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

[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!

[400driver]

Well.... I unwittitngly became a test pilot for my maiden of the V2. All checks on controls satisfactory and as she began her take off roll , a slight left drift started . The plane became airborne but it felt very sluggish and difficult to control. At about 15 feet a flat spin was entered and she landed in the grass.

The gear pushed up through the fuselage and the rear fuselage broke cleanly just aft of the turtle deck.


We did the autopsy and..... the right engine was the only one working ! I had not checked during the entire build that both engines ran ! I should have looked and I would have seen that one ESC was dead from the factory!

Well lesson learned !

It nearly flew on one engine , if it had been airborne at the time it may have worked but not from the start of the roll!

I'm over it now, have ordered a new ESC combo and a whole new kit so i will have two of them, one slighly beat up one and a new one!

Hope this only happens to me and not anybody else, Joy of the hobby.

[kallend]

So why haven't they made a 70mm one?? Anyone kno?

Too busy making wings for the 64mm one?

[stitch]

So why haven't they made a 70mm one?? Anyone kno?

[FLYWAM]

Did you read the instructions?

Thank you so much for the advice and guidance.

[CraigG]

So after about an hour of adjusting connecting rods and moving servo arms I have full travel on the wing sweep, I have it on a 3 position switch for now, I was a little confused at first from watching the assembly video that made it sound like you just snapped the connecting rods on and presto!! … far from the case there was a lot of adjustment to get everything working symmetrical and full travel. That’s what you get from assuming!

Agreed. I also had to reposition the servo arms on the wing sweep servos inward to get the connecting rods to fit. Otherwise, the rods were too long, even with the connectors screwed all the way in.

[xviper]

Yes, the stock 80 is only in and out, can't stop mid. That's why I asked. The 64 uses regular servos so it can.

I had either forgotten or didn't know in the first place, thus, my momentary brain fart. :ok_hand:

[Evan D]

Yes, the stock 80 is only in and out, can't stop mid. That's why I asked. The 64 uses regular servos so it can.

[xviper]

But the 80 has retract type actuators???

I'm a bit dense on this one, so bare with me. Do you mean that on the 80, the wing sweep servos are like retracts? They can't stop in the middle? If that's the case, I guess I don't really know what they'd do if I stopped in the mid-position. I don't recall ever doing it for fear that something weird might happen.
I've just finished swapping one wing on the 64 (a lot simpler than I thought) and being on a slider, I can stop the sweep at any point between in and out, though I don't do it when flying.

[StevenR]

Question regarding flying with the ordinance installed or removed.
whats the flight characteristics flying with and without?

[StevenR]

So after about an hour of adjusting connecting rods and moving servo arms I have full travel on the wing sweep, I have it on a 3 position switch for now, I was a little confused at first from watching the assembly video that made it sound like you just snapped the connecting rods on and presto!! … far from the case there was a lot of adjustment to get everything working symmetrical and full travel. That’s what you get from assuming!

[Evan D]

But the 80 has retract type actuators???

[xviper]

Yes, I use switch B but I don't stop in the middle position. However, I do have "flight modes" tied to my flap switch D so that trim is set for no flaps, take off flaps and landing flaps. Seems to work in a logical fashion for me. I must still remember to pull up the flaps up before pulling the wings in. With the 80, when the wings sweep in, I compensate for trim (needs some UP ELE) manually as I fly. Wings in for me, is still a bit of a butt clencher activity but I'm getting used to it and it's becoming second nature. The 64 is much easier to fly. My old Eflite "UMX" F-14 flew without much thinking when wings in or out. That flight controller seemed to do most of the work.