Official Freewing 90mm F-16 Falcon Thread

[crxmanpat]

Thanks! She will be back in the air this weekend.

[dusmmdb]

Gents

new F16....took it to the field to maiden...nose gear door doesn't function...landing light isn't on... checked board and it appears that everything is plugged in...

faulty board????

[dusmmdb]

I unplugged the door from the board and tested it....servo works fine....

so.... faulty board??

[dusmmdb]

Ugh....
ubec is dead
easy....plugged in a receiver battery... gear door worked by using a Y

faulty control board... I'll call motion on Monday and see about getting a replacement

[F106DeltaDart]

So, a while back I changed out my stock edf for the FMS edf unit. Performance was ok stock, but the FMS unit gave it the extra punch that I wanted, and was giving me a bit better flight time. Now, I'm having stealth issues somewhere in my F-16, and I can't figure it out. Around 3 flights ago, about 1.5 min into the flight, the throttle became intermittent. It would buzz like it was going into LVC, then come back for a few seconds, then pulse again. I managed to get it back on the ground in one piece, so I began troubleshooting. The battery I was using was fairly old, so I figured that was the issue.

The next weekend, I took it up with a brand new (<10 cycles) 70C Revo Gopack 6S 5800, and had flown previously without issue on the F-16. What happened was a mirror image of the previous attempt, it cut out and became intermittent halfway through the flight, and I nursed it back on to the runway. With the battery eliminated as an issue, I thought it was probably a solder joint on the FMS fan. Since the plane had run fine stock, I figured the ESC was probably fine, but gave each solder joint a tug to check that it was secure. The FMS unit plugs also seemed secured, but I re-soldered them anyways just to be safe.

That brings us to this weekend. Brought it out again, and it flew fantastic.. For the first 1.5 minutes. Than the pulsing started, and power become intermittent yet again. But this time, I was at the furthest point out in the pattern. I put the gear down, and set a glide slope back to the runway. I few seconds later, I realized there was no way that I could get back to the runway. All thrust was gone. I put the gear up, switched to high rates, and tried for a soft landing in the grass about 200ft short of the runway.

Upon surveying the damage, it actually wasn't too bad. The intake is slightly wrinkled, and the nose gear door ripped off. Appartently, the gear had fully retracted, but the doors hadn't closed yet by impact. The battery and canopy had ejected and were unharmed, and the rear fins and some of the ordinance had broken off. Not terrible, but annoying none the less. So, my suspicion is now on the ESC. Has anyone else had a similar issue on theirs? Any advice is appreciated, I'm just hoping that I don't need to replace that expensive ESC..

[dusmmdb]

Check the timing on the ESC... if on high, I would go low and see if that solves the issue

[gooniac33]

So, a while back I changed out my stock edf for the FMS edf unit. Performance was ok stock, but the FMS unit gave it the extra punch that I wanted, and was giving me a bit better flight time. Now, I'm having stealth issues somewhere in my F-16, and I can't figure it out. Around 3 flights ago, about 1.5 min into the flight, the throttle became intermittent. It would buzz like it was going into LVC, then come back for a few seconds, then pulse again. I managed to get it back on the ground in one piece, so I began troubleshooting. The battery I was using was fairly old, so I figured that was the issue.

The next weekend, I took it up with a brand new (<10 cycles) 70C Revo Gopack 6S 5800, and had flown previously without issue on the F-16. What happened was a mirror image of the previous attempt, it cut out and became intermittent halfway through the flight, and I nursed it back on to the runway. With the battery eliminated as an issue, I thought it was probably a solder joint on the FMS fan. Since the plane had run fine stock, I figured the ESC was probably fine, but gave each solder joint a tug to check that it was secure. The FMS unit plugs also seemed secured, but I re-soldered them anyways just to be safe.

That brings us to this weekend. Brought it out again, and it flew fantastic.. For the first 1.5 minutes. Than the pulsing started, and power become intermittent yet again. But this time, I was at the furthest point out in the pattern. I put the gear down, and set a glide slope back to the runway. I few seconds later, I realized there was no way that I could get back to the runway. All thrust was gone. I put the gear up, switched to high rates, and tried for a soft landing in the grass about 200ft short of the runway.

Upon surveying the damage, it actually wasn't too bad. The intake is slightly wrinkled, and the nose gear door ripped off. Appartently, the gear had fully retracted, but the doors hadn't closed yet by impact. The battery and canopy had ejected and were unharmed, and the rear fins and some of the ordinance had broken off. Not terrible, but annoying none the less. So, my suspicion is now on the ESC. Has anyone else had a similar issue on theirs? Any advice is appreciated, I'm just hoping that I don't need to replace that expensive ESC..

Sounds like an ESC issue. If there is a way to test the FMS motor and then the stock motor on the ground with the current esc and then a new esc then I would. Also are you getting adequate cooling to the esc? It sounds like it could be hitting a thermal cut off as well. The stock esc will shut off completely if the temp gets too high. And as another person said. Check the timing because high timing will increase amp load and heat but not always give you more power.

[dusmmdb]

The revised decals came in from Callie today and they are perfect!

All I have left to do is paint the dark gray trim on the intake lip, then hit it with 3 coats of Minwax.

Are you using spray minwax??

[F106DeltaDart]

I'm going to try out low timing next. Thanks for the advice guys, the thermal cutoff seems to be most likely what was happening.

[crxmanpat]

Are you using spray minwax??

I brush it on with a fine paintbrush (foam brushes work too). I never really liked the spray version.

[dusmmdb]

cool

same here, the spray always left spots for me

[racerx600rr]

Hey all! I'm new to hobbysquawk and thought Id say hi and share my appreciation and video of the freewing 16!

[EDFjetpilot]

Hey all! I'm new to hobbysquawk and thought Id say hi and share my appreciation and video of the freewing 16!

Welcome! Great video and flying! Yea...nice runway, but those trees look too close for comfort, or at least for low fast passes.:Whew:

I've got over 150 flights on my FW F-16 flying from grass, so the gear has taken a beating. However, it's still my favorite EDF jet and still going strong.

I'm guessing you fly Herks from Dobbins? I'm retired USAF myself, Airfield Ops Officer. I was a 2-time air boss and Air Show Director during my career, worked with the T-Birds for 3 of the 4 air shows I worked. Now just about every weekend is an air show with my T-Bird F-16...without all the crowds.:Cool:

Sean

[racerx600rr]

Welcome! Great video and flying! Yea...nice runway, but those trees look too close for comfort, or at least for low fast passes.:Whew:

I've got over 150 flights on my FW F-16 flying from grass, so the gear has taken a beating. However, it's still my favorite EDF jet and still going strong.

I'm guessing you fly Herks from Dobbins? I'm retired USAF myself, Airfield Ops Officer. I was a 2-time air boss and Air Show Director during my career, worked with the T-Birds for 3 of the 4 air shows I worked. Now just about every weekend is an air show with my T-Bird F-16...without all the crowds.:Cool:

Sean

Thank you very much sir! and thank you for the compliments! Yes CCRC is very tight for these beloved EDFs but I like the challenge!

Yes sir I do! I'm a pilot with the 700 Airlift there! Glad to see other military guys on here! That airshow business can be tough. We are in the process of putting together the 2018 one at dobbins now :Whew: I think I prefer the "personal" air shows my self ;)Nice to meet you and glad to be here!

[EDFjetpilot]

Just thought I'd post a photo of my two babies.

One standard T-Bird scheme. The other honoring the Alabama ANG 100th Fighter Squadron based in Montgomery. Tail graphics from Callie.

Sean

[racerx600rr]

Good looking birds EDFjetpilot.
:Cool:

[Grossman56]

Great video and great birds guys, on my bucket list !

Grossman56

[urrl]

Morning flights

[Donu]

Urrl, looks like you have the F-16 dialed in great, what kinda of setup are you using? Flapperons with elevator mix or something different?

[DCORSAIR]

Great flight urrl, always enjoy your videos. Donu, no special mixes to fly this bird, I have flown almost all the 90mm FW jets and this one by far is my favorite, it will fly slow high alpha no problem, it flies so good fast or slow and in stock form, the whole set up is CG and a good battery. The landings take time to learn but after say 25 flights or so you figure it out, yeah it's heavy but once you learn how to use the energy to fly it scale, it is so fun to watch.

I need to get a video one of the these days, what camera do you guys use for this type of filming????