Hey guys, someone a page or two back mentioned a potential problem with the canopy latch - they said it wasn't very secure.
Here's a closeup picture of mine. (the "L10" was apparently marked by the QC/QA people at Freewing)
There is a short metal pin that goes into the foam, and you can see the hole and there is a hard plastic "strike plate" piece right below the hole so the pin can't rip through the foam. This plastic piece is not beveled. Also, there is plastic strip (not in the picture) that is used as a "pull strap" (you can fold it under if you don't want to use it, that is where it was in this photo) and if the strap is up, that provides something additional for the pin to latch onto.
There are some magnets on the midway-part of the hatch to help hold it closed. I think I may add a few extra ones.
How many of you are going to statically balance the elevators? They are quite big so I’m going to, should help reduce some of the servo load.
Is there any reasons not to do it?
Not familiar with what this is or how to do it. Can you elaborate please?
Not familiar with what this is or how to do it. Can you elaborate please?
I did it to my F-14, Simply add weight to the front of the elevator as to when not connected to the servo it won’t drop, it’s balanced at its pivot point.
How many of you are going to statically balance the elevators? They are quite big so I’m going to, should help reduce some of the servo load.
Is there any reasons not to do it?
I believe Alpha covered this during one of the Mig Sessions. I believe they pair up the stabs at the factory to a set tolerance
Thanks for the post James. I mount most of my main receivers under the battery trays. On this one the area isn't big enough to put the MCBe there too or I would have. The antennae are long enough to go through two holes in the foam under the tray mounts and up the inside of the fuselage on either side. I also have a dual diversity satellite in the very nose with a very long satellite cable. Up there one coax antennae goes across the nose and the other along the side of the forward fuselage.
Right now I'm using a 10ch receiver and have each surface on a separate channel, only the flaps, gear doors and throttles are Y'd. That gives me tailerons (which MiG-19's need to give me the roll rate I like), crow, and rudder air brakes plus steering on a separate channel. I have a 12ch receiver if I decide to add TVs. To do all that the MCBe is bypassed for everything except the retracts, gear doors and lights.
Doing this the middle battery area is clear of all wires (except the forward retract wire, steering servo wire, landing light wire and satellite wire) and the MCBe. That way it's very uncluttered and clean for battery use.
As far as Orange, they are my go to brand and I have them in the vast majority of the 98 models I have ready to fly. Knock on wood they have been bullet proof for me through the years. They are harder to get now and I grab them (mostly the 9, 10 and 12ch) when they come up for sale.
My FW Mig-29 is built and I just need to check CG with a couple different packs and check range before maiden on Sunday (tomorrow is bad-ish weather here).
Hey Evan, are you sure you want to mount the RX under a huge pack of Lithium? Hard to tell from the picture, but I assume the aerials are long enough to go perpendicular to each other in directions that extend out and away from the battery, but if you just mounted the receiver where the blue was, it would be much more free and clear and less likely to get interfered with. A majority of the time your flying a jet, the top is going to be facing you more often, just feels risky to bury it under lithium (which 100% blocks signal) when so much space exists in the entire compartment.
I won't say anything about the ORX other than I didn't realize they were still around
How are you attaching the weight? I don't see anything on the elevator.
Typically you cut a slit in the foam of the inside edge of the elevator, then slide weight into the slit. I've been known to use coins for weights as they are thin. My F-14 took 80 cents.
I'm disappointed that my 26 August order did not make the cut for the batch that shipped in September, but I'll live. It gives me more stick time to get ready with other models. I took seven years off of flying RC and came back this Summer. I was eyeing the A-10, but when I saw the size and quality of the Mig, I knew I needed to have it. Really hoping that container ship gets favorable currents so I can get it in the air before the weather turns cold here in the DC area. Thanks for sharing all the lessons learned everyone. Good stuff here.
In the first picture you can see the weights, I carved some foam from the inboard of the elevator and used some wheel balance weights.
It was pretty obvious.
Another point comes to mind about this whole balancing thing. Even though such a control surface is weight balanced, isn't there a concern about airflow balance? That is to say, if you have a larger surface area on one side of the pivot point compared to the other side, the whole thing can still be affected by how the air flows over it. IE, weather vaning. So, the question is .............. which would present a more forceful affect? Weight imbalance or weather vaning. If it's weather vaning, wouldn't that make weight balancing less critical and perhaps even insignificant?
Why didn't you put the servo horn linkage rod in the center hole like we have stressed here? Can you give us some more details on how exactly it crashed?
One thing i noticed is the Elevator Servo arms as delivered are static centered with the arm arc slightly aft. If someone sets their end point over 100% to gain elevator throw, or at 100%, the arm will almost be or be pointing straight aft. Which may lead to inability to gain leverage and servo freeze.
Not saying people do it, but you never know. Might want to reposition the Arm a tooth or two forward arc, then reset throw and end points.
It was pretty obvious.
Another point comes to mind about this whole balancing thing. Even though such a control surface is weight balanced, isn't there a concern about airflow balance? That is to say, if you have a larger surface area on one side of the pivot point compared to the other side, the whole thing can still be affected by how the air flows over it. IE, weather vaning. So, the question is .............. which would present a more forceful affect? Weight imbalance or weather vaning. If it's weather vaning, wouldn't that make weight balancing less critical and perhaps even insignificant?
Nope. If one moment arm is larger then the other ther servo will work harder no matter the force feom the air flow.
The HSD F-16 just looks awesome, of course it is my favorite jet, lol, I passed on the Mig, not my thing this time around, would love to see Freewing do a bigger 12S F-16 like that HSD one.
Just asking for it from the scale police lol, but added a few little details to the ordinance. Be mindful if you're going to mask it up to paint anything, the foam parts are painted so use low-tack masking protocols.
I found a useful picture of the fullsize Mi9-29 that this plane is modeled after. I was confused where to put a couple of decals, there is a Crest and an "0921" that is on the forward lower part of the tail fin and this picture shows where they are located.
https://youtu.be/U27tP40nabg This is exactly what happened to mine and exactly how mine went down... seems like lots of people are having the same issue
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