“This is a nice looking bird but buyer beware of the throws on the elevator, it can go crazy on you if you don't set the recommended throws, must dial them down (I have mine on 70% low rate). Have about 20 flights and all of the landings bounced on a 2200 4s lipo. but when I flew with 2500 4s it came in like butter and needed that extra weight to stay on the ground w/o bouncing. The hornet will fly well with 2200 but landings are a nightmare, I broke main gear on only my 3rd flight. This jet when dialed in, is sweet to fly. The paint scheme is very difficult to see in the sky, I would like to see this in a Blue Angel or Tigar meet scheme. The scale detail from gear to panel lines are amazing for a 64mm class edf. Not for a beginner, more for skilled 11ice pilot. Flys inverted nicely and also a very clean sounding EDF unit. Not like FMS loud unbalanced EDF's. Excellent strong jet overall.”
“The F/A-18 is a good EDF for the money. I got the 4S version and it is still not a barn burner. It is easy to fly and floats in for the landing.1. The nose gear is not built for hard landings on grass. I have bent the strut twice, but it is easily bent back in place. A good nose up landing on grass prevents the problem. Avoid nose heavy to prevent the problem. With the 4S 2200 battery, the optimal CG is not battery all way forward. Balance the aircraft at the aft limit of the recommended CG and your landings will float. I did not need to land with throttle unless it is into a stiff wind-it just floats in.2. I have the low rate aileron D/R at 30%/15 and this is plenty. You only need more aileron for rolls and aerobatics.3. You need plenty of elevator for smooth landings. The manual recommendation is not enough. As you slow for landing, you will need enough elevator to keep the nose up. Too little elevator will tend toward a nose hard landing. My elevator D/R rates are: Low rate 40%/10, High rate 60%/15 Expo. These rates are on my Spektrum DX 8.I am glad I purchased the F/A 18. It is ok for grass (when it is not nose heavy) and is a great looking plane. It is the quality expected of Freewing. I have not attempted a hand launch yet, but I suspect is will do fine into a wind.”
“I got this EDF based on the reviews. I built it and took it to the field for a maden. I had one of the local field experts help me with it. It flew great with very little triming required. Since then I have put about 15 flights on it. It's a great plan and has a very broad flight envelope. I'm using the 2500/50c Admiral battery pack. With mixed throttle I get easy 3 minute flights.The only reason for the 4 stars is I wish it had retracts. There seems to be pleanty of power with the HP set up. It would be nice to clean it up after talk off.Great Job Motion and Freewing. Thanks for a great step into EDF's”
“This is my fourth edf from Motion. After adjusting balance and elevator throw this flies and looks great. Suggest a bit more nose heavy than manual recommends and cut the elevator throw and add elevator expo. Did I say looks and flies great?”
“This is my second EDF, first Freewing model. Very impressed! The kit arrives well packed, no damage, and it goes together in no time. I opted for the 12 blade fan and 65 amp Mantis esc. Has plenty of power to take off from the dirt/grass runway I use and got about 2.5mins of flight on the admiral 4s 2200, and 3 mins on the 2500 before the battery alarm goes off ( mine is set at 3.4 v under load). comes in great for landings. I got to say the nose gear is tough! it rolled out off the runway and bounced around while slowing and didn't break anything, thought it would but it was fine. Great value for the dollar amount and fun as heck to fly. Thanks again Motion for offering another great product.”
“After building lots of planes which require gluing the wings, it was such a nice surprise to see that this F-18's wings are attached with strong plastic mounts and two screws per side. It turns out the plane is the perfect size to transport in the back seat of my car it doesn't need to have the wings removed, but it is still nice knowing that I can remove the wings if I ever needed to. The only parts you glue on are the horizontal stabs and the nose cone.Fan was well balanced out of the box and the plane has plenty of power to maintain a very steep high alpha. It can be flown around very slowly if you're a beginner. Landing is easy on the wheels with no bounces. I haven't tried to hand toss yet. Other people say it's easy and I'm sure it is. The only thing is that the fuselage is a little wide so you'd have to have bigger hands I'd think.The paintjob is easy to see and there's lots of battery space. I use the Admiral 2200 or 2500 4s lipos. Push all the way forward for either battery and that's perfect for me. 4 minute timer. I wish the pilot was a little smaller, that would be nice on a future version but other than that this jet is perfect for the price.”
“Let me just say that the plane went together beautifully. now for the bad part. I hooked everything up and the motor would not run but all of the control surfaces would. So I just contacted support and we will see what they do about it. so far not impressed with Chinese electronics.”
“This is my third EDF purchase from MRC. I have the Stinger 64 HP and I had the A-10 which crashed on it's first day (fourth flight) due to failed elevator servo. This FA-18 4S 64mm HP EDF is a solid choice for the 64mm family. If you're like me, you want one of everything. So go ahead and add this one to your squadron.My FA18 was delayed during shipping due to an event with UPS during transit and additionally the vertical stabs were bent as the packaging was damaged by UPS (big hole in box). MRC sent me a replacement set of vertical stabs. 5 stars for the quick and easy claim process.The plane went together very easily. The wings and horizontal stab / elevator just screw in. The front landing gear screw in and the rear landing gear slide in. The only glue I used was on the nose cone, wing tips, and exhaust nozzles (foam and plastic). I used 15 minute epoxy for the vertical stabs/rudder. The build is very quick and very easy. The manual was easy to follow - and almost not necessary.The fan, esc, and servos were all preinstalled. I installed the pushrods and clevisis for the horizontal stab/elevators.I am using the Admiral 4S 2200mAh battery packs slid all the way forward and the aircraft required zero trim. I'm using the stock Velcro strap but I also stuffed a piece of foam behind the battery just in case...This aircraft is a joy to fly. I prefer it to the Stinger 64, but it could be even better. (And I really enjoy flying the Stinger 64). I wish this FA18 had rudders though. That's my only real complaint. I've seen a post on RCGroups about a pilot adding servos and rudders by cutting and hinging the rudder section of the vertical stabs. If this aircraft had rudders it would be a true 5 star aircraft. As it stands, I'd rate it a solid 4.75.I initially flew with 100% throws and about 15% expo. The ailerons had too much throw so I reduced the throws on the ailerons to 70% and increased the expo to around 25% on everything.The fixed landing gear are very good. They are rigid and don't cause the aircraft to bounce like the add-on landing gear available for the Stinger 64.One last observation, the Stinger 64 I fly uses the exact same battery packs and I fly it with my timer set to 5:00 minutes. I did the same with the FA18 and on my second flight the engine stopped running and I had a dead stick landing. (It was a perfect landing.. thankfully the engine died during landing / approach). I've since set the timer to 4:00 for the FA18 and my batteries read around 3.8 after each flight.If you're looking for an inexpensive EDF that looks very scale for the price and is fun to fly then you won't be disappointed with this aircraft. I've got 9 x 4:00 flights and 1 x 5:00 flight on her so far and an easy 30+ landings and can highly recommend this aircraft.”
