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

[Aros]

Agree with you completely. Certainly sounds exactly like a gyro issue to me, but can't imagine where it went off. We programmed it over the phone together and set it up, I thought, exactly like both of my F-18's, which have performed flawlessly. My strong suspicion is in the RX orientation, as gains, FM switch and gain adjust where set as mine are. Todd even did the gyro response test, which would show any incorrect surface movement and apparently everything moved in the correct direction. I'm at a loss, programmed 20 of these Plus RX's in the last 6 months, which are fairly straightforward and haven't had anything like this occur. Could Heading Hold have been inadvertently programmed? Hope Todd finds the aircraft and we can see what the issue was.

The only other thing I can think of is when I placed the RX under the battery tray I wasn't really sold on that because I didn't have immediate access and two, there was no real flat area to mount it so I used Gorilla Tape to secure it where I could. It's very possible that with the lack of surface area to secure it that it came loose. That would definitely explain the erratic flight and loss of control. I just watched the video today and it was flat spinning, pitching up, rolling...It was a mess almost from the start.

[Elbee]

Aros,

It is a mystery when you don;t have the airplane to reference.

Don't beat yourself up too much.

I know little or nothing about Spectrum Radios, though I am considering a purchase in the future.

There's not much room to mount stuff in the Hornet, but you've had several, so it's not like you haven't mounted all that before.

Sorry this just didn't go well for you.

Best, LB

[Fruchtzwerg76]

Got it working now. Thanks to Facebook and a YouTube tutorial ;-)

I used a logical switch in combination with my as3x switch. Setting up more Flight Modes.

For me a little bit rocket science but it works.

Out of curiousity, how do you guys use the flaps for landing? Always landing flaps setting? Or takeoff flaps? Or depending on the wind situation?

Last year I almost always used takeoff flaps for my landings, fearing the landing flap setting would be slowing me too fast.

[f4u ausie]

Don't have this plane,, but I'm presuming it has foam under the tray.. I had that with my Pitts loose Rx cause I taped it down...had time to turn gyro off that's a couple years ago.....and get it down to discover loose Rx... So now always I epoxy a small piece of ply to the bottom of the Rx and then epoxy it to the foam in place... That's incase U want to remove it,, and it doesn't warp the plastic case as U pry it up.....So if the foam is not level Under the tray. I have used a hot soldering iron b4 to level it out and then epoxy Rx in place. All that presuming U may buy another..... Absolutely would be great to have the wreck and see I have also shaped a small piece of foam and glued in place( to get a level bed for the gyro)... Whatever it takes. All. That's said loosing a complete plane like that still sucks

[Aros]

Thanks for the condolences gents. And good advice Ausie. I’m still just sick about it. Especially that I can’t locate her.

[Aros]

Brand new H stabs. Just pay shipping. PM me...

[Hugh Wiedman]

Thanks for the condolences gents. And good advice Ausie. I’m still just sick about it. Especially that I can’t locate her.

Oddly enough Todd, I seriously doubt the RX placement had anything to do with it. I've got my RX's mounted under the tray in both F18's and several others including the Mig. It does not have to be "perfectly" flat or "perfectly" straight either, just close to it. I just use double sided RX tape and as long as it dosn't come completely loose, no problem.

At the end of the day, those RX's are fairly simple to set up, only a few basic things to absolutely program. 1) most importantly the RX orientation, which can be confirmed by the gyro test response function which we did. 2) selection of the FM switch, which we picked the flap switch for. 3) gyro gain switch, which we used the right knob so we can instantly dial 0-100% of programmed gains in flight, and 4) the 3 Flight Modes actual gains on each of the 3 flight surfaces. That's basically it. It does a lot of other things you can program in, like nose gear gyro, heading gains, adjusting sensitivity, priorities, setting auxiliary surface gyros like TV units, etc. but we left those at default settings and went with the basics.

You can get quite exotic with setting it up like Jon with 2 Bros, where he uses variable gains based on throttle settings and 2X gains on TV units (which I use on 2 aircraft), but we set up the basics.

Only a couple of errors could have caused it: 1) the RX came completely loose-doubt it, even taping it down would have worked for a while 2) got the wrong RX orientation-doubt it, we did the gyro test, 3) somehow heading hold got programmed in-doubt it, you have to go through another programming step to do it, 4) some other servo failure. A single flap failure would make it unflyable (especially on the super sensitive F18-happened to me) but you changed the flap servos to hitecs. Possibly a failure in one of the elevator servos, linkage or elevator getting loose, witch would doom the flight (happened on an F4 where one elevator got loose on shaft-sending it into a blender). So this is a long and drawn out rambling of mine that basically concludes that I have no fricking guess why this happened. What about signal loss?

Don't give up on the F18 Blue Angel dream. I've got a spare Plus Rx and hitec flap servos that I'm donating to the "Aros Go Fund My F18" cause. We gotta make this happen!

[Evan D]

The thing is you don't know what you don't know and while I put my receivers under the battery trays too, satellite (may be more than one) and antennae placement is critical. I also swap out long extensions, sometimes going to heavier gauge wire and mostly bypass blue boxes. I also don't use many gyros and when I so I use simple HE ones or the preprogrammed ones in EF planes. I have seen as many airplanes crashed or nearly so from improperly installed/ set up/ programmed gyros as planes that fly perfect with them.

That's in addition to maybe moving linkages to get better mechanical advantage for servos, upgrading linkages, checking horns and mounts for security etc. I've even been known to swap fasteners I think are iffy for their application. There's a lot that can go wrong and all it takes is one minor thing. Even with this I have done dumb things, different throws on elevators where I have each on a different channel is a great example of my stupidity.

My F/18C was one of the very first and has been on a JF 8S all along and still flies awesome.

[Elbee]

Oddly enough Todd.....Don't give up on the F18 Blue Angel dream. I've got a spare Plus Rx and hitec flap servos that I'm donating to the "Aros Go Fund My F18" cause. We gotta make this happen!

Aros

Count me in, what may I do to assist?

Best, LB

[f4u ausie]

If nothing else I will do this

[Elbee]

Excellent...and that shall be needed, Sir. LOL

[Aros]

Ah you gents are too kind. With encouragement I suppose never say never, right? After all, 10th is a charm?!?

[Aros]

I really hope FW comes out with a new gen BA F/A-18. No more messing with screws to take the wings off and on, built in PNP gyro like the A-10 V-2, less wing load, maybe a 105mm size?

Somebody apparently wants their cake and eat it too.

[Airguardian]

w00t

[stojakovic]

I upgraded the formation lights。

[Elbee]

I upgraded the formation lights。

stojakovic,

Very Nicely Done, Sir.

Clean installation, good color, and realistic.

Best, LB

[Airguardian]

RIP

[Aros]

Look what my buddy found!

Some club members decided to go do a search party. Found it about 75 feet inside the woods. Intact!! I’ll have to test it later but I just can’t believe it. Never thought I would see it again.

[Elbee]

Look what my buddy found! Some club members decided to go do a search party. Found it about 75 feet inside the woods. Intact!!

That is so very cool in a million ways.
Congrats to the SAR Team and now you can cancel that "Blues Alert" !

Best, LB

[Aros]

I'll deeper dive into it on my lunch break and see what - if anything - is still working. They said it was about 75 feet in the trees from the field, completely lying flat on the ground as if she was gently put there.

A very Blue ANGEL indeed!

[f4u ausie]

Wow so reminiscent of my al37. I so wish it had of been intact.. only it was roughly 4 kilometres away.. great news aros..