Official Freewing T-33 Shooting Star 80mm EDF Thread

[Alpha]

Adam1985 Hi Adam, the number of reports total less than a fraction of 1%, so, while of course the factory is always admonished to improve, it is always still prudent to test our flying machines because ultimately perfection is a responsibility better taken than delegated. If you're wary, give the retracts on this T-33 or any airplane for that matter a firm tug or two before maiden, or a brisk taxi, then recheck them before you actually lift off. I've seen people go to the extreme and purposely pop off the plates before maiden, and reglue them. Of course, energy needs to be transferred somewhere so I don't recommend relying solely on rock hard epoxy joints to keep the mounts in.... a rough landing just transfers the risk now to ripping out a chunk of foam to which the mount is glued.

I remember when ripped out foam chunks of F-86 mains glued too firmly to the mounting plate were increasing, and I remember when Yak-130s were shedding retracts during a brisk taxi alone with a nearly smooth glue-less foam face, so there is absolutely a balance to be struck.

I hope this helps!

[davecee]

Hey All,

I am really interested in purchasing the T33 as my first EDF. However after reading a lot of the comments on Motion RC website, although reviewed as a good jet, there is a common theme about the landing gear.

It seems in particular if you fly off grass, the extra strain on the gear is causing the mains to become detached (lack of glue seems the reported issue). This in turn is then causing the fuselage to get damaged.

I guess a question for everyone who owns one but also @Motionrc is have the factory changed anything (perhaps the amount of glue used) to ensure that the issue of the main gear becoming detached doesn’t happen anymore... within reason!

Many thanks and hopefully MotionRC/Alpha see this comment/question!

I got mine early, one from the first shipment I believe.. I fly from a relatively smooth, nice Bermuda grass field that is kept pretty well manicured. I have 8 flights (I think) on my T-33 with absolutely NO indication of gear trouble. I can say the same for all of the few FW jets I've owned and the ones I've seen at the field. Gear problems seem to only rear their ugly heads with poor landings. I suppose that if you have a "grass" field with clumps of grass instead of carpet grass you might see more problems than we have at our field. You can't expect the gear on a foamie to hold up on a rough field.

[Adam1985]

Alpha thank you so much for your speedy reply and reassurance on this (what seems like given the %) non issue! A good reminder that reviews are not always a total reflection of reality. I guess most people who have no issues with the model tend to just crack on and get flying.

I will definitely be ordering the T33 and I thank you and the whole MotionRC team for always getting back to me when I have a question 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

[tab28682]

All grass fields are definitely not created equal. Here in Texas I have seen everything from a perfectly manicured putting green to ones that are extremely rough.

Many of you know this, but one thing you can do when dealing with a less than perfect grass field is to make sure you can land your model at the minimum possible airspeed without going so slow that you stall. Strive for the minimum possible sink rate as well. Less speed at touchdown equals less energy to be dissipated during the roll out and less force on the landing gear.

This makes it worth practicing slow flight at altitude with the gear and flaps down.

Not a lot you can do about takeoffs on a rough grass field. Sometimes you can survey the field to find the best path through the tufts of grass and plan the start of your takeoff roll to take advantage of it.

I fly at a couple of grass fields at different events, but they tend to be pretty decent. I have had to do the survey for a good takeoff path quite a few times for smaller EDF models to make sure they get into the air via the path of least resistance. Ditto for some scale prop models with smallish wheels.

[Evan D]

I fly off a great paved strip and had one gear come loose...

[Phantom]

I've had a few FW jets that have had the gear ripped out. The F-86, the Mirage 2000, my A-10...on take off no less. But these were after 50 plus flights and so par for the course.

However my T-33 left main gear broke loose on flight number 4. After a smooth touchdown, I was about half way to turning speed on the roll out when it ripped loose. I fly off pavement, the amount of road rash on the underside of the nose, fuselage and left wingtip tank urked me something fierce that day. I tested the right main and it just popped off in my hand like nothing. So I will now become one of those individuals who, rips the gear out and re glues no matter what.

My birds aren't hanger queens or beautiful "modeling" examples like alot of folks on here. I just don't have the time or desire, but the flying I do care about. If I ding something up due to a less than perfect landing, or scrub a wingtip trying to turn too fast on a taxi, that's on me. But to see that brand spanking new T-33 collect all that road rash because of a crappie tack job, was a wake up call.

[Johnnyrabuse]

Retracts are solid as well as the doors I fly mine nose heavy helps on approach nuetral cg for me makes this bird float forever especially with flaps on

Nose heavy slightly I grease every landing

As for the glue mine pulled out on a bad landing glad they did

To me it's a good thing I'd rather have some easily reparable hanger rash than broken retracts or struts

[Johnnyrabuse]

Has anyone had an over roll tendency because of lack of aerolines authority on 70 percent low rates ?

It's happened to me more than once at high altitude when doing rolls

I'm not really concerned I keep my crazyness three mistakes high

[AceMigKiller]

My retracts from a first batch German T-33 are solid as well.
After hearing a few reports I did like Alpha said - Intentionally tugged and rough housed them.
I'm on 20+ flights now, checking periodically, with no indication of gear wanting to pop loose.

Vic

[AceMigKiller]

How many of you have flown your FW T-33 with no tip tanks?

Upon arrival at my field this morning, I realized I left my tanks at home...
Other T-33's I've flown in the past, both large and small, *do not* like to fly without tanks. However, this model flies so well and lacks alot of the typical T-33 "bad habits" I figured I'd fly it anyways. If anything, good experiment. Weather was in my favor too - Got one flight in calm winds and one with a quartering cross.

Long story short: Don't hesitate to fly your FW T-33 if you forget the tanks at home!

Analysis:
She was definitely a little more slippery... i.e. faster acceleration and top-end speed, roll rate was just a touch faster (as expected) and it did exhibit a *very* slight yaw oscillation in the form of a mild "tail wag" on crosswind approach; nothing proper crosswind correction couldn't eliminate.
Flaps performed normally, just took a little extra time to slow her down since the drag from the tanks was missing.
It was cool seeing her zip around like that and refreshing to discover that flying "tank-less" imparted no serious bad habits.

The biggest take away is that the tip tanks add *alot* of presence and definitely aid in visibility. They also provide just a little yaw stability. As I mentioned earlier though --- No tanks? No problem!

Vic

[Elbee]

AceMigKiller, Nice debrief and a good tip. Thank you, Sir. Best, LB

[AceMigKiller]

Thanks LB! 😎

[FredGB]

Hi all ,

As many of you have been doing customisations during this lockdown period to your t33s i was wondering if this set of dual nose lights as they are scale like the real ones (attached)would work on the model and if anyone knew the dimensions of the lights were too big?

Fred

https://www.motionrc.eu/collections/...escription-tab

[FredGB]

Hi all ,

As many of you have been doing customisations during this lockdown period to your t33s i was wondering if this set of dual nose lights as they are scale like the real ones (attached)would work on the model and if anyone knew the dimensions of the lights were too big?

Fred

https://www.motionrc.eu/collections/...escription-tab

dont worry about putting a response as i have ordered the less scale single light from motion as i found out the dimensions on the web

Fred

[flyinhigh042]

Now that flying season is upon us, I decided it was finally time to maiden the T-33. I warmed up my thumbs on the old trusty L-39, then decided it was go time for the T-33.

Flight performance is just as everyone has described. Awesome. It has a really wide speed range. Flying around at 50%-ish throttle gives you a scale looking performance. Kick up the throttle and this “old” jet really gets moving. It’s a real pleasure. I flew the initial 3 flights with my timer set to 3:30, Admiral 6s 5000. I will be bumping the timer up to 4 minutes for subsequent flights.

Very well done Freewing and Motion RC. This one is a keeper.

[Mark 2]

Congrats, it looks great! Mine is the Luftwaffe version, and sadly I still haven’t been able to maiden it yet because we’re still in lockdown and flying is not allowed

[flyinhigh042]

Congrats, it looks great! Mine is the Luftwaffe version, and sadly I still haven’t been able to maiden it yet because we’re still in lockdown and flying is not allowed

Thanks. And sorry to hear your field is on lockdown. I’m surprised ours isn’t. The German version looks great. After today’s experience with mine, I’m considering picking up the camo version as a backup.

I hope things get back to normal-ish here soon and you can get that T-33 in the air. It’s really, really good!

[Plano78]

Adding one more voice to the chorus. My German version took less than an hour to assemble. Maidened her this past weekend. Same results as the majority here, she's a definite keeper. Not a bad habit to be found, gear still in place (so far, fly off asphalt). Makes you look like a better pilot than you really are.

She has been christened "Lilly VonSchtupp"!

[Elbee]

Adding one more voice to the chorus. My German version took less than an hour to assemble. Maidened her this past weekend. Same results as the majority here, she's a definite keeper. Not a bad habit to be found, gear still in place (so far, fly off asphalt). Makes you look like a better pilot than you really are.

She has been christened "Lilly VonSchtupp"!

P7, Good debrief and Welcome to Hobby Squawk. Looking forward to some pictures of Fraulein von Schtupp. Best, LB

[xviper]

I'd like to report a possible glitch in this plane. I had my maiden on this plane last week and I included a video in my last post here. As I stated before, the maiden and the second flight went quite well and I didn't report a small incident that I thought was due to a high cross wind. Just as the plane left the ground, it took a sudden but momentary roll to the left to about 30 degrees of bank. I was ready for it and I corrected it and the rest of the flight went without any other incident. The second flight ............................. same thing happened and again I thought it was due to the cross wind. Then the next day, I went to fly it again, but this time, upon lift off, the plane rolled over into the inverted and crashed into the ground. The canopy was scraped up and the end pieces broke off. The whole vertical tail section broke off, with the tip of it snapping off completely from the rest of the tail fin. This time there was no cross wind. The retracts stopped working and stayed down. Repaired the tail fin. All control surfaces worked but the retracts still did not work. I surmised that there is some signal interference that caused the ailerons to glitch and retract failure. While doing the repair, I surmised that there may have been some "cross-talk" either within the circuits of the control board or the wing boards. I disconnected the ailerons and retracts at the wing board and used "Y's" to connect directly to the RX, bypassing the boards completely. I left the elevator and rudder and nose steering on the control board.
Today, I flew the plane again twice. Both flights went perfectly. No glitches. Take offs were without any noteworthy mention. Ailerons were solid, retracts worked, both flights were textbook. Landings flawless. I believe there is signal "leaching" across clumsy soldering points on the control board or the wing boards. I can't say which is at fault. I didn't care to spend the time to experiment and find out by risking another flight that involved either boards. Bypassing both eliminated the glitches. It's unfortunate that I now have a perfectly flying airplane that is scraped up and repaired. A couple of spectators still remarked how beautiful it looked in the air, where you can't see the repaired damage.
I don't believe this is a universal issue. The people who do the soldering of these boards must do so many every day, that I think they get a little sloppy occasionally in trying to do as many as they can during their shift at work. I don't believe an automated system can do that much better. If a thousand are done, there has to be a few that get away from them. When these boards first showed up on models, I spoke of this signal "cross talk" or leaching. I also thought that due to some circuits having common grounds, that this could be another weak point. This experience has confirmed my feelings on this topic. I can clearly understand why some owners have little faith in these boards and will immediately take them out of the equation.