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

[Pete Lane]

I asked Alpha directly back in the A-10 days and customer support said do not use a 2 cell lipo.
And yes, they said 5.5 volts is the ideal setting.

[thisguy65]

Finally finished today!

[EA-6B Geek]

That looks cool Dustin! Was able to get started on mine this afternoon. Got the landing gear and inner gear doors painted, then couldn't resist throwing a few decals on. Lots still to do.
Im enjoying reading all of the flight and performance reports! Keep it coming guys.

[thisguy65]

That looks cool Dustin! Was able to get started on mine this afternoon. Got the landing gear and inner gear doors painted, then couldn't resist throwing a few decals on. Lots still to do.
Im enjoying reading all of the flight and performance reports! Keep it coming guys.

Awesome! Thank you for the kind words.
i assume you just painted the inner door gray and left the mechanism blue?

[EA-6B Geek]

Painted the inner doors white, along with the landing gear. I left that blue piece of mechanism alone. Looks like something I could break taking it off and trying to put back on. The doors and the gear came off without much difficulty.

[thisguy65]

Beautiful!.

I really like the the landing gear...may have to do that now...sigh, another project haha.

[fredmdbud]

I would suggest adding some reinforcement to the white plastic nosegear strut bar, such as a strip/rod of carbon fiber.

I took my plane out for a maiden, used Spektrum DSMX. Noticed some aileron twitching/glitches, but they seemed to go away the further it got from the transmitter on the ground. It flew with no incident in the air.

[Aros]

Looking good guys! Keep the reports and photos and videos coming!

[fredmdbud]

[DCORSAIR]

Wow Fred, looks like yours was a handful to land, any idea on what might have been the problem, looks like you never got it to settle into a nice AOA like most F-18 do, I hope no bad damage.:Whew:

[dlink72]

6% is very little with standard full flaps, same as a heavy lean on the stick. I also have full span flaps though I haven't landed with them. They do nee more elevator compensation as you noted.

Does your cork screw a fast roll?

I also love my F-16 V2 with a XRP 13b fan/ 2200 motor. I have had all the 90mm FW jets and the F-4 on a JF 8S is still my favorite, it's so darn stable and even floaty. The F-22 with TVs would be good if it didn't have this odd flop to upright when slow... With the TVs slow and close 3D flight is awesome but a flop doing a slow flip at ground level would be a disaster...




I ageee about the elevator. I set up 3 rates. 45mm, 35, and 25.. I started in medium and went to high. I didn’t see the need to mix elevator with flaps in normal, but I think it needs some with full span flaps.

[/QUOTE]

A heavy lean on the stick is exactly how I would describe landing with full span flaps. It was manageable, but I am probably going to reduce the full flap travel by another couple of millimeters and make sure I carry thrust during landing.

I did notice the corkscrewing during a roll with tailerons. I was talking with rcjetdude earlier about it and we were wondering if there’s any incidence during deflection that is influencing that. I do have the tailerons and full span flaps on a seperate flight mode switch so it’s really not an issue while flying. So far I’m just having fun playing around with it.

[fredmdbud]

I noticed that when I pulled back for a loop, the plane had a tendency to roll left, so will have to check how they match with full deflection.

The treeline makes it more difficult to make out the plane as it descends towards the runway. I have better luck coming from the other direction, but prevailing wind was not cooperating.

If you mean most real F/A-18's, they use high AoA and a steep descent slope to land on a postage stamp in the middle of the ocean, and they usually do the same on land to keep the carrier-qual skills fresh. I have the luxury of something a little longer, and as durable as this model's landing gear are, I don't think they were mean to cope with repeated hard (slam) landings - and that's not considering the effects on the foam either!

Still getting the hang of this plane, but should be a nice flyer when all the kinks are worked out, and some more flap-down touch-and-goes.

[DCORSAIR]

Oh ok, so your just getting more used to it and dialing it in, I seen it was your maiden but was trying to capture your approach and couldn't really see it very well and how it was behaving for you. Well it looks great and no I didn't expect you to do a carrier landing.LOLWasn't talking about the real ones, most turbine flights and such, even the old FW F-18 liked full flaps and a nose high approach, just curious of what you thought is all.:Cool:

[Geebros]

Got mine all ready to go!!!

[DCORSAIR]

Got mine all ready to go!!!

Wow, looks nice, can't wait for Wed.,that's when mine will be here. :Cool:

[Rcfiddy1]

Have my hornet 99 percent don’t with throws set and most of paint on. I did have to connect edf to esc, also I had to figure out the control rods to use since they didn’t match up to manual. Overall this is a very nice plane. I do wish the canopy opening was further back to get to blue box easier.

[fredmdbud]

The wood battery plate is screwed in - you can remove the screws and pull the plate forward.

Have my hornet 99 percent don’t with throws set and most of paint on. I did have to connect edf to esc, also I had to figure out the control rods to use since they didn’t match up to manual. Overall this is a very nice plane. I do wish the canopy opening was further back to get to blue box easier.

[apmech1]

Alpha,


could their possibly be a Typo regard the control rod lengths? And to what control rod goes where?

example, book calls out 80mm rod however the longest is 75mm. 55, 70, 75mm. Are my control rod lengths. (Measured with machinist ruler)

Then the book is saying 80mm for the elevator, there’s no way a 3”+ control is going to fit in there.

The chineese version has the correct lengths called out. That was kicking my ass for the longest time.

[RichJ53]

Here’s a brief video of my unboxing.

https://youtu.be/q7cSyIneN2E

nice job
looks like you are going to have fun!!
Rich

[crxmanpat]

FedEx says as of last night mine was about 100 miles away, but still showing a Wednesday delivery. I would think it would make it to town today and be delivered tomorrow. Still can't fly until Saturday though.