tadawson

You must be in south Texas. Here in Dallas it's dust bowl dry compared to having lived in Chicago and the midwest . . .

- Tim

ArrowNaughtic

Pro-E,
Hows the build coming? I know you were expecting the retracts yesterday and wondering if you got them and started on the wing yet. I am programming my 9303 for my corsair now so i can set up the aileron and flap servos, then I can button up my wing and start on the fuse. I plan on devoting tomorrow to the TX programming and then finishing the wing except for the balsa block tips....... I will be borrowing my flying buddys contour sander to make short work of the fine shaping after i plane them down with my lil planer.
The issues you had with your balsa is leading me to worry a bit. I wasn't really checking for straightness but everything seemed to measure out ok during the wing build. If its warped now I am in trouble. I will be alot more diligent about checking straight and true for the rest of the build. If it turns out my wing is boogered, I may need some advice on how best to fix it.


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Of all the things I ever lost....................................... I miss my mind the most!

Pro-E

My Feedback: (1)

Cold and Tadawson I'm in Lewisville. I've also lived in Chicago. I've never seen wood (sandwiched ply) go so crazy out of true. The weather here has been nuts, and I agree with a dehumidified room. My woman has kicked me to the garage because of dust, so I get to fix warps and twists..... What can I do?

Arrow . Im still here. I did'nt get the parts on time because of the ice storm. Turns out, I didn't need them........yet.!!

Made some progress today. I have to say......for the first time builder.....this part will make you or break you.!!!!

Pic 1) making sure everything is aligned and true
Pic 2) were straight on the plans

No glue has been added ANYWHERE. This is a test fit.

Pro-E

My Feedback: (1)

Because of the grains (R-1's to TE), CA glue isn't the best at this point. I want the R-1's locked tight, so Im using 5 min epoxy.
I did the 1/2" block thing....but because of the curvature of the spars, where do you locate the blocks??

I grabbed an old LEVEL iron bar to both align and check elevation.
I notice that the right side is still high after trying to true the main spar.
I found about a 1lb weight to keep this end down.

I'm happy.....so lock 'em in (only at the rear.......No glue has been added to the main spar at this point....I'll get to that)

Pro-E

My Feedback: (1)

Wow....site seems slow tonight.!! I guess its Friday and everyone is on. ......Anyway.

Pic 1) detail of how I squared the ends and used a weight to hold the TE of R-1 down.
Pic 2) Ribs will need GENTLE persuasion to align correctly.

Keep in mind.......NONE of the ribs have been glued to the spar.

Pro-E

My Feedback: (1)

Okay....here is where I disagree with the instructions.....and where the novice can really ham things up.

I havent glued any of the ribs to the spar, because I want to be able to readjust any twists.
R-1 and R-2 and been locked down on the TE on both sides. Now we need to do the same for the LE.

This is "figure it out" material.

You cant put 1/2" blocks under the LE....so how do know you're level?.............you dont.!!
Set it up on end and check everything .......over and over and over again.

This was risky......but it turned out very well.

Pro-E

My Feedback: (1)

Make sure I have perfect center alignment, (spars will be a little out, but good enough)
Lock R-1-2-3 in place and remember to breathe.

Pro-E

My Feedback: (1)

Dont know how the rest of you guys did this.......but this was NOT fun.

Its not yet one solid piece. I'm still out on the right side LE by 1/8".

Because I didnt glue the ribs to the Spar, I can now twist the whole assy and true it.

On to the retracts tomorrow. I hope the worst is over.!!!
Still havent glued the ribs to the spar.

cold_reboot

My Feedback: (20)

My first Gull wing Corsair (or anything gull wing) was my last, and that was just the sport scale Great Planes 40 size. I built it because I just wanted a little sport warbird to tool around with and I REFUSED to add YET ANOTHER P-51 to the flight line. Not that it was exceptionally difficult...just time consuming. If you can build a crooked straight wing you can really bork up a gull so extra time must be taken to assemble. Luckily the Corsair isn't my favorite plane, and luckily the Germans weren't into gulls. I'll stick to my straight wing planes. ME's and FW's are my favorites anyway. Say hello to the major...he's going in my next plane (84" ME109F/G/K...haven't decided which model)

ArrowNaughtic

Pro-E,
Looks like you really had to do some fine adjustments to get yours "true". It is looking like you have things well in hand and I am definately paying special attention to your process.
Finally got the Tx programmed somewhat so now I can install the servo rods and finish sheeting the center section. Then one last putty sanding session and I can hang the wing from the ceiling until the fuse is completed. I am looking forward to that part of the build so I can actually start to see some progress. Will post pics tonite after the wing is finished.


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Of all the things I ever lost....................................... I miss my mind the most!

Pro-E

My Feedback: (1)

Where do you guys find these pilots?
You said your building an 84", So I'd need a smaller figure.

Do you have a link?

Yeah Arrow....quite a few adjustments to get it sorted I'm afraid. []

I was hoping to post more progress pics tonight, but as I was buttoning everything up I noticed that the retract area was out of acceptable clearance by a considerable margin.
I spent a lot of today's build time trying to sort out the installation of the gear and searching the forums for a good solution.

The thread you provided earlier showed me a good way to get them lined up before starting construction.

I'm trying to channel the engineer in me (from a past life) and find a way to ensure that they are perfectly aligned on both sides.

I'm still scratching my head at this point, but I think I may have a solution. I'll keep working on it, searching the forums and report my findings.

Thanks the interest and all the input.....to all.
Bryan

mgowerintn

Pro-E

Looks like your having one heck of a time with your SPAR build. But its looking good.

I was having some issues also but seems like you found the same solutions that I did. I didnt use the 1/2 inch blocks either. Instead I did the same things as you with checking all angles like you are doing.

I ran into the same problem with the landing gear area. The 5 ply plywood that orginally is suppose to be on there with standard landing gear was about 1/16" to 1/18" off on both outer sides. So one of my solution was to buy some 7 ply plywood and make bigger supports that fit on top of the 3rd trippler R2 and R-3. I think they wer 3/8 inch thick by 3 inches long(landing gear support). I am going to make them 1/2" wide to accomodate for the differance so the secureing hardware has proper space to screw into.

I havnt been able to do much building this week due to term papers for my schooling.

Well I hope to start back up tomorrow. I will keep you all up to date on my progress.

Good luck with the rest of your build.

Mark

tadawson

Interestingly enough, so am I . . . . still seems dry as a bone to me compared to other places . . . . ah well, I guess it's all relative . . . .

- Tim

Pro-E

My Feedback: (1)

Its has been lately.....but when I built the spar, the next several days were in the 70's and a lil muggy. Just muggy enough to warp the wood.

cold_reboot

My Feedback: (20)

Relative to you maybe Tada....wood doesn't care about relativity.... humid is humid and a warp is a warp. If this is your first season down here get ready for atmosphere so thick you can swim through it starting in the spring and lasting until next winter...Fall around here is still 99 degrees, and thats after a "cold" front. The pilots like that are usually in larger scale planes Pro...like 1/6th to 1/5th scale.... I have another in the full Luftwaffe flight suit (instead of uniform) but no pics of him. Haven't decided which to use.

tadawson

21 years, same place. Build in the garage . . . compared to Chicago/Michigan when from I came, Texas is the Sahara desert . . . .

- Tim

Pro-E

My Feedback: (1)

Well, Havent had a lot of building time, but I did manage to do a little work.

To make sure I get the correct elevation on the landing gear, I made a 2w x 3.5L x 11/16"h block to lay flat on the plans in between the ribs.
By doing this, I'll know the are correct and level.

cold_reboot

My Feedback: (20)

Wow...I didn't think anything was more humid than Texas...even in my two vacations to Playacar, Mexico in the Summer it wasn't as humid as it is here. I never woulda thought those northern states were that humid. Pro, I think Century Jet makes a 1/7th scale pilot that'll go in your plane, they don't come painted tho I don't think. You can see them at TowerHobbies.com or Century Jet's site.


Correction: You can get them painted from CenturyJet.com for another $10.00. But I don't know how good the paint job is, you might get a pilot painted like some of the pilots that come with chinese ARF's which is LOL funny lookin. Ya might ask if anyone here has one they bought painted.

tadawson

Houston and south Texas, yes . . . very humid, you get the soggy airmass off the Gulf of Mexico. Dallas and
north Texas is quite dry - typically the airmass is the dry air coming in from the West over the desert.
Going between Houston and Dallas, you would not know that you are only about 200 miles apart . . . it's that
different . . . The days folks complain about in Dallas typically are not much more than about 40% relative humidity.
Try Chicago where 60% and more is quite typical . . . I can tolerate about 15 to 20 degrees more heat here due to
the *lack* of humidity!

- Tim

ArrowNaughtic

After an extended working week I finally got back to my wing and found I had majorly goofed when installing the R-4 and R-5 doublers. Somehow I got excited and installed the doublers so they both faced each other in the bay between R-4 and R-5 instead of on the outside away from the bay. I had to cut new ones out of some 1/8" balsa i had laying around and install them after the fact. Hard to get them in just right but i finally managed. Not too difficult but certainly not the easiest to do. With them backwards there was no way to get the wing sheeting in place so it was a do or die situation for my progress.
Finishing up the bottom center section now and will be able to start on the fuse. It looks like the fuse stage will go alot quicker than the wing has which is good. I am aching to get some progress as the weather has certainly starting majorly improving. Been out in front of the house hovering the helis and went to the "outlaw" field a couple times and flew a battery pack or 2.
Club meeting tomorrow nite and then this weekend is the NW Hobby Expo and will hopefully find some goodies to buy for the Corsair. I need a decent motor and ESC and will be looking for a good deal from one of my fav online vendors. www.rchotdeals.com has great prices on brushless motors and ESC combos and I have been buying most of my motors and ESC's from him for the last year.


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Of all the things I ever lost....................................... I miss my mind the most!

Pro-E

My Feedback: (1)

Been busy with life's other distractions, but picked up a Spektrum DX-7 today.
Hopefully now I can start making some good progress again.

Thanks Cold Reboot....Im gonna dig and see if I can find a suitable figure for the plane.

Arrow - I almost made the same mistake. I wasn't paying attention, but luckily found the error before I glued them in place.
I also almost forgot to make a left / right of the ribs for the gear support.

Check out this thread, some great info in here. I'm glad I found this when I did.!!
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_259482/tm.htm

ArrowNaughtic

Hey Pro-E,
A DX7? You are going to love the features it has and the hassle free frequency days are over for you. Congratulations on the purchase!
Thanks for the link, added it to my growing list of bookmarks. The homemade doublers came out good and only have to finish sheeting the sections that go over the oil coolers and can put the wing up for awhile. I am itching to get the fuse started and continue on with this build. Just one more servo to buy for it (ELE servo) and all the parts to complete the build will be here at my disposal. If anyone has sheeted thier wing already I am wondering how much leftover 1/16" ply sheets thay had left over....... Are they used to skin the fuse? At this point I have 10 or so 1/16" x 3" x 24" sheets left. Not that I was frugal with any sheets, but the way I read the manual It seems those were just for sheeting the wing. Hmmmmmmmmmmm............
A little distraction headed my way and so I put the Corsair aside for a couple days. Went to the NW hobby expo yesterday and picked up a TX case for the new 9303 as well as a new plank. Its a no name brand balsa and ply Sukhoi SU26 with a 49" wingspan. I need to find a servo gear kit and another HS65 HB servo and can finish the build today on that ARF. I will post videos of its maiden probably next weekend.


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Of all the things I ever lost....................................... I miss my mind the most!

mgowerintn

Question out there for anyone

I am at the point where I will be enlcosing the wing but I have a few questions.

First one is which hinges are the better ones to use. I will be installing functional flaps and in the instructions it says for the flap reinforcement blocks to have them flush with the TE of the wings bottom or centered if you are using the "scale" type aileron hinging. If you do use the "scale" type hinge then it says to have it centered on the TE. So what is the scale type hinges are they the ROBART hinges.

Just trying to see which hinges are better to use.

Second question is attaching the flap servos and aileron servos. In the instruction I can get the depeth length (from front to back) on the spar but the heigth (top to bottom) on the spar is tricky to measure. Does it not matter what the height is on spar as long as the servos fit in the area.

Any help would be appreciated.

ArrowNaughtic

Not sure if i did the right thing on my aileron servo but went with the single servo in the center of the wing. I had to cut a small hole in mine to allow the servo to protrude thru the bottom of the wing. It's ok as the belly pan will cover that up and not be an issue.
My flap servos went in fine and I used JR ST47's, standard servos with 47 oz in torque at 4.8V. I had plenty of room length and depth but the servo was close to the wing sheeting on the TE side. I figured i had lots more room but it actually was a little tight.
I am planning on Robart hinge points for the flaps and regular hinges for the AIL, ELE and RUD. I didn't want the flaps LE to protrude above the wings top when they are fully deployed so after reading the scale build forum decided to copy what most of those guys did.
Started on the upper fuse yesterday and have just the aft upper fuse block to shape and I can unpin the upper section from the board and start on the lower fuse section. The camera is out of batterys and they are charging, will take pics of all my progress tomorrow nite after I get home from the jobsite.


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Of all the things I ever lost....................................... I miss my mind the most!

mgowerintn

Hello Again All

I have a question about the aileron flap controls. In the orginal design on the Top Flite F4U Corsair they call for a bell crank used inside of the wing with a central servo used inside the center of the wing. Was wondering what the pros and cons of installing a servo in each side of the wing in place of the bell cranks on both sides. I know once its done and if I dont install a access panel then there is no getting back into it unless you cut it open.

Was wondering if anyone has done this before and how well it worked. I know I have seen it done on another string where the builder doubled T4 and placed the servo in sideways.

Any info would be greatful

Thanks