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

[thisguy65]

This is my current setup. The other 3 walls don't really have room to mount racks. The reason why most of the planes are up high is we use the shop for family reunions (better to mess up the shop than the house).

[Phantom]

Here's my chaosone more rack to build and I'll have the storage needed to get the rest of the birds unboxed and built.

[Aros]

I think the black is scale. See attached pic. I guess you could put the clear one on first, then the black one over it. Maybe they did that as the yellow does not stand out as clearly as the bigger decals, and you need both to make it pop.

Well I'll be damned. I never even thought of that!

[janmb]

If the elevator wire is gouged and shorts, it’s going to lock up the plane. Could it be coincidence plane was going up and gear just happen to be toggled? I’m not defending the BB just saying I think we are paying to much attention to it. I’m still undecided on if I’m going to bypass this one like I did my first or leave BB configured as it should.

Perfectly possible. Who knows.

One thing I am very aware of though, is that the retracts draw a lot of extra current when fighting spring-loaded doors. It is fantastic for simplicity, but murder on the retract units. So this too could very well explain why this model might have more current related issues than most others.

[Drifty]

Lost my F-18 yesterday, the dreaded uncommanded roll into the ground from strait and level flt. I did the checks on the elevator sys. so I doubt it was either of those problems. Haven`t recovered it yet, went into a corn field next to our flying field.
It was only the 11th flt. so I`m kind of bummed out. I suppose I could have had a servo failure, I will probably never know. Don`t know if I should get a hold of Martin or just eat it.

[Carlbrainiac]

So I finally received my base grey pnp yesterday and putting it together today. Whilst carrying out the checks on the elevator all seem fine. Except I have noticed that while the servo wires are fine. They are different colours. One is black/red/white and one is brown/red/orange. This would suggest to me that these are not a matched pair of servos which on a full flying stab that needs to move perfectly together this seems a little off. Thoughts? I have put in a ticket with Motion to see what they say too.

also what did people do about the slop on the rod again?

[thisguy65]

Perfectly possible. Who knows.

One thing I am very aware of though, is that the retracts draw a lot of extra current when fighting spring-loaded doors. It is fantastic for simplicity, but murder on the retract units. So this too could very well explain why this model might have more current related issues than most others.

Yes sir, I added a capacitor as a cautionary measure

[Carlbrainiac]

Also just found when putting the servos back in that one of the servo screws thread is stripped in the mounting plate. No I didnt do it. I am taking my time and being extra vigilant on this build and I noticed it was just spinning. Took the screw out again and all the blue plastic thread was at the top of the screw.

Nothing a bit of glue wont fix but just pointing this out as this could also be contributing to the issues that some people have had

[Evan D]

Gosh, the color on the servo wires show one is normal rotation, the BRO and the other reverse, the BRW. You seem very critical about things without asking here or doing a simple search.

Slop on what rod?

So I finally received my base grey pnp yesterday and putting it together today. Whilst carrying out the checks on the elevator all seem fine. Except I have noticed that while the servo wires are fine. They are different colours. One is black/red/white and one is brown/red/orange. This would suggest to me that these are not a matched pair of servos which on a full flying stab that needs to move perfectly together this seems a little off. Thoughts? I have put in a ticket with Motion to see what they say too.

also what did people do about the slop on the rod again?

[Evan D]

Good to note and happens quite a lot.

Many times, mostly on other brands of planes, you'll also get too short of screws or too small a diameter. I've had some where on one side of the plane the screws were correct and the other they were all stripped. My Mig-17 had incorrect screws on some of the servo hold down plates. I replaced them and moved on. All part of the build as far as I'm concerned but I know many think a PNP mean they don't even have to adjust a pushrod.

Also just found when putting the servos back in that one of the servo screws thread is stripped in the mounting plate. No I didnt do it. I am taking my time and being extra vigilant on this build and I noticed it was just spinning. Took the screw out again and all the blue plastic thread was at the top of the screw.

Nothing a bit of glue wont fix but just pointing this out as this could also be contributing to the issues that some people have had

[crxmanpat]

So I finally received my base grey pnp yesterday and putting it together today. Whilst carrying out the checks on the elevator all seem fine. Except I have noticed that while the servo wires are fine. They are different colours. One is black/red/white and one is brown/red/orange. This would suggest to me that these are not a matched pair of servos which on a full flying stab that needs to move perfectly together this seems a little off. Thoughts? I have put in a ticket with Motion to see what they say too.

also what did people do about the slop on the rod again?

As Evan stated, the brown/red/orange lead means the servo is standard rotation, and the black/red/white means it is a reverse rotation (flaps and dual elevators need one servo to be reverse). This is a very good system for determining which rotation a servo is when it is out of the plane (this only applies for Freewing servos, can't say about other brands). Be assured that they are matched servos, just different rotations.

I personally have not experienced any slop in the control rods. I think the real issue is that the elevator servos should be full metal gear versus hybrids. The hybrids only have 32 oz/in torque, whereas the full metal have 35 oz/in. I fully believe this is what caused my crash when it would not pull out of a full power 45° dive.

[thisguy65]

The slop you feel is probably the bearing to housing . Fix is to wrap (1 time) around with masking tape or use a dap of glue. I prefer the tape method

[janmb]

Gosh, the color on the servo wires show one is normal rotation, the BRO and the other reverse, the BRW. You seem very critical about things without asking here or doing a simple search.

No call for that Evan. Having concerns over two servos that are obviously not identical is indeed a valid one. And yes, the answer is because one is a reverse servo and the other not, but his point is still valid. Regular vs reverse servos more often than not are difficult to match properly in both terms of travel, center and derived from that; geometry.

[Carlbrainiac]

Oh ok fair enough. Not had reversed servos before. To me being old school white, red black was futaba and brown, red, yellow was JR. Hmm maybe I've been in this hobby too long lol.

[Elbee]

Okay Guys and Gals, I am still looking for a livery, so I thought I'd post some more considerations. Best, LB

[fredmdbud]

Oh ok fair enough. Not had reversed servos before. To me being old school white, red black was futaba and brown, red, yellow was JR. Hmm maybe I've been in this hobby too long lol.

The colors don’t necessarily indicate reversed or not, just a convenience for some manufacturers and/or suppliers, e.g. keeping their parts straight in inventory, assembly, etc.

[Evan D]

For motion it indicates reverse.

[scootergenie]

Not always. I just replaced an elevator servo in my f35 v3. The wires were rbw, so i ordered a reverse servo. When I installed it, the elevators were acting like ailerons. Come to find out, the one I replaced was a normal servo with red/black/white wires on it.

[fredmdbud]

True that about replacement parts. I ordered a normal/reverse pair, both had Y/R/B JR cables.

[Carlbrainiac]

Now to spend hours scrolling back through to find the elevator position setting as remember people making comments about the 7mm the instructions mention and where exactly to measure that 7mm from. Really need to sticky certain parts of this thread so they're easy to find. I've been on here since day one and page one so I know it is here just dont know where lol. Need to find where people were mentioning their preferred c of g as opposed to the manuals massively nose heavy position