Finding good weather to maiden a new airplane in Houston is sometimes a challenge. Even though the weather is not very cold in the winter, the wind is usually another story.  That is why when we found a semi calm and sunny day in December after waiting for a few rainy and windy weekends, we were out at the field ready for a full day of flying.

Having a 48.5 in wingspan, the F4U Corsair can be transported to the field without having to take the wings off so field assembly in my case was non existent. Once at the field, I double checked the recommended C.G. and control throws per the manual and installed the 3S flight battery in anticipation of the first flight.

On the ground, the steerable tail wheel does a good job and as long as the tail is down, taxiing the Corsair does not provide any challenge. With the runway cleared and the Corsair facing the wind for its first flight, I advanced the throttle and watched as the tail quickly lifted off and the F4U Corsair was climbing in no time at all. Right rudder has to be applied as with any other tail dragger and the rudder is quite effective in keeping the nose pointed straight during take off.

Once in the air, I pulled in the gear trimmed out the F4U Corsair and took it high to experiment with its stall characteristics. As I slowed the Corsair down, I waited for a premature stall to occur which thankfully never happened. I was amazed at how slow I could fly the Corsair with complete control and without fear of a stall. The Corsair seems to be impossible to stall when reducing power from level flight as it simply wants to glide without dropping the nose or wingtip. To induce a stall, I raised the noise and backed off the throttle and with the noise pointed up I did finally get the Corsair to stall. Recovery was as simple as applying throttle as the nose pointed down and flying out without loosing a great amount of altitude.

After experimenting with the stall characteristics, I advanced the throttle and found that the F4U Corsair can respond with nice high speed passes over the runway which we clocked at 55-60mph with a radar gun. With the 4S battery installed, the Corsair really comes to life with very good vertical performance and level passes in the 70-75mph range but at the cost of reduced flight times of course. Loops from level flight and slow and scale like barrel rolls are all possible with the provided power system and control surfaces. I found the recommended elevator throws to be a bit too sensitive which I quickly remedied by adding a bit of exponential to the elevator. The recommended roll rates allow for some scale like rolls. The Corsair can maintain inverted flight and can perform pretty much any sport maneuver such as split-S, Immelman and stall turns.

Since the Corsair has functional gear doors, I was initially worried that the additional drag induced by the gear doors with the gear down would cause unwanted flight characteristics but found this to not be a major issue as I dropped the gear and performed a few circuits before approaching for landing. With the Corsair lined up over the runway, I reduced the throttle and watched as the Corsair bled off its speed and altitude and approached the runway in a controlled manner. The ailerons provide good control even at lower speeds to handle the runaway gusts that seems to want to flip you over right before touchdown.The Corsair exhibits an excellent glide ratio that is easily controllable all the way down to touching down on the runway which made landing the Corsair a breeze.

I am  a sucker for Corsairs and the new Flyzone Select Scale F4U Corsair has all of the right components to make it a winner in my book. Inclusion of scale details such a pilot figure, panel lines, a replica radial engine, guns and rotating retracts with functional bay doors is a great plus in a model of this size and price range. The fact that the provided power system can handle 3S and 4S batteries for increased speed and vertical performance is a huge benefit that you will not easily find in competing models. The rotating retracts have worked flawlessly so far and I do not have any reason to expect anything but good performance from them going forward. The functional gear doors are simply amazing and add the final touch of scale realism which will make you want to choose this airframe every time you head out to the field. I do wish that the speed of the retracts could be slowed down a touch as neither the TTX600 or the Futaba 8FGS radio that I had provided the servo speed capability which would allow me to achieve this. Great job Flyzone.