Official Freewing 70mm F-35 V3 (2019 Version) Thread

[davegee]

I'm doing some mods on my F-35 after I had to do some repairs after a landing problem when a piece of foam strip on the bottom of the wing came out in flight. Fully repairable, although I did crack all three gear retract housings and am waiting for those to show up.

In the meantime, I printed up a better afterburner exhaust over the foam one that comes with the kit. Will be installing a RC Geek afterburner which is supposed to arrive today. Maybe next week I'll get the replacement retract units and I'll be ready to fly.

The beautifully designed afterburner tail cone was designed by our own Kallend of Hobby squawk. It came out great after I printed it up from Thingiverse. I'll attach a few pics.

Cheers

Davegee

[Icarus the 2nd]

Here's my F-35 in 65th squadron aggressor scheme

I added nav lights and formation lights to improve the visibility and I guess the scheme will help also.

Big thanks to my good friend Radar-Guy/Airborn Jetworkx for all his help with this project!

[Fast N Light]

Upgrade options for a nose gear flex brace and main gear mount are posted on RCG.

[kallend]

Greetings folks,
A member of my club just purchased this plane used and crashed it on his third flight. The plane lacked power certainly not the 100+ mph plane referenced on-line, it had a hard time taking off our paved runway and barely made it around the field on the first two flights.

I have several questions.
How would I know what version this is?
It does have a 2957-2210Kv brushless inrunner motor 12 blade fan and 80A Hobbywing ESC.
When I pulled the motor apart the fan blade had a bunch of nicks, not sure if it was like this before the crash, but could it have contributed to the lack of power?
I'm not sure if I should buy a new fan blade or whole new motor.

Thoughts.
Also where can I find a nose gear brace 3D file, I'm not seeing one on Thingiverse.

Thanks!!

Check your RCG thread

[santanig5]

Greetings folks,
A member of my club just purchased this plane used and crashed it on his third flight. The plane lacked power certainly not the 100+ mph plane referenced on-line, it had a hard time taking off our paved runway and barely made it around the field on the first two flights.

I have several questions.
How would I know what version this is?
It does have a 2957-2210Kv brushless inrunner motor 12 blade fan and 80A Hobbywing ESC.
When I pulled the motor apart the fan blade had a bunch of nicks, not sure if it was like this before the crash, but could it have contributed to the lack of power?
I'm not sure if I should buy a new fan blade or whole new motor.

Thoughts.
Also where can I find a nose gear brace 3D file, I'm not seeing one on Thingiverse.

Thanks!!

[SanExup]

Asking the obvious question but it's happened to me with the F16, did you recalibrate the esc, just to make sure?

[Captain Moron]

Wheels binding? Crud on the fan blades? Grass need mowing?

Was this a sudden change or did the performance degrade slowly over a number of flights?

It was over night .Went down a flew the f35 .Landed ,not a heavy landing but one-off the main retract came out
Took it home and repaired the retract .Went back to the field the next day a now it just will not get enough speed to take off .I will have to have a closer look at the retracts and see if the all in line

[rifleman_btx]

Do not know what is wrong with my F35 .It use to take of fine on our grass strip.Now it will not .Check the EDF etc and all seems fine there ????

Check and make sure the wheels are true and not toed one way or another, or if the struts are wobbling.

[kallend]

Do not know what is wrong with my F35 .It use to take of fine on our grass strip.Now it will not .Check the EDF etc and all seems fine there ????

Wheels binding? Crud on the fan blades? Grass need mowing?

Was this a sudden change or did the performance degrade slowly over a number of flights?

[Captain Moron]

Do not know what is wrong with my F35 .It use to take of fine on our grass strip.Now it will not .Check the EDF etc and all seems fine there ????

[rifleman_btx]

I've never had an issue getting mine to take off on grass runways. I fly with 4000-4500mah packs.

[Angryflyer]

May I ask what battery and cg do ya'll that have a long take-off? I only have two flights with mine and it seems to jump off on grass. This time of year our is brown and thin/sparse.
I use an old SMC 3700 pack.
Also, what are your experiences with 4000 or larger packs?

[Cape Jets]

Just added another bird to the fleet. This one is a Freewing F-35 70mm ARF version. Added a Spektrum AR8360T DSMX 8-Channel AS3X & SAFE Receiver with remote receiver, X-Fly 70mm 2000kv EDF, 100amp ESC, Up-graded all the servos to Hitech HS5065, added some lights and of course an afterburner. 4 Coats of Min Wax Clear Gloss. Put in some crazy mixes as well to see how she fly's like the real thing. We will see if I ever use them though....
Note: Was gonna put in an E-Flite 80mm EDF from a retired F-4 as gooniac did with his. Could not bring myself to carving out 8mm of foam to get it to fit. But still have it so who knows what the future may bring?

Well finally got a maiden a couple weeks ago with all the rain up here on Cape Cod. I've read many quotes concerning grass ops. They are dead on as far as getting it off the ground with grass. She is a pig that just wont rotate. Now I fly off a real good grass field with grass about an inch and it gets rolled so its really smooth for grass. Flew her again a couple days ago and Raised the front gear 5mm and that helped but still took 400 plus feet to get up .Next step is to install a taller wheel up front and see how that works. Once in the air she flies great, but touchy.... Got to solve this take off issue so I can fly her more.

[slumav505]

Just picked this up, going to run it with a Spektrum AR631. Anyone have a good starting spot on gains?

[Cape Jets]

Cape Jets does the Minwax add very much weight? Your bird looks great with the lights and clearcoat

I have never really tested the weight difference before and after the MinWax treatment. I do this to all my planes to protect the surface and helps when I need to clean from my grass field.

[Eric F.]

Cape Jets does the Minwax add very much weight? Your bird looks great with the lights and clearcoat

[Husafreak]

Ah, quiet thread, I lost my F-35 recently. Did a snap roll thingy going vertical and it tumbled and went into a flat spin, pretty high so I get to work, neutral, nothing, left rudder down elevator, no? right rudder, nothing, nuts! Neutral, gas it, spins faster! Chop the throttle and right into the asphalt runway. Damn, I've never had a model airplane in an unrecoverable spin. I fly with Gooniac and he said an aft CG could have contributed to that. I have gotten it to do some pretty wild tumbles before so maybe it was pretty far back. But I paid for it this time, LOL. I decided not to replace it. I put the power system into an ARF Plus Hawk and moved on. It was never really great for acrobatics. I'd say its best feature was its Gooniac33 Fiery Booty installation. That looked crazy good on this jet.

[Cape Jets]

Just added another bird to the fleet. This one is a Freewing F-35 70mm ARF version. Added a Spektrum AR8360T DSMX 8-Channel AS3X & SAFE Receiver with remote receiver, X-Fly 70mm 2000kv EDF, 100amp ESC, Up-graded all the servos to Hitech HS5065, added some lights and of course an afterburner. 4 Coats of Min Wax Clear Gloss. Put in some crazy mixes as well to see how she fly's like the real thing. We will see if I ever use them though....
Note: Was gonna put in an E-Flite 80mm EDF from a retired F-4 as gooniac did with his. Could not bring myself to carving out 8mm of foam to get it to fit. But still have it so who knows what the future may bring?

[gooniac33]

I had already upgraded mine to the Eflite/FMS 80mm 2000kv inrunner set up. So after upgrading my Xfly Sirius, I had a spare Xfly 80mm fan that needed a home. Its now in my F-35!! It has never been better!! I will share videos once they are up...

[xviper]

I think the CG was off. I had the battery a little nose heavy and on turf, I don't think it would take off right. The hard left I assumed was maybe due to trim, but on inspection, it was actually dead on where it needed to be. I actually managed to buy a new fuselage, and hopefully today can get it built again and re-calibrated. Just assume I hastily set it up and wanted to fly, but I appreciate the response on what I can think of doing differently. May need a Gyro myself, if I can pick one up locally.

** This little plane is quite powerful for it's size BUT taking off on grass (and depending on thick or bumpy the grass is), can be a problem with those little wheels. Also, the take off run if the grass is bumpy or ridged, can cause a plane with little wheels to veer off to one side. A steering gyro won't help much on bumpy grass BUT a flight gyro will definitely help this plane. It can be quite twitchy until you can get one good flight in and get it trimmed properly and set the rates and expo to your flying style. As for the nose heavy thing, can you move the battery rearward more? If not, consider a lighter battery. You say you "think" the balance was a little nose heavy. You should always check it before the first flight. That way, you will "know" if it was off.
If all you've got is grass to operate from, you might consider turning it into a hand launcher, belly lander. You should then remove all the retracts to lighten it up (and tape over the openings) and have someone throw it for you. There's a guy at my field who has done just that. It needs full throttle and a good, strong, straight throw to get it going but it's doable.