jstanton

My Feedback: (14)

Just finished my P-47 today and will be doing the maiden flight this coming Thursday weather permiting. Got and OS 75AX with a MAS 14x6 prop spinning at 10500RPM should have enough power for this plane. CJ retracts with a robart air value so I could adjust the speed on the gear. The plane balanced without having to add any weight any where. I'll weigh the plane tomorrow and take a couple of pics to post. I saw most of the guy's where using the Eileen decal option so I went with the "No Guts - No Glory theme

funkymeter2003

Good luck with the maiden!

aquarius36

Anyone flying this bird with a zenoah 20 cc. Does it fit well under the cowl. Any recomendations regarding the engine (mounting,adaptions, etc)?

jstanton

My Feedback: (14)

Did the maiden yesterday and all I can say is aaaaaaaaaaaaaaasome. This is a great flying war bird and it looks and good as ot fly's or is it it fly's as good as it looks. The CJ retracts worked fantastic ans the OS-75AX with a 14x6 prop has much more power than this plane needs. I fly it at 1/2 throttle or less after take off. Here is a small video of the maiden flight a friend of mine took with his Iphone. It came out pretty good for a cellphone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpphZUjm0y4

smchale

My Feedback: (67)

Congrats. now the fun starts! enjoy. [8D]

ultimate2

Congratulations buddy, a nice maiden...... now enjoy it.
Manolo.

phakur

My Feedback: (13)

This is a question regarding hinges. I have to admit, I started the kit building about a year ago, and because of travel issues just did a couple of bits and pieces along the way. Now I am getting to the point where I am "supposed" to cut hinge slots for the elevator and have a couple of questions.

First, did the kit come with hinges? If so, I can't find them so I was wondering how hard I should look around for them.

Second, I kind of messed up. While I would prefer using hinge points, this would now be a problem as I did not add hinge blocks in the elevator (the kit calls for them in the stab so they are there) which is now fully skinned. I guess I am stuck using CA hinges (most of my other planes have them) or those plastic hinges with metal which I have never used. Anyway, just looking for suggestions. If any of you guys have used CA hinges, I'd like to know how they have lasted.

Thanks-

Larry

Lifer

My Feedback: (1)

Larry,

I have used CA hinges for years in everything from sport aircraft to Formula 1 racers. There have their uses but I wouldn't use them in heavy Warbirds, or with heavy vibration environments. I have aircraft that are nearly 20 years old using ca hinges with no problems or failures. What I do is always use one ca hinge every 2 inches. They add no measurable weight, so why not? Second, I always seal both the top and bottom side of the control surface with clear Ultracoat. There are several reasons for this including flutter control as well as a lot more strength.

I have had aircraft exceeding 200 mph using this system, and never a loss or flutter. On 20 pound, plus Warbirds, it's 100 percent Robart hinge points, AND the Ultracoat seal.

Hope this helps you!

phakur

My Feedback: (13)

Lifer-

Thanks for the info. I would prefer to use hinge points too but am kinda stuck now. Any suggestions other than cut a hole in the "skin" and add a hinge block? I don't believe I can get two barbs covered the way things are right now in either the elevator itself or the rudder.


What do you think of nylon hinges with a metal hinge pin epoxied in and then pinned?


Thanks-

Larry

ultimate2

[8D]I agree too.... no problem with the hinges if they´re done by instructions, plus the extra insurance of the sealing with some strips of covering.

Lifer

My Feedback: (1)

phakur,

I have never used the metal-pinned hinges so cannot offer experience-based opinions.

Yes, you will need to cut into the bottom of each surface and locate a balsa block for the hinge to attach to for proper installation.

jjkirby

My Feedback: (20)

Has anybody out there used a 2-stroke in this bird. I have a 75AX and a 91FX just sitting around and was wandering which to use and if so do you guys have pics of your mounting, thanks

Sierra11861

This TF P-47 ARF has some serious design flaws. The most serious is a flaw in the aileron-servo connection design. They instruct you to place the control horn in line with the servo horn rather than at right angle with the hinge line which is the way every other model in the universe is built. Don't install the aileron control horn this way, install it the normal way and use a ball joint type connection at the servo horn, not the nylon-clamp-on-a-bent-rod connection they give you to install. Also don't use the CA hinges, use any type of pined hinges instead to give you least amount of resistance. If you install the aileron servo connections as instructed you run the risk of overloading your servo causing servo failure like what happened to me resulting in a crash just after takeoff.

The tail wheel horn design is too weak. I had to replace the stock horn with a stronger one. Also, one of the 3 screws that holds the tail wheel cover plate on scrapes against the push rod. Cut the screw off some.

After installing my cowl it was tilted down and not looking quite right. Watch out when installing the dummy engine and make sure you get the hole in the correct location so the cowl does not dip down. In this case the install is counterintuitive. You actually want the dummy to sit lower from the the very top position in the cowl so the prop hole is LOWER therefore making the front of the cowl higher....get it? It ends up looking not quite right from the front, but the straightness of the cowl with the fuse is more important.

The rods they give you for the retract with the z-bends are a joke. Don't even bother with them, they will jump out of their assigned hole and not lower your gear or lock them in place. Upgrade to 4-40 rods threaded and screw on a nylon or metal servo connector to connect to the gear. Do whatever you are comfy with on the servo side.

I know there are other issues, I just can't think of them right now..

VooDooVW

sbrackets

Made the maiden flight of my TF P-47 last Wednesday. All went well, She weighs in at 11lbs. dry, and powered with a OS 91 4/stroke Surpass W/pump. She plenty fast The day was windy so I didn't use the flaps on landing so can't tell you how affective they are yet.
Hope to get some good video on the next flight. I LOVES this plane so far, I already own both the Hangar 9 .60 and 150 size P-47's, They fly good, but there not as detailed as the TF model.

Merry Christmas!

Jim

heritageman

My Feedback: (4)

Jim, that is one good looking plane.
Don

Firepower R/C

My Feedback: (10)

Sierra, You are right about the cowl... I when I built mine some time ago I also moved the dummy engine down to make the cowl look better. Several of us documented this earlier in the thread. I think the real problem here is that the thrust line of the engine is not high enough on the model to match the scale position. Whether they moved it to improve flying qualities/ fuel tank situation, or simply just flubbed up it is anyone's guess. I contemplated moving the engine up a little to solve the whole problem once and for all, but I got lazy again and just moved the dummy engine. Doh![:'(]

These TF p-47's fly great by most accounts, and the quality is better than most others. There are many of these birds flying with stock CA hinges without problems. As far as the pushrod geometry goes, I did mine as instructed- I will admit it is less than perfect, but it shouldn't cause a crash. I would think that any binding or stressing of the servo would get noticed during installation or on the pre-flight inspection, right? You didn't knowingly fly it with a stressed out servos, did you?

My initial gut instinct tells me not to use a ball joint in this situation, but I guess this is just what I've heard and not the gospel. Maybe I am wrong here, as it would definitely fix the geometry at least. Anyone have any experience doing this?
So your airplane crashed? Man, that really stinks. We all feel for ya! I hope at least you got some salvagable parts to perhaps try again. Tell us what happened that day, or did I miss it? Did your aileron servo break, or did it wear down your battery? What radio, servos, and batteries are you using? Maybe your story could help others here, starting with me! I would hate to lose this model [&o]

VooDooVW

Is this what you are talking about (photo)? I don't see anything wrong with this. The pin of the clevis just needs to be 90 degrees to the hinge line and the screws need to have a good bite into the plywood. I always scrap those 90 degree keeps and put "Z" bends in the wire for the servo side too. This looks to be as short, straight and sweet as you can get.

Sierra11861

Yes, I hope you have a hi-torque servo in there, my servo was overloading (buzzing) at full deflection. Check out how the aileron horn bends sideways at full defection, that is just not how it is supposed to work. The horn bends sideways because the horn is not mounted at right angles to the hinge line. Can you get away with it? Sure, maybe. Don't forget that add to the load will be the airflow during flight. My Futaba 3004 stripped out internally, the plane rolled over and I lost it. I let it sit for a few months to let my disgust subside and now I am doing the repairs. I am going to surface mount wing servo vertically in the wing so I can get to the push rod and horn at the correct angles, I don't care that is will no longer be hidden.

VooDooVW

ultimate2

[8D]Yeap buddies, in the kit version servo mounts and horns are at different angles than the ARF version, so they´re at 90 degrees to the hinge line. Maybe if you used some more strengh servos than 3004, it should be no problem anyway, but really a better geometry of the ailerons servo movemments should be desirable, mainly in high rates.

Sierra11861

yes, now you see what I am talking about. I am in the process of surface mounting my servos and replacing the CA hinges with pinned. I think CA hinges get get really stiff the last 20% of deflection for some reason (ever notice that?) This plane has weight issues so I want to stick with the lower torque lighter weight servos. I know if I set up the servo this way there will be plenty of torque to operate this relatively small control surface aileron. Of course the scale points go down but since I am not doing all the panel lines and weathering mine does not look all that scale anyway

Sierra11861

Good job, that is what I will do too.

VooDooVW

This was the photo I used to sort out the cowl.

Sierra11861

I did the wood spacer and the cowl looks better than the first time for sure. Not quite as straight as your historical pic but better for sure. Fuse is 100% repaired now (my firewall was ripped out, engine mount cracked in half, cowl destroyed along with come minor OS 91 damage that required 2 parts). Now starting on the wing repairs. The only damage to the wing was the bass landing gear holders getting ripped out along with the 1/16 balsa sheeting covering the area. The wing will be more challenging than the fuse for sure. Of course part of this will properly mounting the aileron servos...I will try to post some pics