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

[Hardway]

Work in progress. She will be a VT-7 bird.

Awesome stuff!!!! Lookin great so far!!

[EA-6B Geek]

Oh man! I love it Seaviper! Is it going to be "700", or "100" in honor of the 100th flight?
Yours is lookin cool too Hardway. Can't wait to see the final result.
Scott

[DCORSAIR]

Can't believe I was going to sell this little scooter not long ago, just couldn't get it to fly right, but now after many flights of testing I have to say it flies perfect now. I added more nose weight, adjusted all the horns manually, so basically I slowed everything down and use very little elevator and aileron. Had a day off today so I got in a flight before sunset, 70 degree weather here in Ca., blue sky with puffy clouds makes for a nice relaxing flight.

[DCORSAIR]

Anyone else having trouble loading pics? Finally got these two upload but the post above won't let me edit or upload photos? I like the first pic, looks like the A-4 has a leak.

[e4dragongunner]

Thank you Freewing and Motion.for providing the "perfect canvas" !!! We should all really have 2 spares!! just to exercise our artistic abilities!

[seaviper]

and done!

[AkumaZeto]

and done!

Fantastic. Wish it came stock like this.

[EA-6B Geek]

It looks great! Can't wait for your comments on increased visibility.

[e4dragongunner]

Well Done ! LOOKS Great !

[dutchwhite001]

Weather is perfect for a little while. 0 wind. I'm out the door to maiden the A-4. Got the clean underwear on as well. Can't wait. Here goes Alpha!!!!

[sfninerfan69]

https://youtu.be/AtdGckhpbqY

[dutchwhite001]

Wow! Impressive video! Those light poles would drive me bonkers. I had an experience several years ago with my Corsair. Spent almost a year building, flew it for about a year then traveled to a new field to go flying with friends. I found the one and only light pole! The Corsair powdered! But that was a very impressive video! I managed to get in 4 good flights. Worked out the trim and CG. First flight was a bit hairy, had the CG off by enough to cause it to pitch up, so got it down and adjusted that. Second and third flight spent time getting trims correct and feeling out the model. Flight four was uneventful till landing. Landed a bit long and went off the end of the asphalt. Good thing the high grass and weeds were there to catch it! No damage except to my pride. Flight number five however wasn't so good. I think I over extended myself a bit and almost lost the plane! I was getting showy and decided snap rolls would be the thing to do. Not so, say the Aviation Gods, so I won't do that again till I get a few more flights under my belt with this. Fell back on my T-6 and put a flight on that to calm down. Wind finally picked up and looks like rain, so I packed it in and headed for home. I don't know how you do it with those light poles around, but great job!!!!!

[Pheonix]

That is one good looking bird. I have all the painting tools I need and still could not do this well. No talent I guess. I am still working on my B24 after some errors with painting. Recovery from hand surgery has been very slow. I am chopping at the bits to fly again. Bummer!

[The RC Geek]

Hey guys,

I finally finished up my Assembly & Flight Review for the Freewing A-4 Skyhawk. I cover my refinish as well as the detailing I did as well. Full article with links (including gear door and vortex generator templates) is available at: http://wp.me/p5LuFX-UK

[seaviper]

Awesome review!
I really like the vortex generators!

I too messed up my bird early on. But it has become my go-to ship for currency. Also it's a good battery break-in bird.

Although initially I did not like flying with the tanks, I now prefer them as they do seem to aid in visual orientation and aircraft stability. Also, the tanks require a little throttle on final so you get a more jet-like landing. Otherwise, in a clean configuration, you really have to chop the throttle to get her to come down.

Currently my Scooter has about 4+ hours of flight time on it. My CG is at 195 WHEELS DOWN. That works out to the front edge of the wire cover near the wheel well. Wheels up will put the CG closer to the Geek's numbers. Incidentally, I set mine up based on the advice of Pilot Ryan and it has been perfect ever since. Thanks Ryan!

We have a guy in our club with 3000 hours in this bird. He told me that the full scale had a limitation on the number of max-rate aileron rolls you could do in order to prevent an out of control situation. The Blues exceeded this number but under carefully controlled conditions. The model exhibits this same behavior.

Edit: I got to see the Blues fly the A-4 in 1986 or 87. Those birds are now hanging from the ceiling at the Naval Air Museum in Pensacola.

All considered, I too have been on the fence about getting another one. It's just a good jet.

[RCjetdude]

seaviper, where are you measuring your 195mm CG from?

[seaviper]

Actually if using the new Admiral 5000, you don't have to measure. Just push it up to the circuit board and go.


If using the Turnigy 5000 brick, I move it back about a quarter inch.

The 195 is measured as in the photos. Same as in the update. BUT I get that CG wheels down. When wheels come up, the cg moves a little forward. Closer to 185 like Chris mentioned.



If you set it up with 195mm and wheels up, then you may be a little aft when wheels down. This could lead to pitch problems at low speed.

Also i forgot to mention that my scooter has air to mud capability...



EDIT:

My setup is as follows....
Taranis X9D Plus, X8R

Ailerons: 80% travel, 30% expo
Elevator: 65% travel, 30% expo (I flew her for about half the time on 20% elevator expo. I like 30% a little better.)
Rudder: 85% travel, 30% expo

Flaps on a custom three-point curve which stops about 5mm above the drop tanks, giving me full flaps without hitting the ordnance.. Usually though, I only use one notch of flaps with tanks as tanks really make her slow down on approach.
Flap-Elev mixing as per the book. I flew her for a long time with no flap-elev mixing. I like it better with the mixing.

In the early days I was running more elevator and less expo. She was quite "pitchy". Now she is nicely tamed.

Hope to go and get some good HD footage of the new paint scheme as soon as the wind decides to abate here.

[RCjetdude]

Hmmm... I initially balanced mine at 195mm (with gear down as well) from the same point and nearly lost it on the first flight for being too tail heavy. Interesting.

[seaviper]

Did you check you elevator neutral point? Was it level? What is your CG now?

That sounds like it could have been a trim issue..just a guess. I assure you mine is not tail heavy. If anything it is a little bit nose heavy. I had moved the Admiral 5000 (newer lighter one) back a little some flights ago and she seemed almost perfect there.
So, I don't think the bird is all that CG sensitive.

Also she is very lightly wing loaded. So much so that I got the Turnigy just to give her some more weight. The payload releases added a little weight aft of the CG. So I moved my Admiral back up to the circuit board again.

[RCjetdude]

I am at 180-185mm. Elevator is at neutral even at this point. At 195 it leapt off the ground almost straight up but I was able to get the nose down before it stalled. I believe you that yours is not tail heavy but I also know mine was. I just find it odd.