Official Freewing 70mm Rebel V2 Thread

[Marko the jet guy]

I have been watch all the scale type paint schemes that people have been applying to their rebels. After flying a few jets into and out of our small field I decided that I would redo the Rebel's color scheme for more visibility. I removed the decals using the rub with ice cube method and primed and painted with Rustoleum 2X rattle cans. I chose the highly visible combo of Yellow, Orage and Red with some stripes of white and black. The plane came out nice and shiny and should be much more visible in flight. I'm just waiting for the weather which is saying 2 snow storms this week here in New England. I'll post some flight shots when the weather cooperates.

[flightaddict]

Looks great and I noticed you put a trailing link nose gear to avoid the bent strut from landings on grass fields. I too upgraded mine to a 6s system. I use the T1 Hawks fan and an 85 amp ztw esc and HRB3300 mah battery. I can get 6 minutes mixed flying. It's fast too.

[gazza]

the elevator linkage is a bit crap, but it still stands up to a 6s lipo upgrade running a wemotec 70mm fan with a HET motor

[paulrkytek]

Decided against the missiles, I will stop now

[paulrkytek]

The biggest gripe I have with the Rebel is the way they did the elevator pushrods and the size of the torque rods and the little plastic pieces the links clip to. The design is both weak and produces uneven elevator throws unless you make some serious adjustments. Have you changed any of that?

I had to fiddle with the torque levers and the connecting rods which I ran from 1 servo, 2 holes in servo arm then adjusted height of connection to each of the torque rods to get equal lever arm effect to get even pull. I also replaced elevator hinges with pin hinges to ensure no binding. It was a pain to do and the original design was poor. I was tempted at one point to run 2 servos into the sides of the exhaust tube route the wires to suit and use right and left handed servos. I stuck with the one servo to save the hacking around, also then I was guaranteed equal movement on both elevators once I had fiddled with the torque arm to servo arm wires. I was at my limit within the constraints of the plastic shell to get the max elevator movement I wanted without binding the servo and I certainly do not want to have to fiddle with something like that again and given the choice I would opt for the 2 servos in the exhaust tube wall !!!!... Note I have moved the pilot forward to allow me to cut out some foam to the rear seat area which allows me to fix my 2200mah 50c Rhino lipo without popping the canopy . Still get 3.25 mins, mixed flying with 20% left on the fms pro motor.

[Evan D]

The biggest gripe I have with the Rebel is the way they did the elevator pushrods and the size of the torque rods and the little plastic pieces the links clip to. The design is both weak and produces uneven elevator throws unless you make some serious adjustments. Have you changed any of that?

[paulrkytek]

Thanks guys, the balsa and ply really stiffens up the fuselage and in my eyes the extended nose helps the look of the model and gives new life to one of the older Freewing jets

[Captglvr]

Very nice job with the construction and the paint! Beautifully done. 👍🏼👍🏼

[Evan D]

That looks great!

[paulrkytek]

One of the weak spots of the Rebel is the thin and fragile nose section so I finally decided to upgrade mine with a balsa and light ply glove to avoid the nose wrinkles. I cut off the tip of the original nose which had 70gm of lead weight in it , ended up adding back 30gm weight plus the balsa and light ply to add15gms overall and a bit of length to the nose. Just waiting for the F5n missiles and rails to complete the picture!!!

Freewing Rebel 900mm span 20.7dm2 Skywalker 80amp esc 4no TG9e, 3x9gms HXT900. cg95mm from LE.
70 flights no flap/elevator mix. Upgraded to fms 3060 1900kv 70mm 6s edf inrunner, 327 gms 2.5 to 2.7kg thrust 2200mah 6s 50c battery 360gms gives auw 1775gms wl 86gms/dm2 Static thrust 1.5 to 1. super smooth and quiet. My original fms 70mm 4s 12 blade in-runner fan gave 1.6kg thrust. With 2200mah 4s 60c battery 1700gms wl 82gms/dm2

[flightaddict]

HI guys,
I upgraded my FW 70mm T1 Hawk to the inrunner version and stuck the old outrunner into my Rebel with a 85 A ZTW ESC and a S8R receiver. I must have hit a sweet spot because it flies like a barn swallow and I clocked it with GPS at 125 mph. Vertical is limited to losing sight of it. It uses about 75 feet to get off a grass runway and with an HRB 3300ma 50 C, I can get 5 minutes with fairly aggressive flying and still come down with 3.75v on the cells. Had to add about 30g to the tail to get it to cg. Turns a trainer jet into a screamer.

[SanExup]

Doh! Sorry for the loss! It's hard to tell from the photo but it looks like a few bamboo skewers and some glue would make it fly again. It wouldn't be as pretty but maybe something worth practicing low inverted flights with.

[TangoVector]

Well...

I messed up and it wasn't worth rebuilding it
I can't blame the Rebel, it has always behaved well and I recommend it as a nice airplane to anyone. The landing gear isn't that great, but other than that I liked it a lot.
There are some very nice nice versions in this thread and even stock looking, it is doing its thing, providing fun flying for a great price.

Keep enjoying your Rebels, I wish I could...

[paulrkytek]

Paul which fms 4s fan is that? Did u change the esc?

From memory 2845 12blade outrunner 1.63 kg thrust 64 amp max with 80 amp Hobbywing esc I still have 2 of these in my Dynam ME262. with 2 number 80amp escs. in the rebel I ran either 2200mah 60c lipo Turniby lipo or 2650mah 35c Turnigy nanotech lipo. Your fms fan should come with a tech sheet giving the above info but it will probably state 70amp esc but I think 80 amp gives a bit more headroom and leaves 5amp for the servos & rx plus a bit. When I went to 6 s I kept the 80amp esc as the 6s fan goes to 68amp max

[Ron1950]

Paul which fms 4s fan is that? Did u change the esc?

[paulrkytek]

thanks paul i was just telling a friend that i would try the 6s fan if this one doesent improve grass take offs

Hi Ron, this is video of my rebel 4s fms fan off our grass field to give you an idea ,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qaZkSo3zmI

I also attach video of my yak 130 for the fms pro 3060 1900kv sound comparison

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amD3z-_sqdA

[Ron1950]

thanks paul i was just telling a friend that i would try the 6s fan if this one doesent improve grass take offs

[paulrkytek]

sounds good paul thanks. iam trying to just get some more power for these 98 degree 85 percent hum days off of grass.. trying to stay in the 4s fans but running out od options if this fms fan doesent work better,the rebel is a fun little flyer but its old tech and i have the 70mm 6s viper so dont want to put too much cash into it

Fair enough Ron, there is only $10 difference between the fms 4 and 6 s fan on Bangood, and that 6 s REBEL out performs my 6s yak and 6s Hawk though I have been tempted by the fms/roc hobby viper

[Ron1950]

sounds good paul thanks. iam trying to just get some more power for these 98 degree 85 percent hum days off of grass.. trying to stay in the 4s fans but running out od options if this fms fan doesent work better,the rebel is a fun little flyer but its old tech and i have the 70mm 6s viper so dont want to put too much cash into it

[paulrkytek]

has anyone replaced the fan in there reble with something stronger? i fly off grass and if there is 98 degrees and high humidity and grass is only a few days from last mowing it struggles to get off? i ordered a fms inrunner fan and am hopping for just a bit more power with a 4 s set up

Ron, fms in-runner , 4s will give you more power, use 2200 to 2600 35c min, 1.6kg thrust . It worked for me, half flaps take off. I upgraded mine twice since then and now run fms pro 6s in-runner with 2200mah rhino 50c battery 3 to 3.5 mins 2.5kg thrust 1750 gms all up take off weight. and its fairly quick!!! and the 3060 1900kv motor is very smooth.