Heavy1000

hey guys, i brought a parkzone fw190 yesterday, put it together and was flying it with much enjoyment (little bit twitchy due wind), on the second landing (not a bad landing) the fuse split exactly in two just behind where the pilot cutout is, no objects on the ground for it to hit, just seemed to split! has anyone heard of this before? has it happened before? what would be the chances of getting a replacement fuse out of parkzone? very small i guess......if anyone has any suggestions i would much appreciate them

thanks in advance

Heavy1000

you can see on these pictures where it has broken, if you look on the close up on the left hand side a length of white double sided tape without the backing sheet removed has been installed between the plasitc servo/structre and the foam fuse preventing the lugs from pushing into the foam as with the other joints, it hasn't failed at this point but the opposite side, i wonder if it hadn't loaded up the foam or bent it, and the landing impact just broke it? i have no idea why the tape was there, i didnt' install it, anyone got another opinion?, i am quite annoyed, because the for the brief time i flew it it was much fun,

racer-mech

I've had a similar mishap H1k. Hopefully you've repaired it by now, if not here is a link to replacement parts http://www.parkzone.com/Products/Rel...g&SubCategory= . I repaired my airframe in a very short amount of time with 5 minute epoxy and a couple of stirring sticks. Flys with no problems as before the crash. Good luck.

Arknight

exactly the same thing happened to me. it broke in the same section. i will try the epoxy repair

Heavy1000

i did the epoxy repair with some balsa doublers on the inside, its fine, but very frustrating, especially when you dont know why the thing split in the first place!

WRXpilot

Just checked mine; it has that white tape in there too. No idea what its purpose is?

I haven't gotten to fly mine yet as the wing it arrived with was defective. I'll be an unhappy camper if the fuse goes and breaks in half once I do get it airborne.

OTOH, (though it doesn't help the two of you in this thread) there's a couple big threads about this plane elsewhere on this site and others and breaking fuselages has not been a common complaint. Maybe you guys just got a couple bad ones? Glad to hear that you've at least gotten it flying again.

WRXpilot

Update: Well, mine broke in exactly the same place the first time I landed it yesterday. I admit it was a bit of a hard landing though. It looked exactly like yours Heavy1000; that could be a picture of my plane.

It seems pretty clear that there's a weak spot there in the fuselage. It looks to me like the cutout for the pilot figure on the top of the fuse, combined with the cutout for the wing on the bottom leaves only the foam sides of the fuse to support any stress on the rear of the airframe. Mine (and yours from what I can see) broke in basically a clean line from the one hole to the other. If I could make a suggestion to PZ, it would be to not make a hole in the fuselage to mount the pilot figure; just glue it to a solid-top fuselage. That extra hole seems to compromise the fuselage strength pretty badly.

Oh, and my fix? 20 minutes with some Gorilla Glue, packing tape, and 2 small wooden doublers glued across the break inside the fuse. It's solid, probably stronger than new (if a few grams heavier). Nice thing about foam planes; that would have been hours of repair and recovering if this were a balsa kit.

tcarp

On the list of parts they show "internal structure" any idea what that is? If I buy a whole new Fuse will the "internal structure" be included?

Also, any possibility of just using "great stuff" to seal the hole and make the fuse stronger?

Thanks
Tim

WRXpilot

tcarp: I can only imagine that the part called "internal structure" is the translucent plastic bit inside the fuselage that all the electronics, motor, and wing install onto. I can't imagine the complete fuse spare part wouldn't include this, as it seems an integral part of the fuselage.

I'm not sure if great stuff would work to strengthen the area around the hole, but I wouldn't rule it out. In any case, I'd reinforce that area with something, even if it's just another layer of foam glued in around the pilot inside the fuse.

gsmith45

Hi all. Any advice on launching for a newbie? I tried to fly my FW190 first on a windless day. It sort of went along about 12 feet then just veered left and crashed. One propeller, motor, and some repairs later I tried again. This time it went higher and a little further, but then veered left and dived down. As far as I can see the flaps are all set right, fairly level when no trim control used. Do I need to be hard on the controls at launch, or soft? Throw hard or just let go? Are there any checks I could do? Seems to have lots of power, just doesn;t go anywhere!

Any help appreciated before I get into my 3rd crash situation!

G[]

WRXpilot

gsmith: It sounds like you're stalling on launch, to prevent that there's couple things you should think about. First: these models are not greatly overpowered (stock), so you need to launch them at full throttle. Second, you can't just stand there and throw it, it won't have enough airspeed to stay in the air. You need to do a running launch with these, take at least a few running steps before you toss the airplane, it makes a surprising difference. Third, the throw: you should toss the airplane almost level, with only a slight angle of attack. If you toss it UP, it will stall and crash.

As to your other question, be soft on the controls at launch as much as you can. If you jam full-up elevator as soon as it's in the air, it's going to stall and crash; give it a gentle straight climb until it's well up to speed and has some altitude.

Oh, and finally, make sure your battery is fully charged and in good condition (and your motor/prop too). If you're not making good thrust, the launch will fail and it'll crash.