Official Freewing 90mm F-104 Starfighter Thread

[DCORSAIR]

Well, its ready for its maiden flight, as soon as the rain stops in the next few days I hope.

[Beeg]

Well, mine will be here soon, can't wait to fly it. Any of you have some suggestions on the maiden flight??....;)

I've been running my CG right around the forward screw pf the wing attach fitting. It varies a little depending on if I'm using a 5000 or 6200 pack. Doesn't seem to make much difference but a little further aft in the attach fitting seems like the sweet spot on mine.

Other than that it flies like a dream. Just think "I'm flying a missle" not an airplane and it'll all be good. As with most jets carry a little power down to the flare and it lands fine with or without flaps. I usually don't use more than about half flap for landing and you definitely don't need the speedbrakes.

Scroll down to post #1340 and you'll see pic I posted of where I run my CG.

[Beeg]

Also, Don't know if you moved your controller board back but in this post #1365 you'll see how to move your board back further so you can shove your battery back an extra inch or so..

[DCORSAIR]

Thanks for the info, and I don't need to move my controller board back at all, my batteries are just in front of the controller board to get the CG in a safe range. I'm using Pulse 5000 45c lipos and the new blue Gens ace 5000 60c , the Gens 60C are actually smaller and lighter than the Pulse 45C, don't know why that is but they are, so I have to remember to move them up front more on all my EDF jets. Here is my Pulse battery placement, elevator reinforcement, and decals applied for the fourth flight.

[Beeg]

Love it! I think the 104 is the coolest. My favorite EDF. I really like my F-14 but the 104 just has such classic lines.

[gooniac33]

A couple of my fave flights with the F-104

[DCORSAIR]

Flies great, no damage so far, now land with full 60mm of flaps. I found that if I go less than 60mm on the flaps it wants to dive more, if I went 65mm and more it really waggles the wings but it will land like that, it just feels wrong, 60mm seems to be good with not much wing waggle. Still not sure if its a keeper though, I only bought it to see what all the fuss was about and to me it's not that bad, I think the ones that were crashing on maiden were to tail heavy or just set up wrong, I have slowed this thing down to where it is just hanging in the air with flaps and without and all it does it waggle the wings, of course I didn't push it to a stall either, I'm sure if you let your guard down it will bite you eventually.

12 flights now and this is how mine is set up.

CG around the 75mm mark
Ele- 32mm up/35mm dn
Ail-18mm up/dn
Flaps-20mm 1st pos./ 60mm full down/2nd pos.
Flap/Ele mix 5mm up with the full 60mm flaps only.
My Pulse 5000 45c lipo is right in front of the board and I added a 2 oz lead weight in front of the gyro, slowly I'm taking out the weight and moving the battery forward to see what I can get away with. It will be for sale soon I'm sure one day, A-10 will be next in my hanger..

[Beeg]

Yes it's a good one. If you do want to see what a full stall is like just give yourself a few hundred feet of altitude. I was horsing around to see if I could get an accelerated stall out of a turn with some altitude and it took at least 150-200ft or more to pull out as I'd heard of a few folks having issues with it. On my first maiden flight impressions were pretty much like yours in that I felt it could fly fairly slowly. I posted this over on RCG and I think some folks misunderstood and that's why some were spinning in on base leg to final. I think some were just getting too slow and it was pitching out and they were losing it too low. It's no "Sport" jet that's for sure. I land mine pretty much the same way I land my Habu32. As I've stated before it just has that 50's Century series look to it on flyby's So cool!

[gooniac33]

I spent all of my flights dialing in the flaps yesterday. I got several really good landings but this one was the best....

[DCORSAIR]

Yeah, hope no one reads my post wrong as well, it will stall I'm sure of that from other videos I have seen. You just don't have to fly it like a missle and land it like one, it will slow down, actually I'm landing it just like my 90mm F-16, it works for me. I will have to say that after trying several flap positons and landings, it liked my 60mm flap settings or the 20mm flap settings, it flew weird with anything in between, it wanted to just dive at the runway with anything less than 60mm. Guys, I don't recommend this setting on the flaps unless your for sure you can handle this jet. By no means I'm saying I'm a great pilot, I bought this jet to see if it was possible to tame it and I was determined to slow it down and see if it would land slower than what others were saying, I'm just happy that I did it. I will try to get someone to video it, I fly by myself most of the time but maybe I can get my son to video it.

[DCORSAIR]

That last landing was awesome gooniac33, I didn't get one that smooth yet and not sure I will. I did what I wanted with this jet and that was to fly it and land it with no damage to it, never planned on keeping it for long, don't see myself flying it a lot like all my other EDF jets. It has 12 easy flights on it with no damage other than the normal scrapes on the tail skid, you just can't help that flying on asphalt. I did post it for sale, it is a local sell only. I accomplished what I wanted with it and don't want to damage it in anyway. It is a classic but not one of my favorites.

[DCORSAIR]

So how much flaps are most of you guys using to land?? My next flight will be number 16 and I have tried several flap landings, 20mm, 30mm, 45mm, 50mm and settled for around 55m. It feels very good at this setting, tried about 70mm but the wings rocked so bad I thought I was going to lose it, so after 13 flights of flap landings, it likes 55mm the best. I know it's a lot of flap but with some up ele. mixed in, it doesn't do anyting weird but slow down, anyone else using a lot of flap??


My 90mm F-104 is up for sale over on RCG if anyone local is looking for one. Great flying EDF jet once you get the landings down. It's in very good shape, 15 flights so far....lol
You won't believe the give away price.

[DCORSAIR]

Scraped a wingtip tank on the 15th flight...:Angry:

[gooniac33]

I scraped the nose and nose gear doors when the nose light came loose and jammed the gear. Then I also scraped the tanks.... So I replaced the doors, got some new tanks from scratch and dent, and then a new nose cone as well. Once I perfect everything I will switch them all out.. I am pretty close right now with the plane. Also I haven't measured the flap throw but its pretty extreme. it works wonderfully now though!

Here is my best landing of the last outing...

[DCORSAIR]

Hey gooniac33, do you know where your balanced at? I haven't changed mine yet since my maiden and that's just in front of the front wing screws around the 75mm mark, wondering if I can go back more with the full flap landings, I just can't get a soft flare at the end and was wondering if it was my cg being a little to much nose heavy. I measured my flaps at 55mm also flew them at 60mm, lands great this way don't it??

[gooniac33]

Hey gooniac33, do you know where your balanced at? I haven't changed mine yet since my maiden and that's just in front of the front wing screws around the 75mm mark, wondering if I can go back more with the full flap landings, I just can't get a soft flare at the end and was wondering if it was my cg being a little to much nose heavy. I measured my flaps at 55mm also flew them at 60mm, lands great this way don't it??

I will have to check later on. I never actually checked the CG. Just put the battery where it went and flew it. LOLLOL Also I don't dare flare this plane. just try to get the touch down nice and smooth. If you try to flare it can get into a death bounce. I have seen too many people do that which is why I got used to landing it with no flaps first. With flaps it can be even worse with the death bounce if you are not careful. It may be a tad nose heavy but the videos who how it flies. I will check next time I have it out...

[DCORSAIR]

I was just curious on your CG, I haven't had a problem with flare, just kind of fly it in low and cut power and land, not much else to do with this bird....:Cool:

[gooniac33]

I was just curious on your CG, I haven't had a problem with flare, just kind of fly it in low and cut power and land, not much else to do with this bird....:Cool:

the weather will clear this weekend. I will for sure get that checked when I get it out to fly on sunday

[seaviper]

Got tired of waiting on the A-10 and pulled the trigger on a silver F-104. There goes my budget at least through summer. Gooniac your videos pretty much convinced me. I will, however, be flying her off a grass field. So I'll let you guys know how that goes.
The F-104 is one of my all time favorite birds.

[gooniac33]

Got tired of waiting on the A-10 and pulled the trigger on a silver F-104. There goes my budget at least through summer. Gooniac your videos pretty much convinced me. I will, however, be flying her off a grass field. So I'll let you guys know how that goes.
The F-104 is one of my all time favorite birds.

if it is short grass I think you should be fine. It is not really hard to fly so long as you respect it...