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

[4923crew]

4923crew


great job! did you 3d print the ordinance? I so can u make me a set. Where did you get you decals as well. Your bird looks excellent and the way free wing should have done it.

Thank you. They are downloaded and printed from thingieverse and resized to the f-35’s scale. The decals are from Callie Graphics.

[urrl]

[Alpha]

That 3D printed ordnance looks right on! Nice in-flight photos, too. Looks like a real F-35 in the hills around Edwards.


Here's the master sample the decal team uses as a reference when applying all those dizzying decals on this bird.

[deadbug]

Got 45 flights on mine...had to brighten up the livery a bit to help visibility and make a little different than the other two at my club.
Had Callie make up the stab decals for me...chose the Navy F-35C demo scheme. Flew great. Looked great.

Now for the sad news...while shing my a$$ with a very low (think 2 feet agl) high-speed tight 360-degree full power, high-rate “bat turn” in front of the pits—The plane snapped into the turn right into the ground before I could process what happened. RIP. Surprised that it happened going so fast and with full power, but I obviously exceeded the critical angle of attack while pulling hard. If I was just a little higher....

The good news is I have the ARF+ coming friday, and the vertical stabilizers with the Callie graphics were undamaged. The right wing and the forward fuse were totaled. Note to self and to others—you can still stall at high speed and this little bugger usually will snap when it stalls ;-)
DB

[fredmdbud]

you can still stall at high speed and this little bugger usually will snap when it stalls ;-)
DB

Oh yeah - lift isn't just about speed, it's about airflow over the wing. Exceed the critical angle of attack and the airflow separates from the wing, killing lift.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angle_of_attack:

Below the critical angle of attack, as the angle of attack decreases, the lift coefficient decreases. Conversely, above the critical angle of attack, as the angle of attack increases, the air begins to flow less smoothly over the upper surface of the airfoil and begins to separate from the upper surface. On most airfoil shapes, as the angle of attack increases, the upper surface separation point of the flow moves from the trailing edge towards the leading edge. At the critical angle of attack, upper surface flow is more separated and the airfoil or wing is producing its maximum lift coefficient. As the angle of attack increases further, the upper surface flow becomes more fully separated and the lift coefficient reduces further.

Above this critical angle of attack, the aircraft is said to be in a stall. A fixed-wing aircraft by definition is stalled at or above the critical angle of attack rather than at or below a particular airspeed. The airspeed at which the aircraft stalls varies with the weight of the aircraft, the load factor, the center of gravity of the aircraft and other factors. However, the aircraft always stalls at the same critical angle of attack.

[RichJ53]

Got 45 flights on mine...had to brighten up the livery a bit to help visibility and make a little different than the other two at my club.
Had Callie make up the stab decals for me...chose the Navy F-35C demo scheme. Flew great. Looked great.

Now for the sad news...while shing my a$$ with a very low (think 2 feet agl) high-speed tight 360-degree full power, high-rate “bat turn” in front of the pits—The plane snapped into the turn right into the ground before I could process what happened. RIP. Surprised that it happened going so fast and with full power, but I obviously exceeded the critical angle of attack while pulling hard. If I was just a little higher....

The good news is I have the ARF+ coming friday, and the vertical stabilizers with the Callie graphics were undamaged. The right wing and the forward fuse were totaled. Note to self and to others—you can still stall at high speed and this little bugger usually will snap when it stalls ;-)
DB

So here are some photos of my receiver installation and gyro settings. FYI my F35 is locked in even with the gyro turned off, but I find it really helps at slow speeds with high Alpha landings :)

I use the book throws and fly with the elevator on high rate all the time. Ailerons are usually on low rate with about 20% expo.

Venom Fly 6S 5000 30*C battery slightly back from the recommended CG
Rich

[DaFlyingSnek]

4923crew

That looks fantastic! care to tell us how you repainted the exhaust/turkey feathers? Thank you!

[DaFlyingSnek]

I'm considering using roaringtop batteries instead of the admiral 4500 6s I've been using currently. Does anyone recommend a RT similar to that? And to those that have batteries from each company, which do you find works better?

[DaFlyingSnek]

Hello everyone,

I have never seen this done before by anyone on any scale fighter jet. On my F-35, I want to add scale, functioning weapon bay doors. Of course, I know the main gear is in the way of the outside bay door, but that's fine. I only wish to do the inside doors anyways. I do need your guy's experience and help, as I have never modded an airplane's structure so majorly before. I plan on cutting out the existing "doors" that are molded into the fuselage and reusing that. I'll cut away unnecessary foam and cut away more in the fuselage to make the bay. I'll add all the detail (paint, fake wiring/tubing, etc) and add some on the actual door. Then, I'll 3D print (or make out of wood) some control horns just as the full-scale F-35 has for the door to make it hinge and open properly. I also want to have that freewing sliding mechanism on the door so I can attach/detach a scale Aim-120 when I wish. What I don't know very much about is the execution of a project like this. Does anyone have any tips on how to make the doors more scale? How can I cut the existing foam out and re-use it? Where and how should I set up my servos for the doors? How should I cut out the door on the plane? And finally. if anyone has a spare F-35 fuselage, could you cut it in half around the middle and post it so I can see what I might be cutting into?

Thanks a lot everyone for your help!
-DaFlyingSnek

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n221918[/ATTACH]

[RCGuy83]

Where are my Freewing F-35 ARF+ kit guys at?

I can't leave anything stock and enjoy the challenge of trying to improve upon stock performance without going all out with larger fan units and bigger batteries. I use Leopard inrunner motors in my fast electric boats and found they have a nice 2860 line so I opted for their 2550Kv for this build coupled with a Freewing 100Amp ESC. I tinted the canopy and painted the wings/tail red after finding it very hard to orientate against a gray sky. Here's my recipe:

*Stock 12-Blade Inrunner Fan Unit: $11.99
*Leopard 2860 2550Kv Inrunner motor: $44.99
*FW 100Amp ESC (Avanti): $49.99
*Turnigy Nano-Tech Plus 6S 4,000mah 70C

The plane flies great! I did find using a gyro really helps with this one. It's very fast on the top-end but slows down nicely without tip stalling badly. The red accents really helped orientate it better and I think even look pretty good despite not being scale.

[MrSmoothie]

I'm considering using roaringtop batteries instead of the admiral 4500 6s I've been using currently. Does anyone recommend a RT similar to that? And to those that have batteries from each company, which do you find works better?

I have been using HRB lipos for a while and had been generally happy. But recently I flew two different EDFs, two flights each, going through the four 6000mAh HRB's I'd brought. I noticed that for each plane, one flight seemed much more powerful with nearly limitless vertical. I looked at the dates I'd put on the lipos and saw that those two great flights were from 2019 lipos, while the sluggish flight lipos were from 2018. I checked individual cell voltage and resistance on the older lipos and had only single digit readings (on resistance), so nothing amiss I could measure--yet the differences were clear.

Around this time, one of my flying buddies suggested I watch a youtube video with Chris "The RC Geek" on lipos generally, and specifically on his current lipo of choice -- Roaring Top. One of the things that attracted me to HRB was the price and how quickly I could get one thorugh Prime. Roaring Tops cost more and have to be shipped across the country to me. Nonetheless, I decided to go with Chris' advice and ordered two 6250 lipos (I'm using these in 90mm or twin 70mm EDFs). I've only had them a few weeks, but I have to say, I was very impressed with the noticeably improved performance. The C rating doesn't see that special -- but Chris talks about this in the video, so I'll leave it to him. I've been very impressed with pretty much anything the Geek builds, flies or has to say on related subjects.

I'll keep using my HRB's in prop-driven warbirds, but for now, I'm going to stick with more RT lipos for EDFs.

[Aussie1]

Still sorting out my F35, but here is a small video of it so far with a P20 turbine.

https://youtu.be/RSqqYQfZ0NQ

[GBLynden]

This video features a high alpha landing with my F-35 at sunset along with proof near vertical take-offs are possible lol

[RichJ53]

Still sorting out my F35, but here is a small video of it so far with a P20 turbine.

https://youtu.be/RSqqYQfZ0NQ

looks very good. adding some expo and slowing down the controls will help with a more solid feel. Thanks for sharing

Rich

[Ben De Vizio]

Pics from the Summer but no matter. Below is my custom F-35 in 617 Squadron Custom markings made by Callie Graphics, she definitely out did herself this time!

[gooniac33]

Where are my Freewing F-35 ARF+ kit guys at?

I can't leave anything stock and enjoy the challenge of trying to improve upon stock performance without going all out with larger fan units and bigger batteries. I use Leopard inrunner motors in my fast electric boats and found they have a nice 2860 line so I opted for their 2550Kv for this build coupled with a Freewing 100Amp ESC. I tinted the canopy and painted the wings/tail red after finding it very hard to orientate against a gray sky. Here's my recipe:

*Stock 12-Blade Inrunner Fan Unit: $11.99
*Leopard 2860 2550Kv Inrunner motor: $44.99
*FW 100Amp ESC (Avanti): $49.99
*Turnigy Nano-Tech Plus 6S 4,000mah 70C

The plane flies great! I did find using a gyro really helps with this one. It's very fast on the top-end but slows down nicely without tip stalling badly. The red accents really helped orientate it better and I think even look pretty good despite not being scale.

Nice to see that someone else has found a Leopard motor that fits!! That is a dang good set up you got there!! I may have to try that same set up in mine!

[gooniac33]

Well I finally got my hands on an F-35 and got in some flights over the weekend. I am very impressed with how it flies on stock power!! It is powerful and fast! I am using a 6s 30c 5000mah pack in mine and is fits the plane perfectly! It flies really well! I am using a LemonRX 7Ch with Gyro and it is just barely on but it helps a lot! Here is my maiden flight...

[RCGuy83]

Nice to see that someone else has found a Leopard motor that fits!! That is a dang good set up you got there!! I may have to try that same set up in mine!

It's a bit of a secret for sure that not many know you can do. I have a 2730Kv I have yet to try. Imagine a pair of the 2550Kv Leopards in the AL37...

[RichJ53]

Well I finally got my hands on an F-35 and got in some flights over the weekend. I am very impressed with how it flies on stock power!! It is powerful and fast! I am using a 6s 30c 5000mah pack in mine and is fits the plane perfectly! It flies really well! I am using a LemonRX 7Ch with Gyro and it is just barely on but it helps a lot! Here is my maiden flight...

Congratulations on your flights.....

The F35 is lots of fun.... I have about 45 flights on mine and looking forward for many more. I overhauled the front landing gear steering but that's about all.
can:t go wrong with this jet
Rich

[gooniac33]

got more flights this past weekend! Had a retract burn out on me but I was able to replace it at the field with a spare I had on hand. got 4 flights!! Loving this little plane!!