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

[e4dragongunner]

Hey... Any you Scooter Jocks using the Howler whistles? I saw Capt. Mikes build. Seem to sound better in the F-15. It shouldn't whistle when zooming past. Its should ROAR. ( I know that's not possible) ;)
I have a set , just not sure I want to use them. Or maybe I need to watch that vid again! :Silly:

[crxmanpat]

I put them in mine, didn't really seem to notice them. The ones in my A-10 sound MUCH better.

[seaviper]

Nice job on the tailhook. The weather is going bad here for a few days. So i might try to do something along those lines. I was thinking a slat controller might work

[crxmanpat]

I've seen a couple of reports now that say covering up the cheater hole has no effect on flight performance, and actually helps at slower speeds. I'll be pulling my cheater grate out and covering with styrene sheet.

[The RC Geek]

Hi Guys,

My A-4 arrived last Thursday and so spent Friday getting here together and ready to fly for Saturday. No markings on mine as I plan to repaint it, but haven't started the process just yet. Though, I changed my mind as I originally was going to paint an aggressor, but decided to go classic grey over white instead.

So, I got 5 flights on my scooter on saturday and the airplane flies awesome! It cruises around partial throttle and takes up airspace quite quickly. The low end acceleration is really good with the takeoff roll only about 150 ft as a guess. I covered up the cheater grate on the bottom from the second flight onward and saw no difference in performance. It felt that the airplane cruised at partial throttle a little better and more efficiently with it taped up actually.

The airplane flies best with some speed behind it and maneuvers really well. It tracks great and looks awesome in the air! I flew with both tanks on and off and actually prefer how it flies with the tanks a little bit more. IT seemed a little more stable while maneuvering. It's worth noting that if the airplane gets too slow it will tend to mush. I noticed on the landings with the max flaps down that the airplane would actually pitch up when it gets too slow and that got me into trouble a couple times (I was approaching too slow). I ended up with a couple tail pipe strike flops onto the runway. That is something to be aware of with the airframe. I will be practicing my landings carrying a little more speed and also exploring less flap deflection. Note that if you find yourself in trouble at high AoA and the power on, first reaction should be to push the nose over and get the speed up. It won't crawl it's way out of it otherwise because it will continue to pitch up and get slower.

One other thing to note is that the recommended aileron throws are pretty insane, especially the recommended high rate! Unless you're carrying a huge amount of expo, you'll end up with something that's borderline controllable in roll and that'll spin like a drill bit. A-4s don't need much aileron throw since there's not a lot of span to the airplane. I setup the recommended low rates as my high rates and then set 2 lower rates from there. I ended up settling on my low rate which is only about 1/4"-3/8" either way (need to measure to verify) of throw either way with about 15% expo. THat's where I liked it. The elevator recommendations were good. I'm using the recommended high rate with 20% expo.

I should have flight video up this week. My review vid will be a little while as I have some other videos to finish up first. All in all, I really like the airplane. It's a pretty awesome rendition of the A-4. I can't wait to get more flights in!

Here are a few pics from Saturday.

[crxmanpat]

Looks great Chris, thanks for the report! Can't wait to see it painted up!

[RCjetdude]

Chris, from what I have seen of your other work, this will be just as awesome.

[TomPatton]

Not quite finished... Working on the weathering part, first time putting the weathered look on a plane so it is taking me a little longer. I think it will look ok when finished... Graphics by Callie...

[RCjetdude]

Not quite finished... Working on the weathering part, first time putting the weathered look on a plane so it is taking me a little longer. I think it will look ok when finished... Graphics by Callie...

Looks really good Tom. The weathering really makes a plane come to life.

[e4dragongunner]

Not quite finished... Working on the weathering part, first time putting the weathered look on a plane so it is taking me a little longer. I think it will look ok when finished... Graphics by Callie...

I just ordered the Lady Jessie graphics as well... Yours looks awesome. Callie needs to include the avionics hump markings for the tanks.....:-)

[e4dragongunner]

Callie needs to do the Diamond Backs!

[crxmanpat]

Wow, you guys are really blowing through my decal paper (again). I've got enough on hand to do about 15 sets, but just ordered more paper as I'm sure that won't last long. I'll let you guys know if I run out before I get my next shipment. If you want Bullpup decals within the next week, better order soon! ;)

[JLambCWU]

Hey... Any you Scooter Jocks using the Howler whistles? I saw Capt. Mikes build. Seem to sound better in the F-15. It shouldn't whistle when zooming past. Its should ROAR. ( I know that's not possible) ;)
I have a set , just not sure I want to use them. Or maybe I need to watch that vid again! :Silly:

I put two of them in the top of my tailpipe at the very aft. They sound incredible above 25% throttle and really start to whine. I will post all of the pictures of my build when I get it finished. The key is putting them in the right place and having the forward lips trimmed down so they are tilted forward slightly at the airflow.

[seaviper]

If you're flying off pavement that cheater hole may not be required. But it probably helps guys like me blast out of hay fields. In thrust we trust

[TomPatton]

I just ordered the Lady Jessie graphics as well... Yours looks awesome. Callie needs to include the avionics hump markings for the tanks.....:-)

She does now. I ask about it when I ordered and she said she overlooked them. I got the stripes for the tanks included...

[DCORSAIR]

Callie needs to do the Diamond Backs!

I thought for sure those decals would be included with the FW A-4, I would have went with those instead. Here is my 70mm LX version with them, they look great. Anyone know if Callie is doing a set??

[crxmanpat]

If you're flying off pavement that cheater hole may not be required. But it probably helps guys like me blast out of hay fields. In thrust we trust

That's probably true. I only fly off asphalt and geotex, grass does not exist in the desert southwest. LOL

[Starck Mad]

Question for you folks covering the cheater grates...

I notice most of the 80mm and 90mm stuff have them, and knowing that Alpha and company know way more than I do about designing these planes and that they put in tireless hours doing so...I'd be a bit hesitant to cover them up. Could it be the cheaters are more for sufficient cooling rather than necessarily adding thrust/performance?

I know these systems pull a ton of amps so something to consider.:Cool:

[seaviper]

Pretty sure these cheater holes are for static thrust. You lose a little top speed but you gain takeoff and climb thrust. It probably doesn't matter that much for cooling. But I don't have any data to back that up. That is something I have the technology to do however.

[Starck Mad]

Pretty sure these cheater holes are for static thrust. You lose a little top speed but you gain takeoff and climb thrust. It probably doesn't matter that much for cooling. But I don't have any data to back that up. That is something I have the technology to do however.

Be worth checking just to make sure...