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

[xviper]

NIce Nikes...
When is FW going to make a gear door that fully closes properly...?
And the gear wobbles like I've been flying and landing it (not healthy for the gear) - i would think a brand new plane would be tight...(?)

If I'm correct about the door close mechanism, it's a mechanical spring loaded bar that the strut pushes on to close the door. I think it's just a matter of adjusting the rod length so that it closes the door more fully when the strut pins the bar down. Even if it was a servo actuated door closer, the same method is used to adjust the close limit on the door. I usually do this on every plane I get. They are never adjusted properly from the assembly line. It's just part of the getting a plane set up for operation (fine tuning) and not necessarily a design flaw. It's no different than setting all control surfaces to neutral after you've powered up the plane for the first time.

I've also seen that kind of gear wobble on first flights of any plane. In this case, the retention methodology of the strut onto the retract pin needs to evolve to hold it more firm. Perhaps a longer pin that goes into the bore of the strut is the answer.

[kallend]

NIce Nikes...
When is FW going to make a gear door that fully closes properly...?
And the gear wobbles like I've been flying and landing it (not healthy for the gear) - i would think a brand new plane would be tight...(?)

Hey, one of my Gripen doors closes properly, as do all three of the Eurofighter doors.

One landing and FW gear wobbles - that's the way it is.

[jasmith41]

It flies fantastic. If you set you as per Jeremy's video. You are in good shape. I had a few trim clicks but I am very close to cent with his set up. +4 ele and +4 ail. The rudder in 0 Its a smooth flying aircraft and I had no signs of any problems with it. Keep up a pinch of speed on landing and see floats right in. Keep flying it the entire time.

NIce Nikes...
When is FW going to make a gear door that fully closes properly...?
And the gear wobbles like I've been flying and landing it (not healthy for the gear) - i would think a brand new plane would be tight...(?)

[MeyerVW]

My nose wheel is off. I havent looked but maybe its loose. It will nose into the wind easy well. I also do not have the clear fin in. It tracks just like the pj and al do. My first take off, not on cam era, was smooth. Very little wind. Thats was my experience

[Hugh Wiedman]

It flies fantastic. If you set you as per Jeremy's video. You are in good shape. I had a few trim clicks but I am very close to cent with his set up. +4 ele and +4 ail. The rudder in 0 Its a smooth flying aircraft and I had no signs of any problems with it. Keep up a pinch of speed on landing and see floats right in. Keep flying it the entire time.

Nice flight, Congrats! Maybe it's just me, but it did look like the nose wheel strut wobbled just a bit (maybe left and right) once you got a little speed on the runway for take-off and seemed to have a hard time tracking straight? A few have thought it doesn't track straight and there have been several options suggested to correct that. Wonder if a nose strut brace might help, but then my eyes have never been too sharp and there may not be the wobble I perceived. Just a thought.

[MeyerVW]

It flies fantastic. If you set you as per Jeremy's video. You are in good shape. I had a few trim clicks but I am very close to cent with his set up. +4 ele and +4 ail. The rudder in 0 Its a smooth flying aircraft and I had no signs of any problems with it. Keep up a pinch of speed on landing and see floats right in. Keep flying it the entire time.

[Radar-Guy]

Awesome work as I also fly from mossy based grass fields a lot I suspect any esc/battery woes you had will magically disappear now. I wonder if the MIG 29 twist and turn was the intended drop in for the moulded bigger wheel wells.

Do you have a picture of the doors shut, are they flush. I wonder if there is room to fit the dual axle two stock wheels to the outside for scale appearance only.

Thanks! With these wheels the doors stay ajar by about 3mm. I‘d like to see first if I can get her to leave the ground. If that works, I‘ll try the behaviour with slighter smaller main wheels. The next option would be to cut away a small area of the door to clear the wheel and to cover it with a small printed blister. Shimming the rear portion of the retract mounting plate might be another option, but one of the previous ones is my favourite choice.
Note also, that the 60mm whell doesn't touch the wheel well at any position and that an outboard facing position didn't work, because the touched the front door hinge during retraction.

The original wheel truck is tilted during retraction (upon contact against the "wheel well ceiling"), hence you would need to retain that feature for the outer wheels. And, they would still be there and there is a good chance that these will touch the grass. But maybe I got your idea wrong.

[xviper]

Yes triple checked... my first thoughts too.

Well, I guess rules that out. When you posted your experience with the steering, it was the first and I thought OK, it's beginning. However, since it's just the one case and none before or after your post, I was relieved to see that it was a "one off". Regret that it had to be yours.

Another recent acquisition of mine showed the same characteristic, but the case of my HobbyKing KingTwin, it was quite widespread. The whole front strut assembly and steering mechanism was simply too flexible. HobbyKing has been working on a fix for it. I resolved most of it by adding a stiffer steering rod. The strut still flexes but is now tolerable. I'm glad this is not the case with the B-2.

[Amahoser]

Is everything tight in the nose gear assembly? (Steering arm tight?)

Yes triple checked... my first thoughts too.

[Raydar]

Single wheel main gear conversion finished, the nose gear wheels were also exchanged (50mm). Reverting to stock main struts can be done in less than 10 minutes, no foam had to be cut at this point. Positive AoA is retained.

Awesome work as I also fly from mossy based grass fields a lot I suspect any esc/battery woes you had will magically disappear now. I wonder if the MIG 29 twist and turn was the intended drop in for the moulded bigger wheel wells.

Do you have a picture of the doors shut, are they flush. I wonder if there is room to fit the dual axle two stock wheels to the outside for scale appearance only.

[Gravythe clown]

Hi
a couple of days ago I gave my maiden report. First and third flight was good. I mentioned that on my second flight, with a very minor crosswind, I had steering issues. I couldn't track straight one power was applied. The plane would veer and was uncontrollable. Yesterday, I tried again. This time I gave down elevator until flying speed and all was well. I will assume that the nose gets light and steering becomes difficult. Not so sure but I might play with cg and see if it improves. Plane seems great in the air.

Jose

That was my first thought when you mentioned the issue you had in the second flight. I have a few planes that are just like that. My FMS A-10 was the most common to do it. I have I’ve the last couple years just added up stick on all my tricycle gear planes until it reaches flight speed. Then easing off to neutral stick usually results in nice smooth lift off.

glad you got it sorted out. I’m hoping to meet in mine tomorrow, if the winds slow down.


Gravy

[xviper]

Hi
a couple of days ago I gave my maiden report. First and third flight was good. I mentioned that on my second flight, with a very minor crosswind, I had steering issues. I couldn't track straight one power was applied. The plane would veer and was uncontrollable. Yesterday, I tried again. This time I gave down elevator until flying speed and all was well. I will assume that the nose gets light and steering becomes difficult. Not so sure but I might play with cg and see if it improves. Plane seems great in the air.

Jose

Is everything tight in the nose gear assembly? (Steering arm tight?)

[Amahoser]

Hi
a couple of days ago I gave my maiden report. First and third flight was good. I mentioned that on my second flight, with a very minor crosswind, I had steering issues. I couldn't track straight one power was applied. The plane would veer and was uncontrollable. Yesterday, I tried again. This time I gave down elevator until flying speed and all was well. I will assume that the nose gets light and steering becomes difficult. Not so sure but I might play with cg and see if it improves. Plane seems great in the air.

Jose

[F106DeltaDart]

Thanks guys. Although the mod certainly isn’t necessary, it was definitely something that I wanted to do either way. I’m a bit nutty about getting landing gear right. Initially, I wasn’t planning on modding until after the maiden flight. The continuous winds this time of year made it an easy choice to just get it done now. I’ve also got an Assan steering gyro set aside for it, so I’ll get that installed prior to the maiden as well.

[Pete914]

Really nice work with that landing gear! Impressive to start cutting foam before you even flew her. Usually, that's a "season 2" type of mod but A+ on effort and outcome. It's one of a kind now...

If you are finding your B-2 isn't tracking well on the ground don't forget to check the set screw on the front gear. Mine got loose and it start pulling hard to the right; the gyro couldn't overcome it.

[KevinMar]

A few more detail shots of the gear modifications

Your work is incredible, and your dedication admirable, but this is certainly not something I'll be attempting!

The look of the front gear further forward definitely looks better then stock, but I understand why Freewing and Alpha did not pursue this setup.

[jasmith41]

Warning: Some may consider this post to be a bit off topic, so skip it if it offends you.

Comparison between the B-2 and X8 flying wing.

This is about my old X8 Skywalker flying wing from many, many years ago. Went over some of my older YouTube videos and found quite a few vids of this plane. I flew it a lot and did all kinds of experimenting with it. I bring this up because the B-2 bears a vague resemblance to the X8. They are both about the same size (B-2 is 80mm larger wingspan), so I can compare things like flight characteristics, visibility, landing style and effectiveness of airbrakes on landing. I find it an interesting comparison.

The X8 wingspan is 2120mm, black with fluorescent markings for better visibility, pusher prop, big winglets, pop up airbrakes, flying weight was over 3000g with a 5000mah, 6s LiPo (similar to the B-2) but could haul as much as 20,000+mah, no gyro back in those days.

X8 was a big, floaty wing that was able to float "forever" as I'm sure the B-2 also can. Back in those days, on a native reserve I got the X8 up to 3100 feet (with several spotters helping). It took nearly 5 minutes to get up there and over 11 minutes to glide back down, no power. As far as visibility was concerned, those fluorescent markings faded to grey at about 200 - 250 feet. Nevertheless, even though it was barely visible at 3100 feet, there was no mistaking what it was doing and in which direction it was flying. I believe it was primarily due to its shape. (This was at a time when an aerial video survey company was doing autonomous flight testing with the X8 at the same flying site. They launched theirs with a very large, powerful and dangerous catapult.) With a 5000 battery, it could fly for an hr, with minimal throttle and good use of the glide. With 20,000+ mah on board and a load of equipment, it could fly 50 miles out and 50 miles back and land.

Landing was tricky until one got the technique down. The X8 suffered from ground effect once it got to about 3 feet off the deck. When you thought it was about to touch down, it would continue to glide for another 50 to 100 feet. Bringing it down with elevator became a very abrupt maneuver, oft-times resulting in a "slam dunk". Installing airbrakes and using them at the right moment helped tremendously with the landing - made it nearly child's play.

I mentioned about the potential for squirrelly ground handling of the B-2 because another guy put retracts on his X8 and the configuration looked very much like the B-2 - very short wheelbase, very "darty" on the ground roll. It did NOT do well with wheels. The fact that this B-2 appears to be solid on the ground is a testament to what went into it.

With those fairly large winglets, the X8 was extremely stable with no hint of a wobble, even with no gyro. There was no yaw capability, just a "bank and yank" plane but it worked very well. Banked turns were graceful and tracked solidly thru the turn - didn't need yaw control.

Here is one flight of my old X8. I'll only leave a link so don't click on it if you don't like the idea of this post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGBj5pEo8fI

i think i need a shower after that one... 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[F106DeltaDart]

A few more detail shots of the gear modifications

[F106DeltaDart]

As I still haven’t had the time or weather to maiden my B-2, I’ve continued working on some mods to the landing gear. I finished up moving the nose gear forward and have installed a servo to control the nose gear door. Since that change effectively shortened the nose gear by around a 1/2 inch, I decided that I’d need to shorten the mains to get enough AOA for takeoff. The shorter mains would also look more scale. There was just one problem.. If I shortened the mains by 1/2”, the folded gear trucks would hit the retract motor. I decided to do something I have done successful a few times before the remedy this; flip the retract to fold the other way around. I did this on my FMS P-39 mains which had a very similar issue.

After a few hours with a belt sander and some leftover styrene, I was able to reconfigure the retracts to fold away from the motor. I then shortened the struts by a 1/2”, re-tapped the set screws, and reinstalled them on the model. Then I realized that with shorter gear legs, I could move the retract units mounting point a bit farther forward. I did this by using the forward screws in the stock mounting plate to mount the aft retract screws, and adding some plywood to mount the forward screws. While it was a lot of fiddling (most of the day), I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. I’ll get to detailing the cockpit next with some more scale sized 3D printed pilots. Here’s how it looks so far:

[James]

Hey guys! Sorry I have been absent but it was with good reason. Alex and I spent the week onboarding our newest marketing team members, Wesley and Lori Miller of the Merry Boozers. They are now officially working for Motion RC and will produce more content, helping us better attend events and provide you with more information on all our RC products.

Let's welcome Wesley and Lori to the Motion RC family!

Wes and I had so much fun formation flying the B-2s and look forward to bringing you more content! Have the CG correct and 10% throttle and she lands slow and gentle.

I have some catching up to do in the threads, but we filmed our maidens and such and I will provide my write-up either over the weekend or Monday.