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

[Carlbrainiac]

Well I attached a couple more missiles but dont think I'll bother with anything else. Looks cool as is. Any more will mean cutting into the wing and wont fly as clean then. And with just these 4 missiles I doubt it will make any difference at all. Or so little I wont even notice so I might even maiden with it all on. Start as i mean to carry on and all that.

[DCORSAIR]

Well I attached a couple more missiles but dont think I'll bother with anything else. Looks cool as is. Any more will mean cutting into the wing and wont fly as clean then. And with just these 4 missiles I doubt it will make any difference at all. Or so little I wont even notice so I might even maiden with it all on. Start as i mean to carry on and all that.

Looks awesome by the way and a good call not flying in that crosswind on your maiden. You should be fine with your missles as far as CG. I been flying mine all loaded up and my CG is the same, make sure you do check it though and not just take my word for it.

[Carlbrainiac]

Looks awesome by the way and a good call not flying in that crosswind on your maiden. You should be fine with your missles as far as CG. I been flying mine all loaded up and my CG is the same, make sure you do check it though and not just take my word for it.

Thank you. Yours looks good too. Are your drop tanks 3d printed? The ones in the F16 kit I got are massive dark grey blobs. Would look horrendous on this model.

[DCORSAIR]

Thank you. Yours looks good too. Are your drop tanks 3d printed? The ones in the F16 kit I got are massive dark grey blobs. Would look horrendous on this model.

Yeah, the F-16 drop tanks are huge, the F-16 doesn't even fly well with them as well, no way would I use them on the F-18. I just picked up a set of drop tanks from the 80mm FW A-6 Intruder, modified the pylons with the attachment point and got rid of the magnets, so mine are glued together and made just for the F-18, I could use them elsewhere but they might not have the right angle. I custom made these so the pylon and the drop tank slide off together.

[Elbee]

Well I attached a couple more missiles. Looks cool as is.

CB, Roger that. If your pilot needs more than those to get home safely, he'll need a wing-man, too. Best, LB

[JLambCWU]

Turn and BURN session with the Freewing F-18 Hornet

VOLUME UP!

This is a spectacular model with lots of speed and vertical on the stock 9 blade system. The team at Motion and Freewing got it right with this 90mm offering in such an iconic design and paint in the Blue Angels livery.

We like to fly in the gorgeous evening skies here in Utah, and it really shows off the gorgeous twin light burner from The Lightburner, fantastic product, get yours on their FB page. Despite what some say, the twin light setup (as you can see) doesn’t slow the jet down at all!

Big thanks to camera girl for the great job filming!

[JLambCWU]

Sunset Hornet. Custom tail beacons and the twin afterburner from TheLightBurner.

[Aros]

Nice! Love the speed effect of that final shot...

My buddy put some lights underneath and on the tail...Looks sweet!

[Tanguy51]

This is mine with my own décalcomanie and weathering....fear the bones ! 😉

[gooniac33]

Same here, need to get started for sure. But with a busy flying season still going on, and quite a bit of building material etc needed for this project, it is so easy to procrastinate.

I need balsa, ply, fibre glass cloth, thin epoxy, upgraded pushrods/ball links for the tailerons, as well as quite a few 3D-printed parts. A bracket for mounting my ESC for one thing.... The F-18 has a spot for the ESC that is much too narrow for the fat hobbywing I'll be using, so the only solution I see at this time is mounting it on the side (vertical) rather than the usual, horizontal position.

I got the wing servos replaced and will getting rid of the wing quick connection boards and most of the blue box connections. Installed the servos in the tail and noticed that there was next to no glue holding the plate in. That will be properly glued and checked again. It really doesn't look all that bad in there! Just some simple checks before flying like it used to be back in the days of ARC and ARF planes. Lots of work but you get some good results if you pay close attention to details. Those same stock and 8s birds were ripping up the sky this past weekend!! No issues to report with theirs and great flights!! Now I gotta for sure get mine done!!!

[Jetguy]

Mine crasht yesterday, the left flap din't got back up after take off

[ms200a]

Converted my FW F-18 to turbine. Posted pics on EDF to Turbine conversion thread. Fire and Foam, who would have thunk it :-D https://www.hobbysquawk.com/forum/rc...ne-conversions

[Carlbrainiac]

Couple of bits of good news. Couple of bits of not so good news.
1) I passed my BMFA B cert today using my sebart angel 50 👍
2) I did the maiden today. There was no wind so was still a little nervous about slowing her down. She took off fine using half flap. Was very sluggish into the air though. Took ages to build up speed. Seemed really sluggish. Dont know if that's just because it was a very hot day. 33 degrees! But I use that same battery in my Avanti and its ballistic. Appreciate this model is heavier and more draggy especially with ordinance attached but still left me wanting more... Hopefully will be better on a cooler day.
No sign of any strange behaviour through the blue box though so that's all good.
However on my final turn onto the approach clearly the pilot didnt like the look of my approach because he ejected! I lost the canopy. Landed ok ish but wasnt paying as much attention as i should've been because trying to see where the canopy landed so I landed just a little hard and as expected broke the white plastic nose leg support. Luckily I anticipated that so I already have a spare and this time will put the 2.5mm carbon road in the channel in the back.
Couldn't find the canopy so gonna have to order another one of those. We have waist high long grass all the way round our field that's full of brambles. Wasnt pleasant plunging through it so after 40 mins searching I gave up. It all dies down in winter so maybe I'll find it then lol.
Not too disappointed though as I was a little disappointed in my self when I applied the clear coat I made the canopy go a little opaque. So every cloud has a silver lining and all that. I can mask and paint it again nicely.
In terms of trim I needed a little more up trim and a little aileron trim.
C of G at 90mm felt pretty good.
Little bit of damage to one of my wing tip side winders but can repair that.
So yeah hopefully take 2 will be better perhaps on a more suitable day. I was just impatient and wanted to fly her.
Looks amazing in the air though.

[Carlbrainiac]

Has anyone else experienced the canopy coming off in flight? I wasnt exactly going fast or dramatically banked or anything like that. When I get the new one I'm going to add some button magnets I think

[Aros]

Haven't had the canopy come off in flight but I have had issues with the lock lever in multiple models over the past year. Not sure why or what is causing it.

Finally feeling comfortable with my second one. I think the gremlins have evacuated. Got the throws dialed, CG is solid...Flies awesome!

[janmb]

Converted my FW F-18 to turbine. Posted pics on EDF to Turbine conversion thread. Fire and Foam, who would have thunk it :-D https://www.hobbysquawk.com/forum/rc...ne-conversions

Awesome, and frankly not unexpected. Ballsy too - not because of the "OMG why doesn't it burn up" thing, but because of the quite dodgy track record of this particular model.

[fredmdbud]

Awesome, and frankly not unexpected. Ballsy too - not because of the "OMG why doesn't it burn up" thing, but because of the quite dodgy track record of this particular model.

I'm not surprised - turbines have been installed in LX twin-70mm Super Hornet airframes - if that EPS could hold up, then so should this EPO model.

[janmb]

I got the wing servos replaced and will getting rid of the wing quick connection boards and most of the blue box connections. Installed the servos in the tail and noticed that there was next to no glue holding the plate in. That will be properly glued and checked again. It really doesn't look all that bad in there! Just some simple checks before flying like it used to be back in the days of ARC and ARF planes. Lots of work but you get some good results if you pay close attention to details. Those same stock and 8s birds were ripping up the sky this past weekend!! No issues to report with theirs and great flights!! Now I gotta for sure get mine done!!!

I have the opposite problem - plates are glued in plenty, but they have compressed the foam enough for it to become permanently springy. Will cut out the damaged foam and replace by a wooden piece. Will distribute forces better too. The plastic is so thin and flexible that it doesn't really distribute load much at all, so an improvement anyway.

[janmb]

I'm not surprised - turbines have been installed in LX twin-70mm Super Hornet airframes - if that EPS could hold up, then so should this EPO model.

You missed my point entirely (again).

As I'm sure you are aware, I have converted several foamies myself. I was pointing to the fact that this particular model is having so many issues.

I'm having more than enough trust issues with this model to consider converting it as a less than tempting prospect. Hence why I thought it is ballsy on his part.

[fredmdbud]

You missed my point entirely (again).

As I'm sure you are aware, I have converted several foamies myself. I was pointing to the fact that this particular model is having so many issues.

I'm having more than enough trust issues with this model to consider converting it as a less than tempting prospect. Hence why I thought it is ballsy on his part.

I don't really care. Whatever. As for the plane being dodgy, seems people who have taken heed of shared experiences are having better luck (bypassing blue box, testing servos, technical bulletins, etc. I know I have.

And as shown in the videos, at least one pilot mounted the turbine at the exhausts, not further in the fuselage, minimizing heat risk.

Also, the videos show the LX Super Hornets - if you want an example of a stock plane being dodgy, this is one. THAT is hella ballsy.