HalH

My Feedback: (12)

Your idea of making a carrier landing sounds neat BUT the hook may skip or bounce when it hits the deck, carrier landings were made power off and three point, they were on approximately a 4* glideslope ( that is pretty steep )

Your plane looks pretty nice for an ARF !

60buick

I have made 3 point landings with taildraggers before but never with a nose heavy fighter. It just adds a new challenge and that is what keeps things interesting. The tail hook would be spring loaded to apply some slight down pressure and there would be no less than 6 catch cables. If everything is constructed right it should work very well. My only concern was the plane nosing over and eating a prop but if everything is cushioned the cable won't snap the plane back like a bungee cord and fliping it on its nose. I am wondering if The Robart struts are enough cusion for some not so gentle landings. I like the included foam tail wheel and am debating on cutting a set of foam main wheels to absorb more jolt.

My idea for a carrier deck is pretty straight forward but a rather crude design. I have a conection to buy cargo containers cheap. I want to by two 40' boxes and cut the them off right in the middle leaving a 5' foot high platform. Put them end to end and weld them together. I would need to weld a few supports inside to keep them rigid. I would then add bracing on the sides to use plywood to widen the "runway" 4 1/2 feet on each side. The beauty is the top of a container is very smooth and would be great for landing planes on. Also containers are steel so you can walk on the top of them with out leaving dents and you can almost walk under them to maintain the cable system and use that area for storage. The deck being 5 foot high almost gives you a models eye view to land which is another scale element I like. All this is still just in my head. I would need help with the build and someplace to put it. It would be great if there were a couple people that wanted to have a carrier at the flying field.

brewmanbrett

Hepdog,

What ended up happening with the retract issues? Have yet to install my servo, and would definitely like to avoid/recognize potential probelems. What adjustments were made?

brewman

brewmanbrett

Couple of questions.

1. Want to setup remote glow plug. Anyone doing it, and how?(pictures please) Any potential headaches from this? Would prefer as few holes as possible in the cowling.

2. Any problems with mounting the engine forward of recommended 5" 9/16 from firewall? Due to glassing inside of cowling, can't quite get it on far enough down to get engine drive washer past dummy radial hole. I figure it will change the CG slightly, but am more concerned that the supplied throttle cable might not be long enough. I have some carbon fibre music wire I could use, but it's not threaded, and I don't know how to secure it.

3. How many of you did NOT cut a hole for the engine head? It's awful close to the cowling, but thats another hole I don't want. Any melting/overheating issues there? Considering using PETIT'S setup(eliptical gap at bottom trailing edge of cowling post #260 page 11). Realize that's a big hole, but looks a lot cleaner to me than a bunch of hole in different locations. Also would seem better as a large escape for warm air to get out, rather than just a bunch of places where fresh air is coming in. Corsair Jock's setup seems ideal, especially for scale realism, but I don't have the patience or woodworking skill.

Thanks,

brewman

This post has been quiet last few days. Everybody must be flying!

CorsairJock

My Feedback: (90)

I'll answer #3: No, I did not cut a hole for the engine (head). I have a Saito .91 in mine (flies GREAT), which is slightly smaller than the 1.00. That means that I will have to remove the cowl for valve adjustments, but I can live with that.
There is a hole on the bottom right for glow driver access, and on the bottom left for exhaust and fueling, and a very small one on the right side for needle valve adjustments.

With the engine at the recommended location, it ballanced perfectly without the airborn battery pack. Thus, I mounted the battery pack right at the CG.

As for #1: I was ready to install an RCV engine, until I realized how far forward the glow plug is on these and came to the conclusion that the only way to make it look good would be to install a remore glow device. As I didn't have one on hand, and was in a hurry to complete and fly this project, I installed my broken in Saito .91 instead. I DID order an extra long reach glow driver tho, which is needed t due how large the cowl is (especially on the bottom).

brewmanbrett

Jock,

I have the Saito 1.00 in mine, and the heads are about 1/8th from the cowling. I have a layer of glass inside the cowling, so I wouldn't want that to melt onto the heads. Think I'll be okay? Also, this is the first four-stroke I've had, how often are valve adjustments necessary?

Do remote glow's tend to be problematic? I would prefer that setup since the glow plug is at an angle and might be tricky to reach with a driver.

Also, my firewall is not perpendicular to the roll axis of the aircraft, so the engine is off kilter as well. Will this require rudder trim to keep my yaw rates correct, or should I shim the motor mounts to achieve the proper alignment? Any good suggestions on this topic?

brewman

da Rock

It doesn't usually melt. It might burn or char, but it does have cooling air blowing on the outside, right. And as long as you have air moving inside correctly, it'll stand 1/8 gap easily. You need to block the air inside the cowl that would bypass the engine so that it has to pass close to the hot areas. That's fairly easy to do.

Don't worry about that heat if you've got the open areas blocked.

da Rock

Most models have right thrust and down thrust built into the firewalls. What you see is probably that. Don't worry about it.

Hepdog

Brewman I have no issues with the stock retracts or the JR servo. Not keeping track of # of cycles anymore because its well over 100 in flight. This past week I went through about 2 gals of fuel just doing touch and go's with the occasional buzz job of course. The legs are slightly looser than before but it doesn't seem to matter so I've stopped adjusting the stops.

Now that I have it flying well, I'm going to have to think about what Buick60 did - that is un-freaking-beleivabley nice! I'd also like to do the center fuel tank, maybe some hardpoints on the wings and nav lights.

I think it'd be alot of work to make a tailhook actually strong enough to grab the wire. Would be neat to see and sure would make landings easier - although the other folks flying might not appreciate a wire across the feild.

CorsairJock

My Feedback: (90)

as requested (about a week ago): here are pics of the cowl underside.

I think the valve covers ( on 4 strokes) do not get as hot as the the jug, and I don't see any problems with the valve covers being 1/8" from the 'glss firewall. Valve adjustment frequency: once after breakin, then one or two times during the flying season, depending on how much you fly it. Judging by how ofter I am flying mine now (this Hellcat has become my sport plane) , I will probaly do it in mid August and then at the end of the season.

As someone else said: these ARFs (as are ALL Hangar 9 warbirds) have built in right thrust, therefor the firewalls are not perpendiculr to the fuselage. This makes takesoff easier, as there is much less tendenacy to roll and/ or yaw left should the pilot fail to use lots of rudder.

I do not have any experience with remote glow drivers yet, but would like to try it soon. Therefor, I cannot state whether or not they are problematic.

Flew mine 3 more times today. That, plus the 3 yesterday (plus 2 touch and goes with retracts cycled) means I got 6 + flights on one battery charge.

60buick

I am about to add a bomb drop on the Hellcat. Does anyone know where I can get a scale drop tank for the Hellcat? The one Top Flight makes looks good on my P40 but does not look right on the cat.

Also I am toying with the idea of making the canopy a sliding canopy and tying it in with the retracts. Gear down canopy open, gear up canopy closed. I am also thinking about changing the color of the rear stabiliter to dark blue like it should be.

fredscz

My Feedback: (47)

Hi 60Buick, I just received my Hellcat and bought a roll of the Midnight blue to recover the tail. Went on line to check out some photos of full scale Hellcats and found many, many photos of war time "Cats" with the colors exactly like the H-9 planes. I think I'll go ahead and change mine since I like the way it looks.
If you do the sliding canopy mod make sure you take some photos of your work.
Fred.

CorsairJock

My Feedback: (90)

I have yet to find any such photos: could you post a few of these photos showing Hellcats in tri-color scheme with upper stabilizer and elevator surfaces in intermediate blue (actually, more of a blue gray), rather than the (dark) sea blue as the remainder of the upper surfaces are? Every picture that I have ever seen shows those tail surfaces being the same as the upper wings and fuselage, which is NOT like the H9 Hellcat.

The photo below is of course a re-painted/ re-furbished privately owned Hellcat, but it is accurately representative of how Hellcats were painted in the summer of 1943, and as can be seen: stab and elevator upper surfaces are (dark) sea blue, matching the color of the upper wing and fuselage surfaces.

60buick

If you restored a 6 million dollar plane you think it would be painted correctly, especially with the rarity of the plane. [&:] The Hellcat in the photo is an F6F-5. you can tell by the updated canopy, new style cowl flaps and lack of exsaust bubble, and the deleted rear window. Only 5584 F6F-5's were built for the US and 850 built for the UK. I doesn't take much to pin point which one it is since only 16 Hellcats survive today. That one is serial number 93879 and is one of a handful that still fly. Going by the production records from Grumman that plane was built between 6/45 and 11/45 and never saw combat. It would have been used as a fighter-trainer by the reserves until 54'. The plane would have been all gloss sea blue with an orange band on the fusalage to identify it as belonging to the reserves. The paint job on the plane resembles the 2nd fabrication sequence serial number 08798-09047 that was built from 4/43-6/43 but is incorrect for any Hellcat. The red band around the insignia means it came from the second build sequence. But all the planes from the second sequence had hard lines between the 3 colors "like the covering on the model" and was not feathered in. The feathering in of the colors was from the 3rd 4th and 5th build sequences 25721-43137, 6/43-4/44. those planes had a dark blue surround on the insignia. Someone fell asleep at the wheel when it came time to paint that plane. For an air museum it is really dissapointing to see mistakes like this. I know this and I'm just some guy that likes Hellcats. There the proffesionals. You would think they could get it right.
As a side note there are some surviving F6F-3's painted in all Gloss Sea Blue which is correct because when the 3's were rebuildt they were repainted in the modern paint scheme.


The Hanger 9 Hellcat is a replica of a plane in the 2nd build sequence. I have the serial number of the real #13 in a stack of papers somewhere at the house. I may have the whole history of the plane somewhere. A few years ago I got lucky and bought copys of the production records, service history and demise of every hellcat ever built but I have not seen most of it in years and it may have been discarded with my other "useless junk" by the ex wife.

The stabiliter would have been dark blue. It makes the plane harder to see from the air. Thats also why the belly is usually white, harder to see.

fredscz

My Feedback: (47)

CorsairJock, Your right about the top of the horizontal stab/ele. I did a search and went to the Warbird Alley, and the Eagle strike production decal sight. Most are the tri-color scheme with just a few that seemed to only be two colors with the top of the horizontal stab dark and the verticle fin/rudder light with the red trim around the stars and bars. I should have looked closer but all I was looking for at the time was the verticle stab/rudder color.
I would be glad to post some of the photos I found but I just do not know how to copy them then post them on here.
Fred

CorsairJock

My Feedback: (90)

Actually, from what I have seen, it is rare to se a warbird restored 'correctly'. Another example would be the current "Marine's Dream": the original was an F4U-1 painted in the early WW II 2 tone scheme (non specular light gray on bottom, non specular blue gray on top) while the 'restored' version is an F4U-1D (FG-1D?) in a 1943 style tricolor scheme, which was used on F4U-1As. In other words, it is painted like an F4U-1A, but has F4U-1D canopy and ordinance pylons. BUT, it IS a very good looking Corsair, and a rarity in that it has the tri-color scheme.
There are many, many more warbirds that are restored incorectly. It would seem that us modelers are more picky than the owners of the full scales. I doubt there was ever a B-17 named "Sentimental Journey", with a picture of Betty Grable on it.
While there are a few, very accurately restored warbirds out there, I think the majority are restored to something that looks better to the owner.
Also, the majority of surviving warbirds did not see combat. Most were here in the states when the war ended.

But, back to the subject of this thread: Hangar 9 Hellcat, a simple way to make your's look a little more scale authentic is to re-cover the top of the stab and elevators with Midnite Blue, to match the tops of the wings and fuselage. You WILL have to buy an entire roll of UltraCote, and will only need about 1 foot of it (leaving 5 feet for repairs?), unless you and a buddy (or two, three,..) share a roll.

CorsairJock

My Feedback: (90)

You might want to consider a drop tank from Wing Mfg. I am using 2 of them on my Top Flite F4U-1D Corsair. They are made in 2 sizes: I suggest the larger (longer) of the 2. They are much longer than the P-40/ P-47/ P-51 types, and look a LOT like the ones the US Navy was using on Hellcats and Corsairs:
http://www.wingmfg.com/Pages/Wac3.html

JohnVH

My Feedback: (38)

Hello all, had my chance to see and photograph one of these birds in person today, it was very nice, flew great, had a saito .91. We were pretty impressed!

Pics! Enjoy!

CorsairJock

My Feedback: (90)

REALLY NICE PICs, JohnVH. Wish there was a photographer with your talents in my area. I think I do OK (taking pics), but have a hard time taking pics of mine while I am flying it.

Do you know which prop was on that Saito .91 powered Hellcat? Looks like a Graupner, but what size?

JohnVH

My Feedback: (38)

Hi, thanks! Its just a hobby of mine. It was a 16x7? maybe?

brewmanbrett

Finally got her up for the maiden last night. Definitely worth the 2 months of trying to find the time to put her together. Flew it w/out the cowl, as I was breaking in the Saito 1.00 "on the bird." Turning Master Airscrew 14x7 3-blade.

Haven't found any signs of the break-in weakening the airframe, contrary to many posts on this forum. There seems to be a lot of "overdoing it" with many of the posts I've read.

It did struggle slightly heading into the 25mph gusts with that flat face catching air, but settled in nicely on her diagonal-crosswind landings.

Even with dual rates, was looking for a little more throw from the ailerons, but all-in-all, it was a blast. I see why so many of you have been pleased with yours. Cheers Hangar-9!

brewmanbrett

avatar71

what is the general concensus on first flights without the cowl (I am going ot use a saito 100 too)

brewmanbrett

avatar,

You'll be cool. It was the first time I had attempted it myself, and I was somewhat concerned, but those Saito 100's are strong. Keep in mind, this was with 25mph gusts, it was a windy SOB out there. On a calm day, it'll glide right along!

dhusted856

My H9 Hellcat has become one of my favorite everyday fliers.. I have the new Zenoah G20 Gas engine in it. The engine keeps getting stronger the more I fly and I sure like not having to use a glow driver or having a clean the airplane when I'm done flying. Not to mention three bucks for a gallon of gas. (I'm a four-stroke guy, but decieded to try the G20 for kicks.) Really like it. The plane balanced with no additional weight by moving a battery pack. No complaints with the retracts. Burned out two hitec retract servos before popping for a Futaba retract servo. Had no problems after that. Using a 6 volt battery pack with no isues other than faster servo response. The plane lands like a feather with a slight head wind. Ive got about 16 flights and eveything is dialed in. This plane fits in the back of my jeep without taking off the wing. I just fly and put it away..I also have the H9 60 size mustang with a YS 110FZ what a great flying airplane.. Hangar Nine, keep up the good work!!!

avatar71

how many years of model flying experience do you hellcat fliers out there have? Reason for asking... I have been flying for about 1.5 years now and have doubts about my skills. Scared to take the hellcat up!