Good morning guys, and thanks for the responses on my maiden report!

jlsmith, for the red, I used a Rustoleum rattle can...the one in the following pic. I topcoated it with clear Lustercote. I can attest to it being a great match to the paint already on the cowl, and the red Oracover on the plane. For the continuation of the black on the cowl ring, I used black Lustercote. I left mine all glossy. phatbob02 did a cool thing and used flat Lusterote on the black, all the way back to the canopy too!



hdwideglide, my runway is nice smooth sod (but not as smooth as I thought it was, haha). Yesterday it was a bit tall. My other planes don't boing around on the runway like the T-28 does. When I first taxied the plane to test ground handling, I immediately saw the landing gear springing back and forward, A LOT! I think that motion is what ripped one of the landing gear doors off. It failed at the leftover hinge I used to make the elbow or joint (like angle iron) between the leg and the wing. I believe that if I make that joint stiffer, it will cause more grief to the wing because the landing gear are still going to have too much motion and continue to stress that joint between the wing and door. It would be best to make the joint flexible, or somehow floating. At first I thought I would simply replace the pin type hinge with sheet tin and screw it on to both door and wing. That might either tear the tin or more likely pull the screws out of either the door or the wing. Well, this assumes I continue to zip tie the door to the strut cover too. I might need to just not connect the door to the landing gear so that it can move all it wants, and the door will be independent. That means making the connection of the door to the wing stiff, and then becoming a nice candidate for flutter. Oh yeah, who has suggestions, hahaha!? I am open. For now, the doors stay off till I have a better mousetrap.

The plane stuck to the ground on takeoff as I opened the throttle. I was at nearly full throttle when I lifted her off gently. Mine doesn't lift off early unless I give it up, because of the down thrust I built onto the firewall AND because I cut out 1/2" of the nose strut. ( I have 3" mains and 2.5" nose wheels, all Robarts.) By the way, the plane taxis well. I am sure it is a piece of cake on paved runways where the main gear don't spring back and forth so much. I think BH should have given stiffer landing gear...wimpy LG is kind of typical in ARFs.

Hey hdwideglide, I am having a hard time picturing what you said here "I have had the unfortunate luck of only 9 minutes life span. LOL. My trainer had a mid air with my plane." Pls explain! Was someone else flying either your trainer or the 28, and you guys mid aired? I read this thread daily and I somehow missed that story. Jon

Hey Jon. No you didn't miss the story. I just was saying how a first time flight of my trainer plane was mid aired by the guy teaching me how to fly. He took off and let me fly it for about 9 minutes. He took over to show me an emilmen (sp?) and was going to land. As soon as he took over a plane went down the right side. It even sheared the muffler off. He bought me a new plane. Oh well what can you do. Good think I didn't let the first flight discourage me. Oh yeah that brown clump on the front of the plane is my engine. I had to dig it out of the ground.

I agree the ARF landing gear wires are so dang soft. I don't know what they are thinking about when they put these wires on. I built my own on my trainer. I haven't messed with them on this yet. As of right now I have hit the runway with a nice soft landing so we shall see how that works out here tomorrow or Monday. If I can get my plane back together in time. I took it apart and i am getting ready to put my voltwatch in the cockpit and probably fix the girly pilots that are in the plane. I bought this [link=http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=EXRA500]VOLT METER[/link] to install. I thought it would eaister to put into the cockpit and looking looking like a part of it. Hopefully.

Joe

Oh, regarding the 3 blade prop suggestion, I wouldn't mind doing that later, but I sure like to start my planes by hand. I don't know if that is possible or a safe with a 3 blade prop that might catch my fingers or starter stick. I do have an electric starter, and have tried it on another plane with the little nose hub. Dang it is hard to use on little hubs, and I don't want the starter to slip off right into my cowl. I think I am very content with the two blade prop for these reasons, as well as it gives ample power. Jon

Yeah I know what you mean. I hit my cowl before. Fortunately it didn't damage it. I still have the 2 blade on and you got me thinking that I don't want to put that on. I will have think this one over a little.

Maindened this morning and flew great. Ailerons and elevator at book settings were a little too sensitive for me so I adjusted and sent her up again. Grass field-let it roll about 25 feet and lifted off nicely with Tower 61 for power. Flew at half throttle and did nice loops and aileron rolls were right around the prop shaft. Floated in for very slow landings without flaps and landed on the mains and let the nose down gently. Grass has not started to grow yet so feild was fairly smooth but bent the nose gear both times. The wire for the nose gear is so soft I could probably bite it off with my teeth. I have another gear from a different plane I never used and will make a replacement. This plane should meet all my expectations and be a lot of fun this summer. Hope all you guys are as pleased.

Congrats lukeshort! Your maidens sounded good. I agree on the LG, so wimpy!! Gotta land perfect to keep them from bending and that's not a guarantee even if you do land perfect. I am anxious to go up again. I was able to warp in a little washout on both wing tips, retrim the flaps and ails, and put a heavier battery pack all the way up behind the firewall. That moves my CG from 105mm to about 95mm from the LE. Seems like monsoon weather just hit though...wind and rain for a week. Jon

Congrats Lukeshort. I also changed my front landing gear with a new one from an old trainer that is no longer with us. It is like they made the gear out of a coat hanger. Oh well how can we complain for the cost.

Well I got the canopy off today and mounted the volt meter. It looks a whole lot better inside than outside. I have to get some paint now to paint the pilots. I hate them too. My friends keep teasing me saying they looked like girls. LOL.

Congrats to all of you that have made the first flight. The build was enjoyable the flying outstanding.

Just moved to Tallahassee FL from NJ so have not been following who was doing what and who joined in the T-28 Squadron.

JimO

Congrats JimO on a great move!!! Did you retire? Should be many more good days of flying in FLA? Just watch out for the hurricanes! That's what scares me about FLA. Jon

Bought a BH T-28 [nib] a couple of weeks ago together with an OS 61 w/Pitts Muffler. Now, last year I had picked up a TH .75 to put on a Sr. Telemaster, but in stead elected a G20 for that one. Would the TH .75 be a good choice for the T-28 or is the OS61 a better solution? Any thoughts?

Its a light airplane so I'd use the weakest of the two.

Regards,

Clay

Clay,

You are probably right. Do not want to tear the T28 apart...

firebird 25 - Use your fx 61. My T28 flys very well at half throttle with the TH 61 and will do all the scale maneuvers at this setting including cuban eights. Wouldn't really want any more power.

Luke,

I have decided to use the OS .61 on the T28 . It makes more sense to find an appropriate size plane for the TH.75

Last year, some people with T28 s at our field had .91 FS mounted, and the planes flew very well. Since I did not want to make the investment in the .91 I have to make do with what is lying around.

I took my T-28 for the second time today and got in 3 flights. It flew much better than the first day! CG is now at 95mm from LE. Low speed flight was more relaxing with the little washout I put into each wingtip. I also trimmed the ails up just half a trailing edge thickness compared to the flaps which are even with the center of the wing. I think that helps achieve a little washout in the tips too. I think I am used to a lot of throw after flying so many aerobatic planes, so I need to tone down the elevator to the recommended throws. I noticed the plane seemed to want to snap when I did tight loops. I landed with perhaps half flaps on one flight (my flaps are on a dial without any ratchet so I cannot tell by fingertips how much I dial in) and it was pretty cool...the flaps seem to help eliminate some squirreliness my plane has at low speed. The plane hardly noses up on application of flaps so I have not programmed in any down elev with flaps yet. Lastly, I reattached the main landing gear doors with screws and a little plate of tin to hold the door to the wing. I also used the zip tie again to hold the door to the strut but, left it with some play. My reasoning was that the tin would keep the door aligned, but the loose zip tie would allow the LG to move a little without stressing the door and the tin. Oh well, on my first landing, I found the doors nearly twisted out of the tin plates, so I removed them once again. I think they are really staying off for flying from now on. The strut covers still look good! I'm liking this plane more and more. It's a good change of pace from my other stuff.

Oh, I like how the Saito 82 idles and runs, but man does it make a sloppy mess afterwards! I think the main mess is from the crankcase vent, which I vent outside the lower part of the cowl, slightly to one side so it does not go straight at the nose gear. Maybe I gotta take it farther back and stick it out further from the fuse. phatbob02, maybe your setup will work better than mine! This engine seems messier than my OS 4 strokers. Jon

I have a texan with an 80 saito that leaves a mess. I ran a tube for the vent all the way to the tail and out. No fuss, no muss!!

I think my gear doors will stay on with the robostruts. They don't spring like the wires do.

Bob, get your plane up in the air!!! I want to hear your experiences. Jon

Believe me, I want to. I went to check out our field a few days ago. The ground is saturated and it looks like some hunters drove on it at last seasons end. There's some nice ruts across mid field. It'll be toward the end of April before I get a nitro up.
I've also got a 14lb gasser Corsair I'm dying to maiden.

Hello Jon,

OK. So I am probably freaking out for no reason then. My head bolts were lose on my engine (magnum 91 2 stroke). I found this out when my engine wouldn't start and took the cowl off thinking I did something wrong when I put a new fuel line in thinking I had an air leak. Well I tightened everything back up.

Now I'm noticing a hissing noise at the top of the crankcase. (which i don't remember at all before) So it has a vent then and the burnt up oil on it isn't nothing? I have only had 40 size engines and only regular mounts and no cowls until this plane. I am freaking out thinking I burnt my engine up or something. I haven't been able to attempt to start it since I have everything off of it right now. Thanks again for your advise in advance.

Good news for anyone who is looking to buy this plane! It is on sale at Hobby People again for $139. Go for it! Jon

Salem OR was blessed with good weather again today, about 50F and winds under 5mph. The T-28 flew even better than the first two outings. I only got in one flight today though, because my nose wheel crumbled on a good landing. Recall that I cut 1/2" out of the stock gear and soldered it together with brass tubing. The nose wheel failed on my 3rd flight a few days ago. I resoldered with the next larger brass tubing to go over the first. It broke again today. The real interesting thing is the solder joint does not break. The brass tubing breaks where the two pieces of wire strut butt up to each other. The solder can't get all the way in there. The back side of the tube is in compression, the front is in tension when pressure on take off or landing pushes the nose wheel back. Anyway, the tube breaks on the front then tears right through all the way. I came home looking for a replacement nose gear and lucked out when I looked at my Tower Trainer 40. The nose gear is the right diameter and the right length, same as my stock nose gear, less the 1/2'' I removed to make the plane sit more level. Now I can just get a replacement for the Trainer at a later date, maybe from a club member who destroyed his last Summer.

The T-28 flew great today with the heavier battery I put in. I received a 6V 5 cell pack the other day, and it is perfect. It weighs about 5 ounces vs the 3 ounce battery I had for the first day of flying, and the 4 ounce battery I had for the 2nd day of flying, haha. Both of those were 4.8V 4 cells. The battery is right behind the firewall now instead of at the leading edge of the wing. CG is just under 95mm from the LE. The plane now weighs about 7lbs 5oz. Downthrust is about 5/32" due to a plywood wedge. The T-28 was rock steady today and I buzzed the runway at full throttle and low throttle a bunch of times. Loops were better, and all turns were solid with no squirreliness. Inverted is solid and needs pretty typical amount of down elevator to hold level, not too much. All in all, a good day albeit short! Jon

With the new nose gear, I should be set for good times from now on. Gonna have fun fooling with flaps. Jon

I have the Park Zone T-28 trojan, it flies very graceful. No bad habits, floats in for landings, does not tip stall. How's this Nitro t-28 handle?

Hey, been quiet here for almost a week! I am glad to report that I took my T-28 out for the fourth time today, and it was a GREAT day!!! I got four flights and all were good landings. The setup is like my previous post 6 days ago. The only difference is I put the Tower Trainer 40 nose gear on the T-28 and it worked perfectly today. No nose gear failures like the previous two times I took the plane out. The plane sits pretty level and take off runs are long and smooth. Landings are so pretty with flaps. My landings with this plane are improving. I learned on gliders (decades ago), and down elevator on a glider on final typically means picking up speed and lengthening the glide ratio. It is really different to dial in some flaps and then push down on a pretty healthy downward path, and yet gain no speed! Very fun to then level out a foot or so above the runway, ease off on throttle and just settle onto the grass. I like to taxi back almost to the pit tarmac and then dial the flaps back out real cool like, haha. Nobody's watching, but I am! I had one dead stick today, but it was ground crew error...I forgot to refuel between flights, lol. I landed out in the sod farm without flaps and had to walk a 100 yards to fetch the plane. I want to take a video of my plane flying soon and post it for you guys to see. I have to wait for my son to come home and shoot the video while I fly. Oh, the Saito 82 runs great, and I added a plastic tube to drip the crankcase vent oil further from the cowl...see pic. It reduces the amount of gunk on the plane's belly, and the left wing really significantly! I admit it doesn't look that cool but out on the runway you can't see it at all. Take care guys! Jon

well I finally got my engine apart and back together tonight. I checked everything and it was all good. I also got the canopy back on and I am waiting for my white tape to come in so I can finish up the canopy. I also painted a 2nd coat on the robart covers.

Since that wasnt enough work I put the covers over the pushrods as well. Annnnddddd, I put long arms on my servos for the ailerons and flaps. I did a mechanical zero and redone everything. Now I have plenty of room and no bindind whatsoever.

Now all I have to do is get the canopy done and start up the motor and get it dialed back in and off to the airfield. Suppose to have some good weather coming up this week. So i am keeping my fingers crossed.

Hey all, have really enjoyed reading all the threads. Lots of good info to use, and I must say, a few have gone way beyond practicle in making this arf look so nice. Thanks