Chad Veich

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Craig & lightning,

Thanks for the compliments, much appreciated.

Craig,

I have the original magazine with the article you linked to in your post above regarding the Hellcat flaps and have read it many times. I was going to do the scale flaps on a Byron Hellcat kit that I had many years ago but sold it off without ever building it. I had the opportunity to see Jim MacDonald's airplane at Top Gun in 1989 and it is still the best Hellcat model I have ever seen. Awesome workmanship and Jim flew it well. You would have your work cut out for you adding the slotted flaps to a 64" span Hellcat but it is certainly doable. The nice thing about the mechanism is that it really would not add much weight. Go for it and I'll give you all the help I can!

Chad Veich

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Forgot to mention, my gear parts showed up today so, if all goes well, the Hellcat should be on her wheels by the weekend. I'm going to try my best to have it ready for test flights by Saturday the 26th. Fingers crossed...

biggles2008

Hi Chad

Thanks again for answering another question for me,
My build is making progress and just hope it starts to look as
good as yours.. Shall put a couple of photos up of where
im up to if thats ok with  you

                                                       Thanks Bryan

Wizard61

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Thanks Chad,

Thats what it looked like to me as well. I'm going to take a look at new struts and I'll let you know what I find out.

Thanks again.

Regards,

James

Chad Veich

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My pleasure Bryan and please do post some pics of your Hellcat build.

I spoke with Darrell at Sierra and he says that the struts that he makes for the ESM Corsair are exactly 6 5/8" long. I'm going to purchase a set and add his stuff to the Hellcat plans as an option. I will be starting a second Hellcat along with the group build and will need another set of gear anyway!

Chad Veich

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From the "It's About Time" department, the Hellcat is standing on its' own feet!

cold_reboot

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Getting closer. Now throw an engine in it and go fly it...get someone to video it when you do...or at least a lot of photo's.

EJWash1

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The Cat looks good on the gear Chad.

Hows the stability with the Robarts as she sits?

EJWash

biggles2008

Hi There,

Well here is a few photos of how my build is going
on the Royal Hellcat, I have jiged up all i have made
and its going to be alot bigger than i thought.
Also BIG Thanks to Chad who has been helping we out
so much with this build with loads of advice..

Thanks Bryan

biggles2008

i hope this worked, forgot the photos.lol

Craig-RCU

Chad, you're welcome, and thanks for the offer of help, much appreciated. It looks like the techniques that Jim used are very transferable to a 64" model without too much trouble. I think most of the challenge will be in tinkering to get the pushrods angles adjusted properly rather than any problems of scaling down Jim's techniques to a smaller model. Maybe if I make a mockup, I can figure out all the proper angles, then make a jig to set the angles on the final product. That might save some tinkering hassles.

One thing I think I might do differently than Jim is to use one servo on each of the outboard flaps, then link the small inboard flaps to the outboard flaps with a couple of metal pins in the end of the flap section. If you recall, the torque rods can't extend through the wheel well without interfering with the wheel, so the inboard and outboard flap sections have to be either powered by separate servos or linked together by some other means. Jim used a third servo to power the left and right inboard flap sections. Pin links would save the weight of an extra servo and maybe a bit of complication.

aerowoof

this has been a problem with corsair flaps also and the setup of the gold editioin tf corsair seems to work well.

Craig-RCU

Yes, the TF Corsair was the first model that I was aware that used the technique. I haven't built the TF Corsair myself, but I borrowed the technique when I bashed some flaps onto my H9 Corsair. I had my doubts that it would be able to create a slop-free link between the flaps that wouldn't bind, but it has worked very well for me so far.

Chad Veich

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Bryan,

Your Hellcat is looking good, thanks for sharing. The Royal kit looks like it is pretty accurate in outline, should be a great airplane. Wonder why the Hellcat didn't do better for Royal?



I've made pretty good progress over the last few days and we are on track for a test flight this coming weekend. The gear and air sytem are now in and plumbed and working great. I put everything in the removeable belly pan so the entire air system is contained within the wing to reduce the number of connections to the minimum. The belly pan is simply held on with four rare earth magnets and snaps on and off very quickly for servicing the air system. Most of the radio gear is in and I should have all the control surfaces hooked up by the end of the day today. The last of the hurdles will be routing the exhaust out of the cowl and getting it balanced. I hope to put it all together later today and get an idea of what, if any, nose weight will be required to balance. I will start with the CG at about 27-28% but I'm pretty certain it will end up further back then that by the time it's all said and done. The Hellcat has a very large horizontal stab which usually means the CG can go back to 30-33% with no problem. Onward and upward...

JohnMcGowan

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Top notch as always Chad! PLease give us the skinny on how it did, from take off to trimming and then landing that bad boy.... I KNOW it will do well.
[sm=thumbup.gif]
John

Hogrider

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Hi Chad,
Just an observation, on the full-size Hellcat, the Strut Scissors face forward.
In case you want to be scale as possible.
You have shown a lot of skill in your design and craftsmanship, keep up the excellent work.
Thanks for sharing.
Hogrider

Chad Veich

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Will do John, hope to have somebody shooting video of the event as well. I'll be sure to share all the details, both good and bad.

Doh! Of course you are correct Hogrider. I will turn them around and see but they may fit better in the gear doors with the scissor to the rear. I'm using 7/16" diamter struts and the scissor link is substantially larger than scale. I think a 3/8" strut would be more than adequate for the weight of the Hellcat and have a much smaller scissor link. I'm going to see if I can get a pair to try out. Thanks for the input!


If anyone knows where to get 3 3/4" or 4" wheels with a thin cross section I would LOVE to hear about them! I'm using a 3 1/2" Robart as shown in the pics and, as you can see, they look a bit small. Scale would be 4" and I have a pair of 3 3/4" Robarts but they are simply too "fat" to fit in the wing when retracted. If you look at the full size airplane you will see it has a pretty skinny tire and now I know why! They need to be no thicker than 1" and less would be even better. Any and all input much appreciated.

Craig-RCU

I had the same problem when searching for wheels for my H9 Corsair, all 3" plus diameter wheels are too thick at about 1-1/8". The only exeption I've found are Dave Brown treaded lite wheels which are 7/8" thick. http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXB929&P=SM
The largest size they make of these is 3-1/2", though. I bought the 3-1/4" and 3-1/2" wheels for my WM Zero 60 and H9 Corsair respectively. They must shrink some from the mold because their actual measurements were 3" and 3-1/4", but they are nice and narrow and light and cheap. Also, they are foam, so they don't look as scale as Robart wheels.

I took apart one of my Robart wheels that I used to have on my Corsair to see if the hub could be narrowed and compress the tires narrower too. That might be possible if you cut the inner flanges off and superglue or silicone glue the tire to the hub to keep it in place and maintain the air seal. Maybe other brands would be easier to make narrower?
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXD783&P=ML
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXD797&P=7

warks62

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If you find some wheels that are thinner let me know Chad. I have looked for 4" wheels and have not seen any that can take any kind of a load. The wheels from KMP that come on the Corsair look thinner if anyone following this thread have a pair can you let us know what the widest measurement is? I know they are not scale and are heavy somewhat but I can handle the weight and add hubcaps to make them look scale. they just look like they are much narrower than most other wheels out there. Take a look in the pic they appear to be thinner than other wheels

JohnMcGowan

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Chadster, you mentioned that the bellypan will be held on with rare earth magnets... are they THAT strong as to not pull apart while the plane is in flight? If never used them before , so I may not know what Im talking about ,lol
J

Chad Veich

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Craig,
I too looked at narrowing the Robart wheels but decided it's too much work. Funny you should mention the Dave Brown wheels, I just picked up a set today! Sure wish they had a 3 3/4" version though! They do make a 4" but, unfortunately, it jumps up to 1 1/8" thick instead of the 7/8" of the smaller wheels. I have couple of ideas to modify the Dave Brown wheels to make them much more scale looking. A 3 1/2" Robart scale wheel will just barely fit but an even better solution that I have found is the 3 1/2" wheels that come with the Hangar 9 warbirds. Although they appear to be direct copies of the Robart wheels they are a bit narrower in cross section. That's what I've got on my Hellcat as of right now and will test fly with them. It looks like H9 will make them available for purchase towards the end of this year. I still may try the Dave Browns though simply because they are lighter and may help to keep the nose weight to a minimum. So, to sum up, just about all of the 3 1/2" wheels will work but thus far nothing any bigger.


Randy,
I too thought about the KMP wheels because I remembered them appearing to be quite narrow. If anybody has a set and would be willing to post the dimensions that would be great.


John,
The rare earth magnets are indeed that strong. I'm using 1/2" diameter, magnet to magnet on both ends of the belly pan. I can pick up the 10 pound Hellcat by the belly pan without it coming off. I have no doubt that it will stay put in flight.

tailskid

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Chad, if you put the Dave Brown wheels in the freezer, you can then spin/cut/modify the foam relatively easily....

Chad Veich

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Jerry,

Thanks for the tip. Actually, the tire does not look too bad at all, it's the hub that's not very scale looking. I think I can address that though and make them acceptable. However, the only benefit at this point would be the weight savings as the Hangar 9 wheels fit fine and look better. Unless something goes drastically wrong that prevents me from finishing up tomorrow we will be test flying out at ARCS early on Saturday morning. Come on out if you're up for it.

CGAV8R

My Feedback: (2)

Hi Chad, I ran into the same tire problem on my TF P-51 build. The closest I could find are from BVMjets. Very expensive though, about $160.00 for two wheels and two tires.


This new MiG-15 main wheel is beautiful with its solid design incorporating the patented BVM brake and screws through the tire as per all BVM wheels. With its 4" diameter and thin profile, this wheel can also be great for main wheels on other scale or sport aircraft. This wheel utilizes a 1/4" axle.

Weight 5.4oz • Width 7/8"
BVM #5615


Aaron D.

JohnMcGowan

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Best of luck on the maiden Chad.......I just know its going to do well!!
My club is hosting a ssc combat event tomorrow....we've got some heavy hitters coming from far away as Texas, Kentucky and Georgia. Should be lots of fun if we can get everything in before the rain comes.. the weatherman says we should be ok in the am, but we have a 90% chance of rain tomorrow....go figure! [sm=drowning.gif]
Later buddy,
John
[quote]ORIGINAL: Chad Veich