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

[Aros]

I don't have the numbers and can't prove this statement but I have the feeling this may be our most successful launch of an RC aircraft since the twin 80mm A-10. Just outstanding sales. What a tremendous model. Simply cannot wait to fly her.

[GliderGuy]

Hi SanExup,

“…don't know if you saw the latest MRC video with the Trio of B2s? It looks like they ended up moving the battery back.”

Yes and very cool.

I will probably experiment with moving the battery back.

However, I made 37 flights on my day #1 with the CG slightly nose heavy (Admiral 6000 with rear edge lined up with the trailing edge of the battery tray).

Pretty well shows this is OK for maidens. Why? Out of 37 landings, I had only 3 that were slightly bouncy and she didn’t do anything weird on the 3. No bounces when the wind was calm…wind came up and that’s when she bounced a little the 3 times.

I submit that these results are hard to beat.

No argument that the CG can be experimented with and probably should be.

To each his own, but for now….I like the way she lands and handles the mild bounces I made her endure.

-GG

[xviper]

I don't want to be a Karen here but I just have to go on the record that using battery placement in the battery bay is a poor way to convey CG. RX placement might be different, etc., etc. I wish everyone at this point would stick to using dimensions from wing root or some other fixed point, as the gold standard. I promise to pull out my ruler and measure if I find a great working CG placement for a plane. For some planes a few millimeters can transform a plane from difficult and unpleasant to a new favorite.

I'm with you on the battery placement. "My battery is 2mm beyond the 3rd grain of the wooden tray". The thing is, my battery weighs 900g. My other battery weighs 700g. Where the CG is or where you choose it to be doesn't change. You can put your guinea pig in there and strap him down. The CG doesn't change just because you've got a guinea pig in there. I may put 3 hamsters in there and they won't be in the same place as your guinea pig.

[Evan D]

The Admiral Pro 6000 weighs 846g by Motions site. The Socokin 600 I am using weighs 830g. I have the tail end of the battery even with the foam edge aft of the battery tray. Jax Quad has a good picture on RCG. Mine is where he shows but I do have the battery wires going towards the front and he has them towards the rear. With my fingers this is just slightly tail heavy to the CG marks under the plane.

I agree battery placement is not a good description of balance and should be accurately checked.

There was mention that balance isn't that critical on the B-2. Flying wings are typically sensitive to balance because they don't have a tail to leverage pitch and yaw. The B-2 is big so the critical range may be larger than other, smaller, wings but it still is going to be more critical than most planes.

[xviper]

Remember that topic I brought up about what a nice box the B-2 came in and the design that went into it? Well, I was just at the supermarket and look what I found:



15 bucks for a little beer cooler. I'm gonna try not to complain about how expensive our planes are getting these days. The next airplane I get, I'm keeping the box for an ice chest or whatever else I can think of making out of it.

[tab28682]

Stall turn...

Wingover, yes. Stall turn, not a good idea....:)

[Evan D]

I do more than one every flight. Pretty darn slow too. Just don’t try a flat spin, haven’t been able to get it to even come close yet. Ends up in a dive to the deck every time.

[tab28682]

For comic relief, here is an article I wrote that was published in the March 1994 issue of RCM. This model is strongly believed to be the first RC model of the B-2 ever built and flown, taking to the air in 1989. Apologies for the photocopy. I have been looking for a better pic, but no luck so far.

Also, more apologies are in order for the writing.

A rather simpler model than the Freewing offering…:)

We flew the heck out of that model in the 1990s. Flew much like a Zagi, only better. It attended many fly ins. Ed went to other hobbies and left the B-2 with me.

I lost count of the people that told me the following:

1. That will never fly.
2. That model will never fly with a Cox Black Widow .049.

The best response was to fly it for them. Typical reaction was "Huh."

I still have the model stashed in a corner of my garage…:)

Ed’s B-2 model design became a HobbyLab project for a while. After HobbyLab went Tango Uniform, the early tooling ended up with Megatech, which is where their old geared brushed motor prop powered B-2 ARF came from.

Kudos to Freewing for releasing an amazing version of the B-2!

[Dougcarr73]

I have the reflex gyro on a 3 position switch (gyro on, attitude hold, and trainer). Anytime I place the aircraft in trainer mode it does an immediate 45 degree nose dive. I tested it on the ground and noticed that the elevators and ailerons level out when putting it into trainer mode. Has anyone else experienced this, or know what it could be? I used a combination of sub trim and linkage adjustment to adjust the control surfaces to the recommended settings.

[xviper]

I have the reflex gyro on a 3 position switch (gyro on, attitude hold, and trainer). Anytime I place the aircraft in trainer mode it does an immediate 45 degree nose dive. I tested it on the ground and noticed that the elevators and ailerons level out when putting it into trainer mode. Has anyone else experienced this, or know what it could be? I used a combination of sub trim and linkage adjustment to adjust the control surfaces to the recommended settings.

You're using the Reflex gyro in this B-2? You'd be the first, so I doubt anyone can help you. Those Reflex gyros are designed to work only in FMS planes that are on the Reflex list. They are pre-programmed and can't be changed. Using one in a different plane is just asking for trouble. Even using one in a plane that it was meant for, can still be unpredictable.

Oh, if you're just asking about the Reflex, you should start a new thread and give more details as to what plane it's in, etc. The Reflex gyro and the E-52 that's in the B-2 may have very little in common.

[Evan D]

I think he’s just calling the E-52 a reflex.

I tried the modes ONCE and just leave it on regular mode gyro, solid red.

Mine didn’t do that. I think it remembers level from its attitude when you plug it in…

[Dougcarr73]

I think he’s just calling the E-52 a reflex.

I tried the modes ONCE and just leave it on regular mode gyro, solid red.

Mine didn’t do that. I think it remembers level from its attitude when you plug it in…

My bad! Sorry for the confusion, xviper. You're correct, Evan. Somehow I got Reflex stuck in my head. 🤦♂️🤷♂️

I've been doing the same and leaving it in the regular gyro mode. It works superbly. Now that I've mastered my landings after a couple flights with bouncy endings, it's now a dream to fly. The key for me was to not hold the flare. Once it's near touchdown and the rear wheels touch, I gently dump the nose.

Back to the original topic, there are times when I'm a distance out and I second guess my orientation. I like to briefly bump on the trainer to confirm wings level. I've done that before with SAFE mode in some of my other aircraft. I'll do a bit more digging to see if there's a way to adjust the nose attitude up a few degrees via the programmer.

[ridgerunner]

Here's an interesting vid on the B-2 Spirit of Freedom located in Dayton...

[kallend]

My bad! Sorry for the confusion, xviper. You're correct, Evan. Somehow I got Reflex stuck in my head. 🤦♂️🤷♂️

I've been doing the same and leaving it in the regular gyro mode. It works superbly. Now that I've mastered my landings after a couple flights with bouncy endings, it's now a dream to fly. The key for me was to not hold the flare. Once it's near touchdown and the rear wheels touch, I gently dump the nose.

Back to the original topic, there are times when I'm a distance out and I second guess my orientation. I like to briefly bump on the trainer to confirm wings level. I've done that before with SAFE mode in some of my other aircraft. I'll do a bit more digging to see if there's a way to adjust the nose attitude up a few degrees via the programmer.

I'm **guessing** that item 8 on the programming card ("Horizontal compensation") will be to adjust the attitude in trainer mode for level flight. The manual isn't very specific on that (see p10) and no-one has a programming card yet..

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1052/4162/files/E52_Instruction_Manual.pdf

[RudyD54]

The winds died down this past Monday so I was finally able to get out with Hugh to maiden my B-2. Wind was dead calm for most of the day. I had some issues getting off the grass using my SMC 6200 and I originally thought I may have been too heavy as I was able to get in the air with the SMC 5300, but post crash landing inspection revealed that I also had an issue with the spring on the back side of one of my landing gears preventing the wheel truck from rotating or absorbing any of the landing forces.

Flight was awesome, got a solid 5 minutes, and I'm very happy with the performance. I did not use the clear vertical stab and didn't notice any wobble in the air, but I did notice a little rudder was needed to keep the nose down in the turns. Unfortunately as I mentioned, the flight did not end well. The B2 definitely floats a while and when I landed, it seems like one of the struts did not compress at all and lead to the nose slamming down, and then springing back up into the air where the crosswind caught it and cartwheeled it. Damage wasn't terrible, luckily just the plastic wing mount, the carbon spar, one gear door, a bent lead screw in the retract, and the nosegear mount. A little hot water, epoxy, foam-tac, straightening of the lead screw, and a carbon tube from an avanti later and she's almost as good as new.

I corrected the spring issue by rotating the bottom half of the spring so the screw entered the ring from the other side therefore allowing it to have a very small curve so it bends out of the way instead of locking up.

Both videos of the maiden and the issue I found are attached:

https://youtu.be/CRSV-Rdbvuk

https://youtube.com/shorts/wuu0Pu23Iz4?feature=share

Cant wait to get her out again, and hopefully no more cartwheels

[xviper]

Thanks, Rudy, for pointing this out. Not many of us would have thought to check the wheel trucks ability to do its full swing. One more thing to check before flying it.

[Hugh Wiedman]

The winds died down this past Monday so I was finally able to get out with Hugh to maiden my B-2. Wind was dead calm for most of the day. I had some issues getting off the grass using my SMC 6200 and I originally thought I may have been too heavy as I was able to get in the air with the SMC 5300, but post crash landing inspection revealed that I also had an issue with the spring on the back side of one of my landing gears preventing the wheel truck from rotating or absorbing any of the landing forces.

Flight was awesome, got a solid 5 minutes, and I'm very happy with the performance. I did not use the clear vertical stab and didn't notice any wobble in the air, but I did notice a little rudder was needed to keep the nose down in the turns. Unfortunately as I mentioned, the flight did not end well. The B2 definitely floats a while and when I landed, it seems like one of the struts did not compress at all and lead to the nose slamming down, and then springing back up into the air where the crosswind caught it and cartwheeled it. Damage wasn't terrible, luckily just the plastic wing mount, the carbon spar, one gear door, a bent lead screw in the retract, and the nosegear mount. A little hot water, epoxy, foam-tac, straightening of the lead screw, and a carbon tube from an avanti later and she's almost as good as new.

I corrected the spring issue by rotating the bottom half of the spring so the screw entered the ring from the other side therefore allowing it to have a very small curve so it bends out of the way instead of locking up.


Cant wait to get her out again, and hopefully no more cartwheels

I have to say this is an outstanding FW creation, I'm very impressed. Rudy did a nice job on the maiden but damn, it was difficult to track being so stealthy. As I was videoing the landing, it looked to me that it was going to end up just fine but when the mains touched and it cartwheeled, I had no thought of that happening and was a bit stunned. First thought was a rouge crosswind, but once Rudy found the one main gear spring not working, all of a sudden it made sense. It was a bit too fast on the landing (but not by much for a maiden) and we're both surprised how slow it can go and how easily it floats.

I'm definitely looking forward to it's next flight and hopefully I'll be better at "finding" it in the video monitor, but it is a sneaky little bast...rd. How awesome it's profile is with a bit cloudy background. Talk about a FW "Grand Slam", all in one bird (Quality, Finish, Performance & Iconic to boot)!

[Amahoser]

I hooked up the gyro gain to my receiver to try and eliminate the shake at high speeds. Worked well. I run it at about 50% and it flies just as good! The test flight went well. I'll keep this setting but I'll experiment with less or even 0 gain and see how she does. Here's the vid:

https://youtu.be/WjPxXRd5P2U

Jose

[GliderGuy]

I hooked up the gyro gain to my receiver to try and eliminate the shake at high speeds. Worked well. I run it at about 50% and it flies just as good! The test flight went well. I'll keep this setting but I'll experiment with less or even 0 gain and see how she does. Here's the vid:

https://youtu.be/WjPxXRd5P2U

Jose

Well done!

Excellent demonstration of 2 things related to landing and previously discussed:
1) Don’t force a bad landing…power up and try again, if there is time to react.
2) No need for high speed on final / set low power and then float her in.

Nice acro, too!

-GG

[TH95147]

I hooked up the gyro gain to my receiver to try and eliminate the shake at high speeds. Worked well. I run it at about 50% and it flies just as good! The test flight went well. I'll keep this setting but I'll experiment with less or even 0 gain and see how she does. Here's the vid:

https://youtu.be/WjPxXRd5P2U

Jose

When did you loose the left main gear door? on a previous flight? circumstances? thanks