RCU Forums - Hellcat Brotherhood

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Hellcat Brotherhood

All you Hellcat lovers, come on in and join the Hellcat Brotherhood.
Following is the criteria:
You have a Hellcat
You had a Hellcat
You are building a Hellcat
You want a Hellcat
Or you simply like Hellcat's
Everything from small electrics to big gassers, including arfs, kits, scratch builds.
Membership to belong to the Brotherhood is free.
Please post your builds, comments, questions and pictures in this thread.
We hope to have shirts, caps and vinyl decals available in the future.
To join PM or e mail me at [email protected] or post in this thread. You will be assigned a number and the list will be updated and posted regularly.
Welcome aboard.
Thank you!
Steve Ort
Hellcat Brotherhood #1

Let me be one of the first to join. I have a fairly new ESM 72" wing span Hellcat. It is powered by a G-38 and has Sierra landing gear. I have about 35 flights on the plane. Wtg. 18.3 lbs. I like the Hellcat because it was a good all around airplane didn't do anything great but every thing well enough with no bad flying characteristics. I find the Hellcat to be fairly easy on take offs and landings and looks great in the air. Here are some pictures taken a few weeks ago.

Hellcat Brotherhood

Sign me up. H9 Hellcat ARF, basically stock. Magnum 91 2S, 380 flights. Nice flying plane.

Brian

Welcome aboard. Nice Hellcats!

Thank you Steve for taking the reigns and starting a brotherhood for the airplane that has in the last few years become one of my favorites, if not my favorite, second world war fighter. My love affair with the airplane can probably be traced back to my rubber powered free flight days. The Hellcat was by far the easiest fighter type to make fly well without having to resort to making changes like increasing the size of the tail feathers, adding downthrust, or increasing the dihedral beyond the scale amounts. That is pretty uncommon for a free flight scale model of a fighter type aircraft and anything that flies well as a free flight model can surely be made to fly well as an RC model. Combine that with the fantastic history and combat record of the Hellcat and, for me at least, it was pretty tough to overlook as a potential project. Over the last few years it has become something of an obsession for me and there are currently four Hellcats in various states in my shop!

My first Hellcat was in 1965, a Scientific Half-A Stand Way Off Scale 18" CL with slab sides, clear plastic fuselage top for clear canopy and paint to rest, built up wings and a non-scale round cowl front. My second around 1971 was a rubber powered stick and tissue 16" Guillow Hellcat. They still make the kit:

http://www.guillow.com/f6fhellcat.aspx

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=1936168
I also have two unbuilt Hellcat kits for future build, both control line. One is the 42" span Sterling S-46 profile F6F Hellcat for .35 engines. The other is a 20" span Sterling profile Beginner's Hellcat for .049 engines.

Back in the 1960's I also built plastic display models of the Hellcat, 1/48 and 1/72 scale.

Count me in! I have an old Byron Hellcat kit waiting in the wings, with some luck and some hard work it will go on the bench this winter. I have always been a Hellcat fan.

We are off to a good start.
Chad is #2, myself and another fellow wanted Chad to be #1 but he has a bit too much on his plate at the moment.
Thank you!

1. OldScaleGuy
2. Chad Veich
3. RBean
4. aghost
5. GallopingGhostler
6. redskyhawk

When I get some time I will share some pics and info on my various Hellcat build projects. Until then here are some "inspiration pics" of a couple of full size Hellcats I've had the pleasure of seeing perform in recent years.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...N2728_REDO.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...CATCLOSEUP.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...N2732_REDO.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...CATROLLOUT.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...TFORMATION.jpg

Chad, inspiration always helps, great pictures, seeing them in formation is awesome.
Dave, i thought the Ziroli 95" i am working on is big at 120" that is a monster, great looking work, please keep us updated.
I spent a some time this weekend fitting the wing center section to the fuse and preparing the wing mounting blocks. I have been bouncing back and forth between this and a Top Flite Spitfire. It is time to focus on the Hellcat only and get it done. Hopefully ready for paint by spring.
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=1936330

Add me to the list....I am planning on building the 1/6th Hellcat Chad has presented!

Sign me up. Hanger 9 hellcat,saito115,with serria retracts.Great flying plane.

Sign me up. I have a Bryon Hellcat decked out as Commander David McCampbell's Minsi III. It has flown before but is still in museum condition. I am a procrastinator but would like to replace the servos, retract air lines and upgrade the radio to a 2.4. Maybe this will inspire me to get off my duff. George in Texas

Include me in. Have a Hangar 9 Hellcat and lots of questions. Like which electric retracts work on this jewel.

I'm in. Ziroli Hellcat powered by zenoah gt80, robart retracts

The brotherhood is growing rapidly! I think the Hellcat has a bigger fan base than many folks might think. My hangar currently includes three 1/8 and one 1/6 scale Hellcat projects in various states of construction. What follows will probaby be old info for many of you guys but for the sake of the brotherhood I will share it again here. (Any excuse to post pictures of my "babies"!)

First is the prototype of my 1/8 scale design which has been flying now for about 3 seasons. The airplane has far and away exceeded all my expectations for it and flies as good or better than any warbird I've had up to this point. She is 65 inch span, about 11 3/4 pounds, Robart 615 retracts, and an OS .91FX for power. Despite being a bit "porky" the airplane slows down very well and is quite gentle around the stall, even without any flaps. I plan to finish out this flying season with it and then pull it down for a thorough IRAN (Inspect and Repair As Necessary) in order to get it ready for our Scale Masters quailifer in February. While I'm at it I may swap out the .91FX for a DLE 20 as well.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...LLCATRTF_G.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...TFTAILHIGH.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...T/TAKEOFF3.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...AT/FLIGHTB.jpg

I gotta finish up with my favorite picture of the 'cat together with my beautiful better half. I am her "airplane geek" which she maintains is a term of endearment although I'm not totally convinced.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...CATANDKATI.jpg

Second Hellcat in the shop right now is another 1/8 scale built from my plans by good friend Robert Vogel. He built it for warbird racing and, as such, it had little in the way of scale detail and a few airframe mods to suit his tastes. It actually performed pretty well as a race plane (YS 1.40 running 60% nitro!) but an "incident" with another race plane on the course resulted in about an inch of vertical fin being chopped off. At that point Robert decided it was much too big and expensive of a target to be sharing air space with $200 ARF missiles and so it was retired. My brother and I purchased the airframe from him shortly thereafter! Our intentions are to return it back to stock, add a modicum of detail, and re-finish it into an all yellow target tug scheme. My brother is working on it full swing and if all goes well it should be back up and flying before the end of the year.

Below is what it used to look like and I will share updated pictures as progress is made on returning it to warbird status. The black and red is a scale scheme by the way and represents how the overall dark blue full size Hellcat in my previous post used to look back in the 1960's.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...CAT/VOGEL4.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...AFFALL2010.jpg

Third is yet another 1/8 scale which is my second prototype and reflects the changes needed to add flaps to my design. Along with the flaps this one will get a full cockpit and substantially more surface detail than my red prototype in the hopes of doing a bit of competiton flying with it.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...DPROTOTYPE.jpg

And last but certainly not least (pun intended!) is a 1/6 scale enlargement of my smaller design. This one is getting the full treatment with the hopes that it will be a contest level machine when it is done. Based on how well the 65 inch model flies I am very excited about the potential of this 86 inch span version.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...CAT/FUSE_B.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...AT/HSTAB_D.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psc2852af1.jpg

Sign me up too! I have a knockoff ARF that was a copy of the 70" Giant Scale Planes ARF, Powered by an old Saito 1.20 dual plug smoothie and has Robart (I know- I know) retracts. Weighs about 11-1/2 lbs. and flies like a big trainer. I'll add pictures once I take some more current ones, but I'm intimidated by the previous post - wow!
Jim

next to the Wildcat...my favorite warbird. Sign me up.

Great pictures, thank you for posting. Up to 14 in just one weekend and most every region in the U.S. That's more than i ever dreamed in a couple of days!
If you ever see any mistakes in the list below, please let me know.

1. OldScaleGuy
2. Chad Veich
3. RBean
4. aghost
5. GallopingGhostler
6. Redskyhawk
7. wingspar
8. tailskid
9. flyweed
10. gesmale
11. dgdayton
12. trkpony
13. SRQflyer
14. Ram-bro

Hellcat Brotherhood!!!

Glad to join in. My Ziroli Hellcat on a bombing run at our local club event this year with some great camera work from Greg Harper one of our club members.

Todd Jackson

Hi fellow Hellcat lover's i would like to join your Brotherhood !!! My first hellcat was in 1970 had another in in 2000 sold that one. Have one building right now with a moki in it . Yes so please sign me up Chaz Comeau call sign Doolitter !

I have built a Ziroli Hellcat, and have loads of pics from the prototype which is at Kalamazoo Air Zoo, in Michigan. I took all the pics, so if anyone wants some for reference I am wiling to share them.
Waiting for my NUMBER! :)