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

[Gilatrout]

I ran over a small stick yesterday. Filled the nick on the bottom. Had several cans of “white”. This one is pretty close to perfect.

RUST-OLEUM
FLAT PROTECTIVE ENAMEL
7790830 FLAT WHITE on the UPC label
Just says WHITE on the front

Used light coats and sprayed at least 6 in away. No crinkle resulted.

-GG

I just tested a spot using Montana Cans Gold " Shock White Pure" #S9120 and had an excellent match.

I sprayed the top right corner in the attached photo.

[SOS]

Received mine last Thursday, have been working on it slowly and today she is ready for the maiden, in a month or two when the weather decides to play nice. The plane was in great shape, the only problem I have is the red strobe under the plane does not work. It started to strobe and just stopped and that was it, tried plugging it into other ports and nothing.

[ColtPilot]

https://youtu.be/8JY4VxXju-Y

The PJ-50 in the house and let's open it up.

[GliderGuy]

Received mine last Thursday, have been working on it slowly and today she is ready for the maiden, in a month or two when the weather decides to play nice. The plane was in great shape, the only problem I have is the red strobe under the plane does not work. It started to strobe and just stopped and that was it, tried plugging it into other ports and nothing.

The LEDs cannot withstand 5V. If you accidentally plugged it into anything on the MCBE but the "strobe" or "light', she'd work just long enough to burn out. Gonna have to get another LED.

-GG

[SOS]

Hi, It was plugged into the Double Flash port.
Steve

[xviper]

All the light ports on the blue box are 2 pins. That's how you know the ones that are lower voltage. They're even labelled. If you plug a 2-pin connector into a 3-pin port, well, why would you do that anyway?

[GliderGuy]

Hi, It was plugged into the Double Flash port.
Steve

Ok - Then it is time to do some troubleshooting.

Bad LED? Get a couple of 1.5V batteries and hook them in series for 3V. Hook up the LED to them. If it doesn’t come on, check the solder connections to the LED. Gently Wiggle the wires, push them up and down. Do you have another plane to get an LED from?

If it were me, I would not invest too much time/effort into it. Unless you fly near dark, you don’t see that LED anyway. Just fly it. You could spend a lot of effort figuring it out. For what gain? Not much. Frustrating that a few cents of a part doesn’t work, but are you a puzzle solver at heart? Or…can you overlook this and be OK?

Now if you just gotta have it working, be prepared to maybe replace the plug, the wiring, the MCBE box, and the LED. MRC support will get you what you need, but time, effort, UGH. Just fly it. It is up to you.

-GG

[xviper]

I plugged an LED in once and had the wrong polarity. It flashed once and that was it - DEAD.

[GliderGuy]

If you are interested, here are my initial impressions of the PJ50 after 2 outings (30 flights total). Today was 10 mph gusting to about 15 mph when thermals passed by. I am at the CG mark on the wings right now. Moving the CG back will alter my comments below, no doubt. The below is with NO GYRO. Throws are by the book.

Executive Summary = I love it!

Random comments:

• Wow and double wow!....now to be more specific:
• The landing gear shock system is well tuned. A couple of times today a gust hit her just before touchdown...she didn't bounce after smacking the runway. The springs absorbed the energy w/o throwing her back into the air. I am impressed!!!!!!
• Sooooo easy to land, but watch out. This is a low drag design. She will float forever, if you come in hot.
• I settled on about 30% throttle on downwind, 15% on base leg, then reducing to maybe 5% to near touchdown...chopping the power totally when about 5 or 6 feet up. If you leave much power on, she will go forever before touchdown. Reverse thrust will be helpful on short fields. If your field is short…consider adding this!
• She has the lightest wing loading of any bird I have. A gust can easily blow her back into the air after touchdown. Keep flying her until she SLOWS a lot. Be ready to find yourself back in the air after touchdown when there are wind gusts. Don't look away until you are SLOW.
• Crosswind landings require a lot of upwind aileron after touchdown, or she'll lift the upwind wing easily. During approach in a crosswind, she's a piece of cake.
• She is sooooo darn fast, and she has a high thrust to weight ratio. Fly by at 1/2 power then point the nose straight up and go to full power.....she doesn't stop until she's very high up*. Amazing! A 60 to 70 degree climb never ends*.
• I flew around mostly at 1/2 power unless doing speed runs and acro. 4 min 30 seconds of mixed flying used only about 3200 mAh. With careful throttle management, 5 to 6 min flights on a 6000 mAh battery will be attainable.
• Everything runs cooler than the AL37. The BEC and ESCs "seem" to be cooler to the touch. I have a hand-held fan that I blow over the AL37 BEC and ESCs after a flight. This bird does not seem to need this...even after many flights in a row as fast as I could get her back into the air. Likely there is better through the body air flow for cooling.
• Flight characteristics; On low rate, she rolls nearly as fast as my F-4...she has very high roll rate. Slow down / chop power / pull the stick back....she just happily mushes along like the A-10 does. A gust might cause her to drop a wing, but otherwise....she's a kitty cat at slow speeds. At book throws, I could not get her to snap roll or spin. I almost got a true spin turn outa her...I think. But she self recovered quickly. I will work on it more, but I was not able to get a pretty hammer-head stall-turn outa her. She runs outa rudder authority...I can't push the nose around.
• No flap/elevator mix is needed.
• She totally lacks the Wichita wiggle (yaw oscillation) that the AL37 has on gusty days. That's not to say that the windy/gusty conditions I flew in today didn't knock her around, but no pitch, roll, or yaw oscillations were seen. She gets back to a static stability very quickly after a gust upset.
• The PJ50 will disappear on you and blend into a sky with haze...especially in up-sun sky quadrants. Be careful.
• High-speed, full power photo passes are incredible!!!! Beautiful
• During a couple of approaches, I got her a little slow. Interestingly she just does a rapid wing rock back and forth oscillation to touchdown….probably caused by alternate wing stall vortex shedding. Not that this type of approach is recommended, but she stopped in a very little length of runway and didn't hit hard.
• Only a couple of times did the wing drop enough on landing in gusts to contact the runway. I will add skid plate material where I see the wing contacted the runway. It was a gentle touch...no tendency to yaw the nose toward the tip that was touching.
• I decided to remove the aileron expo. But, I'm used to the F-4, MiG-29 and AL37. Just don't overcontrol on the aileron. Good aileron authority is maintained even at slow speeds
• Elevator authority is nicely tuned to the airframe. No issues with that. Rudder authority seems to be lacking, but it could be just me. I will experiment more with hammer heads, spins, snap rolls, on high rate.
• She flies inverted just fine. I added 3 clicks of power before inverting (3 clicks north of neutral). She does require some down stick to hold level inverted.
• High-speed into vertical rolls are a thing of beauty. WOW...to the moon*. VERY IMPRESSIVE!
• After all of this flying/acro, I do not see any wing foam flexing/stress cracks or even cell-boundary stress indications. I did not add internal carbon bracing like I did on the AL37.
• DO NOT LAND TOWARD OBSTICALS. You will likely hit them...because she floats and floats and floats if you are the least bit fast.
• This bird is one heck of a glider. Get her up 300-400 feet, chop the power, and go get a cup of coffee while she descends. She should thermal VERY well power off. I will find out.
• Again, you are gonna love the landing gear. True, it is narrow and will tip over, but it is VERY NICELY tuned for handling a dropped in landing. A good landing just feels REALLY GOOD. It has a nice sound rolling, too.
• Take off is a cinch. Add full power, touch the up elevator...you're flying. 1/4 flap on take-off, full flap on landing.
• Picky thing, but I am glad the landing gear deploy/retract is done without the artificial delay.
• Love the sound she makes flying by.
• I was impressed by how well she tolerated the 10 to 15 mph gusty conditions.
• My opinion.....Freewing has a winner here.

-GG

*You may assume the max altitude was less than the max allowed altitude for RC planes.

[MeyerVW]

Here it is so far. I love it.

[JamesonC]

Heck of a write up Gliderguy!!! Thanks for that!

[Evan D]

I don't have this and have not seen the XFly. I really like the PJ, it has typical FW quality and looks great in the air and on the bench. I like the contra rotating fans. I like the scheme and that the white is painted, on the ones here the paint looks well stuck. About the only thing I don't like are the "windows", it's a single sticker and they are plane dark gray dots. Not sure if the XFly window sticker would work or if Callie would make something, either way that's the one and only thing that struck me.

Good job FreeWing!

[avanti127]

If you are interested, here are my initial impressions of the PJ50 after 2 outings (30 flights total). Today was 10 mph gusting to about 15 mph when thermals passed by. I am at the CG mark on the wings right now. Moving the CG back will alter my comments below, no doubt. The below is with NO GYRO. Throws are by the book.

Executive Summary = I love it!

Random comments:

• Wow and double wow!....now to be more specific:
• The landing gear shock system is well tuned. A couple of times today a gust hit her just before touchdown...she didn't bounce after smacking the runway. The springs absorbed the energy w/o throwing her back into the air. I am impressed!!!!!!
• Sooooo easy to land, but watch out. This is a low drag design. She will float forever, if you come in hot.
• I settled on about 30% throttle on downwind, 15% on base leg, then reducing to maybe 5% to near touchdown...chopping the power totally when about 5 or 6 feet up. If you leave much power on, she will go forever before touchdown. Reverse thrust will be helpful on short fields. If your field is short…consider adding this!
• She has the lightest wing loading of any bird I have. A gust can easily blow her back into the air after touchdown. Keep flying her until she SLOWS a lot. Be ready to find yourself back in the air after touchdown when there are wind gusts. Don't look away until you are SLOW.
• Crosswind landings require a lot of upwind aileron after touchdown, or she'll lift the upwind wing easily. During approach in a crosswind, she's a piece of cake.
• She is sooooo darn fast, and she has a high thrust to weight ratio. Fly by at 1/2 power then point the nose straight up and go to full power.....she doesn't stop until she's very high up*. Amazing! A 60 to 70 degree climb never ends*.
• I flew around mostly at 1/2 power unless doing speed runs and acro. 4 min 30 seconds of mixed flying used only about 3200 mAh. With careful throttle management, 5 to 6 min flights on a 6000 mAh battery will be attainable.
• Everything runs cooler than the AL37. The BEC and ESCs "seem" to be cooler to the touch. I have a hand-held fan that I blow over the AL37 BEC and ESCs after a flight. This bird does not seem to need this...even after many flights in a row as fast as I could get her back into the air. Likely there is better through the body air flow for cooling.
• Flight characteristics; On low rate, she rolls nearly as fast as my F-4...she has very high roll rate. Slow down / chop power / pull the stick back....she just happily mushes along like the A-10 does. A gust might cause her to drop a wing, but otherwise....she's a kitty cat at slow speeds. At book throws, I could not get her to snap roll or spin. I almost got a true spin turn outa her...I think. But she self recovered quickly. I will work on it more, but I was not able to get a pretty hammer-head stall-turn outa her. She runs outa rudder authority...I can't push the nose around.
• No flap/elevator mix is needed.
• She totally lacks the Wichita wiggle (yaw oscillation) that the AL37 has on gusty days. That's not to say that the windy/gusty conditions I flew in today didn't knock her around, but no pitch, roll, or yaw oscillations were seen. She gets back to a static stability very quickly after a gust upset.
• The PJ50 will disappear on you and blend into a sky with haze...especially in up-sun sky quadrants. Be careful.
• High-speed, full power photo passes are incredible!!!! Beautiful
• During a couple of approaches, I got her a little slow. Interestingly she just does a rapid wing rock back and forth oscillation to touchdown….probably caused by alternate wing stall vortex shedding. Not that this type of approach is recommended, but she stopped in a very little length of runway and didn't hit hard.
• Only a couple of times did the wing drop enough on landing in gusts to contact the runway. I will add skid plate material where I see the wing contacted the runway. It was a gentle touch...no tendency to yaw the nose toward the tip that was touching.
• I decided to remove the aileron expo. But, I'm used to the F-4, MiG-29 and AL37. Just don't overcontrol on the aileron. Good aileron authority is maintained even at slow speeds
• Elevator authority is nicely tuned to the airframe. No issues with that. Rudder authority seems to be lacking, but it could be just me. I will experiment more with hammer heads, spins, snap rolls, on high rate.
• She flies inverted just fine. I added 3 clicks of power before inverting (3 clicks north of neutral). She does require some down stick to hold level inverted.
• High-speed into vertical rolls are a thing of beauty. WOW...to the moon*. VERY IMPRESSIVE!
• After all of this flying/acro, I do not see any wing foam flexing/stress cracks or even cell-boundary stress indications. I did not add internal carbon bracing like I did on the AL37.
• DO NOT LAND TOWARD OBSTICALS. You will likely hit them...because she floats and floats and floats if you are the least bit fast.
• This bird is one heck of a glider. Get her up 300-400 feet, chop the power, and go get a cup of coffee while she descends. She should thermal VERY well power off. I will find out.
• Again, you are gonna love the landing gear. True, it is narrow and will tip over, but it is VERY NICELY tuned for handling a dropped in landing. A good landing just feels REALLY GOOD. It has a nice sound rolling, too.
• Take off is a cinch. Add full power, touch the up elevator...you're flying. 1/4 flap on take-off, full flap on landing.
• Picky thing, but I am glad the landing gear deploy/retract is done without the artificial delay.
• Love the sound she makes flying by.
• I was impressed by how well she tolerated the 10 to 15 mph gusty conditions.
• My opinion.....Freewing has a winner here.

-GG

*You may assume the max altitude was less than the max allowed altitude for RC planes.

Great review!

[avanti127]

I don't have this and have not seen the XFly. I really like the PJ, it has typical FW quality and looks great in the air and on the bench. I like the contra rotating fans. I like the scheme and that the white is painted, on the ones here the paint looks well stuck. About the only thing I don't like are the "windows", it's a single sticker and they are plane dark gray dots. Not sure if the XFly window sticker would work or if Callie would make something, either way that's the one and only thing that struck me.

Good job FreeWing!

I agree with the windows E. I plan on cutting them out and installing Lexan on the inside with some lighting.

[James]

avanti127 - I would be excited to see this. Thats the one mod I don't think I saw on any of the AL37's. Thought it would have looked so cool if the entire fuse was lit up on the inside and each window was cut out but some full open, some half way, some closed....

[PowerJet]

.

[GliderGuy]

avanti127 - I would be excited to see this. That's the one mod I don't think I saw on any of the AL37's. Thought it would have looked so cool if the entire fuse was lit up on the inside and each window was cut out but some full open, some half way, some closed....

Wwwweeellllll…..I attempted it with the AL37. First thought about an individual LED in each window, but discounted it after doing the design...even looked at LED light strips. Probably would have worked, if the plane had not been assembled. Then I lit up the insides and cut out windows and covered with a clear plastic disc. The holes are too small to see, and I ended up creating a flying banana of light.

Then tried to paint the interior black to kill the lit banana effect. Could not get it evenly coated with black. So I ended up with a spottedly lit flying banana.

Then I tried fiber optics to take light from an enclosed light box to each window. I did a few windows, and it worked. But you could not see the windows in flight. Bigger fiber optic fiber for a larger light in the window would weigh too much.

I will try to post a photo, if I can find it.

-GG

Found them....It did look good on the ground after sunset or before sunrise.

[PowerJet]

I added logo lights to the tail. I placed lights inside the engine pylons. I think it came out pretty good. Had a little mishap on top of the tail. Spackling it now.

[xviper]

All this talk about the PJ's paint possibly being bad like on the AL-37, I just came back from doing a test. I took the same masking tape that I used on the AL-37, stuck it on a small strip on the underside where it can't be seen if the paint pulled off. I rubbed the tape really well so it stuck on the paint. Then I peeled off the tape and lo and behold ............... NO PAINT CAME OFF! This white paint is just fine and is nothing like what came on the original batch of the AL-37. Now, I can't say what would happen if a larger section was masked off since I'm not that willing to chance it just to prove a point, however, on the AL, I had similar small sections masked off and the paint came off like a stripper's top.

[PowerJet]

Wwwweeellllll…..I attempted it with the AL37. First thought about an individual LED in each window, but discounted it after doing the design...even looked at LED light strips. Probably would have worked, if the plane had not been assembled. Then I lit up the insides and cut out windows and covered with a clear plastic disc. The holes are too small to see, and I ended up creating a flying banana of light.

Then tried to paint the interior black to kill the lit banana effect. Could not get it evenly coated with black. So I ended up with a spottedly lit flying banana.

Then I tried fiber optics to take light from an enclosed light box to each window. I did a few windows, and it worked. But you could not see the windows in flight. Bigger fiber optic fiber for a larger light in the window would weigh too much.

I will try to post a photo, if I can find it.

-GG

Found them....It did look good on the ground after sunset or before sunrise.

That's actually pretty cool. It looks like the reflection you see in the windows from passengers reading newspapers and other literature. Nice!