jcblough

The left banking can be cured by really throwing it hard on the launch and flying faster.
It can take a beating - for sure. I'm still on my first wing. I'm beyond the non-stop crashing and only out 2 wing spars, I considered that dang cheap to pay to learn to fly.

aeajr

My Feedback: (2)

Thanks for the update. Your story is consistant with many others I have heard including the tendancy to drop the left wing.

i am no longer recommending it for new flyers. I find the T-Hawk, the Aerobird Commander and the Easy Star are much better for new flyers. I have added the Hobbico Sky Fly to the list. For small areas I recommend the ParkZone Slo-V.

jcblough

The challenger is only $109 now too. I think that so far the freedom has served its purpose with me, but it seems lots have challengers and they live in their collection. I'm just flying mine and biding time to move on. . .

Leo L

A agree that the Freedom is not the best plane for a beginner. Also, it is terrible, IMHO, when it is flown with the ACT. But its also not a great intermediate plane, so it is kind of left out in the cold.

jcblough

It is almost unflyable with ACT on. Unless you have a ton of room. I'm tempted to contact hobbyzone concerning the performance of the plane, but figured it'd serve no purpose. I got $130 socked away, the freedom won't be my primary plane much longer.

Mamou

I've got exactly the opposite problem. My FF banks hard right when I hand launch. Flew great the day before so I don't know what changed. I will add that the control surface on the left tail "twitches" for lack of a better word. The servo makes very small but rapid movements. If I trim all the way to the left, I can maintain control - but this makes it more difficult to fly.

jcblough

May want to cycle the battery. The electronics seem to be a bit picky on the battery as well. I recently started charging mine at 1.5A for a bit more punch and I'm experiencing some problems the first minute or two of flight.

Twitching servos can be caused by interference, but I've noticed my left one is also prone to twitch as well. I move the push rods to the lower holes last night and it flew terribly. I checked and double check the surfaces and all the plane wanted to do was drop the left wing. I didn't get a single clean landing so I'm going back to the stock spots.

hellyeh

I also have a Freedom that experienced the left glitchy servo . I flew it stock for a few flights just to get used to the mid-wing characteristics , i bought it to practice on before i try to fly my P-51 Mustang . It flew ok stock , so i thought i would try out a pro tail on it . Put the pro tail on , inserted the Mustang battery and away we went . With the extra thrust the servo problem reared its ugly head . When banking hard the tail would stay locked causing the plane to do a really nice flat spin until it crashed into the ground from roughly 200 feet up . Only after crashing a few times did i figure out the weak , glitchy servo was the problem . Soldered on a new servo and took it out to the field . YEAH BABY , the pro tail rocks on this bird !! I can fly it inverted as long as i want and even gain altitude upside down with the larger Mustang battery . Barrel rolls are no problem either . It was a little breezy that day , so i didn't try too many manouvers with it . It is definitely way more responsive and ROG is a little tricky with the pro tail , as corrections to maintain level while gaining altitude are made with VERY little stick input . Can't wait for a calm day to take it out again and see what it will really do . Would like to see it do flat spins on purpose and be able to pull out of them and maintain control . LOL

jcblough

I may try the tail out at some point. My stance on my freedom right now is to keep it airworthy for a few more weeks until I can afford a stryker. I'm about two good bumps away from needing a new wing and they are on back order til may on the horizon site, so that sucks.

Alucard1137

The only problem I have with the firebird (other than ACT) is that it wants to turn away from the wind, making it very hard to control in all but the lightest of winds. This is probably due to the polyhedral of the wings, but I am not sure. I was able to solve the dropping wing problem on mine by stiffening the V-Tail with packing tape; before this modification, I would notice that turning downwind would cause the wing to drop abruptly. Oddly enough, I discovered this remedy after reinforcing the V-Tail after a crash. The mount for the V-Tail also tends to come loose, so I reinforced it with epoxy. It seems that these planes refuse to behave until you have beaten them into submission. Either that or after a few crashes, the H-Bridge for the servos manage to burn themselves to bits.

jcblough

I've noticed the same thing on mine turning in the wind. Here's something even more odd that I ran into last night - turning into the wind. I noticed my plane was VERY responsive turning left, but no so much turning right. I brought it in and lo and behold when I swapped out the tail, I had the left horn on the lower hole and the right horn on the upper hole. So I thought that if I put the right on the lower hole, I'd get more demand on that flap as well. Wrong, both on the lower holes made the plane fly terribly. I can't even begin to understand what was going on. How the heck could I loop correctly w/ different throws on the flaps? I'm starting to believe that the servos/set up on the freedom just doesn't like those lower holes. This is my 2nd attempt to move to the lower ones w/ bad results.

jcblough

Well I got it back out tonight on the lower holes, fresh batteries and no wind. If flies really well - I guess my first attempt was jinxed, but here's the catch. . . the wing couldn't take the strain of the increased throws. 2nd loop, my brand new, never dinged wing collapsed on me. 200 odd foot fall later and I got a folded wing, broken tail mount and the "firewall" where the motor is mounted started to collapse. I JB Welded the tail back on, reinforced the wings w/ some tape and coathanger shoved through the foam - so we'll see if she holds up.

I'm shelfing this rig come june. I guess it has served its purpose. I went back to the upper holes on the arms and I'm gonna just practice landings and touch and goes til I get my stryker.

big roo

I`ve had the FF for 2 weeks now,as my first plane I love it.Turned the ACT of after 4 flights and it flys a lot better. I`ve taped and reinforced wings and tail with .25mm shim stripes and had to adjust tail with the 2 screws.Ive had no probs hand launching the plane & when landing i shut throttle about 20feet up & it glides in lovely with a little flare just as it lands.I`m doing loops & barrel rolls fine.Next time I take it out going to move to the lower horn holes to see how it flys.

jcblough

On the lower holes, you won't have to dive near as much to loop, I don't know how much you have reinforced with packing tape, but I had my leading edges doubled and in the end it wasn't enough. It was an unwrecked set of wings. They were good and stiff. Now, not so much.

Niteowl7667

I've had my FF for a while now, and I've been through a lot with it. Before this, I had the Firebird Commander, which is MUCH easier to fly and seemingly more refined. That one got lost when I let someone else fly it, never to be seen again The next step up was the 3 channel Freedom.

Out of the box, I noticed that it was much faster than the commander. Also, it didn't seem to have the gliding capability that the commander did. When I would let go of the throttle, it would kinda just drop. My first flight I didn't use the elevator much (didn't know how to really) and I managed not to crash it. The second flight though, I must have crashed it 10 times in one outing. I damaged it pretty decently, but nothing needed replacement. I think I finally figured out how to fly this thing when I realized that it flies around happily at about half throttle.

It's been a while since I got it, and I'm finally mastering it. I haven't crashed it in several outings, and I've been learning to loop her too. The problem with the Freedom is that it's kind of hard to get it trimmed correctly. Once you have it trimmed though, it's okay. Also, when making turns, you NEED to give it some up elevator too, or else it loses altitude and might crash. I've found that when landing, it is hard to bring it around slowly on final approach, because it tends to lose altitude so fast at slow speeds. My solution has been to take it around, and then cut the throttle when it is still kind of high. At this point, use the elevator to drop it way down, and at the last second before it hits the ground, flare it up with the elevator. I have had success with this method.

Overall, I love this plane. I didn't at first, and was thinking I wouldl probably lose or destroy it. However, neither has happened and I've learned to fly 3 channels on it. It's served it's purpose nicely. It just takes time to master this plane, but it's worth it once you have it down.

jcblough

I agree with you on the whole nite owl, it just seems at $30 cheaper, the challenger is a much better option from what I've read. Ohh well.

Leo L

Even if they were the same price, the Challenger is a better option. I'm not trashing the Freedom; simply saying that of the two, the Challenger flies better and is easier to learn, IMHO.

When you have fully mastered the Freedom, consider the PZ Cub as your next plane. The controls are exactly the same, but the Cub is much more responsive, yet can fly considerably slower. With some practice, you can fly the Cub within a 200Ftx100ft area, which you could never hope to do with the Freedom.

jcblough

I think I'm making the jump to the stryker. I've looked at the cub pretty good too. I like the idea of ailerons and a pusher v/s the nose geared ruddered cub. I guess ideally, I'd like to have both, but this flying thing is chewing up my wallet pretty quickly - eyeballing radio's as my next purchase after plane #2

Niteowl7667

Oddly enough, the cheapest I could find the Challenger around here is 140 something, where I bought my FF for 119. I definatly considered the challenger, but I had such good luck with the commander I wanted to get the FF, which seemed to be the same thing basically except with an extra channel.

jcblough

Your hobby shops are most likely still selling them at the old price. I think they went to $109 shortly after the ff came out.

ryan_m

I flew my FF for about 10 flights and never had a problem hand launching. Full throttle, throw moderately and off you go. Crashed quite a few times, got stuck way up in a tree once, broke a spar, and creased the tail wings on both sides. Then I decided to switch to the lower hole on the control surfaces. Immediate bank into the ground on a hand launch. 3 times in a row it would roll to the right and nose into the ground 10 feet after releasing it. I finally decided to replace the tail wings and it has been perfect since then. If you have any creases on your tail wings... replace them. I am still flying in the low holes and find it handles great there for me.

Everyone here talks about how it doesn't glide... I have no experience with any other PZ planes, or electrics for that matter. I have flown some glo engine trainers (10-20 flights). I think the FF glides pretty darn well... I keep overshooting my landing spot. Guess I am used to the heavier glo engine planes though.
I am enjoying the electrics and starting to think about my next plane...thinking about a built balsa kit rather than a foam or rtf type one.

jcblough

The crease in the tail could have caused my problems w/ going to the lower holes the first time. I've been talking to the guys at hobbyzone over the collapsed wing, and they said they never got one to fold during testing - I guess I'm just that skilled at breaking stuff.

On the gliding, the FF will definitely glide at a good clip, but if you try to glide it at low speeds, like a slow approach, the left wing is gonna drop everytime. I tend to over shoot on landings too to keep the speed up to avoid the stall

big roo

Hi guys
Flew my ff today on the lower horns & i was well impressed, it flew lovelly.nice tight turns,tight loops & very good lazy barrel rolls.I was flying with a guy using a challenger & he siad that my plane flew a lot better than his. Landings are no problems at all,all you pips that are having problems with wings droping ,have a play with the tail settings.

jcblough

I got mine back in the air today too. My coathanger in the wings trick fixed it. I'm back on the upper holes after that wing collapse episode though. I don't want to put another wing on this plane until I after I pay for my strkyer. If few well. the jb weld on the tail held fine.

jcblough

Nix that jbweld on the tail holding - argh! I'm peeved. That collapsed wing has my FF chiming its death knell. That crack on the tail means a whole new fuse. It is only $18, but I think if my re-fix doesn't hold, this bird is grounded.