da Rock

Rumor I heard in the LHS today was that Robart has suggested their electric version of the 100degree/rotators might make it 'the end of the year'.

OK, I hear the mumbling going on in the background. Yeah, Lado said something back in the spring about having replacement trunions for their rotators, and they'd be 'soon'.

Man, this hobby could break a man's heart.

Hoghead385

My Feedback: (1)

Da Rock, you got that right! I'm not going to hold my breath but it sure would be good to have them in the Corsair for spring flying? Maybe we'll get surprised? I really don't want to go the air route.

mike boxtall

Anyone have any experience with down and locked? Heard about them. One guy at our field has used them on his 1/4 scale zero. Wondering if anyone has used them for smaller applications. Like the robart 615 conversion to electric.

mike boxtall

Anyone use/heard of these?
http://www.lado-tech.net/en/rs333/9-rs333-rt.html

da Rock

Yeah, I got 4 sets. They're excellent as far as they go. (pun intended)

The first 2 sets came from the original Lado company. They went into a Corsair and Hellcat. Ground handling wasn't really fun. They worked from day one and have never given a problem.

The second 2 sets came from the new Lado. The first went into a P40. They were solid and worked reliably. Ground handling wasn't etc... That set was replaced by an early set of Wingspans. They were immediately replaced by replacements from Winspans. And replaced again. I put the Lados back and wound up selling the plane.

The TF Warhawk came out awhile back and looked gorgeous. Couldn't resist and got it and got Lado's to go in it. Instead, I had yet another iteration of Wingspans and thought I'd use them. Tried those wingspans out first on the Hellcat and when they burned out on the 2nd flight, I burned out too. The Hellcat and the Warhawk are both leaning against the wall without gear.

I'm waiting on 100degree rotators from Lado.

The Lados your link point to are good gear if you fly off pavement all the time. Even then realistic take offs won't be automatic. My last set of Lados were somewhat loose compared to the first 3 sets. I've yet to fly them however, so that might not be of any consequence.

Lados have been good for me but the models I've used them in so far suffer from placing the mechanisms too far aft, which places the wheels too far aft when using 90degree gear, and ground handling in grass sucks as a result. Right now, there really doesn't seem to be a worthwhile choice in rotating gear.

mike boxtall

I've been chatting with Mitch Stott from Down and Locked. He suggested with what I'm planning on powering it with (Saito 150) the gear may wear too quickly from their thin side rails. I asked what he would suggest as a replacement that would be stronger. Most likely going to go with them. Cost isn't cheap but I really don't want to go with a pneumatic set. Is there a stronger set that you could recommend? We have a 360' asphalted runway. And my landings are pretty good. Although this is my first venture into warbirds as well as retracts.

Lifer

My Feedback: (1)

daRock,

I have a set of Sierra's in my TF .60-size warhawk and they have been problem-free for 3 years. Why deal with these electric given their history?

da Rock

The Lado history is excellent. Their only problem is the ground handling. The ground handling isn't fatal, it's just not enjoyable. The electric part of the deal is excellent. Air is not worth doing. Mechanicals aren't available in 100degree. Are the Sierrras 100degree? I've never seen any in use. If they're air, they're nothing I would be interested in.

Lado's have been ALMOST perfect since day one for what I'm looking for. They almost immediately understood the need for different degree gear for span-wise gear. They also solved that problem an extremely good way, by offering replacement trunions. It looked like they were going to offer 100degree rotators 'soon'. If they did, they would have this problem covered like London fog.

Wingspans would have been London fog if their power system hadn't been garbage.

Robart might have some London fog gear soon as their 100degree rotator air sets are advertised as coming soon run in electric versions.

I think Lado said they'd have 100degree versions of the rotators soon.

I wish Santa would leave me some 'soon' I could apply to whatever I wanted.

da Rock

Mike,
I fly my Warbirds mostly at gatherings. Most of them have been off asphalt. If my home field was paved, I'd probably not be blathering on about 100degrees so much. What you see almost every P40/F6F/F4U do on takeoff is the same from grass or asphalt. The sucker is almost always in the air before the tail wheel is halfway up or... its off as soon as the tail is up but there was almost zero takeoff roll. You really have to let her get away from the runway before the prop has a chance to hit it.
I never had a pretty takeoff from asphalt. Any rotation with 90degree gear is always hard to control and has always been lightning fast. With 90s, I've quit trying to learn what it takes to stop the rotation as every failure in practice has cost me a prop or worse. anyway....

If I flew off of grass all the time or asphalt all the time, and I were you, I'd have Lados in all my warbirds and be practicing takeoffs a lot. I'd also be waiting for Lado to come through with 100s and more than happy with whatever they cost to retrofit whenever they show up.

Lifer

My Feedback: (1)

I don't know if I can agree with "air is not worth doing" but I respect your choices. When I ordered the Sierras the owner asked if 95 degrees was enough and offered 100 if desired. I can't remember which I choose, but it has never nosed over on my club's grass field.

In any case, best of luck with your retract issues!

da Rock

It's really just a personal choice. In truth it might be more of a personality thing....

The weight of the tank, the extra fiddling with the air lines, the learning curve I've seen others climb are part of it. I'm one of those guys who considers the weight, cost, lack of power etc of 4-cycles to make those engines not worth doing. But I'm very happy to see guys fly them and enjoy hearing their great sounding models. Also tickled to see the guys who have the patience, skill, and personality to use and succeed with air when they fly their models. But they're just not for me.

Didn't remember Sierra. Thanks.... time to do some more research.

PlaneKrazy214

I just got my TF Corsair. Wow! nicest ARF I have purchased. I have a question.....I want to do the tri color paint scheme on this aircraft. Instead of using monokote film to do the scheme I want to airbrush it for more realistic look. . I have lusterkote primer and flat clearcoat already. while experimenting I tried using my acrylic airbrush paint over the primer and got a bad reaction to the acrylic when i spayed the clearcoat over it. Would a water based lacquer be more suitable? Or am I just wasting my time?

PlaneKrazy214

I got the bright I dead took look at other threads regarding my question. if anyone wants to give input its always appreciated.

scottrc

Lustercoat primer will not work with acrylic.

I am also doing the Tri color using artist acrylics, not the premixed airbrush kind. Use a good automotive grade, sandable primer. Do a few coats and sand in between. Spray on your acrylic finish. Then apply a laquer gloss coat, apply your decals, then spray on the Lustercoat flat.

PlaneKrazy214

Thanks!

PlaneKrazy214

Should the lacquer application after acrylic paint be an acrylic clear coat? Just curious. I am assuming i cant use lusterkote flat directly on top of acrylic.

PlaneKrazy214

SCOTTRC,
THANKS FOR THE ADVISE. I PAINTED A PIECE OF TEST MONOKOTE AS YOU SUGGESTED AND IT TURNED OUT GREAT. NOW I CAN GET STARTED.

V2rider

My Feedback: (4)

Looks like I'll be getting another one of these after yesterdays dead stick. Almost got it backsafe. Or at least I got it back over the field, just. Then it dropped the last 7-8 feet. Broke the wing pulled the firewall out and broke the back of the fuse. Also took out the retracts. Almost glad about that part. The good thing is I looked at Tower last night and they had the ARF listed at $399. This morning when I looked it is on sale for $250. Order will be going in today. I think I'll wait till Robart gets the electrics ready for this one before I deal with retracts again. E-Flite really needs to get on the ball and put out a set of 60-120 rotating retracts. I know I would be in for at least two sets.

da Rock

Tower cut the price to $299 a couple of weeks ago...... So I got one.

The way things go for me all the time, I'd suggest you guys wouldn't be seeing the $250 price IF I HADN'T JUST PAID $300 for the sucker.

Glad they've priced it lower. It's worth the $250 for sure. I've already got the covering 'ironed' and started plugging in the engine and servos. It's one of the best ARFs I've seen in the last 5 years.

da Rock

BTW, about ironing the ARF..............

I did the TF 60 size Warhawk in the middle of the year. It really needed the wrinkles removed. I ironed and ironed and ironed and ironed and there are still some crappy looking wrinkles. Flat finish or not, that covering is hard to iron. When I saw the Corsair for $300, I didn't exactly jump on it right away simply because I knew the blasted covering was going to be a war.

So I mulled over purchasing the Corsair..... heck, I sweated bullets for........ maybe a day or two........ an eternity for me.

When the box was opened, I was pleasantly surprised how few wrinkles there were. Heck, some people would have said 'good enough' and started gluing. The last 5 years of ARFing have convinced me that even when they look good, they won't after they've been under a summer sun. But this Corsair looked pretty good. So I figured I'd just heat gun it to see what that'd do.

Turns out the heat showed every bit of covering tightening up. But turns out that the gun 'uncovered' wrinkles eveywhere, but just passing along over the whole area was the trick. I initially tried to work on the wrinkles and they just moved around. But when I simply moved along steadily, they showed up and went away as the heat moved on. I had the whole thing done in just over an hour. Listened to a CD I hadn't played in years, whistled and sang along and was done before I knew it. The hobby don't get much better'n that. I had such a good time that when the Corsair was all back in the box, I pulled down a couple of my everyday flyers and cleaned up their wrinkles. Spent another hour gunning out wrinkles in the fleet, and ironing on patches and pressing down lifted off corners.

This Corsair is gonna look excellent coming in on final with 'her skirts ablowin' Ain't nothing looks better'n a Corsair coming in with flaps down.... nothin'

PlaneKrazy214

Mine arrive with a alot of wrinkles in it. I mean alot. Kinda dissapointed, but all in all it is a good quality ARF. Its my winter project. Probably wont be flying it until spring anyway. gonna take my time and do a good job.

LDM

My Feedback: (15)

I have to give credit to Hanger 9 /Horison , the covering is really nice out of the box

da Rock

Every ARF I've gotten in the last 5-6 years required ironing. You either do it the easy way, ironing parts as they come in the box, or you do it the hard way, when it's assembled. They are going to show up at the field the first sunny day if you haven't worked the suckers over right off the bat.

Like I mentioned above, see how easy they come out with the heatgun. Just move it along and they go away as the heat passes. The ones that would have shown up on the sunny day show up as the heatgun moves where they're hiding in smooth covering.

da Rock

This sucker was priced at what? $399 when it first came out?

I know I bought it a week ago at $299 because of the savings.

Well, Tower just dropped the price on the jewel to $249. Now that's a decent price when you consider that if you're a Tower Club member you can get another $50 off a $250 purchase, and shipping is free. Heck, if you aren't a Tower Club member, the additional discount list on Tower's front page has $30 off $250, and shipping is only what? around $10?

I think a lot of us are going to see this one this Christmas.

PlaneKrazy214

I prefer the ultracoat H9 used to the monokote. Seems alot better quality product. Monokote used to be better that it is these days.