Official Freewing B-2 Spirit Bomber 86" Twin 70mm EDF Jet

[viper1gj]

I am happy to report I have the perfect color match for this B-2. The guy at Home Depot NAILED IT. I can't even see where he put the test dab on the hatch. It's that good.

Here's the lid..

Aros, thanks for posting the HD code.
Gary

[Aros]

Anytime! He used this high tech device I had not seen before. I was extremely impressed.

[kallend]

Anyone wishing to experiment with the gyro should check out this post from ridgerunr in RCG:

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...postcount=1113

He successfully used the HE A3S3 programmer with the E52 gyro, and made the PC interface work.

[Epsilon83]

Any rumor on when the second shipment might be hitting the US?

[Tom]

Any rumor on when the second shipment might be hitting the US?

The second shipment is in the USA, already cleared customs, and very close to Motion RC. If everything goes smoothly, I suspect they will arrive next Wednesday May 4th or Thursday May 5th but you never know with the current state of everything. I'm estimating. Since we have things like chassis shortages, truck driver shortages, clogged ports, clogged rail, etc, etc, etc there is an outside chance it could be another 10 days. Of course it could also be Tuesday.

[Epsilon83]

The second shipment is in the USA, already cleared customs, and very close to Motion RC. If everything goes smoothly, I suspect they will arrive next Wednesday May 4th or Thursday May 5th but you never know with the current state of everything. I'm estimating. Since we have things like chassis shortages, truck driver shortages, clogged ports, clogged rail, etc, etc, etc there is an outside chance it could be another 10 days. Of course it could also be Tuesday.

Awesome! Thanks, that's all I needed to know. Days/weeks vs weeks/months. Might just put in an order then.

[Mud Duck]

I was too windy to fly today, so I made a modification to my B-2 and I thought I’d share it in hopes that it can save you some time if you decide to do the same. I love lights and almost immediately decided that I was going to add landing lights to the main gear struts as soon as I purchased the B-2.

Initially I bought and planned to use the same lights as on the B-2 nose gear, but that unit doesn’t fit the main struts properly, then I heard where avanti127 used the front gear landing lights from the Freewing PJ-50 and that worked very well with only a minor modification to get one side to mirror the other. They’re almost sized perfectly for the B-2 main struts and even include the machined screw needed to mount them and they’re only $4.29 each.
( https://www.motionrc.com/products/fr...41647263678649 )
The trick was finding the best route to run the wires and I was able to do it by only making ONE hole through the side of the wheel well (only about 3/8” to get through the wall), then through the ducted fan area and up into the cabin following the motor wires where I connected the landing light leads to a Freewing light controller (from the F-15 90mm spar parts list;
( https://www.motionrc.com/products/fr...troller-v3-e02 )
and set it up to be controlled on a spare channel. It would have been possible to use the B-2 control board, but I would have had to combine (solder) the connectors of two of the lights together to free up a connection port. I used the Freewing light controller because I also plan to add more lights later on.

I’ll be happy to try to answer any questions. Now that I’ve done it once, the next one should go quite a bit faster. 😄

[xviper]

DRAG BRAKES .......................... Use of "buddy box" required to split rudder signal into two pathways. Need to splice into "red" wire of each ribbon cable bundle at control box. Drag brakes only for use during landing ground roll. Like thrust reverse, you DO NOT activate in the air. When drag brakes activated, drag rudders are defeated. Front steering is removed from control box and hooked up to Assan steering gyro.

Here is the "buddy box". Note that all leads may be 3-wired but only the signal wire is needed for splicing into the red signal rudder wire. The other two wires are simply cut short. The leads from the unused RX ports (can be AUX 1, 2, 3) use all 3 wires. One is assigned to any unused switch. The left/right rudder brakes are a mix: Switch X > AUX "a" and Switch X > AUX "b". Crank the throw as high as it will go as you watch the brakes open up.

[kallend]

I was too windy to fly today, so I made a modification to my B-2 and I thought I’d share it in hopes that it can save you some time if you decide to do the same. I love lights and almost immediately decided that I was going to add landing lights to the main gear struts as soon as I purchased the B-2.

Initially I bought and planned to use the same lights as on the B-2 nose gear, but that unit doesn’t fit the main struts properly, then I heard about someone using the front gear landing lights from the Freewing PJ-50 and that worked very well with only a minor modification. They’re almost sized perfectly for the B-2 main struts and even include the machined screw needed to mount them and they’re only $4.99 each.

If you're at all handy you can make your own landing lights very inexpensively,

https://www.hobbysquawk.com/forum/rc...287#post344287

and I have a design and code for an Arduino landing light controller that is considerably less expensive than the FW controller, and which additionally will drive an afterburner too (not that the B-2 has afterburners).
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...&postcount=592

[Mud Duck]

If you're at all handy you can make your own landing lights very inexpensively

Thanks! Your lights look amazing on your Mirage. 🏆

I can/could be “handy” and make my own, but I also like plug-n-play when it’s available, and in the grand scheme, I don’t see many of Motion R/C’s spare parts as being excessively expensive; certainly more reasonably priced than other R/C retailers. 😊

Maybe if I had my own 3D printer I’d be more inclined to fabricate these things myself; I’d have dual lights on the main struts instead of a single LED.

[mshagg]

Got mine airborne today. No oscillations pinning it with roll gain at 30%. I'm sure they have their reasons for recommending the 45mm neutral position on the drag rudders, but it flies great with the factory setup as well, and you don't risk overdriving the servo, or introducing slop into the plastic ball links fine tuning the control rod length.

Has a haunting howl/whoosh doing slow passes down low which is surprisingly more-ish.

Book CG felt nose heavy for my tastes, needed a lot of up trim and not a lot of yaw to co-ordinate turns - will need to be mindful of pitch sensitivity if moving aft.

All in all it flew like a fairly conventional plane, which is testament to the design. Well done by all involved on modelling such an unusual subject.

Mods are the lower strut from, i think, the 70mm F35. These fit into the stock upper strut + spring. 55mm wheels, shimmed under the aft screws of the retract and some relief carved into the door to provide adequate closure.

[MeyerVW]

[QUOTE=mshagg;n344693]Got mine airborne today. No oscillations pinning it with roll gain at 30%. I'm sure they have their reasons for recommending the 45mm neutral position on the drag rudders, but it flies great with the factory setup as well, and you don't risk overdriving the servo, or introducing slop into the plastic ball links fine tuning the control rod length.

Did you do something with the rudders?

[mshagg]

Did you do something with the rudders?

I left them as they were out of the box mechanally and reduced gain to 85%

[viper1gj]

B-2 disappointing again this weekend on take off. I still have not got to fly it yet after two times out. I did the grass mods using FW Stinger 90 main struts drilled out to fit the 5mm B-2 main retract pin and used 60m wheels on the mains. I kept the 45mm stock nosewheels. This solved the grass drag problem and it accelerated well to flying speed.

Just as I started to rotate the nose drifted left and as I corrected with right rudder input the nose lifted and the B-2 veered hard left. With the wind now mostly cross from the right and the right wing up the flight controls were useless and the wind flipped it over hard left. The wind was 5-10 straight down the runway.

Fortunately damage is fixable with parts in the shop, mostly regluing broken off parts, hinges, and wing screw tabs. The 8mm wing tube snapped but I have replacement tubes in the shop parts box. I'll need some HD touch up paint. I will install an Assan AG63 on the steering before the next try. I didn't think I was that bad of a pilot but I'm finding the B-2 off grass to be a challenge.

[Mud Duck]

B-2 disappointing again this weekend on take off. .

Man, that sucks. Sorry to hear it is giving you such a hard time, especially after the grass field modifications. 🤷🏻♂️ Hope you can get her fixed up and try again.

[viper1gj]

Man, that sucks. Sorry to hear it is giving you such a hard time, especially after the grass field modifications. 🤷🏻♂️ Hope you can get her fixed up and try again.

Thanks, at least I don't think I have to buy anything to fix it except some touch up paint.
Gary

[mshagg]

B-2 disappointing again this weekend on take off. I still have not got to fly it yet after two times out. I did the grass mods using FW Stinger 90 main struts drilled out to fit the 5mm B-2 main retract pin and used 60m wheels on the mains. I kept the 45mm stock nosewheels. This solved the grass drag problem and it accelerated well to flying speed.

Just as I started to rotate the nose drifted left and as I corrected with right rudder input the nose lifted and the B-2 veered hard left. With the wind now mostly cross from the right and the right wing up the flight controls were useless and the wind flipped it over hard left. The wind was 5-10 straight down the runway.

Fortunately damage is fixable with parts in the shop, mostly regluing broken off parts, hinges, and wing screw tabs. The 8mm wing tube snapped but I have replacement tubes in the shop parts box. I'll need some HD touch up paint. I will install an Assan AG63 on the steering before the next try. I didn't think I was that bad of a pilot but I'm finding the B-2 off grass to be a challenge.

Sad to hear. Try a bigger nose wheel to lift the AoA, or go to a 55mm main wheel. With a good cushion of air underneath it lifts off really quick.

I busted the wing screw tab on a botched landing as well. I hogged out a bit of foam under the plastic wing end, pumped a bit of gorilla glue in there and then CA'd the broken tab back into place. The tab itself is hollow and with CA holding it in place, the expanding gorilla glue has nowhere else to go but up inside the tab - creating a solid plug of glue inside of it and bonded underneath the plastic part on the wing itself. Feels stronger than stock lol

[viper1gj]

Sad to hear. Try a bigger nose wheel to lift the AoA, or go to a 55mm main wheel. With a good cushion of air underneath it lifts off really quick.

I busted the wing screw tab on a botched landing as well. I hogged out a bit of foam under the plastic wing end, pumped a bit of gorilla glue in there and then CA'd the broken tab back into place. The tab itself is hollow and with CA holding it in place, the expanding gorilla glue has nowhere else to go but up inside the tab - creating a solid plug inside of glue inside of it and bonded underneath the plastic part on the wing itself. Feels stronger than stock lol

mshagg,

I have quite a large positive pitch when sitting on the ground with the current mods. I was concerned about having too much positive pitch angle especially on landing. Also, I think that the positive pitch attitude on the ground may have made it easy to lift off and that may have caused the nose wheel to loose steering ability when it started to veer left. It seemed that the ailerons and right drag rudder was ineffective at keeping the right wing down and heading under control at lift off speed. I'm not sure if a more rapid rotation would help or make it worse. WInds were 5-10 down the runway. Opinions welcome.

Great idea on fixing the screw tabs back on. The glue plug idea seems great. I was pondering of how to make them strong again! I have to rehinge the left elevator and replace the left wing tube and glue some bits and pieces back on. The right gear door came off but with no damage. A few wrinkles here and there but no structural problems. Basically some combat battle damage repairs and should be ready for another try. I have an AG63 here and will install it before another try.

Thanks.
Gary

[kallend]

. I will install an Assan AG63 on the steering before the next try. I didn't think I was that bad of a pilot but I'm finding the B-2 off grass to be a challenge.

AG63 - do you have brakes on the wheels?

[GliderGuy]

Viper…sorry to hear that. Not a good day for me either. One landing she started to crow hop, but I nailed her down with down elevator at just the right time. She stuck solid. (Pavement ops).

A couple of landings later and I touched a bit too fast. The nose started to rise, so I tried the prior successful technique. No joy….she began a divergent crow hop and the down elevator only aggravated the crow hop. It hit hard enough on one bounce to tear the front plastic gear mount outa the nose.

Damaged a lot of the hardware up front. Parts on order…nice all are in stock!

From this experience, down elevator after touchdown did not prove to be a good idea. One of these days I am gonna learn that a bounce needs a go around. A couple of times this saved a bad landing. I need to do it EVERY time the landing starts to go south. UGH….

On the positive side, I got in lots of B-2 flying before this incident….showing it to my pilot buddies. They LOVED it!

-GG