Front Landing Gear Doors  
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Front Landing Gear Doors - 9/20/2003 2:56:17 PM   
CorsairJock



Posts: 1937
Joined: 4/14/2002
From: Parchment, MI, USA
Status: offline 		The front landing gear doors supplied with Top Flite Corsairs (BOTH kits: 'red box' and Glod Edition) are not very scale in profile and size. Specifically, they are smaller and more squared than true scale. The drawing in this post is for scale gear doors, for those of you who want to remain as true to scale as possible.
I have found using scale doors to be a little difficult tho. For one thing, they are wider than the retract bay, and will probably require some widening of that area if you want them to look right when retracted. They also present some clearance problems with the wheels, depending on how long your struts are and what size wheels you use.
Therefor, I have designed my own gear doors, which are more scale than the Top Flight Flite ones but not true scale, and which will fit into the retract wells with no clearance issues. The choice here is yours: I have supplied the drawing to make scale ones if you want, OR make ones which are more scale than the Top Flite versions but which are easy to install.

This drawing, like the others, is 1/8 scale/ actual scale size for Top Flight (and Royal) .60 size Corsairs. In order to print it correct size, you may need to download it first, then open it in a program such as Adobe Photo Deluxe, and print it from there.

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< Message edited by CorsairJock -- 9/20/2003 10:32:19 AM >

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Front Landing Gear Doors - 9/20/2003 2:58:20 PM   
CorsairJock



Posts: 1937
Joined: 4/14/2002
From: Parchment, MI, USA
Status: offline 		Here is my design for easy to use/ install yet semi accurate scale landing gear doors. Actaully tho, you should make the top line angled as shown in the scale drawing (from posting above this one).
Rather than making them from 1/8" lite ply (as Top Flite does), I make mine from a lamination of 1/64" ply and 3/32" balsa. I use a large glass jar to attain some curvature during the lamination process, as true scale doors are not flat, but rather have compound curves to conform to wing shape when retracted.

I begin by cutting the 1/64" ply pieces.
Next, I soak 2 balsa pieces which are larger then the ply pieces, apply 30 minute expoy to one side of the ply pieces (be sure and make 2 opposites), then attach the oversize balsa pieces and then use rubber bands to wrap (ply sides out) the assemblys around something with a large radius curve, such as the top area of a large plastic jar. You will have to judge on your own an apprpriate size, mine was about 6" diameter.
When the eopy has cured AND the balsa has dried, you can remove and sand the balsa to the outline of the ply.

This drawing, like the others, is 1/8 scale/ actual scale size for Top Flight (and Royal) .60 size Corsairs. In order to print it correct size, you may need to download it first, then open it in a program such as Adobe Photo Deluxe, and print it from there.

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< Message edited by CorsairJock -- 9/20/2003 10:31:01 AM >

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Front Landing Gear Doors - 9/20/2003 2:59:59 PM   
CorsairJock



Posts: 1937
Joined: 4/14/2002
From: Parchment, MI, USA
Status: offline 		Here is a pic of my #167 Corsair, shown with the gear up. As you can see, the gear doors have enough room to clear the sides of the retract bay. Purists may consider this to be very unscale looking, but in flight this is difficult to notice and the gear doors do great job of covering up the retract units ( which would otherewise be very noticable).
You might also notice a little modification to the retract bay: instead of sheeting ahead of the spar (as per plans), I added a rounded piece of balsa on each side of the bay, attaching them to the spar, and then painted to match. From previous experience, I have learned that gear up landings are better than gear down landings under certain conditions (like dead stick, and especially if you can't make it to the runway). I have also learned that these gear up landings can be made which result in NO DAMAGE to plane or landing gear, especially if precautions are made in advance. One of the precauctions is the delete the sheeting ahead of the spar and replace it with the rounded wood as shown in the pic. This provides a smooth step for the wing to land on. The other precaution is allowing the gear door to go up into the retract bay a little, and thus lessoning the chance for it to become damaged.
Using these methods, gear up landings usually only result in a few scaratches on the finish (MonoKote in this case).
When RCUniverse gets its act together and returns my "gallery" to me (which I paid for), you can see pics of these gear doors in the wheels DOWN configuration, and I think they look very scale and hope you agree.

NEXT TIME: put a more scale curvature on the front of your fuselage AND improve engine cooling (for projects under construction or not yet started).

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< Message edited by CorsairJock -- 10/13/2003 11:16:11 AM >

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Front Landing Gear Doors - 9/22/2003 2:39:20 PM   
CorsairJock



Posts: 1937
Joined: 4/14/2002
From: Parchment, MI, USA
Status: offline 		Hereare pics of the left landing gear on my #167.
Visible in the 1st pic is the small black tie wrap which loops around the RoboStrut and thru a small eye-bolt which is screwed into a 1/8" ply plate on the back side of the front landing gear door. This insures that the door will follow the landing gear as it retracts. If you use this method, make sure your tie wrap is loose: too tight and it will bind when the landing gear wants to go down.
Also visible in this pic are the now painted left side exhaust stacks mentioned in an earlier mod, and the machine gun openings which will be covered later.
In the 2nd pic, visible is conventional pinned flat control surface hinges (outlined with black line, one per gear door) attaching the gear door to the wing. The top half of the hinge uses small scews for attachment into the leading edge (with 1/8" ply plate added), so the the doors can be removed is necessary. The bottom half is epoxied to the gear door. Note that the retract unit has been removed for this pic for better clarity of the door hinge.

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< Message edited by CorsairJock -- 10/11/2003 1:02:24 PM >

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Engine exhaust - 9/27/2003 1:45:01 AM   
Rocketman612



Posts: 2065
Joined: 1/19/2002
From: Enterprise, AL, USA
Status: offline 		Well after much debate I decided not to route the exhaust to a scale location for several reasons.The weight of the extra tube, I'd have to cut and support the stringer that runs right under the scale location and lastly the glow fuel exhaust streaming down the glassed fuse. Instead I cut the appropriate sized openings in 1/64 ply then sanded down the sheeting alittle to recess the ply. Glued the ply then sanded to blend in. I used the Dremel to hollow out the area to give it some depth careful not to go through the sheeting. After I will place some cut brass or plastic tubing glued in place . Should look good with less work and the exhaust should blow farther away with less on the plane. Pete

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< Message edited by Rocketman612 -- 9/26/2003 8:57:16 PM >


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RE: 1/8 scale TopFlite Corsair Mods - 10/3/2003 7:30:56 PM   
kram51



Posts: 625
Joined: 4/11/2002
From: Barboursville, VA, USA
Status: offline 		Bump!!!!
Need to keep this somewhere near the top of the list. Too many good ideas to let it die!

Mark

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Perfecting the one point landing . . .

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RE: Front Landing Gear Doors - 10/7/2003 1:40:16 PM   
RC Flyer 2



Posts: 23
Joined: 7/16/2003
From: Middletown, CT, USA
Status: offline 		CorsairJock,

I have really enjoyed reading your mods here. if possible, could you provide additional information on the attachment of the front landing gear doors to the wing.

Thanks

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RE: 1/8 scale TopFlite Corsair Mods - 10/7/2003 2:19:40 PM   
CorsairJock



Posts: 1937
Joined: 4/14/2002
From: Parchment, MI, USA
Status: offline 		I will be elaborating on the gear door installation in a week or two. This past 30 days has been pretty hectic for me: 3 out of town trips (one week of work related training in Columbus, OH, one week of vacation in Chattanooga, TN, and now the passing of my GrandMother, who will be buried in the Chicagio area later this week).
I will also address engine cooling and fuselage mods to improve cooling AND scale looks.
Thanks to those of you who are interested enough to keep this thread going, and for those who have contributed pics of your projects (Thanks, Pete).
On the exhaust: I was building my 'red box' version to have scale, functional exhausts. But like RocketMan, I am having difficulty squeeezing all those pipes thru the compartment normally occupied by battery pack, and may end up going with the non functional ones.
Also, I have purchased a Jack Devine Models 1/7 scale Corsair kit (72" span), and plan to build it very soon, and will start a new thread which will concern this project. My intention is to scale this 'sport plane' out: as a 'bird cage' canopied F4U-1 (will have to make my own canopy).

< Message edited by CorsairJock -- 10/7/2003 9:24:42 AM >

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RE: 1/8 scale TopFlite Corsair Mods - 10/7/2003 3:42:24 PM   
kram51



Posts: 625
Joined: 4/11/2002
From: Barboursville, VA, USA
Status: offline 		Sorry to hear of your Grandmother's passing. I recently buried mine as well. I can relate. You certainly have my sympathies. You can never replace Grandma!
Chin up bucko!

Mark



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Perfecting the one point landing . . .

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RE: 1/8 scale TopFlite Corsair Mods - 10/7/2003 10:00:41 PM   
Josey Wales



Posts: 4695
Joined: 7/27/2003
From: **, NJ, USA
Status: offline 		Sorry for your loss..

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RE: 1/8 scale TopFlite Corsair Mods - 10/8/2003 4:15:31 PM   
Runway



Posts: 173
Joined: 3/10/2003
From: UK, UNITED KINGDOM
Status: offline 		My sympathies, too Corsair Jock.
Thank you also for this thread. I expect many of us will be able to incorporate your modifications in our building programmes.

Just looking over the Warbirds threads in general, it is really noticeable how popular Corsairs are. Keep up the good work.

Regards

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RE: 1/8 scale TopFlite Corsair Mods - 10/8/2003 6:23:49 PM   
RC Flyer 2



Posts: 23
Joined: 7/16/2003
From: Middletown, CT, USA
Status: offline 		Sorry to hear about your Grandfather. Thanks for the reply and I look forward to your continuation on the topics you mentioned. I am looking at a Spring launch for my new Corsair, so I'm in no rush. I just finished painting the cockpit kit, it looks awesome!

Thanks again CorsairJock..

BTW I posted pictures of my current project under the following thread. I did not want to add them here to keep this thread as clean as possible. This thread could be a How-to-manual on scale techniques.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_259482/mpage_3/key_/anchor/tm.htm#1187018

RC Flyer 2

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RE: 1/8 scale TopFlite Corsair Mods - 10/21/2003 8:32:50 PM   
William Robison



Posts: 20269
Joined: 11/10/2002
From: Mary Esther, Florida, FL, USA
Status: offline 		Blank posts removed.

Bill.


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Scale Engine Cooling Fuselage Modification - 10/24/2003 2:31:56 PM   
CorsairJock



Posts: 1937
Joined: 4/14/2002
From: Parchment, MI, USA
Status: offline 		Well, I’m finally back, and caught up on everything enough to find the time to post another mod.
Thanks for condolences AND keeping this thread alive while I was not able to do so.

This mod will improve engine cooling, while adding a more scale look to your Top Flite Corsair.

My first Top Flite Corsair ( #102, see my "GALLERY" ) had 3 different engines in it. All 3 used the same size prop: a Master Airscrew 3 blade 12" x 6.

The first engine was a used Super Tiger .75. I encountered many problems with this one, probably due to it's previous owner. But among the problems was that it would heat up quickly while on the ground. If I could get it airborne before it overheated, it usually ran fairly well.

The second engine was a YS .53 (4 stroke, and purchased before the .63 was available), which was new when installed. It was much more dependable than the Super Tiger, but it too overheated quickly while on the ground. Once in the air, it ran GREAT!

Eventually tho, I installed the same Saito .72 which is now in my current Top Flight Corsair (#167). Altho the YS .53 seemed to outperform the .72 when it was allowed to rev up (unloading when airborn), the .72 was obviously much more reliable on the ground and was more comfortable with the 3 blade Master Airscrew prop, and not prone to overheating.

But the overheating problems were more the fault of the kit design than the engines. That is because the Top Flite Corsairs do not have the scale fuselage inward curvature, which other kit makers were able to incorporate into their designs (Royal/ Marutaka, Jemco, D&B, Scale Model Products to name a few). What I am talking about is that the fuselage on full scale Corsairs is rounded inward, just aft of the cowl flaps (see scale drawing below), which in turn means that air is allowed to exit the engine area even when the cowl flaps are full closed. Top Flite kits (both versions, red box and Gold Edition) do not allow for any significant amount of air to exit this ar