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

[Evan D]

I did see your post but I figured them out myself when I assembled it.

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.

[xviper]

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

Yes, pull the plug out of the RX and plug it into the tester.

[Dannythiessen2@gmail.com]

James from motion rc crashed his Jet. cause of crash tail Heavy so sad
my unboxing video

https://youtu.be/E6UW-32JkVw

[gooniac33]

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...:)

This is a great practice and especially with a new plane. I even do the thorough check after transport to the field. But in all honesty the glue joints being loose from the factory should be expected... we should not just put the plane together and fly it then blame the company when it crashes due to a loose glue joint. We should be doing these pre-flight checks on our own. They should be CATCHES and not misses. Yes the factory could do a better job with it but we should be able to point it out when the plane is still full intact.

Now on that same note I do think that QC could be a little better. Its hard to keep up with it all but still... Motion should have known the usual areas that are missed and really important to the people that fly planes bought from them. Its great that they did it after the fact but delaying the release by being proactive would have been a much better move. No this isn't a gripe but just some feedback that I hope you guys take into account...

[janmb]

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 ☹

Web page still says late June. Sure it isn't simply a typo?

[clearprop88]

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.

You didn't test with any Spectrum DSMX receivers. Those are the problem receivers.
I would like to see the test repeated with 8 and 9 channel DSMX receivers.
If they are in fact a problem we can see the test results.

[DCORSAIR]

This is a great practice and especially with a new plane. I even do the thorough check after transport to the field. But in all honesty the glue joints being loose from the factory should be expected... we should not just put the plane together and fly it then blame the company when it crashes due to a loose glue joint. We should be doing these pre-flight checks on our own. They should be CATCHES and not misses. Yes the factory could do a better job with it but we should be able to point it out when the plane is still full intact.

Now on that same note I do think that QC could be a little better. Its hard to keep up with it all but still... Motion should known the usual areas that are missed and really important to the people that fly planes bought from them. Its great that they did it after the fact but delaying the release by being proactive would have been a much better move. No this isn't a gripe but just some feedback that I hope you guys take into account...

Thank you but I disagree, when I pay this much for one of these and it crashes due to a faulty glue joint I have every right to blame the company, wether or not I do an inspection and I don't just put them together and go fly, I do a tug on this and that, check all screws, but when it's the BB and I proved that in my case, this is two bad BB for me, I don't want no part of them, wish they would go back to the old way, leads and Y harnesses, yeah some were faulty but at least you could find the issue easier..LOL

[gooniac33]

Thank you but I disagree, when I pay this much for one of these and it crashes due to a faulty glue joint I have every right to blame the company, wether or not I do an inspection and I don't just put them together and go fly, I do a tug on this and that, check all screws, but when it's the BB and I proved that in my case, this is two bad BB for me, I don't want no part of them, wish they would go back to the old way, leads and Y harnesses, yeah some were faulty but at least you could find the issue easier..LOL

Don't get me wrong.... I didn't say that they were blameless... but I did say that we should assume some of it... We can agree to disagree though since its my opinion and not the rule of law... just how I feel about it.

[fredmdbud]

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

if you are testing the servo only, then direct connection removes the BB from the equation. just unscrew/remove the ribbon adapter at the wing, no need to touch the BB and harnesses inside the plane.

[Carlbrainiac]

Web page still says late June. Sure it isn't simply a typo?

Not a typo. I attached the pic of my email from Motion RC stating late July is the latest. Guess they haven't update the website because they want the orders to keep rolling in

[Woodcock]

This is a great practice and especially with a new plane. I even do the thorough check after transport to the field. But in all honesty the glue joints being loose from the factory should be expected... we should not just put the plane together and fly it then blame the company when it crashes due to a loose glue joint. We should be doing these pre-flight checks on our own. They should be CATCHES and not misses. Yes the factory could do a better job with it but we should be able to point it out when the plane is still full intact.

Now on that same note I do think that QC could be a little better. Its hard to keep up with it all but still... Motion should have known the usual areas that are missed and really important to the people that fly planes bought from them. Its great that they did it after the fact but delaying the release by being proactive would have been a much better move. No this isn't a gripe but just some feedback that I hope you guys take into account...

Ya know mate,

I pretty much agree with ya here. I made a significant attempt to up my game about 6 months ago. Haven't lost a plane to a malfunction since. I like you check everything, again and again. I have never expected the planes as I received them to be perfect, as non are no matter who makes them. I don't idolize MRC, FW, or Fl, like many do here. They are a good company that's trying to make a living, just like everyone else. Don't ever expect anything special from them, as with any other good airplane company. They are one of many I deal with, all good companies, I'm not partial to any to be honest. I'll leave it at that.

I'm probably going to pick up a grey ARF plus this week. Truthfully I've been on the fence between this one and the FMS. I like the FMS because it's a Super F-18, with a tandem cockpit. This one is an old school, but it's a little bigger, (I'm wondering just how hard it would to have added a Super F-18 conversion to the MRC plane, with a tandem cockpit). I'm going to go with bigger this time, so MRC will get the order this time.

I will be removing some things, adding others, firming it up so to speak. One thing I'd like to add, after I get it flying is one of your A/B kits. I've watched a lot of your vids mate, I'm a fan of sorts. So I'll probably try one of those out.

I purchased a Freewing F-16 as a birthday present for my best friend about a year ago. He was excited to get it, put it together. Power output was all over the place. First time he tried to take it off it barely lifted of at the end of the runway, flew really fast. My old Byron's was way more forgiving and it was nitro. Second time it took off in 40 feet, LOL. Last 2 times he couldn't get it up, ran it off the end of the runway twice. So something is up with this power thing, I keep reading about it, over and over.

So Goon, what would you recommend for a nice consistent drive train for this thing. Didn't really want to spend the money for a Schubler .

Best Regards
W

[janmb]

Thank you but I disagree, when I pay this much for one of these and it crashes due to a faulty glue joint I have every right to blame the company,

Well, yes and no.

Should you be able to expect everything being ok in the first place? Of course.

Is it wise, or anywhere near best practice to do so? Hell no.

Any responsible pilot checks the status of your gear - regardless of what you feel about the manufacturer's responsibilities. This is not even mainly a matter of value/loss/or placing blame. It's simply a matter of safety for yourself and everyone around you. And that makes it your responsibility.

[DCORSAIR]

if you are testing the servo only, then direct connection removes the BB from the equation. just unscrew/remove the ribbon adapter at the wing, no need to touch the BB and harnesses inside the plane.

Ok, mine seems to be working fine now, maybe the Gremlins got mad and bailed out when they failed twice to bring mine down, but I am going to go back and do a servo test like you did, I see you found a bad aileron servo was it?

[Elbee]

Aros, Are there going to be an 3DPUP parts for the F/A-18C provided by MotionRC? :Thinking: Best, LB

[Aros]

Aros, Are there going to be an 3DPUP parts for the F/A-18C provided by MotionRC? :Thinking: Best, LB

Hey Elbee, I haven't heard yet...I will ping Alpha and ask unless he is on the forum reading the thread today....

[Woodcock]

Thank you but I disagree, when I pay this much for one of these and it crashes due to a faulty glue joint I have every right to blame the company, wether or not I do an inspection and I don't just put them together and go fly, I do a tug on this and that, check all screws, but when it's the BB and I proved that in my case, this is two bad BB for me, I don't want no part of them, wish they would go back to the old way, leads and Y harnesses, yeah some were faulty but at least you could find the issue easier..LOL

100% Agreed!

W

[Aros]

Web page still says late June. Sure it isn't simply a typo?

The ETA for the US second pre-order has not changed and is still on schedule for end of the month. Europe ETA has changed for the BA PNP and ARF PLUS and those product pages have been updated to reflect that.

[Evan D]

The receiver they used is DSMX. https://www.motionrc.com/collections...ersity-antenna

I also use DSMX an have no problems. What receiver are you using and what BEC voltage is running it?

You didn't test with any Spectrum DSMX receivers. Those are the problem receivers.
I would like to see the test repeated with 8 and 9 channel DSMX receivers.
If they are in fact a problem we can see the test results.

[killickb]

If anyone lives lives close to Peyton, Colorado and just cannot wait, I have one sitting there NIB as it was shipped there and now I may not make it there until September. Of course as it is still in the shipping box, price is what I paid. I will reorder for the next batch. Message me for details.

[Carlbrainiac]

The ETA for the US second pre-order has not changed and is still on schedule for end of the month. Europe ETA has changed for the BA PNP and ARF PLUS and those product pages have been updated to reflect that.

So is it just the blue Angel's one that's delayed then? I have the base grey pnp on order. I placed my order on the 14th May. Base grey pnp is still saying late June on EU website. But the guy who responded to my email earlier told me late July now. Surely he would have checked my order number to see what I have on order before giving me the information?