RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

WOW... Congrats on your maiden also from me , verry good job ;) i like your scale details like the painted spinner like in 2005 and i like mr john penny;) where is he from , i was looking around for a nice pilot figure to make here more scale but didn't found a nice one.

sorry for the bad landing, but thats a sighn that she needs speed to come in.its a big pig in the air with lots of aerodynamical restriction about the big cowl and short wings.

i glass everything in , thats what i did on my last planes and my budy is doing this for years with good results, it save's a lot bad landings and sometimes it saves the plane after a light crash . we use carbon fiber matts on rolls with a good resin.http://shop.ezentrum.de/4DCGI/ezshop?hid=27&sprachnr=1

thanks for the info that she will fly also nice with a good 61, i think thats manly one of the rison that she got some problems ."OVERPOWERING"
in my case i will overpower here to , but i have to build here 120% stronger than the kit is.

who is doing a nice scale air retract with billet scale wheels, robart ? i will spend here one, ok i am crazy :D to put a 300 $ gear in to a 280$ plane;)

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

[link]http://shop.ezentrum.de/1717514/iiJDo0dLmcYyWNQ2ej6CTks0Szm27H/4DCGI/ezshop?action=wgruppenstart&warengruppenlist=2482[/link]

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

thanx fellas. Positive comments always feel so good. I cant remember who I replied to way back in this thread, but I had said I hadnt had an oooops in years.......well, I guess I was due! LOL
Vasek, the pilot is a GI joe, helicopter pilot I got from the dollar store for 7 bucs. I liked his visor helmit. He's a little heavy even with his body gone.
Ya know ...I really got pumped up and went through every "save" manuver in my head a hundred times before flight, but forgot about the landing speed! Duh!!!!!
Ive been flying light planes and i have been shooting dozens of touch and goes, and I got used to turning final, cutting power and gliding right in. I had turned final way down the feild in case I overshot, and was so far away that i couldnt gauge the speed.
I'll have to keep my mind on the speed for sure, and get my "warbird" mentality honed in for the next flights.
This has been an informitive, and good natured thread, though we all have found problems with the plane.
I gotta admit that I love the darn thing, regardless of the poor design.
I hope everyones plane flys great in the end!
I still cant beleive the trims are dead center on this particular plane....but that does happen alot......but not on most warbird type pigs.
I saw the review of the TT september fury in MAN, and he didnt say one bad thing about it.....same design though....hmmmmmm........I guess if they gave ME a plane to test, .......
.....oh well.
Good Luck Yall!
d

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

I read the posts about the weak tail plane on the RB. My local hobby shop has provided me with a TT ugrade kit for the tail plane free of charge so i will be fitting that when I put it together. Got an MVVS120 twin for up front:D

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Congrats on you debut flight, Im impressed on the 61 issue , most people want 120's, 160's ect ect ect...my bear is powered by a 91 PRO TT two stroke and she flies well at half speed and looks mint. Iv got robart 605's with 1/2 inch structs , slightly beefed the wings to accomodate , Im well pleased for you , by the way the ca on the tail...did you repaint or did manage to remove it....either way she looks well . I LOVE MINE

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Biggles,I love mine too!
I tried some suggestions on the CA mess to no avail.......so I sanded it smooth and thats all. You can still see it if ya look close but theres so much to look at, ya never notice. I am gonna drop a smaller engine in there, not too small cause Ill have to add a little weight to compensate .....so my ole trusty MDS .78 will fit the bill, and wont shake bear to death.
Personaly, I like flying planes, not engines........[8D]
d

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

That hasn't been my experience with the RB. In fact I've found the RB to be very docile right up to the stall, then the nose sort of falls over. The plane doesn't do the ugly snap inverted auger in crap like older scale warbirds. The lack of flaps changes the landing technique. You don't want to cut the power and let the nose down to glide the RB in. It picks up too much speed and you'll float down the runway in ground effect.

The technique I use is to revert to the full scale practice of - Throttle controls altitude / Elevator controls airspeed and flying near minimum controllable airspeed. This is the correct way to land all airplanes gracefully and gently. I've found that I have to fly a normal pattern at a lower altitude at a very low airspeed. I fly upwind to drop the gear and then turn crosswind with the throttle pulled back but maintaining altitude to bleed off airspeed. Downwind is flown at reduced airspeed holding altitude. Once you have the plane slowed down you should be holding some back elevator with a touch of power. When turning base I pull the power back some more while holding the same elevator setting Ihad in downwind, the plane should then descend at the same airspeed you set in the downwind leg. I then turn final and jocky the throttle as needed. If I'm short or descending too much (won't make the runway) I hold constant angle of attack and add power. The plane will climb slightly, slow the descent rate and extend the final without gaining airspeed. Once you think you have stretched the final approach enough, decrease the power, but don't let the nose drop. The plane will start to descend at the trimmed airspeed you determined in the downwind leg. Once over the runway you pull off the power and let the plane settle, I roundout into a 3 point attitude while about 2 feet above the ground and let the RB touch down. Obviously I checked the low speed handling, stalls, tendancy to snap, etc about 3 mistakes high before flying lowe at minimum controllable airspeed.

HTH

Rich

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Bad News...my bear crashed today. I took off , the wind was light to moderate with the odd gust , I can easily handle those conditions,,, did a couple of circuits .....the last one was a bit to low the wing tip caught the tarmac runway and pulled her in , she did five cart wheels, smashed the cowl and destroyed the wings. The fuse is split underneath , no damage to the engine or the radio or the retracts, the only damage is my pride. The say goes THERE ARE OLD PILOTS AND THERE BOLD PILOTS BUT THERE ARE'NT ANY OLD BOLD PILOTS.............................. ITS PILOT ERROR THIS TIME.
As much as I loved this plane Im not going to have another one. ;)

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Daaaaannnng Biggles.that sux! Now youll have to get a hangar 9 hellcat! Sorry about the loss but been there done that.
And yes....throttle for altitude, elevator for speed....................

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Hangar 9 Hellcat ? tell me more....what are they like to fly ? ...Iv bought a H9 Mustang which is in the hangar , Im fitting a Saito 100 ,Iron bay pump ,on board glow and robart 605's. Im told they fly them selves ...not sure if thats a good thing or not....given my current state of confidence and dented pride that might the way to go. Iv lost two this year..down to Radio and the bear makes three which is Pilot error. Im so Pi**ed off with my self ,Iv had 36 flights out of it , I guess I was pushing the boundary and pushed to far.
The upside is that my wife was there to witness this crash and that she instantly approved the commisioning of new member to the fleet........she's coming again ........ WHAT DO I GO FOR NEXT
Good luck and happy landings with your bears I will watch this thread with intrest.:D

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Biggles2,

So sorry to hear about the loss of your RB. Sounds like you had it pretty well sorted and was just getting really comfortable with the handling charateristics.

Here's a pic of the new Hanger 9 Hellcat. According to the info on Hanger 9's website, the Hellcat will be available in June '06.

Rich

http://www.horizonhobby.com/ProdInfo...n-A-67pano.jpg
[link=http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=HAN4075]Hanger 9 Hellcat[/link]

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Hellcats next for me.....got a few dealers ready to call me when they ge in, Im gettin one...
d

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Cheers boys.... life goes on ..... and so to the next chapter...that HELLCAT LOOKS THE BIZ... I guess you chaps are up for hellcat too....I will be on the thread and no mistakes this time. By the way I logged only 37 flights with the bear ..talk about short change...[:o]

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Biggles2... sorry about your crash , i have send you a pm

Rbeav533....
thanks for your well explained technique, sounds you do have lots of experiance with warbirds .
it is always good to get some good info about flying save and not crash the plane.

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Heres the gear doors....as yall can see, I was gonnas use a sub micro servo, but I coulnt get it to work. Too cheezy for theis application. So I used two hitek 77s.
Low profile Aileron servos. Also using a door sequencer, ......it lowers the doors at my chosen spped, then has a delay of my choice, then the gear servo operates, and then the doors close again. I have it set to close the doors wheels down, to avoid ripping them off the plane if the gear fails.
But the gear aint gonna fail again![X(][>:][>:][>:]:eek::eek::eek::([&:]
I making american ply rib doublers and adding tristock to it all now that Im in there.
Back to the doors, you can see the radio south hinges.......I know........They WILL work fine.......and there will be two little peices of wood that cover them, and the whole mess will be primed and painted... I like "simple"
RBEAVE....Guess I better study landing aomemore with the added weight.....I think Ill strap a rock to my trusty ole tiger..LOLOL;)
Yall be GOOD!
d

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Cool pics from this weekends annual on the full sized Bear. Me showing you a very important change.

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Thanx for the pics........Thanx again!
d

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Super pix!

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Rare Bear Mechanic,

Thanks for the great pics of the real deal.

To All,

I managed to induce a snap on landing, nothing serious, just a little over zealous elevator during the flare with a basically dry tank. I was about 1.5-2 feet above the ground and when it snapped, the left wing dropped. The left wheel touched, the ground was soft causing it to dig in which flipped the RB over on it's back. In the previous flight I had an engine out when making a low altitude (maybe 20') pass over the runway for a RADAR speed check. I immediately initiated a 360 turn to the left, dropped the gear and kept the circle to land going. I needed about 10 more feet and I would have made the runway. I touched down short of the runway in the soft, mowed overrun area and flipped the plane on it's back. Again, no damage.

My final flight was a upwind/downwind RADAR speed check. I'm runninig an old ASP 1.08 Redhead with a Master Airscrew 14-7 3-bladed prop. The upwind run yielded 79 mph, the downwind was 95 mph, which yields an average speed of 85 mph. I might get another 10 mph if I installed a 2 bladed prop and peaked the engine for maximum RPM. You guys running O.S. 1.60s have to be going at least 100 mph.

By any chance does anyone's RB whistle while in flight ? My particular RB has this really neat whistling sound. Some think it's coming from the wing root Oil Coolers which are open on my RB.

Rich

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

wow.. thats a nice part what i was thinking about . good idear to use a small servo for the doors.i had little concern about high speed flying with this open part without doors.

Rare Bear Mech...........
if i have some cash over this year i will be a sponsor , at least so much to get this nice nylon jacket .
thanks for the pics ,you lucky ******* ;)


i got a helmet in 1:6 what look's like original,but i am still search for a pilot.
i did hire a head hunter to get a good pilot under contract in my rear bear 2006 season ;)

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Mine went 132 mph without inner gear doors, OS 160 with a 2 bladed 15x11 pattern prop and whistled like a banshee.

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Ad Clark III,

Thanks for providing your RB's airspeed with the O.S. 1.60. Ditto for confirming the whistling sounds. Looks like I need to acquire an O.S. 1.60 to replace the ASP 1.08 that's in my RB. I can use the weight anyway, the O.S. 1.60 would allow me to remove the piece of 2" iron channel I'm using for nose weight. [X(]

Most would just use Prather stick on weight to balance, I decided to weigh the total weight needed to balance for C.G purposes then cut a length of 2" Channel iron which I drilled and tapped in one side for 4-40 screws. The weight is bolted to the left bottom of the battery box adjacent to the engine which is side mounted. In addition to balancing for C.G. this weight also balances my RB laterally along the longitudinal axis. Several guys at my club field have commented about the chunk of iron and I just say, "Remember, it's a Bearcat, produced by the Grumman Iron Works !!!" :D

Rich

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Hey RARE BEAR Mech, what's going on? Just wanted to ask real quick, I heard some rumors that most of the crew on the team are gone, is that true? Will you guys still be racing this year? What do you do on the team? Are you an engine guy?

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

Most of that info is not allowed right now. Bear will race this year for sure. As will September Fury, Strega, Dago Red(Dan Martin Pilot), Chech Mate (Rumor), LARS (as galloping goast) Precious Metal (with new mods) could be the best gold in years. As far as what I do for the team... It changes daily. My main job is to make sure Mr. B comes home to his family. I do have a thing for engines too. Guys that build a mean radial or v-engine are a dying breed. I do put alot of time into learning about both. Lifetime background in motorcycle racing, and now just need to apply it to air racing. Now that I'm finding manuals on CD-ROM it has become alot easier.

RE: ThunderTiger Rare Bear
 

ahhhhh.... but will you be putting your talents to work on a brand new thunder tiger rare bear NARF (not almost ready to fly) kit?


(I am still toying with the idea of getting one of these and completely refabricating the interior guts as well as the horizontal stab)