Freewing 80mm Super Scorpion Build and Flight

[seaviper]

Just built and flew the Freewing 80mm Super Scorpion. Normally I am not a sport jet (or sport anything for that matter) pilot. I have always flown scale models ever since my first .40 trainer way back in 1993.
But let me tell you, this little Scorpion is nice.

We fly off a cut, yet still rough, grass field that is about 500ft long. The Super Scorpion only used about 200ft with half flaps before she was airborne. The power system provided positive acceleration in the climbout as gear and flaps were retracted.
The sound of the 80mm 12 blade fan cannot be described. It's an impressive plane, both in the air and on the ground. Landings are straightforward and uneventful. She can bounce if you have any appreciable sink rate. My recommendation on the bounce is go around and set-up again. The gear make grass field ops really stress free.

The build went as good as any I have ever had. Freewing has upped their game on this one I think. She built quickly and easily. I did have to glue a seam in the fuselage that appeared to have no glue. Also, the screw-on nose is great, especially if one needs to transport the ship in a small space. But I decided to glue the nose on for more strength. I also had a small issue with the collars holding on the stabilators. I replaced the collars with zip ties for a smooth and secure installation. The collars were binding the stab inside the opening where they mount. I think they were turning on the shaft. Perhaps they are the wrong size. Anyway the zip ties worked better.

I set the controls as per the manual with the exception of the elevator which I set at 50% throw. This worked out to a little more than book value. Flaps are 40mm full and 20mm half. A little expo on the ailerons might be a good thing as she is rather sensitive to roll. I needed some up trim with the Admiral 6s 4000 60C pack located abeam of the intake lips (see photos).

Flight 1 took a pretty long roll on our rough grass field. She needed a ton of up trim with the batttery (Admiral 6s 4000 60C) aligned with the intakes and the stabilators neutral. After some nail-biting trimming while flying against a dark gray overcast, she gave me a near perfect landing.

Flight 2 had the stabilators in the correct position for much shorter takeoff roll, positive acceleration in the climbout, and some basic aerobatics. Landing this time I did get the bounce. Poured on the power and did a go-around. Next time around I got a smaller bounce followed by a nice touchdown.

Flight 1 was 3:18 and flight 2 was 3:04 on different Admiral 6s 4000 60c batteries. The batteries were at 3.8 v/cell after the flight. I think I hit the pattern at like 2:30. She seemed to fly nicely on these packs.

This is one plane that I thoroughly enjoyed building and flying. Overall a real winner!

[seaviper]

How much play around center is OK for the stabilator servos? Mine have a little more play than I am comfortable with. But I did not notice anything abnormal during my first two flights. She tracks great.
It seems like backlash in the gears. Maybe its just a normal characteristic of the metal gear 17g servos.

Update: I have found this play to be a non-issue. I think I was seeing it as more than it was due to the long servo arms. The servos are fine.

[bradl4648]

Thanks for doing this review on the scorpion and well done. That is a nice flying bird and landings are a bit tricky with it liking to bounce off grass other surfaces see it more often. Yes going around is the thing to do it helps with the nerves and a new approach. Here is a suggestion that helps me on all my planes and jets with flaps. I have a DX9 and I put 5 second delay on the flap servos and I mix UP elevator with each flap setting . Takeoff flaps 10% up and landing flaps 15% up this is a starting point and seems to be good. What this will do is the same effect that is used on the full scale plane. It will put your nose up and get you into the 45% approach pattern. This also helps with only having to worry about 2 channels ailerons and throttle until the end and your flair. This will also help in having the correct landing speeds so you do not tip stall or come in to hot and bounce. So basically as your coming in if you are dropping out of the 45% add a little power to keep your approach. If you rise decrease throttle by doing this you will have better landings and you will not go into that tip stall. If you are noticing that you have to use the elevator take the % up or down to achieve that perfect glide slope. You will really like this method on jets by far. On the play their will be some play in them my F-14 on the elevator moves quite a bit and that does about 125 with no sign of any issues I have 16 flights on it now.

[seaviper]

Good advice sir.

I use a 3 second deployment on flaps. With a swept wing bird, nose high can get you in trouble if you let the speed bleed too much. But with half or no flaps I would definitely keep the nose up a bit on final otherwise you're landing at warp speed.

Full flaps allows you to keep the nose down without gaining too much speed. You just bleed whatever speed gain you have when you round it out. Either method works fine. Both can get you in trouble.

[seaviper]

Got some more flights on her today. Real short takeoff with 20mm flaps and a 5kt headwind. I dialed in 40% expo on the ailerons which are at 100% travel, a little more than manual spec. Outstanding bird.

I love the looks of the plane, the sound, the speed, and especially the handling on takeoff and landing. What a sweetheart to fly.

I ordered another one this morning. Scorpion 1 and Scorpion 2. Now just waiting on the big A10.

[starcop]

Just built and flew the Freewing 80mm Super Scorpion. Normally I am not a sport jet (or sport anything for that matter) pilot. I have always flown scale models ever since my first .40 trainer way back in 1993.
But let me tell you, this little Scorpion is nice.

We fly off a cut, yet still rough, grass field that is about 500ft long. The Super Scorpion only used about 200ft with half flaps before she was airborne. The power system provided positive acceleration in the climbout as gear and flaps were retracted.
The sound of the 80mm 12 blade fan cannot be described. It's an impressive plane, both in the air and on the ground. Landings are straightforward and uneventful. She can bounce if you have any appreciable sink rate. My recommendation on the bounce is go around and set-up again. The gear make grass field ops really stress free.

The build went as good as any I have ever had. Freewing has upped their game on this one I think. She built quickly and easily. I did have to glue a seam in the fuselage that appeared to have no glue. Also, the screw-on nose is great, especially if one needs to transport the ship in a small space. But I decided to glue the nose on for more strength. I also had a small issue with the collars holding on the stabilators. I replaced the collars with zip ties for a smooth and secure installation. The collars were binding the stab inside the opening where they mount. I think they were turning on the shaft. Perhaps they are the wrong size. Anyway the zip ties worked better.

I set the controls as per the manual with the exception of the elevator which I set at 50% throw. This worked out to a little more than book value. Flaps are 40mm full and 20mm half. A little expo on the ailerons might be a good thing as she is rather sensitive to roll. I needed some up trim with the Admiral 6s 4000 60C pack located abeam of the intake lips (see photos).

Flight 1 took a pretty long roll on our rough grass field. She needed a ton of up trim with the batttery (Admiral 6s 4000 60C) aligned with the intakes and the stabilators neutral. After some nail-biting trimming while flying against a dark gray overcast, she gave me a near perfect landing.

Flight 2 had the stabilators in the correct position for much shorter takeoff roll, positive acceleration in the climbout, and some basic aerobatics. Landing this time I did get the bounce. Poured on the power and did a go-around. Next time around I got a smaller bounce followed by a nice touchdown.

Flight 1 was 3:18 and flight 2 was 3:04 on different Admiral 6s 4000 60c batteries. The batteries were at 3.8 v/cell after the flight. I think I hit the pattern at like 2:30. She seemed to fly nicely on these packs.

This is one plane that I thoroughly enjoyed building and flying. Overall a real winner!

Hello Seaviper, Very nice write up! I always enjoy what customers have to say about the products we sell. I always here more of the broken this or that being in Customer Service. So, it's a welcome change to hear a point of view from another perspective. Also, seeing the parts & things your doing when you built the model, is great.

I like that you install the sensor on the electronic speed controller. All of those things may come in handy at a time, thus saving you a model. I myself, fly off the grass with several other 80MM jets. I've found they do just fine, I always hear that people can't get their model to take off. Makes me think; what are they doing wrong?

My field is rough as well, but I can manage the power, and, at least get the model moving forward pretty fast. So, it's good to know, there is another person out there. Flying the 80MM off some rough grass just fine. Well, Thank you again for your support and, nicely done input of the Super Scorpion model.

Cheers! Matt C/S Rep

[seaviper]

Thank you Matt! I hope to get my wife out with the HD video at some point. Until then all I have are stills.

I love this jet. I got three more flights on her today. What a nice flyer. Both takeoff and landing are low stress. And I flew in gusty wind today. Just a pleasure to fly.

[seaviper]

Since I was rained-in today, I decided to work on Scorpion 1.

Painted an anti-glare shield around cockpit, discovered that half my canopy was not glued...so opened her up and cleaned some factory paint off the front pilot, added some details, custom decals, and an airspeed sensor.

Mission ready! hope to fly tomorrow.

[seaviper]

Flew the Super Scorpion today for some speed tests. Got 3 more flights in today for a total of 8 flights on the bird.

I did bounce the landing (of course since there was a camera pointed at me) but recovered for a greaser. The winds were mostly nonexistent, but occasionally got up and switched directions.

Outside air temperature (OAT) 59F, winds light and variable, high cirrus, damp grass runway.

Anyway, the max speed attained was 114mph according to the FrSky ASS-70 speed sensor. Not bad. You could push her faster, but then why would you want to?
I love this little ship. A lot of fun to fly. Max RPM was 33k.

[Alpha]

That anti-glare shield really adds a lot to the aircraft! Thank you for posting your data, very nice to see someone else's data captured with this aircraft. How do you like the FrSky sensor?

Nice transporting setup, too!

[seaviper]

Man I feel like I am flying blind without my sensors. I don't know, maybe I 'm just a geek. I have a low cell warning (<3.6v) set up that is very helpful. Today I had to do a go-around and switch runway directions at the three minute mark. The radio was calling out the lowest cell voltage every 5 seconds as I was maneuvering for the new pattern. So I knew my battery was doing alright.

On the radio I have setup a screen that shows max / min values for a variety of readings. I check this after each flight to see low cell voltage, max batt/esc temps, max rpm, etc. Everything is logged to an SD card for archiving back home too.
There is a current sensor that I have used before. I only fly this for new power setups as it is a bit hard to secure and is pretty heavy. But if you need current numbers, I can fly it.

Installing the pitot system is a pain, but well worth it in my opinion. The tubing they use is some odd size that I can't find anywhere. But the sensor appears to be pretty accurate and reliable.

The transporter is my 2007 JK with 135k miles O|||||||O

Attached is the log from the speed flight in comma separated value form if anyone is interested. The radio is setup to log every 1 second, so the max speed in the log is 112 or 113. Radio was reporting 114 which was probably only attained for a second. I missed the last few seconds as I have it setup to log when rpm is above zero.
scorpion1_log_012417_7.txt

[seaviper]

Today I added an altitude sensor to Scorpion 1. That makes her completely "sensorized". I love me some data...

[seaviper]

Scorpion 1 is down for maintenance as I tore out a gear on a gusty day. I went ahead and stripped it down for painting. It's getting a new scheme. :) Had to order a canopy as I destroyed mine with a heat gun. Dont' ask.

Scorpion 2 has been assembled and is ready for its maiden tomorrow. One thing I have noticed is that on both kits the collars that hold on the elevators are bored out too big or the axle is grooved out too big. Every time I go to tighten the "jimmy" screw that collar rotates and binds the elevator more or less. I have tried preventing that with many tools. The solution that works and is fool proof is the zip tie. Why did they groove that axle all the way around? Couldn't they just have put a flat spot on it? Anyway, the zip tie is rated at 114mph. I have proven that.

I hope to have some mobius footage as soon as I have time to set the thing up.

[Richrfl]

Gents, I just got my SScorpion yesterday, and started to look around before starting to assemble. I am a bit confused about the wing assembly. First, I noticed the manual does not make any reference to the plastic parts that seem to be meant to keep the wing together and also to pass the screws to install the wing into the fuselage. Neither there is any indication about gluing the two half wings together. Therefore, I kindly ask for your experience with these planes, if I follow the manual plus some imagination and keep the wing in two pieces and join them by the plastic parts, or should I glue halves and plastics all together?
On the other hand, seaviper, I also love sensors and also using FrSky stuff. I use the voltage sensor for the same reasons you pointed out, and the current sensor also the same way you do. On the altitude and speed I use instead the GPS, which may no be that accurate, but where I fly there are bushes all around and hopefully the GPS will give me the location of the plane.
I am already using the same in the Freewing Yak-130 70mm, in despite of the tight space available for adding anything.

[AZFlyer]

Howdy. I've owned 2 of these, so let's see if I can help:

Wings just bolt on (no gluing). There are 2 "straps" each needing 2 screws. These hold the wing together in 1 piece and secure it to the fuselage (see picture below).

Point of note: Beware of landing speed. I've crashed 2 of these by letting the airspeed get too low when turning onto final approach, even with full flaps. The wings on this plane are just not providing enough lift. This plane needs airspeed and lots of it. Just beware. Keep the speed up in that final turn and even under power when landing. You'll need some throttle even when it's touching down. Good luck!

[AZFlyer]

And I left out...

There are 2 other screw outboard of the front strap that attaches the wing half to the fuselage. You can see them in the picture.

Good luck!

[Richrfl]

Thank you AZFlyer.
I got the wings attached to the fuselage. Nice job to pass the bunch of cables through!!. I really appreciate the landing tip. I guess I will have to make a couple of high altitude approaches to get used to the landing speed. I was flying the Yak-130 today (70mm) and coming down with no throttle, although with some speed build up from a steep approach to end in a shallow landing, but form what you said, I better be in the high side of the throttle at all times.
I may be maiden it tomorrow.

[Richrfl]

Does anyone have an idea of which is the take off speed for the freewing super scorpion 80mm? I run a couple of take of runs and looks pretty slow. I reviewed the ESC settings and will try again, but if I would know the take off speed I will feel more comfortable.

[seaviper]

Hi Rich,

I have been away from RC flying for a few months but plan to put up another Super scorpion soon. She takes off in about 100ft or so on our grass field with the 4000mah pack. I have flown her on 5000 packs and she flies about the same.
Check out my repaint in the arctic camo. Also I have a video of this bird on our grass field. It's the repainted bird but totally stock.

[Richrfl]

seaviper, thank you for sharing those videos. The paint also looks really good, but I will stick with the original. I think also it's a good idea to have a dog to retrieve your planes. Here, we have to walk. LOL. We are trying to train an alligator we have in the area where we fly seaplanes, (and some guys that land too short) but he is not reliable. I will do runway tests on Monday and will see if the ESC setting is OK now.