Official Freewing 70mm Twin Me 262 Thread

[Tim K]

I just got this plane also and came here looking for battery suggestions and expected flight times. I already have a couple of Roaring top 4500's that I got for my F-86, and that is what I will probably do the maiden on until I have the funds for 5000's. I have wanted this jet for awhile, and am looking forward to flying it.

[fhhuber]

It can go through a 5000 mah in 3 minutes. (or less) on full throttle.

I tended to vary the throttle a lot and got longer flights but getting past 6 min will require something that helps like slope soaring which could keep it in the air for over an hour..

[themudduck]

With an Admiral 5000 my timer is set for 3:20 and I typically have only about 20% left in the battery - this model does suck the electrons like nobody's business. Times vary since it depends on your throttle setting, but this plane isn't much fun to fly slow - the faster it goes the happier it seems (and its so cool). Anyway I think you should be getting closer to 3 minutes - especially since that 4500 should be a little lighter. Lets see what others report!

[Captain Moron]

New to this thread .Just brought and flown the 262 .Love it ,what a great plane .One thing .I am flying on 2/3 throttle on a 6s 4500 4oc lipo and I fly for only 2 minutes and after checking the Lipo I have about 30% left in the Battery .I know the poor battery has to power to 70mm EDF but I am told most pilots are getting 4 minute flight with their 4500mph lipo .Is it that I have crap lipos What is everyone else flight times on the 262 ?

[RCcharlie]

Found the solution to my problem... after deciding to just scrap this plane I dug out my e flite eratix 3d plane and used the receiver out of the me 262 since it was brand new... I had purchased the admiral stability plus receiver figured 30 bucks for receiver and gyro was an amazing deal.. did not have the gyro activated was just using as a basic rx.. so as soon as eratix lifted off things got real interesting.. luckily able to control a 3d plane alot better in this situation. Still had a nail biter of a landing noticing the rudder and aileron had a mind of thier own... once back on the bench started moving the rx by hand and all control surfaces started moving including throttle then nothing... no lights on rx no response at all... replaced with friends spectrum receiver and both me 262 and eratix had successful flights not sure what happened to the rx but it acted as if the gyro was on and malfunctioning... but at least problem is solved just need some new wings and fuse for the ME to make her pretty again.. thanks for all the help guys

[themudduck]

Please make a production note to revisit/revise some reinforcement of the nose forward the battery tray. Just touched nose gear first on a landing and sheared the nose off mine on its third flight. That honeycomb area for the nose gear really does a number on a beautiful plane.

I know, I know, mains need to touch first. But things don't always go perfect, and should have enough margin of error to not cripple it.

Its true that the nose area is quite weak. That nose gear acts like a lever and if you hit something it will just break the entire nose clean off like you said. There have been previous posts on this thread regarding this problem, mine was way back on 9-3-2018 if you care to take a peek. I really love this plane too! I agree that it would be a good idea for MRC to add an addendum or note to the manual with this suggestion.

[Jdcrow]

Congrats on your successful maiden and remaiden! I'm glad so many people are rediscovering just how slick a flyer the Freewing Me-262 is. It's one of the birds the Freewing factory guys here fly for fun, which says a lot.

i just flew my V2 after having it in the hanger for some time. What a great plane.

Please make a production note to revisit/revise some reinforcement of the nose forward the battery tray. Just touched nose gear first on a landing and sheared the nose off mine on its third flight. That honeycomb area for the nose gear really does a number on a beautiful plane.

I know, I know, mains need to touch first. But things don't always go perfect, and should have enough margin of error to not cripple it.

Still love this plane.

[prestonowtm]

nothing different on take off same speed, roughly same distance before giving elevator, the plane wants to lift off naturally, ive checked and double checked all my wiring nothing getting hot under load, last few attempts the plane pushes hard to the left during taxi, ive noticed that the right EDF has more thrust, ive even swapped the fans around and same thing happens, checked and fans are tight nothing is loose, no debris in fans, they both free spin very easily, tested both ESC and they test fine, throttle is connected to receiver with Y harness, and differential thrust is not being used, everything looks perfect on the setup, but when giving more than half throttle the right side tries to outrun the left

OK man...I have the problem and the solution for you. Put it upside down on your stand, grab each wheel and turn it to the inside of the plane. The one that actually moves about an inch is your culprit, The wheel rod is bent. Bend it back. Had a 2 bounce landing with mine and it did this.

[HellHathNoFury]

I purchased this awesome plane a few months back recently completed the build and had a flawless maiden flight and 2 more flights the plane flew amazing... my favorite plane by far.. on the 4th attempt I taxi out and head down the runway on lift off it cartwheels to the left.. damaged the left wing so I try once more and now it acts like the right edf is thrusting harder than the left I have calibrated the throttle but still same results anybody else experience anything like this... I'm at a loss what to try

Have you checked the front or main struts to see if the grub screws are tight?? If one is even remotely loose it will cause the plane to veer off the side.. Like you I looked for thrust issues but the solution was so simple..Been there done that..

[xviper]

nothing different on take off same speed, roughly same distance before giving elevator, the plane wants to lift off naturally, ive checked and double checked all my wiring nothing getting hot under load, last few attempts the plane pushes hard to the left during taxi, ive noticed that the right EDF has more thrust, ive even swapped the fans around and same thing happens, checked and fans are tight nothing is loose, no debris in fans, they both free spin very easily, tested both ESC and they test fine, throttle is connected to receiver with Y harness, and differential thrust is not being used, everything looks perfect on the setup, but when giving more than half throttle the right side tries to outrun the left

If you've swapped fans and still get more thrust on the right side, I'm not sure what else to tell you. How did you calibrate the ESCs. Did you do them both at once with the "Y" connecting both? Or did you separate each ESC by pulling one of the throttle leads and doing the calibration separately for each side? Not sure that this would make any difference but I'd give the other way a try. If this still gives no results, then I'd say try swapping the ESCs if that's a possibility. If the greater thrust then goes to the left, then I'd say look at the ESCs as being the problem.
One more thought. When you spin the fans up and then throttle off, do both fans spin down in a similar way? Or does one stop quickly and not the other?

[Radar-Guy]

Did you check both ESCs for same “timing”?

[RCcharlie]

nothing different on take off same speed, roughly same distance before giving elevator, the plane wants to lift off naturally, ive checked and double checked all my wiring nothing getting hot under load, last few attempts the plane pushes hard to the left during taxi, ive noticed that the right EDF has more thrust, ive even swapped the fans around and same thing happens, checked and fans are tight nothing is loose, no debris in fans, they both free spin very easily, tested both ESC and they test fine, throttle is connected to receiver with Y harness, and differential thrust is not being used, everything looks perfect on the setup, but when giving more than half throttle the right side tries to outrun the left

[fhhuber]

There are a few things that can cause differential thrust.

If using 2 channels to handle throttle go to a Y harness. 262 does not benefit from purposefully differential thrust at any time.

Go through the connections between battery and motor and see if any are getting hot under load. A defective solder joint can cause low power, LVC and possibly will heat enough under lad to melt the solder.

Slide heat shrink over the bullet connectors between ESC and motor. There's a small gap in the insulation and you can get arcing between the wires which can scramble the feedback the ESC uses for timing the power pulses. Its best to shrink it and lock the bullets connected. But just sliding heat shrink on can cure stuttering and other motor issues.

See if one of those gets your power back in balance.

[xviper]

I purchased this awesome plane a few months back recently completed the build and had a flawless maiden flight and 2 more flights the plane flew amazing... my favorite plane by far.. on the 4th attempt I taxi out and head down the runway on lift off it cartwheels to the left.. damaged the left wing so I try once more and now it acts like the right edf is thrusting harder than the left I have calibrated the throttle but still same results anybody else experience anything like this... I'm at a loss what to try

Did you notice at what point it did this cartwheel? Did you apply high throttle at the time with some UP elevator to try to lift off? Can you recollect if the plane may have lifted off a bit sooner than the previous couple of flights. I'm asking because if the plane "rotated" due to a lot of throttle and UP elevator (as many of us do when taking off) a little prematurely (as in just before there is enough airspeed to actually "fly"), it may have stalled trying to climb too steeply. This is aggravated by the fact that the thrust line is slung low beneath the wings. If it did stall on take off because of this, it can easily drop a wing and have it touch the ground. Result - cartwheel. (Read my previous posts regarding "wheelies" and nosing up.)
After such a "boo-boo", check the fans to make sure they didn't crack or lose a blade or have the hex screws on the fan hub back off a little, making the fan not bite the motor shaft firmly. Check each fan to make sure they are spinning freely. This can cause differential thrust between the two engines.

[RCcharlie]

I purchased this awesome plane a few months back recently completed the build and had a flawless maiden flight and 2 more flights the plane flew amazing... my favorite plane by far.. on the 4th attempt I taxi out and head down the runway on lift off it cartwheels to the left.. damaged the left wing so I try once more and now it acts like the right edf is thrusting harder than the left I have calibrated the throttle but still same results anybody else experience anything like this... I'm at a loss what to try

[xviper]

That should help a lot to strengthen the nose part that holds the retract. The long strut acts like a lever when the tire hits the ground too hard.

[C17loadmaster]

I had envisioned it airborne when I replied about the wheelie haha. :)

The gear support rod is pushed up against the stew that secures that corner of the retract, so about an inch. I haven’t texted it out yet... I could just tell that mount was asking to break off. I was building this the same time I was working on my SUs so I was in the mindset of strengthening nose gear haha

[xviper]

When I got it, the first thing I did was reinforce the nose and nose gear with 5 CF rods and add balsa to the batter tray. I read up on everything when I got it, I just thought I would ask opinions before I installed everything. As far as the "wheelies" go, I already have a AS3X receiver in it that I had laying around. I didn't see the need to go higher than 6 channels on this plane. The only I could potentially want would be nosewheel steering, but I'm not that worried about not having it

In your first picture, how far into the foam (beside the retract body) does that rod go? Mine broke just aft of the retract attachment screws. The other place it cracked was at the front wing hole. As for the "wheelie", this happens from the standing start, so AS3X won't help as there's no airflow to speak of on the elevator. You just need to accelerate moderately at first. The AS3X will help reduce nose up for sudden throttle input while flying.

[C17loadmaster]

When I got it, the first thing I did was reinforce the nose and nose gear with 5 CF rods and add balsa to the batter tray. I read up on everything when I got it, I just thought I would ask opinions before I installed everything. As far as the "wheelies" go, I already have a AS3X receiver in it that I had laying around. I didn't see the need to go higher than 6 channels on this plane. The only I could potentially want would be nosewheel steering, but I'm not that worried about not having it

[xviper]

I agree completely with XViper's comments! (great minds think alike??) I also fly mine stock. I feel its an improvement from the earlier version. I'll add: be careful to monitor your battery usage in your first few flights to get your timer set, the twin EDFs eat the milliamps up fast. And - its a good idea to reinforce both sides of the battery compartment with CF rods because the nose can be broken clean off in a firm landing. (none of us will ever do that, right!). I really enjoy flying this one, its definitely a keeper.

This is indeed true. Even a good landing on a rough, grass surface will snap the beak off on this plane. I've got CF square tubes going from the opening of the wing hole, all the way along each side and driven into the foam in the solid part of the nose cone. The rods were Dremeled into an arrow head point and pushed in about 2" into the nose. Then I used popsicle sticks and epoxied those under that nose cone and into the battery bay to help strengthen the nose gear when it hits something unforgiving.