WIDGEON!!!!

[Steve Harbaugh]

Abei,
I honestly don’t recall if I needed to ream the props or not. Must not have been a big deal or I would have remembered. They did take a little bit of balancing, but they were not horribly out of balance. The supplied props perform very well and produce excellent thrust and are very quiet. They don’t look very scale though. I have a set of Master Airscrew 8” x 6” three blade props, but have not tried them yet. Differential thrust is wonderful for maneuvering on the water.

 

[waynecollins]

OK I am getting my G44 Widgeon ready for maiden flight. I have it setup with an FT Aura 5 and a spektrum satellite Rx. I have the Aura 5 mounted upside down, pins toward the back on the underside of the wing (recommended location). I have the aura 5 setup with 180 axial rotation to account for upside down mounting. Control inputs work as expected, but gyro stabilization (AS3X) is backwards for aileron and rudder, ok for elevator. Again aileron and rudder are correct for control inputs! Please help, hoping to maiden tomorrow, but not with stabilization backwards. Also I'm not getting any auto-levelling (SAFE) action.

 

[slembcke]

How many people in this thread have flown theirs without a flight controller? Just maidened mine yesterday, and it's easily one of the worst flying planes I've ever flown. :-\ High stall speed, tip stalls very badly/easily, and adverse yaw issues that feed right into the stalls. It feels like just about anything I did with the plane would roll it into a spiral. I triple checked the recommended CG before flying, and rechecked after it flew so badly. Even tried moving it forward by up to 10mm to get some extra stability but it seemed to do nothing. A flight instructor buddy of mine recommended setting up differential ailerons to help with the adverse yaw, it kind of helped.

Is this just me? The videos with flight controllers look fairly stable, and can even slow down a fair amount without stalling into a spiral. I was going to wire mine up with iNav and FPV, but I'm having serious second thoughts about putting too much work into this.

 

[waynecollins]

Update on my Widgeon setup. I sorted out the problem with the controls / aura orientation. Problem was I had ailerons and rudder reversed on my DX7S. However I had another problem with the DX7S, I can't assign 3-pos switch to Gear Channel for SAFE/AS3X Mode select. It seems DX7s does not allow switch re-assignment. So solution was to switch to my FrSky Tarranis X9D-plus. I reconfigured the Aura 5 Lite for FrSky protocol and differential thrust, with auto-level assist using the aura-app. When I put the aura back in my Widgeon with the FrSky Receiver, and corrected the aileron and rudder direction using the Aura, the controls worked fine including the 3-Pos switch Normal/Auto-Level/stabilization control. The one thing that didn't work was the differential thrust, even though I did select it in the throttle setup. I went through the procedure 3 times to be sure i wasn't missing anything, with the same result each time. No Diff Thrust. Any suggestions ?

 

[masaq]

Hola. If any other Widgeon owners happen to have their plane handy, I am trying to get length and front and back width measurements for the battery hatch (I'm trying to build or possibly print a camera holder like the one poster here at flitetest). However, I don't have access to my Widgeon currently as it's in storage..

If anyone had a moment, it would be appreciated, but I can do it myself next month....

 

[Thomas B]

How many people in this thread have flown theirs without a flight controller? Just maidened mine yesterday, and it's easily one of the worst flying planes I've ever flown. :-\ High stall speed, tip stalls very badly/easily, and adverse yaw issues that feed right into the stalls. It feels like just about anything I did with the plane would roll it into a spiral. I triple checked the recommended CG before flying, and rechecked after it flew so badly. Even tried moving it forward by up to 10mm to get some extra stability but it seemed to do nothing. A flight instructor buddy of mine recommended setting up differential ailerons to help with the adverse yaw, it kind of helped.

Is this just me? The videos with flight controllers look fairly stable, and can even slow down a fair amount without stalling into a spiral. I was going to wire mine up with iNav and FPV, but I'm having serious second thoughts about putting too much work into this.

I have a lot of flights on my stock Widgeon without a flight controller and it is one of the nicest flying models I have ever owned.

Very surprised to hear one is misbehaving so badly.

Things to check:

Possible wing warp. One of my Widgeons had a slightly warped wing.
I do use a fair amount of aileron differential. You might need even more than you have. Also, the model benefits from mixing in a little rudder in the turns, manually on the sticks, or with a programmed mix.
Reduce your control throws and increase expo. Sounds like it is badly overreacting to your inputs. Being a scale model, it does not need or like excessive control throw. Small throws will fly the model nicely.
Move the CG even more forward.

I will check mine and see where I ended up placing my CG and will check my control throws and expo settings and post them.

There is nothing wrong with this model based on my experience. It has to be something with your setup, or possibly some odd radio issue.

 

[davidkdk]

How many people in this thread have flown theirs without a flight controller? Just maidened mine yesterday, and it's easily one of the worst flying planes I've ever flown. :-\ High stall speed, tip stalls very badly/easily, and adverse yaw issues that feed right into the stalls. It feels like just about anything I did with the plane would roll it into a spiral. I triple checked the recommended CG before flying, and rechecked after it flew so badly. Even tried moving it forward by up to 10mm to get some extra stability but it seemed to do nothing. A flight instructor buddy of mine recommended setting up differential ailerons to help with the adverse yaw, it kind of helped.

Is this just me? The videos with flight controllers look fairly stable, and can even slow down a fair amount without stalling into a spiral. I was going to wire mine up with iNav and FPV, but I'm having serious second thoughts about putting too much work into this.

There are a few Widgeons in my club... and we all say the same thing... best, most fun, most versatile plane around. We all flew without a stabilizer at first. Always low rates. In fact, the mantra is "low rates, wheels in" because the wheels always fall out. Off land, off water... it's a dream. Light winds, heavy winds it doesn't matter. Then, we put in stabilizers... and it got even better. The worst flying plane award goes to the Freedom Fox.

 

[Steve Harbaugh]

I have flown my Widgeon both with an FT Aura 5 and with just a Spektrum receiver without AS3X. It flies OK without stabilization, but does fly better with the FT Aura 5, and I believe I am using the sport mode. Either way, it is a pretty good flier. I can also tell you the Widgeon needs to be flown at a pretty good clip, and if you get it too slow and try to maintain altitude with up elevator, it will tip stall and spin in nose first. I have the CG a bit forward of the specified location as I found it hard to control and unstable flown with the CG located by the book. Also flies better when it is lighter. Just removing the landing gear for float flying made a noticeable difference, so keeping the battery on the small side (1800-2200 mah) will help as well. I also have differential thrust set up, but only use it for taxiing. I found using it in flight could also induce a tip stall/ spin. Hope this helps.

 

[Thomas B]

I managed to break a prop when some wind at the field blew a rag off the table right into the right side prop as I was testing the motors before flight. Went to order the right side (left handed) prop at A !Main and it was in stock. Ordered it and a couple of other things.

I noticed that neither A Main nor the Flite Test Store has a listing for the left side (right handed) prop. Wonder why? All other parts are listed and mostly available. Also noticed that the Widgeon is on sale for 199 bucks. Hope it is not a sign that the model is going away.....

I did a Google search for 6x4.5x3 props hoping to find it as a quad copter prop elsewhere. No exact matches found.
I have a set of APC two blade 8x4 left and right handed props that I am going to put on my USCG Widgeon, as the original used two blade props.

 

[Thomas B]

Doing some more research on the props.

When I looked at the Widgeon today, I realized that there is no way the prop is a 6x4.5x3. It's bigger. The prop is engraved 8x4.5x3.

Flite Test failed on the prop nomenclature.

I googled around looking at pics of 8x4.5x3 props and found that they appear to be HQ props and can be obtained from Race Day Quads for under 10 bucks shipped per pair, which is a nice savings over FT prices.

https://www.racedayquads.com/produc...x4-5x3r-8-tri-blade-carbon-reinforced-prop-cw

https://www.racedayquads.com/produc...x4-5x3-tri-blade-8-carbon-reinforced-prop-ccw

 

[Hoomi]

No flight controller on my Widgeon. Here's a video from this past Sunday's flight:

 

[Thomas B]

Still happily flying my two Widgeons. Hope everyone here is still enjoying theirs as well!

 

[Steve Harbaugh]

I finally have my G44 sorted out and can mow truly enjoy flying it. The problem from the get-go was the ESC’s. At 2/3 throttle and under all was well, but if the throttle was at 3/4 to full for 3 seconds, the ESC’s would enter a reduced power mode, like for low voltage. Power was reduced to about half and once the throttle was reduced to zero, the ESC would beep 3 times repeatedly. If both ESC’s reduced power simultaneously, then there was still plenty of power to set up a landing approach, land, and taxi on in. However, if just one ESC did, then the aircraft would enter a spin from the yaw and crash, which happened twice. Swapped out the ESC’s and no more problem. Also installed Master Airscrew 8”x6”x3 props and there work great, and look more scale. No noticeable difference in performance compared to the factory props.

 

[Hoomi]

Love the look of those new props. I'll have to order a set for mine!

 

[Steve Harbaugh]

Love the look of those new props. I'll have to order a set for mine!

Thanks. Those props used to be on my FT Sea Duck, thus the red tips. I do plan on painting them another color, but may repaint the Widgeon, so it depends a bit on what color that ends up. I love the factory paint scheme, but it is a little hard to see, and I have those scars on the spliced together fuselage I would like to cover up. There is a forecast for snow, so I plan on giving it a go flying off of snow soon.

 

[Hoomi]

I hear you on the color. I love the look of the blue and silver, but it's not the best for standing out in the sky. I'd love to see FT offer it in some other color schemes.

AMain Hobbies had all their Widgeon parts on clearance a while back. I'm not sure if they have any left, but it might be worth checking to see.

 

[Steve Harbaugh]

I hear you on the color. I love the look of the blue and silver, but it's not the best for standing out in the sky. I'd love to see FT offer it in some other color schemes.

AMain Hobbies had all their Widgeon parts on clearance a while back. I'm not sure if they have any left, but it might be worth checking to see.

Hey, thanks for the heads up. I will check it out.