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

[crxmanpat]

I would add that you should skip checking out the elevator servos and just replace with the F-22. And be sure to test ALL servos before assembly to ensure they all work as it seems there may have been a bad run of the hybrids (lots of reports of dead servos, or dying quickly).

[fredmdbud]

Haven't had any problems with my Blue Angels elevator servos. Always a good idea to test and cycle the servos, but replacing them out-of-hand is overkill.

[thisguy65]

Freewing is going to be putting all metal servos in the elevators moving forward, from what motion told me. Sooo there is something to be said there.

[fredmdbud]

Freewing is going to be putting all metal servos in the elevators moving forward, from what motion told me. Sooo there is something to be said there.

If that is the case, he should put in a ticket for replacement servos.

[Aros]

That's a lot of money to spend on an eflite model. Plus give it a year and they'll discontinue it and you won't be able to get spares.

LOL, so true.

[RichJ53]

To funny right there , I didn't know that about Eflite, never owned any, if that's the case then I will pass for sure, do love the gear though.

Foam quality is nothing like FW. I purchased the Turbo Timber and the wing panels didn't even match up in the root cord. The foam has pits all over and you can see through the white areas very easily. I really like the FW model quality and I would rather wait for the next new jet from Motion RC... maybe a new jet offering a turbine conversion kit for my X45!!!

Rich

[Carlbrainiac]

Freewing is going to be putting all metal servos in the elevators moving forward, from what motion told me. Sooo there is something to be said there.

Yup that's what I was told too. Which speaks volumes to me.

[rcSpanky]

Take the slop out of the pivoting rod for the full flying stab by undoing the 4 retaining screws and lay in a strip of paper in the bearing retainer top and bottom.

Take care when you position the wires for the rudder servos when you bolt on the vertical stabilizers.

Test your elevator servos. If they are juddery through their motion or even just towards the end of their motion. Bin them. The hybrid metal gear servos are not up to the job of that full flying stab in my opinion. Get the full metal gear versions as used in the 90mm F22 on it's full flying stab.

Check the security of your canopy. I lost mine on maiden. Piece of ply on the back of the canopy does not have a pre drilled hole for the pin and in fact doesnt line up with the pin. And the pin of the latch itself is also rather short. I added magnets either side of the latch and on the canopy itself.

Ignore manuals c of g recommendation of 88mm. Instead go to 90mm. This is easy done. Fingers on the back corners of the plastic forward wing mounting plate.

Add an additional and longer velcro strap for the battery. Also do away with the rubber battery gripped in favour of velcro on the tray and the battery. These are big heavy batteries and you never want them shifting position in any model. But especially not in a jet.

Think that's everything..

Awesome!, Thanks! I have seen that some people dont connect everything to the blue box, should I avoid that? Is there easier access to that device? It seems like an impossible effort to work inside there.

[Carlbrainiac]

Awesome!, Thanks! I have seen that some people dont connect everything to the blue box, should I avoid that? Is there easier access to that device? It seems like an impossible effort to work inside there.

My blue box has been just fine and saves you needing something stupid like a 14 channel reciever. I think where people have had trouble with the blue box is when they haven't been running the stock UBEC and may have been having voltage issues. The blue box does do weird things when it doesnt have the correct 5 volts through it. Any more or less than that and it doesnt like it. As I discovered when testing out my servos with a servo tester using an old 4.8v nimh reciever pack. Did some real funky stuff lol. Once powered by the flight pack through the ubec no worries at all.

[gooniac33]

Team Horizon recently announced an 80mm F/A-18D two-seater version of the Hornet. More scale main landing gear, but list price is $469 - $10 less than FW's PNP, for a smaller EDF and no lights.

I am really happy to see this! I will get one simply because I wanted to get a gray one as well! I love the FMS 80mm 12 blade fans and this is an FMS plane with Eflites name on it. FMS had said that there were a lot of EDF jets coming and I am sure that this is one of those and Eflite is just putting their name and AS3X into it. It looks awesome to me and I have no issue with the lack of lights! I will just add the most important one! the Firey BOOTY!! LOL

Also I got my Blue Angel in the air yesterday! got 4 awesome flights with my older F-15 Hopped up Set up. Hard to believe that I got this thing going back in 2016!! Leopard 4082 1600kv inrunner with the older Freewing 12 blade rotor and Gooniac Balanced of course! It did amazing in this plane and I am super happy with it! All of the hard work paid off and I am glad that I went through all of the issues that were being had with the bird! Will share video later...

[gooniac33]

Freewing is going to be putting all metal servos in the elevators moving forward, from what motion told me. Sooo there is something to be said there.

My 90mm F-15 was purchased back in 2016 and is still using all of the original servos... They used to have good stuff!! Nice to see that they will be going back to that....

[Carlbrainiac]

Awesome!, Thanks! I have seen that some people dont connect everything to the blue box, should I avoid that? Is there easier access to that device? It seems like an impossible effort to work inside there.

Oh also just undo the 4 screws that hold the battery tray in and the whole thing comes out blue box and all if your struggling with access

[gooniac33]

I got 4 flights in crazy windy conditions. My field is 44 miles away so if its windy when I get there I am not gonna turn around and go home.... gotta fly!! Glad I did too because it went wonderful! Aside from trim not working on my left aileron for the maiden (I did get it fixed and working later) the plane flew great! Ailerons are super touchy!! I cut my throw down to 45% but I am also using towerpro MG90S servos which may have more travel than stock. I really cut down the elevator throw as well since I have different 17.5g JX servos there. I ripped off the elevator mounting plates and then put super thick CA there and they are not moving at all... Very happy with how it flew and by the 4th flight the wind had calmed and I was able to fly a little more aggressively. I am using a 3 year old set up that was in my F-15 back in the days but it moves this thing around really nicely! I am working on another MONSTER 6s set up that should be done by this week once all of the parts show. This set up should be capable of 4-8 min flying times depending on how you use the throttle.... more of that later when it shows... here are my flights and if you don't like hat cams just don't watch ok? thanks...

Also if you want to know how I set it up here are the specs...

Freewing 90mm inrunner housing
Freewing 90mm 12 blade rotor (older individual blade style)
Gooniac Balanced to perfection
Leopard 4082 1600kv inrunner
Red Brick 200amp ESC
ZTW 10amp UBEC
LemonRX 7ch receiver
Towerpro MG90S Metal Gear Digital Servos (Flaps/Ailerons)
JX 17.5g Servos for Elevators
Gooniac's RC EDF Creations LED Afterburner

[e4dragongunner]

Love your vids and data Gooniac! Thanks for sharing! :-)

[ticketec]

Hoping we can shoe horn that eflite gear into the FW F-18!

Take note FW... thats what hornet gear should look like!!!

[thisguy65]

Does anyone have pictures of their Admiral 5000 battery location? My first one went in due to elevator but with people mentioning they had their Admiral battery 3/4 of a inch from the front bulkhead has got me, well concern.

[JamesonC]

Hoping we can shoe horn that eflite gear into the FW F-18!

Take note FW... thats what hornet gear should look like!!!

Yet they skimped out on main gear doors??

[Aros]

Does anyone have pictures of their Admiral 5000 battery location? My first one went in due to elevator but with people mentioning they had their Admiral battery 3/4 of a inch from the front bulkhead has got me, well concern.

Here you go. Other than the Carbon 5100 mAh, most my 6S batteries are at this same location.

[Carlbrainiac]

Does anyone have pictures of their Admiral 5000 battery location? My first one went in due to elevator but with people mentioning they had their Admiral battery 3/4 of a inch from the front bulkhead has got me, well concern.

The 5000 admiral is a very light weight pack. I found it needs to be right at the forward edge of the battery tray. But dont trust me 100% as I also run ordinance. Just set the CG with your fingers on the back corner of the plastic forward wing mounting plate.

My Admiral 6000 pack I run with it pushed up and almost touching the blue box

[thisguy65]

Odd to me that guys are running them so close to the bulk head.



Here

https://youtu.be/2ILHUJDGg5k?t=13

Example