Dave Wilshere

Are you going to secure the lower brake tube? As you have it, airflow will certainly move it back and it could get trapped in the door/wing shut.
I have always taped the brake lines in place with insulation tape, no kinking of pipe or crushing.
Also does the leg trail stop before the tyre hits the door sharp corner?

Dave

MaJ. Woody

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Hi Marty and Dave.
Thanks for reading this thread and being a second set of eyes!!
I guess I am missing a picture that I took which is why I did not type these details into the thread. I placed a small bead of goop on the tie wrap and strut in two locations. First location is the head of the tie wrap behind the gear door, and second is on the tie wrap and both sides of the brake line. Being 180 degrees apart, the tie wrap will not change position. The geometry works great with no interference but it is dependent on that tie wrap maintaining position. Marty look at the brake line from this view. It is much farther from the tire than it looked in the other photo. Since the brake line is fixed below, there is not enough slack to make it to the tire.

Dave. I measured by elevator and aileron throws at the tip joint as per the manual. Is that correct? I measured the flap travel on the side closest to the fuse.

Thanks, Guys!

MaJ. Woody

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Hi Dblex.
I Have electric Gear in an F4U Corsair and love them! really wanted to go with electric gear for the Flash and originally had Linda from Dreamworks write my invoice as such. I chickened out at the last minute and went with tried and true methods that have always served me well. I will be running a Tamjets Gear Failsafe as well. I am very happy with the Dreamworks gear so far and I hope to be as happy after I get some flights on them. I love those quick disconnects you spotted. I don't know where I got them....I am guessing in one of my Feibao kits way back when.

MaJ. Woody

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Oh sorry. I am not running the wing tank. I have the main and saddles which is basically the same combined capacity as the wing and main. If may add the wing tank if I feel its needed or decide to add smoke. I am running the Jet tech tanks which are awesome!!

afterburner

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Ok Dom. What about when the strut compresses? Is there slack created?

MaJ. Woody

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yes it trailing link and when the strut is compressed you get slack but the line is not even close to the tire then.

MaJ. Woody

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If need be, I could add another zip tie up by the tire.

Dave Wilshere

Seems a lot of people find my figures a little 'lively' Yes I measure at the tip, I use Expo to get a feel, I like control power, I only move to stick to the point I get the pitch/roll rate required. Many don't like the tiny stick movement for slow rolls. Its one of those things that taught me to go into more detail when doing manuals, I kinda expect people to do their own things, but a lot of people follow the figures to the letter. Same on balance, the 220-225mm was a safe starting point, most of us fly 230-232mm back.

MaJ. Woody

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Awesome.
Thanks Dave!

wblombard

What a awesome build thread! Thank you! I'm also busy building my own UF at this stage, obviously not close to amount of detail you have gone into. One thing i realized during my first fix wing build, is that this is a craftsmen ship that takes years of experience. Impressive to say the least! There are a few things in your thread that I would like to borrow such as the boxing out of the wheel wells. Unfortunately I do not have the equipment nor the facilities to attempt any painting.

Regarding your paint blemishes, I experienced a similar thing and one of my wings also had a hair line fracture...but there is no way I can tell if it was during shipment or due to my own inflicted damage. None the less no biggie and I have fixed it up.

I still between two minds if I should run smoke via the wing tank or the saddle tanks. Every one has their own preferences. The smoke oil is just way more messier thus thinking to utilize the saddle tanks. However I'm no where near making a decision on that just yet. Still pondering about

MaJ. Woody

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Thank you for the compliment. Knowing that people are enjoying my build threads is what inspires me to continue doing them.

MaJ. Woody

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I thought I would start on the cockpit / canopy next. This area for me represents a lot of build time so once this is complete it should be down hill from here.

The instructions call for the soldering of a ball link to the canopy retaining rod. A small recess is made in the nose of the jet and you simply push the rod through the guide and through the canopy frame's retaining block. Simple and effective for sure. Well I started out as indicated in the instructions and found that I did not like how the ball looked in the nose and I had a hard time grasping it when I needed to remove the canopy. I needed a different solution....

MaJ. Woody

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My mod starts with this piece of aluminum stock. Lets chuck this into the lathe and get started.

MaJ. Woody

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Mark the center of the stock using a center drill. Next select a drill bit a couple thousands bigger than the canopy retaining rod and drill a hole all the way through the stock.

MaJ. Woody

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Now start turning down that stock....we are making a pitot tube.

MaJ. Woody

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Once I was satisfied with the shape, I polished the pitot tube in the lathe with polishing compound and various grits of wet / dry paper.

MaJ. Woody

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Make your initial opening in the nose making sure the pitot tube fits snugly inside

MaJ. Woody

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Because the guide tube in the fuse leads upward to the canopy a bend must be created in the wire so that the wire is positioned in the center of the opening you made in the nose.

MaJ. Woody

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While in the lathe, I put a tapper into the stock and then later a slot as well. This was necessary so that the rod would fit deeper into the Pitot tube and allow some flexibility with the position of the rod once engaged into the fuse. I planned for the pitot tube to have about 1/4" or so engagement into the fuse.After dry fitting, I sanded and cleaned the rod and pitot tube prior to JB welding it into place. Here you can see what it looks like off the jet.

MaJ. Woody

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Here is what it looks like on the jet. To me at least, It met my goals of being easy to pull out and looking better than that ball link!

MaJ. Woody

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An important note about the geometry here is that the rod does not pull straight out. Remember the guide tube runs upward to the canopy. What this means is that as you pull out the pitot tube it actually moves in a downward direction. This cant happen unless you create a small tapper in the bottom section of that nice hole you originally cut into the nose. Here is what it looks like. I still need to add some red paint inside the hole so this will look much better after that. As you can see in the photos above, the tapper can only been seen when viewed directly from the bottom.

MaJ. Woody

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In these pictures you can see the Pitot tube is fully engaged in the nose and the canopy frame.

MaJ. Woody

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Removing the canopy is easy peasy.

MaJ. Woody

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I will start this next section pissing and moaning about having to glue the canopy to the frame. I hate doing the cockpit in general and this is just one more pain in the ..... This seemingly simple task took me several hours! No joke.

Here is the canopy and frame.

MaJ. Woody

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I put some 3M painters tape on the canopy frame followed buy some double sided tape. I then placed the canopy over the cockpit frame being sure it was straight and fitting snugly in all areas.