Official Freewing 90mm F-16 Falcon Thread

[Hugh Wiedman]

I think it's a 1/4 scale, the kid is 16 and almost 6 feet high. He flies it beautifully as well. All I can say is I can always look forward to bigger and better. Where does he go from there? His only shot is to become an Air Force or Navy aviator and fly the real thing. Most likely it's all downhill for him after starting out on this, at least my upside is far more interesting.

[Aros]

Good God what scale is that?? Either that kid is a shrimp or that jet is massive!! I know camera angles can make things look bigger than they are (wait, what?!) but WOW that looks like one giant scale F-16! And I thought my HSD 105mm F-16 was big.

[Phantom]

Wow, love that livery too, can't wait to see the finished product. WIsh I had the patience and skill to do it, but know my limitation. Since you're doing one, 2 would be just as easy, so when you finish mine, I'll send you my address. May even reimburse you for the shipping if I'm in a good mood. A kid in our club has a turbine Artic Camo F16, can you say spoiled, 1 of many his dad has for him (picture below-unfortunately not mine)

Spoiled. Yep apparently I can!😁

[Hugh Wiedman]

Started the painting process for the Arctic Aggressor scheme. Man, I've forgotten what a multi-step pain in the rear this livery is! First stripped her down and painted her in base grey...Then I masked off and shot the black camo both top and bottom today...Tomorrow is masking off and shooting the white camo. My custom decals from Callie should arrive Tuesday or Wednesday. Once those are applied I will hit the whole bird with polycrylic and call her good!

Wow, love that livery too, can't wait to see the finished product. WIsh I had the patience and skill to do it, but know my limitation. Since you're doing one, 2 would be just as easy, so when you finish mine, I'll send you my address. May even reimburse you for the shipping if I'm in a good mood. A kid in our club has a turbine Artic Camo F16, can you say spoiled, 1 of many his dad has for him (picture below-unfortunately not mine)

[Aros]

Started the painting process for the Arctic Aggressor scheme. Man, I've forgotten what a multi-step pain in the rear this livery is! First stripped her down and painted her in base grey...Then I masked off and shot the black camo both top and bottom today...Tomorrow is masking off and shooting the white camo. My custom decals from Callie should arrive Tuesday or Wednesday. Once those are applied I will hit the whole bird with polycrylic and call her good!

[Aros]

Now we're cookin'!

[Hugh Wiedman]

Perfect explanation, love it. Fits into my personality as well "old lazy dog". Give me a beer, a cigar, a lawn chair and my transmitter and I'm good to go.

[Aros]

I would love to offer up a sophisticated aerodynamic explanation for you Hugh but the truth is it's just plain ol' habit.

I always fly counter clockwise, and roll to the right simply due to muscle memory...Been doing it that way for 15+ years now...I can of course roll to the left and fly clockwise but Old Dogs, New Tricks and all that ya know... I am not as ambidextrous with my flying as I am in other areas...Just laziness LOL!

[Hugh Wiedman]

Hey Aros, wanted to ask you this for a while, but either forgot to or it wasn't the right time. Since you just aired another great video, this time of my current favorite jet, I thought the timing is right so here it is: I have always noted that your rolls are always (I think always) to the right, even when flying a counter clockwise pattern. Is that because on left rolls the nose drops slightly due to the rotation of the prop/fan?

I usually do the same, even when turning left I like to do a 3/4 roll to the right because it dips less, and also looks kind of cool. Or is there some other reason I'm missing. I love to watch other good pilots maneuvers cause I always find something I like and try to incorporate it into my flying. Thanks.

[Aros]

That flight looked awesome!! No rocking or unwanted movements on the plane at all even with the ordinance in place! Very impressive!! UGH!! I really hate not having the room that I need for all the planes that I want!!

LOL, thanks man, I sure know THAT feeling!!

[gooniac33]

Second flight...OUTSTANDING!

Wow flaperons were the magic ingredient! Took off MUCH better...Quicker rotation, smoother climb out...She flew like she was on rails! Gyro? What gyro? I don't need no stinking gyro, lol...

CG was fine all along. 120mm...Solid. Love the inrunner setup. Came in, dropped to full flaperons and it was like landing a trainer. Thanks again to everyone who chipped in their helpful advice.
Who has two thumbs with a big grin? This guy!

That flight looked awesome!! No rocking or unwanted movements on the plane at all even with the ordinance in place! Very impressive!! UGH!! I really hate not having the room that I need for all the planes that I want!!

[DCORSAIR]

Awesome, just keep flying it every time you can, it only gets better when you learn it's whole flight envelope, nice video.

[Aros]

You know, I didn't even notice I was missing that missile until I got home...I was like, "What the?" Then somebody pointed out at the :22 mark that it went bye bye, lol! What had happened is that I was carrying her the first attempt to the track (when I discovered people were there walking the track so I had to turn around) and I must have accidentally hit the missile which cracked it. I went home and CA'd it, thinking it was fine. Guess not! LOL

Good thing I ordered the spare set of ordinance!

[Hugh Wiedman]

BTW, did you hook up a separate servo to deploy the front half of the port missile? Not sure that's quite scale, thought it needed the back end to fly to its target, but what do I know. Maybe if you add back some aileron throw and rotate at full deflection, you could deploy the front half of all of them at once.

[Aros]

LOL, not sure about Flight Instructor but I accept your compliment! Many times I have poo-poo'd flaperons and mixing in general for many models but this model is a clear and obvious example of one that benefits from flaperons. It was self evident from the start. What once was a heavy wing-loaded beast has been transformed - thanks to the inrunner and flaperons - to an easy to fly scale beauty!

[Hugh Wiedman]

Fabulous, great video, so glad the flaperons worked out for you. Its surprising what a difference they make on this bird. Two flights and you're already landing like a flight instructor. Bravo.

[Aros]

Second flight...OUTSTANDING!

Wow flaperons were the magic ingredient! Took off MUCH better...Quicker rotation, smoother climb out...She flew like she was on rails! Gyro? What gyro? I don't need no stinking gyro, lol...

CG was fine all along. 120mm...Solid. Love the inrunner setup. Came in, dropped to full flaperons and it was like landing a trainer. Thanks again to everyone who chipped in their helpful advice.
Who has two thumbs with a big grin? This guy!

[DCORSAIR]

I'm not a mixer switch guy usually either, but I fly from an "aircraft carrier" so runway is at a premium. You make the deck and don't run off the other side or you take your bird home in a bag, no arresting cable to catch either lol. I could add brakes to the F-16 but I really don't want to add any more weight to her as I've already had to go 8s due to my short runway environment as to not use up 90% of it on my take off role like on 6s.

I use flaps or flaperons for every bird I have for take off and as much drag as I can get for every landing. Flaps, gear, airbrake, and high alpha for aerodynamic braking if possible. I use 90° flaps on my Venom, 70° on my A-4, 85°on my F-5, full span flaps for my F-18, and F-14, dorsal airbrake on my F-15, and even the airbrake on my T-28 not because I need it on the T-28 but I enjoy learning to fly with all the drag devices available. I don't own a single bird that needs to come screaming in on final like it's on fire lol

[Phantom]

I'm not a mixer switch guy usually either, but I fly from an "aircraft carrier" so runway is at a premium. You make the deck and don't run off the other side or you take your bird home in a bag, no arresting cable to catch either lol. I could add brakes to the F-16 but I really don't want to add any more weight to her as I've already had to go 8s due to my short runway environment as to not use up 90% of it on my take off role like on 6s.

I use flaps or flaperons for every bird I have for take off and as much drag as I can get for every landing. Flaps, gear, airbrake, and high alpha for aerodynamic braking if possible. I use 90° flaps on my Venom, 70° on my A-4, 85°on my F-5, full span flaps for my F-18, and F-14, dorsal airbrake on my F-15, and even the airbrake on my T-28 not because I need it on the T-28 but I enjoy learning to fly with all the drag devices available. I don't own a single bird that needs to come screaming in on final like it's on fire lol

[DCORSAIR]

I like your style buddy. I hate mixes (because I suck at them, lol) and I love flying stock whenever possible. I may attempt her again bone stock. The only thing that makes me want flaperons is to shorten the takeoff roll mainly. It was spooky watching her almost run into the chain link fence at the end of the track before being able to rotate! Maybe I was too conservative with the power...I heard someone say not to goose her right out of the gate, but maybe I should have her at 100% power a bit sooner...

Oh yes, goose her right out of the gate with full up elevator and see what happens, I gurantee you a very short take off, I watch the nose wheel as it gets light and starts to bounce a little, then relax some of that up elevator a little and instead of a pop off the runway, it will lift off nicely, I flip my retract switch for up when I see the rotation about to happen, the gear are going up as soon as it leaves the runway, not recommended until you get used to when it rotates, not bragging by no means but I have hundreds of flights on this jet and know what it likes and dislikes, another enjoyment I like, I get bored easy I guess, do a high speed pass into a large full throttle loop, at the half way point of the loop, flip your retract switch and you roll it over and cut your power alll the way off, keep the nose pointed down but not enough to build up to much speed, she will do the best power off landings you have ever seen........

As you can see, I love this jet, just sold my last one and going back into scale helis for a little bit, but when I return this jet will be the first one I purchase again, maybe even get one to have new in the box, hope they don't discontinue this one anytime soon.

As Hugh said in his post earlier, 2 feet off the ground is where it all happens with this jet, get that right and you will nail every one of your landings.