The first time I landed my Freewing A-4 Skyhawk, one of the rotation pins snapped and the wheel turned sideways. The resulting slide ate a bunch of tread off the tire. It wasn't a hard landing; the pin was the old skinny one. And, on my Freewing 90mm F-4 Phantom, the pin that lets the nose gear rotate snapped when the tire went over a small bump in our runway. A quick analysis revealed that the pin was hardened so much that it was super brittle. On the other hand, the pins that E-flite uses in their retracts are soft enough that they'll bend, and you can even straighten them a few times while you're waiting for new ones to arrive.
Amazing subject, I love all of those cold war jets. It looks gorgeous. I fly Futaba and 100% have the breaks on the spring switch. The JP brakes work better on the Electron brake unit, I swap all of my jet brakes out to them now. You’ve done an amazing job ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Well yeah those retracts snap thr rotating pin very easily. The newer version with the 5mm pin will still snap if you side load it truning. The brakes are cool. Ive busted gear on my bigger ray . It has the corsair retracts and a A-4 nose gear gear. Tt weighs 11 lbs 67" long. That why i opted for the Mig 29 gear for the JHH skyray. Love that your loving yours. Freewing missed the boat by not doing a skyray. I have been flying my big one and loving it. Not a barn burner with only a 90mm jetfan. But its a smooth flier and easy for a old man to fly.
My "obsession" plane is definitely my Eflight 1.2m T28 bnf. The retracts keep me from flying where I usually fly my Maule and PA18- kind of rough parking lots. So, when I do get to fly it, I've got a trunk full of 4s lipos and work 'em all through it. I just love the touch n goes with that plane. Thanks for sharing this experience with us, Chris 👍
Hey Chris. Thanks for the content. Really enjoyed it. Wanted to let you know that I bought a creality k1 Max printer and I am learning how to use it for the first time and it has been a steep learning curve but I am on top of it now. It prints incredibly beautiful clean 3D prints that I have downloaded from eclipson. I love the whole idea of printed airplanes and although I'll never have anything like your sky Ray. I have got some pretty cool ideas. Having a blast. Once again thanks for the content always look forward to it. Take care. John from Canada
Wow! Sorry to see the gear depart the wing, but nice to see her flying in her glory at the end. What a fantastic model, glad to see you really enjoying this one my friend!
G-day mate Have you ever thought about fabricating a General Dynamics F1-11 Aardvark Large scale , if you did you would be the first... All the best from down under
It's great Andy replaced the gear for you. When my elevator flew apart on my 182 Cessna, tried to say the glue failed and I didn't know how to fly. Had a guy with 50 yrs experience standing next to me so I guess he doesn't know anything either. So I have a different feeling about Andy.
Yeah, it’s a design flaw. That hole in the wire results in a stress concentration and the wire quality is insufficient to handle it over time. It does appear they’ve improved it though, so we’ll see how these hold up. The challenge i found was getting matching left and right units though (don’t ask, that was the part of the story I didn’t get into 🤦♂️).
@@Thercgeek I just hate how I have to spend $80 for a new set of gear. They don't just sell the pins for the Corsair. Scared to fly it which is funny because my giant scale gassers have 500+ dollar gear and I don't flinch when I land like with this little foamie. Can't wait to see your T-28! I broke my 60 in on 15:1 Klots original and just kept 15:1. Sure it's rich but it pulls the FW-190 nicely. I'm still running the stock ignition but I have the new timing ring from CH ignitions. I can't get the old one off. I need to find a gear puller. Anyway enough rambling. Great video. The Skyray is awesome
There’s a new tomcat from motion for you to try. Also is there a way to fix the slop in gear? My corsairs gear been so sloppy and didn’t know how to fix it.
Unfortunately that’s about all the available choices these days. Some is better than others but in all fairness, the parts I replaced were over 6 years old. 😆
The Skyray looks so awesome in the air Great job! Everybody is going to want one lets see if Freewing or FMS comes out with a kit. I told brent the same thing about his Bell X-1 great work guys!!
It’s good knowing your retracts won’t fail you when it’s time for your mandatory landing! Those brakes seem to work really well!!
Fantastic end to a great build. Best feeling ever! Keep amazing us with your building and flying abilities
Thank you so much!
Beautiful plane.
The first time I landed my Freewing A-4 Skyhawk, one of the rotation pins snapped and the wheel turned sideways. The resulting slide ate a bunch of tread off the tire. It wasn't a hard landing; the pin was the old skinny one. And, on my Freewing 90mm F-4 Phantom, the pin that lets the nose gear rotate snapped when the tire went over a small bump in our runway. A quick analysis revealed that the pin was hardened so much that it was super brittle. On the other hand, the pins that E-flite uses in their retracts are soft enough that they'll bend, and you can even straighten them a few times while you're waiting for new ones to arrive.
Awesome! can't wait to see it and meet you at Jet jam!!
Wonderful video start to finish! Those little refinements/upgrades take time but are so rewarding in the end. Great job Chris!
Thanks man! This has been a really fun project. Time to build the bigger one I think. 😊
Very nice upgrade, the landings look great !.
Thank you!
Amazing subject, I love all of those cold war jets. It looks gorgeous. I fly Futaba and 100% have the breaks on the spring switch. The JP brakes work better on the Electron brake unit, I swap all of my jet brakes out to them now. You’ve done an amazing job ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thank you!
Well yeah those retracts snap thr rotating pin very easily. The newer version with the 5mm pin will still snap if you side load it truning. The brakes are cool. Ive busted gear on my bigger ray . It has the corsair retracts and a A-4 nose gear gear. Tt weighs 11 lbs 67" long. That why i opted for the Mig 29 gear for the JHH skyray. Love that your loving yours. Freewing missed the boat by not doing a skyray. I have been flying my big one and loving it. Not a barn burner with only a 90mm jetfan. But its a smooth flier and easy for a old man to fly.
My "obsession" plane is definitely my Eflight 1.2m T28 bnf.
The retracts keep me from flying where I usually fly my Maule and PA18- kind of rough parking lots.
So, when I do get to fly it, I've got a trunk full of 4s lipos and work 'em all through it. I just love the touch n goes with that plane.
Thanks for sharing this experience with us, Chris 👍
Love the upgrades man
Thanks dude! Them old FW gear were not going to be any match for the brakes. 😆. I guess this ultimately saved me time… 🤣
@@Thercgeek my ol girl needs a full radio and gear upgrade one of these days
Doo-eet!
Hey Chris. Thanks for the content. Really enjoyed it. Wanted to let you know that I bought a creality k1 Max printer and I am learning how to use it for the first time and it has been a steep learning curve but I am on top of it now. It prints incredibly beautiful clean 3D prints that I have downloaded from eclipson. I love the whole idea of printed airplanes and although I'll never have anything like your sky Ray. I have got some pretty cool ideas. Having a blast. Once again thanks for the content always look forward to it. Take care. John from Canada
That break worked real well
Wow! Sorry to see the gear depart the wing, but nice to see her flying in her glory at the end. What a fantastic model, glad to see you really enjoying this one my friend!
Many thanks my friend! Time to build some bigger skyrays now. 😆
@@Thercgeek Indeed 😁👍🇺🇸
G-day mate
Have you ever thought about fabricating a General Dynamics F1-11
Aardvark
Large scale ,
if you did you would be the first...
All the best from down under
very nice...brakes worked out great ! good show with Jeff and Wayne 👍
Thanks man!
Mine is the Flightline F8F Bearcat. I can do touch and goes all day long
She Rips!
Looks awesome 👌
Thank you! Cheers!
Congratulations 🍾 Absolutely phenomenally beautiful plane.
🇺🇸👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻✅✅✅✅✅⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🇺🇸🫵🏼
Thank you very much!
Great work Chris 👏
Thanks 👍
Waiting for your evaluation on the new Freewing F-14 64mm! I think a lot of people are.
Well, I tried to hold off buying one, but tomcats are my kryptonite…so review and possibly refinish coming soon. 😆
If I owned motionRC I would have sent you one first! @@Thercgeek
It's great Andy replaced the gear for you. When my elevator flew apart on my 182 Cessna, tried to say the glue failed and I didn't know how to fly. Had a guy with 50 yrs experience standing next to me so I guess he doesn't know anything either. So I have a different feeling about Andy.
Well, in all fairness I can only talk to my personal experience. I’m sorry about what happened, I definitely understand.
I had my Freewing Corsair gear snap on a rough landing. That rotation pin takes a lot of meat off the strut.
Yeah, it’s a design flaw. That hole in the wire
results in a stress concentration and the wire quality is insufficient to handle it over time. It does appear they’ve improved it though, so we’ll see how these hold up. The challenge i found was getting matching left and right units though (don’t ask, that was the part of the story I didn’t get into 🤦♂️).
@@Thercgeek I just hate how I have to spend $80 for a new set of gear. They don't just sell the pins for the Corsair. Scared to fly it which is funny because my giant scale gassers have 500+ dollar gear and I don't flinch when I land like with this little foamie.
Can't wait to see your T-28! I broke my 60 in on 15:1 Klots original and just kept 15:1. Sure it's rich but it pulls the FW-190 nicely. I'm still running the stock ignition but I have the new timing ring from CH ignitions. I can't get the old one off. I need to find a gear puller.
Anyway enough rambling. Great video. The Skyray is awesome
Can you apply the brakes and then spool up the fan before takeoff? Or would that be too much stress? Would look cool if you could. :)
Yep, definitely could. 😁
♡
There’s a new tomcat from motion for you to try. Also is there a way to fix the slop in gear? My corsairs gear been so sloppy and didn’t know how to fix it.
Yep and may have succumbed and bought one. 😆. Tomcats are my kryptonite. On the gear slop, is it the struts or the retracts?
I hate it when you grease it in and something falls off 😂
lol, right?! 😆
I bet you a Navy pilot wouldn't have had an issue
;)
😆🤣
Made in China parts. You can expect nothing less than junk. Love the plane by the way and the channel!
Unfortunately that’s about all the available choices these days. Some is better than others but in all fairness, the parts I replaced were over 6 years old. 😆
What's the flying weight ?
It’s just under 8lb ready to go.
ridiculous amount of ads before the video starts. No way to skip them. I gave up.
Junk. Why do they continue to use crappy retracts? There are so many planes with crap gear it's sad.
Unfortunately that’s about all the available choices these days. When consumers choose price over quality, that’s unfortunately what we end up with. 😕
The Skyray looks so awesome in the air Great job! Everybody is going to want one lets see if Freewing or FMS comes out with a kit. I told brent the same thing about his Bell X-1 great work guys!!