Official Freewing Twin 80mm F-14D Tomcat Thread

[RCjetdude]

Grats on the successful maiden Dave! Good to hear.

[dlink72]

Grats on the successful maiden Dave! Good to hear.

Thanks Steve! 3 maiden's in 2 days! It's been a long winter.

[C17loadmaster]

I put the newer Inrunners in mine but have yet to fly it. It’s to muddy to fly at home and the RC club at my work is suspended indefinitely from flying because of the “security risk”. I’m just going to have to start loading up and driving somewhere...

I am curious to see how it performs now. My jet was always nose heavy because I was running 5000s. I had everything moved as aft as possible and it was still out of blalance. Instead of buying more lipos (which I do NOT need) I threw in better motors and 100a ESCs.

[Aros]

I have to get another one of these. I was really depressed about my first one. The constant roll to the right no matter what I did for trim. The weird Bronco Bounce landings no matter how good I thought the landing profile was. Just felt snake-bit. I used RC Geek's programming as well. But too many have said it flies great that makes me think it was either the model I had or programming or other issues. Can't get her out of my head! Thoughts? Suggestions?

[crxmanpat]

To be honest, I went full stock with no special programming mods and it flies and lands great! I have since changed the power system to the A-10 setup, but the only thing it changed was the weight (went down just slightly) and the speed (little faster with the A-10 setup). Ever since last November it's gone to the field with me for every outing.

[e4dragongunner]

To be honest, I went full stock with no special programming mods and it flies and lands great! I have since changed the power system to the A-10 setup, but the only thing it changed was the weight (went down just slightly) and the speed (little faster with the A-10 setup). Ever since last November it's gone to the field with me for every outing.

Hey Brother great report. I am going with same setup! I was missing the A-10 ESC's , but the just came back in stock at Motion, They are on the way.

What batteries are you flying? I am hearing of stories of 4 min on Admiral 4000's 60C's.

Thanks in advance!

[crxmanpat]

I'm using RoaringTop 6S 5800 35Cs. These weigh less than most other 5000 packs, and are long and skinny so they fit in the battery trays without any modifications. Balances perfectly with them pushed back as far as they'll go.

https://www.roaringtopusa.com/35c-58...is-35c-5800-6s

[GregC540i]

I have the fms 80mm inrunners in mine from the start. It feels like there is more power than stock setup I had in a previous model. I’m also running the fw a-10 100a esc’s. The stock 80’s were to little and were hot after each landing. I’m also running the RT 5800 35c batteries. I’m getting 5-6 minutes of flight time. Love this plane so far!

[e4dragongunner]

I have the fms 80mm inrunners in mine from the start. It feels like there is more power than stock setup I had in a previous model. I’m also running the fw a-10 100a esc’s. The stock 80’s were to little and were hot after each landing. I’m also running the RT 5800 35c batteries. I’m getting 5-6 minutes of flight time. Love this plane so far!

Well slap my ass and call me Sally! AWESOME. My A-10 ESC's showed up today...
I was going to go with Admiral 4000's 60C's ...but all the flight test's I am aware of on these batteries were with the stock set ups, You are talking me into the RT's of maybe the Jetwerx 6000's
So last question... are you guys running an upgraded BEC? or just running the straight A-10 system?

Thanks

[GregC540i]

I actually just changed out the 8a ubec the a-10 dual 100amp esc’s came with. I swapped it out for a castle 10a one only because when I accidentally touched the 8a ubec, the lights would flash and all of the sudden my radio is binding with the esc’s like I just plugged in my battery. I had a hard time duplicating the issue so I decided to rip it out and put in something I can rely on. I didn’t want some vibration while flying to cause a shut down in my electronics and the connection the rx has to my radio. Otherwise I would have just run the ubec that came with the A-10 electronics.

[Aussie1]

I got mine yesterday and while setting up all the controls ,I noticed that my small BEC was getting quite hot. At this stage, only the wings and LEDs are connected. I'm installing a K30 so haven't got any fans or motors installed, so I weighed the complete aircraft minus the turbine and it came in at 3.2 kgs, so the turbine plus 600 mls of fuel is a extra 1 kg. So approximately 4.2 kgs TOW. I'm planning on using two 15 amp BECs for flight, and am wondering if the bright LEDs are drawing alot of current?

[HK182]

Alright! Just had mine delivered! Now to convert it over to
VF-84 colors. Just a quick question for you guys. I’m gonna be using a DX8 radio and want to do the full span flaps. Anyone flying this big beautiful bird with tailerons only? Does it behave ok? Thanks!

[Aussie1]

Just about finished my F14 turbine conversion, using a little K30. This is one sexy looking jet!!

[e4dragongunner]

Very cool, you must get Vid!! :Cool:

[HK182]

Hey guys, painting question. I know the gray is flat gull gray, anybody have a match for the white on the bottom of the fuselage? Also, is it ok to use acrylic or straight up latex? I’m not repainting the whole thing, just covering up some decals. Thanks

[pullupnow]

Hey guys, painting question. I know the gray is flat gull gray, anybody have a match for the white on the bottom of the fuselage? Also, is it ok to use acrylic or straight up latex? I’m not repainting the whole thing, just covering up some decals. Thanks

Model master White FS 17875
you can shoot lightly thinned acrylic right over.

[Aussie1]

Very cool, you must get Vid!! :Cool:

Thanks, I plan on filming it! With my work schedule at the moment, may be a week or so. Also, Iv'e had to move the turbine back, as it was nose heavy with everything in the battery bay moved back as far as possible.

[Greyhound61]

Hi F-14 pilots,
I am planning to install an Eagle A3-L V2 gyro. As recommended, I would like to fly with Tailerons only (swept wings) and Ailerons and flaps (extended wings). I need to programm the gyro to the Delta configuration in order to get the tailerons, right? How do I include the main wing ailerons in the gyro configuration with the Delta setup? The gyro should give inputs to the Tailerons and the Ailerons depending on the wing status. Your help and ideas are highly appreciated.

[xviper]

Hi F-14 pilots,
I am planning to install an Eagle A3-L V2 gyro. As recommended, I would like to fly with Tailerons only (swept wings) and Ailerons and flaps (extended wings). I need to programm the gyro to the Delta configuration in order to get the tailerons, right? How do I include the main wing ailerons in the gyro configuration with the Delta setup? The gyro should give inputs to the Tailerons and the Ailerons depending on the wing status. Your help and ideas are highly appreciated.

I'm NOT an F-14 pilot but ........................... You will likely have to do what SebArt does with their now discontinued Mig29. You use 2 gyros and some precise application of a "Y" or two. The Mig29 uses one gyro set to "normal" wing to stabilize the standard control surfaces and the second set to "delta" to stabilize and control the vector nozzles. You could do something similar. **However, you MUST have some way to shut down the gyro for the main wings anytime they are NOT in the fully extended position. I don't think you can rely upon putting the gyro ON/OFF on the same switch as the wing sweep as it will activate the gyro while the wings are being extended since the gyro will see that switch position as soon as you throw it (the extension sweep is very slow). You don't want the ailerons moving while the wings are still paritally retracted. The second gyro would be for the tailerons. Rudder can go in either gyro but I'd put it on the delta gyro.
**You may have to assign the "ON/OFF" of one or both gyros (on a "Y" or leave the delta ON all the time) to an unused switch and make sure you remember to throw that switch at the proper time.
The "Y" would come in where you need to split off the main ailerons and one of the tailerons to different gyros. EG, the "Y" comes out of the RX's AIL port - one split goes to the gyro for normal wing, then goes to the main ailerons (they need to be "Y'd"; the other side would go to the "delta" gyro and into the AIL port then to one of the tailerons). The ELE port of the RX goes to the ELE input of the "delta" gyro, then to the other taileron. TX is set to "normal wing, normal tail". You'll have to go trial and error to figure out which taileron goes to which gyro port and whether or not a servo reverser may be required. You are best to NOT mess with servo reversing on the TX, however, if the lone taileron needs reversing, you "could" do it on the TX. If the one that's split off from the main ailerons needs to be reversed, best to leave the TX alone and apply the reverser on that side of the split. Of course, get everything working as they should BEFORE installing the gyros so the directions are correct. You'll have to set the delta on the TX for this initial test and calibration for the tailerons, then again in "normal wing/tail" when testing the standard surfaces and when hooking up the gyros.

[Alpha]

HI Greyhound61, Xviper is right.... you've chosen a very complex configuration. As they guy who led the development team on this aircraft, I have to ask you, why? We flew the prototype F-14l with tailerons only in both modes, and in ail/ele in both modes, and we ultimately decided to deliver the PNP as it has been for the past ~four years (ail/ele in both modes). I don't see how flying in tailerons only with wings out mode and ail/ele in wings swept mode will benefit the handling of the aircraft. Rather, it would just add complexity because you're trying to add a gyro (or two) and manual activation/switching between two gyros. Complexity invites potentially unforeseen problems..

Have you flown the F-14 in its PNP configuration? If so, may I ask what you didn't like about it, or what you're trying to achieve by changing the setup? Also, have you tried installing a gyro to simply work with the model in its PNP configuration? That would be much simpler, and I've seen several pilots set theirs up this way.

If you haven't flown the F-14 in its PNP configuration, may I recommend trying that, first, before planning such a major reprogram of how we intended the model to be flown.

From the easiest to the most difficult, I would rank setups like this:

1) Stock setup, no gyro
2) Stock setup, single gyro
3) Taileron only setup (both modes), single gyro, full span flaps
4) Taileron only wings out mode, ail/ele wings swept mode, dual gyro and manual activation


I hope this helps!