Official Freewing 80mm Avanti S Sport Jet Thread

[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

[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.

[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 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 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.

Well the Avanti should fit the bill of a very wide flight envelope. It knife edges great, goes into a very stable slow high alpha cruise, climbs like a rocket, flat spins, rotates, climbs inverted and even climbs in knife edge, etc., anything you can think of and probably a bunch of stuff I can't think of. Enjoy brother, the Avanti (and FW 80 mm A-10 and Stinger 90 of the EDF's I have) all have a "pucker factor" of zero!!! My F-4 is down to 2, the F-16 and F-18 are at 2 1/2 and that heavy dog SU-30 is still around 5, just can't get 100% consistent on the landing with that thing. When I want to relax and go wild, it's time to put the Avanti back up.

[jdarland]

Maiden could not have gone better. I can already tell this is going to become my go to jet. It just handles like it’s on rails and I was very impressed with how slow it can land. A+ airplane!

[T-CAT]

Maiden could not have gone better. I can already tell this is going to become my go to jet. It just handles like it’s on rails and I was very impressed with how slow it can land. A+ airplane!

Congratulations! It gets even more fun over time. Ha-ha

[Jim O]

I just got an Avanti S and haven't powered it up yet. I'm assuming the ESC input signal is low (~1.0 msec) for low throttle. Is that correct?

Jim O

[paulrkytek]

I just got an Avanti S and haven't powered it up yet. I'm assuming the ESC input signal is low (~1.0 msec) for low throttle. Is that correct?

Jim O

I have the original 12 blade 6 s outrunner version, I just plugged in the battery to the stock esc as it came and set the high low throttle range on the throttle stick and off she flew. ( ok I did remove the red wire and install a separate rx esc fed off a 370mah 2s lipo but thats just my cautious nature ). If you have the plug and play version of which ever version of Avanti you have I would expect it to have come with the correct esc timing but perhaps this is a question for MRC customer service?

[Gringotuerto]

I just got an Avanti S and haven't powered it up yet. I'm assuming the ESC input signal is low (~1.0 msec) for low throttle. Is that correct?

Jim O

I believe that is right, but I didn't get out a scope and check it. I have many Freewing ESC and am using Spektrum Tx/Rx, and never had to reverse throttle channel on any plane with any receiver. I think 1ms = low is "normal" (although not universal) in the industry.

[paulrkytek]

I just got an Avanti S and haven't powered it up yet. I'm assuming the ESC input signal is low (~1.0 msec) for low throttle. Is that correct?

Jim O

Penny now dropped, never had to reverse a throttle setting on a freewing jet with my Flysky or Jumper radio, I have always tested em the simple way, hold on tight, have my throttle cut on before connecting lipo, connect battery with throttle stick down, hit the throttle cut switch back to throttle on and if nothing happens then its the right way round, if it bursts into life hit the kill switch, but never had to hit the kill switch yet.

[SilentPilot]

Isn't it Futaba that is backwards?

[SilentPilot]

I'm so close to hitting the "buy" button on one of these but I'm getting confused now about which type I might end up with.
So many fan and motor variables out there.

The latest offerings seem to be part numbers: FJ21213P and FJ21223P

Is the difference just the colour scheme or something else too?

The red one looks to have wing fences and the yellow looks to have a "sawtooth" stepped wing.
Do they both have the same fan units? I do prefer 12 blade setups...

[Mach9]

Isn't it Futaba that is backwards?

Yes.

[paulrkytek]

I'm so close to hitting the "buy" button on one of these but I'm getting confused now about which type I might end up with.
So many fan and motor variables out there.

The latest offerings seem to be part numbers: FJ21213P and FJ21223P

Is the difference just the colour scheme or something else too?

The red one looks to have wing fences and the yellow looks to have a "sawtooth" stepped wing.
Do they both have the same fan units? I do prefer 12 blade setups...

EU website both red and yellow High performance versons have 9 blade fans wth irunner motors, other than colour they are identical. I have the old 12 blade outrunner version, one of our members has the 9 blade inrunner, very litttle difference in sound between the 2 , find you tube videos to compare if you wish. The other option is to buy the arf version so that you can then buy ans install a 12 blade fan and esc of your choice. If I had the option which I did not have when I bought mine I would choose the blade high performance inunner version..see video of my avanti at DDMAC less than 10 miles from you. if you want to discuss send me a private message with phone number by hitting the little envelope on your blue avatar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQF9BlEbAFQ

[SilentPilot]

Thank-you for the offer!
I'll likely take you up on that on my next days off 😀

I will also look into DDMAC, it's a lot closer than where I normally fly. I joined a club with the intention of getting my "A". I do consider myself an intermediate pilot but I have no official qualifications, I don't count the CAA tick test because it wasn't really in the slightest bit relevant to fixed wing LOS flying.

[long-love-rc]

Just found this popular EDF jet is out of stock. When will it back in stock?

[T-CAT]

Maybe they’ll release a new paint scheme, such as a military livery Avanti S, like I requested. Ha-ha

The jet already sells extremely well, so a new livery isn’t needed, but it would sure be nice to see AND likely get any of the non-sport jet types to finally cough up the dough for one.

[demo50]

First time poster, made an account just to share my experience. 25 year long time plane and heli pilot.

My newer version high performance Avanti did not care to have the CG at 120mm. Some people seem to like it there, I liked it there, but the Avanti did not. I moved it back to 120mm as I didn't like all the elevator I was having to put in to stay inverted. However, with 23mm elevator throws, 90ish degree bank and a sharp turn the jet violently flipped over during the turn, lost all it's speed and was simply to low to recover. I had noticed during the same flight that it may be a tad bit to tail heavy, I should have brought it down and went back to 115. I was able to get 115mm by pushing a 6000mah Admiral battery all the way to the back, I had to cut out a bit of the foam to push for 120mm.

Needless to say won't be doing that again. I'm hoping my first flight, lol, admiral battery is OK. It hit hard, so hard it broke the receiver housing in half.

Just a fair warning to fellow Avanti pilots about pushing that CG back that far, I knew better but based on other's experiences in this forum and my dislike of the inverted flight characteristics, I pushed it to far.

Just waiting for stock now....

[Hugh Wiedman]

First time poster, made an account just to share my experience. 25 year long time plane and heli pilot.

My newer version high performance Avanti did not care to have the CG at 120mm. Some people seem to like it there, I liked it there, but the Avanti did not. I moved it back to 120mm as I didn't like all the elevator I was having to put in to stay inverted. However, with 23mm elevator throws, 90ish degree bank and a sharp turn the jet violently flipped over during the turn, lost all it's speed and was simply to low to recover. I had noticed during the same flight that it may be a tad bit to tail heavy, I should have brought it down and went back to 115. I was able to get 115mm by pushing a 6000mah Admiral battery all the way to the back, I had to cut out a bit of the foam to push for 120mm.

Needless to say won't be doing that again. I'm hoping my first flight, lol, admiral battery is OK. It hit hard, so hard it broke the receiver housing in half.

Just a fair warning to fellow Avanti pilots about pushing that CG back that far, I knew better but based on other's experiences in this forum and my dislike of the inverted flight characteristics, I pushed it to far.

Just waiting for stock now....

Welcome to the Squawk demo50 , sorry to hear about your mishap with the Avanti. I would definitely agree that balancing this bird at 120 mm is too tail heavy. I fly mine balanced at 110 mm, with a RT 6250 (weight 795 g) pushed all the way back just under the beginning of the foam and after about 150 flights, it seems perfect for me. Flight characteristics at that point are, IMO, exceptional, very little elevator needed when inverted, knife edge virtually perfect with little to no horizontal drift and still able to get into a nice slow high alpha in flight and lands like a "feather". For me this is a perfect, "high performance" trainer EDF, so when you get the necessary repair parts and get her back up, definitely get back to at least 115, if not less. It will even flat spin at that balance point.

Honestly don't remember a lot of folks recommending 120 mm on this jet, but then everyone seems to have their own personal preferences on how they like their aircraft to perform, so "to each his own", but as for me and the way I like to fly, I'm simpatico with you.