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

[InTheTubeDeep]

June 30 Flight 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVoaVkzzDK8

[InTheTubeDeep]

Great morning at Marine Room with Ute

[Aros]

To end, no harm no foul, either here in the forum or on that day. We have to remain respectful that flying with any people around is taking a risk, period. I am guilty of doing it myself. I fly my little sailplane on a beach I go to on vacation and yes there are people there. Even though they are all friendly and love to see it flying around, I am still taking a risk that something could go wrong and it plunges into an adult, or worse, child or animal. We must always use our best discretion when it comes to safety in the hobby. For instance if there's just a flitting of people here and there, I may chance flying my little 1 meter sailplane (mostly over the water). If the beach is crowded I always wait for another opportunity.

90mm EDF jets of course are a different animal but the same theory applies. Use good judgement, avoid flying over populated areas, or people in general. I do get the lure of a nice compact beach runway and the scenery of course. But it is worth mentioning it's still a risk and one that could be very costly.

[InTheTubeDeep]

Flight 1 June 30!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdWiXhrthIU

[InTheTubeDeep]

Always a tough guy on the beach

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNxNMIQOfmM

LB this was ok- that guy left giddy as a school girl I was very chill, I apologized just as to not get into it with him, and btw I was 100% correct I never came within 50-60m of him, he just had a hair you know where- I see nothing objectionable with this video all ended well :D

[Elbee]

ITTD, in light of recent events, i.e., the P-38 hitting a spectator video, I respectfully ask that you delete this post. It is your prerogative whether to comply and no hard feelings if you don't. Just thinking it's simply bad form to post any confrontation. We are struggling to keep this hobby viable in some parts of this country. Adding evidence that sheds a poor perspective on us as pilots or the hobby in general, does none of us any favors. Best, LB

[Aros]

shouldn't be flying on a beach with a bunch of people around in the first place. you could kill someone with one of those planes...
no wonder people are pissed...this is why laws get made / changed / instituted...

This topic could potentially get heated so just a friendly reminder to everyone to keep the discourse civil and respectful.

[jasmith41]

removed...

[Hugh Wiedman]

Always a tough guy on the beach

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNxNMIQOfmM

It's moments like that where it would be nice to have an active sidewinder or JDAM available to "Plow The Road". What's wrong with these guys thinking they can casually stroll on a public beach and get in the way of a legitimate Navy Blue Angels training mission!

[InTheTubeDeep]

Always a tough guy on the beach

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNxNMIQOfmM

[Hugh Wiedman]

Hugh "Wildman" Wiedman

Yes, now I need 6000 packs :-) Thinking of Gens ace 820g Motions are more heavier around 914g I think.

The maiden was fine everything works as expected. But now when I use landing flaps the plane enats to roll left…..nothing when I use takeoff flaps. I have measured and are exactly equal values on both sides.
I don’t get it (50% for takeoff and 70% for landing)
But that is a different story but Im going crazy about it:-)
Im going to fly tonight so I can investigate this further

Evan D is probably correct, however, it just may be another issue. First question is did this happen on your first few flights? Second, is the roll quite significant or is it just slightly? On both of my F-18's, there are some occasions that one of the flaps (a different one each time) did not deflect when going to landing flaps in flight. Never happens on the ground, or even if you give it some resistance on the ground. I take off with take-off flaps, then raise them. They Always come up fine. Then when setting up to land, go quickly from flaps up to take-off then landing. First time it happened, I had a 4 second delay and as they came down (only one), it started to roll and was able to raise them and land with no flaps. I had the same issue on both my B-24's and my Avanti, and taking out the delay solved the issue. So I took the delay out on the F-18, then in flight went to landing flaps (which was immediate deflection) and it rolled so much I was barely able to recover-got it nose up and stalled so no "lawn dart" and it slowly fell in the high saw grass-miraculously no damage).

Since then, I removed the circuit board and wired the ailerons and flaps directly to the RX (lights, Elevator, Rudder still through the board), thinking that was the issue, but about 25% of the time one or the other still did not deflect. Since then, I've replaced all flap servos and as of today, so far so good but the jury is still out. The flap servos are only 9 gr, where most of Freewings other jets use 17 gr and I suspect that on the F-18 in flight they just don't have the guts and seize up. I've got a couple Hitec micro servos ready to go in, but have yet to do it on the Tiger F-18. Maybe I'm just "special", but that's 5 Freewing/Flightline aircraft that have given me issues with the flaps. You may just have the same issue. If it was fine and trimmed out in the first few flights, but then it happened, you may be in the same boat with me.

Either way, if you haven't already done it and have a Spektrum TX, you should definitely program in something they call "Flight Modes" and assign it to the flap switch. Then go into Trim Utilities and set ailerons, elevators and rudder (that last one is not as important as the first 2) to F Mode. This allows you to independently trim ail/elevators at each flap setting. Definitely one of the best tools to use. If you need more help setting it up, just let me know, it can be done in 30 seconds. This at least would help perfectly level your jet, at any flap position even if you have dissimilar deflection amounts.

[Evan D]

You obviously have some angular differences in flight when there is force on the flaps. Many of us assign our trims to functions. Assign trims to your flaps so you can trim up, takeoff and landing trims separately.

Some have reported that the flaps over power the servos force. When I built mine I moved the push rod in on the servo arm to get a better mechanical advantage, may be an idea...

My favorite 6000 are the Socokin that are 820-840g. Got mine on Amazon when they had a sale at a great price, got 10 of them.

[The swede]

Hugh "Wildman" Wiedman

Yes, now I need 6000 packs :-) Thinking of Gens ace 820g Motions are more heavier around 914g I think.

The maiden was fine everything works as expected. But now when I use landing flaps the plane enats to roll left…..nothing when I use takeoff flaps. I have measured and are exactly equal values on both sides.
I don’t get it (50% for takeoff and 70% for landing)
But that is a different story but Im going crazy about it:-)
Im going to fly tonight so I can investigate this further

[Hugh Wiedman]

Hugh "Wildman" Wiedman

Big thanks for your support! Maiden is done and some up elevator and that was it. Maiden CG 100mm and I used a Spektrum 5000 mah 50C pack. :-)

The Swede/Bulten10

Outstanding!! Now all you need to do is get a decent battery in it. The Spektrum 5000 50C is over priced, over weight and has an actual C of more like 17C. I'm using an SMC 6200 40C, which tests out to an actual C of more like 38C. Weight is 814gr. Their 5300 also tests out to 38C and weighs only 684gr. I doubt you can get the SMC's over there, but I'm told the China Hobby batteries are pretty good regarding actual tested C.

These EDF inrunners really benefit from a higher actual C battery. I can tell you that the stock inrunner fan at take-off, fully charged battery, with an SMC draws about 128 amps and 3200 Watts. With the Spektrum, you're down to 118 amps and 2600 watts. That's anywhere from a 10-20% increase in thrust with a decent battery. I'm also flying both my F-18's for well over 5 minutes on the 6200, and I'm not cruising around like my little old granny! So if you can get a decent battery in it and deep 6 those Spektrums, you'll be one happy camper! And don't feel bad about spending money on the Spektrum batteries. After I found SMC, I've either sold off or dumped over 100 batteries of all different makes, wasting probably over $10,000. Could'a spent that money on some aircraft instead!

[The swede]

Hugh "Wildman" Wiedman

Big thanks for your support! Maiden is done and some up elevator and that was it. Maiden CG 100mm and I used a Spektrum 5000 mah 50C pack. :-)

The Swede/Bulten10

[Abwagner121]

Taileron. Yes.

Can you be a little more specific please?

[Evan D]

Is anyone flying their Hornet with the standard aileron, elevator, flap setup? Or is everyone flying with a taileron setup? Taileron. I also have crow and rudder air brakes and use those every landing to reduce my roll out. I also have full span flaps but don't like the feel.

Is there a huge difference between the 2? Yes, not only does it make the plane more agile but it also makes it smoother.

[Abwagner121]

Hello. Is anyone flying their Hornet with the standard aileron, elevator, flap setup? Or is everyone flying with a taileron setup? Is there a huge difference between the 2?

[InTheTubeDeep]

Flying Toaster now the Shiny Flying Toaster after a few coats of Minwax

[InTheTubeDeep]

Spoiled gorgeous morning flight with a botched landing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_v1nBBnbnA