DiscoWings

My Feedback: (76)

I know the firewall issue... I'm not sure exactly how to fix it? I have some glass cloth and epoxy now what do I do with it ? [:-][>:]
Some people said something about the wing, what needs to be done thier?
Finnaly I heard people say the retracts are bad or are not reliable...more info on this would be reliable.

cruzomatic

My Feedback: (17)

Kinda following you around on this thread huh? What I did to strengthen the firewall on my Corsair was cut like 2x2 square pieces of glass cloth, mix it with epoxy and line the joint between the firewall and fuselage. On the wing, I added epoxy along the spar via the wheel well location. I also added some epoxy to the retract bays.

Bama

My Feedback: (18)

Hi guys,
I have built 2 of the Hangar 9 Corsairs. I lost the first one due to the tail being chewed off in flight by a P-51. Story is that it was stolen by a German pilot. I liked it so much that I got another one. I flew the crap out of both of them for a whole bunch of flights. I used a Saito 1.00 in both. I did not do any modifications to the firewall and had no problems. The only modification to the landing gear is that I used the HPI ball links and it solved my problems there. I am not saying that some guys are not having problems with theirs, but I had no problems with these two. There is another one in our club and he has a Sito 1.50 on his!! He has done no firewall modifications and has not needed any. I think he is going to take the 1.50 off because it is just too much.

I guess what I am trying to say is, don't be afraid of the planes falling apart. We have had these 3 Corsairs, 4 P-51's, and 2 AT-6's at our field flown stock with no problems. I know they are stock because I put 5 of the 9 together.

Hope this helps,
Alan

wildnloose

There is a huge thread in the ARF forum. They talk about all kinds of mods people have done, someone even installed the tf cockpit in one (I believe it was Richard L.). You will see some pretty good pics too (a lot belong to Richard L., very good).


Well worth the reading...

Richard L.

My Feedback: (24)

This picture should give you an idea:



You basically need around half a pound worth of heavy glass cloth and 30 or 45-minute epoxy. Further details can be found in the long Hangar 9 Corsair thread in the ARF forum.

ramcfarland

My Feedback: (44)

I read this issue with interest. When setting up a new A.R.F. the use of glass cloth or carbon / Kevlar cloth should ALWAYS be a part of the 'ARF's construction process. This so called hot glue I find questionable indeed with regard to SECURING a firewall and remember you can always reinforce the inside and out side perimeter of the fuselage/and firewll (contact area) with slow dry epoxy with some chopped glass mixed in;just remember massive quantities of epoxy only serves to add weight..[8D]

f308gtsi

My Feedback: (1)

I installed Sierra Giant Scale pneumatic landing gear which are made for the Hangar 9 .60 sized corsair. They are fabulous !!!

I have the Sierra air valve set to allow the gear to cycle at a very slow rate. The corsair sure looks good with the gear slowly rotating up and turning 90 degrees as it lifts off of the ground.

The spring loaded oleo strut takes all of the bounce out of the landing and also saves wear and tear on the plane.

prop wash

Hi Al.We have had some very heated threads here on the H9 Corsair and I have been in the middle of it all.Very good flying and looking plane.I watched corsair jock fly his yesterday,both electric and fuel and they were great.We talked about the problems that flyers have had with this plane and he showed me the mods that he made and for the fire wall and wing,tail feathers.The only problem I have with H9 is that you should not have to mod the plane at all,it should be safe and ready to fly when you finnish putting it together.My opinion!!!But after the safe guards of mods the plane looks and fly's great.Good luck and happy flying.Tom

CorsairJock

My Feedback: (90)

Hi, Prop Wash; I had a great time at the Sundowners Warbird day, but felt even better when I got into my airconditioned Durango for the trip home (it was a VERY hot and humid day). Nonetheless, still great to see so many warbirds and pilots; I really liked that Zero and the ME-109. Good to meet you, and hopefully a few those out there now realize that these Hanger 9 Corsairs can be great flying warbirds, but not without design flaws/ structural faults/ items that need to be altered/ modified.

As Prop Wash mentioned, I have 2 of these flying now (actually, I have a 3rd under construction). One of them is electric powered, highly modified, and barely recognizable as a Hanger 9 Corsair. The other is Saito .91 powered, and is basically box stock except for mostly cosmetic changes (different decals/ scheme). Both of them fly from grass runways exclusively

1st off, I'll mention the fin and rudder. This is a weak area on every Corsair that I have owned (and I've had quite a few by now, by various manufacturers). The problem is this: Corsairs have short noses, which set up fairly high, and coupled with the taildragger landing gear they are more prone than some other types to flipping over onto it's back. These mishaps can be due to pilot error (rough landing), malfuntioning landing gear (strut rotates when it shouldn't), or just plain taxing into a hidden mole hole. As the last instance mentions, you can do everything right and it can still happen, and it WILL happen. When it does, it will flip and that huge rudder will strike terre firma. Again, this is not like most warbirds: most others will have the fin strike the gound. Thus, altho I always strive to build my aircraft as light as possible, this is an area that I always strengthen. In the case of the Hanger 9 Corsair, I recommend that the fin be replaced with a solid balsa on, with grain going vertcal. It's easy to make by tracing over the original one, and weight gain is very negligable/ hadly noticable. As for the rudder, I run (glue) thin (.007 x 1/4") carbon fiber strips on each side of the rudder post, top to bottom. This of coarse means stripping the covering off and re-covering when mods are completed. For an even stronger rudder, use a belt sander to reduce it's thickness by about 1/16", then add the carbon fiber strips, then add 1/32" sheeting to both sides. This does not guarantee that these will not break, but it will drasticallly reduce the chances of it happening.

The other 2 areas that need attention are the firewall ( especially on the early releases, as the new ones have factory mods) and the wings in the retract bay areas. I'll cover these at a later date (soon). But concerning the firewall issues: I am running a Saito .91 on my fuel powered one and see no reason why anyone would want to use a larger engine (such as the Saito 1.00). The .91 has plenty of power for this aircraft (as I have many witnesses by now), mine is swinging a very nice looking Master Airscrew 3 blade 14 x 7 with ease, the .91 is lighter, more compact (nearly fits inside the cowl), and imposes less stress on the firewall than the 1.00. And altho I have never personally seen any of the firewall failures, I can see the possibility of it happening due to the weakness of it. The Hanger 9 ARFs in general are built light, VERY light. They fly great, but there are a few areas that should have been designed and built to be more robust. And I'll agree with those that feel that Hanger 9 management should be slapped (tarred and feathered? sued?) for releasing ARFs that many here consider to be dangerous if left un-modified.

The picture shows me and my electric powered/ HIGHLY modified Hanger 9 Corsair with award for "Best Finish" at 2005 Terre Haute Warbird Day event. In July, same plane won "Best Scale" at Mid America Electric Fly in Nothrthiville, MI (hosted by Ken Myers & Keith Shaw). With all it's mods, the retracts are basically stock. In the background is my Saito .91 powered one, with WW II U.S.S. Bennington markings (Royal Corsair decals)

CorsairJock

My Feedback: (90)

The fuselage/ firewall mod has already been covered in this thread, altho I don't think you need to add a half of a pound of 'glass and epoxy to fix it, I think it could be done with much less. Just my opinion.

Next is the wing failures which have been reported and photographed by several RCU members. After I examined those pictures, and then examined my own Hanger 9 wings, I can see the the problem: The main spar for the most part does not pass thru the retract bay ribs. Rather, it is butted up to the rib and glued (hot melt?), which translates to a retract bay which can rather easily be seperated from the spar and inner wing section. This is INBOARD of the retracts, thus landing loads are imposed on this joint.

My cure was performed on my electric one (Saito .91 powered one remains un-modified), and again: covering must be removed to do it right. The picture shows my primered wing (ready for paint). What I did before priming was round the edges of the inner retract bay ribs towards the center of the wings, then added a total of 3 layers of 1/2 oz 'glass cloth over these rounded edges with a generous overlap. You could use fewer layers of heavier cloth, but it is difficult to 'bend' heavier cloth around those rounded edges. This mod allows the wing sheeting to 'grip' the retract bay ribs, and thereby adds a lot of additional strength.

This is another case that altho I have never personally seen a wing failure, I have seen the evidence that it should be modified to prevent such a failure.

Richard L.

My Feedback: (24)

I was just exaggerating. Yes, you can reinforce the firewall with much less glass and epoxy.

CorsairJock

My Feedback: (90)

And then there is the landing gear.
First off, I recommend that the wheel wells be left off (not installed). Installing them will prohibit access to the linkages, which means adjustsments become impossible. Full scale Corsairs do not have contoured wheel wells, which means that they make the Hanger 9 less scale/ worse looking if they are installed. Wheel size is limited, and I prefer larger wheels for better ground handling AND better looks/ more scale looking. Altho the H-9 wheels look great/ have a scale hub pattern, I prefer the larger yet lighter Dave Brown treaded 3 1/2" light wheels. Instead of installing the wheel wells, use fuel proof paint (doesn't have to be an excact match of the covering) to paint the insides of the wheel wells.

As for the retracts: they are flimsy, sometimes difficult to set-up (get proper adjustment), but they work on these 8# (+/-) birds, even on grass runways. The early Hanger 9 Corsairs were shipped with totally in-adequate plastic snap on links for the balls. These would simply slip off even during routine taxi tests. Later, Hanger 9 addressed the issue and now includes a heavier duty plastic links, which work fine. If you have the early ones and give Horizon a call, I think they will send you a set for free.
Replacemnet 5/32" diameter titanium struts can be purchased from Central Hobbies, but they are a little challenging to install because
1) you will need to fabricate a way of retaining them in the housing, by either grinding a ring for a "C" clip OR installing a wheel retainer. The later also requires removing material from the retract strut housing.
2) they will need to have axles installed.

On the plus side, titanium struts are lighter yet much more resistant to becoming bent.

I think this pretty much covers all of the 'issues' with the Hanger 9 Corsair. A few have taken these ARFs and really went to town with them, as far as cosmetic mods go. Do some searching here and you should be able to find them, I've seen some pretty awesome ones here at RCU.

tim allen

Well i had this plane as well and mine was e power , a tacon 110 on 8s . 7th flight i took off , climbed out flew the back stretch and began to bank for the turn down the runway all at 5/8 throttle when CRACK the left wing decided to try a solo flight in a brand new direction while i got a VERY sudden butt cramp ! Now this plan WAS fast , and i must say held up rather well to the first tree it went through , did not do as good on the second tree (it lost the other wing on a branch as well as the rudder) tree # three plane lost back half of fusalage and SOMEWHERE along the way the pilot threw his mask off and tried to bail but got his head imprinted on the canopy for his troubles (his head was stuck between the canopy and the control panel when i finally got the plane out of the back side of tree # 3 at 50 ft off the ground) . Amazingly all the electronics were fine - 2 servos. 😀 . Now this plane was never crashed but it was a little spooky power wise , complete unlimited vertical and it turned a 17×12 prop at 8000 rpm on the ground ! 😈
Sooooooo , i bought a used hangar 9 corsair from a fellow club member and i learned myself a very good lesson; never over power a hangar 9 corsair !
What are my plans for this bird ? They are as follows : a tacon 160 , a biela 20×14 three blade scale prop on 8s , (maybe 10s depending on amps) scale tail surfaces , lights , and LOTS of strengthening mod ! Oh and a video of the maiden 😉 . Scream at ya later fellas !

prop wash

From 2005 to 2017.That's a big jump,have not seen or heard anything from Corsair Jock in a long time,not even at any warbird events.Hope he is OK.Tom