Official Freewing 80mm Avanti S Sport Jet Thread

[Grossman56]

Cool, now, in my opinion, I'm thinking the transition will be pretty easy after dealing with tail draggers. Just think of it, a nose wheel and no prop torque!! and landing is landing, wings level, fuse level and use throttle to control descent. In between, a lot of fun flying, sounds good to me. We'll see.
I had some insight form Lon last year at Nefi as he had gone from P-51 to F-86 and it was his opinion that it was a lot easier to t/o and land.

Grossman56

[T-CAT]

Transition to jets really isn't a big issue when feel confident on the sticks with propellor driven aircraft (although an EDF fan can be thought of as a prop., but we're not speaking of that in this manner :)), both tail dragger and tricycle wheel. Like you were saying, you at least don't have to deal with the noticeable aerodynamic properties/factors prop planes can have either on takeoff or in the air in general. On the other hand, you'll have some small things to watch for due to the lack of having that propellor in the front of the aircraft (or elsewhere on the airframe). There will be more noticeable lag when accelerating from a slow speed and not as noticeable of acceleration and control surface functionality to the same degree as a propellor driven aircraft. Thankfully a light and powerful jet like this helps minimize the lag in comparison to a prop. driven aircraft :). Managing your speed better by predicting aircraft behavior and paying attention to early signs of approaching stall speed is important in case you need to get out of a situation that requires advancement in power quickly. Staying smooth on the sticks, especially elevator, helps (although that's regardless of airplane, but especially jets), as well as maintaining a touch of throttle upon flare for landing until the mains touchdown and gradually reduce to power off once it's fully on the ground and no go-around is needed.

It's difficult not to love flying an RC jet, and the fun and cool factor that goes with it. It may just go to the field with you every time! LOL

[Garyss]

Well, this will be my first EDF. What could possiby go wrong? If Sebastiano Silvestri can do it why can't I. JUST KIDDING, but with this light wing loading model I am hopeful it will be manageable. I want to be fanatical about battery capacity for sure. This jet seems a little different as it can recover from a modest snap roll. I will try and ask EDF flight questions here as I think of them.:Silly:

[T-CAT]

It doesn't just recover from a modest snap roll, it can and has recovered from a ridiculous series of snap rolls. LOL. It corrects itself to a degree well.

[Shirty]

Tcat is spot on. There's nothing really different about flying a edf, (not sure why that dude on RCG thinks there is, if he can't fly a scorpion I'd suggest he can't fly and should go back to a high wing trainer). just gotta be a little ahead of it compared to a prop plane. Maybe 1-2 extra seconds is all to allow for the throttle response. If you can fly a prop plane decently, you can fly a edf. Specially something like a sportjet with plenty of lift and good slow speed characteristics. Good luck both of you, (not that you'll need it ), and can't wait to hear how you boys go. I'm positive we'll hear from you both saying how easy it is to fly one of these. The beauty of a sportjet is they almost handle like a trainer, yet you can dial up throws etc and do some nice aeros and get a bit extreme if you like.

Pushed the button on pre-order myself last night for this one. (And one other, yes I have plane addiction problems lol). Thanks to brad for answering my emails so promptly, didn't realise us Aussies could now just use your website like your USA customers. Last time I ordered from motion was the first Aussie shipments with the p38, and we had to email details etc and it took 3 months of back n forth till they arrived here in oz. So thanks also Todd for updating your website, much easier.

Can I suggest a small banner or box on your home page so as to let overseas customers know that we can order direct through the website now? You may be missing orders from international customers as there's nothing that says you ship internationally now. Just a suggestion.

Cheers for the gteat service as always (already got a shipping notice on the second plane I ordered last night), can't wait to get this avanti tho. :)

[Grossman56]

Thanks guys! To be honest, I'm expecting more of a 'thrill' from fling the Bearcat with it's big prop and 650kv motor than I am flying the Avanti. The Avanti, I expect will quickly become one of my 'go to' birds very quickly!!

Grossman56

[Garyss]

Interesting color on this Krill 2.1M jet. The blue canopy is sort of growing on me.

[Porkster]

Really looking forward to this one. Have just pre ordered it which I haven't done before, normally just waiting for them to be available in the usual Chinese shops that ship to the UK. Now Motion ships to the UK I thought I'd rather give you guys my business.
Like a lot of the posters in this thread I'm a scale EDF pilot but for some reason this has really got my attention. Having got used to the blue canopy in so many pictures it may end up my first painted canopy, pilot-less plane :Cool:

[Shirty]

I like the blue canopy, will prob do the same to mine. :)

[Grossman56]

Welcome to the Squawk Porkster, great to have you!
I'm one of the preorder guys as well and I have to agree with everyone, the blue canopy is eye catching. I'm wondering if the idea of tinting it blue and still being able to see the cockpit details would be cool?
Anyone ever checked out how it opens on the real ones??

Grossman56

[Twowingtj]

Welcome to Hobby Squawk Garyss and Porkster.

I'm still undecided on what to do with the canopy. The blue really pops with the color scheme on this bird. Alpha said he used Tamiya TS-32 Clear Blue on it. He also said if he had it to do over again, he would tint it on the inside by swirling Rit dye in it.

I'm not a big fan of solid color canopies, but if I were I'd used a medium dark metalic blue. I did order Tamiya PS-38 Translucent Blue and Tamiya TS-71 Smoke Grey Tint. I'll test them on a seperate piece of clear material and keep track of how many coats I use to test until I find the color I like best.

[Grossman56]

I'm thinking of having a couple of canopies one blue and the other yellow, maybe.

Grossman56

[Garyss]

I used to tint quite a few kit canopies using Rit dye. They were whole bubble types that I totally immersed in the 130-140 degree water. I found one time if the canopy gets hung up part way in the immersion process you get an unwanted line. Consequently, I'm not sure just swerling a dye solution on the inside would be advisable. And in an earlier post I don't know of the Freewing company canopies would even take Dye.

Since this is a sport jet and not scale I will not add any weight by creating a cockpit & pilots. I'm looking forward to the aerobatic side of this design. I guess I liken it to a pattern plane that looks super cool.

[Grossman56]

Good point Garyss. I'd want to try it out on some spare canopies first just to make sure I'll get the results I'm after. I hear you on the cockpit configuration, but a lot of us include cockpit details as being super cool as well. Again the beauty of this hobby, you can have it both ways, as long is what you end up with is right to you,then its just plain right!!

Grossman56

[Twowingtj]

I like the idea of maybe having two different canopies done for two different looks. I think that I'm going to give a telemetry receiver a go in this one as well. Nothing fancy, maybe just call out flight pack voltage.

[Alpha]

Speaking of canopies, here are some photos I shot yesterday of the final production Avanti canopy.

After a few minutes of opening up your brand new Freewing 80mm Avanti S PNP and screwing on the wings and vertical/horizontal stabilizers, popping on the magnetic nose cone, and deploying the landing gear, you'll be looking at this:



The canopy plastic is unattached, and its framing is already painted for you and lightly tinted.



The foam cockpit can be painted or detailed as much or as little as you care to do. An instrument panel decal is included. I imagine some people will get very creative with their cockpits (I recommend the 1/10 scale half busts from jethangar.com), while others will leave it white and just fly, or perhaps paint a lighter gray than the dark gray we normally use for cockpits to minimize alligator skin. There isn't much to personalize on a plane like this Avanti, but at least its large canopy and cockpit gives people room to experiment with some personalization if they so choose.

I will reiterate also that the outside of the canopy framing is pre-painted at the factory, so anyone wanting to paint the canopy a different color is encouraged to do so from the inside. This will leave the plastic itself on the outer surface, and you won't have to worry about the paint getting chipped off during transport. As others have mentioned, RIT is a possibility, also, just swill it around along the inside of the canopy.

Once you're detailed the cockpit and canopy to your heart's delight, glue the canopy onto the cockpit. The canopy's plastic is pre-cut at the factory to align with the foam, so square it on all sides and you're done.

For those who opt to glue the canopy on straight out of the box with zero personalization, here's what it will look like:



If there's a huge push for a 100% clear canopy as a spare part option, we're still open to considering offering that in the future.

Thank you to everyone who has made this Avanti pre-order one of our largest pre-orders ever. After working directly with Sebart for over a year on this project, Freewing and I are very excited to see what all of you think about it. I usually don't pick favorites but I must admit this one makes it very hard not to do so.

[Alpha]

I've also received requests to show the plywood keel that has been mentioned in the past. Here are two photos showing the keel. A channel is molded into the foam keel itself, into which a deep plywood strip is inserted along most of the keel's entire length. This simple design reinforces this area of the Avanti's original design, so don't worry about placing your model on a table and collapsing the foam over time. Durability, win!

The rearmost tip of the keel is capped in plastic.


The plywood insert extends aft to to the tail, and forward to the nose doors. Note the left side of this picture, and you can see how deep the plywood insert goes.

[Twowingtj]

Thanks for the updates Alpha. Looking forward to these arriving.

[T-CAT]

Fantastic updates, pictures, and descriptions Alpha. It looks incredible.

[Shirty]

Cheers alpha. Can't wait for mine. ;)