Official Freewing F/A-18C Hornet 90mm EDF Thread

[Elbee]

It should have been a slightly bigger scale with slightly lower comparative wing loading and then it wouldn't have given so many trouble IMO.

AG, Acknowledged and Agreed. I've thought about cheating the Wing Area by extending the tip an inch and adding a little more washout.

A wing rebuild could be done also adding approximately an inch to the LE without ruining the plan view profile too much. Possibly as much as an additional 40 square inches to the wing area.

Flyibility versus aesthetics is always a compromise.

Best regards, LB

[Airguardian]

It should have been a slightly bigger scale with slightly lower comparative wing loading and then it wouldn't have given so many trouble IMO.

[Cape Jets]

I've finally given up on this model. It's my favorite active jet (Blue Angel) and she looks great but I have been snake-bitten by this model too many times to count. I'm glad some are enjoying her, I just can't seem to find a happy place with her. The wing loading is part of the issue but all the models I have had of this one (um, like 8!?!) it just feels "off" to me. Like gremlins. I've been flying jets for over a decade and have had hundreds upon hundreds of successful flights with all kinds of jets but this one just has me perplexed and makes me feel like I am new to flying jets, lol.

Maybe Freewing will come out with a less finicky, lighter-wing loaded one down the road.

Well I've joined Aros and I'm sure many more that has given up on this jet. Yes she looks great on the ground & when she fly's she looks great in the air. The issue is we spend more time repairing this bird than flying. I know everyone says its part of the hobby to have occasion failures, but this bird takes more of its share than any other bird I fly. After 7 replacement fuses and main wings it time to step back and fly the birds that like me Maybe we will revisit her again next year since all I need is a new fuse to get her back in the air.......

[Airguardian]

I still need to pull mine back together after the crash I had... but in the meantime, have some full scale inspiration!

[Hugh Wiedman]

That's a good way of putting it. It just never felt dialed in. No matter how many flights I had.

I like both my F-18's because of just that. They keep me on my toes as I've never felt comfortable with any flight and it constantly reminds me that can happen at anytime! But when I get a good flight and landing, it's like Christmas! My biggest problem is landing on a bumpy thick grass runway (our natural runway state). Unless everything is perfect in my technique (yah, right, like that's going to happen) and haven't encountered a crosswind or gust, it occasionally tips with the narrow mains when it first contacts the ground and the missile rails on the outside dig into the ground, causing all kinds of havoc. But they look too cool to fly it without them. And you can't say flying the F-18 is boring. When I get too cocky, I just take out one of the F-18's and it brings me back down where I should be!

[Aros]

That's a good way of putting it. It just never felt dialed in. No matter how many flights I had.

[DCORSAIR]

I've finally given up on this model. It's my favorite active jet (Blue Angel) and she looks great but I have been snake-bitten by this model too many times to count. I'm glad some are enjoying her, I just can't seem to find a happy place with her. The wing loading is part of the issue but all the models I have had of this one (um, like 8!?!) it just feels "off" to me. Like gremlins. I've been flying jets for over a decade and have had hundreds upon hundreds of successful flights with all kinds of jets but this one just has me perplexed and makes me feel like I am new to flying jets, lol.

Maybe Freewing will come out with a less finicky, lighter-wing loaded one down the road.

I agree, had two of them and after many flights of trying different CG ranges, flap adjustments and I never felt like I got either one dialed in, I was so happy to see both of those Jets leave my hanger

[Elbee]

Aros, but it's so pretty. Best, LB

[Aros]

I've finally given up on this model. It's my favorite active jet (Blue Angel) and she looks great but I have been snake-bitten by this model too many times to count. I'm glad some are enjoying her, I just can't seem to find a happy place with her. The wing loading is part of the issue but all the models I have had of this one (um, like 8!?!) it just feels "off" to me. Like gremlins. I've been flying jets for over a decade and have had hundreds upon hundreds of successful flights with all kinds of jets but this one just has me perplexed and makes me feel like I am new to flying jets, lol.

Maybe Freewing will come out with a less finicky, lighter-wing loaded one down the road.

[Evan D]

I am flying mine on 8S so a bit heavier, 880-890g. I have my balance at about 95mm gear down and it flies excellent there. Some have their CG even back as far as 103-105mm. When I built mine I thought their pushrod placement was silly, if I put the aileron and flap pushrods on the outer hole of the servo I would have to really reduce the servo travel in the radio. Moving them in not only has me using the servos resolution better but also increases the effective torque the servo is putting out. I also moved the elevators to the inner hole. I think because of this I have had no issues with things like a flap hanging up that some have reported. Maybe you have too much flap throw if they are binding on the fuselage sides too. While there is a lot of info here there is more on RCGroups too. Let me add that tailerons really make this plane fly much better too.

[Elbee]

I fell in love with this bird and picked her up. I only fly Jets and have been very successful.

Hey Newb,
Welcome to "the Squawk".

Check the myriad posts, all your answers are there, I can assure you.

I know, I know, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack, but there you have it.

Is it your Right-hand Flap that is sticking? I had to trim a bit-o-foam away from the inner RH flap so it did not rub the fuselage at full extension.

Your experience will definitely be needed as the wing loading is medium-high on the Hornet. You'll want those flaps to be fully functional for landings.

I, too, love this airframe.

Best, LB

[NEWBIE]

I fell in love with this bird and picked her up. I only fly Jets and have been very successful. I own a f-35 and f-16 which I have flown each about 150 times and both still look great, minus a few landing gear issues and or wing scrapes. Long story short, on my maiden with this one I put the battery where the plane was nose heavy. It was a SMC high voltage 5300 which is10 grams lighter than the admiral 5000. Is anyone flying with the 5000 pack? Where did you place the battery? In front of the two yellow lines or behind them. I placed mines in front making the plane WAY to nose heavy. I also put the elevators with the 7mm to give it more lift.

I had strange issue where the flaps would not work 1 out of 10 times the flaps would get stuck coming up on one side. I was told that the blue control box can cause issues like that, or the wing may have a wiring issue and try swapping out the wings.

Any CG tips are welcome. When I had the plane with the landing gear down, I tested the CG to be on the plastic right behind the rear wing screws. I had watched the videos on you tube for motion RC and that is where the CG was recommended. It could not have been more off, I would let go of the elevator and it would literally nose dive, I put 32 clicks of elevator trying to trim it and nothing. Then came time to land and without flaps and my short field, I made the stupid mistake of trying the flaps on a maiden with a nose heavy plane. I don't mind you all pointing out my errors, that is what I am here for. I want to learn how to fly this plane. I had a spektrum ar631 in it with everything by the book.
THE NEWBIE

[Hugh Wiedman]

Hey Hugh, Had an interesting flight today with my F-16 on 8S with HIV SMC batteries. After about 1 min lost power to the EDF and ESC beeped twice ( ESC could not start EDF)
Had not reprogrammed the ESC for HIV batteries. Do you think that is why it shut down power to the EDF? After crash recovery the EDF would go full throttle and shut down again.
Last question. I promise.... Once you reprogram the ESC to HV batteries, can you still use standard Lipo's or do you need to reprogram the ESC again?

If I remember, you have a Castle ESC in it. After I programmed mine (although it is a 6S) it removed the low voltage cutoff (actually not removed, just reduced as per their chart). Originally, when I plugged the 6S HiV batteries in, fully charged, I got 7 beeps, so it thought it was a 7S battery and used that cutoff point, which ended up around 50-60% battery charge. At that point (tested it out on the bench before flying it), when the batteries got down after maybe 2 minutes, the motor began to pulse and loose power. After letting it sit for a bit, the batteries rebounded enough to get full throttle, but only for a short time before loosing power and pulsing. After I changed the low voltage cutoff, it doesn't exactly beep the number of cells anymore, just allows you to drain the battery to that new point before loosing power and pulsing. You can still use standard 4.2 volt batteries, but again, it will not beep the indicated number of cells.

I'm not sure why you lost power so quickly, after 1 minute, would have expected it to go 2 min, but maybe being 8S and thinking it was 9S the cutoff voltage is much higher. And not sure why the ESC would not start the EDF again. Is the Castle ESC for 8S?

Should work fine after changing the the low voltage for an 8S as per the Castle website chart. Suggest you first test it out on the bench and do a 3-4 minute simulated flight adjusting the throttle for take-off, cruising, etc.(or whatever you're timer is set for). Let me know how it comes out.

BTW, on the Freewing ESC's that I had to remove the low voltage cutoff (1 F-18 &1 F-4), with a HiV battery it gives no beeps. With a standard 6S at 4.2 volts it still gives 6 beeps even after removing the low voltage cutoff. I reprogrammed 5 other Castle ESC's in my Extreme Flight 3D planes and one in a Beast BiPlane and another in an Aces High FW 190, and they work perfect, either HiV or regular, and the ESC does not beep at all.

[Evan D]

What ESC?

[Cape Jets]

Sorry for the late reply. I'm using a Castle Phoenix Edge 130 Amp with BEC. When you get a Castle ESC, they give you a card to get a free Castle Link Adapter that you can hook up and program the ESC for a lot of different things. Very easy to use and their website tells you what to change for use with HiV batteries.

I also use their ESC in a balsa FW 190 and all my Extreme Flight 3D planes so those have been programmed for HiV batteries as well. The few HH planes I have worked with HiV (4.35 V/cell) without reprogramming and only 2 out of about 12 Freewing ESC's required removing the low voltage cutoff to make them work. Of course, you usually loose the cell count beeps once you reprogram those ESC's. A flying buddy has reprogrammed all his ESC's for HiV as well (usually not required though) with the exception of an F22 which he could not reprogram so that one can't use HiV. He's a computer wiz and couldn't get it done for some reason.

Hey Hugh, Had an interesting flight today with my F-16 on 8S with HIV SMC batteries. After about 1 min lost power to the EDF and ESC beeped twice ( ESC could not start EDF)
Had not reprogrammed the ESC for HIV batteries. Do you think that is why it shut down power to the EDF? After crash recovery the EDF would go full throttle and shut down again.
Last question. I promise.... Once you reprogram the ESC to HV batteries, can you still use standard Lipo's or do you need to reprogram the ESC again?

[Aros]

Are you asking for the missiles or rails? The plane did not come with missiles.

Whoops, misspoke. I meant the rails. I grabbed a new set when I bought the wing set. I really REALLY wish Freewing would offer the rail set as a stand alone SKU! Seems absurd to have to buy the entire wing set just for the rails. I only did because it's always a good idea to have a spare wing set, especially my luck with this model, lol.

[Cape Jets]

Actually got confused on which thread this was, the Castle 130 amp ESC I'm using is on my F-16, which also has the 6S 12 blade inrunner, just as both of my F-18's do. No matter, it's the same power set-up as you are using. I'm flying virtually all my EDF's now on the HiV batteries. If you go to the following link

https://home.castlecreations.com/blog/2021/3/18/how-do-i-set-up-my-esc-to-run-hv-lipos
it will guide you through setting it up for HiV batteries.

Oddly enough, 1 of my F-18's worked fine with HiV batteries charged to 4.35 V per cell (beeped 6 times when plugged in). The other did not (thought it was a 7S battery), and that one a friend programmed out the low voltage cutoff. Both are identical, Freewing ESC and 6S 12 blade inrunner. Go figure.

Thanks Hugh, I just tested out all my 8S jets with the SMC batteries and they are beep out 8 cells. I've already flown my 90mm F-22 8S bird and she ripped with the SMC batteries.

[Hugh Wiedman]

Hey Hugh, I also use Castle Creations ESC's on my jets and have the Castle Link Adapter. I am starting to use the SMC HiV batteries as well. I looked on the Castle web page and could not find info on the HiV batteries. Can you lead me to the right spot for that info. Thx....
Better yet.... What are your settings for the HiV batteries on your 130ESC's....(I have 130's and running 8's on my F-22, F-16 & F-15 birds and would like to use the HiV batteries for them)

Actually got confused on which thread this was, the Castle 130 amp ESC I'm using is on my F-16, which also has the 6S 12 blade inrunner, just as both of my F-18's do. No matter, it's the same power set-up as you are using. I'm flying virtually all my EDF's now on the HiV batteries. If you go to the following link

https://home.castlecreations.com/blog/2021/3/18/how-do-i-set-up-my-esc-to-run-hv-lipos
it will guide you through setting it up for HiV batteries.

Oddly enough, 1 of my F-18's worked fine with HiV batteries charged to 4.35 V per cell (beeped 6 times when plugged in). The other did not (thought it was a 7S battery), and that one a friend programmed out the low voltage cutoff. Both are identical, Freewing ESC and 6S 12 blade inrunner. Go figure.

[Cape Jets]

Sorry for the late reply. I'm using a Castle Phoenix Edge 130 Amp with BEC. When you get a Castle ESC, they give you a card to get a free Castle Link Adapter that you can hook up and program the ESC for a lot of different things. Very easy to use and their website tells you what to change for use with HiV batteries.

I also use their ESC in a balsa FW 190 and all my Extreme Flight 3D planes so those have been programmed for HiV batteries as well. The few HH planes I have worked with HiV (4.35 V/cell) without reprogramming and only 2 out of about 12 Freewing ESC's required removing the low voltage cutoff to make them work. Of course, you usually loose the cell count beeps once you reprogram those ESC's. A flying buddy has reprogrammed all his ESC's for HiV as well (usually not required though) with the exception of an F22 which he could not reprogram so that one can't use HiV. He's a computer wiz and couldn't get it done for some reason.

Hey Hugh, I also use Castle Creations ESC's on my jets and have the Castle Link Adapter. I am starting to use the SMC HiV batteries as well. I looked on the Castle web page and could not find info on the HiV batteries. Can you lead me to the right spot for that info. Thx....
Better yet.... What are your settings for the HiV batteries on your 130ESC's....(I have 130's and running 8's on my F-22, F-16 & F-15 birds and would like to use the HiV batteries for them)

[Hugh Wiedman]

Hey Hugh, What ESC are you using for the F-18? What did you do to the ESC program for the SMC? Thx...

Sorry for the late reply. I'm using a Castle Phoenix Edge 130 Amp with BEC. When you get a Castle ESC, they give you a card to get a free Castle Link Adapter that you can hook up and program the ESC for a lot of different things. Very easy to use and their website tells you what to change for use with HiV batteries.

I also use their ESC in a balsa FW 190 and all my Extreme Flight 3D planes so those have been programmed for HiV batteries as well. The few HH planes I have worked with HiV (4.35 V/cell) without reprogramming and only 2 out of about 12 Freewing ESC's required removing the low voltage cutoff to make them work. Of course, you usually loose the cell count beeps once you reprogram those ESC's. A flying buddy has reprogrammed all his ESC's for HiV as well (usually not required though) with the exception of an F22 which he could not reprogram so that one can't use HiV. He's a computer wiz and couldn't get it done for some reason.