Official Freewing 90mm F-16 Falcon Thread

[Aros]

Can anybody help me with a quick question on the FW 90mm F16. I need to get a new fuselage from Motion but not sure if it comes with a few things. Does it come with the servo mix board, landing light, gear doors, and afterburner ring?

From the product page:

All fuselage lights and landing gear lights are included. Includes gear doors. You will need to purchase FJ30611097 to complete the gear door install.

[dsmithwc04]

I saw that too but when I asked Motion they said it did not have doors or landing lights included. Apparently it has everything but the mix board.

[Aros]

I'm sorry but whomever you spoke to was mistaken. I just had someone go check in the warehouse and he confirmed it came with lights and doors so the product page info is correct in this case.

[DCORSAIR]

I'm sorry but whomever you spoke to was mistaken. I just had someone go check in the warehouse and he confirmed it came with lights and doors so the product page info is correct in this case.

When I ordered one last year, it came with lights, wiring installed, and retract doors but no mixing board.

[dsmithwc04]

Another question, if installing a castle 10A BEC do I still need to remove the red wire from the throttle channel on the ESC? Since the F16 comes with an external 8A BEC I assume there is no need to change the way the external BEC is connected correct? I was just going to desolder the factory BEC and solder the Castle BEC and be done. My understanding is that the retracts don't like much voltage than stock so I was just going to keep the Castle setting of 5.1V unless it wouldn't be a problem to push it to 5.5v? And is there any reason to transfer the ferrite ring over to the Castle BEC from the Freewing BEC?

[Markopolo]

Guys I just got the 90mm high performance F-16, I have the 70mm but don’t need to use flaperons. Is it advisable to use them on the 90mm or does it not make that much of a difference.
I fly on a proper runway with plenty of room and have several other 90mm edfs that come in hot.

[Aros]

Flaperons are helpful for those of us who fly on shorter runways but if you have plenty of runway I wouldn't worry about it.

[DCORSAIR]

Guys I just got the 90mm high performance F-16, I have the 70mm but don’t need to use flaperons. Is it advisable to use them on the 90mm or does it not make that much of a difference.
I fly on a proper runway with plenty of room and have several other 90mm edfs that come in hot.

The F-16 needs room to land that's for sure, but it can be slowed way down for a short landing roll out once you learn how it likes to land, get the flare just right and you can hold it off as the speed bleeds off for a nice touchdown, I have flown well over a 150 flights with the F-16, be surprised how short it can land.

[gooniac33]

Guys I just got the 90mm high performance F-16, I have the 70mm but don’t need to use flaperons. Is it advisable to use them on the 90mm or does it not make that much of a difference.
I fly on a proper runway with plenty of room and have several other 90mm edfs that come in hot.

Proper landing attitude is really important with the F-16. It needs to be pitched up slightly to create the drag needed to slow down or it will come in really hot. The full scale uses flaperons but with the models I found them not to work as well. I prefer using spoilerons (reflex or slightly up) on planes that require a high alpha type landing because it helps with getting the nose pitched up for drag but then also keeps the model from being prone to stalling like flaperons tend to do. I don't have them programmed in mine because I don't have enough channels to do it on this one. It has worked wonderfully on other F-16s and the F-35 as well.

This is my take on it but there are several way to do it. This is just what has worked for me.

[gooniac33]

The F-16 needs room to land that's for sure, but it can be slowed way down for a short landing roll out once you learn how it likes to land, get the flare just right and you can hold it off as the speed bleeds off for a nice touchdown, I have flown well in over a 150 flights with F-16, be surprised how short it can land.

YESSS!! Its cool to get that perfect landing with this bird. I just try not to flare and fly it to the ground....

[DCORSAIR]

YESSS!! Its cool to get that perfect landing with this bird. I just try not to flare and fly it to the ground....

Really, not me, I flare early and ride it in high AOA with throttle, I mean I have done some really slow landings, I fly it stock with no mixes at all and CG at 118, but I have flown it to the runway as well and it all works great actually.....

[Cape Jets]

Getting ready to start my build on the 90mm - F-16 Thunderbird. I want to run a sound card (MrRCSound V4.1) and it also has the afterburners. What do you guys suggest to use for a 1S or 2 s battery to supply power to the sound card? I will use the balance port on the 6S to use for power to the afterburner.

[gooniac33]

Really, not me, I flare early and ride it in high AOA with throttle, I mean I have done some really slow landings, I fly it stock with no mixes at all and CG at 118, but I have flown it to the runway as well and it all works great actually.....

Flew mine again this past weekend. So much fun with the new FMS 1500kv 8s set up! Was able to get some decent landings with it too! The gear on this plane are s thing of beauty!

[Hugh Wiedman]

Getting ready to start my build on the 90mm - F-16 Thunderbird. I want to run a sound card (MrRCSound V4.1) and it also has the afterburners. What do you guys suggest to use for a 1S or 2 s battery to supply power to the sound card? I will use the balance port on the 6S to use for power to the afterburner.

Depends on the voltage requirements of the sound card, usually 2S to 6S, but on my prop warbirds I use a minimum 2S jst connection, usually just solder jst connection to the main 6S pack. Also installed an AB in my F16 that works in addition to the factory ring burner. For that I use a 450mah 2S. But I'm using an 8000 mah 6S main pack in my F16 with the 12 blade inrunner. Get over 5 minutes of flight time on that battery and about 25-30 minutes for the AB 450 mah battery. The factory ring AB I left powered thru the main battery. Adjust as required depending on flight times and throttle position you set the additional AB to ignite. I have the ring starting at 50% throttle and the cone LED AB ignition at 35 %, but then I like a lot of fire up my .......

[Cape Jets]

Getting ready to start my build on the 90mm - F-16 Thunderbird. I want to run a sound card (MrRCSound V4.1) and it also has the afterburners. What do you guys suggest to use for a 1S or 2 s battery to supply power to the sound card? I will use the balance port on the 6S to use for power to the afterburner.

Answered my own question. Seems the afterburner that comes on the F-16 only needs throttle input, no need for a power source. So will have the open balance lead on the 6S to give the sound card power.

[Cape Jets]

Proper landing attitude is really important with the F-16. It needs to be pitched up slightly to create the drag needed to slow down or it will come in really hot. The full scale uses flaperons but with the models I found them not to work as well. I prefer using spoilerons (reflex or slightly up) on planes that require a high alpha type landing because it helps with getting the nose pitched up for drag but then also keeps the model from being prone to stalling like flaperons tend to do. I don't have them programmed in mine because I don't have enough channels to do it on this one. It has worked wonderfully on other F-16s and the F-35 as well.

This is my take on it but there are several way to do it. This is just what has worked for me.

Spoilerons make sense to keep the nose up. What mm up do you have yours set at for landing?

[gooniac33]

Spoilerons make sense to keep the nose up. What mm up do you have yours set at for landing?

it doesn't take much. 2-3mm max... it takes some fiddling to get right since you may also need to use elevator compensation as well. Totally worth it thought when you get it right!

[Hugh Wiedman]

gooniac33 and Cape Jets the concept of spoilerons is intriguing to me, but have to admit I had no idea what that was until I looked it up.

I've set up my F16 with flaperons primarily to get off grass quicker and have finally gotten somewhat proficient at landing with the nose up, but there is a fine line in stall speed.

If I try spoilerons for landing, would I just set the 3rd flap position (switch position 2) to something like 2% +, assuming flaps up 0 position is at 0% and take off flaps position 1 is -8%? I seem to remember that my elevator comp on take off flaps is up elevator and slighly more for landing flaps. Would the spoileron compesation for landing then actually be slight down elevator? And you're saying the surfaces should deflect up only slightly at say 2-3 mm, correct? I do have my gyro gains substantially higher for takeoff and landing flaps, but if I use spoilerons for landing I suspect I'll have to change the FM switch in my as3x rx for gains from Aux 1 (flaps) to the 2 position gear switch as moving landing flaps back up above 0 position will cause the gains to go back to the same as flaps up.

This might also work well on the SU-30 pig. I've put the older 7 channel as3x in it to use flaperons (again primarily for grass take-offs) while still keeping the air brake. She's tough to keep the nose up on landings, especially with the air brake, and stalls at the drop of a hat, even though it still seems to be coming in hot.

You're thoughts would be much appreciated. Although setting it up correctly and getting it right might be like asking a cave man to perform brain surgery. Hey, what coud possibly go wrong?

[gooniac33]

gooniac33 and Cape Jets the concept of spoilerons is intriguing to me, but have to admit I had no idea what that was until I looked it up.

I've set up my F16 with flaperons primarily to get off grass quicker and have finally gotten somewhat proficient at landing with the nose up, but there is a fine line in stall speed.

If I try spoilerons for landing, would I just set the 3rd flap position (switch position 2) to something like 2% +, assuming flaps up 0 position is at 0% and take off flaps position 1 is -8%? I seem to remember that my elevator comp on take off flaps is up elevator and slighly more for landing flaps. Would the spoileron compesation for landing then actually be slight down elevator? And you're saying the surfaces should deflect up only slightly at say 2-3 mm, correct? I do have my gyro gains substantially higher for takeoff and landing flaps, but if I use spoilerons for landing I suspect I'll have to change the FM switch in my as3x rx for gains from Aux 1 (flaps) to the 2 position gear switch as moving landing flaps back up above 0 position will cause the gains to go back to the same as flaps up.

This might also work well on the SU-30 pig. I've put the older 7 channel as3x in it to use flaperons (again primarily for grass take-offs) while still keeping the air brake. She's tough to keep the nose up on landings, especially with the air brake, and stalls at the drop of a hat, even though it still seems to be coming in hot.

You're thoughts would be much appreciated. Although setting it up correctly and getting it right might be like asking a cave man to perform brain surgery. Hey, what coud possibly go wrong?

I think that the proper word is reflex... which is when the wing surface goes up slightly.I have had the best luck using them with my super slippery pylon racer. It would not slow down at all unless I was able to get it into a draggy configuration. using a slight amount of reflex did that and made it manageable on landing. When I land my F-16 I always pitch it up into a draggy high alpha attitude to get it to slow down. Adding in reflex has helped on a couple EDF models as well. I think that what you are mentioning will work pretty good. I have seen others do it with them but haven't actually done it myself with this one. Having a switch that will do both like you mention should work pretty good! reflex has also lessened the tendency to drop a wing when the plane gets slow too. Flaperons tend to get kinda tippy at times from what I have noticed...

[Hugh Wiedman]

Thanks gooniac33 , appreciate it. I may try this first on the SU-30 as I think I'm comfortable with the F-16 landing nose up with flaperons for the time being. The Su-30 on the other hand is always a hit or miss on landing. Half the time I got the exact right speed and the nose up, the other half more of a 3 point landing seeming a bit hot. Then there's the occasional looks like a perfect nose up landing 3 feet off the deck but then a quick drop down the last couple feet as I hit the stall speed. Those are the ones that piss me off.