Official Freewing Twin 80mm F-14D Tomcat Thread

[Aros]

The Center Burner is definitely the upgrade over a ring. WAY more realistic, especially when adding the tape. Well done.

[e4dragongunner]

One for sale !

https://www.hobbysquawk.com/forum/the-lounge/classifieds/135522-freewing-f-14-nib

[C17loadmaster]

Rad. Second flight... the programming was identical to RCGeek’s and CG was perfect. I put down the flaps and it went into a nosedive with not enough elevator to pull out of the dive I was 100ft up setting up for an approach. I have probably 30-40 flight on the 90mm F-16. I thought the Viper was supposed to be harder to fly. I don’t know what happened.... I lost complete elevator authority. It didn’t help at all. The circuit board was bad and MotionRC has been out of it forever. I’ve been waiting for it to come in stock. It had lighting issues but I’m starting to think I should have waited for the replacement. I haven’t wrecked a plane like this in 10 years unless there was an issue with the plane itself

[Aros]

Oh so sorry to see that! I ended up selling mine. Could never get it dialed in and never felt comfortable with it. Again, really sorry to see that!

[C17loadmaster]

You could never get the flap/elevator mix correctly? I limited the elevator travel to match the RCGeeks. I’m not restricting the elevator travel next time. I’ll also flight test the flaps at 400 feet haha

[Aros]

No for me it always wanted to roll to the right regardless of what trimming and tweaking and ESC calibrating I did. So I was always fighting the sticks from rotation. And landing on pavement was terrible. I could not get it to land without bouncing, sometimes violently. No matter what I did. Perfect speed, approach, flare, etc...The second the gear would settle it would spring back up and start bouncing. Drove me NUTS. I've flown tons of jets successfully so I know it wasn't a lack of fundamentals. I just think this particular model had ghosts in the machine, lol.

I too had RC Geeks settings. The exact SPM file in fact. High Cool Factor model for sure, but for whatever reason, mine was just a bear.

[C17loadmaster]

The center burners were awesome for the 3 minute flight haha

[Aros]

Wow, those are FANTASTIC! I need to order one of those for my Phantom.

[Aros]

Closest thing I can think of to these centerburners was an afterburner someone designed for my SR-71 years ago...Incredibly bright and changed color based on throttle input...

[C17loadmaster]

No for me it always wanted to roll to the right regardless of what trimming and tweaking and ESC calibrating I did. So I was always fighting the sticks from rotation. And landing on pavement was terrible. I could not get it to land without bouncing, sometimes violently. No matter what I did. Perfect speed, approach, flare, etc...The second the gear would settle it would spring back up and start bouncing. Drove me NUTS. I've flown tons of jets successfully so I know it wasn't a lack of fundamentals. I just think this particular model had ghosts in the machine, lol.

I too had RC Geeks settings. The exact SPM file in fact. High Cool Factor model for sure, but for whatever reason, mine was just a bear.

I also had the DX file on a DX18. Even while airborne on my 2 flights it was also very hard to get comfortable. Unlike the 90mm F-16. I love flying that plane once I followed your company’s battery and CG recommendations. At the manual instructed CG it was float forever on landing

[C17loadmaster]

Wow, those are FANTASTIC! I need to order one of those for my Phantom.

I love how they light up the ground on takeoff. Way better than the ring LEDs but the price is hefty. I always line my exhaust ports with aluminum ducting tape. I posted a video of it about 4-5 months ago... now everyone is doing the same. That’s why they’re so bright. I was waiting for a 7.4amp bec so in the meantime I had it connected to a 250mah 2s lipo

[pullupnow]

Finishing up my bird in VF 114 Aardvarks colors. Great friend of mine flew with VF114 in Desert 1. Scheme is from 70's 80's should show well in the air. Callie made these up very quickly for me... much thanks! Maiden soon, taking it slow

[vduniec]

Finishing up my bird in VF 114 Aardvarks colors. Great friend of mine flew with VF114 in Desert 1. Scheme is from 70's 80's should show well in the air. Callie made these up very quickly for me... much thanks! Maiden soon, taking it slow

Nice work! I always liked that scheme on the F-14.

Looks like your ventral strakes are on backwards. If you swap them around, you'll get more clearance on landing.

[EA-6B Geek]

Finishing up my bird in VF 114 Aardvarks colors. Great friend of mine flew with VF114 in Desert 1. Scheme is from 70's 80's should show well in the air. Callie made these up very quickly for me... much thanks! Maiden soon, taking it slow

Man that's great! I flew with Tom at Kingsville, and have been thinking of doing just what you've done. Amazing! Fly it proudly, ***** would love it

[pullupnow]

thanks!! ventral's swapped!

[pullupnow]

Man that's great! I flew with Tom at Kingsville, and have been thinking of doing just what you've done. Amazing! Fly it proudly, ***** would love it

Elvis was my college buddy back in the day. Thanks for your service. I live 12 mi from where they were built.. guys in my local club were engineers and flight test. Had to do it right. Cheers

[pullupnow]

I got two flights on her today. first flight was with two 5000 roaring top's and I followed RC Geeks blog and moved the rear batt back to the spar box. I think my cg was still on the forward limit. It flew perfectly after adding some nose up trim. roll was zero trim correction. Just a great machine in the air! No bad habits. I swept the wings after I was happy with the trim. I again used RC Geeks control configuration and control throws. I added about 15% expo to smooth it out... but probably didn't need it. The air was smooth so I had no issues with PIO in the roll axis, that might change if the air gets choppy. Wings forward again, tried the flaps, pretty significant nose down pitch moment with approach flap, not as much with landing flaps. I fly futaba and I set a flight condition for each configuration and didn't group the trim. once trimmed in each config the transitions were easy. Time to land! Murphy is here. during the paint strip I gunked up the nose strut brace with melted paint. gear cycled great, until it was airborne. no nose gear. who knew the TISEO pod makes a great nose skid! all good.
Second flight was more the same with some learning curve applied, until the landing, With flaps out this thing is a floater! I did three bounce and goes similar to what Aros described, the last approach I stayed on a much flatter glide slope with almost no roundout/flare that worked pretty well. My field is 300 feet
paved but has nasty overruns so some pressure to keep it on the black top. I beat the balls out of my landing gear but all was intact, with some humility and valuable experience.
Thanks all on this forum for the great intel!
wish I had some footage for you but I was solo.. hopefully next time
cheers

[Aros]

Congrats on the maiden success! I will never know why mine was so wonky. Glad other's are having better experience with theirs.

[pullupnow]

Congrats on the maiden success! I will never know why mine was so wonky. Glad other's are having better experience with theirs.

Thanks, I could really see what you were talking about when I brought it in like most everything else I've flown.. it bounced no matter what I did. I know I wasn't too fast because if I had any more AOA the tail would hit. Definitely a unique landing attitude.

[C17loadmaster]

Congrats on the maiden success! I will never know why mine was so wonky. Glad other's are having better experience with theirs.

My “Awesome” wife bought me the F-14 without the EDF & ESC and it gets here tomorrow. Surprisingly, those parts survived, even the batteries. Everything else was destroyed... including the gear (which was retracted) and receiver & gyro. I have a pretty good idea what I need to do to get this one to last a while. I didn’t have my flaps and ailerons (full wing flaps) retracted as far up as possible and I was on the nose heavy side of the CG envelope. Which threw everything off. I should have recognized that and just landed flaps up. It never would have become a exploding lawn dart.