Elevator Trust on the Freewing Mig-29, flight, discussion, setup and tips

[@davidsnyder238]

Excellent assessment on the Mig. Many of us have had nothing but success with this bird. I have nearly 50 flights on mine now with only using the upgraded servos from Motion. I did add a longer piece of carbon rod for a better fit as I have done this for many years and found no issues. I do use the reflex and my CG is 10mm behind recommended. Those are the only changes I have made. My elevator rates are very close to yours and I also turned down the aileron throws substantially. My biggest issue with what i see in the crashes and I have said this before. For as many crashes as we see, there are hundreds of flights that are occurring with no issues. There is no way to truly quantify if there is a real issue with out that data. Great video.

[@Flight6677]

@ David Snyder - What are your throws on the elevator and aileron? Low rates and High rates please. Thanks.

[@davidsnyder238]

@@Flight6677 high rates, 65% aileron 5% expo, elevator 80% 5%, 70% 40% for steering. Low Rates in same order: 50% 10%, 70% 10%, 60% 45%. Most if not all of my flying is in low rates. High rate elevator travel is about 35mm, low rate 30mm. Aileron high rate is 22mm, low is 18mm. I have 4mm of reflex in my ailerons and flaps. Rudder throws i left at book. Ill caveat all this with EVERYBODY FLIES DIFFERENTLY. what i have set up may nor work for you. Good luck!

[@roanlagos]

Great video! Thanks so much for dispelling some issues people have with this plane. I got mine second hand with the standard mods done to it and have had zero problems or hints of problems. I fly mine at the stock cg setup as per the manual and put the flaps down at a reasonable speed. The amount of energy people have expended on RCGroups whining about crashes after setting flaps down at high speed is frankly unbelievable.. There is a reason why there are flap limits in full size aircraft.. Thanks for the the video!

[@JustPlaneCrazy]

Spot on!

[@JohnVHRC]

flew mine stock, I have zero issues with it

[@alphamrc309]

Hi Brenden, thanks for your input! Always valuable to share and keep comms open. Context is king.

[@P51Dfan]

I'm waiting for my Hanger 9 rods to arrive so I can replace the Freewing rods. I actually trust the existing stuff but I'm going to replace them out of an abundance of caution. Nice assessment.

[@natecougoule9468]

No mods on mine love it Mig 29 has a thing where the elevators exceed there aero dynamic limits before everything else keep that in mind plane is great

[@DadsRCHangar]

Some great tips, just received mine and need to look what mods FW have done. 👍🏻

[@mrparamedico25]

Excellent flight and great mods, thanks for sharing.

[@juliansawyer9845]

Great job I have the same jet I'm flying at SWAP South West Airpark in Maryland I would love to visit DC Rc

[@RussianThunderrr]

Ah, what a beautiful looking jet! Looks very scale, good job flying it.

[@ErniePhillips-vl3jp]

I been having trouble with the pushrod we're did u get your stuff and what size that u Ernie

[@frankflyrc]

Hey, welcome down to the DMV area, and great flying! I belong to NVRC right across the river, and have flown at DCRC before with the FMS P-40B! They have a nice, paved runway!:) It would've been fun to fly with you! On that note, mine's bone stock, and flies just fine! Well, the only mod I made was I strapped down the linkages to the servo horns with mini nylon zip ties. Many more good landings!

[@JustPlaneCrazy]

Send me your contact info. [e-mail]

[@iansrc4152]

Hi Brendan, just wondering if the zeee 5200mah 6 cell lipos you mentioned on one of your mig videos are a good option for this jet in your opinion please as their now over here in UK, smc are not here yet.

[@JustPlaneCrazy]

They have worked well for me. With that said not sure where they test in comparison but they do the job.

[@iansrc4152]

Thanks, that’s what I wanted to hear.

[@janmb]

The vast majority obviously has no issues. The failure mode is clearly very specific, so most pilots will hopefully never stumble into it. It needs to be taken seriously though (which you do). People really need to get over the idea that personal experience rules out the presence of a conceptual problem. Every single pilot who experienced the "standard" crash, just like you, thought they had a rock solid, problem free model, right until they didn't.

[@JustPlaneCrazy]

I think honestly it’s a combination of equipment and situation. Once the throws are maxed out at a certain speed angle and or condition the weak servos and linkage can’t overcome it. The secret sauce is the rates. People that are not good with throttle management or momentum control get locked out due to the linkage angles over extended on the servo arm geometry.

[@janmb]

@@JustPlaneCrazy Largely agree. I too am fairly confident that the model handles normal flight envelope just fine. 12 flights into mine with no scares this far, but then I tend to fly slow and smooth so probably loading my models less than most. Still eager to mitigate or at least improve tolerances outside a strictly sensible envelope though. We are all human and humans make mistakes.

[@JustPlaneCrazy]

I truly believe a couple mods and turn the rates down people will be good.

[@janmb]

Yeah, servos, rods, and possibly some stiffening will go a long way to sort my confidence anyway Also highly recommend a more neutral cg - both because it makes for a better flying model (somewhat subjective opinion), but more importantly because it reduces elevator workload significantly (fact)

[@Flight6677]

Thanks Boss :)

[@MrFishface5]

Ok now what you should do is put in the upgraded freewing servos in it and then lets see what happens.

[@JustPlaneCrazy]

That’s a hard pass. Thanks anyway.

[@txkflier]

The control horns on the stabilators look awfully short to me. That's a lot of surface area for such a short horn. If the control horns were longer, you wouldn't have to reduce throw in the transmitter. Any time you reduce the throw in the transmitter, you're reducing the resolution and positioning accuracy of the system. So do the right thing and lengthen the control horns..

[@stefanosavoia9144]

Well, it seems the issue with this plane are (or were) the elevator servos not being stong enough for the job.. of course it flies great if you replace them with high grade (high cost) big brand servos... the issue is Freewing messed up selling a PNP plane for over $600 and cheaping out on 2 servos...and lots of people lost lots of money for it...

[@jsean13]

I think it's always hit and miss with Freewing...

[@PfalzD3]

I think the crashes are due to pilots biting off more than they can chew with this bird. She's not for the feint at heart. Hence why I don't own one.

[@janmb]

Far from the case here. The crashes we see video documented generally are not at all pilot errors. In general, some obviously always are, but there's more to it here

[@JustPlaneCrazy]

I think honestly it’s a combination of equipment and situation. Once the throws are maxed out at a certain speed angle and or condition the weak servos and linkage can’t overcome it. The secret sauce is the rates. People that are not good with throttle management or momentum control get locked out due to the linkage angles over extended on the servo arm geometry.

[@PfalzD3]

@@JustPlaneCrazy Ah Hah. I didn't know that was a manufacture flaw from the factory. Yeah, If the servos and rods aren't strong enough for the aircraft, and the speed it travels, then failure is imminent. Also, there could be receiver issues as well. I've experienced those with some Spektrum receivers.