Official Freewing 80mm Avanti S Sport Jet Thread

[Gman61]

Thanks bro appreciate the help

[Gringotuerto]

Hi Guys,
I no one mentioned anything about the flap geometry
Thanks

If by "flap geometry" you mean mismatch in the servo arm angle on the two flaps, there was some discussion of this in post #2833 and some responses after that (my response was #2836).

I may have removed one of the servo arms and put it back in a position more closely matching the other flap, I don't exactly recall. Certainly I have done that on some RTF planes before. They don't always match well from the factory. The question in #2833 was how to fine tune beyond just matching "nearest spline". Adjusting to the nearest spline leaves a fraction of a spline error, which can still be noticeable.

[Gman61]

I’m referring to the angle of the horn vs the angle of the servo arm throw and if there is any binding or resistance
I’m going to backtrack and check out post 2833
as far as the control bd. if I bypass that and tie my flaps into the receiver direct, all the other controls are ok running through the board?

[Hugh Wiedman]

Gman61 I had the problem where 1 of the flaps would stick in the fully deflected down position, but it seemed to alternated from left flap to right flap each time. Finally took all the delay out of flap deployment and haven't had that issue again for the last 60 flights. Both of my B-24's had the exact same thing, took out an delay and never a problem again. This worked for me, but if I remember correctly, not for everyone.

[Gman61]

Yes I read that.

[Gringotuerto]

I’m referring to the angle of the horn vs the angle of the servo arm throw and if there is any binding or resistance
I’m going to backtrack and check out post 2833
as far as the control bd. if I bypass that and tie my flaps into the receiver direct, all the other controls are ok running through the board?

There should be no problem with using the control board for some connections and not for others. It would be theoretically possible to design a control board that only used power/ground from certain inputs, and therefore disconnecting those inputs would remove power/ground from the control board. But that would be weird. I have only once looked at a control board PCB in detail, and in that example it was designed as you would expect - the power pins were all tied, and the ground pins were all tied. So connecting any one of them would supply power/ground from your Rx to the control board.

I'm not sure what problem people have with flaps other than mismatch. Of course every receiver is different, and you do need to set the endpoints properly on your Tx. You can't just use a default like -100% to +100% and expect it to match the desired up and down position on the model. If you do that you will get biding and resistance. But that is like buying a yard of fabric from a fabric store and expecting it to fit you perfectly as a shirt....it just doesn't work that way. However, I mention it because I have seen people do this before (with flaps). Perhaps people get lazy sometimes because often the ail, ele, rudder will be approximately the right throw if you follow the manual and leave your Tx at the default -100/+100. Receivers vary, but throw has a wide tolerable range. But flaps don't work that way. You really want them flush when they are up...not just "somewhere in the vicinity of flush plus or minus a few mm".

By the way, I have used control board on every Freewing and Flightline model I have (which is a lot) and never had any problem. But I also don't take the wings on/off every time for most of these models.

[Carlbrainiac]

Can i just confirm this is the right servo for Avanti rudder. As in is this the correct length wire:-

https://www.motionrc.eu/products/freewing-9g-digital-metal-gear-servo-with-550mm-lead-md31092-550

[Bgelok]

Got my Avanti maidened yesterday plus 5 more flights on it. Whicked little edf jet with no bad tendencies. Gps top speed was 105 mph (not bad), & landing speeds were 36 mph with half flaps. One issue i noticed that i need to investigate is my main right gear will not spring back to normal stance. All landing were butter with no bounce or hard turns. I am thinking it has to do with the pivot pin. Has anyone else had this issue? I mean it is only 6 flights old.

Flew with a 5000 100c battery, timer set at 4 1/2 minutes and landed when timer went off. Battery came down with 30% left and it was barely warm to the touch.

pop tops are violent with this thing. Going to put on the wing fences next flight out.

[Gringotuerto]

. I am thinking it has to do with the pivot pin. Has anyone else had this issue? I mean it is only 6 flights old.

Pretty much everybody at our field has an Avanti, and I have not seen or heard of this issue. Some people complain about the gear doors getting wonky, or the front wheel getting loose (so you can find several versions of 3D-printed braces for the nosewheel). But never heard of a problem with mains not being vertical.

The wing fences are really great...with these the landings can be even slower. I've never seen a plane with such a high ratio between top speed and bottom speed.

[Bgelok]

I have already done the nose gear brace after reading this forum. Going to try lubing the pivot pin today, see if it helps. I cant believe how stable this thing is at landing with half flaps, and how slow it will go.

[Carlbrainiac]

I have already done the nose gear brace after reading this forum. Going to try lubing the pivot pin today, see if it helps. I cant believe how stable this thing is at landing with half flaps, and how slow it will go.

Yes I had a tight pivot pin on my new Avanti main strut. Seems to be an issue with the new batch rolling out. I just swapped the legs over from my older Avanti that had more free movement. Noticed while doing this that the gear doors are also screwed on with different size screws now too

[Bgelok]

Hit the pivot pins on both main gear with some engine oil, worked both gears to get the oil in there, and now there are both moving freely.

[AceMigKiller]

Nice. Do yourself a favor though and wipe away as much excess oil (if there is any) as you can.
I've had to do this with my Avant, but that's because it's 3 years old and flown who-knows-how-many 100's of hours!
Only issue I had was oil attracting dirt on unimproved fields. Easily remedied.

[xTIBSx]

Hi All,

Just wanted to share my Avanti paint job. I’m new to electric planes and foamies. My first time working with this material, so forgive any blemishes 😁

Fan and motor was upgraded. Running a HET 700-60-1865 on 8S

The inspiration for the scheme was obviously a T-45 Goshawk, I used the decals off the Freewing T-45 with minor modifications if any.

Paint used was just cheap rattle can paint from my local Home Depot and then it was clear coated with a gloss enamel.

Hope you guys like it! 👍

[The Sheriff]

xTIBSx That is absolutely fantastic, it looks very sharp, like it's supposed to be that way. I've always flown things unmodified and this last year decided to purchase fancy paints and such. I enjoy doing some customization, but my skills are somewhat lacking for now. Did you spray or brush the gloss? Any pre-coat or extensive prep?

[Hugh Wiedman]

Hi All,

Just wanted to share my Avanti paint job. I’m new to electric planes and foamies. My first time working with this material, so forgive any blemishes 😁

Fan and motor was upgraded. Running a HET 700-60-1865 on 8S

The inspiration for the scheme was obviously a T-45 Goshawk, I used the decals off the Freewing T-45 with minor modifications if any.

Paint used was just cheap rattle can paint from my local Home Depot and then it was clear coated with a gloss enamel.

Hope you guys like it! 👍

xTIBSx I too love the finish on your Avant. Same question as The Sheriff . Your 1st time working with foamies? Way to "knock it out of the Park!!! Can't wait to see what you produce after a few more attempts but where can you go from being at the top already. I've been hand brushing a clear gloss water-based exterior Spar Urethane on all of my foamies and love the look and the added durability, but I have to say, yours looks better. On the last couple I did, I applied it first on the base coat grey before painting and it made masking so much easier without having any of the base paint come off with the masking and then a final couple of coats over everything including the graphics. I thought this was the way to go, but if that spray clear coat works as good as it looks, this may be my new method. I assume you used the Rustoleum 2X clear gloss enamel spray from Home Depot over the same type of colored spray, no? I used the exterior Urethane so it wouldn't eventually yellow after long exposure to the sun, but assume that spray enamel has the same non-yellowing properties. I did try it once on a very old (15 years) foam Cub but it had a slight reaction to the paint and bare foam, but that was on foam and paint that I doubt anyone uses anymore. Did you prep the bare surfaces and existing paint by wiping it with a diluted alcohol mixture?

[AceMigKiller]

That's a good looking Avanti!

[xTIBSx]

xTIBSx That is absolutely fantastic, it looks very sharp, like it's supposed to be that way. I've always flown things unmodified and this last year decided to purchase fancy paints and such. I enjoy doing some customization, but my skills are somewhat lacking for now. Did you spray or brush the gloss? Any pre-coat or extensive prep?

Thank you for the compliment! I think the theme worked well with this plane because the original designer of the Avanti drew a lot of inspiration from the BAE Hawk. So the shapes were similar. I was inspired to go with this theme because the Avanti is what I used as a "trainer" airplane to learn how to fly RC again, and the T45 is a military trainer aircraft. So I put 2 and 2 together. I flew RC for a long time, but I took a long hiatus off this hobby only just getting back into it this last January 2020. I decided to refinish my Avanti because after only a few flights on it, my decals were falling off and the original paint job was just so terrible, it had overspray everywhere and just did not look nice.

The clear coat was a just a cheap rattle can gloss enamel...specifically Rustoleum's Automotive Clear Gloss. If you chose to refinish one of your planes, be careful using this clear, it DISSOLVES decals (don't ask how I learned that 😓) you have to spray it on lightly first and let it dry. DO NOT TOUCH THE DECAL UNTIL THE CLEAR IS DRY! If you get any runs and it's over a decal, you have to leave it alone, don't wipe it. You'll ruin the decal. Once dry and the decals are stable, you can clear the plane like normal.

Prep work was done with filler primer, regular primer, scrap foam pieces and lightweight spackle. I first filled gaps, holes and unevenness with spackle. If the area that needed filling was big, I glued scrap pieces of foam in it and then sanded it even, finishing it with spackle and then priming the whole thing.

When it came to priming, I used filler primer first, which I then sanded down to Where I could just start seeing the foam coming through, then I primed again with regular primer and sanded smooth. Then it was painted.

[xTIBSx]

xTIBSx I too love the finish on your Avant. Same question as The Sheriff . Your 1st time working with foamies? Way to "knock it out of the Park!!! Can't wait to see what you produce after a few more attempts but where can you go from being at the top already. I've been hand brushing a clear gloss water-based exterior Spar Urethane on all of my foamies and love the look and the added durability, but I have to say, yours looks better. On the last couple I did, I applied it first on the base coat grey before painting and it made masking so much easier without having any of the base paint come off with the masking and then a final couple of coats over everything including the graphics. I thought this was the way to go, but if that spray clear coat works as good as it looks, this may be my new method. I assume you used the Rustoleum 2X clear gloss enamel spray from Home Depot over the same type of colored spray, no? I used the exterior Urethane so it wouldn't eventually yellow after long exposure to the sun, but assume that spray enamel has the same non-yellowing properties. I did try it once on a very old (15 years) foam Cub but it had a slight reaction to the paint and bare foam, but that was on foam and paint that I doubt anyone uses anymore. Did you prep the bare surfaces and existing paint by wiping it with a diluted alcohol mixture?

Thank you! I used Rustoleum Automotive Clear Enamel (Gloss). No specific reason why I chose that particular one. Mainly just cause it was cheap and easy to obtain. I did this as my quarantine project. Lots of stores were closed in my area but my Local Home Depot was open so that's why this paint. I suppose I could've bought nicer paint online...but being my first foam refinish, I didn't want to spend too much in case I really sucked at doing this and also I didn't want to wait for delivery Lol.

In regards to prepwork, I forgot to mention in my reply above, PRIOR to filling gaps/dents and priming, I stripped the original decals (what ever was left since they started falling off after the 4th flight) and also stripping the original paint using acetone. Nothing too crazy....just removed enough paint so that the new primer and filler would be mostly on the bare foam. I noticed that the original paint seemed to come off easily with just regular handling, I was afraid that priming and painting over it would result in the new paint chipping.

[Hurridriver]

Well, having got the Avanti it sat around for a while until the weather and COVID played ball. I have given it several coats of Ronseal interior varnish for a bit more durability. I have now had 6 flights with it and getting it dialled into my preferences and it is everything people say it is. I have the 12 blade set up and the sound isf antastic. Running on 6s 5000 Turnigy Heavy Duty packs and flying 3.5 mins before gear down and landing. I fly off grass and the u/c is very good, I got hold of the nose wheel brace but havent fitted it yet due to some comments, got to say that I am not sure I will need it as it comes in so welI that placing it down correctly on the main gear first isnt an issue. I also let a friend have a go who has experience with the larger, moulded, turbine powered Avanti and he said it is every bit as good. Looking forward to many, many more flights