rcpilotva

Benoit, The DLE 111 yanks the 'cat around, eh! very nice. Well done.
I don't know what the weight if the DLE is compared to the BME - I still have about 15 oz of lead in the nose (added 5 oz when i relocated the tail wheel air cylinder to the rear former)
well over 100 flights on my cat. the BME twin is settled in now, and she was clocked on the radar gun at 137 MPH at Freestate 2 weeks ago.
headed to Warbirds/DE, Lord willing, with the 'cat and a Zackman-built B-25. off to finalize balance and trim, fix some things we wanted different - hopefully maiden the 25 next weekend....
too hot to fly here 104 on Fri, high 90's with no electricity from the "derecho" we had roll thru here at midnight fri night - quite impressive....

sodbuster 1

Greetings RCPILOTVA,
It's Steve,the guy with the other Bearcat that was as at the
Fredericksburg Warbird event.
Was a real treat watching you pilot yours along with Near and Mack.You don't get to see flying like that too often.


Had a couple questions to ask if you don't mind.
I'm reinstalling my retracts and was wondering if there's any way you might be able to post some
pics of what you did to re-enforce the mounting rails.
Also,what size wheels and make did you use?
Did you build in any forward rake to the gear?
Lastly,did you re-enforce the fuse any when you opened up the wheel wells?

Thanks in advance for any info you can give.

rcpilotva

steve,
the pilot is my good friend andrew- he's got about 30 more years on the sticks than i do. i wish i could fly like that.
the plane is not at my house, so i'm operating on memory.
4 3/4" wheels.
no mods to the fuse except cutting out the wheelwells to accommodate the larger tires.
no forward rake.
when my original gear bent/ ripped out, andrew made aircraft ply horseshoe shaped plates, with spruce blocks between the wing ribs just behind the leading edge and the back end of the horseshoe  gear plate. epoxy in. the gear that's in it now came from andrew's late hayate. did not use easytiger's gear.
still have to land it like a butterfly with sore feet.

SJN

Hi Guys.

I just ordered one of these, and its in the mail on its way.
Can anyone tell me where the optimal CG is for this plane ?

I ordered a ZDZ 90 RV-J for it. Hope it fits allright.
Will be installing a canister inside the fuselage, as we have noise restrictions here.

rcpilotva

balance at the point where the plans say (from memory - abt 28-30% of the wing root +/- at the fuse?). be sure to check your incidence on the tail and the wing. mine was off, and we re-drilled the tail connections to get the incidence consisitent. flying a hair nose heavy with the incidence that we ended up with. over 150 flights now. sweet plane! 137 mph on a 102 with gear door covers, but slows down for abt a 15-20 mph landing with partial flaps. you're sill be different depending on balance, incidence and nose weight, but you should be pleased...

sodbuster 1

I can attest to what RCPILOTVA said.His plane is just an awesome flying machine.
The best flying warbird I've had the pleasure of watching fly.
Read through the thread and do ALL the suggested fixes and you will be thrilled
with the results.
This is an incredible flying warbird with the right power plant on it once you've done
the fixes.
DON'T do the fixes and you'll be very dissatisfied with the end result as you will likely
end up with a broken heap of busted up fiberglass.

SJN

Thanks guys.
I will absolutly be doing the sugested mods in this thread.


My wing box showed up today. Fuselage is still in transit.

It seems well built, and covered nicely.
I am a little dissapointed that the skin detail is missing on my flaps and ailerons, as I think it adds a little more "bling" to the bearcat.
At least the insignia is on the correct side of the wings.

Howard Davidson

When did they quit putting the corrugation details on the control surfaces? That sucks! Mine looks great and has stayed that way for three years now.

sodbuster 1

Mine has a number of areas that have bubbled up and lifted.

wingspar

My Feedback: (3)

As I remember on mine the corrigations for the wing were in the box the fusealge came in. Have to be cut and glued on.

Dave N

SJN

Thanks for the input.
Hope they are in the large box which will arrive tomorrow.

SJN

Second box showed up today.

Awesome kit for the price.
No shipping damage at all, and everything packed allright.
The corrugated skin detail for the flight control surfaces is included. But they are very heavy.
Maybe that is why you can glue them on yourself , or leave them off if you dont want to add all that weight behind the CG.
The 12 strips weigh about 500g.....feels like lead when you hold them in your hands
The tail cone is remoavable so you can realy install the rudder post properly, and that is nice.
The cockpit tup is fiberglass, with only the canopy in plastic.
Paint is very nice, and it looks good, but all the individual parts have been clear coated seperatly with satin....and if you have ever tried that yourself, you know how easy it is to get different degrees of a satin coat.
The cowl and wings are allmost dull, fuselage is satin, and the cockpit tub is a little more gloss.....
Maybe ill give it a light coat allover when im done.....with some weathering too.

There are no wooden blocks to support the robart style pin hinges in the wing for the ailerons. Only the thickness of the aft wing spar.
That is not enough, so i will have to get some gued in there. Flaps and tail have them glued in.


What have you guys used as a tail retract ?

SJN

ASP 400 radial just to show the size of the massice cowl.
Way too small an engine for this plane

SJN

Thunder tiger Rare Bear for comparrison

wingspar

My Feedback: (3)

For retracts I used the ones for the TBM Zero. Of course the mount had to be changed and I opened up the wheel well in the Fuselage as to install a larger wheel.

Dave N

sodbuster 1

If you want some really nice wheels, although they are heavy, get in touch with Darryl at Sierra Retracts.

I just got a set of 5" ones from him that are really really nice and pretty close to what they should look like.
Nice big wheel,low profile tire, 8 splines in the wheel.
4.75" would have been perfect but he doesn't make them that size.The Robart tire that's on them is nice and firm too
so should help to keep from getting bouncy landings which this airframe will only take so much of. They were $125
for the set.Below is a pic of them.

He also makes a set of truly scale articulating retracts that if utilized would mean a bit less cutting of the fuselage
since they draw back into the wing when retracting.I don't have them so have no idea what the cost is.

SJN

Thanks guys.

The wheels and retracts from sierra look nice, but since this is a semi scale model, all just keep it a "low budget" plane, and just do what it takes to make it a reliable plane.
I will be getting larger wheels, and making mods to the fuselage to make them fit, as the stock wheels just make it look terrible

The plastic is EXTREMLY brittle/crisp and fragile, so I had to heat up the plastic with hot tap water, and cut out the parts in the sink under the water....otherwise it would just shatter.
I usualy scribe the plastic with a knife, and bend and break off the plastic, but this did not seem to work out too well here.......so I used the sizzers all the way.

The wings dont seem that big at first, but when the fuselage is in between, this little cat realy isn`t that little at all once assembled

Im very pleased with the fit of the parts. The wing and tail tubes fit realy well. Even the dowl holes lign up, which is unusual
I also have the spitfire 110", and the wing tubes are a terrible fit, and the overall quality does not match this bearcat. The spitfire was probably an early production run.

Chad Veich

My Feedback: (60)

Bearcat flaps and ailerons are not corrugated so what are the skins for if I may ask? Is that supposed to represent the fabric covering?

SJN

you are right......but the optical effect during flight on the fullsize makes it look like they are corrugated.....but scale it is not, though I like the look of it.

sodbuster 1

You must have some MIGHTY BiG hands if that's a 110" wingspan Spit!

SJN

Revell 1/72

sodbuster 1

Whew!
Thank goodness I was starting to get a little worried for your wife/girlfriend/WHATEVER thinking about that old saying...
BIG HANDS =BIG @#*K and if those hands were actually proportionate....

HaHaHa


But then you sent the pictures showing the true scale and in looking around your place I came to the conclusion,no need to worry, judging by the hobby stuff strewn everywhere there's no way this guy doesn't live alone LOL

SJN

hehe......being single has it pro`s and con`s for sure..........at the moment, the hobby is taking over.

What the h*ll, you only live once, never know what will happen tomorrow

SJN

Stock retracts look ok.

They are not realy built to last, as they could use some bushings at end of the trunion pins.
No least, and they operate. The struts look a little cheap, and are a little rough.......but as i read earlier in the thread: "if you land like a butterfly on sore feet" i guess they will be fine for some time

sodbuster 1

Your mistaken.His comment "land like a butterfly refer to AFTER upgrading the retracts and AFTER beefing up the retract mounts.
Unless your a highly accomplished pilot who has MUCH experience landing a heavy large warbird with flaps I would HIGHLY suggest you invest in better,thicker retracts and stiffen up the retract mounts better BEFORE you even think about maidening this plane.
You'll save yourself a lot of disappointment and repairs in the long run.