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

[GliderGuy]

Me either, too expensive...

My first thought, too. But so many products are the “same-ish” in terms of their in-flight planform presentation. Unique examples are: F-22, A-10, F-14, AL37, PJ50, SR-71 (if ever), XB-70 (if ever). F-117 (if ever), and so on.

The B-2, IMHO, presents such a unique planform in flight that, albeit not cheap, it is hard to pass up.

Another thing to consider, if we want mfg’s to give us unique options…we need to support them when they do come out with unique products.

Fortunately, FW and MRC did their homework and ended up with a NICE flyable AND unique product that looks GREAT in the air and handles well.

No…I am not affiliated with these companies! I simply like unique birds. I don’t want 30 planes that all look about the same in the air. Nothing wrong with that….but not my plan.

-GG

Hangar: F-4, AL37, MiG-29, PJ50, B-2, P-38,
and formerly the A-10…crashed before I knew about RF chokes. May get another A-10….also so unique.

[Evan D]

Me either, too expensive...

still don't want one....
yet. 🤣🤣😎

[jasmith41]

Yep….In full scale sailplanes we call that video a high speed pass! From which we can pull up, climb to down wind, complete a pattern and land. Tons of energy to dissipate.

For the B-2, one’s mindset must change from “EDF JET” to “BIG WING FLIES WELL ON 25%” while in the pattern.

I am lazy, so I’ve set a mix to add a bit of up elevator while in the pattern so I don’t have to hold it. See my prior post about this.

-GG

still don't want one....
yet. 🤣🤣😎

[Radar-Guy]

Thanks GG! I fully agree with your conclusion, I was way to cautious and reduced throttle too late each time to avoid stalling or unrecoverable sink rates. Training approaches are on the list.

[GliderGuy]

Great advice, well stated and added to my pre-flight notes. 🏆

Yep….In full scale sailplanes we call that video a high speed pass! From which we can pull up, climb to down wind, complete a pattern and land. Tons of energy to dissipate.

For the B-2, one’s mindset must change from “EDF JET” to “BIG WING FLIES WELL ON 25%” while in the pattern.

I am lazy, so I’ve set a mix to add a bit of up elevator while in the pattern so I don’t have to hold it. See my prior post about this.

-GG

[Mud Duck]

Try this….assume 10 clicks…

SLOW THIS BABY DOWN….you were way way faster than she needs.
-GG

Great advice, well stated and added to my pre-flight notes. 🏆

[GliderGuy]

Hi Radar-Guy,
Great job on the mods. I agree MRC should offer a grass operations upgrade kit.

She flies SLOW very well. Don’t be afraid to float her in. You were screaming fast!

Try this….assume 10 clicks from bottom is mid throttle

Reduce to about 25% power on downwind (still a lot of power)….don’t fear. About 5 clicks lower than mid-throttle at this point.

On base reduce 3 more clicks…to about 10% power. Stay with this setting until over the threshold. Plenty of power still for a gentle descent at 10%!!!! Don’t fear! Note you will need to hold a little up elevator as you reduce power. If she tries to settle in early, add a click or two of power if needed.

Go immediately to zero power over the threshold. She will glide into ground effect so slowly as you hold her off.

Using the above I used 1/2 or less of a 200 ft area including the roll out on pavement. She can land short. On grass, the roll will be sooooo short.

In strong winds you may want to reduce only 4 clicks from 50% for downwind then reduce 2 more clicks on base leg.

SLOW THIS BABY DOWN….you were way way faster than she needs.

Glad no damage. Think BIG WING = lots of lift = can fly slowly

-GG

[Flying Dutchman]

Glad that your experiments worked out successfully, RG.
Well done and thanks for sharing!

Gives me an extra option on our grass field, since I don’t have any intention to send back this beauty!

[Radar-Guy]

Successful first flight from grass! The "single main wheels" mod plus 50mm nose wheels did the job. HRB 6s 5000 mAh Lipo, AUW 3950g, setup as per latest revision of the manual (V2.5).
The landing is missing on the video, after three go-arounds the battery was depleted and the following "emergency approach" ended ten metres short of the field. Surprisingly no damage at all. To be continued.
It would be great when Motion RC would release a "single main wheel" strut option for operations from this kind of grass.

Warning: Mobius 4K Hatcam video

[Jax Quad]

[viper1gj]

...One other thing I’ve done is set up a mix with my unused rotary flap control channel. I made the channel I normally use to control the flaps (for aircraft that have flaps) the master and the elevator the slave. Now when I slow down and put the gear down, I roll in full what normally would be “flaps down control”. This adds just the right amount of additional up trim needed for the slow, gear down, pattern part of the flight. I can set 1/2 what would normally be “flaps” for take-off for just the right touch of up trim needed during the slow part of the flight right after liftoff.
I just pretend like I am flying a “flapped” bird…but of course the B-2 isn’t a flapped bird.
This could be implemented with a switch you would normally use for “flaps”, but she will jump up when the switch is first moved unless she is slowed quite a bit first. Would still work. For example, you’d slow down, drop the gear and when the nose starts to drop…flip the switch to “add flaps…I mean up trim”. A multi-position switch would make the transition smoother.
Also putting the mix on what would normally be the rotary flap knob gives me a “fine tune” capability for elevator trim.-GG

I like this idea. I will look at a gear up and gear down flight mode with digital trim setting for each and just add a 2-3 second delay for flight mode change when moving the gear switch.
Gary

[viper1gj]

Does anyone have a Home Depot touch up paint code color match for the B-2 paint?

[Evan D]

Still, Bill, I bought mine like five days after they got them. Only 30?

Edit, Motion got them on 4/5 and they went out of stock 4/12, you had a week...

Well evan d they sold almost 200 in less than 24hrs,one fastest selling models I ever seen them sell I Kno I have over 30 of there planes

[Bill b]

Well evan d they sold almost 200 in less than 24hrs,one fastest selling models I ever seen them sell I Kno I have over 30 of there planes

[Gravythe clown]

Aros I had the same issue on both wings when I first setup. All I did was turn both ball joints at each clam rudder 1/2 turn same direction. It seamed as though my upper was pushing both down. Believe it or not that worked and I didn’t notice any difference at neutral stick.

Gravy

P.S. Never mind looks like after I posted there was a refresh with your question answered already.

[viper1gj]

I finally got my gyro gain setup and deleted the mode control switch entirely. I got the single wire lead to the gyro gain pin and to the Rx gain channel using a slider on the Jeti DS-24. I found that -100 to +100 was not quite enough range to get the gyro to 0 gain and off so I opened the window to -125 to +125 and now the gyro is off at the bottom of the slider scale and 100% of pre programed gain at +125. So now if I need to reduce the gain in gusty or high wind conditions it is possible.

Since I do not intend to change the gyro mode out of basic normal dampening mode I deleted the mode channel and switch. As I removed the gyro lead from the Rx I noticed it is clearly labeled GYRO MODE which I did not notice before. So it all works as intended now. The gyro initializes to basic normal mode with a solid red light with the gain set to 100% of the pre programmed gain which is 40% roll, 5% pitch, and 100% yaw. Ready for test fights Thursday from grass runway. Fingers crossed it will have thrust needed to take off.

Thanks for all the help getting me straightened out.
Gary

[Evan D]

They were on stock for like five days! Poor excuse!

[Bill b]

When they going to be in stock??? Tell to order more this time!🤣 I got off work went in to order they was gone,bummer!

[mshagg]

Appreciate that there's likely to be slight differences based on rates, how well servo horn centers at neutral etc but it would be useful to get some measurements of the linkages from ball to ball for those who have got theirs dialled. Every time you pop one of these ball links off to tweak them, they get a little looser.

[Aros]

Aros, Thanks!

Any possibility of clarifying page 17 next time? For full scale pilots, instructors saying “stick up” means move the stick so the nose goes up. The “stick up” “stick down” terms therefore confused my “pilot” brain. I thought the manual drawings were wrong.

May be silly, but “stick back” and “stick forward” seem less confusing. Or….maybe there’s even a better way? Please give it some thought so full scale pilots are not potentially confused.

-GG

Excellent points and yes that IS confusing even to this low time student pilot!