RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

anyone get one flying yet?

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

I'm want to hear some flight reports too JohnVH!!!! I might be the first....should be ready by Monday a the latest.. My retracts came in today!! All I can see is that just about 1/16 of wood needs to be dremeled off between the mounts to get them to fit....looks pretty simple and straight forward

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

retracts would have to be a must for me.

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

well guys, I'm taking the plunge either tomorrow or Sunday, wish me well.... 120 FS up front Spring air 300's phew getting nervous already! will get some shots of RB in the sky hopefully

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

SSWEEEEEEEEEEEEETT

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Well as luck (or lake of it) would have it, I have been sent to our PACE Florida plant on a huricane repair assignment on Wed. 9/22 and will not return home until Wed or Thursday next week.

Best of luck with your maiden nightchook. I believe that this model will be a good flyer and suspect that the sensativiy of the elevator due to size of the surfaces needs watching. Other than that all other throws look good.

BTW, what was your finished weight and did you need ballast weight ?

BOL.
Regards:

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Has anyone put a retractable tail wheel in this plane? I am considering it, but I wanted to see if anyone had done it first.

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

I have not done it but would be a no-brainer as their is ton of room and good structure.

It will have an impact on the weight and balance but I feel that is managable without major nose ballast.

I plan on adding this feature as well once I have confirmed that it is a keeper.

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Nightchook,


Good luck from me as well. Looking forward to hearing about your first flight!!!

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Well, here is the finished modified pitts muffler for the ST2300. I hope every thing goes well on the first test run on the 2300 with it's new muffler. I used a 430 degree working temp silver solder on the brass tube, so it shouldnt melt from the exhaust heat...I hope! and I then cut the original exhaust stacks off from the under side and had the wholes plugged and tig welded shut, as well for having the new exhaust stack welded going upward on the left hand side of the firewall, then having it Y off just behind the engine for the dual effect as you can see in the pic's. I wil try and get my retracts installed over the next week, working a 60 hr shift next week at work, so wont have much time to get it going untill the following week. Good luck to you nightchook on your maiden flight this weekend, hope all goes well, but I'm sure this Bear will be a fine flyer.:D

A

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Nice copy of the one TT made for this bird!! If your silver solder doesn't hold...you should just have some pipe TIG'd on there (that's some difficult welding working on cast aluminum!! )

Good luck to you there Nightchook!!!

I'll most likely be doing my maiden on monday (Nothing like the adrenaline rush from a maiden voyage!!)

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Well guys, RB has finally flown! I must say this thing flies really well, It's actually quite easy to fly if you set up the correct rates, the elevator rates in the manual are spot on but I added in 30% expo and I liked the result. It is rock solid in the sky and real slippery. Down low high speed passes look fantastic!!!
I got two flights in today, the first went like clockwork but the second flight was a little nasty. Guys I must tell you that if you have already installed you retracts whip them out again and pour in epoxy and anything else you can reinforce the area with because I greased in my second landing and both retracts ripped straight out and I gotta tell you there was no broken structure, nope the whole lot just ripped out because there was stuff all glue in there and with the retract structure ripped out you get to see how the have built it....... not good, two rips with ply doublers and one main rib which is only balsa!!!! I'm just lucky there was no major damage. But this bad thing aside it was a joy to fly and looks amazing in the sky... guys with 160's in them will pull 100mph no probs at all, I was getting pretty damn quick with a 120 FS. If anyone has any specific questions just let me know.

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

I'm glad your flight went well. I am putting my Bear together now, I also had some reservations about the retract mounts. I also have a query with relation to the the line up of the wing root to the fuse. Did the trailing edge match/line up with the mould of trailing edge in the fuse. Mine does not and the wing TE sits above the TE mould in the fuse, ie the bottom of the wing TE lines up with the top of TE in the fuse mould. If yours was misaligned it would appear that the wing incidence was ok at that this setting for the plane to fly as you said.

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Nightchook,

Glad to hear it flys good, but what a bummer about the retracts pulling out! DO you fly off of pavememnt or grass??

I think I'll pull mine back off today and do some more reinforcement just to be sure..

Where did you have it balanced??

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Sorry to here about the retract problem, Nightchook[:o]. I think I will go thru mine and beef it up as much as I can without adding a lot of weight. I am going to use the robart 605's instead of the 551's, as I understand, struts tend to be a little harder on the retract mounting area on the wing, and since the 605's have the coil spring bent in them giving it a little bacward give on landings.
I figured it wouldn't be as hard on the retract mounts, ect. and I could be completley wrong on my therory, since I don't have much knowledge about retracts and struts...besides, the 605's are cheaper, not as scale and there not all metal, but if I can save a little and still have good retracts, why not!:D
Hey, Nightchook, did you install a retract tail wheel? I have mine on order so I'm thinking about going ahead and installing it too.

A

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Well done nightchook. [sm=thumbup.gif]

As I have mentioned in an earlier post, I did see the potenial problems with the retract plate and epoxied 3/8" spruce triangle stock at ALL rib to gear plate interfaces.

I feel that will do it.

When I get back home I expect to fly a day or so later and will advise of any gear mount issues.

Where you able to determine your final weight and did you need nose ballast ?

BR

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Thought I'd post some pics of mt RB as it nears completion.... All that's left is to route the antenna, apply stickers, mount the cockpit, canopy, cand cowl. I think I'lll also go take the retracts off again and see if I can reinforce any more than I allready have. I also modified how the wings bolt to the plane.... Having had a previous plane using the same method of wing attachment as the RB, I've been witness to its faults of eventually causing a slopf fit, and ugly screws protruding from the wing. So I went with blindnuts in the wing (had to make a holder as seen in the pictures) and a nylon bolt tightened from the inside of the fuse will hold it snug. Pretty much the exact same way the Funtana 90 uses. It's not too bad getting a hand in there to get it started, and then a ratcheting box end wrench does the trick for tightening and loosening.

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Hi guys, I actually removed about half the downthrust from the mount as it comes, it just looked far too much, I think my judgement was correct as it flew just great, just a little climb under full throttle which I expect. I did add a little ballast to the nose but not much. I put a 4.8v 1500 ni-cd pack in the front with about 5 ounces of lead and I reckon I could remove the lead as it just a little mushy on pitch, but I think I'll take out some expo before I try that.
I am actually really lucky here, my club is situated at an RAAF base in Melbourne, the airfield side has been disused for a few years but still, we have fullsize military runways to play with ;-)

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

HighSierra,

Your plane looks great! Looking at your photo, will you need to cut the cowl to fit that YS in there?

Will take your advice on the wing install, and probably the retract setup. Thanks for all the info!

Bout half way done with my RB, still need to order the retracts so she has some legs to stand on, then break in the 110!

DT

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

HighSierra or any one else that can answer this for me,
Be easy on me with this question...Like I said before my knowledge of pneumatic retarcts is very little knowledge at all.

How do you connect your air lines were the wing joins at the fuse, and then disconnect them again? is it some kind of fitting that you screw together? Thanks in advance.

A

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Desert Toad, yep, Still going to have to cut around the valve cover to get it to fit.... but at lest the cut will be on the bottome where you can't see it .

ApsF4U: look closely at the lines where the come out of the regulator, you can see 2 of the connectors (white) by the thrlotle servo...they seal with a littel O-ring... Made by Robart. The system hold pressure... last night I pumped it up to 120, and it was still at 120 this morning. Also, I saw you mentioned above about the RObart 605's.... I was looking at those too, but there;s alot of negativity here on RCU about them, so I went with 551's... Do a search on that one.

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Nightchook and others
Sorry to be a pest how did the wings line up to the fuse ? New to the system not sure if you saw my query. Looking forward to getting my Bear in the air. Installed air retracts from MAS 5300 series, engine Supre Tigre G2300. Been following the comments and mods with interest from the various builders. Good luck with the test flys guys.

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Ducati, I'll take a look at how my wings line up today....but I think they're pretty close to fitting dead on with the fuselage molds.

Can anyone tell me where these plastic pieces go???

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

HighSierra
The parts manual call the parts the upper and lower retract door retainers and the small round ones fit into the coil spring section of the U/C leg if your using a non oleo unit, the bottom is shown as fitting over the point where the wheel axle meets the U/C leg. For use with basic wire U/C legs, hope that helps.

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Hey Gang, I'm missing the torque rod links that thread onto the elevator torque rods. Are they standard plastics ones, or are they metal - I can't tell from the manual.

Also, were they just in the bag with all the other control linkages, or might I be missing an entire bag of stuff?

thanks,

DT