Official Freewing 80mm MiG-21 Fishbed Thread

[Alpha]

I captured a nice video of Tony's North Vietnamese MiG-21, but Lord help me if this editing software crashes one more time...!!! I'll get it posted after I have time for a third attempt. Gooniac, get your bird up, come wind or shine!

[gooniac33]

I captured a nice video of Tony's North Vietnamese MiG-21, but Lord help me if this editing software crashes one more time...!!! I'll get it posted after I have time for a third attempt. Gooniac, get your bird up, come wind or shine!

I will fly in wind.... rain I can not though.... my thumbs are twitching.... hopefully this weekend I will get to fly....

[Bajora]

A few photos from our first outing with this one today:

[Bajora]

Another "glamour" shot of the Fishbed:



Talk about jets done RIGHT! :cool:

[Alpha]

These are so captivating, so much to look at in each shot. Thanks for posting! I'm guessing some of these are magazine bound?

[Bajora]

These are so captivating, so much to look at in each shot. Thanks for posting! I'm guessing some of these are magazine bound?

I tend to save the really good ones for the magazine. ;)

A few more from todays flights ...

It looks beastly (in a good way) from so many angles. And lovin' the high alpha landings. :cool:

[gooniac33]

Beastly is a great way to put it!! OMG!! I love this plane!! Take a look at the flights from yesterday. And there is a different perspective too...

[gooniac33]

I tend to save the really good ones for the magazine. ;)

A few more from todays flights ...

It looks beastly (in a good way) from so many angles. And lovin' the high alpha landings. :cool:

I really need to come fly with you..... that looks like a nice field!

[xplaneguy]

My Mig-21 flying in our Russian Heritage Flight at Apollo Field on Sunday, 4 Dec 2016....and yes, it was busy and crazy there, as always! :rolleyes:

[Alpha]

I like how those four planes all sort of slot together. The Berkut wing's trailing edge and the MiG-15 wing's leading edge fit like a puzzle and the MiG-21 is the tip of the spear.

[xplaneguy]

Having fun with the Fishbed!

[tomme21]

what brakes are a fit for this mig? i need them as i use a very short field, thanks

[RCjetdude]

I use the 60mm JP brakes with the 4mm shaft on mine. Our runway is 270ft long and they have made a difference.

[Bradm5312]

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.

[crxmanpat]

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

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

[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.

[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]

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]

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]

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.