I have since flew this plane two more times and made a video covering what my leading theories are on why my maiden flight was so bad. And I also show two follow up "redemption" flights I had. You can view that video here:
kzfaq.info/get/bejne/b9udrKtqzcqXZYk.html
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Link to RCG Discussion:
www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?4516851-NEW-Freewing-Twin-64mm-F14-Tomcat/page34#post52290449Today
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We had a break in the weather and I was able to get my plane out to the field. I did the maiden flight, and honestly, it's the worst Maiden I've probably ever experienced where I still got the plane back in one piece.
I had all the controls set up per the manual. CG right on the marks on the wings. I did all this to be safe and have a predictable experience. I figured I could always push the CG back more on the next flight if I wanted to.
Well, almost immediately after take off something was wrong. Even a few hours after the event, I have a really hard time describing what was wrong. If I had to describe it, it most similarly felt like a mixture of two (bad) experiences I've had on other planes. One was that feeling of a plane where the servo isn't recentering properly. It sort of felt like this on all axis. Also, it sort of felt like it did when I had an airplane where the gyro was extremely poorly programmed, or even had the gains in the wrong direction. But, PreFlight checks and post flight checks both showed the gyro was moving in the correct direction on this plane and the servos all seem to be centering just fine. Also, within a minute of flight, I turned off the gyro thinking that was the issue. I honestly can't say if it made it fly more predictably.
The plane flew incredibly unstable, for lack of a better way to put it. I nearly lost it at least half a dozen times during my 4-minute flight. Most of that time was spent trying to assess the situation, while keeping the ground and the aircraft at a safe distance from one another. I also required a ridiculous amount of down / Back trim on the elevator to fly neutral. In fact, I ran out of trim... So, I'm not sure those CG marks, combined with the manual's recommendation of elevator position are a great combo.
To say I am nervous about flying again is an understatement. Especially when I do not know what the actual issue was.
I have triple checked control surface movement deflection amount and direction as per the manual. I moved the ailerons control rod to the inner hole on the ailerons servo horns per Wess's recommendation in the video. The gyro seems to be working in the correct directions, though it only seems to work on the tailerons for me. I barely see any movement at all on the wing ailerons (even when in the original control horn position).
The weather didn't seem bad for the maiden flight, but my next flight on a different aircraft about 10 minutes later, the weather, specifically the wind, started to get pretty gnarly. The windsock would change direction multiple times in a single flight and even this other airplane bounced around up in the sky. There's a chance that, perhaps, the weather was worse than I expected up a high when I flew the f-14. But, I'm not inexperienced flying in challenging weather and it took every ounce of my skill to get the F14 down in one piece.
At this point, I'm legit scared to fly again. This plane costs a small fortune and I barely got it back home and there are no obvious issues to squash. If there were, I could address them and feel confident in the next flight. But as is, I have no idea what I need to change or do to make the next flight not be so nerve-racking.