hipik634

So when will you take it for maiden?

I am still on sanding, but it comes closer each day

acdii

You're further along than I am. I keep ripping up and redoing the wing for the landing gear. I think I will get back to it when I finish up the 4 planes I am working on now. Three are nearly done, the Corsair needs another coat of clear, ran out before I got it completed, then I can fit the hardware and get it finished. Then I can tackle finishing the Mustang. Its been a work in progress since 2011.

BigTeeEldorado

Ripping up and re-doing, been there more times than I want to admit!!

So i just spent the last two hours going back in this thread looking for help on tail wheel gear doors, of which there is painfully little information. The best suggestion I found was a lever system the tail wheel contacts and pulls a spring loaded open door to the closed position. Just thought I would throw that out since I'm thinking the lack of information might be an indicator that nobody has come up with a design used on this kit they would be proud enough to post. Frustrated....OK....I feel better now!!

I'm DONE messing with the Mains and the door system. Worked out the last nagging issue that was burning up my little servos trying to get the doors to close tight. The solution was, of course, a simple adjustment in servo arm position to act more like a cam lock and take the work off the servo in the closed and locked position.

I've moved on to the flaps and ailerons so work is a WHOLE LOT less complicated and should move along quicker. Thinking forward to the fuse and decisions to tackle there (ie tail wheel doors) where to put switches and plugs, engine cooling and tuning access, balance and the paint scheme. I'm hesitant to use the Kit paint scheme for two reasons. 1- Doomed Plane, one crashed during an airshow and the other in 2013 down in Phoenix. 2- Checkers are a pain!

Well got to go to work, just thought I would do the pigeon thing before I had to leave. hipik634 remember the sheeting is only 1/16 and acdii re-do until your happy!

acdii

Well if you want scale like, you have to reverse the tail wheel so it retracts forward. I recall seeing a tail door using links somewhere, and thought that was pretty slick, but I don't remember where I saw it.

What I have found are these, http://www.sonictronics.com/xcart/pr...cat=321&page=1 , and they worked well for my inner wheel doors, which was the part that I toiled with for the longest time to make work. I bought two packages of their hinge kits, not sure what the part number is, I contacted them direct to get them. In the package was spring loaded hinges, hinges with control tabs, and a set of springs used to close the doors. It connects to two of the hinges, and when the wheel retracts, it presses against the spring and pulls the doors closed. Might want to give these a try, its what I will do with mine when I get to that point. For me the hardest part is making the doors, want them to be strong, but thin and light.


Edit: Found the kits, http://www.sonictronics.com/xcart/home.php?cat=406

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Nice door kit!

BigTeeEldorado

Ya we ain't going to the trouble to make the tail wheel retract forward, I've punished myself enough with the mains and the tail wheel retract is installed and working. It's the doors that are scaring me.

I have those exact sonictronics hinges and very possibly will use them depending on the closing mechanism. It's that mechanism that I struggle with, there is no more room for another servo nor the sonictronic spring used to close the doors included with their system. So it has to work off the action of the tail wheel somehow. I think I have seen pictures of what you describe in a Bearcat I think it was, maybe even yours and is an alternative I am giving very serious consideration.

At this moment I'm leaning towards the lever thing where the tail wheel hits (for lack of a better description) a footpad, hinged on one side and connected to the doors on the other. The wheel pushes on the pad and the lever action closes the doors. That can change in a heartbeat.

Meantime, here is my final main door assembly in action.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwGYTU-w1MA&feature=youtu.be

TheRickster

My Feedback: (12)

I used a simple spring to keep the doors spread open and then another smaller spring for a puller to pull the center of the spreader spring downward after the gear had gone into the well..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ormYIpIpCzw

BigTeeEldorado

I like it and I can see just enough of the spring to get an idea what your using. Thanks for the suggestion Rick. BTY followed the link to see more and love how it turned out. Great looking project and of course those props...WOW. Thanks again.

TheRickster

My Feedback: (12)

Thank you for the compliments.. Here is my build thread..

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/rc-s...n-rb-51-a.html

hipik634

meantime: i've been playing with the door sequencing and just ordered a arduino nano to be used as a simple sequencer controller. I've made a simulation for the door to open and close as needed. i will be testing it on

https://123d.circuits.io/circuits/22...door-cycler-2/ pin controlled version and pwm (RX ) version https://123d.circuits.io/circuits/22...or-cycler/edit

bigtee: very nice gear job

i will be finetuning these as i will mount it. hope somebody can use these if needed.

zope_pope

Hey asjwalsh,

hipik634

I've made some progress allmost ready to glass, still some time consuming sanding and finishing works to be done.
I am a little bit confused about the flaps. the pivot point is shown in the middle of the flap but on 45 degrees , the lower TE of the wing would have almost to be removed to allow it to move down, or the top TE would have to be like 3/16 longer to overlap the space ...
any idea on cooling inverted two stroke glow engine, which doesnt go out of the cowl too much. i think of opening the air intake on the cowl

acdii

Replace the wire Eflite struts with Robarts struts, if the weather holds out tomorrow, I will give it another flight. Hopefully I wont be shaking as bad as the first flight.

acdii

You leave the top of the wing as is, but have to carve the bottom so the flaps can rotate down. There will be a gap underneath, but the top will be flush. As far as cooling, open the front of the cowl, baffle around the head and put a really large hole on the bottom rear to cool it down. If you look back in either this thread, or the brotherhood thread I posted pics of the cowl openings and baffles I use for the Saito.

BigTeeEldorado

OK Folks, after posting a rant about Gear Doors I thought I should contribute a little. I tried a couple ideas from the suggestions I got and ended up with this contraption. Seems to work pretty good so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TApAsKLB234&feature=youtu.be sorry for the fuzzy part but you get the idea

hipik634

Hi to all, so I've gone through the glassing with polyacrylic found in this tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAqlDcfqRcw and finally selected paint scheme. I will go with german captured P-51 found on this link http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazin...acoba_p51b.htm .It is type B, but paint scheme stays ... i wanted to have something extraordinary. Any comments ?
About the servos, i plan to use metal geared digi towerpro MG995 but they seems a little too heavy. What do you use in mustangs?

G.F. Reid

My Feedback: (1)

[img]http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...8&d=1465372483[/img]
The 'captured' scheme is a great choice IMHO.... I have one of these TF kits with the 'B' model conversion package that has been sitting in my basement for about 15 years. Been out of the hobby for nearly that long. Not sure if I'll ever get it built but I've enjoyed this thread. Yes, I read the entire thing over the last two weeks.

acdii

You can fly this model with Futaba 3004 and 3010 servos. So you can match specs of those servos to the TH servos, but MG is a bit overkill, not really needed. Think about it this way, the Top Flite Mustang has been around for a very long time, and was designed for your average standard analog servos which were low torque with plastic gears. The 3004 servos fly the plane perfectly, you dont need speed or a lot of torque for a Warbird this size. If you want a slightly faster servo, the 3010's work very well, and are what I use for the ailerons. The only reason I could consider MG servos for this plane is if it had a gas 2 stroke, but other than NOT using karbonite gears, I'm not convinced they fair any better than a good plastic gear, in fact, I think they would fair less due to the vibrations, plastic is much more forgiving than brass.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

BigTee I love the tail wheel doors great job!

Mike

BigTeeEldorado

Thx

Hipik...I like yellow in the air so for that reason alone I like the scheme, but the story is interesting enough to be a reason too. Love to impress the folks at the field with the unusual.

acdii...Ditto on everything....lighter is better and this is not a 3D plane. In fact I'm starting to sweat putting mine back on the scale with all the "extras" I've sneaked in.

hipik634

for that yellow, you would like my Benes Mraz Be 52 Beta Major

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Nice looking plane!

BigTeeEldorado

Yup....I like yellow on an airplane

Not to scale, sport flyer, sat down one day and started putting it together without any plans so I can choose any colors i wanted. Mostly Yellow

acdii

I went to fly mine today, and had the right servo act up again. Already replaced it once, not sure what the problem is, but will probably have to replace the entire extension, last time I found a mouse had chewed the signal wire on the servo, so I swapped it out, and it worked fine, but its acting up again, so most likely something either came loose, of the extension is bad.

SIX GUNS

Acdii , you mite have a mouse living in your plane had that happen to me once