sagacity

Figure out something better than the rudder torque rod they send you in the kit. Best prolly do whatever you do to fix the rudder (insure slop-free performance) to the elevator as well.

It is my humble opinion as one builder of decent skill who'se built many different and complex control surfaces (This bird's flaps, fercry'ssake) that using the linkage supplied in the kit builds in risk. And yes, I'm admitting that I should've seen this coming.

Anyone can pull up the .pdf of the plan from Tower hobbies if they're interested in the details.

The parts in question should all be solid metal. They're near the equivalent of a coat hanger in a drinking straw. The plastic, even properly roughed up, is an inferior glueable material, in either epoxy or CA. The brass equivalent is bulletproof in combo with epoxy, and the little shear brace would be unnecessary, perhaps replaced with a sandwich F10 former and the goofy diagonal brace removed (though the brace does NOT interfere with gear function, as so many have squaked!).

I'm probably going to go with a pull-pull system for the rigid reliability, and then I'm going to post mad copious photos of it from every angle featuring the new rudder linkage, because it will be infinitely more beautiful than hidden linkage to see a bird on the tarmac that will fly.

I'm not rich, but I will pay ten dollars more on a 300 dollar kit to get fresh, top-of-the-line hardware. Contract with Sullivan, slash the price and make me get the stuff, but I think it's a hurdle kitmakers need to get over, that one where they put minimal quality pushrods and clevises and stuff in a kit. The TF Giant Corsair came with some nylon clevises. Now, mark me wrong if so, but would ANYone put low strength parts ANYwhere in a giant scale gasser? Not me. and 48" 4-40 pushrods? Can you spell RF Noise?

Any way, there's my warning. This kit ROCKS, and flies REALLY WELL, and to have to put her back in the shop is a pity.

greg

wulf190

My Feedback: (19)

Greg:

I'll be interested to see your photos. Mine is still an airframe at this point, with access to all of these things. I will be sure to pay attention to your comments and put this linkage together with no slop. This is a big rudder, mine with a G62 would spell problems I think. You're right about the hardware. This is not a smaller Ryobi or a medium size 4 stroke or glow engine that's going to fly this thing, the hardware should represent this fact.

sagacity

Don't be discouraged overall. The plane is a thrill, but make sure the dang sleeves on that torque rod are attached like blazes. Not just a wrap-around of epoxy, but real true sure grip of the glue to the 'bearing' tube and the former and all those little ply braces, but, of course NOWHERE else. I'm wishing I had replaced the plastic bearing tube with brass.

Then go around with 45 min epoxy and a q-tip and fillet the area encompassing formers 9-10 and the tail gear framing and put some glass cloth strips (epoxied) on the non-intrusive sides of the gear mount rails. The tailwheel on this girl gets a workout!

Then do the same to the main gear rails, and dowel them to the rib with 4ga rod and epoxy. Epoxy fillet all ribs within 2 of the gear and gusset (I gussetted with glass cloth) This is basically all the joints in the center section and the first two ribs out from there on the outer panels, but you will NOT be sorry. When mine first flew, she had a hard landing and the gear held strong. The ribs separated at a couple of places at the skin joints, but was easily reglued upon inspection.

Mine, even with a fair amount of extra epoxy in a few places, tips the scales balanced at 25 lbs 4 ounces, and flies really well with the US 41 (mildly modified). I used monokote and some paint.

Here she is. I hope I don't get in trouble for posting this photo in so many posts ....

Cheers and a solid empennage,

greg

wulf190

My Feedback: (19)

Greg:

Other than the dowels, did you reinforce the landing gear area at all with some thin ply or other material? I usually add some gussets and thin ply if it seems like it could be useful. On the TF Bonanza, I gusseted all of the joints surrounding the gear mounts. It looks pretty sturdy, and my guess is that, by using the included wood screws with the Robart gear rather than blind nuts, the screws might rip out first before tearing the rails and appendage from the wing.

Also, using glass cloth seems like a good idea around the rudder sleeve. How about JB Weld to hold the standard arrangement? A little reinforcing with some glass cloth with the JB should be pretty darn strong, in spite of the plastic sleeve. I bought the plane all ready built, and it awaits me in storage. So, I'll have to look at it again to see how much is all ready done, and what can be done to improve it. How about tail wheel suggestions? I have seen recommendations to use a smaller nose wheel retract unit rather than the 160 unit recommended. Good idea? I haven't bought the tailwheel unit yet, so any advice is good advice here.

sagacity

Oh yeah, baby. Decided on fiberglass where it was visible, and used appropriate balsa chunks elsewhere to custom gusset EVERY joint between the LE abd TE and within two ribs of the gear bays.

That's EIGHT per rib, counting tha spar and LE/TE connections.

I just went bananas on the outer panels as well, with shear web panels fore and aft of the spar (BOX spar! VERY strong! 1/16" balsa sheet. Very light addition! On the CG!) and gussets at the joint to the center and the wingtips. CA is OK for the outer ones. They're more for stiffness.

The dowels: TWENTY-FOUR of them! 6 per rail. One of the little metric bits in your index will be the perfect size for lubing the rod with epoxy and getting a tight fit. Snip, grind the end off with the dremel, and paint. You can't see them at all.

Here's a dilemma. Just how far do you go?

I'm flying the US 41, the smallest engine recommended, so I went strong to a point, but had to think weight as well. That all got me to thinking that maybe you can go too far with all this. Suffice to say that you don't want to go 'too' stiff, whatever that is, and rip the wing off at the fuse just for porpoising twice in a x-wind.


I'll tell you one thing. The sight of her lifting off and turning away left, and the look and sound of the low pass were worth all of this. Bar-none the best airplane I've ever built.

greg

wulf190

My Feedback: (19)

Thats good to know. I have been prone to be a little nervous during warbird flights. While I've had a pretty good degree of success, it's not stress free flying. I don't guess the F4U will be either. Thats what makes it all worth it, I keep telling myself; just get a slower low stress plane to calm down with.......right (all but one plane I own is a warbird, two more on the table and four more in plans!) Don't see any let up anytime soon so I should get used to it I suppose. I will throw up some pics of the set up when I get my plane back from storage and get going on it. Just the tailwheel to buy yet, and building the flaps (oh yeah), gear doors, etc. and I'll be finishing, though at my rate, not a prayer for this summer.

sagacity

I don't know if you've built any other TF kits (this is my first), but to a man everyone I talk to is surprised at the 'relative' ease with which they fly, especially the P-51 and P-47, but now I know the Corsair is very flyable as well.

One thing I'm seeing A LOT of at the field is the proliferation of ARF's. I don't know what your feeling is, or how your pocketbook is swellin', but I've had more than a couple of conversations wherein the ARF was lauded for getting a pilot into a plane they might not otherwise go after, including a pacemaker-saver. My warbird instructor flys an ARF Ryan STA with the OS 91 four stroker. He said he bought it for your very purpose, something that did not angst him out for the entire flight! Nice and slow by nature, but plenty aerobatic, and plain pretty in the air with him on the sticks.

On the gear questions again, about your comment about the wood screws to the rails, I had a 'really' hard landing (3-bouncer) and the screws held fast. The only place that sheared was the sheeting in a couple of places on the gear ribs. The sheeting is a tackle all by itself, so don't stray fron the instructions. Go in after you cut the gear holes and swab some epoxy down the skin welds to fillet them up.

Then paint them to look real cool like this!

Cheers!

greg


greg

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

sagacity,
That is a very pretty bird. I performed the maiden flight on one for a friend about 2 years ago and I found that it would not fly below 3/4 throttle. Made a very difficult time in landing. I have been told that it was probably under powered but all I know is that full throttle landings are no fun. I will add that the flaps bound so they didn't work until after the plane landed.

sagacity

What was it's weight? I've heard of the TF Corsairs coming in glassed and painted at 30+ pounds. The US 41 would prolly die a suffering death under that load!

Mine's 25-1/4 pounds, and if you sear4ch the RCUniverse site for sagacity and 'us 41' you'll find the posts detailing the mods I made to the engine.

Landed flaps up at less than 1/4 throttle.

greg

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

Greg,
I don't know how much it weighed. All I know is that I did him a favor and I almost died when I realized it was a flying brick. I think he would have lost it because I was accustomed to landing fast but never that fast! I will say that the retracts took the tall grass without a complaint

3btc

My Feedback: (2)

I FLY MINE WITH A 62 AND GLASED AND PAINTED AT 25.5# . ALL SULLIVAN CARBON FIBER PUSHRODS 4/40 HARDWARE . HAD TO REDO FLAPS WENT WITH 4 SERVOS 1 ON EACH INBOARD AND 1 ON EACH OUTBOARD . RETRACTS PER PLANS 50+FLIGHTS AND NO DAMAGE OR CRACKS YET . FLIES LIKE A TRAINER

sagacity

Yeah, like a trainer...warbird. Not.

You do have to bring her in under power, G62, Us 41 or chevy V8, so I wouldn't use the T-Word here. The flaps, which I have yet to deploy, are going to make the difference, though. She lands well enough clean so one can see that the flaps will be extra happiness, not just 'necessary to squeak her in'.

The problem with the corsair is not what she does in the pattern, but what you must do if she misses the mark. Again, regardless of engine displacement, if you must add sufficient power to make a go-around or maintain altitude up to the threshold, you WILL ad Adverse Yaw. Wings with low aspect ratio are in danger of tipstalling the wing opposite torque, hense the lore of the Corsair Death Roll, always to the left, always in the low and slow configuration, whether landing or short/soft field take-off.

A landing approach is a commitment in a Corsair because ADDING POWER WILL KILL YOU and most pilots will not look at the situation and correctly conclude that the only way out is to PUSH the NOSE DOWN. There is scant room for error, and beyond the flare speed (regardless of where you find yourself) there is no out. You will not power out of a stall near the ground, and you must know that you have sufficient glideslope, or are carrying enough power into the maneuver, well early in the approach sequence. Power and pitch changes must be feather-light once the approach is established.

Not a trainer. Nope. Not at all. But she does fly well!

greg

wulf190

My Feedback: (19)

Greg, This is very helpful to know. It seems that most report that the flightpath of the plane on approach is stable and predictable enough. This is good news. I follow that one should be ready to make decisions early in the pattern while altitude is still plentiful and airspeed higher. Like other warbirds, do the handling characteristics change when the gear is lowered, wings a little more touchy, etc.? I guess my question is concerning adding the fairing to the front of the landing gear strut. Will it add necessarily to the braking effect? I know the manual says don't do it, but I couldn't see it being that big of deal.

Mike

sagacity

I imagine that there would be significant drag from the gear doors. In fact, Robarts for all the other birds have the gear door hinge point welded on. The Corsair's have none. Go figure. Did they try it and kil a model, thus invalidating the gear door option?

I also did NOT go for a really scale looking wingtip, instead shaping to have functional airfoil as far out the wing as possible. It's plain to see from the scale drawings that the tips were more light-holders. I can see why Cook Cleland was able to clip 2 feet off the 94 Corsair without adverse performance. ;-)

The model tracked well with the gear down, and had little pitch whack on deployment. Mine is balanced fairly solidly forward, perhaps at 5-1/2 or 5-5/8, just to keep her docile on the first approaches. Seemed to work well.

greg


greg

3btc

My Feedback: (2)

compared to my other war birds a ziroli bearcat and corsair the tf corsair is a *****cat to fly .its by no means a trainer but much easer to fly and land compared to them . its my every day warbird now with 62 flights and no damage do to my landing experances thanks 3btc

Guardian

What scale is the TF Corsair ? I am looking for a really detailed, 1/6th scale kit , or plans.so any help would be great in finding one.


Mike

sagacity

She's 1:5.75 scale.

Here's a factiod to make you look at a yardstick: Scale prop diameter is 27.4 inches. (I haven't made one yet)

greg

k_sonn

My Feedback: (32)

Guardian:

The most scale corsair available is the Bryan Taylor plans build one. Bob Holman offers the plans and a laser cut short kit. You can get more info at his web site www.bhplans.com

Guardian

I had my LHS order me a Giant scale F4U, what are the drawbacks ie what needs to be replaced, upgraded, etc... should I also get the scale cockpit or just build one of my own ?I know there was a RCM article on this thing, what was on the cover and what moth was it ?

sagacity

I did a whole series of articles in various forums about building the Corsair. Search for terms like 'corsair', 'US 41', or 'sagacity' (my username).

I had an AWESOME time building the plane, and she flies GREAT!

Get the cockpit kit.

Get the cowl from Stan's fiber tech

Add shear webbing on the outer wing panels.

Build light in the tail end. Monokote instead of glass.

Use the US 41. It's FINE!

greg

sagacity

more...


greg

Guardian

thanks saga but didn't you say some thing about replacing the push rods ?If so Is there anything elesl I should worry about replacing ?

sagacity

Here's the new linkage against the plan for the old one.

greg

sagacity

...the saga continues. Here are the three elements (glue sleeve, bearing sleeve, and shaft. T-Bar soldered after insertion.

greg

EDIT: The tabs you see are bent over to secure the bearing sleeve and glued...next photo....


greg

sagacity

And the finished install.

the control rod is CF, and connects to the horn with a 4-40 ball link.

The bent tube is securely glued to the leading edge and block in the rudder (not shown).

greg