I reduced my tail wheel travel to a point which it give a 40' diameter turn. It tracks with ease on takeoff and landing. Like any warbird, don't hammer the throttle on take off.

I just installed the landing gear, what should have been a 10 minute job turned out to be 45 as the holes in the plates were to far apart and I had to elongate the holes. Just need to balance it and its ready to fly.

Karl, All of the wings seem to be have a little bit different hole spacing. The one we had lined up with the holes perfectly.

Darrell

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rcu...697efe4719.jpg

XPS X24
I am sure its not the gear. They were 2 on one side and 1 on the other. very nice gear ,Thanks
It balanced at 6" with the batteries on the back of the fire wall.

My Robart gear dropped right in with no problems all the holes lined up perfectly . I am going to reinforce the gear mounts and bay areas with some fiberglass . I do this on all planes with retracts to toughen them up a little .

CK1, I tried the robarts out of my p-40 and they were the same . Not a big deal, The rest of the plane went together very good. I am just glad I have a giant scale Hellcat. You have to see the Sierra gear in person to really appreciate how nice they are.
Karl

Hay Karl
I'm home and opened the box and the Sierra Retracts are a straight drop in fit. They were drilled for this application and are a direct fit on the Top Flight F6F. I use "Lado's" on my T.F. 60.~.90 size fighters. They work perfect for me and some have run for more then 6 years with out a problem. But on my larger warbirds, I prefer Sierra's gear. These gears were made for an airframe a good 20#'s heaver and are robust and well built. They are pneumatic but using Robart gear to drive the gear...I've had excellent results. I use Robarts air tanks, up/down switch, low air pressure sensor, connections and air line. You need a larger air tank with Sierra gear...and I install two big ones and connect them together.

This is the largest model I've ever purchased like this, but the quality of my ARF from Top Flight was very good. The covering near perfect and very happy with my kit. To be honest...I've never have received a bad kit from Top Flight...kit or ARF. I've build several from a kit, and as an ARF, but all flew well.

Soft Landings Always,
Bobby of Maui

Bob , that is what Darrell was saying, the wings must have different building jigs, some are right and some are wrong. It has been a very nice arf to assemble. mine is ready to fly at 28.32 lbs

Karl

Hay Karl,
I believe Sierra gear is able to handle a 45# airframe...so you are good to go.
Soft Landings Always,
Bobby of Maui

Here are the Robart retract combo part #'s painted white. You can get them at Tower or Horizon. The website descriptions are very limited and they don't even show them under the accessories page. Received mine yesterday :)
Robart Main/Tailwheel Retracts Combo PNEUMATIC
ROBTF150F6FCB
Robart Main/Tailwheel Retracts Combo ELECTRIC
ROBTF150F6FCBE
Robart Mains/Tailwheel Retracts with Wheels/Tires Combo PNEUMATIC
ROBTFF6FCB
Robart Mains/Tailwheel Retracts with Wheels/Tires Combo ELECTRIC
ROBTFF6FCBE
​

Hello all. Earlier in this thread I indicated that I was the winner of the Top Flite Hellcat given away at the 2018 Toledo swap meet. After careful consideration I decided to sell this airplane to a really good friend of mine. He has built and flown countless Top Flite giant scale aircraft in both ARF and kit form. In the course of the assembly he found a serious defect with how the wing sits in the fuselage saddle. It appears to be a defect that he will have to correct with some really time consuming modifications because Horizon refuses to stand behind it because he was not the original buyer. I get their position but I still feel like Horizon should stand behind a product they advertise. I have taken this situation to heart because I unknowingly sold him a defective product; I had not unpackaged the airplane before I sold it to him. I have offered to buy it back, burn it and never do business with Horizon again, however, he had already bought the retracts, electronics and engine needed to put it in the air so he is committed. He was able to fix the rudder and elevator pushrod issue noted above.

Has anybody else ran into this issue and if so have you contacted Horizon?

What's the serious defect? Could you please be more specific?

There is a 1/4 inch gap between where the fuselage and the wing meet, not a constant gap but on one edge depending on what way you move the wing, it does not sit square against the fuse.

I bet Tower would have stood behind it!

1/8" to 3/16" at leading edge, 1/8" at trailing on this production run.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rcu...97e90be7a9.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rcu...aed957ed08.jpg

F6f Wing saddle
 

I am the guy that ended up with the Hellcat from Toledo that I picked up from my friend, the total problem isn't at the leading and trailing Edge as you see in the photo it's how the wing sets in the wing saddle, you've got 1/8 inch gap on the right-hand trailing Edge and the same on the left hand Leading Edge. The only way the wing will set halfway level in the Wing saddle is if you shift it to the left a quarter of an inch. No matter what I have tried the wing will not sit down in the saddle properly. With the result I received from Horizon basically no help at all unless I want to buy new parts out of my own pocket somehow I will figure out how to make this work. I would have liked to have thought that a kid of this caliber could be free of this kind of problem, I understand it's a production run but there is such a thing as quality control and taking care of the customer

I understand now. Definitely going to be some work for you to get it trued up. I agree, Horizon should have taken care of this...even if you're not the original owner.

Not that it will do much good....go to Top Flite's feedback page and give them some "constructive criticism"
https://www.top-flite.com/feedback/a...-comments.html

My wing fit OK , it was the belly pan that was a little short. I have 8 flights on it now and it fly's great. So now you might have to get out your modeling skills and plug the holes and re-drill them , the time it takes to fix it is going to be easy compared to sending it back and the next one it might be something else.

Karl

Thanks for the info, I've been doing some measuring and figured out to Wing is actually sitting on the fuselage correctly just not in the wing saddle completely orientation to the horizontal stabilizer is good so instead of dealing with highspots in the wing saddle it's low spots so that will be easier to fix. Like you said get out the old modeling skills get it fixed nice to hear it flies well.

Karl, not to knock on you but what you stated is exactly why the hobby industry will not and does not change the way they do business.
Does anyone walk into any store and buy any other product and say the same thing? Its unique to our hobby because YOU are willing to make up for their deficiencies. Modellers/hobbyists are willing to tinker and fix things. Companies taking your money just have to get the product ALMOST done, Nearly developed, its ridiculous! This is especially more insulting when the cost of a jet is $3000 to $8000 to your door and then you have to R&D it further!

Ive been in the industry and my products had manufacturing issues but we fixed them and kept the customer informed. We never used the customer for R&D or told them sorry and good luck. Its just bad business to do so.

Im just saying, hold RC businesses to the same standards as everyone else in business you deal with from the supermarket to Best Buy, or whatever, they are no different.

Chris I know what you are saying ,I have got my share of bad products and some just go back ,so you have to pick your battles. If it was the original owner you would have a case but this is a little different. Tower should step up and take care of it, if nothing else to keep us from talking about it on the forums.

Karl

I sent this email to Horizon 3 days ago and have received no response:


Hi Courtney,



I just wanted to take a moment to send you an email regarding the Top Flite Hellcat I won at Toledo 2018. I took receipt of this model and made a decision to sell it to a really close friend of mine. I sold it to him in an unopened condition and he ordered all the necessary parts to make it airworthy. During the assembly he found a serious defect with the way the wing fits into the fuselage, a defect that is going to require major modifications for the airplane to even fly. He spoke with and sent pictures to Nick at Horizon and Nick refuses to do anything about it because my friend was not the original buyer. Nick did indicate that he would be more than happy to send out a new fuselage and wing at some sort of cost; however he did not say at what cost. I get his position about my friend not being the original buyer but if there is a defect in a product that Horizon markets, than Horizon should be standing behind the quality of that product no matter who the buyer was and they should be making it right with the consumer. My friend and I have discussed this with our fellow hobbyist and honestly the general consensus is that Horizon really doesn’t care about customer service anymore because after the Tower acquisition they pretty much have the modeling market cornered and as such can do whatever they want. Pretty sad if that is what Horizon has become. At least that seems to be the situation here and it makes me give pause to who I really want to give my future business to or maybe the realization that I need to find a different hobby altogether.



I am really taking this situation to heart because I unknowingly sold a really close friend a defective model and I have put him in a bad situation because the company that distributes it will not make it right. At this point my only option is to buy the airplane back from him, burn it and never do business with Horizon again.

Hope they get it sorted out for you.

Horizon is pretty good about that stuff. VP'r here too. 31, 46,NRL, 62