Official Freewing MiG-29 Fulcrum Twin 80mm Thread

[Airguardian]

You will likely notice the tendency diminishes and eventually disappears (or reverts) as you slowly shift CG back ;)

[themudduck]

Hello themudduck
The ideal 'positioning is if the receiver antennas are in a horizontal plane the satellite antennas should be in a vertical.
This type of arrangement provides for wide crossing elliptical lobes of reception which is for minimizing signal fade and or loss.
Separation of the two should preferably be no less than 4 inches.
Having a loose wire connection is the worst case scenario as you luckily found and thus avoided a possible oh crap moment.
Best regards,

I lost elevator response for 2 seconds... its was "ass clenching time" and I was very lucky that it returned to normal in time.... of course I have no idea what the actual reason was but the loose connector on the satellite could be it... the antennas not being 90 degrees to each other could have been a factor. Oh well. I'll fix it. Fortunately I took the MIG home in one piece and hopefully many more good flights are yet to come.

I forgot to mention, I tried doing a few knife-edge passes during my flights yesterday. This plane will knife-edge f o r e v e r... all the way down the flight line until I had to turn around. Much fun!

[PieterO]

Today my MIG-29 had a little bit trouble taking off from grass (after several very successful take offs earlier this week). There was no wind (which didn't help) and the grass was wet, which didn't help either. Besides that, I found a huge amount of grass piled up in the fans, probably from earlier flights. That will not help either, so busy to clean it now.

However, a fellow flyer also pointed me to the fact that the lipo's were quite cold (it was 10° (=50 Fahrenheit) outside). He suggested to warm them just before flight for extra punch at take off. I found multiple stories on the Internet confirming what he said. What do you think? Would it help? Unfortunately, these Lipo heater bags are sold out everywhere. But I could use the seat heating of my Tesla for the same effect :-). It would not only help for extra punch, but also with longer flight times. I must say, that sounds similar to what I know from my Tesla. Range decreases drastically when you go from summer to winter.

Anyone familiar with this preheating?

[Jdcrow]

Today my MIG-29 had a little bit trouble taking off from grass (after several very successful take offs earlier this week). There was no wind (which didn't help) and the grass was wet, which didn't help either. Besides that, I found a huge amount of grass piled up in the fans, probably from earlier flights. That will not help either, so busy to clean it now.

However, a fellow flyer also pointed me to the fact that the lipo's were quite cold (it was 10° (=50 Fahrenheit) outside). He suggested to warm them just before flight for extra punch at take off. I found multiple stories on the Internet confirming what he said. What do you think? Would it help? Unfortunately, these Lipo heater bags are sold out everywhere. But I could use the seat heating of my Tesla for the same effect :-). It would not only help for extra punch, but also with longer flight times. I must say, that sounds similar to what I know from my Tesla. Range decreases drastically when you go from summer to winter.

Anyone familiar with this preheating?

likely sold as due to being a seasonal item, and that season is approaching.

we used heating pads to wrap around them when we would race electric cars indoors in winter.

[xviper]

However, a fellow flyer also pointed me to the fact that the lipo's were quite cold (it was 10° (=50 Fahrenheit) outside). He suggested to warm them just before flight for extra punch at take off. I found multiple stories on the Internet confirming what he said. What do you think? Would it help? Unfortunately, these Lipo heater bags are sold out everywhere. But I could use the seat heating of my Tesla for the same effect :-). It would not only help for extra punch, but also with longer flight times. I must say, that sounds similar to what I know from my Tesla. Range decreases drastically when you go from summer to winter.

Anyone familiar with this preheating?

I have flown jets off very rough grass in temps below freezing -2C to -5C (that's around 30F). We did an experiment (just by feel and visual impact) on whether a warmed up battery would make a difference. One of us carried a battery in his inner pocket for about 5 minutes to warm it up and then he'd put it in his plane and ran it at about 1/4 throttle for about 20 seconds to warm it up some more, then took off. I threw my battery in without any of that and just blasted off. Punch on take off, flying around doing loops and other high throttle maneuvers and landing, driving back to the pits. Both scenarios - NO DIFFERENCE. This may not have been very scientific, but by the "seat of our pants", I call B.S. on it. 50F is NOT cold by any stretch of the imagination. That's downright balmy around here for fall and spring.
I would put your experience to all that grass stuck to the fan as more likely to cause a decrease in performance. Your electric car performance is nothing like what your batteries on an EDF goes through. Just take a look at the ability for the battery pack to hold charge based on ambient temps. Nothing really begins to look dramatic till you get close to freezing, then even more dramatic as you approach -10C, -15C and -20C. The Teslas around here experience diminished performance from summer to winter but we're talking about operational limits in terms of a couple hundred miles and many hours of function at varying rates of energy draw at sub freezing temps the whole day. You don't leave your house in your Tesla with the pedal to the floor and keep it there till you're out of the neighborhood, do you? And do you drive it near and above 1/2 throttle the rest of the trip? I think you'd be in jail by now.

[leithalweapon]

The cheater vents suck anything stuck to the tires into the fan.

[Airguardian]

Anyone familiar with this preheating?

Yes, Li-Po temperature has a massive effect on performance.
45º-55ºC is about optimal operating temperature. At around 70ºC you usually have thermal runaway (Li-Po goes boom) so be careful!

We preheated Li-Po batteries to about 35ºC prior to take-off for an international competition about heavy-lift RPAs.
Doing the heating or not was the difference between staying on the ground or being able to take-off.

Li-Pos heat themselves when unloading, so wouldn't recommend heating them up more than 25-30ºC.

[GliderGuy]

Remember a thorough study that showed warming the LiPos, if they are below 50 F, before use helps prevent cracks from forming in the cathode material. Also suggested not charging below 50 F.

This equates to a longer battery cycle life.


-GG

[JLambCWU]

Another great afternoon flying the Mig and Jeremy Solt chasing me around with his F-14. Both of these jets have well north of 150 flights each now. Love Freewing quality.

[leithalweapon]

https://youtu.be/cLwenDNqdQ0

Another crash. Kinda appears to stall in the turn, but it could just be the angle the video was shot.

[nuts-n-volts]

Man...! I feel for ya! That just isn't right! It seemed pretty good up to that point. And, I don't think it stalled in the turn. The down, or lack of up elevator, seemed to happen just before it leveled out from that turn. ...in the last roll input. I see a little up applied as it reacts with a small climb correction half way thru the turn, then more left aileron and it seems to be failing as it levels out for the run.

And I believe from what was said on the video that the controls bypassed the box? Double check the ubec for sure and, of course, the servos. I just have a feeling the ubec is letting go after a good load. I would load it up and watch to see if it heats up while checking V/A.

[ArthurJ]

Hi guys!
This is it my maiden went perfect 🥰 4 flights just perfect! I wrote everything about batteries and throws in the description of my YouTube video here :

https://youtu.be/FFD4Xx8A7lA

[mshagg]

https://youtu.be/cLwenDNqdQ0

Another crash. Kinda appears to stall in the turn, but it could just be the angle the video was shot.

I quite like that channel, if it's someone here, great work.

But, a couple of weeks ago they uploaded a video where they experienced of a loss of elevator in a similar flight condition (and lived to tell the story). It has been my experience that such issues don't resolve themselves. Design/component issue or not, I probably wouldn't have sent it up again without attempting to get to the bottom it.

[GliderGuy]

https://youtu.be/cLwenDNqdQ0

Another crash. Kinda appears to stall in the turn, but it could just be the angle the video was shot.

That’s a real bummer....was flying well.

I read your prior posts. Can you confirm the following:
- Receiver placement and satellite placement, if used
- What was and wasn’t bypassed on the blue box?
- Location of the CG
- RF chokes installed or not? Couldn’t tell from your prior posts if you decided to add them.
Thanks....Sorry for your loss.

-GG

[mshagg]

Hi guys!
This is it my maiden went perfect 🥰 4 flights just perfect! I wrote everything about batteries and throws in the description of my YouTube video here :
https://youtu.be/FFD4Xx8A7lA

Great job, and nice looking channel. Subscribed!

[ArthurJ]

Great job, and nice looking channel. Subscribed!

Oh thank you so much 🙏🏻🙏🏻🥰

[Bushong572]

Here is mine, I also upgraded the wheels. The mains are 65mm HSD with brakes and the nose gear are JP Hobby 45mm. This looks much more scale than the stock setup.

Looks much better. where did you get the brakes (what HSD plane are they for)?

Thanks

[Waconut]

https://youtu.be/cLwenDNqdQ0

Another crash. Kinda appears to stall in the turn, but it could just be the angle the video was shot.

The MiG is on my short list of planes that I want to add to my fleet but these crashes are very concerning. To me the plane looked to be stable and in full control up to the point it went in.

I don’t know what it is going to take for me to trust this airframe at this point. The guys who are having good success with it seem to be really enjoying the plane. I will be in a holding pattern until the root cause of these crashes is determined.

[Necroscope]

We had 4 MiG's delivered on release day in the UK.

Virtually identical build, all pre-flight checks completed. Only 3 returned.......

Complete elevator lockout, resulting in what looks like a total lose! Identical to the video posted today. New servo's fitted and BB bypassed.

I only have 2 flights on my baby. They were great flights, but I'm going to ground it for now. There is something fundamentally wrong here and until we know what, i think i will stick to the Avanti, F22 and F18.

Such a bloody shame as i was watching one of the other pilots in our club flying his yesterday. It was like an air show! Sounds amazing and looks even better in the air than the F22.

Freewing/Motion help us get these birds in the air, without it feeling like Russian Roulette as to whether they will come back!

[Necroscope]

The MiG is on my short list of planes that I want to add to my fleet but these crashes are very concerning. To me the plane looked to be stable and in full control up to the point it went in.

I don’t know what it is going to take for me to trust this airframe at this point. The guys who are having good success with it seem to be really enjoying the plane. I will be in a holding pattern until the root cause of these crashes is determined.

I think you are doing exactly the right thing and if i didnt already have one, i would be doing the same!