JKA Corsair
 

I am thinking about buying the JK Aerotech cosair as a sport plane. In the future I may decide to fly combat, just not at the moment. I have heard two things about it that concern me:

1. It is heavier than most others.
2. It may be hard to repair.

Are these true and is it a major problem or will this plane work great as advertised?

Also, is the Norvel .25BB a good choice for this or is the .25FX more reliable.

Any advice would be great along with building tips.

Thanks,
Steve

RE: JKA Corsair
 

I had the JKA t-52 trainer and dorked it once a week all summer, I had to tighten up the motor mount a time or two but,,I never had to repair anything but the wing, it ended up weighing a ton,so I just kept putting a bigger motor until I got to a Norvel .074 ..it would still fly now except I stole everything off of it...they weigh more than balsa but depending on your engine pick ,once you get past about a .15 it wont matter, easy to build, just glue, tape, and go, I doubt you could really damage it beyond repair unless you tried to......its tough stuff...Rog

oh I wouldnt recommend the pocket rocket,,its a waste of money,,

RE: JKA Corsair
 

I have had several of them. Also a variety of engines ranging from .25fx, meccoa.28[:'(][:'(][:'(], .40la and .46la[sm=bananahead.gif] Ultimately the .25 gave the best overall performance[X(].
the Corsair is a great plane to learn with. Personally I liked the JK FW190 over all the others. I think it flew a little better than the Corsair or the Mustang, JMO, but I have had at least a dozen of them. Get one of each! Make your own decision, you may be best sticking to the .25.:D

RE: JKA Corsair
 

I agree with sticking with the .25 and I would go for the os fx over all others. I could only get my norvels to last about 1 1/2 combat seasons before they started falling on their face. My os run consistently and for years now.

As far as being heavier than the rest. Yes, you have all those angles in the wing and they must be reinforced. The weight penalty is not much but I've had some JKA's down to 2.5 lbs You'll probably come closer to 3.

Repair is unbelievably easy. If you do end up busting the wing you'll have to pay a little more attention to getting the gull angles back in line but should be no biggie if you take your time. JKA states from the getgo these planes are tough and meant to fly/beat up on. They mean it.

IMO the Zero is the best flyer of the lineup.

NAES

RE: JKA Corsair
 

Never tried the Zero. It wasn't available when I was playing with them.;)

RE: JKA Corsair
 

Thanks everyone! I have a .46FX that works great so I guess the .25 should be the same. Just making sure.:D

RE: JKA Corsair
 

Heck, I'll give you my beat up Corsair if you want it. It's had it's share of crashes and has a much beefed up wing. It is set up for the Norvel and is ugly as sin as I couldn't get the correct color tape on a rebuild but it does fly very good. Set up for 2 wing servos and a servo back at the tail. No cowl but it doesn't know it.
I live just across the river in Merrimack so say the word and I'll strip my equipment out of it.
Another note: The Big Mig is a fine engine also and alot cheaper. If you don't try to get the last ounce of power out of them they do last .

JESTER

PS: I like the TA152 best these days and also have their Mig3 .

RE: JKA Corsair
 

The only drawback to the JKA Corsair that I see is the requirement for two aileron servos. Their others all can be built and fly well with one servo in the wing.

The TA-152 is the hot item currently for combat. I have one ready for taping. For a sport job I'd go with the Corsair but that's just me. The TA's skinny wing may not be a robust as the Corsair's for sport use.

Repairs on JKA-style models are easier (for me) than any conventional balsa model I've ever owned.

RE: JKA Corsair
 

Your'e right Raymond, I had the HS 55s in mine and they did have trouble holding up to the duty I put them thru untill I replaced the gears with metal ones.

RE: JKA Corsair
 

vicman,

Is there organized combat around you? The reason I'm asking is that my brother lives just south of Charlotte and has been looking around for some. So far he only has a HOR but he's got the itch, so to speak.

JESTER

RE: JKA Corsair
 

Jester,

We have a healthy group of combateers centered around Raleigh. We fly combat every month alternating at two different club fields. We fly SSC and 2610 and some are going to add 2548 this summer. All are welcome.

'Google' the Jordan Lake Flying Tigers websites for directions, schedule, frequency uses, etc.

RE: JKA Corsair
 

There is a contigent in the Catawba Valley club. They have a 4th of July turnament too.

RE: JKA Corsair
 

Thanks!

I'm forewarding this info even as I type.

JESTER

RE: JKA Corsair
 

Thanks guys! On the JKA website they say you can use one aileron servo and a flex cable. Is this not recomended? I was thinking I would use JR microservos. If I must use one per wing, could I set up flaperons to any advantage? Thanks again everyone.

Steve

RE: JKA Corsair
 

I always used two servos. Never did the flaperon thing.[:-]
I wouldn't spend too much money on JR servos. Get you some GWS NARO PROs for $12ea.;)

RE: JKA Corsair
 

I used HS81's in my corsair but have had enough problems with them that I changed to HS85MG's in subsequent planes. WHen you are in combat the controls are almost continuously at max travel and wanted the extra torque and durability the better servo provided. Also, since the servos are buried in the wing semi-permanently, I figured longevity was worth the extra cost.

JESTER

RE: JKA Corsair
 

I had HS 81s at first but after several sets of gears the money was not worth it.[:@] I did end up putting metal gears in them but have never had a problem with the GWS servos I mentioned.[8D]

RE: JKA Corsair
 

I LOVED my JKA Corsair so much that I wept at her death at the 495th's Flying field. a very sad day[&o].
My set up was a...
beat to heck OS 25 FP that my grand father had kickn' around the shop with an "A-3" carberator on it
Hitec 555w/ HS 81's all around. @ 3 lbs she flew rings around .25 Gremlins and destroyed the 2610 guys. that was until my good buddy
Jim cliped my wing and damaged the servo. we patch it up and attempted to get it flying again but once in the air the servo froze at full
deflection and she went in. on a lighter note I missed her so much that I picked up another one and a P-47/XP-72 from JKA.

RE: JKA Corsair
 

A few guys at my club have the JKA planes, Corsair, Zero. They fly like they are on rails. Awesome.

The guy that has the corsair is using a Thunder Tiger .36.

I'm thinking of getting the P51 this summer.

RE: JKA Corsair
 

I have flown a JKA Corsiar for years in combat and I love the thing. It is not the fastest, but if you just use the coroplast doublers instead of a coke bottle cowl you will probably reduce some of the drag. I only have a basic Magnum .25 on mine but it hangs with most of the combat planes out there. It all depends on the engine. The big advantage to the Corsair is the bent wing. This does provide a little extra dihederal stability which does allow you to take your eyes off the plane while flying combat. I do recommend putting a spar especially through the bent part of the wings. Build the wing, cut a 1/8 or 3/16 slot through the CG section of the wing all the way trough, slide piece of plyood trough slot and trace the bends v-v, cut out the trace and glue in place. Very easy and I wish I would of done it with mine.

RE: JKA Corsair
 

I can vouch for the durability of the above-mentioned JKA Corsair. Mr Zagi and that specific model have accounted for more than their share of my streamers.

As for GWS servos for combat, consider the standard mini. $12 - 13, cheap gear sets, 45 in oz. speed .21. Good power for single servo ailerons and elevators.

RE: JKA Corsair
 

Raymond, You stole the words from my fingers!:D The GWS servos are second to none for the price!

RE: JKA Corsair
 

The Jug with a 25 fx in the nose. It's got a lot of wing and responds well to the torque of the bigger prop. I ran my jugs on the 25 Bigmig with a moose can and it flew reasonably fast but could loop and pull tight like you wouldn't think a big plane could. It was also a very stable and true platform and took abuse like no other. For a bit of speed however, the mustang with a 25 bigmig was just a blast. It just gets up and boogies you must spend most of your time at half throttle in combat otherwise you'll run past everyone.

But if you're a Corsair fan, I've watched them fly too and they are treat too.

RE: JKA Corsair
 

Yup, I would definatley recomend one. My first was Corsair. I broke the bent protion of the wing along the fuse and still flew with it half a season until I cut it up to install a spar. Just follow Zagi's insturctions to do so. It took a night. Since then I'm cartwheeled it a couple of times with no problems. The Mig is a bit faster and a bit more responsive, at least my thoughts. We'll see how the Jug holds up this year.

RE: JKA Corsair
 

Thanks everyone.

Steve