Official Freewing 80mm A-4E/F Skyhawk Thread

[e4dragongunner]

Will update on the A3-L after a post flight inspection today.... Wow, back to bed!!!! 0356....

Yes very interested .... as I am adding a Gyro... 20 flights in... and I think she needs one, just to calm down the " twitchy wag" I get....
Special note , Ailerons at 11mm throw :-)

[Woodcock]

Thanks for offer but I'm in Washington. I would sell it in a heartbeat if I could deliver in person. Flew it some more today and it isjust too gutless! No power......It sucks cause it sure looked to be more impressive looking at videos. Its almst like my power system is faulty. I'm using a thunder power rampage 70c battery also and it as no power. The thunder power batteries are the most powerful best batteries made and it still has very little power. I would say my speed is 60 65 mph at best

Well now, it always seems that someone thinks a really good plane sucks around here from time to time. I've never owned a Freewing A-4, but I'm a pretty old dog, and have owned (2) Jet Hanger Hobbies A-4's. In those days they really didn't have much power. A Turbax Fan, and a K&B 7.5. It barely could get off the ground, but if you eased it off, and circled it enough, you could dive it. Then is when it came to life, and other than the weed wacker sound it made, was very jet like. We had fun with it. The A-4 is at the top of my short list, I've been flirting with buying one for months, and plan to do so in coming weeks.

So here's the deal man, if your diving that plane and not busting 60mph, I'd say with quite a bit of certainty there's something wrong with your plane. You might consider trying to figure out why your fan is not making power, and not bashing a very celebrated model in the community. Just a thought mate. I've seen em fly, they're a beautiful flying model. But this is not to say that things don't ever go wrong. My friend had a Freewing F-16 and it could barely get off the ground. We traced it back to the motor controller. We didn't even have to change it, we just needed to re-calibrate it. It helped that we had a few more F-16's at our field to compare it too. We knew what a good one should look and fly like. Maybe this is what your missing here is some sort of reference.

Good luck to you mate
Woody

You might check to make sure your battery has the necessary cells for the model. Just a thought.

[T-CAT]

Thanks for offer but I'm in Washington. I would sell it in a heartbeat if I could deliver in person. Flew it some more today and it isjust too gutless! No power......It sucks cause it sure looked to be more impressive looking at videos. Its almst like my power system is faulty. I'm using a thunder power rampage 70c battery also and it as no power. The thunder power batteries are the most powerful best batteries made and it still has very little power. I would say my speed is 60 65 mph at best

As others have already recommended, if not already done so definitely calibrate the throttle to ensure you have the full span of RPM range. After that, it may be worth connecting it to a watt meter to see what type of power it’s making and how the battery or batteries are holding up under load. If your plane is moving at 60-65mph under full throttle then something must be wrong somewhere in the system. Also, Thunderpower can make some fine batteries, but there are a plethora of other excellent and affordable options now available.

[Hardway]

Found a few pics of the bottom... Also sending these pics to Callie to fill in the website pics for the RNZAF A-4 graphics. Checking the A3-L gyro and I am starting to think it was user error :Scared:.. I hope so... More to come after investigation and testing!!

[Pheonix]

What a nice color scheme. You have talent.

[T-CAT]

Found a few pics of the bottom... Also sending these pics to Callie to fill in the website pics for the RNZAF A-4 graphics. Checking the A3-L gyro and I am starting to think it was user error :Scared:.. I hope so... More to come after investigation and testing!!

Looks fantastic!

[Hardway]

Thanks T-CAT... Appreciate you bro! Just glad to be almost done. Looing forward to the weathering.... :Cool:

[themudduck]

Hardway, that is one sharp-looking model. I love the look. Too bad this plane just plain SUCKS according to dbird2, right, because otherwise we'd be out having a lot of fun with it!! Now that I know just how horrible the Scooter is, I am thinking "why bother customizing" and maybe the rest of us shouldn't fly them anymore. :Scared: Hopefully everyone understands I'm being sarcastic....
(note to dbird2 - your TP batteries may be the "best ever" but if one cell has gone bad that could cause the problem you're having. or you may very well need to calibrate the ESC. Even the best batteries can go south, one cell may just have a bad solder joint. Test everything. Have your tried a different 6S battery just for fun and giggles?? Good luck - let us know what you find out. My A4 flies at over 100mph easy.)

[purduephigam]

I held my tongue when I saw the initial criticism about an hour after I maidened mine. Even bare bones with minimal tweaking it flew awesome. It sounds incredible and, for me, settled in to land better than my Rebel and F16. I'm not as experienced with these EDF's as most of you out there being that I've only been in the hobby for a year, but with that said, I think this is a great plane at a great price point. And I can assure you I was making passes faster than 65. I truly hope there is a system/power issue with his plane so he can see what we all see. Otherwise, maybe expectations need to be tempered.

[RCjetdude]

Just finished assembling my third A-4. Yes, I like the Scooter so much I had to have three of them. Completely stock with Navy decals from the kit. It is ready for a maiden whenever I can get the chance.

[dbirds2]

Yes I have calibrated the throttle a few times and changed my timing to high, low and medium and used a different battery. The power is weak. First model ive ever owned in planes and heicopters that has weak power. Next step is throwing my kontronik esc in this plane. Its a 500 dollar esc. If it still doesn't produce power then it is what it is. Not to worried about it. Its only a 300 dollar model. My su35 will smoke this a4 in performance and aerobatics.

[T-CAT]

Yes I have calibrated the throttle a few times and changed my timing to high, low and medium and used a different battery. The power is weak. First model ive ever owned in planes and heicopters that has weak power. Next step is throwing my kontronik esc in this plane. Its a 500 dollar esc. If it still doesn't produce power then it is what it is. Not to worried about it. Its only a 300 dollar model. My su35 will smoke this a4 in performance and aerobatics.

You may want to still get it on a watt meter. If it’s producing the power it needs to, it certainly won’t be having a top speed of 60-65mph. With that said, it’s still not a speed demon by any means, but it is nowhere near as low as 60-65mph at its top speed. Are you sure about that exact speed range, or were you using that just as example to make the point that it is much slower in comparison to your other EDF jets?

[dbirds2]

Im fixing it with a 7cell gens ace battery with my kontronik esc

[Woodcock]

Im fixing it with a 7cell gens ace battery with my kontronik esc

Yea, I just think ya need to upgrade a bit mate. I'm not sure that little ole dog A-4 will ever live up to your expectations. Ya need to get your self one of these!!

http://www.pilot-rc.com/jets/predator-jet/predator-1-8m-70/

Woody

[Race 22 Crew]

Finishing up my A4. Planned on just building stock and flying it, but after seeing Chris (R/C Geek) and Steve Hodges (R/C Jet Dude) modifications I figured I’d give it a try.

So, Chris’s gear door mod from his A4 video review.

Went with Steve’s lead on the arresting hook install.

Hope to maiden this next weekend.

Again, a big thank you to R/C Geek and R/C Jet Dude for their help and encouragement to go for the mods.

[Petronio]

One sexy bitch, congrats man!

[RCjetdude]

Looks good! I hope the maiden goes well.

[e4dragongunner]

Love the Marine Livery!

[Race 22 Crew]

This has probably been asked before, but what kind of run times are you getting with the 5000 mah battery? Anybody running a 4000 mah? What run time are you getting with the smaller battery? Thanks in advance. I’m referring to the A4 of course.

[purduephigam]

I'd be curious to hear this as well. I bought some Pro 4000 packs for my 70mm F16 and wonder if the flight times would be similar.

[e4dragongunner]

getting 4 minutes of semi aggressive yanking and banking on the 5000 and 3 minutes on the 4000. Hope this helps...:-)