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

[Radar-Guy]

Thanks for the shout-out, Klaus!

Cockpit upgrade next ?

[bps]

These are out of stock, so I'm wondering if they are being discontinued or just waiting to restock? Sure would like to get one. Thanks!

[DCORSAIR]

These are out of stock, so I'm wondering if they are being discontinued or just waiting to restock? Sure would like to get one. Thanks!

I think its just a restock issue, no way would they discontinue this one I wouldn't think, its a great flyer and very popular still so I wouldn't think so, just hang tight and I bet they come back in stock.

[Evan D]

100% not discontinued. Motion/ FreeWing keeps things going for a long time, unlike many other retailers/ manufacturers.

[Cape Jets]

Performed my maiden of my Freewing A-4 Skyhawk. This bird has a 80mm 6S 2150KvEDF, 120amp ESC, RX637T Spektrum Receiver, Hitec HS5085MG Elevator Servo, Du-Bro low bounce main gear tires, Nose gear brace, Nose gear doors added, Nav lights, Freewing afterburner and Thanks to Callie Graphics for the Blue Blazers livery.
Really twitchy plane with current rates which I will tone down some. Trimmed out nice and fly's great. Great looking plane in the air and on the ground. Look forward to flying her more...👍

[Evan D]

Very cool. I worked on their A-7's when they were on the Midway back in the 70's.

[Captain Billy]

Been flying my Skyhawk for almost a year now and I still enjoy it as much as I did the first month I bought it. Great flying airplane.

[Mark 2]

I’m loving mine, looks great in the air. The only issue I find is the big drop tanks keep falling off during my landings.
Nose wheel steering gyro made a huge difference for me with cross wind ops.

[Captain Billy]

I find if I slow down too much with the Skyhawk on landing, it will drop down on the main landing gear fairly hard and lose the drop tanks in the process. You really have to keep up sufficient airspeed to fly her to the ground for a softer touchdown. Try a little more airspeed on approach and go for a softer touchdown. I can now do it more often than not, but I still lose the drop tanks when I get a little too slow and plop it down instead of greasing it in.

[Mark 2]

Yeah, good point, I’ll try to keep a little more speed up during landings

[Ks.jetflyer]

Performed my maiden of my Freewing A-4 Skyhawk. This bird has a 80mm 6S 2150KvEDF, 120amp ESC, RX637T Spektrum Receiver, Hitec HS5085MG Elevator Servo, Du-Bro low bounce main gear tires, Nose gear brace, Nose gear doors added, Nav lights, Freewing afterburner and Thanks to Callie Graphics for the Blue Blazers livery.
Really twitchy plane with current rates which I will tone down some. Trimmed out nice and fly's great. Great looking plane in the air and on the ground. Look forward to flying her more...👍

Couldn't resist the $40 off, ordered one. Which light kit did you use and nose gear brace?

[N1EDM]

I got one of these for Christmas and am thinking of putting it together in a month or so. Does anyone have any thoughts on what they'd do differently if they had a new one to play with?

I thought that I would see if there were any changes or suggestions that might be out there before I started it next month.

Bob

[Evan D]

Nope, built per manual is pretty darn good. I put loctite on a few spots, mostly the gear set screws.

[ncflyer79]

So i flew my A4 yesterday and bent the nose pin. What upgrades are you guys doing? iv heard of using the nose gear out of the Avanti? any kind of support brace?

[aba183210]

I purchased this jet after flying the Avanti 80 for a while.

I set it up quite differently from what the manual specifies.

For starters, I noted that the recommended CG, while it is adequate, makes it very prone to "alpha lock" and bouncing on a less than perfect landing. I have never trusted the Freewing manuals regarding setup ot CG. For example, the CG given in the Avanti 80 is waaaay too nose heavy. I set mine at 120 mm from the leading edge at the root, and the throws at just 9 mm of aileron.

Regarding the A-4, I set all of my 6S 5000 HRB batteries (730 g) all the way forward until it is touching the front end of the battery compartment. Same with the Admiral 5000 and SMC and Zeee 5200 batteries. This has totally eliminated wing drops, alpha locks, and bouncing. In fact, I set up all of my planes with a forward CG and not one of them bounces on landing.

As for throws, I use only 9 mm of aileron throw rather than what the manual specifies, and 15 mm of elevator. Expo is at 40 percent, and I got rid of the tanks and missiles. They simply get on the way and add drag. As a result I have a jet that flies scalelike, has zero bad habits, can be slowed down a lot for landing, has zero bouncing, and flies great.

I don't use any gyros in any of my planes, including the A-4. I fly with a traditional AR620 receiver. I just ordered an F9F Cougar and my plans are to remove the gyro and sell it.

The jet looks majestic when flown totally scale like (large and wide loops, gentle takeoffs, flat landings, rather wide turns, rather slow rolls, etc-if you want to fly aggressively and perform non scale like maneuvers get the Avanti 80). And it teaches you energy management. For example, I perform loops after gaining energy in a dive, and use the momentum to perform it-just like a rollercoaster train about to enter a loop. Think about Magic Mountain's Revolution-how the train speeds up in a straight downward slope and then enters the loop. I do exactly that.

[EA-6B Geek]

In an effort to keep this thread alive, here’s my latest A-4

[gbruce]

FANtastic :)

My A-4 is ready to fly, just waiting for the spring thaw...

I'm looking for 2 more FW A-4s to do a few more Aggessors...! one will be a 2 holer!

[gbruce]

I'd like a few of these... please??

[gbruce]

Those should keep Callie busy!!

[EA-6B Geek]

Those should keep Callie busy!!

I’d bet you Callie has most of those on file, ready to print and ship.😊