ram3500-RCU

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Our custom light system for the Meister P-47. We make our own system. We mold the tip lenses. The formation lights are the same ones we use for the CARF Corsair. The size can be adjusted by using Areofoil for the bezels and simply reducing the diameter. the tail light is also custom to our system, as are the tip lights. It is driven by a 5000 mah 6.6v A-123. The landing light is on the same battery.

TonyBuilder

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Gary, where do you get the red and green light covers, and the formation covers?

thanks

TB

ram3500-RCU

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We make them.

No cheap generic light system has anything like them.

I was challenged by an arm chair scale consultant on the cost of our light system. My response, ok, you do all the R&D and manufacture the stuff and see just how much time you have in it, to produce the quality of what we use.

We looked at what was out there, purchasing some of it even, and that is precisely the reason we make our own. Frankly, most of it is generic crap for war birds. Civilian lighting is NOT the same as was used on these old war birds.

Fortunately, I have a brother, also my building partner, who is a professional electronics expert. He is the one who does all the electronic related construction for us. He is very good at what he does and all I need to do is feed him the occasional documentation, and then install what he makes. As far as the wings go, he installs any lighting, as he does 95% of the building on them anyway.

TonyBuilder

My Feedback: (11)

So you make the red, green and the colored formation lights! What are you making them out of? Are you vacuum forming them from colored plastic, or do you die them after you form them?

Thanks

TB

ram3500-RCU

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Brian starts with pieces molded in the appropriate colors, and then works them into what you see.

ram3500-RCU

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Dino sells nav lights (generic). Formation lights are the ones that are hard to find and the reason we went through the troble of making our own. The Corsair we do has (5) of them.

TonyBuilder

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Ok thanks, I will figure it out.

TB

ram3500-RCU

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I can help you with the formation lenses. You will just need to add your lights to them. We use the proper color LED light bulbs as well to enhance the brilliance, but you could use clear bulbs as well. We also have them already made up with bulbs and pigtails, ready to install. Just need to see where Brian is with supply. We have (3) complete sets we will be needing ourselves. I'll check with Brian on our cost both ways.

We can also make some extra tip lenses. The tail light is the actual bulb, sanded to frost it. This is much more durable.

Just MP me or send me an email if you have that.

TonyBuilder

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Thanks Gary, I have 8mm 1w ultra bright LEDs in any color or white to use on a 8v Lilo, do you think that will be bright enough?

TB

ram3500-RCU

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Brian uses mostly 100ma LEDs and has them resistored (protected) down to 3.3v or less. Most LEDs are 20ma. He uses lower voltage LEDs so there isn't so much to reduce to so as to lower the heat generated. That all computes to about 0.34 watts for most of our locations. They are very bright even at that, as you can see in the videos. The more watts, the more battery you will draw.

The 1watt bulbs will draw your battery down rapidly, Brian tells me. This is all kinda Greek to me but I do understand it when Brian explains it to me. I'm probably not doing the explanation justice. Sorry for that.

Bottom line, 1 watt is a lot more than we use on our systems. We balance brilliance with longevity.

ram3500-RCU

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You all may remember the dead stick last year onto a full scale runway. This left Zombie's belly pan pretty banged up. Time to fix this for this week end. Good opportunity to show you how easy it is to fix aluminum finishes.

First I striped the area of loose aluminum and glass.

ram3500-RCU

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Now some body work, keeping in mind that this is a working fighter and not a restored aircraft. Some dings and scuffs are not only OK to me, but even desirable. The body work will be to restore the integrity of the surface.

ram3500-RCU

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Now for the aluminum. First I outline the repair panels with tape. Then I start from the rear forward with each panel, overlapping the tape with the aluminum. These overlap lines make a perfect guide for your exacto knife. Cut along the tape, pull it off and move it back for the overlap of the panels you want, or add it along the previous panel for flush panels.

ram3500-RCU

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Keep moving forward with each panel, and then you can remove the side tape and run your blending stick along the edges to burnish them tightly down.

ram3500-RCU

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Now I sand the new aluminum with 400 wet / dry to age it. In this case, given the imperfect surface, this will leave some shinny spots in low areas. For this I go over the area with green scotch bright. This evens out the aging and leaves a consistent finish.

ram3500-RCU

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Now for some rivets of various sizes. Done. Warbirds just were not the pristine replicas we usually see at the fields IMO. It's in the eye of the beholder, right.

For a pristine look, it would only have taken more time in the body work to get the surface smoother. The rest of the process is the same.

After the body work was done, the aluminum repair took about 1/2 hour.

ram3500-RCU

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Zombie is ready to begin her 5th flying season, second with the Moki radial. Hopefully I will have some good pictures to post after this week end.

TonyBuilder

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That looks like a much easyer fix then paint, my belly pan is carbon fiber and will be covered in foil, on my proto type the chine was also carbon fiber and I will do that on my Miester.

TB

TonyBuilder

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thanks Gary, I am just in the discovery proses on the navigation light setup and feel that I can come up with a good setup without spending $$ on a pre made system. The 1w LEDs are going into my 40% super cub and on a 5200 6v battery. They also have .5w pre resisted for 6v to 9v so I will get a set of thoes too, only $7 for ten LEDs. My landing light is a 10w 12v halogen and runs of a 1100 9v batery and should be good for a days flying. I'm honing my system!


TB

ram3500-RCU

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I think you will find the .5W will be fine. Must of our cost is in the time making all the lenses and the work in the formation lights. The actual wiring harness goes pretty fast has we have patterns for the custom lengths.

ram3500-RCU

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Yes. I much prefer fixing aluminum over paint.

TonyBuilder

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Hi Gary, a question for you, in your expieriance is the fiberglass fuselage better then the kit built up wood fuselage, as in scale lines. I'm more concerned with scale accuracy like tail wheel location, wing filets, under side, and so on. I know the glass fuselage has all the details and the wing and tail fairings are done and this would speed the build up. I'm ok with the glass fuselage as long as it is scale. As you know I'm doing the P-47 D-25 version bubble top.

Anyways I'm getting close to pulling the trigger, with $300 diferance I think it is well worth the money for the time saved and the details that come with it, thanks.

TB

ram3500-RCU

My Feedback: (221)

Having done both, here is my take on this. It really depends. If scale is a high priority, then go with the all wood version. You can control the shape of the nose behind the cowl flaps, the profile of the tail, the shape of the wing fillets, The location of various vents and surface detail, the location of panel lines, etc.

If sport scale is good enough (no documented static competitions), then the fiberglass may be for you. It is very respectable and nicely done. Impressive in both sport scale and competition flying.

I said "may" be for you because there is as another factor. Durability. No fiberglass fuse wil be as strong as a well built wood airframe.I have seen first hand how strong the all wood is. I'm totally certain that no fiberglass would have survived what I have put Zombie through. We are talking cartwheels with only minor damage. (Dead stick at an impossible time.)

Fiberglass will definitely save you some building time.

Fiberglass is also more durable to transport and store. I just hauled this fiberglass P-47 500s miles. First stop to check on everything found that it had fallen out of it's cradle. A wood fuse would have had a large dent for sure. No damage to this one.

As you can see, I don't have a simple answer to your question. It really depends on what your vision for your aircraft is, along with the other factors i mentioned.

Both versions have merit and


Cheers
Gary

TonyBuilder

My Feedback: (11)

Thanks Gary, I go back and forth but I know I like controll and having a pre maid fuselage with details already decided would probably bother me, yes more work but I'm use to that. I think the all wood kit will be the way to go as I will be compeating with this bird.

Thanks

TB

ram3500-RCU

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Then you are making the right decision IMO. It will be accurate and last for many years. Dino has many accessories to make it go easier. I recommend the resin parts, the fiberglass bucket wheel shroud, his slider kit, fiberglass pylons to name a few. He does a wonderful job supporting the builder on this plane.