Official Freewing Twin 80mm F-14D Tomcat Thread

[Evan D]

There are a lot of different 5000 batteries, some good some horrible. There are a bunch of newer fans you could try. I have the inrunners from the MiG-29 in mine and am very happy but I got them cheap. If I was shopping right now and had no special deal to fall back on I'd look at the 6S fan in the new Eurofighter, I really like it's power and economy. Make sure to also look at your ESCs.

Grass... well in my opinion none of these should be flown off grass but I understand some people don't have a choice.

[harttvboy]

I’m very glad I did the RCInformer shoulder plate upgrade. Last time I had the Tomcat out I damaged the right main gear; not the strut but the retract itself developed for and aft play to an unacceptable tolerance.

I remember someone posting about a landing gear upgrade and I can’t remember what that was and where it was posted. But if anyone remembers I’d appreciate it :). I’ll swap for stock for now, but I’d really like an upgrade set which can handle a bit more weight on grass. I’ll mention I’m flying on 5000mAh packs and the vertical isn’t what I’d hoped for. She rises off grass in about 200’ which is good, but I feel I need to be more present in the power for most of the flight to keep her stable. I also really need to work on the radio program, tail only on wings extended is not enough roll rate.

[rifleman_btx]

Great flight

[SanExup]

latebloomer98 You're cockpit looks badass, and you're flying location looks pretty spectacular from the cockpit! From the photos it looks like a Tomcats natural environment, very cool.

[Elbee]

got the FPV bird airborne on Thursday.

LB, beautiful picture, very cool. Best, LB

[latebloomer98]

more shots from the maiden

[latebloomer98]

got the FPV bird airborne on Thursday.

[BigNug]

Are these what you need?

Thanks!!!

[Corsair Bill]

It’s been a while but I took the big girl (FW F-14) out this morning. Two wing sweep flights went absolutely awesome. Have been using RCGeek programming.

[Evan D]

Sounds like it’s not sensing the retracts signal correctly.

[Casey C]

Anyone ever had the landing light not come on? My set up is IX20 with spectrum 10 channel receiver. Light works when plugged into normal light port but landing light port does not work. Motion sent me another board with same results.

[harttvboy]

Ah, very good stuff! I'm gonna have to look into the wheel brakes, and also add in a second rx for controlling them. Only problem I have is, I got so much going on in my tomcat I'm afraid of adding much more weight.

Yeah for mine I needed 14 channels. In the photo you see the controller and the two cables I’m holding are the brake lines.

One of the benefits of the DMSS receiver setups here was being able to neaten and split cabling using the RG812BX (ch. 1-8) and the RG812BX-B (ch 9-16). In the photo you see the cabling and the brake controller in the center, I’m holding the brake lines.

[kallend]

OH good point! I didn’t mention I had a pair of these for power :) :

https://www.rc-castle.com/index.php?...h=80mm+FMS+pro

I have those in mine. They are very good.

[rifleman_btx]

Ah, very good stuff! I'm gonna have to look into the wheel brakes, and also add in a second rx for controlling them. Only problem I have is, I got so much going on in my tomcat I'm afraid of adding much more weight.

[harttvboy]

I'd also get a couple of the 9 blade fans with the inrunner motors, I got those right away instead of buying the pnf setup. But everything you done looks great!

OH good point! I didn’t mention I had a pair of these for power :) :

https://www.rc-castle.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=9009&search=80mm+FMS+pro

[rifleman_btx]

I'd also get a couple of the 9 blade fans with the inrunner motors, I got those right away instead of buying the pnf setup. But everything you done looks great!

[rifleman_btx]

Looks good! Congrats!

[harttvboy]

Hey all, wanted to post a pre-initial flight update :).

I’ve finished the non-cosmetic portions of this build. I’ve done the wing box modification, as well as the battery tray and nose gear reinforcement plate from Thingiverse. The two upgrades I placed the most thought in were the power system and how to get this jet to stop, so I went two routes on that: adding thrust reverse and magnetic brakes. I’m really underwhelmed by the effectiveness of the thrust reverse, but it’s a means of adding some resistance with no weight penalty, so I could see why some might opt only for that. The magnetic brake setup is really effective for the small weight penalty. Given these wheels are only a few ounces heavier than the stock wheels and very near the CG, I wouldn’t go any other way. Here’s a video to show what can be done; it’s easy to see that spooling up the throttle with the brakes on is a great way to use as little runway as possible. And to see that I’m able to accelerate to roughly 30-35ish MPH and stop in such a short distance is really encouraging. These are the 65mm magnetic braking wheels from JB Hobbies, I got them from Efflux RC.

There is a slight uneven braking which is happening, but that should just be accepted. I purchase an Assan AG63 pro as a possible means to solve this but quickly found it to be unreliable and pulled it out. I may end up with something fancier in the future, but for now I think this will work fine and if necessary I may just add a nose-wheel gyro.

Enjoy! And if anyone has experience programming the JR 28x please LMK, I’m stuck with inhibiting flaps while wings are swept.

https://youtu.be/jN07DzubN_I

It has flown! And it flew well :).

https://youtu.be/C95jnfyTkWE

I was very lucky both to have my RIO with me, as well as having friends who came to take photos and video. Here are some photos of the afternoon!

[Elbee]

Hey all, wanted to post a pre-initial flight update :).

HB, Welcome to Hobby Squawk. By the sound of it, you've done some common sense mods to your Tomcat. Looking forward to further reports and pictures. Best, LB

[kallend]

Any suggestions on how to replace a broken clip for the light on the nose gear? I'm currently thinking maybe a nylon cable clamp.

Are these what you need?