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

[Gvasiloff]

I did beef them up a bit from the stock ones, and used all the tricks I know to make them stronger. I've done some destructive testing on them, and they are stronger than the stock ones I have, but I really think I may have received a bad batch.

They are printed with PETG, which fails more like ABS than PLA does. PLA will shatter and crack. PETG bends, warps, and stretches when it fails. At this point, I don't know if I would trust getting another set from Freewing either.

I would bet $100 they would work fine, but I don't like the idea of flying with them. I really wish I could find some aluminum ones. I may submit the design to get a quote to have a couple milled.

Freewing does make a metal version of this part. It's used in the 90mm F-4 Phantom. Unfortunately, i think you have to buy the whole tail assembly for something like $35 just to get one of them...

[Airguardian]

Thanks Hugh!
I had reached >115mm but as I've kept making changes and repairs to the airframe, the CG has settled more at around 112mm.

100-105 is pretty good, I think 100-110 is about as much as anyone should go before leaving a gyro permanently on on this jet, at least for the yaw axis.

And yep, it was pretty windy that day... not super-crossed, but crossed enough to make landings challenging. Funny enough, in these sort of conditions, the MiG-29 and the F-18 are the jets that I trust the most for flying. Su-35 and Gripen were around for the event and didn't take them out... MiG flew all day long and the Hornet made these couple of flights.
The small vertical stabs, for all their drawbacks, make the plane less sensitive to crosswind and the gyros on the stabs/rudders keeps it more or less flyable even in these conditions.

The MiG-29, just takes it full on with the extra weight, size and inertia without even needing a gyro (although it sure would help!). :)

[Hugh Wiedman]

Airguardian outstanding flights and great videography as usual. Looked like you were also battling a gusty crosswind, kudos for handling it so well. I can see how far back your CG is from the way it flies and I seem to remember you're around 115mm or more. I've tried both of mine at 110mm and it really bounces the nose up on our grass runway from the start during take-off as it hits every little bump, almost requiring me to use down elevator during the take-off run to keep it on the field until it reaches enough speed to safely get in the air. I love the way it flies with a further back CG but the take-offs are tricky, at least for me, so I've ended up keeping it around 105mm or less for now. I'll get there one day, but not tomorrow!

[Airguardian]

Time for more Hornet action ( :

[Slice1969]

I woke up early and started thinking of a better solution for the stabilator horn. What I did turned out well. It is a lot more solid than the stock one. The winds picked up, so I didn't get a chance to fly it today.

What I did was utilize a 3mm x 20mm socket head bolt in place of the screw. The bolt carries all the way through the rod and into the other side of the control horn. Because of the way the part is stressed, it was printed horizontal on the bed, which makes for a tricky overhang with support material with PETG.

I have very high confidence in the part. It is quite solid.

[Slice1969]

Slice, you would be wise to not fly it tomorrow or at any time with 3d printed horns. I'm looking out for you here. Horns are not just any kind of plastic and certainly not splinter prone 3d printed. This is your elevator we're talking about. That horn is the most important piece of the puzzle. I, for one, would never risk a high dollar aircraft on that. In fact, I am going to check my stock Freewing horns just because of your incident. Thanks for posting your problem and helping others.

I did beef them up a bit from the stock ones, and used all the tricks I know to make them stronger. I've done some destructive testing on them, and they are stronger than the stock ones I have, but I really think I may have received a bad batch.

They are printed with PETG, which fails more like ABS than PLA does. PLA will shatter and crack. PETG bends, warps, and stretches when it fails. At this point, I don't know if I would trust getting another set from Freewing either.

I would bet $100 they would work fine, but I don't like the idea of flying with them. I really wish I could find some aluminum ones. I may submit the design to get a quote to have a couple milled.

[nuts-n-volts]

Slice, you would be wise to not fly it tomorrow or at any time with 3d printed horns. I'm looking out for you here. Horns are not just any kind of plastic and certainly not splinter prone 3d printed. This is your elevator we're talking about. That horn is the most important piece of the puzzle. I, for one, would never risk a high dollar aircraft on that. In fact, I am going to check my stock Freewing horns just because of your incident. Thanks for posting your problem and helping others.

[Slice1969]

The second one ended up failing as well in the same fashion. I heard back from MotionRC and they only sell them with the entire assembly, and do not know of any other similar horns that are available.

I modeled and 3D printed it in PETG and it seems to be working well. We will see if I am brave enough to maiden it tomorrow.

[Airguardian]

Now that's weird!

[Slice1969]

I recently acquired this model from a friend, it was new and still in the box.

I have been having some trouble with the control horns for the elevator/stabilator. I cracked one of them installing the control rod, and noticed the second one had a nick in the end. I applied a little bit of pressure, and it cracked completley.

I order replacements from motionrc, which unfortunately only come in a complete kit. With shipping, it is almost $30.

Both sides went on fine, and I am very careful when screwing in to plastic to not over tighten. They were not damaged when I installed them.

When cycling the controls, I noticed one of the horns was wobbling, so I took it apart. I found the entire horn had shattered on the bottom, where it screws into the control rod.

Does anyone know a 3rd parts solution, maybe out of aluminum to replace the freewing control horns for the elevator?

I have sent an e-mail to motionrc to see if I can just get the control horns. I have a hard time justifying another $30 to get one. If not, I may try and engineer and 3d print one, but I would be a little bit nervous about that.

Sorry for the blurry pic. There were several other smaller pieces too.

[Evan D]

Even if I swap out NFCU with another brand I just bind, calibrate and fly.

[Dougcarr73]

But honestly you need to review the manual or contact the manufacturer to get the preferred ESC timing for your motor. Then set your ESC accordingly. There's no "one size fits all" answer to this. I think all of my Freewing motors are set to medium, but it's never been a concern, because I'm using Freewing ESC with them all. As for my Eflite 90mm Viper, it has the timing set to high out of the box, but issues with the motor have quite a few adjusting their timing to low, or medium.

[Dougcarr73]

Just calibrate and full send!

[Evan D]

I never mess with settings…

[Cape Jets]

Need some guidance on ESC settings for my jets. All my jets have Freewing 130amp or 150amp ESC's. I also use on all my jets the Freewing 90mm 12 Blade 1835kv EDF. (Hughs favorite EDF)
I just got the Hobbywing ESC Program card to set-up my ESC's. Listening to the beeps drove me crazy and if you miss one step your screwed..... So the question is what do you guys set for your jet esc's ?
Brake I know is OFF, Lipo Batt , Soft Cut on EDF, Voltage Cut Off-Low, Start mode-Normal, Timing is the big question? Most things I see is all EDF's get set to Low on timing.....
So I'm throwing it out there to see what you guys set for your jets.... Thx

[Cape Jets]

Hi guys...great forum! I have been following this thread for quite some time and have actually looked over all 259 pages over time. I now have 7 flights on my BA F18C and I'm experiencing the same flap problem as described on several posts in the thread. Started having asymmetrical flap deployment or half flap deployment when I had selected full flaps on the transmitter. I bypassed the blue box for everything except landing gear and lights as others have posted. I also eliminated any slow movement of the flap servos (they are full speed and deploy immediately on the ground). Test flew again yesterday and first flight seemed fine...flaps worked as intended...nice flight and landing. Next flight was a different story. I deployed half flaps on downwind after slowing the airplane down a bit and extending the landing gear with no noticeable problem. When I selected full flaps, the airplane rolled over almost on it's back. Luckily I was able to retract the flaps and save it but the landing was less than stellar with calm conditions and zero flaps. Two go arounds resulted in an almost dead battery on the last approach so I had no choice but to set it down...pretty hard. Broke the white strut on the nose landing gear but otherwise no damage.

Now to my questions...I know I have seen reference to what servos some folks are using to replace the flap servos but I can't seem to locate that post now. Can someone please recommend a drop in replacement servo with more power for the flaps?

Also, I don't remember what the white plastic strut on the nose gear looked like before but mine is now in two pieces. I don't know if it just broke cleanly in the middle or if it was originally two pieces held together by some other piece that I'm now missing. Is it supposed to be one piece and are some guys reinforcing it somehow?

Sorry for the long post and thanks very much in advance!

Seems the Flap issue keeps coming up with the F-18..... Based on that I am always on the side of preventive vs reactive.... So I have upgraded my F-18 flap servos to the Hitec- HS-5065MG. They provide the torque required and they are as smooth as butter..... You can find cheaper servos, but you get what you pay for so beware of saving a few bucks and replacing a plane. Just my thoughts.

[Airguardian]

That white-orange striped scheme looks really well, I like it! :D

With the Hornet it's not just about the livery, but also the fact it is slightly smaller than similar jets and usually gets away faster, so it's easier to lose sight and orientation than with most. It even has affected me several times, and I am not one to suffer much from orientation problems, even with fully-grey camo birds!

@ Jandro: Very nice pictures. I followed your advice and activated the flight stabilization. The bird has a much better handling now. But it‘s still challenging compared to the F22.
- Eric

Yep, I agree the F-18 is a challenging bird, even with stabilization. I'd say all my other jets are easier to handle by a wide margin! ;)
But then the Hornet does knife edge so much better than all the rest... and it can still pull a cobra! It's cool how each of these jets is its own world with very characteristic traits that are particular to each and their designs. I find it fascinating!

[Polyphren]

The digital camo scheme works impressingly well in a cloudy sky. I nearly lost orientation after an unexpected stall and the following downward spiral. Due to better pose recognition I decided to add white and neon stripes to the back side. I‘m looking forward to the next flight in a cloudy evening sky.

[yamr663304]

Hi Polyphren. Yes, that's the strut I'm talking about. Thanks very much for the input...I like your idea of using a piece of carbon fiber in the channel of that strut.

[Polyphren]

@ Jandro: Very nice pictures. I followed your advice and activated the flight stabilization. The bird has a much better handling now. But it‘s still challenging compared to the F22.
- Eric