All-New Freewing PJ50 Twin 70mm EDF Jet - Official Thread

[GliderGuy]

I cancelled the Freewing one as BH told me Xfly was better.

Need data…..
1) Who is BH? Expertise of BH?
2) Customer support comparison?
3) Material / design limit strength comparison?
4) Handling comparison? Any quirky habits?
5) Flight time comparison?
6) Max speed comparison?
7) Durability comparison?
8) Historic spare parts availability comparison?
9) Cost of spare parts comparison?
10) Empty weight comparison?
11) Thrust comparison?
12) Quality of workmanship comparison by a 3rd non-affiliated party?
13) How well does the airframe/wings withstand lots of flying….including acrobatics comparison?
14) Reliability of electronics comparison?
15) Historic long-term support of a given design before obsoleting it comparison?
16) MTBF analysis for the system comparison?

Blanket statements demand data. I am all for valid comparisons…competition can drive improvements.

BTW….keeping my MRC bird on order based on real life experience with multiple MRC (other) birds and customer support and perceived value. And….no I am not affiliated with MRC/FW/FL or any subsidiary.

I am not suggesting all of the above will ever be evaluated, but many will be. Wouldn’t a basic head-to-head fly-off be an interesting comparison? Maybe throw in some objective design comparison observations, too.

-GG

[Gilatrout]

I cancelled the Freewing one as BH told me Xfly was better.

Im not sure if you are being sarcastic or not.

Out of curiosity, on what basis was this claim made? I am not aware of anyone in a position with both models that can make an objective comparison. If there is, I would be interested in seeing it.

[Gilatrout]

Has anyone from Motion RC / FW addressed the tail flex seen during landing in some of the videos? I'm curious to know if additional spars are recommended during build before we all get our hands on them.

This is one of the things each of us should evaluate and address with every model we buy. If something doesn't look right or you feel needs a bit extra, do it. It is the thing we modellers do

If you are concerned, add the support. Doing so won't hurt anything. Personally, I always add support or bracing when gluing fuselage halves together regardless of whether I see flex in the videos or not. I prefer the extra strength. Others might not do so because they prefer to keep things light.

[Evan D]

No and wouldn't expect them to.

[BigJim]

Has anyone from Motion RC / FW addressed the tail flex seen during landing in some of the videos? I'm curious to know if additional spars are recommended during build before we all get our hands on them.

[MeyerVW]

On my al37 i was able to remove the factory decal on the tail without removing the paint. If the PJ is the same this may work. If not I will leave it. Thinking about making it in the Honeywell livery. Just dont want to repaint the aircraft.

[Gilatrout]

Will the striping on the aircraft come off easy with acetone as to not have to repaint the aircraft to apply new decals?

My experience is that no matter how careful, there will be some peeling. Hopefully it will be easy to match the white base color


I would be wary of using acetone as it could easily remove the paint and not just loosen the decal

[MeyerVW]

Will the striping on the aircraft come off easy with acetone as to not have to repaint the aircraft to apply new decals?

[guapoman2000]

I agree that the FW has better engineering but I do like the X battery tray and struts. While some are saying the X looks better I don't see it. That the FW is painted and has the chrome inlet rings is all I need to see.

I agree! This is all I need to see!

[Evan D]

I agree that the FW has better engineering but I do like the X battery tray and struts. While some are saying the X looks better I don't see it. That the FW is painted and has the chrome inlet rings is all I need to see.

[MeyerVW]

I just saw a video of the other aircraft. Its made of the same foam as my eflight twin otter. Wing wires have tape over them. I made a great choice at getting the freewing aircraft. Quality in night and day difference.

[Twowingtj]

For those that may not have seen it. An unboxing/assembly vid from RCG.

https://youtu.be/lN_UnQhogZc

[GliderGuy]

Xviper….Well written.

-GG

[xviper]

I did some more detail checks.. here are some major differences.

1) Wing and its connector (attached pictures). It looks like the RCMotion PJ50 wing connectors with 2 reinforcement rods seems more robust to support the back gear. The Xfly wing only have 1 joint rod in front of the back gear. This could be weak to support the landing back gear. Also, I do not preferred the Xfly connector version, as the wing flex upward during flight, connector could be stressed and loose contact and you would loose airelons controls.. but then again the plane is not going 200mph with high G turn to reach that stressing point.. so just my opinion here..

2) Motor are different with ESC. PJ50 (2x 2952-2100Kv Inrunner ) . Xfly motors(2 x 2860-KV2200 inrunner ). Not sure which is more efficient or faster..

3) Landing gear looks different.. not sure which is better..

4) PJ50 ESC is mounted in bottom back, where Xfly ESC seems to be mounted on wing belly. No big issue in either design here.

Thanks for this comparison. These, and NOT how one is more "scale" than the other, is what is more important to me and many others. Last night, I put up a series of photos of each, with similar camera angles on my computer screen. If you strip off all the decals/paint/windows and leave these things as just white, "plain Jane" airplanes, quite honestly, I can't tell them apart. I also happened to see a real one like these fly over me yesterday and from a plane enthusiast's point of view and NOT from a "plane spotter's" point of view, what crossed my mind was, "Hey, look! It's a Lear Jet kinda thing." So, really, in the air, they all look the same to me. Didn't care if it was a "Gulf this" or "Gulf that". It could have been a really short DC9 for what it was worth to me. I like them all.
Thus, how does a regular RC guy decide which one to buy? For me, point (1) above is a nice touch for the FW but not crucial. Point (2), not an extreme difference and although the Xfly EDF is a tiny bit more thrust (on paper), being quite a bit heavier a plane, I think the FW will "perform" better. Point (3), not a big deal for me. While rolling on the ground, I can't see the gear that well anyway and as soon as it's off the ground, the gear comes up and can't be seen much. Point (4), neither here nor there.

What pushed me to one side vs the other? That shill from Banana Hobby coming here and post bombing this thread with his X-Fly. That was really "bad form". He was rude, obnoxious, confrontational and pushy. Then he started a new thread to introduce his X-Fly. By then, his attitude and behavior was already noted. Nobody posted on that thread and soon, the thread was removed (as it should have been). That's not all. On the "other" forum, he acted in the same obnoxious and arrogant manner as he represented Banana Hobby. That's NOT the kind of customer relations any company wants. One of the Horizon Hobby reps acted in the same way - REALLY bad press for the company. Here and on the other forum, the representation from Motion/Freewing on this model has been nothing but congenial, diplomatic and pleasant, even in the face of "hater" and offensive posts. That's what I've always noticed about the Freewing guys. Almost everyone knows about Motion/FW customer relations and parts availability (not counting the recent Covid supply chain issues). X-Fly is as yet, an unknown in these areas. But Siriusly (pun), their bigger, late model jets haven't been around for all that long. Maybe in a year or two, when their company reps come back from customer relations school, they'll deserve a closer look.
For me, it's the Freewing PJ50 for the win! I want it sooner than later, so hopefully, I'll see mine around the end of January.

[Alan Sobie]

Been waiting forever for a commercial jet of this size!
Can’t wait!!

[GliderGuy]

Those wings look like they are built like the AL37 wings. And they are very very strong. I took one apart the other day. Al37 wing. Very nice construction.

I will be looking closely to see if the internal wing skin stiffening mod discussed in the AL37 forum is needed (one example link below) to reduce the potential for top wing skin cracking after lots of flying.

Hopefully the lack of stress by not having the weight of nacelles will help.

https://www.hobbysquawk.com/forum/rc...830#post330830

-GG

[MeyerVW]

Those wings look like they are built like the AL37 wings. And they are very very strong. I took one apart the other day. Al37 wing. Very nice construction.

[Gilatrout]

checks calendar. No, it's not March

No fair
;)

[JLambCWU]

[air-jon]

I did some more detail checks.. here are some major differences.

1) Wing and its connector (attached pictures). It looks like the RCMotion PJ50 wing connectors with 2 reinforcement rods seems more robust to support the back gear. The Xfly wing only have 1 joint rod in front of the back gear. This could be weak to support the landing back gear. Also, I do not preferred the Xfly connector version, as the wing flex upward during flight, connector could be stressed and loose contact and you would loose airelons controls.. but then again the plane is not going 200mph with high G turn to reach that stressing point.. so just my opinion here..

2) Motor are different with ESC. PJ50 (2x 2952-2100Kv Inrunner ) . Xfly motors(2 x 2860-KV2200 inrunner ). Not sure which is more efficient or faster..

3) Landing gear looks different.. not sure which is better..

4) PJ50 ESC is mounted in bottom back, where Xfly ESC seems to be mounted on wing belly. No big issue in either design here.

5) Freewing has Counter Rotating Fans...Xfly does not...

6) Customer service/parts. Freewing has Motion RC..if you are in a Motion RC serviced area of the world, you will get decent service. Xfly distributors seem pretty hit/miss so far.