Official Freewing 70mm Rebel V2 Thread

[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

[Evan D]

That looks great!

[Captglvr]

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

[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

[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]

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.

[paulrkytek]

Decided against the missiles, I will stop now

[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

[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.

[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.

[paulrkytek]

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.

You are definitely going to see that Marko, good luck with the weather, its a bit windy here right now ( 40mph )

[Simon Bee]

My Rebel V2 should be with me next week. I fly off mainly grass and I’ve seen how grass is not particularly kind to that type of landing gear which is similar to my Arrows Marlin.
Just wondering whether anybody has tried gear up landings on grass ?

[paulrkytek]

My Rebel V2 should be with me next week. I fly off mainly grass and I’ve seen how grass is not particularly kind to that type of landing gear which is similar to my Arrows Marlin.
Just wondering whether anybody has tried gear up landings on grass ?

Simon you may well be better off just searching t`internet for some trailing link oleos, they work ok off my grass field. try ali express
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3300...c0a54c4dm6Rx2j you will need to choose right size to suit dimensions.

Video of my rebel with similar setup off grass https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qaZkSo3zmI

[Simon Bee]

Ok thanks for the reply, I’ll give it a go.

[Simon Bee]

Simon you may well be better off just searching t`internet for some trailing link oleos, they work ok off my grass field. try ali express
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3300...c0a54c4dm6Rx2j you will need to choose right size to suit dimensions.

Video of my rebel with similar setup off grass https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qaZkSo3zmI

Sounds good on that video and nice colour scheme 👍

[paulrkytek]

Sounds good on that video and nice colour scheme 👍

Thanks Simon, I upgraded the rebel since that video, see post number 161 above. good luck finding the landing gear

Paul

[Simon Bee]

What a nightmare it was getting the wing fixed on. None of the screws lined up and the most forward screw fixing I had to re-seat completely. Not impressed !
So first impressions not good, hope it flies OK

[paulrkytek]

What a nightmare it was getting the wing fixed on. None of the screws lined up and the most forward screw fixing I had to re-seat completely. Not impressed !
So first impressions not good, hope it flies OK

good luck with the maiden, I go high rates on elevator, low rates aileron and half flaps for grass take off, plenty of expo.

drop back to low rates for trimming once plenty of height if you need to. Half flaps on down leg for landing, Full flaps on final, tickover throttle, cut throttle 600mm above ground, land mains first.
If you have not already done so wipe some epoxy with a sacrificial brush around the nose leg bay, it soon creases if you hit the nose wheel first. Flight characteristics are similar to Marlin. You can get away with the wires on the mains but you will be much better off with trailing link oleo on the front if you can find one.

[Simon Bee]

Ok thanks very much for that

[Simon Bee]

Like it a lot, fast and sleek. Seems to cope better on grass than the Marlin.
3000 Mah batteries seem to hit the sweet spot as far as weight goes. I bought 2 from China Hobby Line, they’re a bit tight but it flies nicely with them.
The Radient 2700 that I used in my Marlin makes it too tail heavy