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Freestyler 5 (Konrad's set up)

Konrad

Very Strong User
What do I have?

I got this used Freestyler 5 right after crashing my glass Redshift. I have to say I'm rather impressed at the construction of the Freestyler compared to the build quality I see in the Zhou and RCRCM builds. It looks like quality does have a cost, but the value is much greater.

I say this as my Freestyler 5 has some impact damage along the leading edge of the wings and stabilizer. Judging by the amount of distortion this impact would have totally delaminated my Zhou and RCRCM models!

But back to the question, what do I have? The wings show no sign of having any wipers. Do Freestyler come with epoxy wipers? Or are they just taped mylars like I found of the V-tails. I also see what looks like a wound in the fuselage that looks like it was for an F3B hook. Is this a light lay up F3B Freestyler 5.

I think I may be at least the 3rd owner, so the history of this model may be getting a bit hazy. I got this from the last owner with obvious repairs. In my discussions with him he said he crashed this model as a result of a V-tail servo failure. I recall the crash and was surprised that this was the extent of the damage. This was a high speed hit on the hill. (Unlike my slow rotor stall that totally delaminated my Redshift wings). Basically some wing dents and a broken V-tail receptacle.

Giving the model a close look with my failure analysis eye. I think I found the root cause of the servo failure. The servo arm and push rod hit the slip on nose cone. This puts a constant load on the servo near center. After a bit of time the servo amp and/or motor are bound to quit! Seeing that these servos (MKS 6100) have been subjected to high centering loads I'm no longer confident in the service life of these servos in this application. I'll be replacing these with KST HS08b. I'll relegate the MKS 6100 to lower value ships as I think they are still OK . I also found that both LDS on one wing is showing a lot of slop. I've ordered replacement LDS. (WOW they want over $50 each for these)!

Are the joiner wing boxes tapered? I see that the joiner is.

I have to ask if anybody has a source for the diamond carbon weave, the squares are 25mm to 27mm? This is more a cosmetic thing as I have some LE patching to do over unpainted carbon. Also anybody have a tail cone cover they can part with?

More to come as I hit the 10 image limit.

Freestyler 5 no wipers.jpg

Freestyler 5 wing LE impact.jpg

Freestyler 5 paint fade.jpg

Freestyler 5 joiner 1.jpg

Freestyler 5 joiner 2.jpg

Freestyler 5 aileron servo window.jpg

FreeStyler 5 fuse servo contact.jpg

Freestyler 5 V-tail pocket.jpg

FreeStyler  V pocket too small.jpg

Freestyler Epoxy filler wing.jpg
 
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Looks like ypu have a 62g high modulous, 55g carbon, carbon/carbon layup. That is light, maybe even the Paulsen layup. The fantastic news is that the fuselage from the 5 and 6 are amazing, im not sure ive actually seen a broken one yet. The 4 fuses break all the time. The 5 wings were a bit optomized for something that i cant remeber at the moment, and thats the change to the 6.
Mylar gap seals are the norm i believe, but i had thought there was a joggle in the mould for it, but i dont have an airplane in front of me.
 
Oh and someone has put rc helicopter ball links in the tail, its supposed to have the cups, thats why they arent fitting.
 
How much of that carbon do you need there are some scraps of that in our composite shop i think.
Thank you. I'll measure but I'm thinking 50mm 160mm, two pieces These are to blend in the leading edge dents
 
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Id start with the MP Jet offerings. Seems to be what a lot of the European manufacturers use in their models.
 
There is a good chance you may have to call soaring USA and plead your case with them, I know Flightcomp has had them in the past, but not right now.
 
The epoxy filler cured. I've now block sanded the LE wing dents to bring the airfoils back. It now hurts to have to under cut this filler to allow space for the new fibers.
I've added a lot of carbon fiber across the tail cone break after removing the carbon tube repair. While the tube makes a better repair (geometry) I removed it to allow me to lay some fiber on the V-tail mount (inside). This mount had broken free from the fuselage. I added a lot of epoxy to re-bond the mount and fuselage. I hope the added fiber gives me the needed stability without adding too much tail weight. I'm told the Freestyler 5 flies with the CG at about 104mm.

In the fuselage I've also removed the MKS entry level MKS6100 servo for the improved KST HS08b. I was thinking of doing the same thing with the aileron servos but as the LDS cost $50 I'll stay with the MKS6100 for the ailerons.

Freestyler broken V tail mount.jpg

Freestyler 5 filler block sanded 1.jpg

Free styler 5 block filler 2.jpg

Freestyler 5 fuse tray.jpg

Freestyler 5 MKS vs KST.jpg
 
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... The fantastic news is that the fuselage from the 5 and 6 are amazing, I'm not sure I've actually seen a broken one yet. ...
Good point about the fuselage. While I have seen a few Freestyler 6 fuselages break. These were from high energy crashes not landing incidences. This fuselage has to be one of the few used fuselages I've seen that doesn't have stress cracks around the pass through corners. This is even more remarkable as this Freestyler did have a crash.

I'm also showing the the stab joiner mount broke free as a result of impact on the stab. What I like is that the skin's foam substrate did not shatter. Yes it is dented, but unlike balsa the damage stayed localized. I've stabilized the foam with epoxy. I'll fill and shape the LE prior to laying up new fibers around the LE.
Freestyler pass through.jpg

Freestyler impact top.jpg

Freestyler Stab bottom.jpg
 
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Be careful with balladt in the fuse, it moves all of thr stress away from the joiner, which can take anytbing, and into the alighnment pins. Im just not a fan, but i have a freind who uses the winch hook hole as a mount to get his 4 up to 100 oz before he ever starts actual ballasting. My 4 is 86oz before ballast, so also not a lightweight.
 
My 5 shows no sign of ever having epoxy gap seals (wipers). I think I’ll add them to at least my flaps. I may add mylar seals to my ailerons. My V tail has mylar surface wipers.

But before I do any of that, I want to get mine structurally sound and have all the basic control stuff functional and working freely.
 
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@2MUCH2DO can I ask what are the length of your V-tail servo arms? Mine are currently 10mm and if I can clear the servo body I’m aiming to set mine at 7mm.
 
True indeed, mine is a 4, but my arms are 7.3mm and I definitely have WAY more than enough travel for racing, and enough to hang myself sport flying.
 
LOL!

I set my elevator for as much as I can get without causing a snap at my CG. I then back off about 5 numbers in the radio programming for a bit of safety. And I set the rudder for all I can get. With V-tails I then try to get the mix ratio to match this to use the full resolution of the servo. In race trim the rudder is set low for all flight modes other than “Pump”. I do use values of about 8 to 13 for aileron to rudder mix to cut down a bit on the use of aileron differential and still keep the nose where I want it.

This is much the same for my sport set ups. Other than my aileron rudder mix. As of late I’m playing with large expo values and differential expo on the elevator.

Earlier this year I had cut down on aileron control throw to smooth out my runs while using low expo values. In my last 2 races I’ve used I bit higher rates but added, to my mind, extreme expo to tame the ailerons. It seems to have worked.

P.S.
This is for my Redshifts and Schwing Corsa 108 in F3F trim.
 
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