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

[RCjetdude]

I nearly lost mine at 195mm. Too tail heavy. Mine is at 180mm.

[Ron1950]

working the tower and radar at Jackson airport I worked many ta4 and t45 fun to watch and work.

[seaviper]

Great weather here in Ohio today. Finally got the maiden in on my TA-4J! Amazing how well these FW jets fly. Balanced per the instructions, required a couple clicks of down trim, nothing more. Its going to be a fun flying season.
Hey Seaviper! We need to put these two training command jets in the same place sometime!

congrats on the maiden! The scooter is just a fun jet to fly.

One of my goals for 2018 is to go to an rc fly- in somewhere.

[EA-6B Geek]

I have it balanced at 195mm. It seems to fly better than my other A-4. I guess that could be because the 3 inch stretch gives all of the mass a longer moment, or maybe it's just that it's so much easier to see.
We have the E-Jets Fly In here in September, just south of Columbus, Ohio. I'm hoping to make that event with both A-4s, and hopefully a new F-4!

[davegee]

This may have been covered before, I don't know. I just flew my Freewing A-4 again and it has an annoying wing rocking side to side in normal straight and level flight. Wing is clean, no ordnance or drop tanks. I've never used a gyro in any of my foamies before, but I wonder if the gyro might help in this case stabilize the flight a little better. Also, When I put the flaps out for landing, I get a big balloon with nose pitch up in the flight path. I wonder if I need some down elevator/flap mix? That is contrary to what the manual says, that you need nose up trim with flaps. Any help here? Thanks!

[Topshot19]

This may have been covered before, I don't know. I just flew my Freewing A-4 again and it has an annoying wing rocking side to side in normal straight and level flight. Wing is clean, no ordnance or drop tanks. I've never used a gyro in any of my foamies before, but I wonder if the gyro might help in this case stabilize the flight a little better. Also, When I put the flaps out for landing, I get a big balloon with nose pitch up in the flight path. I wonder if I need some down elevator/flap mix? That is contrary to what the manual says, that you need nose up trim with flaps. Any help here? Thanks!

Mine was just how you explained. I moved my cg to 180 and added some weight to the nose and it no longer does both the things you explained. Think it might just be tail heavy

[e4dragongunner]

Guys.... for adding detail to the Scooter nose strut.... the F-14 and the T-45 add on parts can be used. but the A-4 strut is a few thousandth's too big. Instead of hogging on the Strut to make it fit check out these pics.....

[Topshot19]

Guys.... for adding detail to the Scooter nose strut.... the F-14 and the T-45 add on parts can be used. but the A-4 strut is a few thousandth's too big. Instead of hogging on the Strut to make it fit check out these pics.....

You could of posted this yesterday... saved me a hour! Great idea. Wish I would of thought of that

[EA-6B Geek]

Guys.... for adding detail to the Scooter nose strut.... the F-14 and the T-45 add on parts can be used. but the A-4 strut is a few thousandth's too big. Instead of hogging on the Strut to make it fit check out these pics.....

I need to do this with both jets. Thanks Marine! Great info.

[Ron1950]

hey Pat we have a fly in may 12 here in Jackson ,,, nothing special just fly what you brought

[e4dragongunner]

You could of posted this yesterday... saved me a hour! Great idea. Wish I would of thought of that

Ha.... I wish I'd of thought of it yesterday! :-)

[crxmanpat]

Mine was just how you explained. I moved my cg to 180 and added some weight to the nose and it no longer does both the things you explained. Think it might just be tail heavy

Mine did the same thing at the 195mm CG. Moved it up to 185mm and it flies and lands much better now!

[seaviper]

hey Pat we have a fly in may 12 here in Jackson ,,, nothing special just fly what you brought

Great! Ill try to make it. I should have the a4 and the f4 ready by then.

[e4dragongunner]

I nearly lost mine at 195mm. Too tail heavy. Mine is at 180mm.

Hey Brother at 180mm are you using Hi rate on Elevator for landing?

[RCjetdude]

Hey Brother at 180mm are you using Hi rate on Elevator for landing?

I will double check but I think I am.

[seaviper]

This may have been covered before, I don't know. I just flew my Freewing A-4 again and it has an annoying wing rocking side to side in normal straight and level flight. Wing is clean, no ordnance or drop tanks. I've never used a gyro in any of my foamies before, but I wonder if the gyro might help in this case stabilize the flight a little better. Also, When I put the flaps out for landing, I get a big balloon with nose pitch up in the flight path. I wonder if I need some down elevator/flap mix? That is contrary to what the manual says, that you need nose up trim with flaps. Any help here? Thanks!

You get the balloon with flaps because you deployed them while flying too fast. Slow it down a little before deploying flaps. Also, slow down your flaps to like 3 seconds. That will help too.

The wing rocking in a swept wing bird means that you are about to "add to cart" (you are too slow) or you are flying in a turbulent sky. The A-4 rocks a bit with gusty winds. If tail heavy this could be even worse than normal.

REDACTED

[themudduck]

You get the balloon with flaps because you deployed them while flying too fast. Slow it down a little before deploying flaps. Also, slow down your flaps to like 3 seconds. That will help too.

The wing rocking in a swept wing bird means that you are about to "add to cart" (you are too slow) or you are flying in a turbulent sky. The A-4 rocks a bit with gusty winds. If tail heavy this could be even worse than normal.

REDACTED

LOL"add to cart", that's a good one, I like it. What did you redact? Is it classified? heh heh heh...

Davegee said it was rocking at normal flying speed, so that could be turbulence, or it could mean the cg is too far back, it may be a bit tail-heavy and flying unstable.

But Seaviper is right on the money - if your delta-wing model is rockin' at slow speed, basically what's happening is that the wings are partially stalling. Its warning you that you're too slow and right on the edge of a stall. Delta wings (like on the scooter) aren't as bad as regular swept wings though. But, the rocking can lead to worse rocking due to pilots trying to correct it (instead of increasing speed) and then you "add to the cart" !!

On the F100 Super Sabre they called it the "Sabre Dance" after an accident that was caught on video. When a swept wing starts to stall the outermost portions tend to stall first. Since these portions are behind the center of gravity, the overall lift force moves forward, which causes a higher angle of attack and causes more of the wing to stall, making the problem worse. A number of early jet aircraft were lost to this problem on landing. The delta wing was developed partially to help with this, I mean, its a lot more friendly aerodynamically - so you see it on later planes like the F102, F106, and many modern jets.

[DCORSAIR]

I find mine moving around a lot in the wind as well, it likes calm air better that's for sure. I also added nose weight and even moved my power board forward to get the battery forward more, I am forward on the CG and use ony low rates to fly this bird, even less on the ailerons and not much elevator needed to land, now it fies like a dream....

:Cool:

[seaviper]

ask me how I know about "add to cart"..lol

Anyway, there are about an infinite number of ways to set these birds up. It's fun to experiment a little and try different things.

Once you get the scooter dialed in, it will be one of your favorite birds for sure.

[crxmanpat]

Yeah, I don't want to talk about "add to cart" either. I've done that way too much! LOL