Official Freewing 80mm MiG-21 Fishbed Thread

[Marco Polo]

By the way... here is one of our flights from the narrow path we fly from here in our area....

You guys are gutsy! A narrow path and trees on both sides. I though the narrow streets where we sometimes fly were tricky, this is another level, well done!

[gooniac33]

By the way... here is one of our flights from the narrow path we fly from here in our area....

[T-CAT]

Yeah man, I was hoping you would be there. That's a bummer. We'll look forward to next year then!

[gooniac33]

We had Mig-21 and F-86-Orama at Apollo today :D. Some of the Northern California people came down. I believe some may be on HS or RCg forums. They said they know and fly with Gooniac. It was nice to meet you folks if you're on here. I was the one flying the Stinger 90. Come back down any time or it would be nice to visit you all up north too.

I really wish I could have been there!! This is the last time I will be left here at home... I will be there next time with F-15, F-104, Mig-21, F-5 and 70mm F-16 next time...

[Scamp73]

Just got back to your PM :).

Thank you for the PM

[T-CAT]

We had Mig-21 and F-86-Orama at Apollo today :D. Some of the Northern California people came down. I believe some may be on HS or RCg forums. They said they know and fly with Gooniac. It was nice to meet you folks if you're on here. I was the one flying the Stinger 90. Come back down any time or it would be nice to visit you all up north too.

[T-CAT]

Hey guys. I fly mine off of a grass field and have to bail out at times due to our thick grass. I am fine with that and know its gonna happen at this field. But this jet is giving me fits when I bail out. I keeps full throttle for a couple of seconds after I kill the throttle which has caused me to run off our field several times. Motion is saying the ESC is going into Failsafe? Any suggestions?

Just got back to your PM :).

[Scamp73]

Hey guys. I fly mine off of a grass field and have to bail out at times due to our thick grass. I am fine with that and know its gonna happen at this field. But this jet is giving me fits when I bail out. I keeps full throttle for a couple of seconds after I kill the throttle which has caused me to run off our field several times. Motion is saying the ESC is going into Failsafe? Any suggestions?

[RCjetdude]

Well,
I ordered one of these to replace my LX MiG-29 I lost this summer.
Hopefully I'll have it by next week so I can build and fly it for the week after that.

Congrats! It is a sweet flying plane. You should really enjoy it.

[Topdogzrc]

Well,
I ordered one of these to replace my LX MiG-29 I lost this summer.
Hopefully I'll have it by next week so I can build and fly it for the week after that.

[Chief58D]

MiG-21
I finished my MiG-21 build. I modified my model with:

• Strobe lights on the vertical stabilizer, top and bottom of fuselage, and bottom of the wing tips
• Landing lights
• Electric brakes
• Orientation stripes on bottom of wings and horizontal stabilizer
• FOD screen over the louver on the cheater hole
• Anti-spark connector
• Current and voltage telemetry

I’ve linked a YouTube video showing some of these mods:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy7gvTCyHr8

I created a detailed, step-by-step document showing what I did on my model. I organized the document in sections so it is easy to find a specific mod, such as the strobe lights on the vertical stabilizer. I hope this is helpful to those who haven’t built their MiG yet or who may want to do one of the mods I did on mine. You can view the document here:

http://nebula.wsimg.com/5ccd7d619b687a74d97f9322c144cdc6?AccessKeyId=58FD2D57840425E85153&disposition=0&alloworigin=1

And, clearly, my mods aren’t intended to be scale.

Overall, I thought the basic build process was relatively straightforward. I did run into several minor quality issues, which are described in the build companion document.

One area that I think isn’t so well done is the routing of the servo wires for the wings. Removing the plastic louver over the cheater hole seemed like a bad idea to me. The louver on my model was very firmly attached and I didn’t want to risk damaging the model taking it off. Instead, I removed the EDF access cover and EDF, both of which are installed with screws. This made installing the servo wire channel covers a bit challenging, but doable (described in the build companion document).

I hope Freewing will fix this issue by doing one of the following:

• Pre-installing the plastic channel covers in the fuselage sides before gluing them together
• Leaving the plastic louver un-installed so the builder can glue it in after routing the wires
• Mounting the plastic louver using screws instead of glue (see Air Jon’s post 4002 for a great mod tip)

Freewing could easily implement the first change by having the covers glued before gluing the fuselage halves together. This would enable the builder to route the wires by removing the EDF access cover and EDF without requiring removing the louver.

Unfortunately for me, because of weather, it will likely be a couple of months until I can maiden this plane. I’m hoping for a rare flyable day before spring so I can try it.

I would appreciate any feedback you may care to provide on the build companion document. I’ve received a lot of help from other hobbyists over the years and would like to give back to the RC community. In general, would you find documents like this helpful? Is there too much detail or not enough? What kind of topics would you like to see addressed? If you care to provide feedback to help me better serve the RC community, please PM me or send email to yourrccompanion@indy.rr.com.

VERY nice build companion!
You made several of the same mods I'm considering, so thanks for taking the time to put it together and sharing!

AND -

Merry Christmas everyone!

[crxmanpat]

Cool pic of my Mig taken by Ben at the fly-in we had at St. George, UT back in October. That camo pattern is really effective!

[RCjetdude]

I had three of my children with me. Two girls and a boy. I was there earlier in the day and couldn't stay long. I spoke for a time with the club president. Quite a number of people showed up before I had to go.

[TiredIronGRB]

I was there...

[RCjetdude]

It was the model aviation day event they held... I don't recall the day that was. I got to witness my first RC streamer cutting competition.

[TiredIronGRB]

Thank you sir. It is one of my favorites and I love how it flies. I think you might live just North of me. I recently made a trip to visit the Johnson City RC flying field. Are you familiar with it?

That's my local club...when were you there?

[RCjetdude]

Thank you sir. It is one of my favorites and I love how it flies. I think you might live just North of me. I recently made a trip to visit the Johnson City RC flying field. Are you familiar with it?

[TiredIronGRB]

The weather here today was beautiful so I got to fly the Mig with the centerline tank I installed and it seemed to perform well. Personally I like the looks of it better. Boy it felt good to get to fly. Wish I had some pictures of it in the air but all I have is a picture of the mod.

Great looking plane!

[RCjetdude]

The weather here today was beautiful so I got to fly the Mig with the centerline tank I installed and it seemed to perform well. Personally I like the looks of it better. Boy it felt good to get to fly. Wish I had some pictures of it in the air but all I have is a picture of the mod.

[crxmanpat]

Very nice write-up Brad! Well done on the lighting.

Here's a few new pics of mine from yesterday.