Official Freewing 80mm Avanti S Sport Jet Thread

[Hugh Wiedman]

Thanks for the info!! That video to me looks like a normal landing with flare which is what I always try for with trike gear. I guess I was thinking high alpha is what you referred to as a wheelie. I have dropped in too hard (causing bounce) here and there, especially with a tail wind making my air speed less than what I had judged. I have flown a few tail draggers. My "field" makes it easy to flip forward, especially if you hit a mole hill, crawdad or deer hoof hole. I seen a full scale warbird flip forward and bend the prop. They were not happy. With a floaty 3D tail dragger if you get it right you can high alpha and set it down for a vertical landing!

Hey Mach9 , check out this crazy guy and high alpha with his 8S 70mm F-16. So that's what you meant by High Alpha, so I guess I'm still at "Low Alpha", but I am working on it.

https://youtu.be/UOML_AEc_bM

You can skip the beginning and end and just check out the flying in the middle.

[Hugh Wiedman]

Hows this for High Alpha



That's Franco Di Mauro, one of our members and the owner of House Of Power. He builds/sells high end turbines mostly and is one of the top medal winning jet pilots. He's maidened some of my planes and done things with them that are just not possible, at least by me. I did get my 90 mm F-4 into a hover for at least 5 seconds twice, but not on purpose. The first time one of the elevators came loose and it gyrated wildly and ultimately I somehow got it 4 feet off the ground in a hover, then cut the throttle and landed it like the moon lander with no damage. The second time I had too much up elevator trim on take-off flaps and then compounded it by giving it too much up elevator on take off into a strong head wind and it ended up about 30 feet off the ground in a hover for what seemed like an eternity, then got it to eventually level off and fly right. Both times I ended up with my pants full of , but the spectators at the field thought I was just showing off (until they smelled my pants).

[Mach9]

Hey Mach9 , check out this crazy guy and high alpha with his 8S 70mm F-16. So that's what you meant by High Alpha, so I guess I'm still at "Low Alpha", but I am working on it.

https://youtu.be/UOML_AEc_bM

You can skip the beginning and end and just check out the flying in the middle.

2 kewl! That's what I was thinking. A bit like the Russian Cobra maneuver.

[Droptanks]

I have the same problem. Discovered my nose gear pin is bent and causing the nose gear to bind as it retracts. I believe it doesn’t quite make it far enough to satisfy the limit switch and therefore stops working. If I apply a little pressure on it to help the limit switch get activated and select gear down then it works. I replaced the 3 in 1 connector thinking it was a connection issue but it seems to be mechanical binding. Gonna order new pin or pound mine straight. Should fix it.

[t01ga]

Following the make-over; still awesome. I forgot how great it sounds!

[Rudy’s pilot]

Well, yesterday was the day to maiden my Avanti-S 80mm and it was not as good as I hoped. (I didn't crash at least) I had my rates on low D/R & Expo all 70% and Expo 35%, kinda had a hard time with it wanted to roll, (constant stick movement) couldn't even trim it, my COG was @ 110 mm, (5000mah lipo) wind was at 12 mph. Not sure what the problem is, any good info? Thanks guys

[Gringotuerto]

Well, yesterday was the day to maiden my Avanti-S 80mm and it was not as good as I hoped. (I didn't crash at least) I had my rates on low D/R & Expo all 70% and Expo 35%, kinda had a hard time with it wanted to roll, (constant stick movement) couldn't even trim it, my COG was @ 110 mm, (5000mah lipo) wind was at 12 mph. Not sure what the problem is, any good info? Thanks guys

I found the rates in the manual to be ridiculously high, especially aileron. It flies like a buttered corkscrew with those throws. It is very stable once you get it tuned up, so I would suggest that you look at your throws and maybe reduce further.

[Gringotuerto]

Following the make-over; still awesome. I forgot how great it sounds!

That is an awesome makeover, you did an outstanding job.

[Mach9]

Well, yesterday was the day to maiden my Avanti-S 80mm and it was not as good as I hoped. (I didn't crash at least) I had my rates on low D/R & Expo all 70% and Expo 35%, kinda had a hard time with it wanted to roll, (constant stick movement) couldn't even trim it, my COG was @ 110 mm, (5000mah lipo) wind was at 12 mph. Not sure what the problem is, any good info? Thanks guys

Might check post 2806. I think he gave the ailerons a touch of reflex. I had to do that to a little Viper. Be sure your elevators are equal.

[t01ga]

That is an awesome makeover, you did an outstanding job.

Thank buddy!

[Rudy’s pilot]

Hey Dudes,
Can you guys share some good rates for the Avanti. I have the Elite F-16 Falcon and I'm looking for a better EDF Jet and I think the Avanti is my choice. I just looking for a few low rates and some good pointers, I have the 4000/5000mah batteries. My first maiden it flew like a buttered corkscrew, I checked my throws and all good. Maybe my COG is off but that's at 110-115. Trying to dial in....thanks

[AceMigKiller]

Had a great time competing this weekend at the Colorado Pattern Challenge. Juuust couldn't squeak out 1st place (by 11 points), but awesome to fly alongside some fantastic talent.

Weapon of choice for everyone flying in the Advanced Class was the Freewing Avanti 80S. 😎

Check out that first round score!!!

[kilolima31]

Hi all,
apologies if this has been asked already; newbie and can't find an answer on searching.
I have a new Avanti S (purchased a few months ago but did't get to it because of lockdown etc). The problem is that the flaps are unbalanced. It's not a case of adjusting the push bars; I can see the servos horns are at different angles. So if you set the flaps to match at the 'flaps up' position, they are very much different at full (landing) flap position. I've managed to open a servo horn screw but moving one notch on the horn is too crude an adjustment. Anyone experienced this and/or have any suggestions ? I could split the flap servos at the PCB and use separate rx channels, but this is messy.

Thanks,
Kim.

[AceMigKiller]

Here's the link to the video of a Practice Run for the Colorado EDF Pattern Challenge.

https://youtu.be/VnVWlrShB7E

[Mach9]

Hi all,
apologies if this has been asked already; newbie and can't find an answer on searching.
I have a new Avanti S (purchased a few months ago but did't get to it because of lockdown etc). The problem is that the flaps are unbalanced. It's not a case of adjusting the push bars; I can see the servos horns are at different angles. So if you set the flaps to match at the 'flaps up' position, they are very much different at full (landing) flap position. I've managed to open a servo horn screw but moving one notch on the horn is too crude an adjustment. Anyone experienced this and/or have any suggestions ? I could split the flap servos at the PCB and use separate rx channels, but this is messy.

Thanks,
Kim.

That is a big pain. If you have another horn with multiple points, you could try walking it around the shaft to see if you find a position that matches the other servo and then cut off all the other points.

[Gringotuerto]

Hi all,
apologies if this has been asked already; newbie and can't find an answer on searching.
I have a new Avanti S (purchased a few months ago but did't get to it because of lockdown etc). The problem is that the flaps are unbalanced. It's not a case of adjusting the push bars; I can see the servos horns are at different angles. So if you set the flaps to match at the 'flaps up' position, they are very much different at full (landing) flap position. I've managed to open a servo horn screw but moving one notch on the horn is too crude an adjustment. Anyone experienced this and/or have any suggestions ? I could split the flap servos at the PCB and use separate rx channels, but this is messy.

Thanks,
Kim.

Here is a trick that has helped me before - linear travel as a function of angle is like an "S" curve. When one servo arm is offset from the other, they match up at two points, not just one point. So one thing you can do is adjust your connection points so that they match at 100% flap and 0% flap, and nowhere else. For example, if zero degrees is the arm sticking straight out of the wing, then flaps up might be one servo at 30deg and the other at 40deg - let's call that 30/40. But then you can make "flaps down" the opposite, like "-40/-30". Each servo has transitioned 70deg, and the total linear travel is the same on each. They just don't match anywhere in between. I don't normally use a half flap position, so this works fine for me.

PS: by the way, from 40/30 to -30/-40 is not always matching deflection, because the other side is rotating as well (the control surface). But this is just a simplified example to illustrate the general point that there can be two matching points, and you can exploit that.

[Rudy’s pilot]

Nice job, my maiden flight could have been better. Any flight tips before I crash. How bout some low rates pointers,

[kilolima31]

Here is a trick that has helped me before - linear travel as a function of angle is like an "S" curve. When one servo arm is offset from the other, they match up at two points, not just one point. So one thing you can do is adjust your connection points so that they match at 100% flap and 0% flap, and nowhere else. For example, if zero degrees is the arm sticking straight out of the wing, then flaps up might be one servo at 30deg and the other at 40deg - let's call that 30/40. But then you can make "flaps down" the opposite, like "-40/-30". Each servo has transitioned 70deg, and the total linear travel is the same on each. They just don't match anywhere in between. I don't normally use a half flap position, so this works fine for me.

PS: by the way, from 40/30 to -30/-40 is not always matching deflection, because the other side is rotating as well (the control surface). But this is just a simplified example to illustrate the general point that there can be two matching points, and you can exploit that.

Excellent idea, Gringotuerto; at least I could have landing flaps. Thanks for that.

[mirion]

Nice job, my maiden flight could have been better. Any flight tips before I crash. How bout some low rates pointers,

I am by no means an expert, the Avanti being my first EDF but here are my throws at 3 different rates. I use low rates for takeoff and landing...….
Low Medium High
Ailerons: 3/8" 5/8" 7/8"
Elevators: 5/8" 3/4" 7/8"
Rudder: 3/4" 1" 1-1/8"
Flaps: 5/8" (takeoff) 1-1/4" (landing)

and here are the Freewing suggested throws which I started with but it was certainly a handful on the maiden due to excessive aileron throw...….



This is a video of some pretty nice "Maiden" takeoffs and landings...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNfL0c0nmTw&feature=emb_logo

[kilolima31]

Hi all,
apologies if this has been asked already; newbie and can't find an answer on searching.
I have a new Avanti S (purchased a few months ago but did't get to it because of lockdown etc). The problem is that the flaps are unbalanced. It's not a case of adjusting the push bars; I can see the servos horns are at different angles. So if you set the flaps to match at the 'flaps up' position, they are very much different at full (landing) flap position. I've managed to open a servo horn screw but moving one notch on the horn is too crude an adjustment. Anyone experienced this and/or have any suggestions ? I could split the flap servos at the PCB and use separate rx channels, but this is messy.

Thanks,
Kim.

For the record (in case this helps someone), I fixed this by bringing in the push rod to the next hole in on one servo only and re-adjusted the push rod length. Not very scientific, but this brought the flaps closely matched in the take-off and landing positions. There was still a few mm in the difference at the control surface but flew the Avanti today and tested the flaps (at a safe height) and found no roll effect, so used flaps for take-off and landing.