Official Freewing MiG-29 Fulcrum Twin 80mm Thread

[Airguardian]

How much damage from the drone impact?

Here it is... not pretty, but not a big deal either.

In any case, this is temporal, I intend for a full repaint in the forseeable future! ;)

[Hugh Wiedman]

The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming:



After finally getting the maiden in on the F-18 Tiger Meet Monday, I was hoping to finally get the maiden done on the Mig, but the weather wasn't cooperating, par for the course this summer. Got a flight in on the F-4, the F-18 and then while the SU-30 was in the air, all of a sudden the wind cranked up to about 30 mph, crosswind no less, and was just able to get it down without a disaster. Immediately after, the skies opened up and it rained hard continuous for at least 2 hours, sometimes so hard you couldn't see 10 feet. We all had trouble just keeping dry and the covered pit area flooded out from rain being driven in sideways and at least all our aircraft got a good washing! The field flooded soon after and only a bush plane on floats could have gotten up. I'm feeling this summer's weather has me "snake bit" on the Mig (yes, pun intended)! Damn, I'm really kinda pissed! RudyD54 did get his Mig in the air (the first time in over 3 months) and was able to get a flight in on his new 8S F-16, but the day turned out to be a real "wash out". Oh well, it did look nice on the ground and at least got out of my hangar and came back home without a scratch on it! There's always next week.

[GliderGuy]

Hey Hugh - Glad you got down OK!

The full scale soaring weather this summer has been sub-par, too. Example: A group of dedicated weekend cross country glider pilots here in North Texas has almost completed no such flights this summer. The pain due to weird weather is a shared feeling. Local soaring conditions have been poor as well. Only the last couple of weeks have we had some good soaring. LOL - Just in time for cold fronts to begin closing the door on the season.

However, until the arrival of 110F+ Heat index days of August, the RC weather has been pretty dependable. Even on the gosh awful hot days, one could get some sunrise flying done.

I landed the MiG just ahead of a cool front, storm-produced gust line early this morning. Lucked out there! It was dead calm before…perfect conditions that didn’t last long.

-GG

[locharrow]

" the skies opened up and it rained hard continuous for at least 2 hours, sometimes so hard you couldn't see 10 feet." We call that a sunny shower here in Scotland Hugh !!

[kallend]

" the skies opened up and it rained hard continuous for at least 2 hours, sometimes so hard you couldn't see 10 feet." We call that a sunny shower here in Scotland Hugh !!

Hey, in 1968 I spent 2 weeks on Skye and it didn't rain at all.

[locharrow]

Hey, in 1968 I spent 2 weeks on Skye and it didn't rain at all.

Pull the other one !

[xviper]

In 1968, nobody could tell it was raining. It was "acid" rain. Everyone thought their flower headbands were crying.

[Airguardian]

Been having pretty terrible weather here too as far as model aircraft are concerned. Terribly turbulent winds.
Yesterday I made an escape to the field with Hornet and Gripen and they were all over the place, even with gyro stabilization.
Pulled 3 flights and called it a day before I broke anything, lol.


Hands-on-tx video, but slow-mo version (makes it easier to grasp IMO):

[GliderGuy]

AG. The slo-mo, hands-on-tx video is definitely better. Thanks

-GG

[Airguardian]

You're welcome!
Want to do more like these but it's likely I won't be able to for a while... my 'loyal camera man' will be away for some time I'm afraid! :'(

[Gripper39]

I wonder if you guys can help me. I maidened my Mig 29 today. I had 6s5000mah packs in hump and rear position with the c of g set just behind the recommended position (5mm?) I had also adjusted the wing tips with the few mm of upward reflex.
on take off I had to use about 100m of runway before it just about made it into the air. On high rates I had just about enough elevator to keep it in the air but it felt like the elevator wasn’t doing anything either way and the airspeed just didn’t feel quick enough and the whole airframe felt tail heavy and draggy. Luckily after a few hairy minutes I managed to get her down in one piece. I just can’t figure out what could be wrong it felt like I was flying at half throttle with full flaps and c of g set 30cm too far back

[xviper]

I wonder if you guys can help me. I maidened my Mig 29 today. I had 6s5000mah packs in hump and rear position with the c of g set just behind the recommended position (5mm?) I had also adjusted the wing tips with the few mm of upward reflex.
on take off I had to use about 100m of runway before it just about made it into the air. On high rates I had just about enough elevator to keep it in the air but it felt like the elevator wasn’t doing anything either way and the airspeed just didn’t feel quick enough and the whole airframe felt tail heavy and draggy. Luckily after a few hairy minutes I managed to get her down in one piece. I just can’t figure out what could be wrong it felt like I was flying at half throttle with full flaps and c of g set 30cm too far back

Did you calibrate your throttle on both ESCs? What kind and "C" ratings are your batteries? I've flown mine off not so short grass and there's plenty of power to get off the ground in about 150 feet although it could have "leapt" into the air sooner if I cranked the elevator. I've even got the less efficient vector nozzles on mine.

[GliderGuy]

Yep-Something ain’t right. That’s not how she flies.

Can you provide more setup detail?


-GG

[Airguardian]

Here's some new MiG-29 footage with plenty of aerobatics and a couple of high-alpha-lock condition scares:

Both happened as a result of me going into a climbing split-S right out from take-off with battery packs that were under-delivering as they had been sitting fully charged for a couple of weeks (DON'T DO THAT!). In the first one (0:24 on the video, which actually happened later), I realized soon enough what was about to happen so I quickly cut the throttle and bumped the nose down with pitch input. Recovered in no time. On the second one though (7:40, which in fact was a previous flight) it caught me by surprise and you can see how the jet helplessly wingrocks down straight at the treeline, only to be saved at the last second with a lucky combination of pitch-roll-yaw-throttle inputs to break free of the stuck condition.

I used the wing rocking and amplified it purposefully (used it to my advantage) to force a bank angle enough for the nose to be able to drop. So there's that. :)

[GliderGuy]

VERY NICE AG! For pre-sunrise and post-sunset flying, I added an anti-collision light on top to assist with orientation. See photos. This was scavenged from the left wing of a crashed A-10…big and bright. Small LEDs won’t work…I tried. It gets too far away to see small LEDs. I also added a non-scale white LED in the tail just for grins but not as useful.

“Momma” always told me not to do acrobatics in dim light, but you do well. The red flashing on top DOES help, from personal experience.

I haven’t attempted, but do you think the MiG would snap roll? And also snap roll into a “standard” spin?

Pretty sure any attempt to use a standard spin entry would end up in a high alpha lock.

Thanks again for posting these. For sure…instructive on the high alpha recovery techniques and the need to recognize alpha lock quickly!

To Gripper39 (above)…if yours isn’t showing the same ZIP as in AG’s videos, I say again, something is not right with your set-up.

One last comment….nice landings!

-GG

PS…Blinking your eyes will allow for effectively seeing the LED flash. LOL

[Airguardian]

VERY NICE AG! [...] One last comment….nice landings!

Thanks!

“Momma” always told me not to do acrobatics in dim light, but you do well. The red flashing on top DOES help, from personal experience.

I mean, she probably had a point!

On my end, I usually find it easier to fly in dim-light conditions with not-so-bright LEDs (Like those on the older Eurofighter) but with more of them.
Otherwise, if they are too bright they blind me out as the glare makes it difficult to judge plane attitude, silhouette and/or relative position to other LEDs...

But still, guess am a bit crazy and sometimes I can't help myself!


A few examples bordering in the extreme...

I haven’t attempted, but do you think the MiG would snap roll? And also snap roll into a “standard” spin?

Yes. I mean, not quite as a 3D prop plane, but it will 'cobra snap' like the Su-35 or perform loaded rolls well enough with the right inputs, but I agree, without TV to help you out, coming out of a 'snap roll' or similar maneuver is likely to lead you directly into high-alpha-lock.

For 'snap cobras' (As I call them for lack of a better name), one pulls full pitch up at some speed (but not going ballistic) and as the plane starts to get into a cobra, at about 45-90º you replace the pitch input by full yaw to one side and counter roll to the opposite (tailerons active in roll with large throws enabled) and as the jet snaps around you start to compensate back with pitch down and gradually adding throttle back.

If the maneuver comes out too sharp and jet ends up in an almost vertical attitude, then either completely cut throttle, which will cause the jet to tailslide, and drop nose, then proceed to recover, or add full throttle to force the backflip and proceed accordingly.

Otherwise, if the jet ends up the maneuver in a flat or semi-high alpha orientation, then it's easy to end up in a high alpha lock and that's where extra care is required.

First maneuver in the following video is a great example:

(Slow motion, of course)

That would be more of a loaded roll bordering on a snap. Will search for footage of a 'snap cobra example'.
Notice how much down-pitch input I'm adding even before the maneuver is completed to manage to get the jet back to level!

EDIT 1: Same video, 'snap cobra' at 2:04. No vectoring whatsoever other than the terrible stock fixed thrustline. :)
EDIT 2: Does 2:47 qualify as a snap-roll into a spin?
EDIT 3: Another 'sort-of' snap roll at 3:58

Not sure about what you mean by 'snap roll into a standard spin' ?
You mean concatenating the two maneuvers?

It's likely possible, but the MiG-29, unlike the Su-35 is not really 'fond' of upright spins and it stutters and does things not as smooth as one would wish.
Inverted spins are much more easy to control on this jet, curiously. With TV you could transition as you pleased. Without it, it's going to be tricky, because for a good spin you usually want the jet to enter in a very precise 'stable' fashion, otherwise it wingrocks and looks poorly. And similar to the F-18 (but not as dramatic) the 29 seems to be a bit spin resistant, which doesn't really help. meaning it will start to spin, accelerate then halt, then start rotating again, gather momentum and stop abruptly, this, over and over again. Doesn't happen with the jet inverted though.

Pretty sure any attempt to use a standard spin entry would end up in a high alpha lock.

It can happen, but I've had more high-alpha locks from badly executed 'other-stuff'.
This said, I'm a bit aprehensive of upright spins on the MiG-29 and don't preactice them as usually as I do with other birds. Same for the F-18.

PS…Blinking your eyes will allow for effectively seeing the LED flash. LOL

I actually blinked, I feel stupid now, rofl.

[GliderGuy]

You’ve answered/demonstrated my question. Yes…concatenation. With the AL37 and FL P-38, you can enter into a standard spin (smooth stall, full back stick, full rudder <throw in aileron if you wish>) or rapidly snap full up, full aileron and full rudder…the hold control position as you fall into a classic nose-down spin.

Recovery is instantaneous by relaxing controls to neutral then ease out of the dive.

Caution…The P-38 wraps up into a VERY VERY fast spin rotation and doesn’t want to come out. The secret is leave in about 1/2 throttle. Then she will stop rotating instantly when the controls are neutralized.

The FW F-4 Won’t spin nor snap roll from my experience.

Your night flying looks tricky!

-GG

[Airguardian]

Some of it was, some of it wasn't... it totally depends on the day's conditions. Typically I only do that in dead-calm-wind days with airframes I'm very familiar with.

Otherwise, I don't. :)

[Airguardian]

Fresh MiG-29 video with plenty of aerobatics and wiggly stuff!

BTW, serious high-alpha lock at 13:32... there I shat myself quite a bit.
This is a case example of a condition where I came out through controlled throttle bursts followed by throttle cuts.

Have a nice weekend y'all, and take your jets out for a ride!

[GliderGuy]

Enjoyed your “Fresh MiG-29 video with plenty of aerobatics and wiggly stuff!” Thanks. Super camera work!!

You answered my question several times about the spin. Not a very nose down spin…almost flat. But a spin none the less. Seems to recover OK.

Perfect #2 landing…wow! Alpha lock recovery at 13:32….great job!

-GG