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

[Fast N Light]

Further update on the plane after i thought i solved the issue. All was working perfectly and i powered on the model and the fault re appeared, no motor on one side. I disconnected the REV cable to the RX and powered up again....Bingo , both engines live. I then connected the REV to CH 6 as before and now all working as intended.
On RCG i was told this is an issue with some ESC firmware that gets confused when the RX is an an uknown state, IE bfore the radio connection is established. This is because ELRS receivers do not output on the PWM ports until a link is established.
Now to solve it I have to wait till powered up and then connect reverse! Another lesson learned about RC and ELRS.
Hope this may help someone down the line.

Every time the lipo is changed, the reverse signal lead needs to be unplugged prior to power and then plugged back in? Cannot be the design intent or end user expectation.

[400driver]

Further update on the plane after i thought i solved the issue. All was working perfectly and i powered on the model and the fault re appeared, no motor on one side. I disconnected the REV cable to the RX and powered up again....Bingo , both engines live. I then connected the REV to CH 6 as before and now all working as intended.
On RCG i was told this is an issue with some ESC firmware that gets confused when the RX is an an uknown state, IE bfore the radio connection is established. This is because ELRS receivers do not output on the PWM ports until a link is established.
Now to solve it I have to wait till powered up and then connect reverse! Another lesson learned about RC and ELRS.
Hope this may help someone down the line.

[400driver]

I ordered a new ESC and a new plane!

[Evan D]

Good you figured it out but if you sent the original one to FreeWing how do you have a spare?

[400driver]

After the failed single engine take off and subsequent flat spin , the F14 is rebuilt and ready for a re maiden this week. During my rebuild i ordered a new ESC and sent the old one back to Freewing. I connected the new one for a test and all ops normaol.
Finished the re connection and went to test all functions and found that on plugging in the ESC REV wire , one motor failed to work !!! After many hours fault finding a tearing my hair out in frustration , i found the error ! I had a bad line of programming in the EdgeTx software. In my enthusiam for multiple safety measure I had made a mistake!
I love this hobby as I am always learning something new. At least its ready to go again and have a new as a spare.
I have reverse on a switch and providing that the GEAR is down , The TROTTLE is active, it will provide a certain level of reverse. Got to love RC!

[CraigG]

There is a very easy solution to this. Make adjustments minute. Trial and error can be tedious.

Agreed...just trying to take advantage of the collective knowledge on this forum. No need to reinvent the wheel if I don't have to.

[kallend]

X viper. I do think they land less aggressively on front gear. A small amount say 10 or 15 mm behind.. on grass 4 me anyway. But 40 mm like jon. (2 brother's ). Is to much 4 most. He is very good

He also flies with very aggressive gyro gains on the pitch axis.

[Evan D]

Agreed, I’m usually one of the first with a plane, it’s nice when I’m not and have trust worthy suggestions.

[xviper]

The 64mm F-14 does not do an aft CG… The other day in another thread a person said all EDFs have very nose heavy CG points in the manual. I said not all and advised to find a point that each person liked. His reply was, okay 99%…

It's hard to reason with someone with blinkers on.

The manual does not give a cg range, just a single measurement and fuselage mark for the cg. My battery (5200mah) is well aft in the compartment to achieve that cg and although the jet flies ok, it's a little sensitive/pitchy on landing...kind of like the cg is a little aft. I was going to experiment with moving the battery forward. The only real risk I see is maybe running out of elevator on landing. Wondering what others have found and/or tried regarding cg.

There is a very easy solution to this. Make adjustments minute. Trial and error can be tedious.

[CraigG]

The 64mm F-14 does not do an aft CG… The other day in another thread a person said all EDFs have very nose heavy CG points in the manual. I said not all and advised to find a point that each person liked. His reply was, okay 99%…

The manual does not give a cg range, just a single measurement and fuselage mark for the cg. My battery (5200mah) is well aft in the compartment to achieve that cg and although the jet flies ok, it's a little sensitive/pitchy on landing...kind of like the cg is a little aft. I was going to experiment with moving the battery forward. The only real risk I see is maybe running out of elevator on landing. Wondering what others have found and/or tried regarding cg.

[Evan D]

The 64mm F-14 does not do an aft CG… The other day in another thread a person said all EDFs have very nose heavy CG points in the manual. I said not all and advised to find a point that each person liked. His reply was, okay 99%…

[f4u ausie]

X viper. I do think they land less aggressively on front gear. A small amount say 10 or 15 mm behind.. on grass 4 me anyway. But 40 mm like jon. (2 brother's ). Is to much 4 most. He is very good

[LioraVale]

hello

[xviper]

This whole "aft CG" thing is not for everyone. For some, it's a dirt nap waiting to happen. It's great for high alpha work, but even this, is not for everyone. Whatever happened to that old addage: "A forward CG can be flown. An aft CG can be flown once"? Was that just an old wive's tale?

[kallend]

Some of their stores r good.. some not so.. I stick to the same ones!!

Well, I did get the refund.

It's now nearly 5 months we've been waiting for those wings from Motion.

[CraigG]

Almost lost my V2 the other day. I carelessly didn't notice the canopy latch was not engaged, even though the rear of the canopy was flush with the fuselage. The canopy separated on takeoff but too late to abort. The jet seemed to be handling ok, so I left the gear down and takeoff flaps extended, turned downwind and planned to land. As I turned base and throttled back to slow down, the jet pitched up and right. I goosed the engines and regained control, but what followed were a series of pretty wild gyrations, with the jet pitching and rolling whenever I tried to slow down. Well past the runway but within the field boundary, I finally got a somewhat stabilized descent going, kept some power on until just before "landing", and plopped it down. Amazingly, the only damage was a broken rod end on one of the wing sweep rods.

I suppose the squirrelly flight was caused by an aft cg shift and whatever aerodynamics were affected by the loss of the large canopy. Anyhow, I have it logged in the "save" category and will definitely remind my old brain to double-check the canopy latch more carefully in the future. Just be advised, this jet does not like to fly without a canopy!

[f4u ausie]

Some of their stores r good.. some not so.. I stick to the same ones!!

[kallend]

Three weeks after I placed an order for V2 wings with AliExpress they tell me they don't have any and are giving a refund.

[400driver]

Lucky the break was clean and it looks like I will be able to get it flying again.

[nuts-n-volts]

Bummer, that sucks. You'll be ok. Just get back on that horse... er, cat!