Official Freewing Zeus 90mm EDF Sport Jet Thread

[deadbug]

Thanks Evan, that clarifies the big picture and is exactly what I was looking for. When I'm finally able to get mine maidened, even though it’ll have an AS3X rx, I’ll always fly it without a gyro putting it through it's entire flight envelope: stalls clean and in landing config with all flap settings, upright and inverted snaps, spins, etc. only after that will I use the gyro for stabilization and compare the two.

Have fun tomorrow night with your Mamba 60!
DB

[Alphonso]

Hello
Had 7 flights today. Very fast and quiet on 8 cell
Seems to have an issue with the nose gear being too short sitting at a negative angle on ground. ( leading edge lower than trailing edge).
i am running a cg about 1/4 inch behind recommend. Hard to keep it straight at takeoff speed. Seems to be pushing the nose down on runway
Anybody else have this issue?

The Vulcan and the Avanti V2 also sit at a negative AOA on the deck. This is deliberate and according to FW aids landing . Regarding take off handling, the first official vids show it a little skittish too, at least on grass. Likely, in my opinion caused by trailing mains on bumpy surface. It could also be a loose strut, they always come loose after a few taxis from new if you don't remove, threadlock and refit at the build.
A negative AOA will also prevent a premature rotation on bumpy ground. This is a similar shape to the Vulcan and that can flip just after take off if it jumps up and you have too much elevator use. Weird, as it's difficult to make it stall in any other flight condition. Go slow and lift the nose, it simply drops straight. Go faster and exceed critical AOA and it wants to snap. Guessing here, but I expect this to be a similar beast.

[Aros]

Great color to lose sight of in the sky. Stupid choice. I'll pass. Change color to something more visible or offer the jet plain white and I will choose to color it myself. Then I'll buy it.

Why not just repaint it yourself? It takes a rattle can and a couple hours. I've done this myself dozens of times over the years.

[MetallDanny]

[MetallDanny]

[Evan D]

It flies very well, smooth, quick…

[Radar-Guy]

Who likes a nose gear brace?

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/various/freewing-zeus-90mm-nose-gear-brace

[MetallDanny]

Who likes a nose gear brace?

ThanK you very much

[Jake Bullit]

THE Metal Danny? 😎

[MetallDanny]

THE Metal Danny? 😎

Haha 😄

Yes yes I'm still alive !!

[deadbug]

8S Maiden Report:

Late this afternoon I completed the maiden plus two additional flights.

CG exactly on factory marks with gear down (since nose gear retracts forward)
All control horn positions moved in towards servo by two holes--using the third on from the end.
All control deflections matched the manual settings except elevator in HIGH (100%) . As I suspected, book deflections, especially the elevator were way too much for this type of jet. Flap settings are per the manual.

Maiden = 2X SMC 4S 5900 HCL/HVP
2nd Flight = 2X SMC 4S 6200 HCL/HVP
3rd Flight = 2X SMC 4S 5900 HCL/HVP

RX =Spektrum AR8360T SMART with AS3X and SAFE (maiden conducted gyro-off)

Observations:
I was actually pleasantly surprised with how the airplane flew once I got it trimmed up. With my gyro off, I conducted stalls clean and in the landing configuration with full flaps, upright and inverted spins, attemped snap rolls with only pitch inputs--no rudder--upright and inverted. Also tried inverted loop--was successful in low rate elevator (who wants to do that though)--but in 100% high rates (remember I moved my elevator control horn out of the "3D" factory position) she definitely snapped out of the maneuver. Not dramatic but definitely wants to snap pushing forward on the stick. I can imagine if Evan used full book elevator why that got his attention When my gyro was in the AS3X flight mode, it was noticeably more resistant to snaps.

I noticed no unusual behavior during the full aft-stick stalls in any configuration--nothing different than other sport jets (other than the Avanti) and definitely much more tame than the Havoc Xe.

I was really surprised that I did NOT notice any nose-down tendency when pushing up power to full during a go-around or low pass.

Landings really reminded me of the Havoc--my first few were purposely fast, then I started slowing them down and even tried holding it off until the stall (but just an inch or two above the runway) Unlike the Havoc, which would drop a wing if you breathed to hard during the flare, I couldn't get the wing to drop even when running the 2 X 4S 6200's. I wouldn't try holding it off though unless you could keep it within an inch or so of the runway.

At the CG marks--I found that I did NOT need the down flap/elevator mix the manual gives. I got rid of them on the second flight. Flew on final so much better and the flare was nicer. Note my stab trim at Book CG in pic below. I am feeling compelled to move it back as I just don't like the up elevator trim required at that CG.

Thrust Reverse - Well I was disappointed--it helped a bit, but not as effective for braking as other jets I have. I have a mix set with the reverse channel mixed with throttle, so all I have to do after touchdown and in idle is hit my "G" switch full up and it goes to 100% reverse power.

All in all I like the jet and will continue to explore her performance envelope. Oh, I did have a broken cloud layer a little bit of haze and I did find the airplane a little difficult to see when I was high and the sun wasn't shining on the plane. When it did--it stood out nicely. The upper fuse EPO above the intakes is softer than I'm used to--put a nice thumbprint dent on it as I was rotating the airplane off the stand.

I didn't do any speed runs today--I was more interested in exploring the flight characteristics. Those are easy and will be later. Hope this helps those who are waiting to maiden theirs.
DB

[MetallDanny]

Thank you for this extensive informative report deadbug !!

Did you adjusted the stock AS3X Gains?
can you throw some numbers ?

[deadbug]

Thanks Danny--not a simple answer as I have all my AS3X gains set up as "adjustable, set up two separate gain channels one for ailerons & rudder and one for pitch modulated by my iX20 sliders underneath the transmitter: The 100% 1X AS3X gain values I programmed in the RX are: ROLL 68; PITCH 88; YAW 72. I normally keep the sliders right in the middle, so that gives me 1/2 of the values resulting in 34, 44, and 36 respectively. If I'm in the pattern on a really windy gusty day when slowed down, I'll increase one or more of the sliders up to the max as necessary to make her more "on rails" in the gusty winds.
DB

[Aros]

Nice maiden report! Well done.

[MetallDanny]

😳 292kmh

[tclaridge]

Has anyone tried a slight crow setting at full flap? I hear about the wing drop at full flap, and a little aileron reflex may fix that. On my Habu32, I added a little aileron reflex at full flap, and it helps stability in the landing configuration at slow speed as this delays the tip stalling first.

[Evan D]

I haven’t because I want to keep the simplicity of the ribbon cables. Once I get more flights I may split the aileron wire off the ribbon cable and go straight to the receiver and do some crow. Or I may put a gyro in it… That should help too.

[MetallDanny]

Last week I bought the ZEUS 8s
a couple days later the box from MotionRC arrived woohoooo
but uhmm it was the wrong model
they send me the 6s noooooo

quickly I send a email to MotionRC
(and I saw that the last 8s model was out of stock arrgh)
I picked up my phone and called them.
in short: bla bla bla sorry send it back !!!
but but its going to take days noooo

I jump in my car and drove to them the next day (2hours on the highway)


yesyesyes my box was still in the warehouse !!!!!!
hopefully tomorrow I can do the Maiden (weather is very bad last couple days)

SPEKTRUM AR8360T


SPEKTRUM SMART 6S/5000 + 2S/5000





CG from the BOOK ??
upside down with Landing gear out ?
any other suggestions

[deadbug]

Hey Danny--read my maiden review above and on RCG. Has everything you need. I flew it again today (first time since maiden day a week ago). Verified that unlike most models, factory CG is really where you want to be--I conducted test flights throughout the entire envelope with CG at factory, and then at factory CG +5mm aft. It is very noticeably more prone to snaping (spin entry--or commonly here: tip stalls) at the 5mm aft of factory CG both upright and inverted with pitch inputs ALONE (no rudder or aileron). This was really consistent. The same can be said for stalls in the landing configurations--both partial and full flaps: It would smartly drop a wing with and without gyro after the stall with the CG 5mm aft of factory with High, Medium or Low rate elevator. At the factory CG, it tended to buck a bit but resisted wing-drop unless you input aileron. I can imagine the stability decreases even more the farther you move aft of the Factory CG +5. If all you do is speed runs, it may not be a factor for you. However, it probably will during landing and flare unless you fly very fast on final and the flare--lol.

The keys here are stay at Factory CG, and reduce the factory 3D Elevator throw!

I measured gear down rightside up since the marks were under the wing and used my EZ Lite CG Balancer rig.
DB

[QUOTE=MetallDanny;
CG from the BOOK ??
upside down with Landing gear out ?
any other suggestions [/QUOTE]

[MetallDanny]

The keys here are stay at Factory CG, and reduce the factory 3D Elevator throw!

Thank you for the Tips !!!!