jeffk464

Just purchased the 40 size thunderboldt from raidentech.com. I have to say the kit looks incredible. The paint job is perfect and the plane truly looks perfectly scale down to every little detail. I'm planning on showing my progress as I go so you all can see if you like this kit.

ptgarcia

My Feedback: (36)

Please do. I'm building the Model Tech P-47 and would like to see a comparison of quality. Thanks!

damagedgoodes

Just to let you know that i had (yes no longer) on of these ARF's. I couldn't find a lot of info at the time here on RCU about the 40 size so i'll let you know what i found. I had an OS 70II inverted with standard JR servo's except a JR371 on the throttle. I also used thundertiger 40 size retracts (the purple coloured resin bodied type) with a Hitec HS75 retract servo. Mine came out at 3.2kg's which was 600 grams over trhe specified weight. I had added nothing extra mind you, just radio gear and engine. Then i checked the CG and it was very tail heavy. I would have had to add around 200grams of lead to the nose to acheive the correct CG so that wasn't really an option. Instead i placed the battery (JR1100mah) at the front of the fire wall under the tank (which i used a World Models 320cc instead of the supplied 260cc) along with the receiver. I made a new servo plate from ply right behind the tank and placed the servo's as far forward as possible and replaced the wood pushrods with dubro nyrods to reduce the weight in the rear. With all the gear shoved forward the CG was spot on without the lead. Flying was excellent, i had a MA 14x6 K Series prop pulling it around and there was more than enough power. ( would not use a 46 size 2 stroke as the nose needs as much weight as possible). It slowed down nicely and showed no real bad tendencies at stall, it would mush forward with the nose high before slowly dropping the wing, easily recoverable though. I lost mine after a dive and tight turn to the right. The left horizontal stab snapped in the turn and she fell from the sky. On inspection the balsa failed at the leading and trailing edge where it meets the center slab. the was no triangular stock between these and the load was to great for the incredibly soft balsa used for the leading and trailing edge. It has really put me off CMPro as this is a basic of building and you shopuld not have to pull off all the covering to check the materials used and joins are up to scratch. That and the fact that the fiberglass fuse was quite heavy for its size, especially with a long tail moment in respect to nose moment. It was a beautiful bird none the less and she is missed.

jeffk464

Can you explain so I can maybe strengthen said area. On my kit the vertical stab is fiberglass built as part of the fuse and the horizontal stab slides into a slot in the fiberglass fuse. I don't see where you could put triangular stock. Also the horizontal stab seems to be made from a single sheet of balsa not the typical leading edge trailing edge with ribs type of construction. Does this sound right to you, or have they changed it. I have carbon fiber and fiberglass to reinforce it if need be so please let me know.

jeffk464

Correction, I checked out the horizontal stab again and it is the leading, trailing edge, with ribs style of construction.

jeffk464

Ok, finally got some pictures of the kit going.

jeffk464

Here is a picture of rudder, throttle, and elevator servo installation .

jeffk464

I had to cut the exit holes in the back of the fuselage for the rudder and elevator pushrods. I use a drill at each extreme and then cut between the extremes with a dremmel.

jeffk464

Here is a picture of the aileron servo installation, pretty self explanatory.

hellcat56

My Feedback: (21)

I have one of these in the building stages, I am verrrry impressed with the fiberglass work and the paint, I will have fixed gear.
I am to assembleing the stab and it is does not simply slide in an be in the right incident, Tonight I wll shim it to be level.Watch out for this.
Hope to fly this weekend 3 days away
I expect it to be tail heavy so I am putting on an Enya 120 ---I know it is toooo much but I will need the nose weight and I think you can control the engine speed by using the throttle stick, so before you say waaaay to much motor, I don't intend to run it wide open
I'll let you know how it goes and how it balances with the 120.

jeffk464

Having too much power is like having too much sex . Anyways, does anyone know if there was ever a version of the p47 with a camo paint job like this, just curious.

jeffk464

I was hoping someone can help me with an aileron question. I have flush mounted ailerons mounted in my wing, and they both move the ailerons in the same direction. I was wondering if there is a way to revers one of the servos and not the other so that they work in opposite directions. They currently work as flaps or spoilers.

hellcat56

My Feedback: (21)

Both servos should be mounted either the control horn facing the center section or facing oppsite the wing tips , I bet you have the servo arm facing the same wingtip
This sounds confusing when I write it but You don't need to reverse a servo , just turn ONE of them around.
Hope this helps

jeffk464

I know that is the typical way of fixing it, but i was wondering if I could reposition the wires in the servo plug to reverse one of the servos. Right now my servos are connected exacly the same so they will have exactly equal throw. I dont really want to change this. bother servo arms are outboard from the fuselage and point to the front of the wing.

LDM

My Feedback: (15)

Jeff , first off the plane looks like real quality and appear solid , i think these are all made by CMP .
As far as the airleron you can rewire or look for HiTec or Futaba add ons , I think there about $14, for the add on that will reverse the one servo .

damagedgoodes

Jeffk464,
Sorry it's taken a while to respond (busy at work), but in reference to the stab, i'll try to make it clearer. The centersection of the hori stab is a balsa slab that glues to the fuselage when installed. The leading and trailing edges are then glued to the centre section to make the shape with the ribs between the two (pretty standard stuff). If you then check on your stab where the trailing edge is glued to the centre slab, does it have any trianguler stock either side of the centre slab. If not (as with mine) then the trailing edge is simply but joined to the centre and this area and matching area on the leading edge are quite weak. I also had really soft balsa used in construction of mine from factory when revealed after the crashIf your stab is already glued in, grab it at the end of the stab and flex it up and down. Mine (the side that wasn't ripped off) flexed enormously and was very weak. The triangular stock when installed (a common building approach) gives a lot greater support due to increased glueing surface area and the direction of grain in the triangle. My P-47 was the earlier aluminium colour and this problem may have been rectified with your later camo version. If not and you have a great deal of flex and it just generally feels weak, you will have to remove the bottom covering to improve the stiffness. You may think i'm not going to hack into the nice painted covering, but the fiberglass fuse will look much worse should it fail in flight and put the motor into the cockpit area as i did.
In reference to your ailerons, they look right from your pic's, but are you using a Y lead to join the two servo's together. and use the aileron channel of your receiver? I use a JR set and the two choices are, a Y lead as mentioned which reverses one servo's direction, or to plug one aileron into the aileron channel or the receiver and the other aileron into the AUX channel and set the transmitter up for a flaperon type wing through the programming section. I personally prefer the Y lead as the wing then effectively has the one lead to plug in when installing the wing for flying. Hope this helps. Let me know if you have anymore questions, i'll be quicker next time. Cheers,
Dave.

jeffk464

Ok got the engine installed and the cowling cut outs taken care of. I had to mount the engine sideways to get a muffler set up to work properly. Luckily cmp didnt install the blind nuts, so I could position the engine anyway I wanted. Would have preferred the upside down mount but think this requires a four stroke or stock muffler with extension.

jeffk464

Well, I took it out for a test flight today. I kept having engine trouble do to the pitts muffler, and had a dead stick landing/crash both times I launched. For the short time I was in the air it was flying in an almost out of control manner, I think I'm going to figure out a way to install the stock muffler and add some more noseweight. I can say that this plane seams pretty tough both deadsticks the plane flipped over hard and came out with no damage.

hellcat56

My Feedback: (21)

I put an Enya 120 in mine, flew at 1/3 throttle, but didn't need any nose weight
Flew like a dream, steady as a rock and landed and touch and goes with ease.
Flying with drop tanks made no difference in trim.

jeffk464

Wow, love the details you added looks great. Think I'm going to have to smoke the glass like that, and the big prop really added to the looks. I think I must have had the balance off because I've been flying for about 10 years and have decent piloting skills. Question did you stay with all of the stock pushrods and hardware or did you upgrade.

jeffk464

Well it looks like I definitely had the cg about 3/8" too far back.

hellcat56

My Feedback: (21)

I threw away the plastic kwik links and all of their wire, The landing gear is very spongy, but that has its advantages, after a few touch and go's I would just bend the gear back into position-this is really no big deal
I built it exactly per the instructions with one exception I fiberglassed the center section with 1 1/2 in cloth,Yes the tail seams flimsly but I have put some stress on this and no failure.
I did smoke the panel lines on with an airbursh, I used larger wheels and I used a three bladed prop just because I though it looked better, I did not smoke the glass--I painted the cockpit area black and what you see is the black cockpit area, if you look close you can see through the glass to the floor on the other side.
I used the supplied pushrods and moved everthing I could as far forward as possible
I just like the kit--I am doing a FW 190 of the supplier and it has been totally repainte and should test fly tomorrow, I'll post a picture on here later--even though it is a P 47 site-just to let you know what can be done with a little extra work.
As for where to buy one jet-hobbies.com to me has the best price, excellent service and seem like nice people.

jeffk464

Ok, here are some steps I took to try and correct the tail heavy condition. I moved the position of the rudder servo and installed pull-pull cables instead of the wood/steal pushrod.

jeffk464

I included a picture of the cowling to show how much lead I had to install. The plane is still a little tail heavy even with the mods I did, including mouting the battery on top of the engine mount. The front of the blue tape is the recomended cg for this plane, I am about a 1/4" too far back from this point.

LDM

My Feedback: (15)

Jeff did you try a bigger battery first ? I always ttry to add "good " weight if there is a such thing before adding lead .

Also try switching out the wheels if possible for light weight one so you can keep the overall wing loading down