P47Tbolt

My Feedback: (20)

Put my Top Flite GE P47 Thunderbolt in the air for the first time this past Monday.5-10 mph wind and around 65-70 degree weather here in
Harlem,Ga on monday.Specs on the plane are fiberglassed with 3/4 oz cloth and z-poxy finishing resin,painted with lustrecoat
Saito 100 14x6 prop,had to modify stock saito muffler to fit in cowl,fiberglass engine cowl,resin dummy radial engine I made by using
the top flite plastic radial as a mold,on board glow,top flite cockpit and pilot,century jet retratcts.
Top Flite center drop tank and wing drop tanks(could not find top flites tanks, but found some here on RCuniverse that Luke in Fla made for me).
Great job on the tanks.I also made a pair of the wing rocket tubes out of 3/4" pvc pipe and plastic styrene.they are for display only though.
Flew my Fazer for first couple of flights to get rid of some of the pre flight jitters.Then came the time to fly it.fueled it up with
30% heli fuel,primed the engine,spun it over and it fired right up,running really rich but still making good power,adjusted high end with tach,
turning 9200-10,000 rpm.taxied it around to get a feel on steering and rudder control.Turns good and good rudder authority.cleared engine out,
taxied downwind on the runway,turned into the wind,gave it throttle SLOWLY,tail came up,plane is past me now,steering with rudder now,plane
lifts off the ground at 3/4 throttle,I give it full power to get some altitude.Get it level too adj trims,Fellow flyer(Steve R)helps me adj trims so I can
keep my eyes on the plane.2 clicks up elevator and 2 clicks right aileron and she flys level and true.made a couple of circuits around the field,
gain altitude to see what happens when she stalls.slow stall to the right.Attempted to retract landing gear,only 1 gear goes up.got the other gear down
ok.Lined up for landing,plane slows down good,but I kept it a little hot in case I had to go around again,plane touched the mains down and then hit a
bump,plane lifted up so I gave it a little throttle,reset mains on the ground,almost out of runway,I throttle down,let the plane roll to the end of the runway.
I turn the plane to the right and she nosed over.Phew.She is down.retrieve plane.no damage to plane,but the left retract strut is bent.will replace them
with better ones.Right retract was stuck down due to binding in the housing.
Will get retracts replaced and fly it again.here is some pics of the plane and my
son(Drake) and daughter(Sienna).

a65l

My Feedback: (17)

Nice plane. Cute kids. My daughter wants to be in the picture with my planes too.... little ham.

Andy

rrudytoo

My Feedback: (27)

Sounds like you're in lust! The TF P-47 is a sweetheart, to be sure. This is the easiest flying scale plane I have ever owned and it will bring you many hours of enjoyment and pride.

I used Robarts in mine with RoboStruts and never had a problem. CJM uses soft steel and large clearances between the strut and the steel rod that joins the strut to the retract mechanism. If you separate the strut from the mechanism, don't be surprised if you see that the steel rod was centerpunched numerous times to take up clearance between it and the strut. This is very shoddy workmanship and I've seen it on two of the three sets of CJM gear I've bought in the past..........I never disassembled the third set. I don't buy their stuff anymore.

I had a YS .91 AC in mine and flew it on 1/3 to 1/2 throttle for scale-like flight. This included take offs which looked very nice. Remember, the real 47 weighed seven tons and didn't exactly "leap" into the air! All in all, a terrific handling plane.

Al

psk560

My Feedback: (12)

Great Job Roy! Congrats on the maiden. Just wish I was there to watch.

Craig

ramcfarland

My Feedback: (44)

I will second that! "Nice Job."

parkerspop

My Feedback: (1)

Congrats on your maiden, made me nervous just reading your post. Plane also looks great.

Hades

Congrats on the maiden, im also building a P-47 and looking forward to get her up this spring

gbzflyer

My Feedback: (2)

P47Tbolt,
I've just started building mine and was wondering what the finished weight was and did you have to add any weight up front to make it balance out?
Great Job!
Mike

P47TBOLT47

My Feedback: (1)

I weighed it on a bathroom scale and it weighed in at around 9-10 lbs.
I had to add 12 0z of weight up front due to how light the Saito 100 is.
Even with the resin dummy engine and fiberglass cowl it was still tail heavy.
Moved all electronics as far forward as I could helped a little.
Even with that 12oz of dead weight it still flew very stable.

I got the retracts repaired (for now).will fly it again soon weather permitting.
I am going to see if I can get Lenny(shindin machine)to make me
a set of struts for the Tbolt.

For display purposes(2 blade prop does not look very good)I was going to
use the Top Flite display prop,but I can not locate one.So I bought 2,2 blade 14x6 master
airscrew props,had Lenny at Shindin Machine mill out the center section on the back of one
and the front of the other.Now the 2 props interlock together making a 4 blade prop.
I know I can't use these to fly now but they were still cheaper than the display prop.
It is on the plane in the pic with mmy kids.

Henrik_Rosen

Great looking Jug.

I haven’t done my maiden flight yet but I have done some test runs down the field. My P-47 is also glassed with Z-poxy and 20g fiberglass. I got 5kg (11lb) on our new bathroom scale but I use an OS FS120 SIII with a Zinger 18-5 prop.

I think the TF P-47 was handling great during my test runs on the ground. It was smooth and easy to taxi out on the field. I did a few runs down the runway and back. It felt like the tail got airborne at once. I tried once with 50% flaps and it got airborne at less than 50% throttle. I had decided not to fly that day though because I had to fix some things first. I reduced the throttle at once and put her down.

[link=http://www.henrikrosen.com/p-47086.jpg]Down the runway[/link]

You can see more pictures of it at [link=http://www.henrikrosen.com/top_flite_p47c.htm]this link.[/link]