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

[TomPatton]

Best build video I am aware of. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9sv9R3Z92U

Thanks Bob, exactly what I was looking for...
Not sure how I missed it.

[StormyDog1962]

Be sure to remove the battery tray and move the strap to the forward slot and then you can tuck the Elevator and Rudder Servo wires underneath at the same time.

[NorthernFlyer]

For those who have flown the A-4, is the recommended 300ft runway accurate or could it use a shorter runway? And has anyone flown it off of grass?

[Boots Whirlygig]

For those who have flown the A-4, is the recommended 300ft runway accurate or could it use a shorter runway? And has anyone flown it off of grass?

It's hard to believe that the folks given early examples to provide reviews haven't tried operating it from grass. :Confused:

[Corsair nut]

Not many grass fields on the west coast. None actually unless you wanted to fly from a park. I would assume the motion guys back have atleast tried? Otherwise they can get rid of the trailing link struts :p

[AceMigKiller]

For those who have flown the A-4, is the recommended 300ft runway accurate or could it use a shorter runway? And has anyone flown it off of grass?

300ft. is plenty.
I would hesitate to go much shorter unless you have a nice headwind or don't mind it rolling off the end.

That being said, the gear can take rough field ops no problem

Vic

[xplaneguy]

I've had the Skyhawk in the air at about 150 feet with no flaps, off a paved surface. And yes, if I had access to a grass field near by, I would have flown the Skyhawk from that location. With it's light wing loading and a half flap setting, the Skyhawk will have no problem on "short cut" grass fields.

[seaviper]

I will conduct grass field ops as soon as I can. My A-4 won't get here till Wednesday and we are supposed to have rain then. But I will do a video report of grass field ops asap.

[HellHathNoFury]

This Skyhawk is locked,loaded & ready to Rumble.. Hoorah..:)

[Monty500]

I like the high viz paint job HHNF. All the best for the maiden!

[HellHathNoFury]

Thanks Monty500.. I was hoping to Maiden on Monday but unfortunately there is strong winds all week so maybe next week.. However I will try to take a vid of the Grass handling of the A4 .. I can't see why it shouldn't handle grass like the Avanti..

[xplaneguy]

Looks SWEET Bill! Good luck mate!!

[T.J.]

Im a new member here. My A-4 is on the way. I'm excited. But like many others I'm concerned about grass. Everyone is saying it's will handle it but nobody has actually tryed. I guess I will find out next week. My concern is that tiny nose wheel sticking in the grass on landing and nosing over.

[RCjetdude]

This Skyhawk is locked,loaded & ready to Rumble.. Hoorah..:)

Very nice.. Is there a light on the nose gear strut? Best wishes for a successful maiden. I get mine Tuesday.

[RCjetdude]

Welcome to the Squawk T.J., this was from Alpha.

For those worried about the tall nose strut, it's actually the same length from the ground to the retract plate as the Avanti... reputed grass king... so. I wonder if because much if the strut is exposed under the fuse that to the eye it appears significantly longer, but in reality, it's not. It's the same total length as the Avanti.

In terms of wheel size, the A-4's wheels are the tallest of all Freewing's 80mm jet's wheels, and in fact the A-4's wheels are taller than the big F-14, MiG-21, 90mm F-16, 90mm F-15, 90mm F-18, 90mm Venom, etc...

A-4 = 50x15 Nose and 65x17 Mains

By comparison, most of our big 80 and 90 jet's wheels are slightly smaller: nose is 45x15 and 60x17 or so on most aircraft mentioned above...

If any of you are operating the aforementioned aircraft on your grass, by these numbers the Scooter really shouldn't be massively less capable.

[Alpha]

I forgot I wrote all that... it's good info :) I'd qualify my earlier statement though, that I was talking about the A-4 having the tallest nose wheel of the 80mm *scale* jets. The 80mm Avanti doesn't count in that comparison... As a fantasy jet, the Avanti was purposefully sized for grass operations and we weren't as constrained by "scale fidelity" since with the Avanti there is none.

Another note about grass, as this comes up in every new product thread... "grass" is a wide term. We design aircraft for EDF size, which determines the aircraft's size. From there, we're limited on wheel size, simply as a matter of overall proportions and aesthetics. It can only get so big before it looks funny. Having 3"-4" tall wheels on this A-4 or another 80mm sized scale jet would soak up a wider range of what each of us consider "grass", yes, but aesthetically it would look ridiculous. We always try to find a reasonable balance between aesthetics and performance. My scale race cars can't run on grass as well as my dune buggy. Fact of life.

T.J., welcome to Hobby Squawk! I've flown our A-4 many times off of short grass, about an inch tall. We've also flown it off of grass/dirt mix, although like any model aircraft, watch out for gopher holes, they can be killers! In China we fly wherever we can, to evaluate a range of surfaces. Most are surfaces we'd never expect to see in a proper Stateside model airfield suitable for EDFs in this scale. But we try it anyway until things break.

Taking off with the A-4 is similar to the F-86. With flaps the rollout is shortened somewhat. I apply full power immediately from idle to overcome the initial rolling resistance and at all times am watching for bounces caused by bumps in the grass. If the model bounces up too steeply, too soon, I'm ready to push the elevator forward. After 3-4 seconds from idle, however, I'm in the air. After the flight, part of surviving grass ops with 80mm jets is based on keeping landing speeds low and approaches flat. I don't like carrier landing the A-4 too steeply because, although it looks cool, the nose strut will invariably see higher strain. Like death and taxes, we can't escape physics. :)

Thanks for your support!

[ryramZ]

I assembled mine last night. By the book settings. Can't wait. We will be getting grass field video in the coming weeks. Always working on cool new stuff, sometimes it takes a minute to clear our workload to get to making the grass vids. If your flying off of bumpy surface be Johnny on the sticks to manage your take off roll.

[dahawk]

Thanks Alpha ! Great explanation. One type of grass that is an edf or parkflyer killer is St. Augustine. Some people call it crab grass. We have one small patch and the good news is that it acts like a brake. Ha

[Beeg]

Welcome to the forum TJ.

Yes, In our part of the country "grass", even yard grass is large and will rip the nose gear out from an EDF unlike a nicely mowed and irrigated Kentucky Bluegrass.

[RCjetdude]

I assembled mine last night. By the book settings. Can't wait. We will be getting grass field video in the coming weeks. Always working on cool new stuff, sometimes it takes a minute to clear our workload to get to making the grass vids. If your flying off of bumpy surface be Johnny on the sticks to manage your take off roll.

Looking forward to hearing how the maiden goes and seeing the grass ops video when available Ryan. I always enjoy seeing what you and Mike put out. Mine arrives on Tuesday. Made it as far as Greensborro which is about 3 hours from me. Oh so close but yet so far....got enough on my plate to keep me occupied until then though.