Official Freewing 90mm F-104 Starfighter Thread

[seaviper]

Well today, Gentlemen, I became a member of the F-104 club. Successful maiden and three subsequent flights. By flight 3 she was tuned. I have uploaded flights 1 and 4.
Flight 1 was probably the scariest maiden I have done. Only needed one turn on the elevator linkage to trim out. But the wing rocking was a bit unnerving.
Flight 4 shows the current settings in action.

All landings were at full flaps. I don't think I need any elevator mixing with flaps.

Takeoffs and landings were really not a challenge so much as trimming the wing rocking with our gusty crosswinds today. On flight 1 I had the gyro set at about 10-15%. Too little.
Flight 2 had the gyro set at close to 50%. Too much. Flights 3 and 4 had the gyro at about 25-30%. It seems just right now. I may dial it down when I get more flights on her.

The landing gear was perfect for our rough field.

My settings are as follows:

Gyro approx 25% all channels
Ailerons 100% travel, 30% expo
Flaps 0, 50, 100% whatever that works out to in mm.
Elevator by the book 100% up, 80% down to clear rudder, 20% expo No mixing with flaps
Rudder by the book, 20% expo
had to go in one hole on servo arm (4th hole from outside) for both elevator and rudder to make the travels work out.
Admiral 6s 5000 50C (new version) all the way forward.
CG appears to be at about right on the forward wing bolt, within the width of my fingertips. Worked great!






Maiden

Flight 4

[DCORSAIR]

I know everyone flies different but this is how I had mine set up. CG was at 75mm, Ailerons at 18mm up/dwn, Elev. at 32mm up/dwn, flap/elevator mix at 5mm up with 60mm flaps, I wouldn't recommend 60mm flaps until you get used to how it lands, 20-25mm is fine on your first flights. I didn't use any flaps on my maiden flight and it landed hot so I went to 25mm then just kept adding more as I got more flights on it until I got to 60mm, I never used the gyro, flew fine without it in calm wind but any slight breeze it would wing walk big time. Good luck on your maiden, I'm sure you will do fine.

[seaviper]

Got her ready for maiden. I'm setting the gyro at about 15% on all channels. Initially it will be off with a switch to engage in flight.
Gonna try for in the morning if I can get to the club early. "Will it be the first flight or the first crash? Who the hell knows hey"

Anyway, in true Freewing form, during final assembly I found the screws listed and provided for attaching the wing tanks were incorrect. Also, I had to cut and solder the rudder and elevator cables as I simply had nowhere to go with those big connectors.
It's more secure now anyway. And, the motor wires on main retracts were soldered really badly. One came off while just looking at it. I ended up just wicking out the old solder and completely re-doing them. They also had the motor wires and servo wires twisted initially. They need to lay flat under the retract when installed.

I also "greased" the axels with powdered graphite. Slicker than snot on a doorknob. I lube all my jets wheels with graphite now since I fly off a grass/dirt runway.

Overall I think she is going to be a great bird if she survives the maiden.

[themudduck]

I guess I'd suggest reading all the tips in this thread (start at the beginning).

Here are a couple of helpful things I think are especially important. Everyone will have their own tips, I'm sure...

a) ailerons are very sensitive! Cut back on the throws
b) use very little flaps. They are extremely effective and cause the nose to pitch DOWN not up so you'll need "up" elevator trim if you do use the flaps
c) The model isn't hard to takeoff or fly. Landing is the biggest challenge. NEVER close the throttle all the way off during your landing approach. Instead, lower the flaps a bit and reduce the throttle until the model is descending and don't go below about 25%. The model will fly with the nose up (high alpha) but don't let it go up too far. The F104 will do a "deep stall" if the nose comes up too far. It will also fall out of the sky if you don't keep the throttle up. The good news is that it will "sit" in a high-alpha and is very stable coming in as long as you use the throttle to control the descent.
d) set your timer for 2.5 minutes and check it after each flight... so you can see how your battery is faring. Your times will depend on how hard you mash that throttle. If you take it easy you can get 3.5 minutes or more (depends on the battery you use too)

If it isn't windy I'd suggest turning off the stabilizer. It tends to be pretty twitchy even at the low settings. I really haven't gotten used to the stabilizer yet.

Don't mess with the speed brakes in the air.

[seaviper]

Finally finished up the painting today. The revised graphics from Callie should be in soon. I will test fly her in the next few days if the weather will cooperate with me.
I removed the "afterburner" when I had the tail cone off for painting. That should help a little in the weight and balance department.

I will post the helmet cam when she gets airborne. Should be soon. I still have to put all the spaghetti back inside. Honestly I cannot wait to fly her.
For the first flight I plan to run the gyro at very low settings and work it up from there. I have a gyro on/off witch set up as well.

Any helpful comments before the first flight would be appreciated.

[DCORSAIR]

Looks great, make sure you get the CG correct on the maiden, a little nose heavy is a must on this one, too tail heavy and you won't get a second flight...........:Cool:

I had 15 flights on mine and finally sold it to get some funds for the A-10, great flyer but landings take some work to get them right.......:Scared:

[seaviper]

Waiting on some other tail graphics from Callie. Otherwise, she is pretty close now.

[seaviper]

Still in the paint shop. But she is getting there...slowly

[seaviper]

Dude I was considering that scheme...nice job! I'm still painting my JaboG 32 bird.

Outstanding!

Re-painting these birds is a lot of fun.

[gooniac33]

That plane looks amazing!!!!!

[crxmanpat]

Wow, that looks fantastic! But where is the Coors logo? ;)

[Kloverzero]

Paint on my F-104 Mount Olympus Hellenic AF is complete. Callie had to re-do the tail scene decal, so that is all that I am lacking. She is RTF otherwise.

[seaviper]

I checked out the controls horns and all are very strong. Maybe they addressed the issues at some point in the production. I don't know. But this one seems to be very strong.

Comparing some pilots. From left to right, FMS 80mm Hawk driver, Freewing 1/10 104 pilot (with mittens no less), JHH Castle 5 1/10 scale


Just a little trimming and this guy will be perfect!

[GPJ]

Hi Seaviper,

I have many Freewing jets and agree for the most part they are very good. The spares I have are future jets in case of mishaps along the way. I really rank the 104 as one of my all time favorite jet aircraft. Motion is still selling the PNP 104 at reduced price:

https://www.motionrc.com/collections/sale-airplanes/products/freewing-f-104-silver-90mm-edf-jet-pnp

[seaviper]

Thanks GPJ. I will pay special attention to those areas. I will see if I can beef up that elevator. By the way, very nice paint job sir! Are those spare ones in the box? Do you want to sell one?

Tested all the flight controls, lights, and gear last night. I confirmed that the included gyro does in fact work great with the Frsky X8R receiver! So all systems go.

I think that, in general, Freewing does a great job of designing and manufacturing jets. They look great and fly amazing. Where they often fail is in the assembly and finishing.
The recent A-4 is an exception though. It is just great all the way around.

I know they don't sell as well as others, but it would be nice to at least have the option of buying an outright KIT version of these jets. Builders, as few as we are, would appreciate it.
OR, how about just offering a "basic gray" version of new jets. That way we don't have to prime!

[GPJ]

I have 2 spare 104's beside the broken one I linked. All will get carbon rod reinforcement. I was really lucky the jet linked above didn't break in half during flight with just the two dots of glue holding it together.

You will absolutely want to beef up the elevator horn. I lost the 104 seen in the attached photo because the horn pulled out. Aileron horns are same weakness. The horn configuration is very sketchy for such a high performance jet. I nearly feel like a beta tester ..... sigh...............

[seaviper]

Well I checked mine as best I could. I have my intakes removed for painting. I tried putting force on the fuselage from the top and below with no signs of bending or weakness there.
I suppose I could run a couple rods through that area. Any thoughts on that?

[GPJ]

Buyer (Flyer) beware:

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=38649254&postcount=2946

[seaviper]

fuselage lights re-installed, tested, and lenses sanded and masked for priming. I plan on using a Freewing light controller in addition to the stock board to control the nav lights and the beacons. Can't stand those blinking nav lights. Lots of sanding and priming yet to do...

[seaviper]

Sweet!

Currently I am in prime-sand-prime-sand mode.....dirty job but necessary. Hope to have the Widowmaker in the air soon. Graphics on order from Callie. Pilot on order from JHH.

My fuselage nav lights were so messed up with glue that I could not clean them. Nor could I find any replacement lenses without buying the whole fuselage which is, in my mind, a bit over-priced for what you get. So I am going to blend them in to the fuselage and paint over them !@#$. I don't plan on flying without the tanks anyway.

If anyone knows where I can get those lenses I still have time to put them and the nav lights back in before the paint goes on.

Also, I want to make the nav lights steady.