Official Freewing 64mm F-14 Tomcat Twin 64mm EDF Jet Thread

[kallend]

You all might find this interesting. I believe one of the reasons why my F-14 went down was due to inadequate glue on left flap hinges. I repair electronics and used my microscope to zoom in and take a close look at the left flap hinges and hinge pockets on flap and wing.

You aren't the first to report this.

Mine had almost no adhesive on the stabilator where the control horn attaches.to the foam.

[Cobbster]

I'm so glad I'm not having the troubles some of you are.Mine has been nothing but wing sweeping joy and top gun quotes since day one.I've got 14 flights on her so far. The changes I've made are:
moved aileron pushrod to second to innermost hole on the servo end,took out elevator up mix w flaps, dampened bounce on nose gear{HUGE HELP on landings} added RIO. Ive written two reviews for motion,two weeks ago, I guess they didn't like them.

[thedarkwraith]

Follow-up video where I look at the flap pockets on the left wing

[thedarkwraith]

You all might find this interesting. I believe one of the reasons why my F-14 went down was due to inadequate glue on left flap hinges. I repair electronics and used my microscope to zoom in and take a close look at the left flap hinges and hinge pockets on flap and wing.

[Rayant]

Thanks for the help

[Rayant]

https://youtube.com/shorts/Hkg_o62I5tw?si=sjaHzo-mmNtgBnvT

[thedarkwraith]

The rear landing gear rubs on the fuselage when I pick it up. Do you have this problem too?

I had no problems with any of the landing gear. Rears when retracted had ample clearance from body and fit nicely in the spots provided in the body. Do you have pictures to show what you are referring to?

[Rayant]

The rear landing gear rubs on the fuselage when I pick it up. Do you have this problem too?

[f4u ausie]

Yes ya teck info is the best cya

[Jon @ Two Bros RC]

Maybe motion as well as showing us ( the fancy bits and bobs)on a new plane,, should mention in vids,, its a high wing load, keep up speed ,, till on final... the only vid they did was james,, at cob county field,, was an old plane,, f4 (keep up the speed in the turns or it will fall like a brick) he said.. so in turns im on the power... less crashes is to everybodies advantage.. cause it is a beutiful bit of foam a little reminder,, here or there does not hurt

They probably should, yeah. I went in-depth on my channel and explained how to get the most out of it, and how to avoid wrecking it. Not everyone watches me, though.

[f4u ausie]

That was neither a "tip stall" nor a bug in the plane. It has to be flown with throttle or it will stall while banking. It's a heavily wing loaded jet. It's not forgiving to pilot error and will drop a wing if it's not being flown correctly. Fortunately, it's not hard to fly, you just have to have the presence of mind to keep throttle engaged while banking and coordinate turns, and make sure that you're landing it with throttle as well.

Maybe motion as well as showing us ( the fancy bits and bobs)on a new plane,, should mention in vids,, its a high wing load, keep up speed ,, till on final... the only vid they did was james,, at cob county field,, was an old plane,, f4 (keep up the speed in the turns or it will fall like a brick) he said.. so in turns im on the power... less crashes is to everybodies advantage.. cause it is a beutiful bit of foam a little reminder,, here or there does not hurt

[Evan D]

Flyboy56, sorry to hear. The F-14 is a special plane but seems not quite right.

[Jon @ Two Bros RC]

I crashed my F14 a couple of days ago. I had a total of 12 flights on it. The first 4 or 5 flights the plane flew fine with gyro in stabilized mode. The next few flights it started to try to tip stall to the right while landing. On my final flight I was doing a left hand turn when all of a sudden the plane turned violently to the right and went into a dive from which I could not recover. I will not be getting another one of these F14s . I kind of have the feeling that Freewing released this plane on the market before working out the bugs in the gyro.
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That was neither a "tip stall" nor a bug in the plane. It has to be flown with throttle or it will stall while banking. It's a heavily wing loaded jet. It's not forgiving to pilot error and will drop a wing if it's not being flown correctly. Fortunately, it's not hard to fly, you just have to have the presence of mind to keep throttle engaged while banking and coordinate turns, and make sure that you're landing it with throttle as well.

[flyboy56]

I crashed my F14 a couple of days ago. I had a total of 12 flights on it. The first 4 or 5 flights the plane flew fine with gyro in stabilized mode. The next few flights it started to try to tip stall to the right while landing. On my final flight I was doing a left hand turn when all of a sudden the plane turned violently to the right and went into a dive from which I could not recover. I will not be getting another one of these F14s . I kind of have the feeling that Freewing released this plane on the market before working out the bugs in the gyro.
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[kallend]

The wing sweep mechanism does not come preassembled .. happy flying

There have been reports even from MRC of the gyro pitch leads being reversed as supplied pre-assembled. Also of flap hinges having no adhesive and pulling out causing crashes, of stabilators having no adhesive to the plastic part that goes on the stub axle, and of retract mounts pulling out with essentially no adhesive. All pre-assembled parts.

[f4u ausie]

The wing sweep mechanism does not come preassembled .. happy flying

[kallend]

I don't hav this plane yet. I will.......... I've seen 2 u tube vids so far crashes. . implying 1 wing swept only... But way more happy chappy's vids that is. Get with the program.. u pay for and assemble yourself. A thing u then put in the air...mmm. Risky on its own. Ask ramy RC how much his planes cost..
Just sayin. Hopeing I'm not outta line.. just hate the it's somebody elses fault world

Parts that come "pre-assembled" and are advertized as such should be assembled properly. If they aren't then they are defective and the manufacturer is liable.

[thedarkwraith]

Found a great video showing a modification you can do to the wing sweep ball links/control rod to improve it tremendously:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJEH-oUxKII

According to his video there have been others that have experienced ball links popping off the wing sweep servos and resulting in a crash. This is something I will be doing to my next one for sure.

[Hugh Wiedman]

For what it's worth.. I've noticed less glue. Not on this .. landing gear on spitfire. Almost none. Came loose after first landing.. f4 phantom wood blocks for edf mount. Were loose. Out of the box i mean . Not glued at all.
sure they will fix it.. .... Check check. Everything B4 first flights

I had the exact same issue on the new 8S F4 I just turned into the Jolly Rodgers: Absolutely no glue on the wood blocks for the edf mount!! When I took out the edf to install the afterburners, the fan almost fell out in my lap! Definitely averted a real problem there as the wood blocks are not recessed in the foam and there is nothing preventing the whole thing from moving forward, except the foam around the outer edge of the fan casing-maybe enough to sort of keep it from rocketing through the fuse up to the nose at full power! That would be a real shock to the pilots when the fan blew through the nose in front of them.

[thedarkwraith]

By pinning I mean drilling a small hole through the hinge and whatever it attaches to and inserting a small diameter carbon fiber rod into the hole with glue (cut to length of course). That way the hinge is less likely to rip off perpendicular to the carbon rod.

They have nice hinges installed on the ailerons but put cost saving measures (in my opinion) hinges on the flaps. Look at the missing RIO there is a bean counter saying we can save $x dollars by not installing it (even though holes are there for it).