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

[Hugh Wiedman]

Here are my finest F-18 flights to date (according to me) in order to celebrate!
:

You'll get no argument from me (only instead of your finest, you should say ANYONE's finest).

[Airguardian]

Tomorrow we'll have the new Freewing jet announcement... who's hyped? :DDD

Here are my finest F-18 flights to date (according to me) in order to celebrate!

[PILOTJOE]

For the spektrum users out there what percentages are you using for proper throws(rates) for this jet? thanks

[GliderGuy]

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

[Hugh Wiedman]

Quick video from last week when I got about 4 flights in on my F-18 "Tiger Meet", along with a few others. Still having an issue with the flaps. It first started on my other F-18 Canadian after about 25 flights. Reducing the delay did not help. Ultimately, replaced both servos with metal gear servos (not the hybrids) and removed the ribbon cables and connected flaps & ailerons directly to the RX. This seemed to solve the problem on that one, so when I built out this F-18 and did the Tiger scheme, I did the same thing. First 20 flights, no issue with the flaps (thought I was "home free"). Last week, I just couldn't get one flap to deploy while in the air (on the ground, no issue, even while holding the flap to see if the servo had enough guts). Sure flies squirrely with only one flap fully deployed!!! :face_with_symbols_o Eventually reduced the delay to 1/2 second and it worked in the air after that, at least for now. So it's not the circuit board but must be something with the servo, either some aerodynamic issue causing a lot of stress on it (although only deploy at low speed) or most likely just cheap servos. If this keeps up, I'll have to swap out the servos to something else, like maybe a HiTech. Hate to spend money on flap servos when you'd think the thing to spend money on is the aileron/elevator servos, but that's where I'm at. Maybe these cheaper servos just get confused with any kind of a delay (had same issue on both B-24's and the Avanti and reducing delay to 0 solved it, but don't like using 0 on the F-18). Any advice on a decent servo to use that would fit easily and not cost an arm and a leg?

[Airguardian]

Some more Hornet action! ^^

[Evan D]

Congrats!

[Slice1969]

Got the maiden done and a second flight on my F18 today. The 3D printed control horns for the stabilator worked perfectly.

I am just getting back into the hobby after many years away. It was my first maiden flight since the early 1990's. It was a bit nerve wracking, but the airplane flew well. My first landing was great. The second wasn't quite as nice, but I got back on the ground with no damage.

I flew the book rates on Low for the rudder and aileron. The roll rate was not as high as I expected, so I am going to use high on the ailerons the next time out. I used the high rates for the elevator.

I set the CG at just behind the forward wing attachment screw.. right in the middle of the plastic part. I needed about 10 clicks of down elevator trim and a few to the left.

I babied the airplane on the first flight, and landed at around the 3:30 mark with 60% left on a HRB 6000mah battery.

I have a Hobby Eagle gyro, but had it turned off for the initial takeoff. After a couple of minutes, I turned it on with a gain of about 30 and flew it their the rest of the time with no issues.

I think I am going to really love this plane when I get more time with it. It's my 2nd EDF and my first is the Freewing Avanti.

[Cape Jets]

Seems to be alot of questions concerning the BB ( Blue Box) on the Freewing Jets. Most seem to revolve around the F-18. Not willing to take any chances on when and if it fails I went straight to the receiver for all control surfaces. Attached is the wiring I did for the main wings (Ailerons & Flaps ) The Elevator and Rudder I just used Y-Connectors.

[Khairil]

Talk about going to the "Dark Side". A Blue Angel transformed into a Black Devil! I Like It! :japanese_ogre:

It was called 'Project Scar Scream'. Ghost Squadron, Rise from Death 🤣🤣🤣

[Hugh Wiedman]

Hi everyone. I've just complete restoring the F/A 18 Blue Angels. The jet was not mine but i pick it up (trash) after the pilot crashed it and broke into pieces. Took it home and start to restore everything. Decided to apply the fibre glass and repainted it. I am now converting it to turbine. You may also check out the video on youtube https://youtu.be/L-c35Rzu4Vs

Talk about going to the "Dark Side". A Blue Angel transformed into a Black Devil! I Like It! :japanese_ogre:

[Khairil]

Hi everyone. I've just complete restoring the F/A 18 Blue Angels. The jet was not mine but i pick it up (trash) after the pilot crashed it and broke into pieces. Took it home and start to restore everything. Decided to apply the fibre glass and repainted it. I am now converting it to turbine. You may also check out the video on youtube https://youtu.be/L-c35Rzu4Vs

[Evan D]

This? Not sure the shaft size is the same.

Freewing 90mm EDF F-4 Phantom II Elevator Plastic Part [FJ31211089] Motion RC

Good to know, thanks. I wish you could buy them individually.

[Slice1969]

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...

Good to know, thanks. I wish you could buy them individually.

[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.