Official Freewing 80mm Avanti S Sport Jet Thread

[Hugh Wiedman]

Finished my Red Avanti 80mm and hope to maiden it tomorrow. Added a little extra paint, cause I just can't leave well enough alone, and hate any white unpainted foam areas. Finished out the cockpit as well, applied 4 coats of gloss spar uretahne and added an RC Geek afterburner, just because it's way too cool.

I used an AR636 with gyro and ran into something unusual with that receiver. I've programmed over 25 of these and I thought I was somewhat of an expert in programming (but guess I'm not an expert after all). With the 636, the most critical factor is to get the receiver orientation correct and do the servo reversing in the receiver, not the transmitter, where the servo's are all set to normal. The last check I do, is to set 1 mode with very high heading gain (never ultimately use heading gain though) so I can definitively see the direction each surface is moving in for correction. This time, the ailerons were right, but the elevator and rudder were moving in the WRONG direction. I have the receiver mounted on it's side, so the correct orientation in the app is a little difficult to see in the app when it is on it's side, but I know for a fact I set it correctly, yet it gave the wrong deflection. I had to rotate it 180 degrees for it to be correct (yet it is showing the wrong receiver orientation). After programming so many of these, I almost forgot to do the heading gain check cause I was so certain everything was correct-I'll never miss that final check again. I asked HH if they have ever found a 636 that the gyro was off 180 degrees, and of course their answer was no. Maybe this explains why some complain that their 636 caused their plane to crash. Still not comfortable with my results, so I'll program 1 mode with no gains as a fail safe.

[Mach9]

Finished my Red Avanti 80mm and hope to maiden it tomorrow. Added a little extra paint, cause I just can't leave well enough alone, and hate any white unpainted foam areas. Finished out the cockpit as well, applied 4 coats of gloss spar uretahne and added an RC Geek afterburner, just because it's way too cool.

I used an AR636 with gyro and ran into something unusual with that receiver. I've programmed over 25 of these and I thought I was somewhat of an expert in programming (but guess I'm not an expert after all). With the 636, the most critical factor is to get the receiver orientation correct and do the servo reversing in the receiver, not the transmitter, where the servo's are all set to normal. The last check I do, is to set 1 mode with very high heading gain (never ultimately use heading gain though) so I can definitively see the direction each surface is moving in for correction. This time, the ailerons were right, but the elevator and rudder were moving in the WRONG direction. I have the receiver mounted on it's side, so the correct orientation in the app is a little difficult to see in the app when it is on it's side, but I know for a fact I set it correctly, yet it gave the wrong deflection. I had to rotate it 180 degrees for it to be correct (yet it is showing the wrong receiver orientation). After programming so many of these, I almost forgot to do the heading gain check cause I was so certain everything was correct-I'll never miss that final check again. I asked HH if they have ever found a 636 that the gyro was off 180 degrees, and of course their answer was no. Maybe this explains why some complain that their 636 caused their plane to crash. Still not comfortable with my results, so I'll program 1 mode with no gains as a fail safe.

Looks good! Turn the gyro off. You won't need it.

[Hugh Wiedman]

Got the maiden in yesterday plus 3 more flights for good measure. Absolutely love this jet, should have gotten one sooner. The maiden with a 5000mah battery was completely un-eventful, so finished the last 2 flights off with the 6000mah battery. No change in flight characteristics and more flight time, hoorah. The RC Geek afterburner was outstanding, even with our bright Florida sun , although I'm sure the aluminum foil helped significantly (afterburners for both F-4's, on the way). And don't give me any about having a sport jet with an afterburner, put one in my re-painted Stinger 90 as well and I love it. None of my planes are scale anyway, I go for outrageous paint, graphics and looks anyway, so bug off. As a matter of fact, I just added some more paint for the next flight! Bare white foam is an endangered species around me. I admire the guys who do incredible work getting their planes to look scale and real, I just don't have the skill or patience to even attempt what they do, so I go the other direction.

Can't wait to get it out again, hopefully Monday. The only hiccup was that on the last flight, the left flap did not come up. Moved it by hand and it worked fine after that. I had the exact same problem with both my B-24's and xviper gave me some advice that some servo's don't like the delay. Had it set at 4 secs, but now for the next time out, reduced it to 1.5 seconds. This same thing cleared up the problem with my B-24's, so hoping this will solve this issue as well .

[Mach9]

Got the maiden in yesterday plus 3 more flights for good measure. Absolutely love this jet, should have gotten one sooner. The maiden with a 5000mah battery was completely un-eventful, so finished the last 2 flights off with the 6000mah battery. No change in flight characteristics and more flight time, hoorah. The RC Geek afterburner was outstanding, even with our bright Florida sun , although I'm sure the aluminum foil helped significantly (afterburners for both F-4's, on the way). And don't give me any about having a sport jet with an afterburner, put one in my re-painted Stinger 90 as well and I love it. None of my planes are scale anyway, I go for outrageous paint, graphics and looks anyway, so bug off. As a matter of fact, I just added some more paint for the next flight! Bare white foam is an endangered species around me. I admire the guys who do incredible work getting their planes to look scale and real, I just don't have the skill or patience to even attempt what they do, so I go the other direction.

Can't wait to get it out again, hopefully Monday. The only hiccup was that on the last flight, the left flap did not come up. Moved it by hand and it worked fine after that. I had the exact same problem with both my B-24's and xviper gave me some advice that some servo's don't like the delay. Had it set at 4 secs, but now for the next time out, reduced it to 1.5 seconds. This same thing cleared up the problem with my B-24's, so hoping this will solve this issue as well .

Kewl. Do what makes you happy!
I see the flap issue is still around. Mine too. You would think that Freewing would have this solved after 2 years. I personally think that the delay is not directly responsible. I have never used a delay. If it was, It would happen on both flaps and the problem could be made to happen at will. It is extremely unlikely that faulty servos just happen to be only in the left flap position out of the thousands of servos and airplanes. For some strange reason I still keep thinking it is the servo. Perhaps because it is the part that moves. LOL I did replace the wing circuit board as it had pins that were soldered uneven but it happened 1 more time later on after that. Same logic applies to the wing ribbon cables. They could be installed anywhere. Same for radio systems. Many different brands and models and technologies.
The only piece that remains consistent is the control board. If that is the problem, considering that the ribbon can be swapped, why does the problem not move to the right flap?
I don't remember, has anyone that has bypassed the control board ever had the problem happen again?
BTW, pay close attention to the servo horn screws! They are metal to metal and my last one did not have thread lock. Maybe none of them do! All of them were loose and coming out!!! I personally highly recommend that you tape the hinge gaps. At the least, tug and inspect them after every flight.

[TedBull]

I had an issue today with my flaps that caused a crash. I deployed my landing gear and then deployed landing flaps. One flap went full down but the other stayed full up. I tried cycling the flaps multiple times but neither would move. I wasnt able to save it. The fuse is trashed, the main wing spar broke, and one of the small wing spars broke flush with the wing.

After researching this issue I have found many other instances of other people having the same issue with flaps. WTF freewing?

[Mach9]

I had an issue today with my flaps that caused a crash. I deployed my landing gear and then deployed landing flaps. One flap went full down but the other stayed full up. I tried cycling the flaps multiple times but neither would move. I wasnt able to save it. The fuse is trashed, the main wing spar broke, and one of the small wing spars broke flush with the wing.

After researching this issue I have found many other instances of other people having the same issue with flaps. WTF freewing?

I think Freewing should replace it.

[TedBull]

I think Freewing should replace it.

I sure hope so. I opened a trouble ticket.

[Hugh Wiedman]

I had an issue today with my flaps that caused a crash. I deployed my landing gear and then deployed landing flaps. One flap went full down but the other stayed full up. I tried cycling the flaps multiple times but neither would move. I wasnt able to save it. The fuse is trashed, the main wing spar broke, and one of the small wing spars broke flush with the wing.

After researching this issue I have found many other instances of other people having the same issue with flaps. WTF freewing?

I also have had issues with the flaps getting "stuck" in one position. So far, it has only happened on the left flap after going to full landing flaps about 50% of the time, but it sticks in the down position. Fortunately, so far that hasn't caused an issue as it won't return to full up AFTER landing. Upon recycling, it does go up. It has yet to happen in the full up position like you had or with take-off flaps, but it is an item of concern for me. I reduced the delay from 4 seconds to 1 second and it has not happened again (yet) and then tried it by reducing the full flap deflection by 10% and it did not occur, but I don't have enough flights with either of those changes to warrant it as a solution. Same issue on both my B-24's and changing the delay from 4 seconds to 0 has so far solved it with that plane, but I'm still not sure.

Hope you get it resolved with Motion and if you find anything more about it, would desperately like to hear what a possible solution is. If it continues on the Avanti, my next experiment is changing the servo.

[TedBull]

I had flaps set to 1 second delay. Flap deflection and connecting rod positions setup by the book. I just hope Motion RC takes care of me.

Has anyone figured this out? Switch to hitec servos?

[TedBull]

Motion RC got back to me. They asked for a video showing the issue. I found that one servo flap is completely dead and the other is kinda "dragging" and "glitchy" or "Jumpy" if you will. But i have not been able to get the glitchy working servo to stick like it did when it crashed.

Are you other guys seeing this issue on the bench or pre flight? Or only durring flight or after landing? Has anybody found a reason for the flap servo failures? A bad batch of servos maybe?

Who else has experienced this? Would hate for this to happen to someone else. $339 for that sexy plane and I only got 6 flights.

[AFTERBURNER]

I had flaps set to 1 second delay. Flap deflection and connecting rod positions setup by the book. I just hope Motion RC takes care of me.

Has anyone figured this out? Switch to hitec servos?

Which Hitec servos should be used on this plane?

[Hugh Wiedman]

Motion RC got back to me. They asked for a video showing the issue. I found that one servo flap is completely dead and the other is kinda "dragging" and "glitchy" or "Jumpy" if you will. But i have not been able to get the glitchy working servo to stick like it did when it crashed.

Are you other guys seeing this issue on the bench or pre flight? Or only durring flight or after landing? Has anybody found a reason for the flap servo failures? A bad batch of servos maybe?

Who else has experienced this? Would hate for this to happen to someone else. $339 for that sexy plane and I only got 6 flights.

As I've mentioned, I also have an issue with the flaps, for me, the left flap stays down after a full flap landing. Tried reducing the delay from 4 seconds, to 3, then 2, then 1 and reducing the deflection by 10%, but still occurred 50% of the time. Last week I got a dozen flights in with the Avanti, messed around with different settings, and after 7 flights with 0 delay at full flap extension, it did not happen. Not sure if this solved the issue, but sort of convinced that it is most likely a week servo. Another friend at the field just bought the same red Avanti I have after he saw mine, and his works perfectly with a 4 second delay. He now has 25 flights on it and never an issue, so I guess we're just the lucky few.

If it does it again with the 0 second delay, then I will change out the servo. Just hate to remove servo's that are glued in and then having to remove the servo tape on the wings. If it was screwed it, that b…. would have been changed the first time it did it stuck.

Until I'm confident the delay solved my issue, I take off with take-off flaps, but don't bring them up till I've completed the first turn and have some altitude, ready to put them back quickly or correct with ailerons. When I'm ready to land, after deploying the gear, first I move to take-off flaps and make sure it still flies level. Then I go to landing flaps while still with some altitude on the downwind leg, ready to return flaps to mid level or correct with aileron. If it stays level, then I land. No way can I go to full flaps while just flying around for a slow pass until I have more confidence in that servo.

[TedBull]

Good news, Motion RC has sent me out a replacement plane. I will report back if the flap servos lag or glitch. If they do I will replace them.

[Mach9]

Hugh Wiedman I tend to lean toward the servo as well, but the odds of Freewing putting the random bad servos in the left flap position for 2 years are extremely high. Perhaps they are being damaged by a certain assembly person during assembly in that position. If anyone ever (should be Freewing) is able to make it happen at will the problem can be solved.

[Scott Orr]

I Had a brand new Red Avanti with all MRC components. Total loss ( except EDF ) after a receiver lockout on the 7th flight last weekend. Unfortunately the battery crushed the receiver on impact so I can't troubleshoot. Hated to see it go in... beautiful flying jet. I just got it dialed in perfectly... Point and Slow rolls like it's on rails. I was surprised MRC didn't really offer anything, other than a "sorry 2.4ghz isn't a perfect technology and interference can happen anywhere. I really want to replace this jet and hoped they would at least offer a discount jet without a power system. Guess Not. All my servo's, including the Flaps, ran smoothly. I didn't see any problems with linkage, travel or binding. I did note during assembly that the flaps went into the cavity too far. I add a small 1/16 balsa strip at the flap trailing edge. This allowed the flap to seat even with the wing trailing point. I used less flap throw than needed and used 0.5sec delay. Made sure the flap end points didn't bind at their stops. My .50 cents

[Hugh Wiedman]

I Had a brand new Red Avanti with all MRC components. Total loss ( except EDF ) after a receiver lockout on the 7th flight [/B]

Scott, I feel the pain for you, we've all been there brother. These are the events you just hate to hear about, but it does happen. Fortunately, it's not the end of the world and nobody died, just ended up costing a little more cash, part of this hobby which is still a blast, even with mishaps. Get back on the horse, get another one and keep moving and flying higher and faster. This is such a sweet flying jet, when everything works properly, at least it's a crash you didn't cause, unlike most of mine that are diagnosed as incredibly stupid "pilot error", which in my case is not a fixable problem.

[mirion]

Hello All, I have been contemplating the Avanti for some time now for my first EDF. Been flying RC for 30 years but consider myself an average pilot. Chipmunks and Ultra-sports are my high speed planes but from what I can see the Avanti should be a good first EDF. I saw an ad today for a used Avanti not far from me and jumped on it. All it needs is a receiver, I am using a year-old Spektrum DX6 transmitter and wondering what would be a good choice for a receiver, does this plane need anything special, or maybe a new transmitter would be in order for this plane, any help would be greatly appreciated......Thanks, Mike in Michigan

[hilldebrandt]

Hello All, I have been contemplating the Avanti for some time now for my first EDF. Been flying RC for 30 years but consider myself an average pilot. Chipmunks and Ultra-sports are my high speed planes but from what I can see the Avanti should be a good first EDF. I saw an ad today for a used Avanti not far from me and jumped on it. All it needs is a receiver, I am using a year-old Spektrum DX6 transmitter and wondering what would be a good choice for a receiver, does this plane need anything special, or maybe a new transmitter would be in order for this plane, any help would be greatly appreciated......Thanks, Mike in Michigan

Mike, welcome to the 'Squawk! I would say your DX6 would be more than adequate for that plane. For a receiver you could check out the Admiral receivers on Motion RC. They have a stability plus gyro for under $30 and a dual diversity antenna one for under $20. Both will work with your Spektrum radio...
Good luck!
Gregg

[Patrnflyr]

i like the Spektrum AR620. Very small and lightweight. No gyro but the Avanti doesn’t need one and it’s easy to set up. Almost every hobby shop stocks them also

[mirion]

I am glad to hear you say that Patrnflyr, that's what I have in four of my other planes and I have had nothing but good luck with my AR620's. I had a new one in the package that I put in my Avanti to set it up. The thing that had me worried is the question, what is up with all of these other receivers on the market that have two antennae's or satellite receivers. Now the latest Spektrum telemetry receivers that aren't even available yet, the AR637T have two antennae's again. I got back into RC after a 20 year absence and in the "old days" they all had antennae's that we had to thread thru the plane. Just confused as to why some need antennae's and some don't.