oldtimer4759

G'day,
the 4 blade prop is just for drool factor, I fly it with a Hobby King Carbon Fibre 18x10. really goes well, heaps of power, very impressed with the DLE 35RA, faster than I thought it would be.
Doc, I have the ESM P-47, a very nice model to fly, DLE 30 in mine, with a JXF 19x8 wood prop, it flies like a trainer, CofG 105mm, ESM Air Retracts, easier to land than the other ESM War Birds I have, but that is what the 47 is like.

Oldtimer.

ALFIEV

Wing almost complete. Gear works (electric) but I cheated a bit and 'tied' the doors to the legs with a tie-wrap. Not as glam as the ESM method of ply-block and spring, but when I put a screw in the ply-block it just split apart the plies so I flagged it. Luckily I had a heap of pin-hinges at hand since the kit didn't have any. Also found that the screws that came with the retracts are junk, broke two of them off just screwing them in. Replaced those with some screws that can handle a bit of torque and tension.

Flaps work, but not 100% happy with the fit. They don't fair in all the way with the neutral position against the fuselage, but they look o.k with the ailerons and they do seem to be even.

Have just glued the dowels into the front edge of the center wing. Not convinced 6mm dowels are strong enough. Might mod this a bit.

Next.... bolts through wing and holes in fuselage for wing/fuselage dowels.

DOC

My Feedback: (57)

I still Have a 72" ESM Corsair And it lands as well as P-47's. I have 5 of them!

oldtimer4759

G'day,
I have 4 flights on mine now, very happy with it, doesnt need much rudder on take off, I keep a bit of power on for landing, it just eases onto the strip.
Alf, I dont use screws for holding the retract units in, 2 or 3 mm bolts into blind nuts, that way you are using all the mount for strength. re the wing dowels, I put the wing in place, then drill through from the front, in the engine bay, (patch it up later) that way they line up, you might need a long drill, I also use 6mm Aluminium rod in place of the dowels, on most of my models.
Oldtimer

vasek

My Feedback: (4)

ok ?! Envy....

ALFIEV

Cheers Oldtimer, will look at using your methods.

Alf

ALFIEV

Hmmmnnnn..... interesting. The tailwheel/rudder control assembly appears to have the plate( where the wires connect ) silver soldered/brazed in the wrong position. If I leave it as it is there is only about 5mm of rod poking up to be bent and fitted into the rudder leading edge. Instructions say it should poke up 35mm and still have sufficient to bend and engage with the rudder. If I move the position of the nylon/plastic hinge/support unit there will be nil clearance for the wires for the rudder!!!!

Looks like I am off to see the welders at work tommorow to get the plate moved so more rod pokes out the top.

Brilliant!!!!

ALFIEV

Finally got to maiden the Corsair today. I ran a NGH GF 38 four-stroke turning a 3-blade Biela 16x10. I have an aluminium spinner from Justenegines and put 1.35 lbs of lead in the front.
Firstly have to say that the engine/prop combo is not quite what I need for this model at the moment. Unless I can get more rpm/power out of this engine it is just powerful enough to fly on.
So,,,, staggered into the air, speed increased quite abit once gear was up. In this configuration I would say it flew scale speed. Surprisingly, I needed nil aileron trim, and had to put only a few clicks of nose-up trim in. Flew well, rolled good, looped o.k but I pulled a bit hard and was a bit slow and had a wing-tip stall first loop. My fault, recovered well, went around, gained speed and looped again. This time I got a nice big loop.
Flaps selected, no problems.
Gear down, no worries, landed nicely.
So, my first impressions are, nice flying model.... need to get better power out of my engine/prop combo.
Only sour note..... although it was by all accounts and opinions of many bystanders a good landing, one of the ESM electric gear struts is bent!!! The small nylon bushing at the bottom of the strut (bushing between the outer casing and the inner strut) had dropped down. The inner strut is bent where it is drilled for the grub screw that stops the inner strut from coming out of the outer casing.
In my honest opinion, if this gear is made for this model (as it was) and the landing was on short grass (which it was) and the landing was good (which it was) there is no way this should happen!!!!
Sure, the model weighs 20 lb, but this gear, sold fit for purpose (and not cheap in my neck of the woods) should be up to the job!!!!
Yep... can fix it...........shouldn't have to.

Alf

P.S Will see if I can get video footage from the guy who was filming the maiden.

LDM

My Feedback: (15)

Disappointing and I agree 100% , I have the same gear have not flown yet and not looking forward to weak legs on a 20 lb plane

alanc

Just a a thought on bolting the gear in, I use self tapping screws, then remove the screws, and cyno the threads, this hardens them up, They get ripped out, I do the same again, with bigger screws, if they ever get ripped out, I go to a size that is the maximum the retracts can take,only then do I bolt them in, I've never got to the machine screw and nut yet, use these, and the first bad landing ripps half the wing apart, This goes for any warbirds, But, one must please oneself, mustn't one ?

ALFIEV

Well, the good news is that the actual retract system itself worked very well. I will straighten and refit the strut, just hope that this 'weakened' area of the strut doesn't lead to bent landing gear every flight.

RBean

ALFEIV, you might try a different prop. I tried a Biela 17-10 three blade on a DLE 30. BH FW 190.ARF. Acceleration was slow, vertical limited and put a lot of load on the engine and caused overheating. It would only turn 6,000 rpm static. Went to a Xoar 17-8 three blade. It turns 7,700 rpm, good power, great vertical and all the speed I need. I'm using an Xoar 18-8 three blade on a G-38 in an ESM Hellcat, just over 18 lbs. Turns 7,200 rpm, good enough power. You could try a 18-10 two blade to see if your engine has enough power for that bird then go to a three blade. The Xoar props have thinner blades than the Bielas and put less drag on the engine. I tried a Master Airscrew 16-8 on the G-38. It turned over 9,000 rpm static. Too much. A Master Airscrew 16-10 three blade might work ok. Cost a lot less than the others.

ALFIEV

Thanks for the info RBean. I have a range of propellors available, will try some other combos. One thing I must do first though is check to see if my engine is sucking air anywhere around the carb intake or inlet manifold. Other users of the NGH GF 38 are getting rpm of 7200 with the Biela I'm using. I'm only getting 6000. I reckon the extra 1000 rpm would make a huge difference.

US185Damiani

F4U-1's such as this ESM ARF Had 3 blade props. the 4 blade didn't show up until the F4U-4

Saillfish

My Feedback: (17)

I have flown many warbirds. This one is awesome. At 20lbs it flies and lands like a dream. I am flying it with a DLE 35RA and a zoar sword 18x8. Required no trim whatsoever. Very happy with this one. It did require 2lbs of lead on the engine mount rails to balance.

ALFIEV

I totally agree it's a great flier and looks great in the air. Just interested, what retracts/gear did you use?

Saillfish

My Feedback: (17)

Century jet is now making gear for this bird in electric and phumatiic. I have twelve flights so far and all is good. They seem decent, not great. But far better than the esm junk. ss struts.

ALFIEV

Those retracts look interesting. Depending on transport costs I might consider trying a set. I am on to my second set of ESM electric retracts now, I don't think they'll last long but they were the only retracts available in my country. Looked at Robarts but they are really expensive and therefore will incur import duty on top of purchase price and transport.

Definitely considering the Century jet ones!

Thanks

Alf

tevans55

I do not think you will be disappointed with the new Century Jet electrics. I have been flying the Sierra pneumatic gear in my Corsair for a year and they work great. I helped with the design of the electric gear for Century Jet including the rotating gear which are the most difficult. Many of the problems that other manufacturers have had including ESM have been addressed for the past several years. In particular, the motor and gear box have been tested over and over to provide quality and affordability. That is part of the reason that Century Jet is late entering the electric retract market. They have also been producing electric retracts for quite a few large drone test programs both commercial and military. I am not an employee but I have spent a lot of time at CJM over the last several years and Bruce Sanders the owner prides himself on trying to answer the phone himself. He is very hands on and enjoys custom projects as well. (They also just got another big CNC machine...can't wait to see all the new stuff coming out of that!) I'm building the 85" ESM Corsair right now and will be getting a new set of the electrics for my plane next week.

Peter_OZ

My Feedback: (1)

tip for those with one of these.

Centre section of wing is inherantly very weak, it has a thin poor quality ply spar that has huge cut outs in it.

The ribs in this area have the same issue, poor quality ply and most of the substance has been removed leaving only very small areas of the ribs left to carry the load and they fail!!

Open up the centre section say on the top of the wing and check for yourselves.

Friend of mine lost his yesterday, wing failed in the centre and the model including saito 3 cylinder petrol engine is a total write off.

ALFIEV

Yes, I have discovered this. I reinforced the spar area with a light aluminium L- section. But, after a bad landing and landing gear failure I was forced to cut a section out of the fibreglass skin on top of the inner part of the wing. Inside there were a bunch of small rib sections made from very thin ply. These had numerous cracks in them. I have glued them up and strengthened with light fibreglass cloth. Also had to strengthen the fibreglass skin which had fractured in numerous places.
I haven't flown the repaired wing yet, have only just completed main repairs and replaced retract. Hope the repaired wing will be strong enough!!!!

Alf

Peter_OZ

My Feedback: (1)

I'd suggest using rib doublers in that area to spread the laod and put a spar doubler inplace using say 1/4" aircraft grade ply with carbon fiber cloth laminated to it. Put of cutting to get it spliced in but well worth it.

Glue skin back on and cover with 2oz cloth. If it was me I'd also open up the bottom where the spar runs, remove the skin in that area. Epoxy carbon fibre tape along the bottom of the spar. Sand smooth then glue the skin back in place, again some 2 oz cloth over the top and feathered in.

The failure pit i right in the centre which acts like a fulcrum effect, the tape method above distrubutes those loads.

the crap bamboo ply ESM uses does not help. The H9 version uses very good quality wood in it. I'll probably get one of those, strip the plastic rubbish off it and glass it. If I ever finish my P47 that is hehe


Just a thought.

tevans55

Peter those are good suggestions. I have both the 72" and the 85" ESM Corsairs as well as the B-25. On all of my center sections I have used masking tape to tape over the holes on one side of the outside rib and then in a well ventilated area I slowly pour a large bottle of CA into the wing moving the wing in all directions to thoroughly soak the wood. This process takes about an hour to do well but I have had no problems with my planes I have done this to. Last week I cartwheeled the 72" Corsair and broke the elevator tip and rudder tip as well as a crack in the empennage but the wing remained unharmed with no damage. The secret is to go slow, use a small flashlight to get inside and see the wet areas and work in a well ventilated area. I also make my wings one piece and use a lot of AeroPoxy. I always paint the entire wheel well with AeroPoxy and as far into the wing as I can to spread the load of bad landings as much as possible.

ALFIEV

O.K... so I thought I'd take a look at Century Jet. The gear looks interesting. I go to create an account and there is no way I can get the country field filled in. There is a drop down box to select your country, doesn't work!
Don't think I'll bother dealing with these guys. I am in New Zealand, I do 99.9% of my model shopping online. If their website is so shonky, I wonder what the gear is really like. Clearly I will not be ringing them by telephone, I live in New Zealand.
Shame, looked promising, won't waste my time and energy! Maybe these guys are good for customers in the States only.

Alf

tevans55

Alf-
I just spoke with Bruce Sanders the owner of Century Jet on your behalf as he is out of town. They are making changes to the website to update its functionality. There was also a recent international postage change that may have also affected the input field for country. Bruce said if you will email him at [email protected] he will contact you tomorrow. Bruce regularly sends retracts to New Zealand, Australia and throughout Europe as well. I hope this helps!