Official Freewing 80mm Avanti S Sport Jet Thread

[jdarland]

Thanks man! My EFlite A-10 is a seasoned veteran of mine. One of my favorite airplanes I’ve ever owned and I expect the Avanti to be up on that list as well. One of the things I was looking for in my next jet was a wide flight envelope, which I think the Avanti fits that bill perfectly. I am very excited to get it up in the air.

[Hugh Wiedman]

Thanks for all of the great suggestions! It got here yesterday and I got it all put together and setup. I'm very excited to fly it and its looking like tomorrow morning will be nice. I think I will be bringing my A-10 and Avanti for its maiden flight. Any tips for this jet on maiden? Seems like most everybody has had a very positive experience. Is there a "landmark" per say on the jet that would indicate CG? Flying on a 6s 4000 pack to start.

Just some thoughts on your maiden: It doesn't really need flaps on take-off and I think you get a nice smooth lift off without them. This jet is fast, but flies very nicely at 50% throttle. I only use full throttle on take-off and climbing for a loop/cuban 8/spit S, etc. and even then at the top the throttle is cut way back. It even knife edges at 75-80% throttle, so unless your have a "need for speed", it flies well at a lower throttle. It easily gets into a slow high alpha inflight, use flaps or don't use them, and stalls only at a crawling speed, so try it out to get accustomed to what it does when it does stall (dips a wing left but corrects easily). On landing, you need to land on the mains with the nose up (as does the A-10, which is very important for that one) and it floats very well, so you'll need to bleed some speed off and drop the throttle to a hum. If you maiden the A-10, it too floats in and once you are about 2 feet off the ground, you can cut the throttle, float in and raise the nose. These 2 a some of the few EDF's that can land with the throttle cut. Regarding CG, I fly mine about 5-7 mm behind the manual CG and use a RT 6250 pushed all the way back even under the foam. With that battery, I get about 5 minutes of flight time, so if you are using a 4000, you'll probably get around 3:30, although with the lighter weight than mine, it will be faster, float more on landing and you'll also be able to manage the throttle/time better. Good Luck and let us know how it goes. I think you'll find the Avanti a great flying EDF and it is IMO the easiest EDF I have to fly and land, and you'll also find that the A-10 is also about the easiest EDF to fly/land.

[jdarland]

Thanks for all of the great suggestions! It got here yesterday and I got it all put together and setup. I'm very excited to fly it and its looking like tomorrow morning will be nice. I think I will be bringing my A-10 and Avanti for its maiden flight. Any tips for this jet on maiden? Seems like most everybody has had a very positive experience. Is there a "landmark" per say on the jet that would indicate CG? Flying on a 6s 4000 pack to start.

[T-CAT]

Just purchased my own Avanti S and I’m extremely excited to say the least. My question is, what are your favorite mods to do? I’d like to get pilots, paint the cockpit, etc.

Congrats! This is an excellent flying plane. You’ve received some great suggestions above. Below are some of my thoughts as well.

Before the maiden, complete your typical pre-flight checks like ensuring all screws and metal components are secure, ensure no components are missing from aircraft assembly, ensure hinging is secure, check all linkages for security, check all plastic-to-foam glue mounts/joints, calibrate your throttle, range check and failsafe check, get your nose steering traveling straight, ensure all control surfaces are traveling in the correct direction and moving freely, check CG, ensure all wiring is seated properly, no electronics are loose in the compartment, battery is secured, etc.

In addition to the regular checks above, adding some glue (I prefer hot glue for this in particular) to each mounting tabs and end of the spring on each nose gear door. This locks the spring into its proper place (you would want to have the aircraft on a stand inverted and place the spring in the proper spot prior to gluing). This prevents the spring from rotating around out of its ideal position, and when in the proper place the nose doors close and open more reliably and more evenly. The picture below shows it best.



I didn’t like the positioning and space to place my receiver and any telemetry equipment, gyro, etc., so I made a simple RX/Gyro tray for the Avanti that can be 3D printed, and is available on Thingiverse in the link below.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4628650

After many flights on the Freewing Avanti S 80mm EDF jet, the following below are the throws, expo, and CG I settled on.

CG: 115mm measured inverted with gear extended. My elevators are level for cruise flight at this CG, so no noticeable up or down trim was required.

Throws & Expo:
Aileron (measured inboard) - 14mm Low, 18mm Mid, 22mm High. 20% Expo on each
Elevator (measured inboard) - 14mm Low, 18mm Mid, 22mm High. 20% Expo on each
Rudder (measured at the bottom) - 25mm Low, 30mm Mid, 35mm High. 20% Expo on each
Flaps (measured inboard) - 10 degrees Takeoff, 45 degrees Landing

[wildnloose]

Possibly brace the front gear doors. Think of a way to keep the nose gear doors spring up after gear deploy, it usually falls. It still works fine, just looks funky. Although I don't want to spend the money, a faster edf setup would be ideal too, but its not necessary. I put a tailcone on mine, painted it black. I really like the way it looks. I painted the jet with a durable coating, satin finish. I like it, makes the foam a little tougher.

[Hugh Wiedman]

1. A popular "burner" mod is available from the RC Geek:
https://thercgeek.com/the-centerburner/

That's the one I used, have them in all of my EDF's except the A-10 (but I sure wanted to but got talked out of it since the A-10 does not have them-but then my Stinger 90 and Avanti probably shouldn't either but who cares, they look too cool to go without them). Also it helps if you line the exhaust nozzles with Aluminum AC tape, shines even in bright sunlight!

[Gringotuerto]

I did do a bit with the cockpit and added 2 pilots, added a little extra paint and covered the entire jet with 4 coats of clear gloss spar urethane

Excellent job! The pilots are awesome.

[Gringotuerto]

Just purchased my own Avanti S and I’m extremely excited to say the least. My question is, what are your favorite mods to do? I’d like to get pilots, paint the cockpit, etc.

1. A popular "burner" mod is available from the RC Geek:

https://thercgeek.com/the-centerburner/

2. There is a lot of debate on this thread about "put on the wing fences or not". People seem to have different preferences. I like them: (a) knife edges better; (b) lands slower; (c) protects the servos a bit if you carry the thing around with gear retracted.

3. Some people put a nosegear brace on. I printed up a few of these, but didn't bother to install it yet.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2553111

[Hugh Wiedman]

Just purchased my own Avanti S and I’m extremely excited to say the least. My question is, what are your favorite mods to do? I’d like to get pilots, paint the cockpit, etc.

For me it didn't need a lot of mods, just an outstanding flying sport jet. Gets over 5 minutes of aggressive flying on a RT 6250. Lands easy, takes off of grass in a short distance and can knife edge all day long. Very easy to get into a slow high alpha and stay there until you punch it out.

I did do a bit with the cockpit and added 2 pilots, added a little extra paint and covered the entire jet with 4 coats of clear gloss spar urethane, added an afterburner just for the hell of it and did add some carbon fiber tubes to the nose gear doors because after a while, the spring holding it closed bows the doors in. Some reinforced the base of the nose gear retract, but after 150 flights I haven't had an issue so it is still stock.

[jdarland]

Just purchased my own Avanti S and I’m extremely excited to say the least. My question is, what are your favorite mods to do? I’d like to get pilots, paint the cockpit, etc.

[Fvillar]

Hello To all
I am new to EDF and just got my Red Avanty and i have a few questions

1 I am flying at 7000 feet would it be better to use a 12 blades or the 9 blades

2 I noticed that the space between the blades and the housing is very big has any one done something to reduce that gap?? i know that the point of ducting a propeller is to aboid the turbulence at the tip of the blades or isnt it???

3 I have just fly the Avanti 2 times and i noticed that on turns it takes a big dive needs a lot of elevator is that ok??? or i might be too nose heavy???

Thanks for your help
BTW I also bought the Freewing F14 it looks incredible but i am too afraid to fly it hehehehehehe

[Gringotuerto]

...Well what can i say committed an absolute rookie mistake and i have been flying RC for almost 30 years , aileron set reversed which resulted in roll to the left on liftoff , and broke the nose off ,and broke the wing spar...

Oops, sorry to hear that, I just did that myself a month ago with another plane. Ready to re-maiden the plane tomorrow. It's funny how once you get it stuck in your mind that something was already checked, it is hard to notice it being wrong. Full scale pilots have strict checklists, and still a lot of accidents boil down to "forgot a checklist item." Humans are stupid, machines will rule us all someday, lol. Anyway, best wishes on the re-maiden. It is a nice plane, worth fixing.

[rsunleaded]

Well what can i say committed an absolute rookie mistake and i have been flying RC for almost 30 years , aileron set reversed which resulted in roll to the left on liftoff , and broke the nose off ,and broke the wing spar, really felt so stupid anyway after a careful examination i have ordered a new fuse ,wing spar , wing fence no other damage and have stripped it out and will keep it for small damage repair oh well when you have been involved with aero modelling for over 60 years ,30 years this time i have lost count of the number of models that have not survived maiden as i have always said GRAVITY ALWAYS WINS will report back when it is repaired

[A10warthog]

Hh

[A10warthog]

Hi

[Hugh Wiedman]

Hi all have just finished off assembly mine it has been coated with a gloss eurathan and i made my own nose leg support i also made a deck to mount the RX above the program board , i am using 5000 6s 40c that i use in my Prometheus bipe plane ,i have set up three rates on elevator,aieliron and flaps . I am not going to set up delays on flaps or retracts . We have a grass runway which is reasonable .I like to set a new model CG a bit on the nose and have seen some say they set it st 115 mm I have set mine at 110 , anyway hope to maiden on Wednesday if the weather gods play nice , oh i did also read that some reduce the rates on the rudder/ nose wheel to assist in takeoff tracking , should i do this . As a bit of fun i have an afterburner ring on the rear wish me luck

Nice work, good luck on the maiden but you won't need much luck, this is such a sweet flying EDF, certainly one of the best. IMO, I would not necessarily reduce the rate on the rudder, in fact you may want to set a high rate on the rudder in the event you want to knife edge with the Avanti, which it will do very nicely. Instead, you may just put in a lower rate on the rudder for take-off, then switch to mid or high rates in the air. Also, it really doesn't even need take-off flaps (and will lift off quickly even without 100% throttle), even on grass (which I also fly on) but full flaps on landing is nice. It floats in very nicely so let it slow down on landing so you can land on the mains first. The only way you can get in trouble on landing this EDF is with too much speed and landing on the nose gear first, a big no-no, like all EDF's, which may give it a little bounce on landing and thereafter something you can't control.

Regarding the CG, I fly mine with a RT 6250 (about 75 g heavier than your 5000) and I have the battery way back under the foam. It has a fairly wide CG envelope but again IMO it flies better in the 120-125 mm range, allowing for you to fly it slow in high alpha and helps in keeping the nose up in landing.

BTW, I also have the P-2 Bi-Plane, don't see it much anymore and got it when it first came out, looks great and flies well but rarely get it out much more. It is a bit heavy for the wing loading, especially compared to my 60" Beast Bi-Plane which is much larger and actually lighter (balsa and monocoat-not foam) which gets more flying time when I decide to take a Bi-Plane out.

[rsunleaded]

Hi all have just finished off assembly mine it has been coated with a gloss eurathan and i made my own nose leg support i also made a deck to mount the RX above the program board , i am using 5000 6s 40c that i use in my Prometheus bipe plane ,i have set up three rates on elevator,aieliron and flaps . I am not going to set up delays on flaps or retracts . We have a grass runway which is reasonable .I like to set a new model CG a bit on the nose and have seen some say they set it st 115 mm I have set mine at 110 , anyway hope to maiden on Wednesday if the weather gods play nice , oh i did also read that some reduce the rates on the rudder/ nose wheel to assist in takeoff tracking , should i do this . As a bit of fun i have an afterburner ring on the rear wish me luck

[AceMigKiller]

Niiice!

[T-CAT]

Slightly off topic, but I finally got around to editing a video of the maiden flight of my 120mm Avanti XS. I take the Freewing Avanti out pretty much every weekend, so I wanted to try the larger one. My landing could have been better....but could have been worse!

Congrats on the flight . The characters you placed as the pilots are awesome, ha-ha.

[Gringotuerto]

Slightly off topic, but I finally got around to editing a video of the maiden flight of my 120mm Avanti XS. I take the Freewing Avanti out pretty much every weekend, so I wanted to try the larger one. My landing could have been better....but could have been worse!