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

[Hardway]

when they outlaw R/C, only outlaws will have R/C

Roger that!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL Love it!! Welcome to Hobby Squawk!!!

[rifleman_btx]

I did have to go from spektrum to frsky because after 3 planes went down only 200 yards out with ar8000 dsmx recievers I have lost all confidence in them.

[T-CAT]

they are all "bullet proof", until something happens.

Agreed. Mechanical and electrical things can and do fail. There isn’t a perfect system that I’ve run across.

[Hardway]

I have a few 8000's. Not too many (4-5), but they all have CC 10amp BEC's in the birds, with A3-L's... Hell Bro, you know it is FM (Freak'n Magic) anyway.... LOL I would give up all the "reliability" to get a certificate that says the 20 channel power safe is GUARANTEED to work on the B-17G.... Right???

[Hardway]

That is a major concern with a new receiver in a newly redone bird... Especially all the electric stuff from glow... Lots more stuff bouncing around in there!! :Scared:

[rifleman_btx]

I have a few 8000's. Not too many (4-5), but they all have CC 10amp BEC's in the birds, with A3-L's... Hell Bro, you know it is FM (Freak'n Magic) anyway.... LOL I would give up all the "reliability" to get a certificate that says the 20 channel power safe is GUARANTEED to work on the B-17G.... Right???

Yes! All until the magic smoke is released it should be good to go!

[Woodcock]

I have always used Spektrum... My neighbor used a few Lemon and I have seen them crash first-hand... I know Motion has done a lot of research and development with Lemon to sell the Admiral brand, so I would trust them... However, I have a lot of airplanes and they almost all have the A3-L or A3 gyros with Spektrum receivers. I have only lost one early on and that was due to a brown out from low BEC voltage from the ESC. So now, I use an external BEC from CC on any plane with more than 4 channels. 10 amp on the little guys, and 20 amp Pro on all the EDF's... The Eflight birds have the AS3X receivers if they come that way... It all just works well, for me...

Thank for the response mate. I just realized you may have planes that need more than 6 channels. For this the Admiral wouldn't work. To be honest, I really do a lot of testing prior to taking a new build up. Only bad radios I ever actually had were some Spektrum's I purchased early on, on ebay. I've sense learned this is a Bozo No No. I've only been back about a year. I took a look at the Frsky's yesterday. There receivers look great, and their price point looks really good. Love the look of the transmitters too. The problem I'm having with ever switching is I've had nothing but good luck with the DS9 and Admiral receivers. Yea it's a pretty common radio but they work really good, no complaints. I've gotten use to setting it up in a pretty timely manner, with excellent results. To be honest, I'm still learning the capabilities of the DS9, and I don't have to impress anyone but myself.

One last thing the Admiral's are really small. Makes it easy to find a place to put them. The Spektrum AS636 is over twice as big,(almost all of the E-flight & parkzone AS3X planes use the AS636) and most of the additional size is simply much bigger plastic case. The bail out feature is really important to me. I don't see as well as I use too, and loosing orientation is always a worry for me, especially in scale EDF's. I guess I just need the dummy mode fall back to use every option possible to ensure the preservation of my planes. It won't always help, but it could.

I think your wiring looks great.

Best Regards
Woody

[OV10]

To be fair, the Lemon receivers that went nuts with my neighbor's planes were NOT stabilized (internal gyro) so that is data for everyone to consider... And certainly they were not distributed under the Admiral brand from Motion!
Just for a point of reference, when I say "a lot" of airplanes, that is really subjective to most fliers... I have 93 that are flight ready at this time. All of them have a Spektrum receiver and 87 of them have A3-L gyros. Two have A3's and the remainder have none... Most of the lost birds I read about here sound like a brown-out, not loss of signal... (Barring mechanical failure, that is... servo gears, wire break, loose connections, standard stuff...)

And we alI thought TI was the body count king. ;)

[Woodcock]

To be fair, the Lemon receivers that went nuts with my neighbor's planes were NOT stabilized (internal gyro) so that is data for everyone to consider... And certainly they were not distributed under the Admiral brand from Motion!
Just for a point of reference, when I say "a lot" of airplanes, that is really subjective to most fliers... I have 93 that are flight ready at this time. All of them have a Spektrum receiver and 87 of them have A3-L gyros. Two have A3's and the remainder have none... Most of the lost birds I read about here sound like a brown-out, not loss of signal... (Barring mechanical failure, that is... servo gears, wire break, loose connections, standard stuff...)

I hope I never have 93 planes, : (. That's just too many. You must be a farmer, and own an nice big barn. LOL D**m Hardway that a lot of planes! I have about 25, half in boxes, I'm struggling with places to put them as it is.

Best Regards
Woody

[Hardway]

Hey!!! I didn't mean for the numbers to go "HEY!! LOOK AT ME" Sorry. I just put them out there to give some perspective to my opinion on what seems to have worked very well over the entire fleet... Look out TI, when I build my shop we can do a head to head on what we own!!!! LOL :P

[Hardway]

A far as a farmer, in my earlier days of model aviation, I was know to farm a few planes... Plant them nose-first into the nearest field and hope for rain!!!! LOL You guys are all awesome! Many blessings. Back to work on the B-17G. Glassing the flaps before bed tonight...

[Hardway]

Glassing done and drying... Night all!!!

[Ron1950]

rifleman.. are u sure your ar8000's were the real thing or some of the hundreds of knockoffs sold on ebay I bought one from ebay buy threw it away before it could crash my plane

[rifleman_btx]

Unless horizon is in the business of selling knockoffs of their own products, then yeah I'm sure.

[chipset35]

I did have to go from spektrum to frsky because after 3 planes went down only 200 yards out with ar8000 dsmx recievers I have lost all confidence in them.

Are you serious?
You got me thinking....
Especially since the crash of my beautiful E-Flite P47D Razorback.
Right now post crash investigation is leaning towards Spectrum RX failure of the Flap and Aileron channels.
Replaced those servo's with new ones and still dead.
Time to ditch Spektrum?

[rifleman_btx]

If it was a single receiver failing I would send it in or call horizon. I do think mine was an extraordinary circumstance. But dead channels could happen with any brand. Also check the extensions/y-harness as I had what I thought was a dead servo in my t28 that turned out to be a bad extension failing at the receiver plug.

[dahawk]

Time order a Arf+. Lost my A4 yesterday. I mean really lost her. Something went amiss but she got away from and ended up in Grapevine Lake. A boater who was an former rc guy found the debris floating. Brought her to the field this morning. I had given up hope. Really just wanted to salvage the electrics and lipo. All good. Fuse is not worth saving. Arf + is relatively inexpensive.

I like the Scooter so much I just had to have another.

[Hardway]

:(

[Petronio]

Oh dear sorry to hear that mate. I would love for FW to release a 120mm sizes one.. Anyway if I were to crash my A4 I would also buy a new one..no hesitations!

[Petronio]

Some pics from a couple of weeks ago...we even arranged for the Car to tow the A-4, it was fun to watch