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

[Aros]

Niiiiiiice!

[Elbee]

Alpha10,, Beautiful Hornet, Sir. Nicely done. Best, LB

[ALonelyCorsair]

Hello! I have a Corsair and am looking into one of these hornets. I want the customization option though, do you think there's anyway to get a Base Gray variant? Unless the decals come seperately

[nuts-n-volts]

The Blue Diamonds version is as close as you can get either PNP or ARF. The decals are already applied but are easy enough to paint over if your going to redo it anyway.

[Elbee]

ALonelyCorsair,

Welcome to Hobby Squawk, Sir. Glad to have you onboard.

Best, LB

[davegee]

Question on a small momentary "pop" sound when I do a static runup to full power. I took my new F-18C (with the old motor, ESC, wiring,etc) onboard out to the field to do a full power static runup, run taxi tests, range tests, etc. The wind was too strong a crosswind to hazard taking it up, so I got a lot done on the ground. It is very solid and seems to be ready for a new maiden (even though I got almost 30 flights on it before I "pancaked" it on a botched landing attempt about 6 months ago. That prompted me to just buy a F-18C ARF+and put the undamaged "guts" inside.

Everything was totally normal, except that I could hear a small, momentary "pop" sound when I ran the motor up each time to full power. It almost sounded like a little pop of air, and doesn't seem to come from anywhere back near the motor. Seems to come near the front of the fuselage, although I may be mistaken.

Holding the model by the vertical tail, it has gobs of power and I think the motor is very strong and healthy. But I still get that very momentary "pop" sound and then it goes away.

I'm wondering if anyone has ever had a similar occurrence with an EDF jet. I haven't. I'm still tempted to take it up for a quick flight around the patch later this week, for starters.

Appreciate any comments as to what this might be. Battery is solid and everything seems to be normal, otherwise. I've already pulled the motor cover and it looks to be normal.

Cheers

Davegee

I think I discovered the source of that"pop" sound each time I run up the motor to full power in static test. I ordered some JP brakes for this plane and my Freewing T-33 as they have a propensity to roll out all the way and past the end of the runway into the nasty weeds and rocks. I installed the new JP wheels on the Hornet, and was fishing the electrical line from each brake through the main gear wheel well and through the tunnel to connect up with the brake controller and receiver. One went fine, and then I noticed something "weird" when I was stringing the electrical wire through to the forward part of the fuselage. It turns out that there is a plastic sheet or panel that is glued in the main gear wheel well that helps divert the airflow from the intakes on the fuselage, and these plastic panels apparently keep maybe unstable air from getting sucked in from the bottom of the wheel wells and into the motor intake.

I contacted MRC tech support on this, and the fact that for whatever reason, that plastic panel was never installed on that side. No evidence it had ever been there with a glue line or anything like that. Since this isn't a normal replacement part, they're going to have to search for a trashed airplane fuselage where they can harvest that part, hopefully.

In case they can't find one to send me, I made my own out of a sheet of styrene plastic .010" thick. I got it pretty close and once it is fully dry, I'll do a full power static runup to test it. If they send me the "real" part that I need, I can always pull this one out and put the OEM part in, or just have it for a spare.

Note: I did do a full power static runup late today, and for the first time, I did NOT hear that little momentary "pop" when I ran it up to full power. I'm assuming that the designers at Freewing made these parts for a reason, but when I decided to put my bird up for a couple of flights last week, I did hear that pop, not knowing what caused it. I think when one of those panels is missing, it causes some strange airflow patterns for a second or so rapidly going to full power, and thus the "pop" sound. That's all I can think caused it. I didn't find anything unusual flying the plane on those two test flights, even with that inner panel totally missing from the airplane. But I'm guessing it flies better if both of those panels are securely attached into the main gear wheel well areas to help divert the air from the two intakes on the sides of the fuselage directly into the motor.

Davegee

[Hugh Wiedman]

I think I discovered the source of that"pop" sound each time I run up the motor to full power in static test. I ordered some JP brakes for this plane and my Freewing T-33 as they have a propensity to roll out all the way and past the end of the runway into the nasty weeds and rocks. I installed the new JP wheels on the Hornet, and was fishing the electrical line from each brake through the main gear wheel well and through the tunnel to connect up with the brake controller and receiver. One went fine, and then I noticed something "weird" when I was stringing the electrical wire through to the forward part of the fuselage. It turns out that there is a plastic sheet or panel that is glued in the main gear wheel well that helps divert the airflow from the intakes on the fuselage, and these plastic panels apparently keep maybe unstable air from getting sucked in from the bottom of the wheel wells and into the motor intake.

I contacted MRC tech support on this, and the fact that for whatever reason, that plastic panel was never installed on that side. No evidence it had ever been there with a glue line or anything like that. Since this isn't a normal replacement part, they're going to have to search for a trashed airplane fuselage where they can harvest that part, hopefully.

In case they can't find one to send me, I made my own out of a sheet of styrene plastic .010" thick. I got it pretty close and once it is fully dry, I'll do a full power static runup to test it. If they send me the "real" part that I need, I can always pull this one out and put the OEM part in, or just have it for a spare.

Note: I did do a full power static runup late today, and for the first time, I did NOT hear that little momentary "pop" when I ran it up to full power. I'm assuming that the designers at Freewing made these parts for a reason, but when I decided to put my bird up for a couple of flights last week, I did hear that pop, not knowing what caused it. I think when one of those panels is missing, it causes some strange airflow patterns for a second or so rapidly going to full power, and thus the "pop" sound. That's all I can think caused it. I didn't find anything unusual flying the plane on those two test flights, even with that inner panel totally missing from the airplane. But I'm guessing it flies better if both of those panels are securely attached into the main gear wheel well areas to help divert the air from the two intakes on the sides of the fuselage directly into the motor.

Davegee

Sounds (no pun intended) like you found the source of the "sound gremlin". How weird, I'll check mine out next time I take it out.

[davegee]

I never had heard that sound before in any EDF jet I’ve owned. I did fly it twice before I found the cause. The motor output power was normal so I just let it rip to see what happened. Now that I’ve fitted at least a temporary plastic shield in there, everything seems to be back to normal. Very weird…

[Evan D]

Awesome you figured it out Dave.

Maybe the fan adapter on the motor shaft is loose?

Also there may be a clear plastic piece where the ESC wires go forward that is moving?

[davegee]

Awesome you figured it out Dave.

Appreciate your excellent advice, as always, Evan! I did check the tightness of the bolt holding on the fan blade. It was not loose, but didn't hurt to tighten in up a bit more. And although there wasn't a piece of plastic loose, which it certainly could have been, that piece totally missing seems to be the culprit and will be corrected on the next flight. I've done a few full power static runups with my replacement piece that I fashioned out o f.010" styrene. So far, so good. We'll see how it fares on the next test flight early next week!

Cheers

Dave

[davegee]

After getting my 29th flight (3 on this new airframe with the innards the same on all flights so far) I am now looking out the window at the white stuff coming down. But I'm taking advantage of the down time to work on my AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles that I am learning to 3D print with my Prusa mini. These are from the files of Dirty D in 1/10 scale. So, although maybe slightly larger than scale (1/10 versus 1/11 of the model), that difference is really indistinguishable when they are mounted on the wingtips.

I still have scale nomenclature and markings to put on the missiles that I'll have Callie print up, and then they should basically be finished. I plan on doing some test flights with these missiles mounted next week when the weather gets better.

A Big Shoutout to LB for his continued support of getting me up and running on this new medium of model building!

Davegee

[Elbee]

After getting my 29th flight, I am now looking out the window at the white stuff coming down...I'm taking advantage of the down time to work on my AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles that I am learning to 3D print with my Prusa mini. These are from the files of Dirty D in 1/10 scale...

DG, Absolutely fabulous work. Sir. Best, LB

[davegee]

I had an Excellent teacher!

Davegee

[davegee]

I just finished up another mod for the F/A-18C Hornet. This is a movable tail hook via a small servo in the tail. 3D printed parts courtesy of Elbee that I printed up from his STL files and put it together. I had to order a small Du Bro connector pin that came today, so once I had it in hand, the finishing up went relatively quickly. There's always a bit of fiddling to do on these things like servo travel, checking security of the mechanism, and all that. But it is well worth doing, for me. I have put a movable tail hook in my F-14D, A-4E, and a Grumman F6F Hellcat years ago. This one is not stressed to actually "catch" the airplane, but I'll probably do some photos of it in the air with the hook down, just for yuks.

Cheers

Davegee

[Aros]

What a cool mod! Nice work davegee! You and Elbee never fail to impress.

[davegee]

Credit goes to Elbee. This is his design and it works very well! Thanks for the kind words, Aros. I’m a newbie trying to learn 3D printing.

cheers

davegee

[Elbee]

davegee. Parts look great : Check. Functioning unit: Check. Nicely done, Sir. Best, LB

[davegee]

You ‘da Man, Elbee!!👍👍👍