Best scale photo!
01-22-2014, 11:02 PM
#5301
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This is an interesting photo. I believe I took these two photos of Fire Ball back at the Gunsmoke Qualifier in Phoenix in 2008. I had made several P-47s with opening gunbays, and this Team Scale project by Bob Frey and me had one on the left wing. It looked great on the ground, but we found that while flying it, the left wing would drop suddenly. Couldn't figure it out until one of the sage OEAF members suggested putting a piece of tape over the front of the ammo bay hatch, as it opens from fore to aft with the hinge on the aft edge of the door. Sure enough, that fixed the problem, but we couldn't really confirm that until we looked at this picture a little later that I had snapped during one of its troubled flights. If you look on the left wing, you can definitely see the hatch being sucked up away from its flush position. No wonder we had those problems flying it! So, the fix was we added more screws along the leading edge of the door and that was that. Flew beautifully after that.
I'll attach a couple more photos of Bob Frey and me, and a closeup of the gun bay.
I'll attach a couple more photos of Bob Frey and me, and a closeup of the gun bay.
I'm very surprised that Republic designers constructed the ammo door to open into the airstream. I quess ease of loading the ammo belts took priority over safety. Just imagine if that door popped open on take off or during landing when airspeed is slow enough for it to create extreme drag but not fast enough to simply rip it away. In all my professional life as a line worker, I never saw a hinged service door/panel open in that direction. That just boggles my mind.
~Ken.
01-22-2014, 11:34 PM
#5302
Hi Ken: that is probably one of the most frequent (and understandable) comments I have heard regarding the huge ammo doors on the P-47. I guess we all see them and wonder "why would they design such a big "barn door" that could spell disaster if it ever opened in flight! Still, I have not been able to document a single event of that happening in all the history of the 15,686 Thunderbolts produced on the assembly lines. I guess as long as attention was paid to properly securing those panels, it was worth it in ease of servicing those eight .50 caliber machine guns that made it such an effective fighter and fighter/bomber.
Davegee
Davegee
01-23-2014, 08:48 AM
#5307
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Right jaybird nice planes and some folks who know their craft when it comes to photography. This is a photo of a scratch built Triplane I built many years ago....never see a triplane on asphalt at least in 1917. If you zoom in really close you will also notice that the air molecules are way out os scale and too big. LOL A photo of a flite line would be cool.
01-23-2014, 09:42 AM
#5309
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01-23-2014, 01:48 PM
#5312
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Beautiful plane...but the spark plugs and wires coming out of the bottom of the cowl give it away....sorry!
Many of the Axis aircraft models have the same issue especially those with a long tapered nose that make it hard to keep the non-scale stuff hidden.
The Aeronca Champ is the best I've seen lately for both plane and photographic presentation.
Jaybird
Many of the Axis aircraft models have the same issue especially those with a long tapered nose that make it hard to keep the non-scale stuff hidden.
The Aeronca Champ is the best I've seen lately for both plane and photographic presentation.
Jaybird
Last edited by Jaybird; 01-23-2014 at 01:50 PM.
01-23-2014, 03:00 PM
#5314
01-23-2014, 03:03 PM
#5315
I'll be there for FL jets and Top Gun. See you there if you make it out.
01-24-2014, 08:34 AM
#5323
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Originally Posted by [email protected]
I like that first shot