Official Freewing Twin 70mm AL37 Airliner Thread

[GliderGuy]

The AL37 is beginning to show her "flight time" age. Several chord-wise, foam cell boundary separation stress cracks are beginning to show up on the topside of the wings in the region behind the engine nacelle attach point. Some go back past mid-wing. This is not unexpected with over 1000 flights on the airframe (including some acrobatics <loops, snap rolls, spins, etc>.).

As an experiment (vs just filling the stress cracks with filler), I used some Bondic UV-cured Liquid Plastic with the following process after deciding this is a cleaner approach than trying another glue type because the liquid plastic can be smoothed with a card and excess wiped away before you cure it:

• The standard Bondic liquid plastic's dispenser is a very small needle....perfect for applying a tiny amount of liquid plastic into the cell boundary cracks.
• Then I used a playing card to remove any excess liquid plastic...and to smooth the surface of the liquid (nothing left pooching up).
• UV light shining on the thin layer of liquid plastic cures it almost instantly.
• Lightly rubbed a cloth slightly dampened with alcohol over the area to remove any uncured liquid plastic (if there was any).
• I then lightly sanded the surface with a very fine grit sandpaper
• Applied paint

It remains to be seen how this holds up under future flight stresses.

Bondic can be purchased from a variety of retailers. It is expensive, but I have found it has multiple applications in the world of RC modeling...especially great for VERY fast field repairs. There are other brands of UV-cured liquid plastic, but I only have experience with Bondic, and I love the tiny needle applicator.

-GG

[T-CAT]

The AL37 is beginning to show her "flight time" age. Several chord-wise, foam cell boundary separation stress cracks are beginning to show up on the topside of the wings in the region behind the engine nacelle attach point. Some go back past mid-wing. This is not unexpected with over 1000 flights on the airframe (including some acrobatics <loops, snap rolls, spins, etc>.).

As an experiment (vs just filling the stress cracks with filler), I used some Bondic UV-cured Liquid Plastic with the following process after deciding this is a cleaner approach than trying another glue type because the liquid plastic can be smoothed with a card and excess wiped away before you cure it:

• The standard Bondic liquid plastic's dispenser is a very small needle....perfect for applying a tiny amount of liquid plastic into the cell boundary cracks.
• Then I used a playing card to remove any excess liquid plastic...and to smooth the surface of the liquid (nothing left pooching up).
• UV light shining on the thin layer of liquid plastic cures it almost instantly.
• Lightly rubbed a cloth slightly dampened with alcohol over the area to remove any uncured liquid plastic (if there was any).
• I then lightly sanded the surface with a very fine grit sandpaper
• Applied paint

It remains to be seen how this holds up under future flight stresses.

Bondic can be purchased from a variety of retailers. It is expensive, but I have found it has multiple applications in the world of RC modeling...especially great for VERY fast field repairs. There are other brands of UV-cured liquid plastic, but I only have experience with Bondic, and I love the tiny needle applicator.

-GG

Wow, 1000 flights. Bravo!

[JLambCWU]

Sooooo just how long can you keep an AL37 up in the air on 11,000mah of 6S power?!

Jeremy Solt and I decided to try, and needless to say, we were both impressed.

This is the full, uncut video.

https://www.motionrc.com/collections/rc-jets/products/freewing-al37-airliner-twin-70mm-edf-jet-pnp

[James]

Sooooo just how long can you keep an AL37 up in the air on 11,000mah of 6S power?!

Jeremy Solt and I decided to try, and needless to say, we were both impressed.

This is the full, uncut video.

https://www.motionrc.com/collections/rc-jets/products/freewing-al37-airliner-twin-70mm-edf-jet-pnp

So glad you finally got this video up Justin. Great flying and information

[Alpha]

I saw this today and wanted to share the link. It's really impressive!

@kfc77454

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4219352

[T-CAT]

I saw this today and wanted to share the link. It's really impressive!

@kfc77454

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4219352

Amazing!

[Rudderman98]

Just completed mine. Maiden this Sunday....hopefully.

Working on the '37 line has it's advantages. :) Will be adding more details later. Roughly six hours of decal application.

Shout out to Callie for the great grafx.

[Alpha]

Rudderman98 You're right, working the '37 line DOES have its advantages, apparently! What a stunning representation of Kalula 101! Hats off to your fingers for six hours of decal application. Calllie outdoes herself again.

[Rudderman98]

Thank you Alpha and thank you to the team at MRC for providing us with stunning models to enjoy!

[Aros]

Just completed mine. Maiden this Sunday....hopefully.

Working on the '37 line has it's advantages. :) Will be adding more details later. Roughly six hours of decal application.

Shout out to Callie for the great grafx.

Another outstanding livery, well done Rudderman98 ! You live in Sumner which is just a hop and a skip from me in Maple Valley...I might need to come see that beauty fly in person sometime! Where do you fly?

[Iflycessna182]

Flight with runcam under fuselage. A little fun with added sound tracks

[Aros]

Nice job! I enjoyed that view, well done.

[Iflycessna182]

Still enjoy flying this aircraft

[themudduck]

Flight with runcam under fuselage. A little fun with added sound tracks

Nice job, it looks just like the videos I've posted, your camera must be in practically the same spot. That was a smooth flight.

[Bajora]

More flights of Michael Troy's Alaskan Airlines AL37 ...

[Aros]

Gorgeous shots of a gorgeous model! Like peanut butter and jelly...

[GliderGuy]

LOL - Just found this photo in an article about defunct air carriers. Anyone up for doing this livery? Too funny! I guess you could say, "It's a hoot!"

-GG

[Alpha]

Bajora Super stellar as always, Bajora! Michael is really fortunate to have his beautiful refinish photographed in this way. I'd enlarge and print these for the man cave wall if I were him!

[Tonydoright]

I am having issue with the wiring in the AL37, i would appreciate if any other have experienced a similar issue with either factory miswire or i am overlooking something. Tranmitter DX8, receiver AR8010.
I have no gear movement instead flaps deploy when gear switch moved on transmitter. Move flap switch nothing happens. No nose wheel, no main gear movement. I thought maybe there was issue on the backside of ribbon connector at the wing root but no nose gear either. Have there been issues with the blue box?

[xviper]

I am having issue with the wiring in the AL37, i would appreciate if any other have experienced a similar issue with either factory miswire or i am overlooking something. Tranmitter DX8, receiver AR8010.
I have no gear movement instead flaps deploy when gear switch moved on transmitter. Move flap switch nothing happens. No nose wheel, no main gear movement. I thought maybe there was issue on the backside of ribbon connector at the wing root but no nose gear either. Have there been issues with the blue box?

There have always been issues with these blue boxes, not necessarily with this AL-37 (but that can't be eliminated either). You must do some diagnostics on your own. You may have to go in behind the wing connection board and make sure all the servo plugs are in their proper slots. A servo tester will come in handy. Someone at the factory may have plugged them in the wrong ports and even maybe the wrong polarity. There should be labels for each port. While you're in there test each retract to make sure they work. Test each flap servo and each aileron servo and make sure they're working. And yes, there have been factory miswires in that location.
As far as the TX is concerned, have you told it that you have "1 AIL, 1 Flap"? Then did you go into the flap menu where you set all the flap throws and assign the proper switch? Look in your primary menu to make sure that the gear switch is assigned to the proper port and same for the flaps.