RCU Forums - View Single Post - Thunder Tiger Sea Fury....feedback needed!
Old 06-06-2011, 09:12 AM
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Chad Veich
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Default RE: Thunder Tiger Sea Fury....feedback needed!

I have one and have mixed feelings about it! Some parts of it are very nice and others are somewhat "iffy". I had only a few issues with the quality of the airframe and the glass fuselage seems good to me, although maybe a tad heavy. As with most ARF warbirds the retract mounts are very weak and need to be reinforced before flying. Also, the outboard flaps on my airplane were very warped. Beyond that the airframe seems built well and it flies nice and straight. The supplied mechanical retracts are a joke and I replaced mine with Spring Air retracts and functional oleo struts. I originally built my airplane box stock except for the retracts (even left the flaps fixed) and it flew great but was about 15 pounds which is quite a bit heavier than Thunder Tiger's specified weight. It took a couple of pounds of nose weight to balance but everything was as far forward as I could possibly get it. I have talked with other guys who have had this airplane and they were able to keep the weight down around 13-14 pounds so I guess I must have just received a particularly heavy one. At any rate, it flew fantastic and is without doubt the best point-rolling warbird I've ever had. Mine does need to be respected around the stall due to the high wing loading (about 48 ounces/sqare foot as I recall) and it seems to roll forever on landing due to the high touch down speeds. Mine got banged up on a downwind, dead stick landing so I went ahead and glassed the wings and tail, added the flaps, and re-painted the airframe when I did the repair work. I only got a few flights on the rebuilt airframe before a stuck throttle servo resulted in a gear up landing out in the weeds and it now sits needing some repair work to the undersides. I can only imagine how nice this airplane would be had it come out around 12-13 pounds instead of 15!