Official Freewing 90mm F/A-18E Hornet V2 Thread

[bill34207]

There's a lot of speculation on cause (in my own head). At full screen (footage on my PC) I noticed some erratic elevator movement while he was taxiing out for take off. (unless he has taileron mix in them on a mix switch)
My main theory is that one engine flamed out and he wanted to land it on his 1st round (there's a pretty loud call of engine failure in the clip) but there was another bird on the runway and he wasn't able to make the go around.
There's also that nagging thought that something may have come loose inside and shifted to the rear causing a serious tail heavy incident. Initial climb out looked normal but suddenly went very steep all of a sudden. It was being a handful from about 10 seconds after the take off. Or at least that's how it looked to me.

[gooniac33]

A good friend crashed his F-18 yesterday at Florida Jets. Not a Freewing model but a big twin turbine Skymaster. It hurt me just watching it go in through the viewfinder. Almost didn't upload it but he asked me to so he could try to analyze what went wrong.
It's in the Florida Jets 2017 playlist on my You Tube page https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...5sqZdRSiCXua60 Look for Death of a Hornet if you wish to see the carnage. The rest of the list is more enjoyable as it won't make you squirm in your seat.

OUCH!!!! That really hurt to watch... But what it interesting to me is that all of the model F/A-18s that I have flown do that exact same thing when they are flown too slow. As soon as they depart you need lots of space to get them back flying again. When the airspeed is back they are ok. but man... that hurt. It also looks like he was turning into the running engine which was making the plane yaw right in left turns. That is a lot to think about in a short period of time. not a whole lot he could have done that was different except get it on the ground asap.... tough break any way you look at it...gorgeous bird too..

[Mike_Then]

After spending way too much time on my nose gear, it's finally complete. I moved the gear door servo down and forward to give more room for the nose gear itself. I also moved the clevises forward as well (2nd pic is blurry, sorry). This allowed me to fit larger wheels and raise the nose gear a little bit, all while ensuring the gear doors will still close. All of this was to help increase the AoA on the ground and allow for smoother takeoffs so it doesn't pop off the ground. We'll see if this was worth the effort the next time I fly. I must have cycled the gear 1,000 times to make sure the gear doors close without the servo buzzing.

Something else I did too was fit the AIM-9 missiles from my defunct F-14 to the wingtip rails. I then fitted the two missiles that come with the plane with magnets and attached them to the hardpoints under the wing. I really like the way it turned out and am looking forward to seeing what it looks like in flight. I was going to use the AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles that also came with the F-14 but they were just too big. I looked at pictures of an F/A-18E online with missiles and even the ones that come with the kit are too large for scale, but the AIM-120s are just cartoonish too big.


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[Aros]

Nice work Mike! I'm anxious to hear how your first rotation goes post nose gear mod. Armament looks great.

[Mike_Then]

Thanks Aros! I look at the missiles and I don't know if I like them. I may feel differently once I get it up in the air and see what it looks like in a flyby. I'll also report back about my takeoffs; I hope this helps. My V1 took off nice and smooth once I raised the nose gear pretty high, but I had to sacrifice the gear doors to do it. Was hoping to keep the doors this time. ;)

[Aros]

Took my Blue Angel out for a couple quick sorties before the rain came back in. First time I tried out my flaperons for landing. Worked great. Always love to fly this jet any chance I get.

[OV10]

Would've like to view that vid Todd but it says "This video contains content from SME, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds" HUHHHHH :Confused:

[Aros]

Ah drat...It's because I used Kenny Loggin's "Danger Zone" for the music. So ridiculous. What country are you in?

[bill34207]

Just as a heads up, I'm in the USA and it won't let me view it either for the same reason. YouTube seems to be acting strange today. I uploaded 6 videos from our club picnic today and it kept telling me they were private even though the setting showed public.:Confused:

[Aros]

Who knew an 80's hit would throw YouTube for a loop? I removed the song so the video should be viewable now. Thanks for the head's up!

For the best viewing, play Kenny Loggin's Danger Zone in the background while you watch. LOL

[Mike_Then]

I thought YouTube stopped doing that silly stuff? I haven't been warned about a video with music in a long time.

[Aros]

It's ridiculous. It's not like I am trying to profit off the video in any way.

[scooter genie]

Just as a heads up, I'm in the USA and it won't let me view it either for the same reason. YouTube seems to be acting strange today. I uploaded 6 videos from our club picnic today and it kept telling me they were private even though the setting showed public.:Confused:

I uploaded a video today also, and it did the same thing......saying it was private, but I clicked public. Anyway, I went to my post on the stinger 90 thread.....clicked the link, and it took me to the video, no problem.

[Aros]

Snuck a couple flights in today in between rain showers. The first flight was okay but I forgot I had high rates on the whole flight and the landing was pretty squirrely. The second flight was much more adventurous...As I was coming in I hit my flaperons and she rolled pretty violently to the left. I thought she was toast. I was able to quickly flick the switch back up to no flaperons, poured on some juice, got her turned around and landed safely. Upon inspection I had no left aileron control at all! How I landed her successfully I have no clue. I got lucky today. No 90mm F-18 was sacrificed to the Flight Gods this time!

First flight (raw 60fps video):

Second flight (flaperon incident at 2:25)

[T-CAT]

Excellent re-paint Aros!

[Aros]

Thanks buddy!

[DCORSAIR]

Here is mine from this morning flights, this is one jet that flies very well. The F-15 got jealous so I had to take a picture together..:)

[Aros]

LOL the F-15 is quite the looker herself.

SO hoping Freewing knocks a V3 out of the park, Super Scale style.

[Alpha10]

Man, I'd be down in a second... Rumor has it that FMS might be stepping up to that plate soon too!

[Mike_Then]

It's ridiculous. It's not like I am trying to profit off the video in any way.

YouTube was doing that stuff years ago... it was so annoying that I was strongly considering going over to Vimeo. You have to pay for Vimeo but you don't have that silly copyright crap. YouTube just stopped doing that one day; no one knows why except for YouTube and Alphabet I guess. It was like that for years and was WONDERFUL. Then they started again (like you reported) a couple of weeks ago. One of my videos - a running video of an R/C truck I was provided to review - was flagged because I set the video to "Paradise (What About Us?) by Within Temptation. I disputed the claim, and the content owners denied my dispute and refused to remove their claim. I can appeal that decision, but YouTube says that if I appeal it and I lose, they may place a 'Strike' on my account. So I looked up what a Strike is, and YouTube says it's "just a warning" and "not to worry". Also says that Strikes drop from your account after a few months. But the next sentence's tone is very different; states that if you get three strikes your account will be locked, your videos deleted, and you will "not be able to create a new YouTube account". Apparently it's quite a dig deal after all.

All of that to say, I'm still mulling over whether to appeal the decision. Just because I appeal doesn't mean I get a Strike, and if I get a Strike I just have to be a good boy and not rock the boat for a few months until the Strike is dropped. Not sure if it was pressure from the music industry or what; but it's really annoying.... and stupid. My videos aren't monetizing and I'm certainly not trying to imply that Within Temptation is promoting an R/C truck. It's just entertainment. They can monetize the video and keep the proceeds for all I care.

</soap box>

Back to the F/A-18E. Flew it for the first time since installing the new missiles and raising the nose gear. Still pops off the ground, even with the aggressive AoA, but not as bad as it used to. So I'm just going to roll with it as it flies great and still comes off the runway no problem, even if it's not pretty. And I'm hoping for some longer flight times now that I properly calibrated my throttle.... was wondering why I was killing a 5000 mAh battery in a 4-minute flight.

What are the F/A-18E pilots doing to battery cooling? Was thinking about opening something up to get some airflow in there; was considering a small scoop on the bottom of the nose cone to where it's not really seen.