Official Freewing Twin 80mm F-14D Tomcat Thread

[tab28682]

F-14 ARF Plus inbound to me for delivery next week. It will be a fun project over Xmas break!

[JLambCWU]

Turning and burning for Tomcat Tuesday!

rocking the centerburners from The RC Geek!

[e4dragongunner]

Turning and burning for Tomcat Tuesday!

rocking the centerburners from The RC Geek!

Frigging Awesome Vid Bro!!!

[Aros]

Yeah man that looks totally bad ass. Makes me want to get one again!

[tab28682]

Getting ready to start on the F-14 which arrived in great shape with the excellent Freewing packaging.

Picked up some HS85MG servos for the tailerons, based on the reports of some issues with the stock taileron servos. I had to do this same thing with with my Su-35 years ago, as the stock ones, at least back then, were problematic on slop and centering.

Decided to keep the stock VF-2 scheme. I will do a little detailing and add some improvements. Planning on airbrushing the exhaust nozzles and making them look a little more like the real ones. Tiny bit of weathering on the overall model, but not much.

The molds appear to be showing their age a little. Some mold flashing evident on the wing and horizontal tail leading edges and some other areas. I have sanded this down on the wing and tail to get rid of the stall strip effect. Will cover the wing silver painted LE with some silver tape or covering.

Overall, paint and marking quality was very good. Just a very few crooked decals. As always and along with any others, I would rather apply my own decals.

[e4dragongunner]

Apologies if I am missing an update... any news on the Reinforcement plates?

[thisguy65]

Apologies if I am missing an update... any news on the Reinforcement plates?

I sent copy of the plates to Rich for him to give me the OK. He got them this past week. I'm moving shops, another order a new machine so my time has been tied up with that and my primary job.

[e4dragongunner]

I sent copy of the plates to Rich for him to give me the OK. He got them this past week. I'm moving shops, another order a new machine so my time has been tied up with that and my primary job.

Appreciate the update :-) We gotta pay the bills right

Everyone have a fantastic holiday and here's to the 2020 Season!

[Tomcatman]

After a year of development we are pleased to announce the upcoming release of Freewing's newest Super Scale Series EDF jet, the venerable F-14D Tomcat! Powered by twin 80mm 12B fans, this F-14 recreates the 25th anniversary livery which adorned BuNos 159630 from VF-2 squadron, the "Bounty Hunters". Aircraft in VF-2 had the callsign "Bullet", and we're confident in saying Freewing's model of "Bullet 101" will bring a smile to the faces of RC pilots around the world who have been waiting for an electric F-14 PNP at this level.

Developed in partnership with Motion RC's team for over a year, "Project Hannibal" as it was called internally has undergone several prototype phases to zero in on the performance and handling we want in a PNP model. Not too fast or slow, not too heavy but still adequately strong and rigid (especially in the wing box), not too unstable, still highly scale, still a good size people will want and yet the majority will still be able to transport somewhat easily, still within a reasonable price-range given all its features, etc. I will not disclose all the details of our development processes but suffice to say we have LOTS of time into this aircraft to balance out those and many other factors.

I have about 240 flights total on different prototypes to fully explore how this bird handles. We'll be providing a range of setup options for handling the sweep mixing and flap mixing. We're still working on that which is why the model hadn't been planned to be announced for another three weeks. Due to that original timeline, we do not have official video ready just yet, but look for that in the coming week or so.

Specifications:
Aircraft: F-14D "Bullet 101", VF-2 Squadron Bounty Hunters, BuNos 159630

Scale: ~1:8.3 scale
Length: 61.5/1563mm
Wingspan (wings forward): 61.5"/1562mm
Wingspan (wings swept): 38"/965mm

Top Speed: 114mph
Landing Speed: 36mph
Dry weight: 4162g

Power system:
Twin 80mm 12B metal shrouded EDFs and twin 80A ESCs, powered by twin 6s 4000-5000mAh (it's basically two 80mm Jets crammed into one)
8A UBEC
Plenty of space for twin 6s 5000 or even 5800s.
Mixed throttle flight time: 4:00 on 6s 4000mAh 40c. 5:00 on 5000mAh 50c. Put your timer at 3 minutes initially and gradually increase time on subsequent flights after voltage measurements, depending on your flying style.

Channels: 7 minimum. Ailerons, Flaps, Elevator, Rudder, Throttle, Gear, Sweep. 8 would allow flaperons to aid flaps (Not necessary, but it looks neat)

Sweep Mechanism: Aluminum wing box with four second worm driven actuators. Brass ball link hardware, steel rods, and steel bearings. Two people can lift the aircraft up by holding it four inches inside either of its wingtips with only a few millimeters of flex from tip to tip.

Lights: Scale "daybright" light package. Static nav lights on wingtips, static nav lights on top and bottom of wing root, static anti-collision light on port vertical, blinking tail position light on vertical. Landing light on the nose strut.

Plastic details include: Tailcones, arrestor hook, antennas, chinpod, pitots, cockpit details.

Ply details include: Wing fences and ventral fins.

Retracts: Aluminum trailing link double wheel nose, and Oleo mains. Mains have aluminum axle bearings. Sequenced double plastic door on the nose. Developing a 90 degree rotating main was not feasible due to the fact that the wingbox sits right where the wheel would be stored. We opted for a rock-solid sweeping wing mechanism instead of the "cool" factor of a rotating main wheel.

Assembly: Easy assembly for a model this large. Screw on the verticals, screw on the horizontals, position the wing onto the bearing block and screw it down, screw the wingbox cover on, epoxy the forward section on (like the F-5), pop on the magnetic fiberglass nose cone, glue on the chinpod and assorted surface details, bind to your receiver. Takes about an hour not including servo burn-in time.

Weapon Set Optional, purchased separately. Initial Set is "Standard Patrol" and includes two Phoenix, two Sparrow, two Sidewinder. Future Weapon Sets will likely include an "Armed TARPS" or "Smart Attack" loaded, and/or an Interdiction or "Long Range Intercept" loadout.

To those who will ask why we chose not to include slats. We evaluated one of the prototypes with slats, and they simply didn't contribute positively enough to the slow speed handling of the model enough to justify the gain in complexity, cost, and weight. We save almost a pound, which itself lowers the stall speed more than the slats did. I love scale, but not at that cost.

Pricing and Availability:
The Pre-Order page will be up in a week or so once ETA and pricing is finalized. Until then... go ahead and armchair quarterback this Unicorn. You're welcome .

Greetings,

I'm a bit confused. I'm trying to order callie graphics for my Freewing Tomcat but can't find a straight answer on the scale size. Noted above I see 1:8.3 scale but when factoring the size of the actual Tomcat at 62.66 feet in length and the size of the freewing Tomcat at 59 inches in length, I calculate that the scale is 1:12.74. So where does the above noted 1:8.3 scale come from? Thanks for any help with clearing this up.

[Pogo]

The model certainly isn't 1/8 scale- go with your calculation.
Tom

[Elbee]

Tomcatman, Just tell Callie which model you own, i.e., Freewing, and she will know how to scale for that model. She's done it a few times. LOL. They are out of the office over there until after Christmas, though. Best and Merry Christmas, LB

[Aros]

Yep, Callie is well versed with our models. Simply tell her which model and she will take care of the rest.

[C17loadmaster]

Getting ready to start on the F-14 which arrived in great shape with the excellent Freewing packaging.

Picked up some HS85MG servos for the tailerons, based on the reports of some issues with the stock taileron servos. I had to do this same thing with with my Su-35 years ago, as the stock ones, at least back then, were problematic on slop and centering.

Decided to keep the stock VF-2 scheme. I will do a little detailing and add some improvements. Planning on airbrushing the exhaust nozzles and making them look a little more like the real ones. Tiny bit of weathering on the overall model, but not much.

The molds appear to be showing their age a little. Some mold flashing evident on the wing and horizontal tail leading edges and some other areas. I have sanded this down on the wing and tail to get rid of the stall strip effect. Will cover the wing silver painted LE with some silver tape or covering.

Overall, paint and marking quality was very good. Just a very few crooked decals. As always and along with any others, I would rather apply my own decals.

you’re probably already done... but if you buy the monocote aluminum stick on trim sheets they work great on foam. Especially leading edges of wings and easily dinged up areas. I use a monocote heated iron on about medium to seal it on. I started using clear stick on vinyl that way for a lot of planes. It makes the covered are much stronger without hardly being able to see it. You just need to use a little common sense when using the iron so you don’t expand or alligator the other foam around it

[Aces]

Merry Christmas Eve all. I have a problem I need help with. So I just did the second flight attempt on my new f14. This, by the way, is my second f14 both identical pnp setups, So on the maiden flight I took off and it did not have enough power. I was only able to barely keep it in the air at about a 45 degree angle and then eventually put it down in the field. I realized that I must have forgotten to calibrate my escs to recognize the end points of my throttle and so I wasn't getting full throttle. So I calibrated and ran the thing up on the workbench and it seems to have great thrust. So I did my second attempt today with the same result? So my main question is how can I test whether or not I am getting full power from my system? is there a thrust poundage I can test for? Unless I did my esc calibration wrong (which of course I could have) I am at a loss here.
To calibrate I powered on the radio and put it at full throttle and then powered on the system, waited for the beep, and then lowered the thottole down until it beeped. Anybody have any suggestions or things to test?

[Evan D]

Do you have a watt meter?

[Aces]

Hello Evan. I do not but my dad might. unfortunately I am not real great with electronics. I am not sure of how to use that to test this?

[Evan D]

The older 1680kV setups got only 1650W (each) or so and newer ones get about 2200W. If you are not getting around 1650W something isn't right in your set up, either the throttle isn't calibrated or your batteries can't supply the needed power.

[Aces]

Thank you Evan. And merry Christmas. I am sure of the batteries because I use them in my other at 14 and other PDFs. I will have to check the wattage. I’m sure my dad can help me do that but can you explain how to go about checking it with the white meter?

[Evan D]

The wattmeter is a way to measure how much power the set up consumes. It correlates to how much power or thrust you are putting out.

The meter goes between the battery and ESC and registers volts, amps and watts. The important measurement in your case is watts at full throttle.

Merry Christmas to you and your family too.

[Aces]

Thank you. So my dad brought his watt meter over and helped me test the system. One esc/motor is putting out only 1300 plus kv and 61w. The other is doing 1500 plus kv and 72w. So it seems that neither unit is performing as it should. So my question is about programming the esc's. Here is the method I used. This is the stock esc's that came with the f14. I power on my transmitter and set throttle to high. then power up my system. wait for the series of beeps and then lower the throttle till it registers. But I am unsure now if this is correct. THis is how I programmed my other esc's though. I will call motion rc tomorrow and talk with them about the esc's. Any thoughts?