Official Freewing F/A-18C Hornet 90mm EDF Thread

[Elbee]

Just paying forward to all those who have designed cool 3DP for my other models in the past! Including you and your instrument panel which I have already printed up for it :D

Quick Q, did you have to grind away a fair bit of the wheel hub to get the covers to fit nicely? It looked like I needed to grind at least 5mm

Thanksdave

Dave, I have yet to 'dry fit' the new wheel covers. I would presume that whatever has to be removed needs to be removed. I've thought of printing a new set of wheels and separating the hub cover as a 2nd part, however, not certain if the tires can be removed easily. What do you think? Best, Steve

[Quax]

Good luck with the maiden!

Thank you :-) I am planning to do an onboard video so hopefully everything works fine.

[Wolfgang Wagner]

Hi guys, give you a short summary of my day and am a bit disappointed. Hooked up my FA-18 for the first time to check all the electronic parts and all worked fine so far. Then I simulated an approach to land selected gear down, full flaps and at the same time added inputs on all three axes, when all of a sudden the ail servos started a jitterbug for about 10sec, then stopped working.
I hooked up the a/c a second time, but no changes. Checked the servos through the MCBE, but didnˋt work at all. Disassembled the wing connector board and checked them directly, and found out, right one is dead, the left one still alive. So MCBE and right ail servo kind of burned through. While doing this I realized, that the servo lead of the right flap servo is also damaged.
Now I am wondering, if this MCBE is too weak to cope with such a load, which is quite normal for an approach.

Not too lucky with this result

[Bogietrim]

I have had this model in the box for about 2 months and now just getting time to start assembling it. I will bypass the board except for the gear and lights. I have inspected the elevator servos and the mounts. My servos seem solid and have exercised them with a tester and all seems well. The mounts are solid with no signs of being loose. Now trying to decide if I change the servos or not?

[Evan D]

I’m still running stock servos. Move the pushrod in a hole or two on the servo side so the forces on the servo are less.

[Carlbrainiac]

I have had this model in the box for about 2 months and now just getting time to start assembling it. I will bypass the board except for the gear and lights. I have inspected the elevator servos and the mounts. My servos seem solid and have exercised them with a tester and all seems well. The mounts are solid with no signs of being loose. Now trying to decide if I change the servos or not?

If they are the hybrid metal gear ones which as it was the first batch I'm betting they are. Do yourself a favour a swap them out. A metal gear meshing with a plastic gear is never going to end well. Sooner or later it will strip or at least jump a tooth causing a roll affect when you pull up elevator. I am convinced this is the main cause a few of the early ones went in because my blue box has been just fine. It is very voltage sensitive so when doing initial set up I was using a servo tester and powering it with an old 4.8v nimh receiver battery. And the blue box was doing some real wacky things like one of the main gear or sometimes both of the main gear wouldn't come down. And everytime I operated the gear the ailerons would twitch. So at first I thought oh no I too have a dodgy blue box. But as soon as I powered it through the on board bec with the lipo flight pack. No issues what so ever. So I think peoples issues with the blue box could be where they haven't been using the stock set up and have their own bec which perhaps isn't supplying the stable 5v that the blue box needs. Any more or less than that and that's where you start getting odd behaviour.

[Carlbrainiac]

My elevator servos didnt even make it past setting up the throws! Straight out of the box. Since installing the freewing full metal gear servos shes been a dream.

[fredmdbud]

The plastic gears are on the high-speed-low-torque end of the servo's gear train, so it would require quite a bit of force to transmit back from the servo axle and reduction gears - like in a crash, which is the only time I have observed any of the servos stripping.

[ticketec]

Is anyone working on a 3DP airbrake?

[Quax]

My first two flights were more or less a success. I did not break the jet - so perfect landing (every landing you can still use the airplane is a perfect landing ;-) ). The main gear springs are really good (landing of maiden was really hard).

The flap/elevator compensation mentioned here was spot on (thanks for that).

Is anyone working on a 3DP airbrake?

There have been photos of a working airbrake in this thread - however not 3d printed but custom made from plastic or carbon (not sure)?

[fredmdbud]

There have been photos of a working airbrake in this thread - however not 3d printed but custom made from plastic or carbon (not sure)?

Has anyone actually used that yet, either in flight or on the ground?

[Elbee]

Has anyone actually used that yet, either in flight or on the ground?

FMDB, Check out RCJetdude's posts in this thread. There is also a youtube vid he made showing the working 'airbrake'. Too cool for school, actually. Best, LB

[Bogietrim]

If they are the hybrid metal gear ones which as it was the first batch I'm betting they are. Do yourself a favour a swap them out. A metal gear meshing with a plastic gear is never going to end well. Sooner or later it will strip or at least jump a tooth causing a roll affect when you pull up elevator. I am convinced this is the main cause a few of the early ones went in because my blue box has been just fine. It is very voltage sensitive so when doing initial set up I was using a servo tester and powering it with an old 4.8v nimh receiver battery. And the blue box was doing some real wacky things like one of the main gear or sometimes both of the main gear wouldn't come down. And everytime I operated the gear the ailerons would twitch. So at first I thought oh no I too have a dodgy blue box. But as soon as I powered it through the on board bec with the lipo flight pack. No issues what so ever. So I think peoples issues with the blue box could be where they haven't been using the stock set up and have their own bec which perhaps isn't supplying the stable 5v that the blue box needs. Any more or less than that and that's where you start getting odd behaviour.

I noticed something similar while setting up the receiver. Like I said I plan on bypassing the BB for everything except the gear and lights. I put a servo tested on the gear channel running through the BB and the gear did weird things like you mentioned. I was using a standard fully charged Nimh pack. I switched over to a LifE 2 cell pack that was about 60% and all worked well. So, I definitely think there is a voltage issue with the BB. I will be running an 8s HET 1500kv in a Schubie that I have laying around. I haven't decided if I am using the on board BEC on my ESC or going with an external. I have a CC 20amp that I could use, but the weight will be getting up there.

[fredmdbud]

FMDB, Check out RCJetdude's posts in this thread. There is also a youtube vid he made showing the working 'airbrake'. Too cool for school, actually. Best, LB

I’ve seen seen a static demonstration - that video was 2 months ago. And with the tailhook mod and all, I don’t think it’s flown yet.

[RCjetdude]

I’ve seen seen a static demonstration - that video was 2 months ago. And with the tailhook mod and all, I don’t think it’s flown yet.

I have flown the plane at Jolly Good. Could not try the speed brake because of an issue with the steering servo. Will have it at Nall in the Fall.

[Elbee]

RCJD, Your Hornet looks Great! Bravo Zulu, Sir. Best, LB

[Aros]

RCJD, Your Hornet looks Great! Bravo Zulu, Sir. Best, LB

I second that!

[Aros]

I replaced the elevator servos with full 17G MGs and my flap servos that went all poltergeist on me with the 9G MGs...I feel much better now. Ahhhh. LOL

[flyAA]

Has a anyone used a rustoleum 2x spray that matches pretty close to the grey? Thanks

[ms200a]

Converted my FW F-18 to turbine. Posted pics on EDF to Turbine thread. Fire and Foam, who would have thunk it :-D