first flight with the newly installed Admiral Receiver with gyro. You can hear when I was turning on the gyro and testing it. All wiring was intact noting came lose. In fact, after thoroughly drying, I tried to reproduce the failure on the ground and it all works fine.

I should have landed the first sign of an issue. Broke my rule of landing immediately when any signs of an issue.

I will be installing an Opti Gaurd backup battery to protect against any future or possible BEC issues.

So what do you all think the failure was?

[JETGREASER]

I fly uneven runways as well, what nose gear is that?

Look at post #1009.

[crxmanpat]

Dang! Sorry Pat. How did the canopy mod turn out for you?

It worked pretty well, but it seemed like I was having an issue with geometry. The canopy wanted to raise up from the back too much before opening the front. I was going to look into it after getting in the 12S maiden. May or may not do the upgraded cockpit and opening canopy on #2. I was already a tad nose heavy and really need to save the weight up front.

[TiredIronGRB]

Love this Raptor! Have about 12 flights on it. Had either a BEC, ESC or Receiver failure in flight. All previous flights before installing the Admiral gyro was with the Spektrum 8 channel receiver. I’m leaning toward a BEC failure.

Here’s a video of the test flight. https://youtu.be/R-i8kLLWEJI

Not to badly damaged.

If you look at the video at 1:09 as the gear and flaps are coming up, it lost power for a second or two. You can hear me saying “oh no, what was that?”. But it was fine until the approach landing when it lost all control and no power. It took us around 30 minutes to recover the Raptor which was still on but wet. My friend got to it first and he unplugged it, so don’t know if any beeps or lights that could explain the cause.

The battery is a Thunder Power Rampage 5000mAh 80C and still had 42% remaining and all cells were almost equal. I have nearly a dozen flawless flights with the same sets of batteries. However, this flight was the first flight with the newly installed Admiral Receiver with gyro. You can hear when I was turning on the gyro and testing it. All wiring was intact noting came lose. In fact, after thoroughly drying, I tried to reproduce the failure on the ground and it all works fine.

I should have landed the first sign of an issue. Broke my rule of landing immediately when any signs of an issue.

I will be installing an Opti Gaurd backup battery to protect against any future or possible BEC issues.

So what do you all think the failure was?

Was the second time when you dropped gear and flaps? I never do them at the same time.

[TRMRC]

Originally posted by Luisito View Post
Love this Raptor! Have about 12 flights on it. Had either a BEC, ESC or Receiver failure in flight. All previous flights before installing the Admiral gyro was with the Spektrum 8 channel receiver. I’m leaning toward a BEC failure.

Here’s a video of the test flight. https://youtu.be/R-i8kLLWEJI

Mine did the same “exact” thing, Freewing Bec failure. Went into fail safe and flew away into a near by field then did a nose plant. The nose was 12 inches into the farmers feild. Ouch. Buy my Raptor was a total loss. I remember dropping the landing gear then the flaps about the same time. I still have Jeti logs I have to send to Jeti to take a look at.
The Esc is fine, just the UBEC is a total POFS !

[crxmanpat]

I always do mine in stages. Gear down first for a gear check pass. Break at mid field and put half flaps in on the downwind leg. Turn base leg, turn final, then drop full flaps after lining up. This way I don't have 5 servos all pulling power at the same time.

[WAY BAD]

It sure is heartbreaking to hear about these beautiful birds meeting these awful fates.

On another note. Does 1100-1200g of battery weight sound like too much for the 8s version?

[Luisito]

Was the second time when you dropped gear and flaps? I never do them at the same time.

No. Both the gear and flaps were already down when I did a full flyby the runway to the other end, circled to align for landing, then lost power...

[downwindleg]

Happy day, sad day. Got 2.75 flights on the 12S Raptor today. First flight was good, but I hadn't yet properly calibrated my throttle, so I was not seeing full throttle. But it flew just fine, tons of power. Second flight, had the throttle calibrated correctly and man what a rocket ship! Forgot to start my timer so I'm not sure how long I was up, but it was at least 5 minutes.Third flight, was going very well until a buddy called out landing. I was making a downwind pass over the runway at the time, and broke off at mid field to clear him for landing. Got a little far out on me, and I glanced down at my timer to make sure I had started it and to see how much time was left. When I looked back up, I lost orientation and wound up flying away from me, then lost it completely. Nose in 45° full-throttle dive wiped out everything. The debris field was at least 50' long, and it took me some time to find all the parts. One of the lipos wound up all the way under the tree next to the cactus in the upper left side of the pic.

I'm definitely bummed as this was a super flying plane. But I will be getting another sometime in the near future. Will also go 12S on that one. Pretty sure the motor and ESC survived, and I have another JF90 unit to stick it in. The JF90 itself was destroyed.

Some pics I took before flying today, and one of the debris field. I'm standing at the point of impact.

So sorry to hear about this awesome plane going in after all the work. Hope you figure out what the cause was so as not to repeat it. I have to admit I've lost one or more of just about every model for one reason or another....but never pilot error!!:)Sorry also to Luisito...lo siento mucho!

[crxmanpat]

I did 3 things wrong in quick succession:

1. I let the plane get too far away from me.
2. I took my eyes off the plane briefly.
3. I did not throttle back when I knew I was in trouble.

Oh well, #2 on the way.

At least I'm living up to my user title. :)

[Chilly Bear]

I did 3 things wrong in quick succession:

1. I let the plane get too far away from me.
2. I took my eyes off the plane briefly.
3. I did not throttle back when I knew I was in trouble.

Oh well, #2 on the way.

At least I'm living up to my user title. :)

Sorry you lost your plane. Gives me a sick feeling all the way in Georgia. On a positive note, impressive debris field!

[Pogo]

I did 3 things wrong in quick succession:

1. I let the plane get too far away from me.
2. I took my eyes off the plane briefly.
3. I did not throttle back when I knew I was in trouble.

Oh well, #2 on the way.

At least I'm living up to my user title. :)

I'm sorry this happened too Pat! One suggestion: set your Tx timer to start with throttle position (10 % or whatever) rather than it needing to be started manually. I did this several years ago and it's nice to not have to wonder if I remembered to start the timer!
I'm glad your replacement Raptor is already on it's way. :Cool:
Tom