Freewing B-17 (Flying Fortress) Assembly and Review

[Wisconsin John]

Freewing B-17 (Flying Fortress) Assembly and Review

Although this video is quite long, it will offer you a few solutions and suggestions on how to solve some of the problems you may run into assembling this model.

At first I was quite frustrated, but as the build went on I was getting more excited. By the end of the assembly I was like a kid at Christmas.

Putting aside the problems I had with this model, Freewing did a great job replicating the Boeing B-17. SHE LOOKS AWESOME! I hope she flies as good as she looks.

Purchased from Motion RC (2 day delivery). See attached link.

Wisconsin John

Hangar 37 (B-17) assembly video:

http://youtu.be/qYaePGHXV90

Hangar 37 (steering/rudder mix) video:

http://youtu.be/q-KWIzRyDq8

Motion RC, Freewing B-17:

https://www.motionrc.com/collections/show-all-airplanes/products/freewing-b-17-flying-fortress-green-1600mm-63-wingspan-pnp

[dkalwishky]

Nice video John. I flew my maiden a week ago and she flew like a dream. The only issue I ran into with mine is the magnets for the canopy are not very secure, on the maiden the canopy popped off in flight. I landed without any issues and have since added an additional magnet to the front and back in hopes that the canopy will stay on.

I'm planning on flying mine again today.

[AkumaZeto]

I have not bought this model because of its terrible QC rep. I dunno what happened with this model but everyone I talk to locally and online says the QC was crap.

[dkalwishky]

I just got mine a month ago and there were no QC problems that I could see.

[AkumaZeto]

I really want this bird too. Most of what I have read was on RCG so I Dunno if its true or not. I know that many seem to think the quality is not up to par with their jets. I will say I recently put together a fw f86 80mm It looks better than anything FMS has ever done.

[dkalwishky]

Love my Freewing F-86 as well. If I drive my B-17 into the ground like a fence post I'd buy another to replace it.

[AkumaZeto]

Care to share nice photos of your rig? I am looking into flak damage for these models.

[wrongroad]

G'day AZ,
A lot of the earlier units had problems with the landing gear being too scale and not handling the full size hard top or grass runways. The gear in my Fort worked once and then twisted while on the test stand. My LHS replaced them with out question and the new gear has stood up fine.
The props are also a bit of an issue to some but, again, I have not found them to be too bad. Yes, they do flex a little bit [too much, perhaps] but get the machine into the air with a fair amount of authority and a good cruise speed is a fraction over my half throttle position.
I do not fly her often [last flight was 2015 Jan] but she is a good model. I am modifying her into 214 [?] squadron RAF pathfinder scheme and that involves removing the chin and ball gunner position. And then standard RAF camo pattern. Oh and decals from Callie. The aircraft I am doing was flown by an Australian pilot.
I just need summer to come back and the nice long summer days to extra work done.
I would recommend the use of and magnet or two for the canopy as there is a lot of wiring under there and it might push the canopy up a little if you are not careful and I also cut an extra hole in the back bulkhead for a bit of extra cooling. Not really required but easy enough to do.
Regards and respect
Daryl