Freestyler 5 (Konrad's set up)

[Konrad]

I mean if you're just already too tired of it, I'll take it off your hands just, you know, to help you keep your sanity.

Not it, but rather my ineptitude!

I had the fuselage ready for paint and as the wings have the same red I thought I'd try to rush the paint job for the wings. The issue was that I had to custom match the paint by adding some blue tint to the red I already had. I have to say I got a very good color match! This lead me to think I could do a passable red fade repair. So before the red paint cured I shot some base white. And again thinking I could use this coat of white as a base for some color sanding I painted most of the primer spots. I was impressed with how things were looking until I stuck my thigh into the wet paint!

Now I'm known to be a bit fickle but loosing interest after only 3 test flight is a bit too soon even for me. We are holding an F3F race tomorrow so I'll be racing my tired Stregas' and maybe this Freestyler. I moved the CG back from 103mm to 105mm and made some minor programing changes. So I'm hoping she will last through the race and allow me to finish the paint. I'm hoping to get some help with the setup from the fast guys that are flying the FS-5.

 

[2MUCH2DO]

Hope there is someone there. I think most guys (the ones who buy new gliders) put 4 wings on their 5 fuses to make a 4.5 or moved up to the 6.

 

[Konrad]

Many around here are moving back from the 6 to the 5. Not that one is better than the other. It is just that most seem to feel the 5 is more apropreate for the conditions up here. Now there are a lot of hybrids. Don’t know if this is by design or as a result of salvage.

 

[Doc J]

Many around here are moving back from the 6 to the 5. Not that one is better than the other. It is just than most seem to feel the 5 is more apropreate for the conditions up here. Now there are a lot of hybrids. Don’t know if this is by design or as a result of salvage.

Curious - whats the difference?

Doc.

 

[Konrad]

Basically the FS6 has thinner airfoils to allow faster straight line speed. It stands harder on the snap flap to make the turn. Some think it doesn’t dance as well as the old Dame.

 

[Doc J]

Basically the FS6 has thinner airfoils to allow faster straight line speed. It stands harder on the snap flap to make the turn. Some think it doesn’t dance as well as the old Dame.

Tell you what, I'm sure I have the record for the most produced 2M and 1.5M moulded models - but I'm just as sure that the Herrigs have the record for a series of F3f gliders with the same name. No idea what the total is but collectively through 6 versions, it has to be a lot.

Maybe I should continue the dynasty and make a Typhoon 2. Especially as there is a typhoon (Muifa) passing by right now, which was exactly the same as when I designed the orginal. Hmm....

Doc.

 

[Konrad]

I like that the FS has a mix & match philosophy with all its parts. This might limit the design options, but it does make for a long lived family of ships.

I hope you and yours are staying safe as the Typhoon pass. It looks like it will miss land.

 

[Konrad]

Just finished racing the FS-5. While I have only another 20 minutes of flight time on the ship I can say she is a fun ship to fly when the air has some energy.

I also learned that if I pulled a bit too hard on the elevator or flaps she really penalized you.

I liked the CG at 105mm

 

[Konrad]

Now that I'm in the Freestyler club I was talking with folks at the race, and can say there are two distinct camps. There is the pro FS-5 camp and the pro FS-6, neither is rabid one way or the other. Around here we see both along with the Pit Bull 2 and Drops on the podium. Yes, there was an outlier this year with a Redshift making the podium twice. So while the FS is the preferred ship by numbers entered it is not as dominate as some would think.

 

[Doc J]

Actually, thinking about it, being a member of a club that are all flying pretty similar models from the same designers could be pretty comfortable. Easy to compare installations and radio settings etc, nice to discuss flying styles and model performance and the overall idea convergence generally leads to improvement for all.

Much better than being a loner, and pioneering a new, untried plane.

But someone's got to be out there with the new ideas!

Cheers,

Doc.

 

[Konrad]

It is usually us outliers on the Gaussian curve that drive change. We also catch the arrows of pain when things don’t go right

 

[Konrad]

Ok did a post race check of my set up and found that some of my values are the same as TUD's recommendation. Some are not.

On race day my CG was close to 106mm, at that CG I noticed a sligh tuck as the Freestyler gained speed. This and that the wing ballast pushes the CG aft a bit has me thinking to move the CG forward ever so slightly. I'm going to aim for 104.5mm to 105mm adding 4 to 6 grams of lead to the nose.

I noticed that my reflex and climb flap setting were about 2 to 3mm more than that called out by TUD. So I'll cut these down.

Now I'm experimenting with killing the flaps as ailerons in reflex, so the values mentioned by TUD really don't apply. As I was racing a lot in reflex ( I was dealling with very poor lift so I kept the ballast out. I was flying for the most part at a mass of 1.983KG). What surprised me was that my reflex snap flap was only bringing the flap back into profile. I wanted to bring them to the 3mm down (the same as normal snap flap). Had I done that I think I would have placed at least one possition higher. I think I'm going to add more aileron and rudder coupling to my reflex mode (Speed mode). I also think I'm using 1 mm more elevator than TUD lists and 2mm less snap flap.

So I'm going to reprogram my radio to sit on the flaps a bit more move the CG forward 1 to 1.5mm and maybe dial down the elevator.

 

[Konrad]

Looking for some help on how to read this table from TUD. I can't grasp the Elevator to Flap and Aileron mix.

For example under "normal" how do I read (-4/6) ? Do the Flaps move up 4mm and the Ailerons move down 6mm. Or is it that the Elevator moves up 4mm that the Flaps and Ailerons move down 6mm?

 

[Konrad]

The more I learn about the Freestyler the more I’m liking the methodology used in the design. Key to aircraft design is balancing out the many conflicting forces acting upon the aircraft. For example TUDM offers two different sized V-tails. One biased to the other demand yet both are very stable. TUDM knows that in the quest for speed the stabilizer's wetted area is often kept at a minimum. This is done at the cost of directional stability. With the offering of the V-tail in 2 sizes it allows the pilot to select the best stabilizer for the conditions and preference of the pilot.

At the last race I saw both V-tails being used. I love the flexibility this offers us in fine tuning the Freestyler as an F3F racer.

I also like that the airframe has been tested at full scale in the wind tunnel. This allows theories and ideas to be tested prior to release of a design.

 

[Konrad]

OK, the 2023 upgrade to my F3F fleet. This is a move to FrSky's Tandum radios the X18. When I saw the TD-6R I was thinking that I'd have to remove the Rx from the hard case. Well, I got lucky in that the exquisit Freestyler 5 fuselage actually allowed me to get the RX and antennas in the same place as the Uni RX6R RX. Heck, I didn't even need to move the Zepsus switch. I've yet to do a range test but I'm thinking of moving an antenna away from the battery and place it near the servos. These real F3F racers don't actually allow for the best antenna placement.

Yikes! How do folks stand to fly with the single point harness? I really need to get the dual achor harness/tray for the x18!