Freewing 90mm F-22 Raptor - Official Thread

[downwindleg]

Get 'er done Brad !:Cool:
I made some servo covers from thin fiberglass sheet and painted them with the darker of the greys from HD that Xplaneguy kindly provided. They're glued in place and blended into the existing paint with light and dark grey pastel chalks as airbrushing ain't (yet) my forte.
Tom

Nice job Tom. I cheated and just painted the servo, however I have often thought about making a "hood" if you will that would cover the servo horn and rod back to the control surface horn. But I feel buried by all the other mods so it probably won't happen unless someone like Steve or George or some other creative person develops one and makes it available to the rest of us poor schlubs that have no time. I noticed the real plane has something like this for the rudder control rod.;)

[Aros]

Took her out at dusk to ooh and aah over the centerburner. MAN that looks sweet!!! :Cool:

[Husafreak]

Does anyone know what paint colors are used on this jet? Hopefully Tamiya or something easy to get. My new one needs touch up in a few areas.

[Drifty]

Hi guys, heres a pict of my revised Hawaii ANG fin flash

[WAY BAD]

Does anyone know what paint colors are used on this jet? Hopefully Tamiya or something easy to get. My new one needs touch up in a few areas.

This is the Home Depot codes for the colors.

[downwindleg]

Took her out at dusk to ooh and aah over the centerburner. MAN that looks sweet!!! :Cool:

What? No video? That's a clear case of lunch bag letdown.:)

[Husafreak]

Thanks, awesome response, now I wish I lived in Bossier City! That's a lot of paint isn't it? How much do those cans go for?

[Quickstop]

Thanks, awesome response, now I wish I lived in Bossier City! That's a lot of paint isn't it? How much do those cans go for?

Those are sample size, about 3 or 4 dollars

[downwindleg]

Hi guys, heres a pict of my revised Hawaii ANG fin flash

Nicely done Drifty. In Hawaii they would say that was very akamai(cool):Cool:

[downwindleg]

O.K Here's how I short cut the servo covers and what I painted the servos with plus the ever popular sticky notes.

[Aros]

Looks like a good match Brad, and I happen to have that very rattle can in my graveyard of cans! LOL

[downwindleg]

Yeah, it's actually even a better match for the A-10. Anyway, I got a techy friend to get my phone talking to my computer again so I can post a few pictures. This is just a work in progress for my functioning canopy/instrument panel upgrade/lit instrument panel and HUD. I've got the slime lights and nav lights in too but waiting on the replacement blue box before they can all light up. May get a replacement canopy too since this one has kinda gotten beat up during the process.

[Aros]

That looks sweet! Dammit now I am going to have to do that whole cockpit mod. I was hoping my laziness would prevail. LOL

[Bobaroo]

Is a Clear Canopy still a consideration for this one up at MRC/FreeWing ?? There was talk a while back about this.

[downwindleg]

That looks sweet! Dammit now I am going to have to do that whole cockpit mod. I was hoping my laziness would prevail. LOL

Don't you just hate that? Believe me, if I had a cool place to fly in the winter like you do, these mods would not be happening. However.......:) Let me know if you want some of the colored plastic sheets for the HUD screen. I used one that was green and one that was luminescent. That seemed like a good balance and now I've got plenty if you or anyone else needs some. I got 12" x12" sheets and it only takes about a square inch each.:Cool:

[Aros]

Awesome Brad, I will take you up on that! I just need to get the 3dPUP parts printed by someone...Thanks!

[Hardway]

Awesome Brad, I will take you up on that! I just need to get the 3dPUP parts printed by someone...Thanks!

https://www.motionrc.com/products/fr...up-cockpit-set I know of a company that sells those things..... ;)LOLLOL

[downwindleg]

Awesome Brad, I will take you up on that! I just need to get the 3dPUP parts printed by someone...Thanks!

Yeah Todd, just pm me your mailing address and I can throw a couple pieces in an envelope. I'll send enough for a do over cause there are some fitting issues. I'll throw in a rough pattern too. BTW these pieces are made of something like lexan and they have a protective backing to peel off both sides before you install them. Also you will notice ,if you look closely at the HUD frame, on the two side ears of the frame, there are little bumps that need to be trimmed off with an exacto knife before painting. Don't know what the bumps were for but they wont let the lexan sit flat on the ears. Ask me how I know.:)

[Husafreak]

Cool, I needed a reason to go out to the garage and I also have just that primer on the shelf.
3-4$ for a sample size is terrific! That's no more than what 1oz of a Tamiya hobby paint would cost.

[Husafreak]

Sooo, maiden #2 (new plane) went great! I'm pretty sure I made about 10 flights LOL. Before flying it I replaced the OEM 8A BEC with a Castle Creations 2.0 14A BEC set to 5V. I have the 6s version of the F-22. FWIW I also realized the OEM 8A BEC in my A-10 is the same as the one that failed in the F-22. It has 30 flights or so but I'll be replacing that one for peace of mind.

With the recommended set up from the manual I needed quite a bit of down elevator trim. I also had a bit too much down Elevator to flap mix at 5/10 on the Spectrum. I found it to be pitch sensitive in the flare with full flaps. I liked landing it full flaps best but I didn't try no flaps. So I moved the CG forward just a bit, say 145mm rather than 150mm, lowered the throws, increased the expo and then a lot of the down trim came out and it was more docile flaring and landing. It is easy to land it was just too sensitive initially. It flies a bit nose heavy though, the nose wants to drop in turns and it needs a lot of down elevator inverted. But it is more stable in pitch. It does fly a bit funny! Like an F-16 there is a big change in handling as the nose comes up and it transitions to high alpha flight. In normal fast flight it really needs a bit of coordinated rudder to bring the nose around and elevator to hold it up, then it wants to keep rolling after initial aileron input. Basically I think a bit of rudder mixed in might make it easier to fly and this one and it would definitely benefit from a gyro! Forget about long knife edge passes. Like the A-10 this could be flown rudder only. Lots of roll coupling on this. I reduced the rudder travel at low rates. High alpha is a blast but carefully! Over controlling got me some wild snaps at first but after a while I was loving it. High rates and nose up it doesn't even need much power, just mushing along and doing figure eights it is really cool. Then it's great to have all that high rate elevator, aileron, and rudder travel. Just keep it moving, if the nose comes up too much it will stop, you will lose most control and with 6s it can't accelerate vertically.
So in the end I have the stab LE 6.5 to 7mm up rather than the 5.5 specified. And I ended up with 3/6 units of Elevator to flap mixing. Hard to even see that on the bench with these servos. Low rates are approximately 80% of the manual settings and expo is in the 30-40% range.
I would love to hear others experiences with trimming this model. Specifically about preferred CG's . And how others that installed gyros felt about the addition. I'm guessing a gyro would be nice on this model.