Official Freewing 70mm F-16C Falcon V2 Thread

[Beetlemankurt]

After a few hold ups I’m finally calling this one done! Now to save for some batteries.........

[purduephigam]

Anyone have an ugly maiden with this bad girl? Attempted the high performance maiden with a 5000 pack. Granted, not the greatest conditions, but I was determined. Lots of up elevator which I figured it would need. Pretty decent amount of "wiggle" to it which I am attributing to the wind (the Rebel demonstrated it as well). After 3 flights I still don't have it dialed in and already bent the front retract due to a hard landing. Upon inspection I noted the right elevator was partially torn. Very thankful I found this on the ground as I very well may have lost the plane in the air. Just to get back to baseline, I wanted to get some input from you all:

1. What type of hinges do you recommend for my elevator repair (I believe the kit came with some, but stupidly may have tossed them. I can't find any hinges on the spare parts page).

2. Those that are using flaperons, what are your flap settings at. I arbitrarily set takeoff to 50% and landing to 100% but feel this affect flight character far too negatively and reset them to 20 and 40%, respectively.

3. Anyone have any issues rolling out? Prior to, it seemed like it wanted to tip left and I'm not sure of that's an elevator/ail trim issue or not. Since I had to trim so much up elevator, I am guessing it wanted to stay down longer. Being that it didn't seem to track straight, I figured it'd be more susceptible to something like this.

I imagine once I can get it dialed in it'll fly just fine. I anticipate more break-in/tweak time due to the 5000 pack I'm using rather than the recommended 4000. Otherwise it looked and sounded incredible! Any advice here would be appreciated, those first flights are always nerve racking!

[Alpha]

Great insight, Vduniec! I love those extra flashes of color and texture, they always add dimension to a model.

[vduniec]

Here's a simple improvement to make to your planes that adds a cool factor. Replace the stock HUD with SX-3060 Spectrum Transparent Dichroic Film. (Google SX-3060 and it'll come right up.) It's transparent like the actual HUD's and it gives the occasional "Flash" when it reflects the sun while flying. You can order a free sample but will have to pay for the postage. I think you can get 3 or 4 samples in one shipment. I found that, of all the colors I used, this one is the only one worthwhile. So order all of the same and you should have a lifetime of HUD material for $7.

[vduniec]

Nice!!! Great livery....

Thanks. I moved it to the 90mm thread.

[Hardway]

Nice!!! Great livery....

[Felixs10]

Today I got a chance to madien my third F-16. This one was the high-performance version with the Inrunner motor. The Inrunner is notably faster than than the outrunner 6s version, And also cruises at less throttle. While my old f16 used about 250 feet of runway before its light on the mains this version got up at about 150 feet and cruises at less throttle. Flight times are very close to the same with mixed throttle.

[purduephigam]

I will do an actual CG check when I fly mine this weekend. I have never actually looked and just always put the battery in the same place regardless of the size.

I'm curious to know what CG you measure. With the packs you listed in your message and your flight characteristics I'm going to assume you're probably 96-100mm.

[gooniac33]

I'm sorry, it was early for me :Silly:...... balanced with gear down. When up (retracted) it almost fell off the balance due to being so nose heavy.

I will do an actual CG check when I fly mine this weekend. I have never actually looked and just always put the battery in the same place regardless of the size.

[purduephigam]

I'm sorry, it was early for me :Silly:...... balanced with gear down. When up (retracted) it almost fell off the balance due to being so nose heavy.

[JamesonC]

As was mentioned before, when balancing at the recommended 90mm, it is just a little nose heavy. I am attempting to use my admiral 5000 packs and have it pushed back as far as it can get. I am balancing with the gear down and plane upright.

Once I feel it's balanced, I'll deploy the gear and the plane about falls off the balancer it's so nose heavy. Thoughts?

I am a little confused. You said you balanced it with the gear down but then said you deployed the gear later. Was it balanced with the gear up (retracted) or down (deployed)?

[purduephigam]

As was mentioned before, when balancing at the recommended 90mm, it is just a little nose heavy. I am attempting to use my admiral 5000 packs and have it pushed back as far as it can get. I am balancing with the gear down and plane upright.

Once I feel it's balanced, I'll deploy the gear and the plane about falls off the balancer it's so nose heavy. Thoughts?

[C17loadmaster]

Now that I think about it... my first crash with this plane was the exact same thing. Fortunately it was in the turn for final approach and it wasn't going full speed. It nosedived into the grass but only the fuse and elevator was damaged. It was that repaired plane that I noticed the weak spot at the hinge.

[fhhuber]

Tbh theres not a lot of remains...its completely in pieces. I was trying to do a pass and just couldnt pull up. It smashed into the side of a hill. I had the elevator pinned and it didnt pull up at all.

That sounds like a clevice pop-out.

Disconnect the elevator from the servo... game over.

[C17loadmaster]

I lost my first bird on the second flight. The elevator on the port side just tore off in a dive and I didn't have enough left to pull out and pancaked into the concrete road. So, the next one will have hinge tape added for sure. I may just cut them off and use CA hinges... :Confused::( Better to repaint the hinge line than lose the entire plane and paint job!!

I installed the separate hinges and used CA as well as hinge tape haha. With the weight of 6s batteries up to 5000mah that is a lot to ask of a foam hinge

[Hardway]

Copy that!!! I agree..... Plane flies great though!!

[C17loadmaster]

I lost my first bird on the second flight. The elevator on the port side just tore off in a dive and I didn't have enough left to pull out and pancaked into the concrete road. So, the next one will have hinge tape added for sure. I may just cut them off and use CA hinges... :Confused::( Better to repaint the hinge line than lose the entire plane and paint job!!

I installed the separate hinges and used CA as well as hinge tape haha. With the weight of 6s batteries up to 5000mah that is a lot to ask of a foam hinge

[Hardway]

I lost my first bird on the second flight. The elevator on the port side just tore off in a dive and I didn't have enough left to pull out and pancaked into the concrete road. So, the next one will have hinge tape added for sure. I may just cut them off and use CA hinges... :Confused::( Better to repaint the hinge line than lose the entire plane and paint job!!

[C17loadmaster]

Are the carbon horizontal stabilizer supports glued in the entire length? The way you describe it makes it sound like the elevator is flexing under pressure too much. I had to secure my elevator with hinge tape after the second flight because it doesn’t come with hinges installed and the elevator looked like it would rip off if I flew twice

[LAIR202]

Nose heavy requires high speed to keep the nose up. Tail heavy can make stalls always result in spin and no recovery possible.

Generally a nose-heavy plane will be easier to fly, until it so nose heavy it won't fly at less than full throttle.

A perfect example is a plane a local had that he always complained it couldn't climb or do aerobatics and landed hot. He gave it away... a few owners later it was mine. I checked CG, put 12 ounces of lead under the tail plane and commenced doing loops... Nobody had checked CG and it balanced on the leading edge (Telemaster 8 ft wingspan intended for .60ci glow and it had a 28 cc weedeater conversion on the nose)
It flew 4.5 inches noseheavy... but it flew like crap.

F-16 is not tolerant of stalls. The wing shape makes the tips stall first and it will snap into a spin in a heartbeat if CG is too far back. So the factory recommends a forward CG so you can recover more easily.

Overly sensitive elevator is a sign of CG too far back.

Best that we can say beyond that is we need to see the flight and the remains to be able to tell what really happened.

Tbh theres not a lot of remains...its completely in pieces. I was trying to do a pass and just couldnt pull up. It smashed into the side of a hill. I had the elevator pinned and it didnt pull up at all.