WIDGEON!!!!

[The Hangar]

I liked the Widgeon so much, I ended up with two of them...

My first one arrived with a defective left motor. Decided to redo it into a modified and repainted US Coast Guard J4F as flown during WWII, while waiting on a replacement motor.

Sanded the stock paint off, lightly primed the model with the excellent Krylon Craft Foam Primer and repainted with a mix of Krylon Short Cuts Silver, red, white and blue and Tamiya Yellow. Did my own vinyl markings with a Cameo craft cutter.

I have a number of flights on Widgeon number 2, which is still stock. Excellent little seaplane. Have about 12 flights off our runway and two as a seaplane.

More notes later.

Awesome!!

 

[Thomas B]

Awesome! Love the paint scheme. Do you have the first one working? If not, consider calibrating the ESCs. That problem screwed me up for a while thinking I had a defective ESC.

Not an ESC issue at all. Motor has a loud mechanical ticking noise as you turn it over, both by hand and under power. The other three motors are noiseless. It works, but the noise is annoying and likely the advance warning for a failure.

 

[Steve Harbaugh]

I have been having a frustrating time with my Widgeon. Crashed it twice due to a malfunctioning FT Aura 5 and Spektrum satellite receiver, either because it is defective or I set it up wrong. Lost throttle control about 7 minutes into the flight both times. I had no problems with a Spectrum AR620 receiver, so put that back in. Pestered the Flite Test folks enough that they finally made some spare parts available and ordered a new fuselage. It arrived with the aft 2/3 crushed and the rudder ripped off (see photo). Contacted FT, but still have not seen a replacement. Got to looking at my crashed fuselage and the crushed one and decided I could make one good fuselage out of the two, so I did that by cutting them apart in exactly the same place and glueing the two good parts together with white Gorilla Glue. Turned out pretty good, aside from a bit of an ugly scar. Finally going to try flying it off water, if the remaiden goes well. Wish me luck!

 

[Steve Harbaugh]

Here is my Widgeon all back together. I managed to join the two good parts perfectly straight. The scar is visible as a white line across the top front just below the windshield.

 

[Thomas B]

Good luck!

 

[Steve Harbaugh]

Thanks for the luck. Remaiden flight went just fine. Only minor glitch was the starboard engine nacelle cover flew off while performing a reverse half Cuban eight. Ready to try it on water.

 

[masaq]

Just put together the Widgeon, and getting ready for a maiden flight. Noted the issue that LIONDOG had with calibrating ESCs and just wanted to be sure that I had done that correctly. Is it similar to the procedure for other ESCs that I have - ie. set throttle to full on bound transmitter, attach battery, wait for beeps, then decrease throttle to zero?

I am using an Aura 5, and have set it up without differential thrust - new on the Aura 5 as well and hoping that I have everything set correctly. If anyone has any input on that as well, I would take it.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Steve Harbaugh]

Well, I think the issue I had that caused a loss of throttle control and crashing is solved. It seems the FT Aura 5 was never the problem. All it needed was an ESC throttle calibration. Rocky at Flex Innovations came up with that solution. Thanks Rocky! Never did get it on the water. Maybe this year...

 

[Hoomi]

I have a Widgeon now! My Better Half ordered for my anniversary present this year, and it arrived today.

Now to decide if I want to slap a Tactic receiver in it, or wait for the new NX-8 Spektrum I have on preorder, and put a Spektrum receiver in.

 

[The Hangar]

I have a Widgeon now! My Better Half ordered for my anniversary present this year, and it arrived today.

Now to decide if I want to slap a Tactic receiver in it, or wait for the new NX-8 Spektrum I have on preorder, and put a Spektrum receiver in.

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Congrats! Beautiful pics.

 

[Hoomi]

I've heard the Widgeon really benefits from some rudder mixing with the ailerons. Anyone program that into your transmitter, and if so, what percentage did you use? So far, I've never programmed any mixing on my planes.

 

[mrjdstewart]

I've heard the Widgeon really benefits from some rudder mixing with the ailerons. Anyone program that into your transmitter, and if so, what percentage did you use? So far, I've never programmed any mixing on my planes.

mixing is easy and typically 10-20% Ail to Rud is good. all my warbirds have some rudder mixed in.

not sure how your Tactic TX does mixing but it shouldn't be that hard.

laters,

me

 

[Hoomi]

I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to slap a Tactic receiver in it, or hold off until the new Spektrum radio I have on preorder comes in.

I've been happy with my Tactic, but the product line keeps shrinking, leading me to believe Horizon is working on phasing out the Tactic brand. There's now only two Tactic receiver models available, and maybe three transmitter models. I decided to go ahead and order one of the new NX8 Spektrum transmitters, as that will also open up a decent selection of BNF models, should I decided I'd like one.

 

[Hoomi]

Went ahead and installed the Tactic receiver, and programmed in the aileron/rudder mixing. Checked the balance on both props, programmed in the dual rates and expo, and pretty much have it ready for a maiden. I need to measure and mark the CG point, and put a square of Velcro in a good spot for one of the keychain cameras, but other than that, it's ready.

So far, I'm pretty impressed with the job they did on this plane.

 

[waynecollins]

I just received my new G44 Widgeon. It looks great! Just waiting for the ice to melt so I can maiden it off the lake. In the "HD FPV Seaplane Adventure" Video Flite Test posted on Youtube, Josh said they were going to make the 3D Printer STL Files for the FPV Camera Pod available for download on Thingiverse and in the Forums. I've been looking but have not found them. Does anyone know if they are available anywhere ?
Wayne Collins - St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada

 

[Flyingshark]

I just received my new G44 Widgeon. It looks great! Just waiting for the ice to melt so I can maiden it off the lake. In the "HD FPV Seaplane Adventure" Video Flite Test posted on Youtube, Josh said they were going to make the 3D Printer STL Files for the FPV Camera Pod available for download on Thingiverse and in the Forums. I've been looking but have not found them. Does anyone know if they are available anywhere ?
Wayne Collins - St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada

Here, about 2 pages back in the resources section:
https://forum.flitetest.com/index.php?resources/fpv-pod-for-the-flitetest-grumman-g-44-widgeon.153/

 

[waynecollins]

Thanks, Found it.

 

[Hoomi]

I just realized I forgot to post about the Maiden. First maiden was a bit of a white-knuckler, due to making a mistake while programming the Tx, and having the aileron expo reversed. Cut the flight short, and brought it in for a mostly safe landing - just rough enough that it ended up cracking the plastic "boat hull" along the bottom of the fuselage. Corrected the programming, patched the hull with some Gorilla tape, and remaidened it last weekend. Landing still wasn't as smooth as I'd like, but no damage. Yesterday's third flight was better still. About the only complaint I would have with the design is that the bottom of the fuselage has only minimal ground clearance when using the wheels, and with our dirt runway, it can end up scraping over some of the rocks.

Video of the "Remaiden" flight from a week ago:

 

[Abei]

I am now the lucky owner of a Widgeon too. At first I only set it up with a simple Flysky ia6b receiver and programmed an adjustable differential thrust.

I would love to try out how it works with it. Just on the ground.

But my first problem:

The propellers are super tight and can hardly be pushed onto the motor shaft. Were yours like that too? Do I have to drill them or is there another trick?
Josh mentions a propreamer in his video, but I'm afraid I might run into balance issues.

If it doesn't work without the propreamer, could you recommend one?

Did any of you balance the propellers? Is that necessary with these?

I would be very happy if someone could help.

Thanks in advance

 

[Steve Harbaugh]

Went camping at the lake this weekend and brought along my Widgeon. Got some really great flights off the water! It was a blast!