Official Freewing 90mm F-16 Falcon Thread

[Gravythe clown]

Got my tracking info this AM, FedEx FTW.

I’ll have to see it in person to decide weather or not to repaint. For sure though the gear will get painted white like I did with my F-18.


Also just to be on safe side I just ordered a spear sheet of the tbird decals. I have lots of painting to do this summer. F-14, Buddies OH-6, most likely this F-16 and finish my cobra.

Gravy

[RudyD54]

Last few orders were all free shipping, but still came Fedex.

Gravy

Oh wow, good to know. I had a couple in the past sent via usps which sat in limbo for a month so I stopped taking my chances.

[DCORSAIR]

And for whatever reason the material they're made of does not glue well. Pretty much everything I've tried either doesn't last more than 5 minutes or ends up melting the plastic. I've got a Prusa 3D printer on the way so I'm hoping to be able to print replacements once I get it all setup and figured out.

Oh yeah, the fist thing on the F-16, you will snap off the pitot tube, I broke plenty of them, so I solved my problem this way, take a tiny tiny drill bit, hand drill a hole into each piece, take a sewing needle and glue it in one end, cut the rest off as needed to fit into the other end, slide them together and glue with foamtac, now it wil just bend when you bump it, bend it back in place and off you go, never broke another one after that.

[Gravythe clown]

Last few orders were all free shipping, but still came Fedex.

Gravy

[RudyD54]

Yeah I ordered mine 6:27am may 1st, have not received shipping notice yet. My order shows paid but unfulfilled. Yes I bought a yellowish one, worst case I’ll do a full repaint and go grey. if I get it now. I hope their site don’t allow for multiple purchases of same item, and actually removes item from their inventory when paid for.
Mine was $517 shipped. I see one now in open box listed at $529 with same description. Only now it has a picture. When I bought it there was no picture.
🤔

Gravy

As far as I can tell the inventory gets removed immediately as I've seen the quantity available change as soon as my orders go through. Not sure if you did, but I paid the 10 bucks for Fedex shipping and they typically prioritize the paid shipping tiers. Fedex has been the most reliable shipper in my area for a while so I typically don't mind spending the little extra.

[RudyD54]

Some of the pitot's are crazy long...

And for whatever reason the material they're made of does not glue well. Pretty much everything I've tried either doesn't last more than 5 minutes or ends up melting the plastic. I've got a Prusa 3D printer on the way so I'm hoping to be able to print replacements once I get it all setup and figured out.

[Gravythe clown]

Yeah I ordered mine 6:27am may 1st, have not received shipping notice yet. My order shows paid but unfulfilled. Yes I bought a yellowish one, worst case I’ll do a full repaint and go grey. if I get it now. I hope their site don’t allow for multiple purchases of same item, and actually removes item from their inventory when paid for.
Mine was $517 shipped. I see one now in open box listed at $529 with same description. Only now it has a picture. When I bought it there was no picture.
🤔

Gravy

[Evan D]

Some of the pitot's are crazy long...

No, it wasn't one of the yellow ones. It mentioned a replaced retract, minor dents (easy fix), reversed USAF decal (~7 bucks for decals) and loose pitot tube (~7 bucks for a nosecone) I went ahead and ordered a new spare nosecone anyways as I'm sure Hugh Wiedman or I will inevitably break off pitot tube I think I've gone through 4 on the MiG and 2 on the Gripen...

[RudyD54]

So you got one of the yellow ones? I was told the yellow is not just a little off white as the pictures seem to show.

No, it wasn't one of the yellow ones. It mentioned a replaced retract, minor dents (easy fix), reversed USAF decal (~7 bucks for decals) and loose pitot tube (~7 bucks for a nosecone) I went ahead and ordered a new spare nosecone anyways as I'm sure Hugh Wiedman or I will inevitably break off pitot tube I think I've gone through 4 on the MiG and 2 on the Gripen...

[Evan D]

Ahh, not a yellow one. Cool!

[RudyD54]

Now I’m concerned, I bought the open box high performance pop Tbird on Saturday. Didn’t see an ARF pulse listed at all. When did you buy yours. Usually the still show it but list it out of stock.

Gravy

I was up late last night and ordered around 1am this morning. Got my shipping notification at 11:32am, not even 12 hours later. Here's the direct link to the listing: Freewing F-16C Super Scale Thunderbirds 90mm EDF Jet - ARF PLUS - (OPE [FJ30621A+(OB)] Motion RC

[Evan D]

So you got one of the yellow ones? I was told the yellow is not just a little off white as the pictures seem to show.

[Gravythe clown]

Now I’m concerned, I bought the open box high performance pop Tbird on Saturday. Didn’t see an ARF pulse listed at all. When did you buy yours. Usually the still show it but list it out of stock.

Gravy

[RudyD54]

From a FW 90mm F-16 owner, I have to say a very wise decision! A very good friend was thinking of getting the E-Flight F-16 and I think I was able to talk him out of it. He's flown with me with my F-16 on the 12 blade inrunner hauling an SMC 8100 mah battery around and taking off of grass, and it now looks like he's going to "one up me" and get the Thunderbird ARF but put an 8S system in it! I'm starting to hate him more every day. I truly believe the HH 80mm EDF's are underpowered, especially for grass ops.

Well, convince me you did... My F-16 Thunderbird ARF+ has just been shipped. I wasn't sure if it was actually in stock as the open box listing does not show up via the open box listings on Motion-Rc's website, but google took me to the page directly and they still show as having two more in stock. Also got a 120amp Avian ESC and FMS 1500 12 blade EDF on order.

[rifleman_btx]

Yes, yes indeed sir!

[Hugh Wiedman]

first step will be moving the cg back a bit I will beat this plane! Lol

That's the right attitude! Kind of like breaking a mustang, one of us is going to blink first (sometimes that's me though )

[rifleman_btx]

HW, i did have flaparon on mine as well. I think my first step will be moving the cg back a bit, maybe it won't drop the nose so fast, as I could see this on my touchdowns. The nose hits much heavier than I like. I will beat this plane! Lol

[Dan McKeag]

I maidened my TB F16 this weekend and 6 more flights after that. What a great Jet. I used the 12 blade inrunner from the last 8s F22 I piled in and 2 4s 5000 batts and it was a beauty from the start. I set it up by the book and it worked great. Fun jet to fly. Flight times were 3:30. Flying pretty fast most of the time.

[DCORSAIR]

That definitely makes me feel better, I'm gonna do that next time out DC, I will get this one down, she's too pretty not to fly!

Yeah, once you figue it out then you won't even think about the landing, it will be just turn, chop, glide, add a little throttle, hold the elevator, add a little power and flare, put that all together and you will have a big grin everytime.........

[Hugh Wiedman]

Two things are worth knowing about this jet. your CG location is important to land this jet right, to aft CG will float and then drop in on you, it kind of tricks you into cutting power to soon because it wants to float on past you, nose heavy is better on this one, cut your power in the turn to final and let it set up a nose high AOA, then hold it there with elevator and feather it in with the throttle, practice practice, when you take off don't put the gear up, just go around and line up until you get the feel of the right approach and speed, then it will click,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Agree completely with you DC. For some reason, for me this is one of the easier jets to land (hope I didn't just jinx myself), but did take about 10-15 "practice" landing flights to get there and trying out different CG's and speeds. Once I found the CG and speed that works for me, it hasn't been an issue. I found that for my style/experience level/confidence level, etc. (probably slightly above average), it seems to land best at a CG of 125mm (book is 118mm - 128mm) gear down (128mm gear up). I also found that the throttle on approach is 35%, then reduced to 28% about 6 feet off the ground and 20% a foot off the ground. It starts going into a higher AoA at 28% and even more at 20% while slightly loosing altitude and then an additional flare just above the runway. I'm using the 12 blade inrunner, so my throttle settings are based upon that fan. As DC states, I found that at a too tail heavy CG of around 130-135mm, it does float at 20% throttle and get it's nose way up, then drops like a rock. On the other hand, at a CG of 118mm it doesn't seem to want to get it's nose up as easily, so for me, the 125mm CG worked out best. I am using flaperons to get off the grass quicker, so that also affects the landing speed vs no flaperons. My take-off "flap" are at 16mm and landing flaps only 23mm (as I didn't want to over extend the aileron servos), but those deflections helped quite a bit, at least IMO. And I fly it fully loaded with ordinance, which does slow it down a bit as well (but looks too bad a.. to go without).