How many do they have in stock?

Don

What are you talking about ? To another place ? This is forum, and that means the good goes with the bad............... If you want to close your eyes and risk the others around you and your safety go ahead.. But not mine, When I see a Rare Bear I land my aircraft and or get away from the flight line. I Know from personal experience that the Airplane is a danger. I have had 2, 1 underpowered and 1 over powered to the tune of $600.00 not including destroyed internal aircraft parts. On this forum where people come to inform others and share info, I learned a great deal about the company and its support of its product. (Lack there of)

You don't fly airplanes beacause they are nice on the ground. Looking good dosen't mean safe. AMA mandates safe as possible, Rare Bear is not you do the math.

By the way Coral snakes are beautiful, Lions, Tigers go ahead reach out and touch'em because they look good.

You don't control others views so if don't like them ignore them............

OK, great post!

I would have to agree with Itzdzworld on that one, if you read through the thread from the start the number of failures, including those built stock, it is too much to ignore. There is a real problem with the plane and some action needs to be taken to prevent injury or death. Yes it is a beautiful arf.. if you plan on putting it on display, and yes there are some planes that have not suffered failure.. yet.... but from the number of reports coming in on this particular issure.. ie the stab failures, I have no doubt a problem exists. Those that have had failures must report this to the consumer protection department. They will investiage and if indeed a problem exists they will take the necessary action.

This is a discussion forum, not a prayer meeting. If members do not report the bad with good we will not grow, and when a product has a dangerious inherant default it must be dealt with. I can feel the frustration many are experiencing from the lack of any action being taken by the manufacturer and frankly, I am surprised as sooner or later this will come to a head. I have flown for 20 years now and never.. I repeat never suffered from or seen a horizontal stab failure in flight at our field.

Well good luck to those that have lost their craft and I wish the best for you in your continued efforts.

Regards,
Randy

Hattend, if you're looking to buy a (another?) Rare Bear ARF try [link=http://www.thundertiger4u.com/product_info.php?products_id=7698]ThunderTiger4U[/link] They are listing them for $230 with FREE shipping.

Cool! Thanks, Stevo

Don

Here's an internal oblique view of the insdie of one of my TT Rare Bear's Horz Stabs. You'll notice that the slot cut for the bearings that support the elevator torque rod and the inner CA Hinge has significantly weakened the strength of the TE and the Stab overall. Also note how the 1st inner rib has been cut through to the hole which the tube spar passes. I am 100% certain this cut in the trailing edge material and into the rib is the root cause of the Horizontal Stab failures.







This picture shows the doublers I fabricated from 3-ply birch ply which are epoxied to the Trailing Edge and Rib where they had been split. The hard balsa block added for the Robart hinge points can also be seen.



During final assembly of the horiz. stab to the fuselage The fiberglas spars where cemented into the fuselage and then the stabs where cemented to the spars using 2 hour epoxy/ BVM Mill Fiber mixture. Once I was sayified with the glue joints, I then closed the lower stab skin and refinished the lower side of the stabs.

Rich

Well I have read nearly all the postings and have pulled my Rare Bear down for mods. when I bought it off a friend I had no idea it was made by TT. I have had two other planes of theirs, a Tiger bipe 40 and a Decathlon ( bought within a week of each other) both had major wing failures in flight, luckily no one hurt. Both had inferior balsa / ply materials used, both had been designed by someone with no concept of stress or strength of air frames also lack of glue, cheap white glue used. knife cuts by assemblers in main spars etc. In short TT are making dangerous crap and should be stopped, there are plenty of other makers turning out good ARFs without these problems. Various friends and flying club members have had the same experiences with TT products. I havent finally decided what to do with mine, I will try talking to the importers first.[:@]

Hey, does anyone here know where to get replacement springs for the tailwheel? I've lost one.

DT

DT
Most engineers merchants have boxes of assorted tension springs, you should be able to match it or buy a pair of close matches for cents.
Have good Xmas
Aw96

Home Depot has a pretty good selection of springs that will work on most tail wheels. Don't ask How I know.

Replacement Tail feathers are on their way from importers but they want the old ones back! wonder why

Iv been flying my RB for 33 hours . No problems and a joy to watch . Powered by the TTPro 90 . Shes not the fastest pylon racer in the world but everyone at my flying club say what a fab looking bit of kit . Too many people out there think they have to make the fastest model pylon racer ever putting large amounts of load on the model frame and going mad overpowering it with 4 stroke 180's its simply not designed for that sort of power .TT say that pro 61 or 91 is the recomended engine so those of you who have gone mad overdoing it shouldnt be suprised when it gives out. However I will be the first to shout from the roof tops if something fails with regard to the stab with the sort of power Im using.

Huh What, If you have a trainer passing your supposed pylon racer, what do you really have? I heard they call that a Sky Mule with Lipstick...................
BTW, I had a Super Tiger 90 in mine and it failed. But those of you who want to keep putting your jewels on the chopping block! Sooner or Later........POW...............
In that light you won't have to figure why, you'll know.......................

P.S. 33 Hours does that include building time ?

Iv not had problems with my TT90 yet, what failed on yours? 33 hours is the time logged in flight.I have to admitt that it is a bit mushy in the air and isnt as sharp as it should be. I love the look of the thing and Id love to see the real thing in action, but I would not buy another one either. The quality is bit a down in comparison to other models that I have eg: the cowl is cracking and position of the fuel tank was barmy , I made lots of mods but thats what I like to do with my models.

its nice to seesome positive comments on this plane.Cant wait to get started on it...just been too busy to get into it yet.Il keep yall poated and thANX FOR THE Positive info.
d

I think that the comments regarding the rare bear posted on this site are valid, however I think that Thunder Tiger would not have produced this model without testing it , and the limit is 61 to 90size two strokes. Mine is based on the TT90pro and its doing fine for me.
That said , it should withstand a fair bit more power without to much airframe stress. In its defence I think its a fantastic rendition of a fantastic aircraft and should be enjoyed within its limits. I have no doubt that as soon as you see it in the air you will be like a child in a sweet shop........IT WILL BE WORTH IT

I had the TT pro90 in mine.

It went down after 5 min in the first flight.
Stab totaly exploaded in the air, and YES, we had put it together as the manual said.

My second Bear is almost ready now, and have mayor mods on it.

We even found a error in the elevator, something that I have not read on this thread before.

This is a dangerus type of ARF. Do NOT fly it before stab is rebuilt.

My 2 cents.

Regards

Andreas, What was the problem with the elevator that you found? I have started to assemble mine with all the modifications and am deciding if a YS110 or a Webra 91 should be used.

listning intently.......
d

where can I send my stabs back to?
thanx
d

Its all doom and gloom ......let me know how your mods fair up.
Im getting a bit worried about my bear , Iv done some serious air time with it and no problems, Im going to check it with a fine tooth comb. it would be a shame if fails now. My model magazine
published a report on it and they too didnt experience any problems either .....


YOURS A VERY WORRIED BIGGLES

I installed a NIB Redhead ASP 1.08 ABC with a Bisson Pitts muffler in my Rare Bear. I'd estimate level flight speed at about 95MPH and I haven't had any problems with my stabs with about 10 flights. However I've installed 3-ply Birchply doublers in the horizontal stabs and blocking for Robart Hingepoints. In this thumbnail pic, you can see how the first rib was completely cut through to the hole for the Fiberglass Spar. Also note how the trailing edge has been split for a length of about 4 inches. This cut severly compromises the structural integrity of the horizontal stab and is most likely the root cause of most of the tail failures we've been reading about.

Another thing to consider which hasn't been brought up is the basic airframe rigging (Trim) as it's setup by TT. I measured the wing incidence and engine trust line of my RB during construction and didn't care for the amount of downthrust that was built into the firewall. IIRC (my measurements are in a much earlier post), There was about 4.5 degrees of downthrust and 2 degrees of right thrust. I reduced the engine downthrust to 1.5 degrees and subsequently added washers to arrive at a 3 degree setting. I reduced the right thrust to 1 degree and it's been about right.

I mention this because one has to take into consideration what the horizontal stab really does in flight. To get right to the point, the horizontal stab is developing a downforce to counteract the effects of the aerodynamic center of lift. The force vector is located behind the aircraft's static CG, this results in a nose down rotation around the aircraft's lateral axis (imagine a line running spanwise through the CG). To counteract this force a stabilizing force is required, or a downforce, this is what the horizontal stab does.

Now what happens when you add downthrust to the firewall ?? We induce a nose down rotation around the aircraft's lateral axis. This is another downforce that the horizontal stab must now counteract. The horizontal stab is counteracting sum of the downforce vector induced by the aerodynamic center of pressure, and downthrust vector induced by the firewall downthrust.

Now let's consider what we'rre doing when we add a BIG BLOCK engine like an O.S. 1.60 for it's weight. This engine is going to create much more thrust than a TT .91 engine will. Now consider what what's happening aerodynamically to the airframe to balance the large increase in engine downthrust at full power. Obviously the horizontal stab must counteract this increased nose down force with a corresonding taildown force. This is increasing the loads on the horizontal stab. One can assume that some point we might exceed the design limits of the horizontal stab.

Mix the above scenario , with suspect workmanship present in the TT Rare Bear horizontal stab, one can only expect in flight failure of the tail.

Just my $.02.

Rich

Based on your calculations and the fact the weather here is poor which gives me plenty of time,I had decided to strip the the stabs and look inside. I was horrified , another flight would have been the last. The stab has always had some flex and iv found this on all my models,so I was blissfully unaware .
Iv decided to replace them and stiffen them and introduce the measures you suggest regarding the down/side thrust. With the mods it should prolong its life. Im not a bold pilot, I tend to flying around gently (no frills) which might also contribute to the extended life of my bear. Thanks for the advice, I will let you know how it all pans out

Biggles2,

I want to pass along one other bit of info that I might have mentioned in a much earlier post, back when I was initially test flying my RB. The 3 degrees of downthrust I'm using results in a plane with neutral pitch stability. This can be unnerving to some pilots and can be mistakenly called a tailheavy condition even though the static CG is correct. Neutral pitch stability is good if you want a very responsive aircraft, like one would expect a Fighter aircraft to have. The downside is any outside force can more easily have an impact on the aircraft in pitch, in other words, the plane will look / feel slightly unstable in the pitch axis. I dialed in about 30% expo for the elevator to soften the response around center stick.

Rich