ORIGINAL: ianober

Thomas, you're such a $*** disturber!! haha

ORIGINAL: Ali

Gary..
Can I be of any help at all? Shoot me your questions, maybe I can get a response for you? ?
Alex who built my F-86 did an awesome job. I can honestly say that from the day I collected it from him, everything has worked spot on without any issue. ( Rare for any large jet as complex as this)
He might be reading this and can help, or maybe if you have any specific questions on the 86 I could pass them onto him for you?
Regards Al
Jett. I dont think Morne was being too aggressive with his last post. The winking smiley would suggest not anyway.... and for Morne thats a big improvement

Anyway, what I need currently is a new set of main retracts. They retract up just fine, however, when lowering the gear they stick and will not release until I push against the wheel to release them from binding (in the plane or out of the plane). The geometry of the machining of the slots in the side plates is not correct on the mains and the more pressure that is applied to retract the gear the harder it is to get them to release when lowered.

ORIGINAL: Gary Jefferson

Ali, thank you for the offer and I do appreciate you trying to help. I have actually exchanged emails with Alex many times concerning the F-86, mostly discussing all of the things that need to be modified in order to make this plane function reliably. I can assure you that the reason your F-86 works well is because Alex took the time to make all of the changes that needed to be made in order for it to be reliable. Believe me when I say it did not come that way from the factory. I can give you a long list of items that did not fit and/or needed to be modified, and for what this kit costs it is not what I expected.

If I had not invested so much time and effort in the plane I would not keep it because I now know how long it will take to get parts when I need something. Our flying season is only about half of the year here and if it takes me two months to get parts I miss 1/3 of the flying season. I know parts can take this long because I have seen someone wait that long just to get a new plastic canopy. I can't imagine how long it will take if I need landing gear parts or something special.

Anyway, what I need currently is a new set of main retracts. They retract up just fine, however, when lowering the gear they stick and will not release until I push against the wheel to release them from binding (in the plane or out of the plane). The geometry of the machining of the slots in the side plates is not correct on the mains and the more pressure that is applied to retract the gear the harder it is to get them to release when lowered.

I have loosened the two screws that hold the trunion in the side plates and managed to get them to release at about 80 psi but then I have a lot of play in the gear, which is unacceptable for ground handling. The pin that slides in the side plates basically locks itself into the positive locked position, when fully retracted, and then binds. It takes a lot of pressure to overcome the binding and when it does the gear slams open. Imagine just holding your gear in the retracted position by hand, pumping your gear up to 80-100 psi and then releasing the gear. It sounds like the gear is going to rip out of the wing when they come down and lock. This is very large and very heavy gear.

I have two components in place to allow for very slow and smooth retract operation; one is an extra large air tank that holds a large volume of air and allows me to use 60-80 psi for operation of landing gear (lower pressure is always better); I have been doing this for years. Secondly, there is a Jetcat retract valve set on a 3 second pulse to give soft operation of the gear. The system works great when retracting the gear but is not helping at all when lowering the gear. BTW, the function of the nose gear is flawless, with very slow and scale operation.

If you can get Anton or somebody to send me a new set I will return these. Hopefully they can test the new set before shipping them, unlike the replacement cylinders for the speed brakes they sent that still didn't work on the second attempt and ended up costing me another $60.00 out of my own pocket to buy Robart cylinders.

Gary

ORIGINAL: artchristic1

Hi;

You know, some of you modelers say that the middle man is not
needed but when I read these comments about problems with kits,
All your problems are solved or answered by the middle man.
I think we all need them.
They may not be needed all the time but when things go wrong,
the middle man who ever it may be good or bad, someone is there to lend a hand.
I know because I am a middle man.

All the best guys.

ORIGINAL: Ali

V, Rest assured. The kits that I receive are no different to anyone else's. In fact in many cases they are allot less developed than most. My F-86 Was a prototype kit ( thus why it is unpainted) My first large and small vipers were both pre production kits, as was my T33.
I get these and have them put together as quickly as possible, and openly share any issues that there are.. either in the build or in the flying. I will never sit here and say the Skymaster kits are perfect. Far from it. Instead I try and assist those that are having issues pre build, and even post build, with various good and bad points I find along the way. The harsh fact of it is that I just dont know of a model product thats anywhere near perfect. For example, I am currently flying a lovely F-100 ( See photos around here ) This package cost a fair bit more than lets say my Skymaster F-86. It came in kit form, needed allot of building, and then painting. All in I would say it stand me in well over double what my Skymaster F-86 cost me. I took them both out to test on the same day, and in my head I was thinking... I bet the F-86 puts up more of a fight, and is more troublesome than the 100. How wrong was I! To this day the 100 still has an issue with the main gear. Where as my F86 has been flawless. The F-100 took a hell of allot more lateral thinking in the build to get it anywhere near finished. I am waiting for the drop tanks still for the F-100 and thats over a year after getting the kit. I guess what I am trying to say is that these sort of ''issues'' can happen with many of the suppliers in this end of the business. Name me a manufacturer (especially one that is producing a variety of airframes ) and I bet you I can list faults with at least one of their designs ( I dont want to get into this on line as I really am not into bashing suppliers on line ) Is it right?? Hell no! but its something we just have to deal with I am afraid.
I tried working with suppliers and have offered my services in trying to develop models before they are released, but it just doesn't seem to happen. Allot of models that I listed on kets say the small and large Vipers, and the large Hawk did find their way into later production models, but that seems to be as good as it gets I am afraid. I would love it if it was the other way round, as it would save me a hell of allot of keyboard fatigue.
Gary. Thanks for working with Alex regards my F-86. Let me send an email to my contact at Skymaster and see if I can be of any help. it definitely sounds to me as if the actuator pin is picking up on part of the retract frame. Dont take this the wrong way.. but have you ever had a hard landing with your 86? I once bent a large set of ( Non chinese supplied) retracts and didnt know it. After a heavy landing I had issues with cycling the gear, and it turned out that I had distorted the frame where the pin slides. It was only a tiny amount, but enough to cause the same issues as you are having.
Regardless.. I will send a mail and see what I can do, as it's a bummer to have such a sweet jet sat on the ground not flying.
Regards Al

ORIGINAL: Gary Jefferson

If you can't get answers or assistance from them what good are they? Ali is always helpful to everyone and Mourne has helped me as well but they are on the other side of the world from me. They are the last people I should expect to help and it really isn't fair when Skymaster USA is getting the profits from U.S sales. If you make the money on the sale you should provide the support. In my business when I sell a product to a customer that customer expects me to provide full support for that product, which BTW I am happy to do and I don't expect any less when someone sells me a product. That is what creates repeat business. Supporting products you sell is really quite a common business concept that Skymaster USA just doesn't seem to understand, but hey, they have been selling products and not supporting them for a long time now so I really don't expect it to change. Why spend the extra effort if people keep buying the product, right...

ORIGINAL: Gary Jefferson

I don't know about the rest of the stuff in this thread but I really wish Skymaster would learn how to respond to emails when somebody sends one to them. I have sent one to Skymaster USA (which I knew was a waste of time) and another to Skymaster in China. Neither one of them has bothered to respond and it has probably been about a week. For the life of me, I cannot figure out where the added value is in having Skymaster USA as a distributor. They do absolutely nothing to assist customers.

I remember Anton posting sometime ago saying how they would start responding more quickly but I guess this was just a bunch of crap. It is easy to promise things on the internet but actually doing what you say seems to be a real problem for some of these companies. I am really sick of having to chase a company just to buy what I need for their airplane. All I wanted was a quote for parts and can't even get one. Now I have issues with my 1/5 F-86 landing gear that does not work properly. Who knows how long it will take to get this resolved?

This thread hits the nail on the head about pricing. It is unbelievable to me how much modification I had to do to make the F-86 a reliable plane. For what this plane costs I should not have to make so many mods to the plane.