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

[davegee]

Excellent work davegee!

Thanks, Aros. The key was the outstanding STL files from Elbee!!

Dave

[Elbee]

Thanks, Steve. Again, Excellent design work on your part for the cockpit of the F-18, and of course the Corsair, too.

Me, either. With that thinking, we should embrace the name "Brown Angels" demonstration team, or something like that!

Hah, draw it up and I'll get with Callie. Let's just start a "new" squadron of "ole" Legacy Hornets. We need a mascot and livery for a vertical stab design. This could be 'most excellent'. Best, Steve

[Elbee]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-w7oc0LczBE

Hey Hornet Honchos, Check out this great Blue Angels Walkaround ewe-toob vid by Erik Johnston's Crew.

Former Navy F-18 and Blue's pilot (#'s 3&4 slots) Jerry Deren does the narration.

The airframe is located at Frontiers of Flight Museum in Dallas at Love Field.

Enjoy. Best, Steve

[davegee]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-w7oc0LczBE


Hey Hornet Honchos, Check out this great Blue Angels Walkaround ewe-toob vid by Erik Johnston's Crew.

Former Navy F-18 and Blue's pilot (#'s 3&4 slots) Jerry Deren does the narration.

The airframe is located at Frontiers of Flight Museum in Dallas at Love Field.

Enjoy. Best, Steve

Thanks so much for posting that, Steve. Very informative from a guy who has "been there, done that" and conveys his extensive experience very well to the viewer. I also like the video with clear details of the aircraft which are very helpful as reference tools for making add-on or scratchbuilt mods to our models for greater realism.

Cheers

Dave

[Hugh Wiedman]

Won't get far in this year's March Mayhem (I always crash and burn in the first round) with the F-18 Tiger Meet, but I did get this Hornet into April's 2022 edition of Model Aviation under the Focal Point section. Have no idea who submitted it last October, so thanks for that. OK, I admit, I'm just a shameless publicity hound!

[davegee]

Won't get far in this year's March Mayhem (I always crash and burn in the first round) with the F-18 Tiger Meet, but I did get this Hornet into April's 2022 edition of Model Aviation under the Focal Point section. Have no idea who submitted it last October, so thanks for that. OK, I admit, I'm just a shameless publicity hound!

I just saw that, Hugh. Looks great! Congrats on getting it published in Model Aviation magazine. Always one of my favorite sections of the magazine each issue, Focalpoint.

Cheers

davegee

[davegee]

I took my Freewing F-18C up for its maiden the other day. I had one of the guys in our club, a much better pilot than me who also flies turbine jets, at the controls for this first flight. It took off normally but veered to the right some after takeoff. He had difficulty trimming it out in aileron and rudder, having to add a lot of left aileron, and then a lot of left rudder trim to keep it flying straight. He eventually zeroed out the aileron trim before landing, but still kept 56 units of left rudder trim in the Spektrum DX18 I was using. He did not have to trim elevator at all, and it seemed pretty happy at about 96mm.

He got it on the ground safely, but I think it left him and me shaken a bit. We were both expecting a "routine" maiden of this airplane. I have had a couple of these before, and never had these control issues.

Here are a few thoughts and/or recommendations:

1) All control surfaces were checked and rechecked by me before the flight and both of us after the flight. They were all in the exact positions that they should be per the book, no mis- alignments side to side.

2) I did add a couple of Sidewinder missiles on the wingtips and two empty pylons (from a 90mm F-16 model) on the wings. I have heard someone having issues putting on wing pylons or missiles and then having control issues with the plane in flight. Not sure if this had any issue on the flight, but will fly the next one clean.

3) The pilot complained about a lack of power on the airplane. Could be partly to the fact we are at 5,000' MSL, but also a possibility(?) is that the modified ESC wiring cables could have had something to do with it. Just a guess. I had to splice in about 4 inches of 10 gauge wire as they were too short (coming from a F-15 model). I have ordered a new wiring harness from MRC specifically designed for the F-18.

4) Last, I have no gyro in it yet. Seems to me the space is too tight to ever get it that far back in the fuselage to be near the CG. I'm wondering if another receiver/gyro stabilizer is available that might dampen out minor excursions in its flight. Any recommendations?

Appreciate any thoughts on this. I would really like to get this plane dialed in to fly again. Not very confident putting it up again until it looks like these maiden flight issues have been handled.

Thanks,

davegee

[Hugh Wiedman]

I took my Freewing F-18C up for its maiden the other day. I had one of the guys in our club, a much better pilot than me who also flies turbine jets, at the controls for this first flight. It took off normally but veered to the right some after takeoff. He had difficulty trimming it out in aileron and rudder, having to add a lot of left aileron, and then a lot of left rudder trim to keep it flying straight. He eventually zeroed out the aileron trim before landing, but still kept 56 units of left rudder trim in the Spektrum DX18 I was using. He did not have to trim elevator at all, and it seemed pretty happy at about 96mm.

He got it on the ground safely, but I think it left him and me shaken a bit. We were both expecting a "routine" maiden of this airplane. I have had a couple of these before, and never had these control issues.

Here are a few thoughts and/or recommendations:

1) All control surfaces were checked and rechecked by me before the flight and both of us after the flight. They were all in the exact positions that they should be per the book, no mis- alignments side to side.

2) I did add a couple of Sidewinder missiles on the wingtips and two empty pylons (from a 90mm F-16 model) on the wings. I have heard someone having issues putting on wing pylons or missiles and then having control issues with the plane in flight. Not sure if this had any issue on the flight, but will fly the next one clean.

3) The pilot complained about a lack of power on the airplane. Could be partly to the fact we are at 5,000' MSL, but also a possibility(?) is that the modified ESC wiring cables could have had something to do with it. Just a guess. I had to splice in about 4 inches of 10 gauge wire as they were too short (coming from a F-15 model). I have ordered a new wiring harness from MRC specifically designed for the F-18.

4) Last, I have no gyro in it yet. Seems to me the space is too tight to ever get it that far back in the fuselage to be near the CG. I'm wondering if another receiver/gyro stabilizer is available that might dampen out minor excursions in its flight. Any recommendations?

Appreciate any thoughts on this. I would really like to get this plane dialed in to fly again. Not very confident putting it up again until it looks like these maiden flight issues have been handled.

Thanks,

davegee

Dave,

Just a few thoughts.

1) Not sure what caused the need for so much left aileron trim. On both my Hornets, with missiles on the wingtips (but no pylons under the wing), I ended up with 5 clicks (+10) and 6 clicks (+12) of RIGHT aileron trim from starting with all surfaces level. I would normally say that one of the flaps (left flap) might not have retracted after take-off, but I'm sure you watched that carefully. It is possible that it did not retract in the air, although on the ground worked perfectly. That's what both mine did on each Hornet, the only difference was they retracted fine after take-off, but one would not deflect again when getting ready to land. The only way I knew was I had to do a relatively slow flyby to visually see if they were both down in the same position and noticed that they were not. First time it happened, I had to trim about that same amount, 56 units, to get it flying level. On the ground, they worked perfectly so the aileron trim was way off next time up if they both worked fine.

2) Surprised the pilot felt it had a lack of power, even at 5,000 feet. Do you notice a problem with other EDF's at the same altitude? I seem to recall that you installed the 12 blade 1835 Kv inrunner, no? Even with the 9 blade stock it should be fine. Put a power draw meter on it. You should be drawing about 127 Amps and about 3100 watts at full throttle, for 6-7 seconds on a fully charged battery. That's what I'm getting on the SMC 6200 mah 40C. On a Roaring Top 5500 70C (actual C more like 32C), it was getting about 120 amps and 2800 watts. I had a friend who got one of the BA Hornets early on and after some 150 flights, he was always complaining that he could use more thrust. I let him fly mine with the 12 blade inrunner and he promptly upgraded it. First flight out he called me and said this fan's not much better. I asked him to put his power meter on and it came back at about 65-70 Amps, full throttle, fully charged battery. He found that he TX had some tricky issue going on with calibrating his ESC (forgot what kind, but not a Spektrum) and once he recalibrated the ESC, he was ecstatic. Turns out he'd been flying it for 2 years, over 150 flights, never getting more that 56-70% throttle.

3) In both my Hornets, I'm using the AR637T RX with AS3X. Initially located it in the back, then after several (I think it was probably Air Guardian) in this forum suggested I relocate it under the battery tray, I did. It now sits completely UNDER the battery tray as far forward as possible with the 2 antennae coming out and going way up in the nose. All wires (except the power cord and BEC wires) are out of the way under the battery tray so it makes for a clean set-up and I can put the battery anywhere I want to. Also added a remote satellite that goes all the way back in the front fuselage at the foam divider. I now try to do that in all these aircraft. It was a real space saver in the Mig, although with all the extra wires for AB's, TV nozzle wires and 2nd gyro for the TV's, it was a real tight fit to get everything under the back tray, but keeps it real clean.

[davegee]

Thanks, Hugh. The pilot elected to do the takeoff "Flaps Up" so I think we can assume that flaps didn't play into the equation of having so much aileron and rudder trim. It was unsettling how it was so difficult to handle in the air, especially since both of us were fairly confident it would fly well. It was a real handful and he was lucky to bring it down in one piece.

I have the 3672-1900 9-bladed inrunner in my airplane, which should give it plenty of power. In the past, I have found some disappointment flying at 5-6000 feet MSL versus flight at sea level. I don't know how much this one was degraded by the altitude at this point. But most of my experience is at 5000+ feet runways, so I'm not sure how to compare the performance of the two at sea level or at 5000 feet. I do know, for what it's worth, in my career flying heavy jet transport category aircraft, the performance was huge between sea level and hi altitude airports. I suspect there is some correlation with model airplanes, too.

I don't know much about the AR637T radio and the AS3X. I have something similar in my E Flite P-51. Do you think this receiver could help the F-18 fly better than it did last weekend?

Thanks,

Dave

[Evan D]

I can't tell you how many people show up for a maiden and have the stabs, especially full flying at slightly different angles, many many.... Same with different flap angles at various settings. Last, the wing tip sidewinders are flying surfaces and I have seen where they are at different angles of the bayonet lugs are loose and they end up being sloppy and move around in flight. Also some (many FW ones) have thin plastic fins that can warp or move in flight from the air flow.

Lack of power, I always have to ask if the ESC was calibrated.

Gyros don't need to be on the CG.

I started the post and was distracted by a text from my sister and just saw the other replies. On this the flaps up is not all the way to the stops so even at flaps up there could be differences...

[davegee]

I can't tell you how many people show up for a maiden and have the stabs, especially full flying at slightly different angles, many many.... Same with different flap angles at various settings. Last, the wing tip sidewinders are flying surfaces and I have seen where they are at different angles of the bayonet lugs are loose and they end up being sloppy and move around in flight. Also some (many FW ones) have thin plastic fins that can warp or move in flight from the air flow.

Lack of power, I always have to ask if the ESC was calibrated.

Gyros don't need to be on the CG.

I started the post and was distracted by a text from my sister and just saw the other replies. On this the flaps up is not all the way to the stops so even at flaps up there could be differences...

Thanks for that great info, Evan. I was very careful to make sure all control surfaces were aligned per the manual. I checked them again and again for weeks before the maiden, and had the pilot check them, too. Having said that, I suppose it is possible that I didn't have something aligned perfectly. But on other planes that I have put together and done the maiden myself in the past, there were only a few clicks here or there to have it fly true.

I did calibrate the ESC during the setup and did test it several times, statically through the whole power range. I wasn't at the controls for the maiden, but I didn't notice a lack of power, other than the fact that we were flying at 5000 feet MSL. But I have little experience flying at lower elevations, so I don't have much to compare it to. The pilot normally flies very fast turbine jet models, so to him, I'm sure it probably looked like it was dogging it.

Next flight I'll fly clean, just incase something was misaligned on the missiles on the wingtips or the pylons under the wings, taken from an ordnance package from the 90 mm F-16 that some people use to accessorize the plane.

Appreciate your comment on the fact that the gyro doesn't have to be positioned on the CG. I thought for sure that I had read that someplace, but when I looked at the instruction sheet for the Freewing gyro that i have, there is no mention of that. I must have been mistaken, and it will make it easier to place it properly some other place on the airplane, per the instructions.

Obviously, I'll recheck every control surface position again to be sure that they were set properly and symmetrically. I did set the flaps up neutral position per the manual, and the elevator setting per the manual for flaps up, takeoff flaps, and landing flaps. But will still double check and adjust, if necessary.

Appreciate your comments.

Best,

Davegee

[Evan D]

Older gyros usually had instructions to be mounted near the CG but that was years ago and it's very rare to see that in instructions. Simply, newer electronic gyros can be placed pretty much anywhere and many can be placed in multiple attitudes.

[Hugh Wiedman]

I don't know much about the AR637T radio and the AS3X. I have something similar in my E Flite P-51. Do you think this receiver could help the F-18 fly better than it did last weekend?

Thanks,

Dave

IMO, the Hornet would be one that would benefit from a gyro, but then I'm one of those that have a gyro in every one of my aircraft, including my 3D aerobatic planes, so maybe I'm just spoiled. The spectrum RX's are nice, but then the AS3X RX's aren't cheap either. Started out with the older AR636's and now use the newer AR637T and higher channel receivers. These latest RX's are much easier to program directly from a Spektrum TX than the older 636's that needed a phone app. They also have some other nice features like being able to increase/decrease gains in flight with a twist of a knob and an included flight pack battery voltage wire you connect to the power leads that allows you to set alarms on your TX when the battery voltage reaches a predetermined low voltage while flying, thus giving you a heads up as to when you need to get on the ground. I still use a timer, but the fail safe is the actual flight pack voltage call outs the TX gives you while flying. You can also set up at least 3 different sets of gains in 3 flight modes, so I like to tie that to the flap switch so gains are around 40-50% when flying flaps up, but much higher like 70-90% when flaps are extended for take-off and especially landing, when you theoretically are going slower and want it as stable as possible. You can/should also set a flight mode with the gyro off. I'm even using the 10 channel AS3X in the Mig 29 for stabilization on the control surfaces and a 2nd Hobby Eagle gyro just for the TV nozzles, so that's how gyro "infected" I am. Additionally, a flying buddy who's a good pilot also programs in SAFE on all his aircraft that allows him to flip a switch and the aircraft immediately levels itself (no matter what insanity he's gotten the aircraft orientation in). He'll even use SAFE while landing. I've yet to go that far and don't program in SAFE, but does sound like a nice emergency option.

With that said, a gyro on a calm day doesn't necessarily add a lot (except maybe the SAFE feature if you get in a bad orientation all on your own). The condition you have of requiring massive left aileron trim to get it to fly level is another issue that's more concerning. A gyro may "ease the pain" of that slightly, but won't solve it as you still need to get it trimmed correctly. I would image that with that much trim, sitting on the ground the ailerons are no where near level when the sticks are nuetral. If it's not the flaps, is it possible the elevators are not symmetrical? I know that's a stupid question as no doubt you took great care in setting up the surfaces to begin with, but at this point (unless it's the missiles), I'm out of ideas.

[davegee]

IMO, the Hornet would be one that would benefit from a gyro, but then I'm one of those that have a gyro in every one of my aircraft, including my 3D aerobatic planes, so maybe I'm just spoiled. The spectrum RX's are nice, but then the AS3X RX's aren't cheap either. Started out with the older AR636's and now use the newer AR637T and higher channel receivers. These latest RX's are much easier to program directly from a Spektrum TX than the older 636's that needed a phone app. They also have some other nice features like being able to increase/decrease gains in flight with a twist of a knob and an included flight pack battery voltage wire you connect to the power leads that allows you to set alarms on your TX when the battery voltage reaches a predetermined low voltage while flying, thus giving you a heads up as to when you need to get on the ground. I still use a timer, but the fail safe is the actual flight pack voltage call outs the TX gives you while flying. You can also set up at least 3 different sets of gains in 3 flight modes, so I like to tie that to the flap switch so gains are around 40-50% when flying flaps up, but much higher like 70-90% when flaps are extended for take-off and especially landing, when you theoretically are going slower and want it as stable as possible. You can/should also set a flight mode with the gyro off. I'm even using the 10 channel AS3X in the Mig 29 for stabilization on the control surfaces and a 2nd Hobby Eagle gyro just for the TV nozzles, so that's how gyro "infected" I am. Additionally, a flying buddy who's a good pilot also programs in SAFE on all his aircraft that allows him to flip a switch and the aircraft immediately levels itself (no matter what insanity he's gotten the aircraft orientation in). He'll even use SAFE while landing. I've yet to go that far and don't program in SAFE, but does sound like a nice emergency option.

With that said, a gyro on a calm day doesn't necessarily add a lot (except maybe the SAFE feature if you get in a bad orientation all on your own). The condition you have of requiring massive left aileron trim to get it to fly level is another issue that's more concerning. A gyro may "ease the pain" of that slightly, but won't solve it as you still need to get it trimmed correctly. I would image that with that much trim, sitting on the ground the ailerons are no where near level when the sticks are nuetral. If it's not the flaps, is it possible the elevators are not symmetrical? I know that's a stupid question as no doubt you took great care in setting up the surfaces to begin with, but at this point (unless it's the missiles), I'm out of ideas.

Thanks, Hugh. Good info there. Just to be sure that I am setting the aileron/flaps correctly, I have the flaps set up at the fuselage interface to be down 9.5mm as shown in step 7 diagram of the F-18 instruction manual. I have the ailerons drooping down a bit so that they are all perfectly inline with the drooping flaps when the flaps are up. Obviously, the neutral point of the ailerons will stay constant as the neutral point of the flaps will change as you go to takeoff and landing flap settings. Do I have this correct, is that how you set your plane up? I also looked at videos and pics of other modelers and their F-18s, and it "seems" that's what they do, but yours and anyone else's confirmation would be most helpful.

Thanks again, buiddy!

Dave

[Elbee]

Hugh Wiedman, Congrats on the great ink. She's holding her age well, too . Hope all is well with you and yours. Best, Steve

davegee I have not flown my Hornet as of yet, though I seem to remember a member who had added a Center Line Fuel Tank and experienced similar flight anomalies. My only thought would be to remove all stores, missiles, and pylons and fly her. You might even check lateral balance, i.e., left/right wingtip balance. We used to do that on the pattern birds, we even added weight to both tips sometimes to change roll rates, too. Those were before dual rate and exponential TXs, though, and yes, Fred Flintstone was still alive. Best, Steve

[davegee]

Hugh Wiedman, Congrats on the great ink. She's holding her age well, too . Hope all is well with you and yours. Best, Steve

davegee I have not flown my Hornet as of yet, though I seem to remember a member who had added a Center Line Fuel Tank and experienced similar flight anomalies. My only thought would be to remove all stores, missiles, and pylons and fly her. You might even check lateral balance, i.e., left/right wingtip balance. We used to do that on the pattern birds, we even added weight to both tips sometimes to change roll rates, too. Those were before dual rate and exponential TXs, though, and yes, Fred Flintstone was still alive. Best, Steve

Excellent thoughts, Steve. Appreciate them. I removed all external stores from the airplane, which were the Sidewinder wingtip missiles, and a pylon on each underside of the wing, where the slots were already set up to accept some sort of pylon. I got the external stores package for the 90 mm Freewing F-16 model, which are approximately in the same scale. They will all be removed from the next flight(s) . I will recheck each and every control throw setting and control surface positions. I literally had weeks to check and recheck all these things while winter was still in full force, so I can't see any big misalignments at this point, but will of course check again.

One thing sorta bugs me, it's probably not a factor with the pilot's comments after the flight that he thought it was sluggish, but I will address it, anyway. I bought the ARF extra version of the F-18 since I had the fan unit and the ESC wiring harness out of a Freewing F-15C that I had crashed some time before (Totally pilot error DOH!) It was undamaged and tested ok so I put it in the F-18, assuming they would be the same length wiring harnesses. WRONG! The F-15 harness was way short to fit into the F-18. I had some spare 10 gauge wire, the same stuff that came with the harness and soldered a 4 inch extra length which worked fine. I suspect it was just fine for the flight, but nonetheless ordered a replacement ESC and wiring bundle specifically for the F-18 that will be here in a few days and I'll change it out.

I'm bringing the whole smash over to a club member possibly on Friday who is going to take a look at it, and put in a new receiver with a gyro and reprogram my DX18 to make it a better in-tune match to my F-18, and my flying style. This stuff is way over my head so I'll defer to him, he has decades of experience with RC planes of all kinds, including turbine jets.

Sometime soon, we'll do another "re-maiden" with all these changes in place. I really don't think I could have had those control surface settings out of whack by much. I've set airplanes up a lot and haven't needed to use more than a few clicks of trim here and there to dial it in. Something BIG was wrong with this airplane last Sunday, and I'm determined to find out what the problem was and correct it. Will report progress after the next test flight.

Cheers

davegee

[Hugh Wiedman]

Thanks, Hugh. Good info there. Just to be sure that I am setting the aileron/flaps correctly, I have the flaps set up at the fuselage interface to be down 9.5mm as shown in step 7 diagram of the F-18 instruction manual. I have the ailerons drooping down a bit so that they are all perfectly inline with the drooping flaps when the flaps are up. Obviously, the neutral point of the ailerons will stay constant as the neutral point of the flaps will change as you go to takeoff and landing flap settings. Do I have this correct, is that how you set your plane up? I also looked at videos and pics of other modelers and their F-18s, and it "seems" that's what they do, but yours and anyone else's confirmation would be most helpful.

Thanks again, buiddy!

Dave

That's what I did as well. Since the flaps are hinged and can only going up to a certain point, which is level with the bottom of the wing, I just set my aileron neutral point with the flaps up.

I forgot what fan you said was in your F-18 that came out of the F-15C. I will tell you that the original F-15 fans weren't the best and the fans in my first hornet really sucked and I felt it was underpowered. MRC ultimately upgraded that fan to the 9 blade 3672-1900Kv inrunner which was a nice upgrade, but I had already upgraded my first Hornet before they came out with the new fan and used the 12 Blade 4068-1835 Kv inrunner. What a difference. My 2nd Hornet came with the new 9 blade, but since I fly off grass, I also stuck the same12 blade inrunner in. I took the 9 blade it came with and upgraded my Stinger 90 with it (which had one of the old 1750 Kv outrunners) so that was a win-win. I hear the new 9 blade inrunner may have a bit higher top end, but I don't care about that, so the 12 blade inrunner seems to have more punch at the beginning and works great for grass take-offs.

[davegee]

That's what I did as well. Since the flaps are hinged and can only going up to a certain point, which is level with the bottom of the wing, I just set my aileron neutral point with the flaps up.

I forgot what fan you said was in your F-18 that came out of the F-15C. I will tell you that the original F-15 fans weren't the best and the fans in my first hornet really sucked and I felt it was underpowered. MRC ultimately upgraded that fan to the 9 blade 3672-1900Kv inrunner which was a nice upgrade, but I had already upgraded my first Hornet before they came out with the new fan and used the 12 Blade 4068-1835 Kv inrunner. What a difference. My 2nd Hornet came with the new 9 blade, but since I fly off grass, I also stuck the same12 blade inrunner in. I took the 9 blade it came with and upgraded my Stinger 90 with it (which had one of the old 1750 Kv outrunners) so that was a win-win. I hear the new 9 blade inrunner may have a bit higher top end, but I don't care about that, so the 12 blade inrunner seems to have more punch at the beginning and works great for grass take-offs.

Thanks for the confirmation on the flap/aileron positioning, Hugh. I have the new inrunner 3672-1900 motor, but it has the 9 blade fan. I'll consider putting a 12 blade fan in it, but for now will run it with the 9 blade for these tests. Although I mangled the airframe of my F-15C a few months ago when I lost attitude reference of it on its first turn after takeoff, I would still like to get another airframe someday, maybe. It was a really good flyer, and there are still a lot of parts that weren't damaged on that crash. But for the moment, I'll concentrate on getting the F-18 straightened out and flying right. Will keep you posted.

Cheers

dave

[Hugh Wiedman]

Thanks for the confirmation on the flap/aileron positioning, Hugh. I have the new inrunner 3672-1900 motor, but it has the 9 blade fan. I'll consider putting a 12 blade fan in it, but for now will run it with the 9 blade for these tests. Although I mangled the airframe of my F-15C a few months ago when I lost attitude reference of it on its first turn after takeoff, I would still like to get another airframe someday, maybe. It was a really good flyer, and there are still a lot of parts that weren't damaged on that crash. But for the moment, I'll concentrate on getting the F-18 straightened out and flying right. Will keep you posted.

Cheers

dave

Dave, I wouldn't necessarily change to the 12 blade inrunner. It's expensive and since you fly off of asphalt, I doubt it will help that much. As I said, I only use it for slightly shorter take-offs on grass. In the air, I wager that your 9 blade is just as good.

Last thought on power, what battery are you using? Do I recall you said an HRB? There not bad on actual C, more like a 32C for the 50-100C pack. Admirals are worse (I love MRC, my favorite hobby shop, but the Admirals just don't compare to others-more expensive/weigh more/lower actual C-but they are work horses) as the 6000 Pro 50C is more like 25C. Of course my battery of preference is now the SMC 6200 40C in all EDF's, with an actual C of like 38-39C. In power draw tests with the GT power meter, the SMC's draw about 127 amps/ 3280 watts on the 12 blade inrunner. The HRB's are close at 124 amps/3025 watts but the Admirals are down at 119 amps/2700 watts. Could be the SMC's could give you another 5-10% of thrust (depending on what you're using now), possibly making up for the altitude compared to what you're using. I know, I sound like a lobbyist for SMC, but those batteries are the best I've found for price/weight/actual C. Their 5300mah 40C may work nicely as well and it's only 684 gr. I wanted maximum flight time so went with the 6200's, although I would have had an easier time balancing at 100mm with the heavy 3D cockpit and pilot with the 5300.

[Aros]

My history with this bird is sadly one filled with baffling, enigmatic flights and disasters. My favorite military jet (Blue Angel F/A-18), I was determined to figure this gal out but alas I never was successful and I am embarrassed to admit how many models I went through, whether fault of my own or not. Sure, I had a model that flew great and had some great flights but too often I just felt there was something "off" with her. Sometimes it was the trim, sometimes it was power, and other times I simply couldn't put my finger on it. I just knew it was more of a struggle to fly her then it ever should have been. Conversely, I had a few of the original 90mm Freewing F-18s (the one made from EPS) and that jet flew incredibly, never one issue with it.

I've seen plenty of video and heard accounts from folks such as Hugh and Airguardian that have no trouble with this model which baffles me all the more. After the last model crashed I had to concede defeat. Maybe someday under the proper circumstances I will give her a go once again. After all, it just feels criminal not having a Blue Angel F/A-18 in my hangar. May you fellow F-18 pilots continue having great flights and happy landings!