Official Freewing T-33 Shooting Star 80mm EDF Thread

[Icarus the 2nd]

Thought about that but, the problem is that this esc has about 8 inch battery wires. I will contact Motion tomorrow and see what they think. No info on the esc with the plane

it's a regular 100A ESC that's been used in several Freewing planes before, this is the manual https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/10...iles/fwesc.pdf

[Icarus the 2nd]

several more vids of the german camo version flying can be found at the FNRC channel on youtube

[sam51401]

When he went to try and order under his dealer account is when his pin showed invalid. He called his MRC sales rep and was told that LHS dont have any dealer accounts any longer and all orders are placed same as Joe Blow off street. Now tell me what person running a hobby shop will still have any incentive to stock kits and parts and such when there is nothing to gain for his business.
Mike, you are correct in that there was little margin and there was as of Nov, was told that they were trying to work up a valid dealer program but now that has fell through.

[Evan D]

You are hearing one side of the story. There is always another side. Having worked in a hobby shop and dealing with her Horizons price fixing I know that they aren’t always the best to deal with either. They mandated that a hobby shops price was higher than the average person could buy it direct from them, then the hobby shop would have to market up and no one would buy from the hobby shop.

[Reaper911]

Well i was all ready to get my T33 via my LHS and got a very disturbing news this afternoon about his order. I feel this will have large ripples and repercussions from the rc community in that Motion RC has made the decision to cancel ALL HOBBY SHOP SUPPORT for all ordering. We are seeing a decline in the very shops that most of us started our hobby with and this to me is a very bad move to not support shops for direct orders.
Alpha, James powers at large, please say that this is a temp situation and someone will realize the long term effects of this move.
Now im not sure i can get my T33 and support my local shop in business if i am forced to bypass any Motion RC products which he did a fair amount of product movement.
im sure you can give the proper wordage to my "smilies"

I suspect it’s all about tighter margins with the new tariffs and discounting their product so LHS can markup and make a profit is a business model that does not make sense for them. I believe it’s nothing more than that.

[Reaper911]

I took my wife out for a nice dinner this evening, and after some nice conversation, I let her know that I have a big box inbound. No, doghouse for me, but I may have to take her shoe-shopping this weekend and stay incredibly interested in all of the shoes that she tries on and remark how great they look on her.

😁😁😁😁

[Reaper911]

I feel your pain dude. Motion RC has gotten greedy with increased prices, lowered their customer service, and made it almost impossible for hobby shops to sell the freewing product. They are fools. Horizon hobby on the other hand is much smarter and sells online like Motion, but they also support the local hobby shop and hobby shops all across the US carry eflite EDF's. Furthermore Eflite quality and scale detail has now surpassed freewing. More and more guys are turning to Eflite for their Jets. And I can tell you is that eflite plans on building even more jets! Freewing and motion RC are headed the wrong direction. If they don't change their poor business habbits around they will become the next banana hobby, which we all know they are almost outta business with little product.

Well that's my two cents worth

From a quality, design and fit and finish standpoint I feel quite the opposite. My recent FW Jets surpass the quality of my new e-flite Jets by a healthy margin.

My two cents 😁

[xviper]

None of the local hobby shops in my city or any other city I know of in Canada (not even the big online shop like Great Hobbies) has EVER carried or sold Freewing products. In that sense, nothing is new. If a hobby shop did sell (or more likely, "re-sell") Freewing, they bought those products retail (or near retail) and re-sold them with a minuscule profit just to please some customers. They couldn't continue to do this with such little financial gain - probably why virtually no shop did it. I'll bet those that did, can still do it but they'd have to use their own names as the buyer and not their company name.
My usual LHS said to me that they "could" get a Freewing product, but with their markup, I wouldn't be happy with the pricing. They would have to buy it as if they were any other private individual and put their standard markup on it before selling it to me. They simply did not want to do it and why would I want to pay that much anyway? The hobby store did NOT consider it as "me supporting them". It was more like they were doing something "special" for me - something that was a PITA for them. Of course, they would never tell me that. After all, they want to show me they had "premium customer service".

[xviper]

From a quality, design and fit and finish standpoint I feel quite the opposite. My recent FW Jets surpass the quality of my new e-flite Jets by a healthy margin.

My two cents 😁

Most of these recent Horizon Hobby jets and prop planes have been made for them "FMS" products using their standards of quality and production. Some are really good and some are not quite as good. I used to always say that for the better EDF product, buy Freewing. For the better prop plane product, buy FMS. These days, the quality can bounce back and forth between the two but I must admit that the Eflite (FMS) planes of both types have advanced considerably in the quality department. However, the pricing of the Eflite products have reflected this, too. But then, the same can be said about recent HobbyKing introductions - way better quality and much higher pricing. A lot of change (for the better) for us in this hobby and along with any change (good or bad), there will always be those who only see it as good and those who only see it as bad and it's not hard to see who gripes the most.

[Reaper911]

None of the local hobby shops in my city or any other city I know of in Canada (not even the big online shop like Great Hobbies) has EVER carried or sold Freewing products. In that sense, nothing is new. If a hobby shop did sell (or more likely, "re-sell") Freewing, they bought those products retail (or near retail) and re-sold them with a minuscule profit just to please some customers. They couldn't continue to do this with such little financial gain - probably why virtually no shop did it. I'll bet those that did, can still do it but they'd have to use their own names as the buyer and not their company name.
My usual LHS said to me that they "could" get a Freewing product, but with their markup, I wouldn't be happy with the pricing. They would have to buy it as if they were any other private individual and put their standard markup on it before selling it to me. They simply did not want to do it and why would I want to pay that much anyway? The hobby store did NOT consider it as "me supporting them". It was more like they were doing something "special" for me - something that was a PITA for them. Of course, they would never tell me that. After all, they want to show me they had "premium customer service".

Ya same here in central Canada just does not make sense for LHS to stock them.

[Hardway]

The box arrived FedEx to north Texas today... German livery! Don't need to open it, but I am going to anyway!!! LOL Super fast! Thanks Motion and team! Jerry

[MikeT]

You are hearing one side of the story. There is always another side. Having worked in a hobby shop and dealing with her Horizons price fixing I know that they aren’t always the best to deal with either. They mandated that a hobby shops price was higher than the average person could buy it direct from them, then the hobby shop would have to market up and no one would buy from the hobby shop.

I have no clue where you got that. The LHS can't advertise a lesser price than MAP but can give it away if they please.

Mike

[Race 22 Crew]

Overtime day came available. So, i ordered earlier then planned. Couldnt smash the order button fast enough on the USAF version. Love the T-33. Jet Jam is going to even better this year.

[Oxotnik]

My T-33 landed on my door step this afternoon. I'm about to crack the seal.

RE: Motion vs. HH...
I'm not much of a fan of HH, for a few reasons. Their prices are really getting high, especially in the size class that I like to fly. They're so stuck on putting SAFE-select receivers, and now smart ESCs, in all of their planes. I realize that it's probably cheaper for them to use only one receiver for all of their BNF planes, and it probably doesn't cost them much more to use a 'tricked out' receiver. However, as their prices increase, it does give the appearance that the SAFE-enabled receiver contributes to that. Irrationally, I'll admit, it eats at me that a company would put a SAFE receiver in an advanced, or at least strong intermediate, aircraft, as if that plane is suitable for a beginner pilot. I've heard good things about their F-4 and FA-18 and Su-30. I'm really liking the looks and size of the Su-30 and may get one eventually, and an 80mm FA-18, too, even though I'm not really into modern jets/EDFs. I also don't think that HH listens to their customers. They seem to only want to produce what sells fast (I get it, they want to make money), but OMG, how many different P-51s and Timbers do we need???? I really like Motion's business model. I feel that they listen to the more advanced pilots and try to bring products that'll appeal to them. Although Motion's prices are certainly going up, I feel that they are still very fair. I didn't hesitate to punch the preorder-now button for the T-33 as soon as it became available. I think that Alpha, James, and the rest of crew listen and want to release exciting new warbirds and jets. They can't please everyone (speaking of which, where the hell is my Do-335?!), but they do seem to try, and much more so than their competition does.

[Scale Master]

News to me last time I spoke with Motion on dealer ( LHS pricing ) they told me they had no such program as the margin is to thin on these to offer one. Since retiring I work part time for the LHS and I can tell you first hand that there is very little profit there even when buying form Horizon.

Mike

well Mike Horizon will let hobby shop dealers profit share at 30%. Well at least that's what my buddy is getting from the hobby shop he own here in the LA area.

[Scale Master]

From a quality, design and fit and finish standpoint I feel quite the opposite. My recent FW Jets surpass the quality of my new e-flite Jets by a healthy margin.

My two cents 😁

All good and I agree with you on some Jets for sure. The 2 latest jest from FMS.E=flite are nicer that the last three Jests from freewing. Prior to that I agree that FW had the edge/

[F106DeltaDart]

Just finished putting together my T-33 this afternoon, and it looks awesome! Fit and finish was top notch, looking forward to getting it in the air! 87th FIS decals have been ordered from Callie, so in a few weeks it will be repainted.

[Oxotnik]

My T-33 is being assembled right now. I was extremely happy that I was able to easily remove the multiconnectors in the wings, bypass the blue box and run all of my servos directly to the RX. While that multi-connector/bluebox feature may be great on large complicated planes, I don't need it on my T-33 as I never have to remove wings on anything less than 1.6m wingspan warbirds, for storage and transportation to/from the field. Kudos to Motion/Freewing for putting that multi-connector feature in for those who need it, and extra thanks for making it easy to remove that hardware for those of us who don't.

[Hoomi]

I took my wife out for a nice dinner this evening, and after some nice conversation, I let her know that I have a big box inbound. No, doghouse for me, but I may have to take her shoe-shopping this weekend and stay incredibly interested in all of the shoes that she tries on and remark how great they look on her.

Right about Christmas, a woman in one of the sewing & machine embroidery crafting groups my wife follows, posted that her husband had bought her a box of 144 pre-wound bobbins, so she was going to give him a particular intimate favor. I told my wife she could post on that topic that she had given me a new RC plane, so I was going to do a similar favor for her.



We do our gift exchange on New Year's, so I had to wrap up a box of 144 prewound bobbins for her, too, just for laughs.

(For the record, it was strictly for laughs, as, in nearly 40 years of marriage now, we have never allowed physical affection to be used as a means of manipulation or exchange. We'll make jokes about it, but refuse to actually do it.)

(also for the record, I consider myself extremely blessed, as I have a wife who is not only my best friend, but also is fully supportive of my hobbies, as I am of hers.)

[horsefeetky]

tucked in for winter... great build and wonderful fit and finish............cant wait to fly it.. set all surfaces to specs in manual... anyone flying it yet with feed back to adjust those settings let us know.