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

[Hugh Wiedman]

Thanks, Hugh, this is great information! I was expecting to set up specific stab settings for flaps up, takeoff flaps, and landing flaps like I do in my Freewing F-4N, but was surprised that there was nothing said on that in the F-18 instructions. But I'm going to set mine up like you have yours and at least be in the ballpark for the maiden so I don't have to contend with a really out of trim airplane. I can adjust it per each flight down the road. I'm waiting on a centerburner A/B kit from RC Geek, should be here on the 27th, probably maiden first decent day after the new year after that. Might have to bring it down to Miami, the way the winds have been blowing up here! (LOL)

Have a Merry Christmas, Hugh, and thanks again for those pics and settings.

Cheers

davegee

Likewise Evan D and davegee, hope everyone has a great Christmas and New Years! I also got the twin RC Geek burners in both mine and love 'em. Have his burners in every one of my EDF's except the A-10. If you have time and an hour of patience, I also recommend lining the exhaust nozzles with aluminum A/C tape. It's a bit of a pain with the bifurcated nozzles (same on the F-4), but IMO it more than doubles the light output. If you decide to do it (and maybe you've already done this on others), I can give you a few tips that makes it a little easier to install that I got from someone else here in the Squawk a while back.

[Evan D]

Merry Christmas to all of you too!

[davegee]

Dave, I originally set my neutral elevator about 8mm below the line shown in the picture below. This obviously depends on what your balanced at. This was balanced at 104mm, so the further nose heavy you fly towards the 88mm balance point recommended, the more up elevator you will need. For take-off flaps, the elevator is around 11mm and landing flaps around 14mm (using suggested flap deflections), so there is some up elevator required with flaps. Picture #2 is with take-off flaps and #3 with landing flaps. This is also a matter of preference on how you prefer your level attitude to be when flying with flaps and at what speed. Hope this is at least a decent starting point, but suggest that you set up Flight modes if you don't already use them so you can trim the elevator in flight for each flap setting.

Thanks, Hugh, this is great information! I was expecting to set up specific stab settings for flaps up, takeoff flaps, and landing flaps like I do in my Freewing F-4N, but was surprised that there was nothing said on that in the F-18 instructions. But I'm going to set mine up like you have yours and at least be in the ballpark for the maiden so I don't have to contend with a really out of trim airplane. I can adjust it per each flight down the road. I'm waiting on a centerburner A/B kit from RC Geek, should be here on the 27th, probably maiden first decent day after the new year after that. Might have to bring it down to Miami, the way the winds have been blowing up here! (LOL)

Have a Merry Christmas, Hugh, and thanks again for those pics and settings.

Cheers

davegee

[davegee]

Hugh has good info and without pulling mine and powering it I have to say I'm very close to what he shows. I have 7 and 12% in my radio for half and full flaps.

As I typically do I put each surface on it's own channel, 11 on a 12ch receiver, to have full full span flaps, tailerons, crow and rudder airbrakes... And I'm 8S with a JF/ HET set up.

Thanks, Evan. I had one years ago that crashed, but the settings are still in my radio, but not being used for the time being. It had fullspan flaps, rudders that canted inwards for takeoffs, but I don't think we got tailerons going, although we might have. A buddy of mine set mine up. He has a 1/6 scale turbine F/A-18F with all the bells and whistles, a beautiful plane and he flies the hell out of it.

Sounds like you have a nice set up on yours. Appreciate your comments regarding Hugh's plane and I'll set mine up accordingly. I just want to be in the ballpark when I take off on my maiden in a couple of weeks, just don't want any sudden, unexpected maneuvers that I have no control over!

Merry Christmas!

davegee

[Evan D]

Hugh has good info and without pulling mine and powering it I have to say I'm very close to what he shows. I have 7 and 12% in my radio for half and full flaps.

As I typically do I put each surface on it's own channel, 11 on a 12ch receiver, to have full full span flaps, tailerons, crow and rudder airbrakes... And I'm 8S with a JF/ HET set up.

[Hugh Wiedman]

Thanks, Evan. Sorry for any confusion on my part. All is well now, with the exception of getting a reading on correct elevator setting on the ground for takeoff and if a flap/elevator mix is warranted for this airplane. Do you have one of these, any suggestions?

Cheers

davegee

Dave, I originally set my neutral elevator about 8mm below the line shown in the picture below. This obviously depends on what your balanced at. This was balanced at 104mm, so the further nose heavy you fly towards the 88mm balance point recommended, the more up elevator you will need. For take-off flaps, the elevator is around 11mm and landing flaps around 14mm (using suggested flap deflections), so there is some up elevator required with flaps. Picture #2 is with take-off flaps and #3 with landing flaps. This is also a matter of preference on how you prefer your level attitude to be when flying with flaps and at what speed. Hope this is at least a decent starting point, but suggest that you set up Flight modes if you don't already use them so you can trim the elevator in flight for each flap setting.

[T-CAT]

Excellent points! I was working on it all day yesterday, trying to get the correct servo geometry for a working tail hook, but haven't gotten it all set up yet. And of course, late last night when I put the wings on and applied the power to her, I got something I had never seen before. I probably would have gotten around to checking those connectors, but you certainly made the lightbulb come on in my head! Appreciate it.

No problem! That’s always the great part about threads and forums. We can all help each other out and many times get a quick response to questions, learn things from one another, spark ideas, etc.

[davegee]

Thanks. When you mentioned a crack I wondered. What you found is what I would have expected too.

Thanks, Evan. Sorry for any confusion on my part. All is well now, with the exception of getting a reading on correct elevator setting on the ground for takeoff and if a flap/elevator mix is warranted for this airplane. Do you have one of these, any suggestions?

Cheers

davegee

[davegee]

You’re welcome . I’m glad it was something quick and simple to fix. With the factories and assembly done by people, there is always a chance of something like that occurring. On each aircraft I get with quick connect plugs, I unscrew the board and check all the connections to confirm they are correct and that all Servo leads are seated properly. It always makes me feel better and I feel it’s part of my duty as a pilot to make sure it’s ready for flight, among the other typical things all of us pilots inspect before flying. It’s worth the little time it takes .

Excellent points! I was working on it all day yesterday, trying to get the correct servo geometry for a working tail hook, but haven't gotten it all set up yet. And of course, late last night when I put the wings on and applied the power to her, I got something I had never seen before. I probably would have gotten around to checking those connectors, but you certainly made the lightbulb come on in my head! Appreciate it.

[T-CAT]

Thanks, T-Cat. You were exactly right! the Left wing was plugged in properly, but the right wing had the aileron and flap positions reversed for their plugs. Once I made the change, all flap and aileron movement is now normal. This was a brand new in box kit, so I think the mistake was just done at the factory. Fortunately, it was an easy fix.

You’re welcome . I’m glad it was something quick and simple to fix. With the factories and assembly done by people, there is always a chance of something like that occurring. On each aircraft I get with quick connect plugs, I unscrew the board and check all the connections to confirm they are correct and that all Servo leads are seated properly. It always makes me feel better and I feel it’s part of my duty as a pilot to make sure it’s ready for flight, among the other typical things all of us pilots inspect before flying. It’s worth the little time it takes .

[Evan D]

Thanks. When you mentioned a crack I wondered. What you found is what I would have expected too.

[davegee]

So this was not a new, out of the box one?

It was a new, in the box kit, of the new grey with the VFA-146 decals already on it.

[davegee]

Question on neutral elevator position on the ground with power applied: I sure didn't see this addressed in the manual, or I could have missed it. But, where should the elevator position be (leading edge up or down from neutral) with power applied? From videos like James flying his F-18C Blue Angels plane, the elevator sure has some nose up trim (leading edge of elevator below the seam on the fuselage several mm's, but I have no idea where to put it, other than a guess. I know they have a drawing in the manual to drop the flap 9.5 mm down for a neutral position, but I sure missed anything on the elevator position for neutral, if it was there at all.

Last, although I didn't see it in the manual, but some like PIlot Ryan in his video advocated for a flap/elevator mix on this airplane, of about 5% nose up trim what he uses. Is this pretty universal among out Hornet fliers out there, or do you use any flap/elevator mix on your planes?

Thanks so much!

davegee

[davegee]

On the wing connector electronic boards (can be removed via the screws to inspect), have you confirmed that the correct servo leads are plugged into the proper slots on each wing board?

Pictured below and with the arrow pointing to it is the electronic board that can be found on each wing. Once removing the screws, you can then gently pull out the board to reveal the Servo plugs that are attached to it. Look at each of those Servo slots to confirm they are plugged in properly.

Thanks, T-Cat. You were exactly right! the Left wing was plugged in properly, but the right wing had the aileron and flap positions reversed for their plugs. Once I made the change, all flap and aileron movement is now normal. This was a brand new in box kit, so I think the mistake was just done at the factory. Fortunately, it was an easy fix.

[kallend]

Hi Hugh….Not sure what price point you are looking at, but I’ve had good luck with the MKS HV-69 high torque servo. But, NOTE… there is no reverse option. You’d have to rewire the guts to reverse one. Flying my MiG-29, F-4 and P-38 on this HV-69.

I elected to not do the rewiring and use a Futaba SR-10 reverser on the MiG. So far, so good with lots of flights in a wide range of air temps….stable position over temp.

-GG

Late to the party here - was in the Antarctic and slowly catching up. . . .

$43 seems a bit steep for a servo reverser. If you are Arduino savvy you can make one for under $5. The code is simple and the processor timing is crystal controlled so is very stable.

[Hugh Wiedman]

davegee , if you have the ailerons plugged into channel 2 of the RX and the flaps in channel 6 (or aux1), it should work correctly unless you have the wrong wing type selected in the TX (assume you have both RX & TX being Spektrum).

Personally, I'm using the AR637T RX with remote satellites in both my F18's and like that setup. I'm able to adjust the gyro gains in flight with a knob on the TX and I'm able to monitor flight pack voltage that warns me when I need to land. It also shows me signal quality/continuity with frame losses and any holds so I know if my antennae locations are optimal.

IMO, this bird flies so much better with a gyro at fairly high gains and balanced further aft of the 88 mm recommended to more like 100 to 110mm. Of course there are some pilots who will remain nameless, live in Spain and fly this one like nobody else can and I think he's pushing 115-120mm balance point, but don't that immediately.

[Evan D]

So this was not a new, out of the box one?

[davegee]

Thanks, T Cat. I had not checked those yet. I’ll do that first this morning. If they are correct, I’ll changeout my receiver with one from another plane just to be sure nothing is wrong with it. I did test every channel earlier, but I think it had been involved in a crash some time ago as there was a small crack in the plastic housing that I fixed with a drop of CA.

Appreciate the tip, hopefully that is the fix!

cheers

davegee

[T-CAT]

Help! I just got the new Freewing F-18C today, the grey one painted up with the VFA-146 decals. I have it partly together, but discovered when I hooked up the flaps and ailerons to my Spektrum receiver, some weird things happened:

1) The Left Flap and the Right Aileron move together when the Flap Switch (AUX 1) is moved.

2) The Right Flap and the Left Aileron move together when the Aileron stick is moved on the transmitter.

I traced the leads to the Blue Box, and the leads seem to be plugged in correctly, as they do on my Spektrum Receiver, too.

Has anyone had an issue like this on their F-18s before?

Thanks for any help on this,

Davegee

On the wing connector electronic boards (can be removed via the screws to inspect), have you confirmed that the correct servo leads are plugged into the proper slots on each wing board?

Pictured below and with the arrow pointing to it is the electronic board that can be found on each wing. Once removing the screws, you can then gently pull out the board to reveal the Servo plugs that are attached to it. Look at each of those Servo slots to confirm they are plugged in properly.

[davegee]

Help! I just got the new Freewing F-18C today, the grey one painted up with the VFA-146 decals. I have it partly together, but discovered when I hooked up the flaps and ailerons to my Spektrum receiver, some weird things happened:

1) The Left Flap and the Right Aileron move together when the Flap Switch (AUX 1) is moved.

2) The Right Flap and the Left Aileron move together when the Aileron stick is moved on the transmitter.

I traced the leads to the Blue Box, and the leads seem to be plugged in correctly, as they do on my Spektrum Receiver, too.

Has anyone had an issue like this on their F-18s before?

Thanks for any help on this,

Davegee