Freewing Stinger Questions

[Hoomi]

the music makes me want to listen to Jethro Tull, je je.

The Stinger is my favorite jet, can do so many things, tracks so well, super stable at slow speeds. It can be flown from a 1800 to a 2700, easy to balance, mine is a belly lander.

I figured I needed to jazz up the video a little. :D

I do have an Ian Anderson flute album that I enjoy.

[Hoomi]

For the latest video, I figured I needed something season-appropriate.

[Nike_Belli]

Well discussed😀

[Hoomi]

Different camera mounting, and my landings are getting much better.

[MrVoyagerx]

Rough area to land the edf.

[Hoomi]

It's what we have.

[SilentPilot]

Hi,


I'm a bit late to the party, the OP doesn’t look like he’s still here, but I thought I’d share my experience with this little jet.

Originally I got the 3S version and landing gear from Hobbyking. Never really had success with it though. I do have the use of a full size runway and it needed a LOT of it to get airborne. No real problem... My issue was landing. Just about every time I knocked the mains off from their mounting. The nose leg was getting a bashing too. I put it down to the extra weight and more fwd CG the gear caused.

I swapped it to hand launch / belly land but couldn’t get it launching properly and the nose is now crooked :(
The plane got shelved.

Fast forward a few years, some more experience with EDFs and I found myself wanting a smaller model that could fit in the car without getting in the way.
I got a 4S version from MotionRC.
Not wanting to fold this one up too soon I dug out the old 3S version to use as a beater first.

I took the original 3S to my local slope, figuring throwing off a hill had the best chance of missing the floor!
Miss it did. Just. Very scratchy launch...

Once up I experimented with the flaps. Turns out it can fly extremely slow and stable with about 5mm of reflex.
I think I’ve found my new launch flight mode 😃

As for what to do next, I’m thinking of swapping the 4S Fan into the 3S fuselage to keep the new one for best!


Tony

[Hoomi]

I'm flying on 3S power, with the landing gear and the extra weight of a gyro and the keychain camera, and she lifts off the runway and touches back down fine. She does eat up a lot of the runway before having enough speed to rotate, so I make sure to walk her almost all the way to the end of the runway, to give me as much distance for the take-off roll as possible. It took me a number of flights before I got the hang of landing safely repeatedly, and I did knock the main gear off a few times, as well as bending the nose gear back a few times. I logged flights 35 and 36 on her today, and hope to log a couple of more tomorrow.

[SilentPilot]

Nice!

I've brought mine to work to give it a look over with a view to swapping the fan unit.
Not sure i can be bothered though...

My 4S has an AR636 fitted that I had laying around. I wasn't going to use the AS3X but in the end I added a couple of modes. Rate and Heading Hold.
I've still got an Off mode!

My 3S doesn't have a gyro and coped surprisingly well at my local slope, which is notorious for being a horrible place at times!

[Hoomi]

Just curious - what altitude are you flying at? I've wondered, when some have encountered difficulties getting enough lift, whether they were at a higher altitude with a lower density air. Our flying field is about 2000 feet/610 meters altitude, though we do have the issue of frequent hot, dry air (Sonoran Desert of Tucson, Arizona).

[SilentPilot]

It varies for me. Not by much I suppose though!

Home is about 900'
The slopes where I fly are a little higher. I just checked, Baildon is only 925'

My flat site is a full size runway in York.
Pretty much at sea level. Ideal location I guess 😀

[Hoomi]

Sounds like some nice places to fly. We get to dodge cactus around my area (almost everything in the Sonoran Desert has thorns). On the plus side, we have decent flying weather all year. We just have to make sure we go out early to fly during the summer, so we can finish up before it gets too hot.

[SilentPilot]

Do you fly gliders?

Sounds like you should get some cracking thermals!

[Hoomi]

I have the Flyzone Calypso, though I need to do a repair to the motor. We do get some nice thermals, and the first time I caught one (totally by accident), it was a cool experience. "Hey! Wait a minute. I'm not descending! The motor's off, and she's actually climbing!"

[SilentPilot]

Had my 3S flying again today
Gear fitted.

It had a loooooooooong ground roll before rotating.
The takeoff seemed strange. Initial acceleration is good, very good, up to about 20mph but then any further increase in speed takes ages.

At first I was just doing long run ups and aborts. Not able to get it airborne.

Eventually on about the third or fourth run (so far from and fresh pack) I let it carry on and it eventually rotated.

Once up it was quite clear it needed a lot of up elevator trim. Subsequent flights I reflexed the ailerons slightly and that brings the nose up.

Flight showed it to be severely underpowered.
It was ok last week at the slope but now, with the added gear, it was lacking.

I dug out another battery. Still 3S but this was in better condition. Thrust was noticeably better! Then
I moved the ESC back into the fuselage and this seemed to improve things even more!

Takeoff roll is still long, now comparable to my F16 though.


Cant wait to try the 4S version now!!!

[Hoomi]

New motor and prop on the Calypso (original motor lost the 'c' clip on the back, so swapped on a new motor for now, until I fix the old one), so I may get to put her up tomorrow. I'm at 38 flights on the Stinger, and if things go well tomorrow morning, I should hit 40.

[SilentPilot]

How easy is it to remove the ESC?

I'm wanting to transplant my 4S setup into my 3S beater to try it out before flying the pukka 4S version.

The motor and fan come out easily enough but how about the ESC?

Is it a case of pulling the wires back through the channel then splitting the three of them?
That sounds easy enough but what about feeding the wires back to the motor once swapped?


Tony

[Hoomi]

I think the ESC should be fairly easy to remove, but that might depend on how it's mounted in yours. When I put mine together, I installed an Admiral gyro, and moved the ESC to the top of the cavity right behind the canopy.

Flight 40 successfully flown this morning.

[SilentPilot]

I am thinking of opening the top and gluing it to the canopy.

If I get another then I'll likely have the cover that you glue on all as part of a removable top cover.

Are you able to post a pic with your cut lines?
I'll experiment on the 3S beater but I still don't want to cut too deep.

Measure twice
Cut once

[Hoomi]

As I recall, I did not cut anything when I put it together. I'm still running on 3S power, tucking an Admiral 1600 mAh battery into it. I have the receiver attached to the underside of the canopy, the gyro attached to the "floor" behind the battery area, and the ESC on the "ceiling" behind the canopy opening.