Official Freewing 70mm Twin Me 262 Thread

[jetdoc]

Looking forward to that. I have the 80mm F-86 and A-4. Had a factory solder fail in flight on a lipo in the A-4 resulting in vertical flight termination. Not pretty. Awaiting a fuselage at present. I've upgraded the motor/fan on the F-86 to an inrunner and the esc to a 100A Castle Edge. Better performance but still sucks so much grass into the cheater hole louvers that not only will it not reach flying speed, it won't even taxi back until the grass clump falls off the bottom. Great flier but I can only fly it in the late fall, winter and early spring. Well worth the wait though. A friend has the 262 with the upgraded motor/fans and has no issues at all flying from our field. Looking forward to being able to do that.

[xviper]

I've flown my "yellow 7" a few more times since the popsicle stick repair. It's very solid now and a joy to fly. Garners a lot of attention from others, who can't believe how powerful this thing is. It's astonishing how short a take off roll it needs before it's off the ground. Due to the placement of the engines, on full throttle launches, this plane can actually do a "wheelie". Observers look at it pop a wheelie and say, "What the ....... !!!!!"

[jetdoc]

I never got an email even though I was signed up for it. Sometimes my archaic ISP spam filter catches them and I don't get them until the next day when the spam report is available. This time though I still haven't gotten an email. That's why if I'm interested in something I have to check it several times a day. They never really know what they'll have in a container until it gets here and they open it. I have a Kaos 60 ARF back ordered from Tower so I don't have to worry about my place in line. As much as I love MRC and their customer service, I really wish they would begin a back order system. It would benefit everyone. They're still saying the end of the month for the main shipment so good luck to you then.

[RMatteson]

I looked at my email this morning and it showed that they were back in stock, clicked on the link, just showed in stock, went to parts to check to see if I wanted any thing else, clicked back and bang, they were out of stock. Good for you being quick on the draw, just missed it. Sure hope more are coming with my preordered L-39 and AvantiS.
Rick

[jetdoc]

Good news! I was in training this morning and thought I'd take a quick look at the Motion website. Lo and behold, the 262 was showing in stock! I clicked on it and it showed only two available. I quickly ordered one and then immediately went back. It showed out of stock! Me and someone else bought the last two at 0730 this morning before they even opened. I checked last night and it was still showing out of stock. Right place at the right time, I guess!

[xviper]

Mine broke clean off at the line at the front of the battery hatch when I hit a hole on landing. I carved trenches along the sides and epoxied 4 popsicle sticks across the break line and added dark tape to hide the sticks as best I could. It's been very strong since.

[themudduck]

A few posts back I mentioned that its a good idea on this model to reinforce the nose. Due to the weight of the battery, with a hard hit to the nose gear it's not difficult to break the fuselage.

I used two 5mm CF tubes, about 10 inches long, epoxied into the sides under the hatch.
All this does is add some structural stiffness to the foam sides.
I cut out slots, and made a hole in the front so I could push the tube in at least an inch. "Before" and "After" pictures! (nose of the model is to the right)

[themudduck]

Manfred, love that striped scheme, it looks really great!

[MANFRED]

New scheme. deadly pair

[themudduck]

Yes I remember seeing someone post about changing the nose gear strut to accommodate a larger nose wheel, and some have changed the split flaps to regular flaps, and modifications to the canopy were discussed earlier on this thread (see post #161).

Its also a good idea to reinforce the nose (but that isn't for scale, its to prevent the nose from falling off in a hard landing)

Unfortunately since this thread was started in 2014 for the original version and was really old, someone has deleted several hundred old posts so all that information is simply gone.
Post#17 is dated 10/31/14
Post#18 is dated 3/09/17

I guess that it makes this thread more manageable to read (and current/relevant) but losing all that information was a shame.

[davegee]

I used to have the early version of the Freewing Me262 until it suffered a servo failure and crashed. I'm thinking of maybe buying the new version paint scheme, but was wondering if anyone else has done any modifications to the nose gear, doors, etc., to make them look more scale. If I missed a discussion on this in other previous pages I apologize.
Thanks
Davegee

[rifleman_btx]

Yeah we were at 107 for about 3 weeks in a row here. Sometimes you just have to suck it up and Charlie Mike. But yeah I know its definitely rougher on yall no doubt about that at all. Just like when it gets to 40 here we look like a bunch of eskimos. Lol

[xviper]

That's where yall have an advantage up north, less heat, less chance of warping

I wish it was true about the heat. Yesterday, we broke the record for this day EVER in this city. It officially (at the airport) got up to 36.5C (97.7F). It got up to over 40C around my house. Who knows how long the box sat in the UPS truck while it made its round before getting to me.
I can't imagine what people in Europe go through every year for weeks. Most of the fans and small air conditioners are sold out in the local stores. We're just not used to it and we're a bunch of wimps. :Sick2:

[rifleman_btx]

That's where yall have an advantage up north, less heat, less chance of warping

[xviper]

Mine came yesterday. Only had time to unpack everything just to check condition and take inventory. All bits were present and accounted for. Quality was excellent and the dreaded wing warp at the flap trailing edge was next to non-existent. Got it all put together today, bound up, tested, calibrated and looking real nice. Will put in a couple of re-enforcement pieces of wood to safeguard against the nose coming off should I have a less than smooth landing. I was going to Mod Podge it before putting it together but the paint and decal quality appears to be very good. I'll maiden in a couple of days and will see how much abrasion from the grass runway will affect the paint. I can always Mod Podge it later is necessary.

[xviper]

Full scale ME-262 pilot holding my Dynam Me-262.

https://imgur.com/CIXPFIM

(still can't make linked pictures work)

In flight adjustable horizontal stab incidence
https://imgur.com/NK4AmgG

Let's see if this will work. First, the picture must be in its own tab/window and not a link to the webpage it's on. IE, ask to have it open in a new tab/window (right click on the picture). Then copy the URL. Then use the "picture" icon in the formatting line above and paste the URL into it when the box appears.

[fhhuber]

This thread is the Freewing... I had the Dynam.
I suspect the same thing is gong on here.

At recommended CG, the Dynam did not like inverted at all, dropping the nose with full down elevator (which is supposed to hold the nose up when inverted)

I checked CG vs MAC and it was WAY noseheavy vs the standard rule of thumb 25% to 35% MAC.

Pushing CG back to 30% improved inverted but didn't cure it.
However this created an issue where low speed and high throttle would pitch up the nose uncontrollably.

I had a chance to discuss Me-262 characteristics with pilot of one of the full scale reproductions.
The nose pitches up significantly with high power at low speed. They CAN NOT apply full throttle before the airplane is well off the ground and has built up speed. (especially with the higher power engines in the reproduction)

The models are recommending CG way forward to prevent someone causing the airplane to do 3/4 loop on take-off when using full throttle.
Compensating for this, the horizontal stab is mounted with significant "decalage" (different incidence of main wing vs tailplane) in order to allow you to keep the nose up (upright) at less than 3/4 throttle.

Nose heavy and the decalage will result in the airplane not being capable f sustained level inverted.

I modified the Dynam with in-flight adjustable horizontal stab incidence (like the full scale has) and with the adjusted CG, was able to do an outside loop.

Full scale ME-262 pilot holding my Dynam Me-262.

https://imgur.com/CIXPFIM

(still can't make linked pictures work)

In flight adjustable horizontal stab incidence

https://imgur.com/NK4AmgG

[xviper]

I'm using the new style Admiral 6S 5000mAh battery all the way forward.

I think I was nose heavy as when I went inverted it took almost full down elevator to keep the nose level. I also noticed in turns that I needed a bit more up elevator than I think should have been needed which further leads me to believe the plane is on the nose heavy side.

I remember a flight video where Pilot Ryan said he started with the battery all the way forward but then ended up moving the battery back 1/2" so that's what I'm going to do next time.

These observations leads me to take note of something that has me scratching my head a bit. On the RC Castle site, they are selling the V.1 of this plane and by all counts, the only difference between it and the V.2 is the paint scheme. The V.1's posted recommended battery is a 6s, 3700mah. Yet, the V.2's posted recommended battery is a 6s, 5000mah. If nothing else on the plane has changed, then one would deduce that the placement of the bigger battery should be somewhat aft of where the smaller battery would go. Even at 1/2" back from the "all the way forward" position, this still seems like it's too far forward. Could it be that the recommended CG is wrong?

[dkalwishky]

This is the new paint scheme on the Freewing ME-262 and tonight was the maiden flight.

Two things I didn't care for with this plane are the way the servo cables come from the wing to the fuselage where the receiver is and the screws that are used to hold the fuse to the wing, they are self taping screws and not bolts. Hopefully assembling and disassembling the plane over time won't strip the screws mounts.

I am using a cable bundle with MPX connectors so I only have one cable to plug in between the wings and fuselage, this allows me to deal with one cable instead of four and will make assembly / disassembly much easier. I'm using the same setup on the 1600mm Spitfire and it works really well.

When I assembled the plane tonight the gear was up, once together I dropped it, the nose gear came down but the mains did not. I retracted the gear and dropped it and then all three came down so I didn't think much of it.

I'm using the new style Admiral 6S 5000mAh battery all the way forward. The takeoff was smooth and quick, the plane flew really well with the books low rates, minimal trim was needed although I think I was nose heavy as when I went inverted it took almost full down elevator to keep the nose level. I also noticed in turns that I needed a bit more up elevator than I think should have been needed which further leads me to believe the plane is on the nose heavy side. Rolls and turns were nice and smooth, this is a really nice flying plane..

During one of the passes I noticed that the mains did not retract, I tried cycling them a couple of times but to no avail. Once on the ground I tried them and the mains would to budge. I'll get the plane on the work bench and check it out to see what's going on. They worked up and down several times a few days ago when I got the plane first assembled.

Landing was really easy with this plane, there were no surprises but I felt as if I didn't have enough elevator for landing so I kept the speed up and elected to land in the grass since it would help slow the plane down once on the ground. The video blurred out while on final then corrected itself once I was down.

This is a solid flying plane and I cannot wait to get more flights on this over the next week. I remember a flight video where Pilot Ryan said he started with the battery all the way forward but then ended up moving the battery back 1/2" so that's what I'm going to do next time.

[DCORSAIR]

Man this plane is well done, the new paint scheme looks great and there's nothing like the way FW packages their planes!

Here's a pic of the left wing on mine, right out of the box.

Yes you can see that there is a mild warp on the TE. Its not bad (unless you take a real close-up look from this angle, which makes it look as bad as possible!) and most of it is the flap. I am sure with a little massaging it will be pretty simple to gently bend it into shape like dkalwishky mentioned.

Or perhaps this winter I'll cut the flaps out and make them "full" flaps instead of split flaps. We'll see.

That isn't bad at all, looks about like mine was and it flies nice and straight, I'm sure yours will to.