RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

My Bear has been out of the air since Easter, but I've finally got the gear back under her. Just two things:

1. Since I'm on a slow dialup, could someone point me to the part of this thread for the stab mod, or expain it again?

2. I put a YS 110 up front, and need to know if anyone else is using the same motor. If so, what prop? And do I need to open the cowl for cooling or exhaust? I've only got three flights on her, but the last two, the motor ran great on the ground, but slowly lost power in the air, possibly overheating?


thanks,

DT

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

DT,
Page 43, fourth post down shows where I opened up my cowling for better cooling. That spinner looks great, but it blocks all of the cooling air. My second flight resulted in a deadstick due too overheating, opened the cowl and no more deadsticks.

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

I mount my Saito's inverted all the time with no problems - JW

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

High Sierra - are you still reading along with the rest of us?

If so, I think you were using a YS140. Did you open the cowl at all for airflow? If not, I'd imagine my 110 will be just fine.

And what prop are you using, and would you have a suggestion for my 110?

thanks,

DT

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Hi all

Finally our importer here in Sweden have agreed to give me a new bear.

He said that he have no other complains on this kit. Funny, dont you think?

Lets see how this new plane comes along.

Have any of you guys used Robart retracks? If so, model? Any mods in the wings?
The reason I ask is becuse I can buy Robart pretty cheap.

I will post some images later on when its done.

Regards

Andreas

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Midair with my Rare Bear[&o]
About a week ago I was playing around with big Topflight mustang at our annual fun fly. We were doing big racetracks in the sky, I was enjoying the heck out of blowing his doors off on the fly by's and then I would throttle back on the downwind so he could catch back up. Well that worked for most of the flight until he caught back up so much that he almost cut my tail clean off.
He broke his prop and was able to deadstick on the runway, I continued to do slow laps until the runway was clear and then brought it in and landed. The damage to the tail was pretty ugly, but it flew just fine. The horiz stab has been cut away with an exacto knife to check on my prev mods, everything else is prop damage from a 22x10 Zinger.
If you look at pic 1 and 3 you can see where the gorilla glue was because I wasnt able to pull the sheeting up, you can also see where I missed a panel on each side. I wont miss it on the new stab.

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

On a lighter note....
My LHS ordered me a new fuse and tail assemby from ACE and it arrived 4 days later. I brought the fuse home and realized I forgot to order a couple of things so I called ACE directly and spoke with Steve. He was very helpful and told me my new parts would be shipped immed. Great service from Ace and Steve, thanks. Now back to the shop for me. Hope to have RB #1.5 ready in a couple of weeks. I am missing racing season at my local field. Arrrrgh

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

That'll teach you to never throttle back. :)

Cool that it all held together to get it on the ground.

Don

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Sounds like a good excuse to me. I heard the Mustang stalled while trying to fly formation with the flying boxcar and knocked the Bearcats tail off on it's way down.

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Cute story Dago............thats why I am rebuilding it because my RB is sooooo flippin slooooowww. BTW, wanna race:D

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

What a fab looking beast .Its a babe to fly , Mine is powered by the Thunder Tiger 90 Pro and is well quick. Im looking to improve the retracts ,maybe something a little more scale like, does anyone have any ideas.......A fellow pilot of mine has repainted his in the Navy colour scheme and its done it no harm .....just a great looking bird and something different

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Hi,
I have mine almost ready, only pending of decals.
I have powered it with SuperTigre G-23 ringed, with Air Robart 605 retracts. I have placed Futaba 3010 servos (90.2 oz-in, 6V) in all surfaces and I have reinforced both, the wing area supporting of the retracts and the horizaontal estabs. In both cases I have moved up the balsa covering to apply reinforcements. Basically, I have followed the tips indicated in this forum, so it has not been just adding glue, but also additional pieces of ply to reinforce the estructure. In the stab I have added aditional ribs to the existing ones where the carbon tubes must be placed.
Finally, my bear weights 10.58 lbs. What do you think?
Now that the bear is almost finished, I am worry much since it seems to me that the weight is much raised for so small wing surface. I have friends who are aeronautical engineers with more than 20 years of experience in aircraft design and I have consulted them. They have said to me that the wing load that has been resulted is too raised for so small wing area. That is to say, if the plane was bigger, the wing load would be aceptable, at it happens with 3 meter model aircrafts, where 33.5 oz-feet is normal. Nevertheless, being the Bear so small, the plane is going to be ungovernable, or at least, very critically in flight. After having a look, they have estimated an speed stall around 50 mph !!!!, which is really unafordable if you do not have an asphalted and really smooth runway when landing. Also, the
The same calculations they have estimated stall speed above 50 - 60 mph !!!!!
Now, I am warned. Please, can you give me additional advises? I have another question: which 3 blade propeller do you recommend? I was thinking a 14x9 3 blade.


Regards

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

My RB weighed 13 3/4, a full 3 pounds heavier than yours and it landed just fine. To land mine, I would first get it slowed up while making a gear pass. I would then add about 1/4 throttle and drive it around with power until I was on a very short final and I knew I had the runway made. I would then chop the throttle and land, estimating the speed between 25 and 30 mph. One word of caution, if you balloon up on the flare you must add power or do a go around! I added some expo on the elev to help prevent this. Good luck

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Thanks Ad Clark III !
I take note of your advice. I will keep you informed as soon as I fly for first time my Bear.

Regards,

Miguel

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Is anyone successfully using the included elevator pushrod assembly (the one with a long wood piece and metal ends)? Would I be just out of my mind to use it? I have it installed and it feels really tight with absolutely no slop whatsoever. I'm getting fairly close to being complete with the Bear. I never thought it would take me over a year to get this thing built. Of course it did sit idle in the garage for a few months[:@].

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

I changed to carbon fiber just to reduce wieght but I know of some that used the included pushrod system and they work fine. It took me longer to build this ARF than most, but I completed it in two weeks including the mods and phnematic landing gear... lol...

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

MY friend is building one at the moment. All I can say is after reading this thread I would not go out of my way to buy a Thunder Tiger ARF anytime soon.

I will post back here if my friends comes apart in mid-air.

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Hi All,

i love this plane and i will build mine in the winter with a saito180gk to get it ready for the summer . this is a very helpfull tread here with all your information;);), without that big tread it would be more rb"s grounded.
even the crew from the FMT magazien here in germany lost there stab totaly in midair at the magazien test flight.pictures are in the mag http://www.vth.de/archiv/archiv.asp?...rift=fmt&radio

i think it would be a good idear from TT to rebuild the kit,i heard about it but not sure, any updates on that from you folks ?
anyway i will do all the mods to mine !!
cheers and greetings from germany
michael

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

for test in the fmt mag pm me and i will mail it, sorry its only in german;) but with nice pics;) of the lost stab
michael

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Moral of the Story


Do not market a pylon racer when it is not strong enough.

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Hopefully you pointed your friend to this thread so he can do the needed modifications or at least printed it out for him (he can buy the paper)

Don

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Frag,
Dont use the wood for a pushrod, its way to wimpy and so is the hardware that comes with it. You wont find out until you put it under load in flight. I still used the wood however, I used it to reinforce the vertical stab and give the rudder hinges more wood to bite into. Use an arrowshaft for the pushrods!
I finally flew my RB last weekend after having to rebuild the fuze from a midair. Still flies great and is even faster now that I converted it to a two blade prop. My buddy radared it at 131 mph and I am now faster than the former "scale bird hotdog" at our field with his little tony with a YS 110 in it. I am sure he will be gunning for me this next weekend.
Ill post pics tomorrow

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Hi Ad Clark,
I do not understand what do you mean with "wimpy" when speaking about using wood for a pushrod. Can you please explain more the risks involved ig using the wood pushrod?

I have another question. I have done the break-in of my SuperTigre G-2300 one installed in the plane. With the engine started and running in break-in mode (idle to full throttle repetitions, with smooth transition, and high needle valve well opened), I noticed that the horiziontal stab was moving and vibrating much more than usual in other planes. I was with other pilots that saw it and we agreed that with such big amount of vibration, is normal to cause fail of the stab on air, so it seams to reach its resonant frequency due to vibrations that neither the engine mounting block nor fuse can not aisolate from the engine. What can I do to reduce this big vibration of the stabs?

Regards

Mike

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Try this link, I think its from Sweden or Finland, but shows major stab failure in the Thunder Tiger Rare Bear with good pictures.


http://www.algonet.se/~gardstad/arf/arf.htm

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Mike,
I didnt do any sort of scientific test with the wooden pushrod to determine it was wimpy. I guess I just didnt like the way it looked, so I used arrowshafts for the pushrods instead. Having said that, if you remember I still fluttered my elevator out of a high speed dive because I used threaded wire instead of the good piano wire on the ends of my pushrods. My current arrowshaft pushrods have been flight tested in excess of 130 mph on my current RB and work perfectly. The wooden ones are probably good enuff to get by, but my philosophy is if anything is worth doing, its worth overdoing. ;) Also, you might want to put a good servo on the elevator, mine is a JR 8411.
Dont know what to say about the vibration. My stab has arrowshafts that are much longer than stock with the guorilla glue treatment and does not vibrate. In fact, on my midair'd RB I tried to break the stab off with my hands and could not do it. After a few minutes of beating on it I was able to break it, but only outboard of the arrowshafts.