Official Freewing 70mm F-16C Falcon V2 Thread

[shortround91]

We’ll have 2 1/2 70mm F16’s first one was a big oops by me, as many others have commented on the front landing gear I’ve also had issues as well, I did fix my issue of housing cracking by making side plates that I epoxy to the retract along with a thin rubber pad that goes under the retract. Just finished up 11 flights today with only once the front retract not coming down big thing NO CRACKED RETRACT housings.

[Jim Henriksen]

Has anyone measured the diameter of the FW 70mm F-16 stabilator rotating rod yet? I'm attempting to drill a hole into the fuselage body with an "AE" standard drill bit. Example... if the rod is 5.1mm then the "AE" bit should be 13/64 etc. Please advise?

[Jim Henriksen]

oh, BTW, my email is tazman "at" mycci.net

[sunbeam]

How do you land the F-16 on gras? Soon as I touch the ground with the main wheels the plane decelerates immediately so that the nose wheel touches the ground and the plane overturns on its front due to the narrow wheelbase of the mains. I guess the wheels are too small for gras and therefore a too big resistance.

[Reptielenfreak]

I think the only way is smoother landing, nose up and add throttle as you come down.
you could try adding soft rubber wheels.

[sunbeam]

Yes, I will try. And I take some bigger wheels from Robart.

[paulrkytek]

Do not use bigger main wheels they will bind on retract. The grass needs to be well manicured, short grass and you just need practice to slow the model down a bit when you flare. Also consider a softer spring in the nose oleo but not too soft as the nose will dip too much when taking off reducing the angle of attack of the wing and making rotation difficult. You could try using flaperons with 6mm down flap for take off flap and 12mm down flap for landing flap. See angle of attack on photo below

[sunbeam]

Thanks! I will widen the openings for the wheels for some slightly bigger ones. Yes, I need to try to slow it down. The problem is, beeing too slow the elevator has no authoroty anymore to hold the nose up, so the plane drops and the mains touch the ground.

[paulrkytek]

Thanks! I will widen the openings for the wheels for some slightly bigger ones. Yes, I need to try to slow it down. The problem is, beeing too slow the elevator has no authoroty anymore to hold the nose up, so the plane drops and the mains touch the ground.

Using bigger mains will reduce the angle of attack for take offs which is not a good idea for grass as the air will not go under the wing very well and you will need more elevator angle or you may run out of runway if you do not build up enough take off speed which is an issue on grass . Have you got the elevator control rod in the outer hole on the servo horn and the inner hole on the elevator horn to give you maximum throw on the elevator without binding ? Do you have your tx rates set at 100% and do you have the servo end points set at 120% or whatever is the max end point your tx will allow on up elevator.. Do you have about 40 to 50% expo on the elevator so that you do not then make it over sensitive for just cruising around.. If you still really want more elevator control ( assuming this is V2 with hinged elevator ) buy some 6mm thick balsa sheet and cut it 20 to 25mm wide and the length of the elevator suitably cut and sanded to the elevator profile, stick it on using a couple of cocktail sticks as reinforcement and paint to suit . Failing all that buy a lawnmower or just keep practicing until you get the angle of attack and approach speed dialled in to your brain. The trick is to establish the angle of attack around 6 metres ( 2 storey house )above ground by knocking off the throttle on approach and applying up elevator to establish the angle of attack, feed enough power back in to control the glide slope angle while maintaining the angle of attack then ease back the power whilst adjusting the elevator so that you have zero power and not too high an angle when the mains touch. The difficult bit is relaxing the elevator at the right moment to avoid the model going into too high an angle, virtually stalling and bouncing the front wheel from a great height. All of which is easier said than done.

study as many youtube F16 landing videos as you can find though finding them off grass is not easy. Good luck whatever way you decide to go.!

This was my first F16 landing, it got better since https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgwHHe_Lk4g&t=23s

[sunbeam]

You are right, bigger wheels will reduce the angle of attack at take off. I will stick to the wheels which are on and will try to slow down more on landing.

Thanks for the link! I do not think that I was faster, but maybe I am wrong. But your Jet rolled on the grass after touchdown, mine was retarded much faster and therefore tipped on the nose; maybe our gras is a little bit higher. I will try to slow down more and have a look on the elevator throws (I have got V3).

[paulrkytek]

You are right, bigger wheels will reduce the angle of attack at take off. I will stick to the wheels which are on and will try to slow down more on landing.

Thanks for the link! I do not think that I was faster, but maybe I am wrong. But your Jet rolled on the grass after touchdown, mine was retarded much faster and therefore tipped on the nose; maybe our gras is a little bit higher. I will try to slow down more and have a look on the elevator throws (I have got V3).

That was my first flight and the approach was faster than it should have been and the angle of attack not high enough so I had to bleed off some speed with flare before touching down and I would have extended the flare a bit further but was running out of runway, hence the bounce!!!. Have you seen this video about the V3. The full flying stabs give much more control but you are better off with lots of expo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofH2We6Vi1o

[sunbeam]

Yes, I know the video of the Two Brothers! The fly great, a very good performance with the F-16. I increased the elevator throws a little bit and will try to flare more to reduce speed, like in your video.

[shortround91]

Finishing up a modification to add a little more performance to the 70 V3 F16, works excellent thought I’d share. You will need to remove the ESC wood bracket and mount the ESC vertical I made some foam supports that have it help in really nice secure. I used a set from the J-10 where I got my idea from

[Reptielenfreak]

Finishing up a modification to add a little more performance to the 70 V3 F16, works excellent thought I’d share. You will need to remove the ESC wood bracket and mount the ESC vertical I made some foam supports that have it help in really nice secure. I used a set from the J-10 where I got my idea from

Also a good option, i added the vents from a fms f16 and put in on both sides like they did on the fms and the eflite f16

[kallend]

I got approx 0.2kg extra static thrust by opening up addtional cheaters from the wheel wells (not visible from the outside) into the intake duct. Essentially turning the main wheel wells into additional intakes. FMS 3060 1900kV PRO fan unit).

[shortround91]

That’s some great improvements, did a refinish last night I made a short video but won’t allow me to share it here. My take off to rotate has dropped almost in half shocked the hell outta me when I was testing along with a huge performance difference. Verticals are amazing now just straight up and up along with the doors being spring activated not changing the overall look

[shortround91]

That’s some great improvements, did a refinish last night I made a short video but won’t allow me to share it here. My take off to rotate has dropped almost in half shocked the hell outta me when I was testing along with a huge performance difference. Verticals are amazing now just straight up and up along with the doors being spring activated not changing the overall look

[Reptielenfreak]

That’s some great improvements, did a refinish last night I made a short video but won’t allow me to share it here. My take off to rotate has dropped almost in half shocked the hell outta me when I was testing along with a huge performance difference. Verticals are amazing now just straight up and up along with the doors being spring activated not changing the overall look

looks very clean!

[shortround91]

Thank you planning on installing a set on a Mirage too if it sees part of the performance the F16 has should be a amazing mod

[Reptielenfreak]

My extra vents