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

[Quax]

Hehe, I was making a point :P

Of course elevator should be involved, but for speed, not altitude. (inverting throttle and elevator on landings is such a boon for your landing consistency once it clicks and you get it)

Sorry for answering this late but this totally opposite on how real planes are flown (at least jets): Elevator for profile, thrust for speed... The trajectory is usually trimmed, not airspeed. So, I am a bit confused now.

Edit:
Just read all the other statements. So basically, RC jets tend to be flown like small General Aviation aircraft with pitch for speed, power for trajectory. Nevertheless, this is not like bigger jets are flown where it is opposite (thrust for speed, pitch for trajectory).

[F22trainer]

I didn't learn that in Instructor pilot school, nor during my years as an instructor pilot, nor as an instrument examiner. However I have to say that this post has made more sense to me than your previous posts. My personal opinion, in regards to flying RC, where you are on the outside looking at the bird, void of the advantage of basic instruments. Pitching for an airspeed and adjusting throttle to control your desired rate of descent works pretty well. Just my 2 cents worth, but do what works for you and enjoy this great hobby we all share. :)

In this regard I must agree and we both know how different flying inside the airplane is, compared to outside the airplane, and for that very reason - it is a visual reaction to an observation. And for that same reason it has made me a better RC pilot, but I had to change my thinking and my reactions, because of lack of instruments.

I’ll just close by sharing that I used that very statement during my CFI checkride, and the examiner (Director of the FSDO) got a smile on his face. He then proceeded to allow me to back myself into a corner as he interjected the theories of the 4 forces of flight, unusual attitudes, and human behavior. It was about an hour later when I felt like a I had just completely relearned everything I thought I knew and it was through his questions and an accurate understanding of what actually happens - that it all made sense.
He then joked, said “next time you hear that proper aircraft control is to pitch for airspeed and power for altitude, you will have the ability to prove it is not always true. but human reaction lends itself to the idea that it is easier for most people to understand in simple terms. He then told our Chief Pilot after the checkride was over “...if you don’t hire him - I will”

I do not know which I enjoy more - teaching as a full-size aircraft instructor or flying as an RC pilot, add to that experience as a model maker for wind tunnel experiments at NASA and yeah - I can get kind of obnoxious about discussions which involve differences between theory and applied

Keep em’ flying, Phantom.:Cool:

[Hopetofly1]

Maiden Flight Report(Good News)

Went to the field this morning with the Stock BA Hornet. No by passes no nothing. Put in takeoff flaps and went to the skies and it’s back in one piece. Flew amazing landing was slick and smooth. All the people reporting issues got me worried but no need. I checked everything over and well I don’t see anything anybody with issues is seeing. Next step clear coat and more flying. Maiden Video up soon.

[Evan D]

Congrats! We had thee at the field today. Two were maidens plus flights 25- on mine.

[Aros]

Maiden Flight Report(Good News)Went to the field this morning with the Stock BA Hornet. No by passes no nothing. Put in takeoff flaps and went to the skies and it’s back in one piece. Flew amazing landing was slick and smooth. All the people reporting issues got me worried but no need. I checked everything over and well I don’t see anything anybody with issues is seeing. Next step clear coat and more flying. Maiden Video up soon.

Excellent news! Glad it went well. I am happy to report the same for me on my maiden today of #2. No bypasses...Did a full thorough pre-flight/range check, everything was good to go. I spent the flight just getting a feel for her, trimming her out, all that. But she flew wonderfully.

[janmb]

Opinions can easily be misconstrued as facts and the other way around.

If only more people would entertain the possibility of the latter part of that sentence...

It's fairly common in all aspects of life, and certainly within this hobby, that everything is a matter of opinion. Well, it isn't. Facts are facts. Place your hand on a hot stove and you get burnt. Regardless of your opinion that the stove is not all that hot.

The same goes for landing technique. Most people will argue that whatever feels logical at first glance, and whatever they have gotten used to is the best way to do things. It feels the most comfortable. Classic case of "it works for me" syndrome.

Well, the problem is that it doesn't necessarily work as well as you think, and it certainly doesn't *always* work. You can land with eyes shut, and that *will* work some of the time. But clearly most of the time it doesn't. And common, but poor landing habits will work a portion of the time (obviously a lot more than the blind example), and will fail to work in a smaller percentage.

The point of correct landing technique is not that nothing else can more or less work. It's a matter of what makes you the most consistent over time. As in, not what makes you survive ten landings in a row, but what makes you survive a thousand, and land at your feet every single time instead of 100 yards down range like we see in most videos.

[Aros]

Here's the maiden video. Nothing fancy...I tend to fly like a grandma on my maidens, lol...After a couple flights is when I start really putting them through their paces. Changed my mind at the last second (never a good idea) as I didn't want to come in and land on the high approach over the trees so I switched to the low approach but with a tail wind so the landing wasn't my best, but hey, she's in one piece!

[DCORSAIR]

Here's the maiden video. Nothing fancy...I tend to fly like a grandma on my maidens, lol...After a couple flights is when I start really putting them through their paces. Changed my mind at the last second (never a good idea) as I didn't want to come in and land on the high approach over the trees so I switched to the low approach but with a tail wind so the landing wasn't my best, but hey, she's in one piece!

Looks like you got it done this time, glad your maiden went good, landing looked good to me but I'm sure the landing experts might tell you what you did wrong.............:)

[HellHathNoFury]

Looks like you got it done this time, glad your maiden went good, landing looked good to me but I'm sure the landing experts might tell you what you did wrong.............:)

Hey.. Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing..:)

[mavincooper]

Alright just wanted to share. I have finished mine and ready for maiden. I put all the goodies in that I used on my Turbine F18 set it up just like the real one. Thank you Callie Graphics

[Evan D]

Mavin, that is awesome!

[mavincooper]

Evan D Thank you

[Evan D]

So I did a search for crashes here and this is what I found. First let me say that not everyone flying posts here and not everyone that posts here posts about their crashes. An example is one of the three at my field today crashed. The battery moved forward and created a very nose heavy condition and it went in.

James from motion rc crashed his, "experts" on here say the cause of the crash was it was tail heavy. Aros said it may have been radio interference.

Lcacing- crash second flight no reason given

Pat- "second flight of the day (5th flight overall). She would not pull out of the dive and went in hard. Totally destroyed. I did not loose radio signal, I was still able to bank the plane. But I believe the elevator servos had met their match for torque. I had even turned up the throw on elevator and moved my CG back about 5mm prior to flying today as I felt the book rates for elevator were too low, and the CG was nose heavy. She was still a little nose heavy as inverted flight required a small amount of down to stay level."

TPS- "First flight and plane flew very well for about 1.5 minutes and then went into uncontrollable spiral to the ground. Noticed that one of the stab servos was completely stripped. I do not use the BB except for the lighting. After seeing what other folks have to say, I'll go to better quality servos for the stab. I ordered a new fuselage, nose cone, nose landing gear and stab servos. Mine is powered by a 90mm Jetfan, 2250 HET motor and a 160A Castle Creations ESC. Plane took off with just slight elevator input and needed only 2 clicks of right aileron trim to fly hands off. My Jeti transmitter data log confirmed the stab problem. None of the control rods fell off and every one of them were tight. The tail was not damaged and the stab servos did not take a direct hit. The other stab servo was binding and when I tried to rotate it - it stripped."


What I get out of this is that there have been a few crashes out of the thousands of these sold and that elevator servos could have been the cause but that it is not for sure that they were. Reading TPS's and Pat's description there is still room for doubt. I have seen more people complaining about blue boxes than servos. It's like the person at my field that had some radio hits and swears he had some external RF interference but then we see he's using a park range receiver right behind a 5000mAh battery.

[mavincooper]

I am flying with a jeti DS-24 and keep my RX away from my battery along with my antennas. and to get the mixes I wanted I bypassed the BB

[Aros]

Thanks DCORSAIR! Agreed on the landing quote HHNF! Greasers are always preferred but I am always happy when they come down in the same shape they took off. :Cool:

mavincooper, love the livery! Looks sweet!

[RCjetdude]

I know of one individual whos F-18 crashed on the maiden flight. Not a member of HS to my knowledge. Failed to pull out of a high speed dive. He claimed an elevator servo was stripped after the crash. I asked him to check the servo on a tester and he said it is working fine now. I have had flap and gear door servos go limp while under power making them appear to be stripped. Removed power and powered them back up and they work fine. It is as if they are overheating and shutting down.

[janmb]

Alright just wanted to share. I have finished mine and ready for maiden. I put all the goodies in that I used on my Turbine F18 set it up just like the real one. Thank you Callie Graphics

OMG I'm looking forward to my own! Got the decals and paints waiting :D

Awesome job Mavin, gl on maiden!

Any tips on the paint job? Most seems straight forward, but not looking forward to doing the black fades under the big lead and verticals

[mjet21]

So three posts and three direct personal attacks aimed solely at me. Are you someone who was banned that created another user?

Your last post disproved your "facts" especially the one that weak servos have caused all these crashes you keep talking about.

As I asked, what are you going to do to YOUR F-18 to reduce the chances of a weak servo crashing your $1500 foam jet? Or is the point of your THREE posts that FreeWing, "the Mother Ship" is poor quality and we shouldn't buy their products?

What's your real reason for posting all this?

You are accusing me of making 3 personal attacks against you. Can you be more specific on that?
Or for that matter can any of my fellow members out there point out to me WHERE HAVE I MADE PERSONAL ATTACKS against this man or anyone?
I have been accused by the moderators of being disruptive by antagonizing tenured community members and affecting the "mood" of the thread, so please help me out so I can IMMEDIATELY CORRECT SUCH BEHAVIOR!!!

The only thing I have done was criticize components in FW jets in a few occasions and you Evan jumped in to defend them. Nothing wrong with either of that. I have never been disrespectful, I have never been inappropriate, and never used derogatory terms. Since every time I made a comment on the quality of the FW electronics you jumped in to defend them, I called you a "Fanboy". Nothing wrong with that either!

Fanboy definition: "An extreme fan or follower of a particular medium or concept, whether it be sports, television, hobbies, etc etc..." Again nothing wrong with that!!! If this was 'too harsh' of a term for you to describe your devotion for these jets, please find me another term.

On the other hand Evan, you posted this Today, 09:10 AM
Quote:
...Either way it's a free country and forum for him to post his views. I do agree he crosses the line. At this point I assume he's just a troll with an axe to grind...

I CONSIDER THAT AS A DIRECT PERSONAL ATTACK AGAINST ME Evan! Calling me names??? I have never done that to you or anyone else for that matter Evan!!! THAT'S NOT HOW I WAS BROUGHT UP AND THAT'S NOT HOW I ROLL MY FRIEND!

You ask me, "QUOTE" What's your real reason for posting all this?

My REAL reason for this, my ONLY reason for this, my PRIMARY REASON for this is to point out that there may be some shortcomings in the stock components, servos, linkages, BB, hinges ETC. in a high performance high cost jet.
THIS WAY OTHERS MAY PLACE CLOSE ATTENTION TO THIS AND MAY CHANGE COMPONENTS SO THEY CAN GET YEARS OF ENJOYMENT OUT OF THEIR JETS!!! This is my respectful opinion in this FREE world we live in.

Another question from Evan:
"Quote
... Today, 06:26 AM

..."As I asked, what are you going to do to YOUR F-18 to reduce the chances of a weak servo crashing your $1500 foam jet?..."

I already answered that question Evan! I am going to replace the servos, strengthen the linkages, bypass the BB, upgrade the power system to a JF as YOU DO ON MOST OF YOUR JETS as per your posts and many others do as well!
I learn a lot from reading the posts on these forums here Evan including you and many others!!

SO KEEP ENJOYING THE HOBBY EVAN and please learn to differentiate between "OTHER PEOPLE'S OBSERVATIONS" and "A DIRECT AND PERSONAL ATTACK AGAINST YOU"

[RCjetdude]

I got in two flights on mine at TIA over the weekend. Happy to report the new mixes for FS flaps and tailerons worked very well. Roll is very axial with the settings and throws used on the ailerons in conjunction with the tailerons. Very smooth transition from normal flight to landing flaps it requires a lot of up elevator compensation with the flaps and a little extra throttle but settles in beautifully. My CG is about 90mm.

[thisguy65]

For those running the roaring top 6250, what C rating are you running?

These are 50-70 grams heavier than Admirail, would you see a big CG (set mine by the book) change. I know this applies bases on what plane the battery is going in but as a general statement, cg shouldn't change that much. Correct?