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

[SanExup]

Nice squared loops! Etc, etc!

[Airguardian]

Another cool video of aggressive aerobatic flying with the Hornet... airshow-demo style! :)

Mine is using 6S 5Ah 870g Panther LiPos, so there's that.
Taking off from grass... will depend on the grass and your EDF combo.

[Joehockey]

Gentlemen 3rd jet ( if i buy this one ) OVER 30 WARBIRDS 60 thru 92” is this model too much of a jump and will this fly off grass ?
I have a great supply of 6s 5000 Graphenes and I am concerned about weight and our grass field
Thanks for any advice you can provide

[Aros]

First go to F-Mode Setup in the second group of menus, Select the Switch you use for Flaps (I use D). Then get sexy and go to Spoken Flight Mode and next to "Speak" it will say F MODE 1 (or whatever position your flap switch is on). Click on F MODE 1 and the drop down list of all the verbal commands come up. About 2/3 the way down, you find "Flaps Up", and "Take-off Flaps" and "Landing Flaps". Put those in on the appropriate switch positions, so now when you change your flap switch, a sexy babe tells you where your switch is set (mine usually over rides that and says "You Dumb Sh.., You're about to Crash Yet Again!).

Now the last step is to go to the "Trim Setup" menu. Next to each surface it says "Common" (except Throttle which may say "Common Digital"). Go to the Elevator, and next to it (but after the number 5-don't ask me what happens when you change the number), change Common to F Mode. I would also do it with aileron. This way if you're flaps don't deflect exactly the same, you can trim out any roll. Flew my F-18 today and for some reason had to trim out some roll on landing flaps, and just a bit on take-off flaps. Could have been the crosswind, or I could have screwed something up as I've been messing around a lot with CG, going from 105mm to 115mm from the 88mm recommended. Man, it really goes into High Alpha easily, but for me it's a little wonky (just not the pilot AirGuardian is).

Thanks my friend! I pasted this to a doc so I can refer to it down the road whenever needed.

[Big Dave]

Dave, you seem to be at a high level on the learning curve right now. DO you have a club where you could pair up with an experienced person that flies electric? Not necessarily EDF but there's a lot to learn especially things that could cause crashes or fires.

As Fred said you very well could have damaged your battery. There are times you can bring one back to life after a low discharge but it can be very dangerous to do and should only be tried if you know exactly what you are doing and that you stay by the battery and monitor it the WHOLE time you are doing it. Let me say too, DO NOT charge LiPo's on other battery settings (NiMh, NiCd, lead acid, etc) or with a charger not designed for them, very dangerous.

While we are a decent source of information there is nothing like having a friend there with you to personally show you what to do and what not to do if you are doing something wrong.

I definitely am a novice when it comes to the electronics . Very comfortable with my flying ability I just haven’t had anything other than RTF . Charged the battery up last night and I honestly just flew it with a dead battery yesterday. All the cells are up where they should be and everything looks good . I am idiot and saw 17 something volts and thought from a 22v battery that was close to full charge. Eventually found a page on the charger that actually says a % of charge that I hadn’t seen before. I will monitor the battery to make sure all the cells look good.

[Evan D]

Dave, you seem to be at a high level on the learning curve right now. DO you have a club where you could pair up with an experienced person that flies electric? Not necessarily EDF but there's a lot to learn especially things that could cause crashes or fires.

As Fred said you very well could have damaged your battery. There are times you can bring one back to life after a low discharge but it can be very dangerous to do and should only be tried if you know exactly what you are doing and that you stay by the battery and monitor it the WHOLE time you are doing it. Let me say too, DO NOT charge LiPo's on other battery settings (NiMh, NiCd, lead acid, etc) or with a charger not designed for them, very dangerous.

While we are a decent source of information there is nothing like having a friend there with you to personally show you what to do and what not to do if you are doing something wrong.

[fredmdbud]

Got it . Found a helpful article that explained much of it. And you’ve been helpful as well. Just glad I didn’t lose the airplane because of my ignorance🤭

Thanks

You said one of your cells was down to 2.5V?

That cell is probably damaged - a balanced charger might refuse to charge it. Time for a new battery ...

[Big Dave]

Yes, these are not dry cell batteries. Draining them as you did can, you might have, damaged it.

LiPo’s have specific charge, storage and use or they can be damaged.

Basically, but read up on it, charge to no more than 4.2 per cell, store them at 3.8 and don’t discharge them below 3.6.

Got it . Found a helpful article that explained much of it. And you’ve been helpful as well. Just glad I didn’t lose the airplane because of my ignorance🤭

Thanks

[Evan D]

Yes, these are not dry cell batteries. Draining them as you did can, you might have, damaged it.

LiPo’s have specific charge, storage and use or they can be damaged.

Basically, but read up on it, charge to no more than 4.2 per cell, store them at 3.8 and don’t discharge them below 3.6.

[Big Dave]

The only reason I can think of is you didn't charge it. There is no way I can think of that would drain a fully charged battery to that voltage in a minute.

This may be a dumb question . But is 17v low ? I’m thinking a 17v of a 22v battery leaves me with some juice left.

[Evan D]

The only reason I can think of is you didn't charge it. There is no way I can think of that would drain a fully charged battery to that voltage in a minute.

[Big Dave]

If you only flew a minute maybe you reused a battery without charging it?

If it’s showing 17v on a 22.2v battery why would it be dead though ? Unless I’m just reading something wrong.

[Hugh Wiedman]

Was able to get these four out, The F18 Canadian, F-4 Blue Angel, F-16 (All three with the 12 blade inrunner, oh yah baby, gotta have it!!!) and the SU-30 with it's new FMS fans. As I said above, I'm starting to settle in at a CG of around 108 mm, anything more aft is a bit much for my limited ability, even with a gyro in it. Could be that a stiff 12-16 mph crosswind was giving me a few fits, but only with full flaps on landing, so I'll try it another day when winds are lighter and see how a more aft CG works. I still have a 2nd hornet in the box just received (trying to beat the May 15th price increase) ready to do another different repaint also using the 12 blade inrunner and although I have everything waiting, including paint and Callie's graphics, haven't gotten motivated to start on it yet. And sitting right next to it is the Mig in a box (also just received and hoping to avoid that price increase and got lucky as I got it before it went out of stock AGAIN!!!), along with it's TV nozzles, all the upgraded components and Callie's custom graphics. So today was either work on those two, or go out to fly! Looks like it may be awhile before these next two get done, or even started!




Hate to say it, as much as I love the F-18, especially considering I now have 2, but for some reason I much prefer the F-4 in the Blue Angel livery than the F-18 in the BA livery. Maybe I need to get one anyway, just to make sure!

[Hugh Wiedman]

Hugh Wiedman it's been awhile since I programmed Flight Modes and I have a new TX...Do you have a step-by-step written down good ol' buddy ol' pal?

First go to F-Mode Setup in the second group of menus, Select the Switch you use for Flaps (I use D). Then get sexy and go to Spoken Flight Mode and next to "Speak" it will say F MODE 1 (or whatever position your flap switch is on). Click on F MODE 1 and the drop down list of all the verbal commands come up. About 2/3 the way down, you find "Flaps Up", and "Take-off Flaps" and "Landing Flaps". Put those in on the appropriate switch positions, so now when you change your flap switch, a sexy babe tells you where your switch is set (mine usually over rides that and says "You Dumb Sh.., You're about to Crash Yet Again!).

Now the last step is to go to the "Trim Setup" menu. Next to each surface it says "Common" (except Throttle which may say "Common Digital"). Go to the Elevator, and next to it (but after the number 5-don't ask me what happens when you change the number), change Common to F Mode. I would also do it with aileron. This way if you're flaps don't deflect exactly the same, you can trim out any roll. Flew my F-18 today and for some reason had to trim out some roll on landing flaps, and just a bit on take-off flaps. Could have been the crosswind, or I could have screwed something up as I've been messing around a lot with CG, going from 105mm to 115mm from the 88mm recommended. Man, it really goes into High Alpha easily, but for me it's a little wonky (just not the pilot AirGuardian is).

[Evan D]

If you only flew a minute maybe you reused a battery without charging it?

[Big Dave]

I owe you all big time for all your advice, but I’m not done yet. I flew it again tonight after my maiden last night. Pushed it a little harder but nothing crazy. Once I decided to land after about 1 minute, I put the gear down and started lining up on final. That’s when I realized it sounded awfully quiet. I bumped the throttle and heard it struggling. Luckily was able to deadstick it in with no damage. Plugged it into the battery tester and was showing roughly 2.5 to 3 volts in each cell with 17 overall. I can post pictures later tonight but I’m confused. Any ideas ?Could it be something in the transmitter?

[Evan D]

Setup menu, trims, go to elevators and over to common. Click and it changes to flight mode. You also have to enable flight modes and assign a flight mode switch...

[Aros]

Hugh Wiedman it's been awhile since I programmed Flight Modes and I have a new TX...Do you have a step-by-step written down good ol' buddy ol' pal?

[Hugh Wiedman]

Maidened it today. Would like to do some mixing for elevator /flaps when I can figure that out . One thing at a time !

Congratulations on the maiden!! But don't do "some mixing for elevator/flaps".

At the risk of boring everyone again (since this is a major subject of mine: elevator comp for flaps), I suggest you set up Flight Modes on your TX, tied to the Flap switch, and enable the trim settings for elevator set to the Flight Modes. This way you can trim out the elevator (and aileron if you also do that) at each flap setting while in flight and get it right on the maiden in a matter of seconds. Eliminates the need to guess how much elevator compensation to use with flaps. If you are not sure what I'm referring to, go ahead and send me a PM on the subject. This is probably one of the single most useful (and most simple to accomplish) thing you can set up on your TX for any aircraft using flaps. Unfortunately, the majority of pilots do not use it simply because they don't know what it is.

[Big Dave]

Maidened it today . All went well. Blue box hooked up to everything . Seemed to be working fine so I just went for it . Couple of things I noticed... full rates is way too much for a maiden , even my low rates were very twitchy and didn’t need that much. Can’t wait to dial it back to make it look more scale . Would like to do some mixing for elevator /flaps when I can figure that out . One thing at a time !