Official Freewing Twin 70mm AL37 Airliner Thread

[romair]

Thanks a lot.
Now I have understand it.
For my servo connection tests and adjustments I used a5 cell Envelope battery. I didn't want to connect the 6s 5000 just for testing. Therefore i did forget that I need power to receiver if not using a seperate battery as we did sometimes on the beginning
of electro impeller models.
Now its clear the JR connector must be plugged into the receiver to get power from the 6s LIPO.
Thanks again Roger

[xviper]

Thanks for fast replay.
This pcb have 2 wire +/- with JR connect on one side.
There is an other wires which to the blue 6mm connectors to the controller.
I have attached picture here.

That 2-wire lead (wound around that green ferrite ring) is coming from the external BEC (not what I call "pcb"). It gets plugged into any empty port on your receiver or you can "Y" it to any port. It supplies power to your RX. The other lead that is connected to that big blue plug (EC5 connector) is how the BEC gets the power to give to the RX. The EC5 is the connection to your flight battery.

[romair]

Thanks for fast replay.
This pcb have 2 wire +/- with JR connect on one side.
There is an other wires which to the blue 6mm connectors to the controller.
I have attached picture here.

[xviper]

I am just close to final assembling of my Freewing B737
Inside there is a pcb having a cable with a 3 lines futava connector.
I could not find any instruction for the use in the manual.

Could this for addition small LIPO for the power support if the main battery will be on low power ??

Would appreciate your help.
regards Roger

No, it's not. This plane doesn't need such a thing nor was it designed to have one. I can't understand what you mean by "3 lines futava connector". Got a picture?

[romair]

I am just close to final assembling of my Freewing B737
Inside there is a pcb having a cable with a 3 lines futava connector.
I could not find any instruction for the use in the manual.

Could this for addition small LIPO for the power support if the main battery will be on low power ??

Would appreciate your help.
regards Roger

[TwistedGrin]

I am not big EDF fan....but this model has peaked my interest....so I'm in on this one....should do fine loitering around the A-10's and F-22's at our grass field.

TwistedGrin

[CurtS]

Wow, now I know where all the good people are from the other places. Excellent amount of information thank you both. Sorry for what seems like lapping, I am stunned by level of nice people here. Im not used to it. I have 2 FT eBay stores and I run a Non Profit pet food bank, I am used to being the one helping others or being yelled at everyday.

I have been wanting an airliner for years. As much as I would love the new 747 from someone else I dont need two planes worth over 3500 dollars.

[Straightshooter]

JP Hobby Brake modification.

1. order the 65mm with 4mm or 5mm shaft. ypu will be throwing away their shaft.

2. use 5mm brass tubing with wall thickness of 0.5mm

3. cut a start length around 50mm and light place in drill chuck. turn while applying abrasive to clear the JP Hobby bearing.

4. Cut final length of 20mm. Male two key slots for set screws.

5. Take the Freewing 4mm shaft and scar up about 20mm on the non-removal side. Also grind two flat spots for the set screw aligned to the brass key slots

6. Apply light touch of ndustrial epoxy and slip on the brass tubing. Verify the key slot and flat spot line up. Clean all excess epoxy particularly on the brass.

7. slide in the assembly into the JP brake and tighten the set screw.

8. The stock wheel will be bit too large. Assemble a pair on to the drill check and run them opposit a belt sander. Measure regularly not to overshoot the 65mm diameter target.

7. Mount the JP brake on the inboard wheel. Use the trimmed down stock wheel out the outboard

8. I'm using the variable controller box to help with fine tuning.

Helps those with short runways. Enjoy.

[Slowflight]

Now that I finally finished every page I can completely agree the nose strut brace isn't needed. Thank you both for your detailed insights.

My own personal thing that I will change is the wheels. I hate that grinding noise. Its like nails on a chalkboard. So aluminum ones it will be with the two main inners being JP Brakes. Either 65mm or 70mm depending on the clearance.

Seeing how this has plenty of power for short take offs, brakes add more places to safely fly at. If I could put brakes on my 40% I would.

My .02 cents. This is my first foamy because I wanted an airliner for many years, Im a scratch builder and used to much larger planes so I order it with some skepticism, I figure for the price of the plane and not being that small I couldn’t go wrong, seriously for $500 you cant go wrong. I fly out of grass, yes is a golf course type of strip but grass none the less and so far I haven’t had any nose gear issues, as for the noice and Ive heard it on many videos, I pulled the mains out and lubricated the axle with a bit of white grease, noise gone. As for the paint peeling, yes is very delicate but if you use 3M delicate surface tape (the purple one available at HD) you have a lot less chances of listing the base white. Brakes I dont think are needed but is a neat feature, but again I fly on grass. My only gripe is speed is fast so you have to constantly be monitoring speed, too slow is not good but just slow enough to make it realistic, and slowed down she is a beauty on fly by, very easy plane to take off and land just watch the air speed. Since I got this plane I have gotten two other foamies, a P40 and a P47 just last night, the 40 flies on rails for a plane that small, and the 47 I haven’t flown it but it belonged to a fellow member and I ve seen it fly. Warning the AL37 will make you buy more foamies 😂😂😂

[CurtS]

Now that I finally finished every page I can completely agree the nose strut brace isn't needed. Thank you both for your detailed insights.

My own personal thing that I will change is the wheels. I hate that grinding noise. Its like nails on a chalkboard. So aluminum ones it will be with the two main inners being JP Brakes. Either 65mm or 70mm depending on the clearance.

Seeing how this has plenty of power for short take offs, brakes add more places to safely fly at. If I could put brakes on my 40% I would.

[mshagg]

I designed the AL37 nose wheel brace on thingiverse and will happily tell you it is absolutely 100% not needed. It was pretty much an exercise in seeing if I could design something that worked. If it gives guys some piece of mind that's great, but if you're coming in hard enough to bust the stock setup you're having a pretty off day.

The landing gear on this thing are tank-spec. It's the best grass ops jet in the Freewing catalogue IMO (yes even better than the avanti). Takes off of long, wet grass at 2/3 power and you can set it down like a baby even if it is coming in a little hot. It doesnt bounce, it doesnt tip over, it rumbles over grass as if it's pavement, doesnt have cheater holes to suck lawn clippings into.

[xviper]

CurtS I think the bit about the nose retract brace can be struck off the list of complaints. It's a BIG maybe. Those who seem to break the nose retract for lack of a brace are going to need one for almost any plane. I made one for a jet that was when jets were still new to me and landing them was still a learning process. I broke that retract even WITH the brace. It just broke it worse than had the brace not been there. I've learned to land better now and very rarely have nose retract breakage. I've also learned that you don't really even have to try hard to break a retract. I have since NOT incorporated a brace of any sort on any nose retract. I just don't drive (land) the thing into the grass or the rough parts of the field. Very few retracts will tolerate that very well, brace or no brace. You can land ON grass, just don't land on the smooth runway and then run it hard INTO the grass.
This AL37, at least for me, has been "bulletproof". Yes, the paint has a lot to be desired but for those who don't feel the need to mess with it and just simply apply decals and put a clear coat on it, it's NOT a problem at all. If you're into some heavy painting anyway, the stock peeling paint can be easily covered over with new paint or just peel it all off with tape.
As for the two guys who mounted the outboard fans, I don't think there's any "magic" to either one nor do I think there was any "secret" to them (referring to the "tight lipped" part). It's not difficult to imagine what or how it was done. As I recall, the first one that was posted about, I believe the two outboard engines were "dummies" and had no EDFs in them. They appeared to be mounted via a home made balsa plywood structure built into the wing, using empty engine pods bought from the parts bin. That one may have later gone on to have actual EDFs in them. The mounting structure was adequate enough to hold the "real thing". I think it was likely that the structure was similar to how the stock mounts were.

[CurtS]

I signed up just because of this plane. Was led here by RamyRc. (Wish I had the time to do what he does) Only on page 65 now. My take aways from this thread:

- I am baffled by this plane, its only downfalls I see are maybe needing the front wheel area 3d printed brace and the white paint is touchy.

- This level of people NOT complaining is unheard of.

- I haven't even seen on person complaining about an unbalanced fan or terrible gear design. When does this ever happen?

- I am ordering one later this week before they become MIA again.

- After 12 years on rcg and fg this forum is a breath of fresh air. Its been years since I could actually enjoy or even entertain the idea of reading 80 some pages over the course of a week.

Now if I can ever find out how the two guys mounted the two outboard fans. Seems they are tight lipped. :)

[Aros]

Amazing shots as always Jon! What a beauty, and great job on the maiden and welcome Skittercat!

[James]

Awesome pics Bajora as always! And great customizing and flying Skittercat! Welcome to Hobby Squawk as well, that's a heck of an entrance

[Skittercat]

A big thank you to Jon Barnes for spending a good part of his day taking photos, video and editing.

Maiden flights always produce some nervousness especially when I have put in several weeks of work on a custom paint job. I had extra confidence this time however given all the reports I read here about the plane.

I struggled with the peeling paint. When I try to feather the peeled areas around the bare foam it would just keep peeling. Sanding the mold dimples made it even more difficult. I was worried that the peeled areas would show through on the final paint job. I finally got to a place where I could do a base covering with finishing epoxy which held down the original paint. Next I applied three coasts automotive primer, sanded and painted the base white with Rustoleum and air brushed the blue and grey and Callie Graphics for the decals.

Besides the paint the only other problem I had was figuring out the delay in the gear retract. When the gear didn't work immediately I assumed something was wrong and bypassed the blue box and they worked. Derek at MRC suggested I wait five seconds to see if they worked and they did.The blue box was not the problem, it was me being too impatient to wait the five seconds for the gear to retract. Thanks Derek.

[Hugh Wiedman]

Bajora outstanding video, loved the different angles. Excellent flight and the Alaska version is beautiful. You should be very proud of it!

[Bajora]

And a short video of today's flights.

[Bajora]

A few photos of a clubmate's (Michael Troy) AL37. He maidened it today and proceeded to log at least five beautiful flights with nary a click of trim or any issues encountered. I shot a bunch of media and hope to have a video edited down too ... soon. This is the first AL37 I have laid eyes upon and is every bit as impressive as I had expected it to be. It was the talk and focus of the field today!

[GliderGuy]

I wanted to add something to my July 6th post regarding the reliability of the AL37...

The nose gear can, though rarely, throw runway FOD into the turbine blades. In the 1200+ hours of flying, I have found on 2 occasions very minor nicks in one fan blade on each of the left motor fan and right motor fan. Since nicks act as stress concentration areas, the potential for blade separation at high RPMs is a concern. In both cases, the nick on the leading edge of the blade was very small...in the range of 0.5 mm across.

I decided to try a field repair, so I used a UV-cured glue (Bondic liquid plastic UV welding tool) to fill each tiny nick when I discovered it. Be careful to place only a small amount of the glue onto the nick...and thoroughly cure the glue with the UV source. I then used a fine grade sand paper glued to a Popsicle stick to reach in and smooth the cured glue and conform the shape of the cured glue to the surrounding blade...while being careful not to misshape the blade. A fine sandpaper (600 to 800 grit) is best suited for this process and does minimal scratching of the surrounding blade surface.

The end result was hard to see and impossible to feel, and the stress concentration area is no longer evident. This makes a proven field repair, gets you back into the air quickly, and allows you to continue to fly while you wait for your replacement fan blade to arrive in the mail.

-GG