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

[Aros]

Yep mine too, thanks for the tip Alpha!

[flyAA]

Wow the fact alpha and his team flew 12 random models after a few reports of issues is just awesome. Imagine the time and money they spent to make sure they were delivering a solid product.

Nice work guys!

[Hardway]

:Cool:Amen to that! Great team!

[Cutter262]

I maidened the B.A. version today. I’m flying with a Specktrum DX8, Admiral RX600SP and a HRB 6s 5000 mah. All control surfaces, CG, rates and without bypassing the BB were set up per manual and a range check was performed. The maiden was successful. A few clicks of up elevator and left aileron and she was hands off flying. The maiden was flown 1/2 to and 3/4’s throttle. Plenty of speed! After trimming and a few cicuits I deployed gear then low rate flaps as per manual. I did notice a slight nose down attitude and when I deployed high rate flaps the sink rate was more prominent. Flaps set per manual. I may add a flap/elev mix but will wait as I get used to flying the F-18. Landing was spot on! Second flight was way less nerve racking and enjoyable. Set up for landing after 3:00 mins of 1/2 to 3/4 throttle flying in the pattern and had another successful landing. Battery was at 32%. I did notice on both flights it takes a few seconds after roll out to get on step and she tracks well on take off. Hope this info is helpful.

[fredmdbud]

Something is definitely up with the Blue Box as far as my experiences have gone.

I transferred my EDF unit and ESC from my crashed grey F/A-18C to the ARF Plus Blue Angels I also purchased, and I hooked the ailerons, elevators and rudders to a servo tester to cycle them for a few minutes. After a while, the ailerons started twitching, then locked into static positions, which were not symmetrical (equal & opposite deflections). Cycling through the servo tester's modes, the rudders and elevators worked as they should, but the ailerons didn't move. As a test, I put the servo tester in "zero" mode and pushed and pulled on the aileron control rods to see if there was any resistive torque. Though there was some slight resistance, I was still able to move the ailerons with my fingers. Disconnecting the battery, the ailerons moved with much less resistance (as an unpowered servo would).

I took a wing off, removed the ribbon cable adapter and connected the servo tester - the aileron servo now worked like it should!

My confidence in this part is pretty close to nil at this point.

1:48AM Update: Testing both ailerons individually and directly connected to the servo tester, found that the starboard (right) wing aileron servo is bad - connecting them with a Y causes both to not function properly. And wouldn't you know it, that particular servo (with 10" lead) is out of stock ...

[Papadave418]

Did you mean this by "magic"? But the picture doesn't show the "super-duper" magic box inside ...

You made my day LOL

[Aros]

I maidened the B.A. version today. I’m flying with a Specktrum DX8, Admiral RX600SP and a HRB 6s 5000 mah. All control surfaces, CG, rates and without bypassing the BB were set up per manual and a range check was performed. The maiden was successful. A few clicks of up elevator and left aileron and she was hands off flying. The maiden was flown 1/2 to and 3/4’s throttle. Plenty of speed! After trimming and a few cicuits I deployed gear then low rate flaps as per manual. I did notice a slight nose down attitude and when I deployed high rate flaps the sink rate was more prominent. Flaps set per manual. I may add a flap/elev mix but will wait as I get used to flying the F-18. Landing was spot on! Second flight was way less nerve racking and enjoyable. Set up for landing after 3:00 mins of 1/2 to 3/4 throttle flying in the pattern and had another successful landing. Battery was at 32%. I did notice on both flights it takes a few seconds after roll out to get on step and she tracks well on take off. Hope this info is helpful.

That's awesome! My feeling is that this is the norm for most of the models. Congrats on the successful maiden!

[RuthR720]

Outstanding job on the Hornet MotionRC and Freewing! I flew it today in less than ideal wind conditions and it performed great! For the maiden flight I used low rates which were more than enough. I reduced the travel on my ailerons and elevators on my next flights. I liked the CG with the battery in the location as shown in the video. I still need to stall test it to fine tune the CG.

https://youtu.be/pGZLk2n-drQ

https://youtu.be/9txcOlB6Uq8

https://youtu.be/OD9ZSUEw4Ks

[Walo]

Hello guys. Offering my experience here with the F-18:

I bought the grey version. Painted it up in Jolly Rogers scheme (made sure to tape anything sensitive - servos, etc.).

After getting it together, one of the elevator servos wouldn't work (it's the reverse one). Fortunately, I had a spare, so swapped it out and the spare worked fine (strike 1).

Both of the red and green lights stopped working before I got the build done. The green light quit early and the red light quit toward the end of the build. I tried everything (different plugs, swapping, etc.) and nothing worked. (strike 2)

The maiden flight went great. But on about the 3rd flight, I almost lost control setting up to land. It started rolling almost uncontrollably. I got it down (after almost having a heart attack) and discovered one of the flap servos had retracted. They both went down on command (I observed them on my gear pass) and it flew good for most of the landing pattern, but when I was on the downwind leg is when it started going crazy. It happened again a couple of flights later, so I quickly retracted and landed without flaps (strike 3).

I reduced my full flap setting, and it hasn't happened since. Not sure if it didn't like the degree of flap I had set it, but it seems okay now (fingers crossed).

Regarding power, it's okay for me. It's about like the 9-blade F-4. It takes a little while to get up to max speed after take-off and turning away from the runway, but after that, it's pretty quick. Climbs pretty good. Had to turn up the aileron to get more snap, but not unexpected.

The thing looks fantastic on the ground and in the air. Flying characteristics are pretty good and it sounds great.

So, only issues are the faulty elevator servo, strange flap retraction and the 2 lights that quit. That's a lot to have go wrong with a brand new plane (just saying).

I have almost all of the Freewing jets, and I've only had quality problems with one other plane (a bad servo). I really think there's something going on here. It's just so unusual to have this much go wrong with a Freewing jet right out of the box. Never seen that before.

Just passing this along.

Thanks!

Hi AZFlyer

I had this exactly happening to my F15 when coming into land after deploying full flaps on final. First I thought that I lost all my flying skill as the plane was rolling from left to right with me constantly trying to correct with aileron input. I did another flight that way, packed up Things and went home. Later that day I simulated the landing pattern settings at home. While full flaps were deployed I was sitting next to the planes left side and could see that the left flap was slowly coming up, Maybe about 10 to 15 mm. I like large flap settings for landing, giving me the steepest Approach possible on our 200' grass field. Following this experience I also reduced the full flaps a Little bit and this seems to have cured the Problem. My F15 flies like a Dream now.

Regards
Walo

[Wolfgang Wagner]

Outstanding job on the Hornet MotionRC and Freewing! I flew it today in less than ideal wind conditions and it performed great! For the maiden flight I used low rates which were more than enough. I reduced the travel on my ailerons and elevators on my next flights. I liked the CG with the battery in the location as shown in the video. I still need to stall test it to fine tune the CG.

https://youtu.be/pGZLk2n-drQ

https://youtu.be/9txcOlB6Uq8

https://youtu.be/OD9ZSUEw4Ks

Hi, nice flight and btw, what a huge flying field. Great! Mine is a tiny one, compared to yours.

https://www.mfca.de/

[MikeT]

We called in the flight team over the weekend to assemble and fly a dozen randomly selected F-18s. Spektrum DX9+Admiral 10ch rx, Futaba 8J+R2008 rx, FrSky X10+X8R rx. Eleven of the twelve models were flown 19-20 times, stock 6s PNP system, Admiral 6s 5000mAh. Aggressive flying. Consecutive rolls, full power dives and loops, everything we could think of. 213 flights over two days, no issues for eleven of the twelve models. Receiver function, MFCB function, servo function, structural integrity function. No problems.

However, one of the twelve models, on its 14th flight, during a full power corkscrew spinning dive straight down from ~600ft to ~100ft, had its port side plastic elevator mount lift up slightly during pulling up from the dive. Not enough to come loose, but enough to roll the aircraft over during the full up elevator pull-up to recover from the intended spinning dive. The model rolled over twice as its nose pointed upward (recovering from the dive), the pilot reduced all power, then glided back to the road for a short-field landing. After taxi back, the elevator linkage was still attached and the elevator still moved, but the mount was sloppy and had to be reglued down before its next flight.

I would not describe that flight pattern as normal --it's irresponsible. Nevertheless, we took that data point and spent this evening opening 203 F-18s at the factory trying to replicate the failure. We calculated the approximate force on that area during a pullout, then tried to pry up the elevator mount. Of the 406 elevators tested, only 2 of them were able to be pried up with between ~7lbs-8.5lbs of hand applied pressure against the elevator rod (~116oz and 133oz). This prying force applied during testing on the F-18 elevator rod is higher than the force tested on the F-14's and F-22's elevator rods, so again I would consider that above normal use.

So, data summary for this weekend's testing is: 12 newly assembled planes flown, 227 flights without any issues, 1 flight with 1 partially lifted elevator mount, 203 planes checked manually at factory, 1 elevator mount able to be manually pulled up with similar force. This is in addition to the hundreds of flights conducted during prototyping/production/destructive testing phases, which are conducted before the first shipment departs Asia.

Preliminary Result: No pattern established for physical failure points. One logged failure in 2,348 minutes of logged factory test flights. Flight testing continuing to try to replicate customer-reported crashes.

Action for existing customers: As an additional precaution, that statistically is frankly overkill based on the data so far, you might want to check your elevator mounts by gently trying to pry them up. There's a large plastic foot so I don't expect them to tear completely up. If you detect any lifting, take a photo or video and send it to the CS Team. If you can pull the mount up halfway like this with a three finger grip on the elevator rod exerting anything less than 7lbs of force, call the CS Team immediately and feel free to post here. It's a large plastic foot so a complete tear-out would likely crack the plastic. Reglue as needed.

Above and beyond in my book.


Mike

[DCORSAIR]

Checked my Elevator mounts this morning before I went up for another flight, didn't find anything loose on mine, did notice there is a a little slop in the rod and plastic bearing but nothing to serious, also noticed after looking over the manual, 9g servos for those big flaps??. Got the decals and gloss coat on it, does look nice, anyway the flight went great, no issues, went back to the stock flap settings is all I did, didn't get no sudden rolls or dives to mother Earth...:)

[Dannythiessen2@gmail.com]

Checked my Elevator mounts this morning before I went up for another flight, didn't find anything loose on mine, did notice there is a a little slop in the rod and plastic bearing but nothing to serious, also noticed after looking over the manual, 9g servos for those big flaps??. Got the decals and gloss coat on it, does look nice, anyway the flight went great, no issues, went back to the stock flap settings is all I did, didn't get no sudden rolls or dives to mother Earth...:)

What did you use for your gloss coat?

[Carlbrainiac]

From an extra 2 weeks on ETA. To an extra 4 weeks! Has the container ship sunk or run aground somewhere?

Not a happy bunny ☹

[Evan D]

I’ve mentioned it before but for me with the links in the holes as shown in the manual had more travel than needed. So I put the pushrods one hole in on the flaps and elevators to get better mechanical advantage. I also mentioned the dash in the canopy melted on mine. Not a big deal and I reported it so they can track issues (told them I was not wanting a replacement). They shipped me a replacement...

[Wolfgang Wagner]

Hey guys, I have a question to all electronic experts. Is it possible to test the servos with a servo tester through the MCBE, or better to connect each servo directly to the tester. So I need not to unplug all the servos from the BB. Thx

[thisguy65]

I’ve mentioned it before but for me with the links in the holes as shown in the manual had more travel than needed. So I put the pushrods one hole in on the flaps and elevators to get better mechanical advantage. I also mentioned the dash in the canopy melted on mine. Not a big deal and I reported it so they can track issues (told them I was not wanting a replacement). They shipped me a replacement...

This is exactly what I'll be doing when I get my bird back together.

Evan, don't know if I told you and I know it's worth nothing now but the control rod lengths are correct on the Chinese side of the manual.

[Hardway]

You made my day LOL

Just awesome, but now Everyone Knows! :Not-Talking::P:PLOL

[DCORSAIR]

What did you use for your gloss coat?

I use Minwax water based Polycrylic Clear Gloss, I brushed it on with those cheap foam brushes like I always do but this blue shows more brush marks than usual, it was a little warm in my shop, I think that had something to do with it, I have done 14 other jets with no issues, looks fine from a couple of feet away. Also I found out that it comes in a spray can, going to try to spray it on next time.
:Cool:

[Jetman64]

Once again, Derek at MRC has reminded me why I shop at MRC. Thanks To Derek and his CS team for taking care of my F-18 Grey PNP issues. I was hoping to maiden my F-18 this past weekend, but that’ll have to wait. Instead, I took my MRC F-15, F-35 & L-39 our for some stick time and they never disappoint. Thanks again MRC, you guys ROCK!!!

P.S. still waiting for those F-102/105 & A-7ll Jets in 80/90mm.