RC Jet PERFECTION - Freewing F-14A Tomcat Twin 64mm

Finally, a fighter jet that's small enough to fit Tom Cruise. Hi there, I'm Jon, this is Two Brothers RC, and this is the Freewing F-14 Twin 64mm. Let's get straight to the point. If you're flying this jet and you want the most out of it, I'm going to tell you to bypass the stock gyro. If you want to know how, skip to the chapter called Setup Guide. If you want to know why, here's a few examples. Holy crap! The F-14 is nothing short of near perfection. It's about as good as you're going to get in the 64mm range, so let's hop right into the review section, starting with... the landing gear. Now, since this is a twin 64 instead of a single 64, the F-14 is closer to a single 80mm jet in both fit, finish, and features. So, we'll be using the 80-90mm jet review scale for it. The gear are exceptional. Everything about them, except for the wheels, is best in class. I'm going to die on this hill, and I will not stop talking about it. Hard plastic wheels are doo-doo, and I am tired of paying for, or being sent, expensive airframes that come with plastic tread that has no shock absorption and sounds like a dumpster rolling down five flights of stairs. The struts are solid aluminum with trailing link suspension, and the main wheels twist inward and are mostly hidden by the fuselage and missile rails. The F-14 gets a 4 out of 5 here. Pro tip to every manufacturer out there, if you want us to rate your gear 5 out of 5, the best way to do that is to start making jets that sound like this, and don't sound like this. If you want yours to sound better on landing and take even harder impacts, upgrade to Dubro low-bounce tread at wheels. We'll talk about that later in the vid. The only other issue that I had here with the landing gear that isn't factored into the scoring is the retract sequencer on the Tomcat's wiring board. Now, I'm not going to ding Freewing for this one, but this is inexcusable. I just threw the gear. Look at how slow this is. Inexcusable. This should not take this long. If I need to get this plane down, and I need to get it down in a hurry, and I'm running out of battery power, that is a 15 second delay. There is no reason for that to happen in 2024. Freewing, please, fix this. Whoever is listening, MotionRC, whoever's out there, get them to stop doing this. I should not have to sequence my own landing gear to get the door to operate in a reasonable amount of time. In terms of flight time, I was almost pushing 5 minute flights on SMC4400 high voltage batteries, even on these blustery days that I had to work with, so I know it's possible to get 5 minutes with heavier batteries and less windier days to fly. The Tomcat 64 is getting a 5 out of 5 in the flight time section here, which is a first for a jet on the channel using this new rating system. This airport has atrocious winds, but on a 4400 SMC battery, we've got 4 minutes and 24 seconds of flight time. A lot of that hellish, freakish annoyance dealing with this massive wind that we're flying in. I'll put it up into a spin. The Tomcat 64 is capable of all the post-stall shenanigans that I could force the F-14-80 to fly. Flat spins. Cobra spins. Cobra maneuvers. High alpha. And it comes out of the box with a high-powered 6-cell compatible power system, unlike the 80. The wing sweep servos can be set to any position that you want. It maneuvers with absolute ease, and making it less nose-heavy is as simple as pushing a battery to the back of the jet, assuming you follow my setup guide and wire it up the way I did, so most of the way to shift it rearward. The Tomcat can maneuver easily in the runway corridor, and stall recovery is simple. The fit and finish on this jet are top-notch. The paint quality is fantastic. The foam isn't deformed or weird out of the box. All of the control surfaces are hinged using plastic for longevity. And it actually has decals instead of stickers. And it has full-flying stabilators, just like the full-scale F-14, which is why it does all of this awesome post-stall flying so well. The Tomcat 64 earns a 19 out of 20, which is the highest scoring airframe that we've reviewed so far under the impartial review system that we're holding ourselves to now. To sum up this entire video, the Tomcat 64 is everything that the Tomcat 80 should have been out of the box. Motion should have thrown some weight around with Freewing and forced them to start releasing the 80 with an updated power system and a better landing gear setup. But, unfortunately, we're still stuck with it being what it was when it first came out nearly 10 years ago. I'm thankful that Freewing got the Tomcat 64 right, so let's see them start making the 80 worth flying out of the box and not a total project plane that requires many hundreds of dollars worth of effort to fly it. With the SMC-4400 placed right there, exactly in that position, my center of gravity balances about 10 millimeters behind the wing marks. I'm gonna make it so I don't look like I'm flipping you guys off. So, right there. Which, if you look at my fingers, is about 10 millimeters behind the center of gravity marks. That's where it flies really well for me. If it was a less windy day, I think I could get it further back, but the plane did feel kind of unstable the first time I flew it like that. Highly recommend either CG mark or 10 millimeters behind. Probably not much else. Where the Tomcat doesn't shine is in blustery winds, so be really careful if you plan to take it out on days like that. It can stall easily in wind, and it's hard to fly in strong crosswinds. This isn't something that I'm going to hold against it because not many jets handle variable winds well, if at all, and none of them enjoy wind shear. Some of the wind shear that we flew in was so insane that the jet went knife edge from the shear coming out of the cover of the tree line. On the second day of filming, landing it was really hard. I have serious doubts that I would have been able to keep control of the jet without my custom 10 channel setup and full throws. Limited throws and turbulent conditions are a recipe for disaster. Landing this plane in turbulence is not fun and is very difficult. The best advice I can say is come in with no flaps and hope for the best. Get it as flat as you can get it, because this is hell right now for this plane. It's just getting bounced around everywhere, and it does not want to respond to commands. It's like wrestling an alligator in the sky. It's awful. It's not even the plane's fault, it's just the design of the plane does not lend itself well to flying through turbulence. It just gets rocked and kicked around constantly, and then when you go to maneuver it and you try to get it into position to line up at the runway, it either resists the input because it's getting blown around, or it just feels like it's going to fall out of the sky and stall. It's nerve-wracking. These planes are expensive. Normally anxiety doesn't get to me, and it didn't get to me here, but it is not easy to fly this plane in turbulence at all. This airport has atrocious winds. If you can find a less windy day to fly, the 64 Tomcat is just perfection in the sky. Every maneuver that you want to do with a jet can be replicated with it, but unlike the 80 millimeter, it doesn't suck out of the box and doesn't require a ton of effort to make it good. Freewing got this right, but it still annoys me that they continue to sell the 80 millimeter in such a poor stock condition. So if you want my viewpoint on which jet to buy, get the 64. It's less hassle, less expensive, and for the cost of the two high-tech HS85MG stabilator servos we tossed in and upgraded wheels, it's still cheaper than the stock 80 millimeter, which needs a new pair of motors, new 100 amp ESCs, new stab servos, landing gear reinforcement, and better wheels. Throttle to half sweep mix. Not as impressive as full sweep. It's still pretty cool. Full throttle, it'll come in. Watch the wings sweep as we turn away. Oops, sorry. Throttle to full gain or full sweep. The more the throttle is applied, the more the wings sweep back. Throttle back. Throttle up. Throttle back. Throttle up. That's so freaking cool, man. You got your own Tomcat that flies like the real deal now. I'll cover both takeoff and landing now so you know what to expect before we move on to the setup guide. Both takeoff and landing will require some knowledge of how to fly a jet, meaning that this is definitely not a beginner level jet. Starting with takeoff, keep in mind rotation speed when you begin the rotation. If you rotate too early, you will drop a wing. This can be exacerbated by wind shear as you see here. If you're not running my setup, you can very likely stall it into the ground. Rotate it too early. And that's why having differential stabilators is a great idea because I was able to correct that before it turned into a full-fledged crash. On landing, you need to fly the jet all the way down to touchdown. It is not going to float in. This is not a Habu. This is a Tomcat. It has weight that those thin wings are carrying. To keep it airborne until it touches down, you need throttle. Not much, but just enough to keep it going. Angle of attack here is not your friend. Come in flat and don't flare until you're very close to the ground, otherwise you will drop a wing, even if you land without flaps. Keep this advice in mind and practice your takeoffs and landings. You will be a better pilot for it, and your Tomcat will thank you for not getting scraped up. Final thoughts on this jet. This thing is absolutely, utterly amazing. This is probably my favorite jet that I've flown so far. I loved the 80 millimeter Tomcat. This is everything that the 80 should have been out of the box. I don't have to change the power system. I don't have to change the struts. I did change the wheels because I don't like it when my wheels sound like a dumpster rolling down five flights of stairs. I did put on Dubrow 1.75 inch low bounce wheels, so nice and swishy, and 2.25 inch main wheels. Other than that, that's the only upgrade I made to this jet. I am flying on an AR10360T receiver, which is nestled right here, and I have the antenna wired right there, side to side, and going forward right in here, in this exact spot where my finger is. And of that entire flight, how many frame losses did we have? 19 frame losses, which is nothing less than amazing. No remote receiver or anything. So we're going to cut to the internals of the plane in a second. I'll show you guys what that looks like, and then we'll go to the setup video. All right, so let's take a look at the internals of the jet so you guys can see where to put your antennas, and also get your best CG placement. So, lifting up the wing shoulder plate here, you can see that I got my AR10360T sitting in between these two foam blocks that the wing servos are connected to, and then I've got the entire, uh, what do you call this thing? The uh, the gyro board basically bypassed for everything but the landing gear. So get in there and take a look. Normally all the connections go into here, they're all removed, and I have it all ran directly to my receiver. So I'm using my integrated gyro on my AR1063, or 10360T that is, and that is basically the gist of it, except for the antenna placements. There's one going here, side to side, and the other one, see the cable going right there? Can you get a good shot of that, where my finger is? Yeah. It's wired through here, over to there, and then I just kind of shoved it into this part where the, that component, that archway thing here controls, or controls, connects to and holds the canopy in position. And that gave me perfect reception. You do not need the extra weight of a remote receiver. Put it in there by all means if you think it's necessary, but I'm telling you from personal experience, even with all that wiring in there, 19 frame losses on a four minute, four and a half minute flight, almost five minutes. Fantastic jet. This thing is nothing short of phenomenal. Love it. Let's cut to the setup and show you guys what it's capable of. Getting the best CG placement for the Tomcat means that you need to get all the wiring as far back as you can by placing the receiver where mine is and removing the mail-to-mail leads from the gyro board, except for the landing gear wire. You'll power the lights and the gear, but you bypass the board so you can run your own AS3X gyro. You also save 32 grams of nothing but wiring out of the jet by bypassing the stock gyro board. These are my recommended antennae placement. Put them in the same spot that I did and you won't have a single problem with reception. If you want an afterburner, I highly recommend the KMRC double burner unit. It's unobtrusive and inexpensive. Just fix it in place with a piece of fiberglass tape and it'll stay out of the way. Next, replace the stock stab servos with high-tech HS85MGs. You don't need metal arms like mine, but you should use an arm with two holes. Then place the pushrod in the outermost hole. Put the stabilator ball link on the innermost hole. Use a dremel and use a cut-off wheel to open up a small track for the collar screw so it doesn't impede the stabilator's full travel. This guide assumes that you'll be using a 2 aileron, 1 flap wing with a dual elevator, 1 rudder tail. If you want gyro stabilization and roll and pitch on the stabilators, which I highly recommend, join us on discord via the link in the description and ping me directly. I will walk you through it by linking you to a guide I wrote. For servo setup, in travel, both ailerons are set to 150 travel up and down. Stabilators are set to negative 110 down and 150 up, otherwise they'll bind. Flaps are set to negative 125 up so they're flush against the wing, and 70 down so they don't bind the servos. The steering servo is set to 150 travel, and the wing sweep servos are set to negative 135 and 150 travel. Going to rates, my rates are 100% with the gear up for ailerons and elevator with 75% expo. Rudder is 100% rates with 85% expo at all times. With the gear down, rates are 47% with 50% expo. This works great for me, but your taste may vary. The flap system is run by switch D with a speed of 5 seconds to help with airflow transition. Position 0 is negative 100 flap. Position 1 is negative 40 flap, negative 8 elevator, and negative 53 crow. Position 2 is 0 flap, negative 10 elevator, and negative 90 crow. This flap configuration produces a ton of lift, it's true to scale, and the stabilators are appropriately pitched to offset the pitch down moment that the wings generate in this configuration. For mixes, I have two stabilization mixes that are run by two separate gain channels that the receiver sees. To get this to function, I need to throttle up the jet first, and then I can demonstrate how effective it is. This is what I call my flight computer mixing. With flaps up, both mixes create a light to moderate amount of stabilization as the jet flies. When I throw the flap switch, the jet acts like it has a flight computer when I'm at landing thrust, because I set a custom curve point to drive the gain channel incredibly high at that throttle setting, so the jet is as stabilized as it can be during landing. This makes a huge difference in how the jet handles and keeps it from wrecking easily in wind. It also makes landings way easier too. The values are on screen. A point was set at negative 50 on the throttle curve to drive the gains very high for both takeoff and landing flap settings, making it easier to land the jet in any wind conditions. Assuming it's not too turbulent like it was during filming, because even the best gyro mixing work can't fix wind shear. The next mix is the differential stabilator mix, which is often called Taylorons. This is the mix that causes both stabs to drive the jet and roll, not just pitch. This is a simple mix of the aileron system to the left elevator channel. On spectrum radios, this makes the elevator servos operate differentially so they can be used in roll. The rates needed are 100 and 100% and it's left on. The next mix dampens the ailerons when the wings are swept using switch D2. This is a simple mix of the aileron system to the right aileron channel, which drives the roll response of the aileron servos. The mix is controlled by switch D2 and the rate is 75 negative and 75 negative, which reduces the amount of roll the ailerons can produce in comparison to the For the steering, this is a simple mix of the rudder system to the AX-3 channel, which is the channel that my nose wheel is assigned to. This mix is 90 and 120, but this is a holdover from my old ADF-14 so it should actually be set to 100 and 100, which is what you see me doing on screen now. This gives full 150 travel to the nose wheel which helps make the jet turn way better than it does in stock form. Steering trim is another simple mix of the right trim switch to the AX-3 channel with the rate set to negative 100 and negative 100 and the switch set to on. This allows me to trim the steering without using a screwdriver and picking the jet up. If you want a safety switch to prevent the flaps from smashing into the airframe, this mix is for you. Set the flap system to control the flap servos, then set the rates to 100 and the offset to 100. I use a combo switch because I have two flap switches for multi-position and single-position wingsweep, so set your mix switch to the switch or switches that you're using. I need another mix for the ailerons which is a little less straightforward. This is a mix of the flap system to the left aileron channel which controls synchronous aileron up and down movement. This is a rate of 90, 0, and negative 100 offset with the same switches as the previous mix. For throttle-based wingsweep, I use two curved mixes on switch B. You do need to enable Expo for it to be smooth instead of linear, and you need to set the points to 0, negative 30, and negative 125 on the first position. The second switch position for the second mix needs to be set to 0, negative 30, and negative 100 for full sweep back. If it sounds complicated but you need help, join on our Discord server and I'll gladly explain further if needed. The throttle-sweep aileron mix reduces the aileron effectiveness with the wings swept based on the throttle position. This is a mix of the aileron system to the right aileron channel. Switch position 1 reduces effectiveness by 50% and position 2 by 75%. The multi-sweep mix isn't needed if you set a 3-position switch to control the wingsweep, but if you want a 3-position switch to control it via a mix, set switch C to control the wingsweep channel, AX-5 in my case, with a rate of 0, 100, and 100 offset with the switch set to on. Now we'll go into the gyro setup and you can see that I have two channels dedicated to gain, one for roll and one for pitch and yaw. This is what the flight computer mixing is driving. They're set to the sliders in the back of my IX-20 so that I can adjust them in flight as well. Under AS3X settings, I use 4x gains with 30 roll, 65 pitch, and 15 yaw. This is the setup that you saw me flying earlier in the video. I hope this helped you out, and if you got any questions, hop on Discord and feel free to ask in the Tekken Setup channel. See you next time, and thanks for watching.