Freewing 80mm A-4 Skyhawk Test Flight and set-up Review

I'm here with Yoda here from RC Skunkworks, along with Chad on the camera from Xtreme Hobby in Tingalpa, Brisbane, Australia. We're here at my little bit messy workshop today, just to put the A-4 together. We've been waiting on this beautiful aircraft to turn up for a shop demo. So we're going to put it together today, here in the workshop, go out and fly it, and then speak mainly about the setup and the flying characteristics, how to get the most out of this aircraft. There's already some build threads out there on YouTube and the internet. It's super simple. If you really, if you can't get this girl together without lots of issues, maybe you shouldn't be at this level yet in your flying. So, I don't want to upset anyone, but seriously, there's only about 10 screws in it, there's very little gluing, it's all very basic, and it does come with good instructions, guys. The free wing range is a very simple, robust thing to put together. So, today, we won't go into the detail of the build, but we will go into the detail about flying, the CAG, what batteries we use, and the sort of performance you can expect. It's up to you guys, as well as being pilot in command, to ensure that your aircraft is safe for flying. So, obviously, test servos, test linkages, set your aircraft up well before you go out and do your maiden, because this thing will travel at upwards of 200 kmph. It's going to be 3 kilos, so it's a missile. So, get it right, guys. It's a simple build. Let's get on with it. Let's get to the flying field and do the real stuff, the flying, which we love. Hey guys, Yoda here from RC Skunk Works ADP, along with Chad on the camera from Extreme Hobby. In Australia, we're down the flying field testing the A-4 Skyhawk from Freewing. It's an 80mm job, beautiful little jet, we've had a lot of fun. Had three flights so far, and found it to be a very, very simple aircraft to fly. It's quite light wing loading. I think, I haven't weighed it, but it'll be around the 3 kilo flying weight. So, it's got good power to weight, good wing area, even though it's got short wings, it's quite a large amount of wing area. It's just an all-round easy aircraft to fly. We're flying it at low rates at the moment, probably slightly less than what was recommended in the manual. And it just gives a nice scale, smooth appearance. We did put a freewing gyro in it, and it's really nice. So, we'll go for a fly, and then we'll have a little talk about it afterwards. I've got full ordnance on for this flight, and a 5200 6 cell battery in it. It's only a light battery, it's probably only about a 25c battery, so it is copping a fair bit of amperage through it, and it's getting quite warm, but it's handling it okay. Slight crosswind from almost my back at the moment, and we'll just go for a quick fly. The timer's set for 3 minutes, we'll just keep it straight on the runway, wings level, slowly throttle up, keeping it straight. Full power now, let it lift off the ground, wheels up, little crosswind giving it hell. Nice scale, take off and climb out, come back for a low pass. I've got 30% expo on the aileron, 20% on the elevator, and 40% on the rudder, and it's all working beautifully, it's just so easy to fly, small inputs necessary. Nice roll rate, still plenty in the tank, not a bad vertical when you get it going. Elevator's got great feel to it. It flies inverted quite easily too, with very little down elevator needed, so I think the CAG settings are perfect. And all around, beautiful looking jet, got a nice sound to it in the air too. Looks good with the Ordnance too. The air is smooth on the controls, this thing is dialed in beautifully. I'll go through that full setup with everyone shortly. Plenty of power there. Really confident little jet there. Easy to transport, undercarriage is beautiful on it, and actually the main gear retracts and twists. Looks really good. I'll come around, I've set up a little bit early for a landing. Come through, we'll get the undercarriage down, we'll go in circuit. Undercarriage coming down. One stage of flap, I won't use two stages with Ordnance on, because it does contact the Ordnance, so, single stage of flap. Come around. No need to do big circuits with this guy. Look at that high alpha, it just holds that nose up so beautifully. What a great jet. A lot of fun to fly, I'll just taxi it back for you guys. That was 3 minutes set on the timer, I'm consistently getting 3.5, 3 minute flights, and somewhere around the 25-30% left in the 5200 battery, but like I say, it's only a very low C rated battery this one, you could do a lot better. There she is, that suspension working beautifully, as you can see, not the smoothest of strips, but that's Australia for you. Love it, great job Freewing. Guys, jump out and buy one of these from Extreme Hobby in Tingalpa, they have a lot of fun. Hey guys, we've had two test flights already with the beautiful A4, we tried without Ordnance to start with, so we're just going to clip the Ordnance on, how easy is it? The inboard rails stay on there, they're glued on, magnetic for the drop tanks, OK, she's on, and the missiles, basically, typical Freewing, locate the key, and push back. OK, probably running out of hands here, Chad, but, locate, and... I think you might need a few more hands there, mate, but I think we've got the idea. Alright guys, that's it, as you can see from Yoda there, that is easy to assemble the Ordnance on the aircraft, and have it Ordnance ready for flight. OK, guys, we've done the testing of the beautiful A4 from Freewing, 80mm fan, plenty of power as you'll see with the flying video we just put together, I've had four flights so far, no issues whatsoever, haven't had to fix anything, change anything, slight little bit of trim change, just one aileron slightly in the air was about three clicks on the trim on the radio, it really helps when you set it up on the bench to get everything nice and level, make sure your CAG is right, and it just flies straight out of the box, so I'll just show you what it looks like inside, there we go, we did put a Freewing gyro in it, as I said before, it's working beautifully on very low settings, very low on the ailerons, about 30%, elevator similar, and rudder at about 40%, so it just helps smooth it all out in those rougher conditions, it is very light wing loading at only about 3kg, great performance, so what I've found is low rates is where you want to be flying at, you don't really need to go to high rates, we actually backed off the low rates recommended for Freewing just slightly, so we went to about 5% less than what they said, I've put 30% Expo on the ailerons, just to soften them out, and 20% on the elevator which still gives it a really nice feel, 40% on the rudder, it all works beautifully, suspension, the undercarriage is handling this very rough ground, no problem at all, it's handling a 5200 battery, I reckon you could easily stick a 6000 in there, and you'd get quite a good flight time out of it, we're consistently getting 3 minutes, 3.5 minutes out of it, and still getting 30% left in the battery. In the build we found just one or two little things, which I want you to be aware of, the main spar that goes through at the front, through the wing, it's the large one that goes right through the fuselage, if you locate it all the way into one wing, and then assemble everything, you'll find it's about 1cm short on the other wing, I would suggest, line it up in the fuse, measure either side, a dab of CA on it, to make sure it is centralised, and then put your wings on. They do say glue the other spars, which are your locating spars, that's fine, they're a separate spar on each wing, locate them, glue them, that's all good, and then the wing goes together beautifully, do your screws up, you don't need to do anything else, it just works. So just watch that central spar, make sure you get it centralised in the fuselage first, and you'll be fine. CAG wise, we had no issues whatsoever, the battery tie on this one from the factory was up the front, I believe that's where it should be, should be closer to the front, the battery, I've got it all the way forward, and it actually lines up beautifully on the CAG, which is 195mm from the start of the wing, where it plugs on, and it works out to be somewhere in the order of these little dimples on the wings here, anywhere around that spot there, it's quite CAG numb, it's not super critical, but get it around about where those little marks are on the wings there, you'll find it'll fly beautifully. Look, as far as flying goes, you'll see the way the aircraft flies on the video, it's really nice and smooth on the controls, it's not yippy, it's got a really nice feel in the aileron, if you really want to push the aileron with that 30% expo, it'll rotate very, very fast, but you can also keep the rolls very slow and scale. The elevator's got great feel, as you'll see with the landings, it holds the nose up beautifully at high alpha, it hasn't got a tendency like some F-16s to really push the nose up and start floating down the strip, this just holds it, keeps settling in and landing, it's just very, very easy to fly. I found that the landing approach from short final, if you get everything set up nicely, you can come right off the power, it glides in, you don't have to use power at all, it's just got a really nice wing loading about the whole machine. It's a winner guys, I really recommend this machine, it's a lovely machine to fly, looks great in the air, it's stable and I think it's going to sell extremely well around the world, it's excellent, so thanks Chad for the opportunity to fly it. Our pleasure Yoda, thanks for showing us all your brilliant flying skills and your input on this amazing jet, we look forward to showing all our followers. Great, thank you, see you guys.