NCIS

Hello Everyone,

I am starting the build on my Top Flite Gold Edition 1/8 scale Corsair next week and am finishing up on my GP Cub this week. I will be doing all the modifications listed on the other thread about the 1/8 scale TF Corsair. I will also be posting as many detailed pictures and explanations as possible. I should start posting pictures Monday or Tuesday. I built a new building table for this Corsair, my Top Flite Giant Corsair, and many more. I will be dedicating my time to Military Aircraft from WW1 and WW11. Heres my new table. I can't wait to get started.

Wish me luck,

Gibbs

CorsairJock

My Feedback: (90)

Glad to see a 'build thread' getting started. I kinda don't like filling up space in the 'mod' thread with normal, build issues and suggestions: such as engine choices, best methods for finishing, what size pilot to use, etc.

Altho: there is a recent tread already covering this kit:
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_259482/mpage_6/tm.htm

Maybe having this thread will allow us to focus on the THOSE issues, while we can keep the other thread for just modifications?

I'll offer my help when I can, and for those interested in performing mods to their Corsair (to make it more scale looking) can check out the other thread:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_964836/tm.htm

Here's a pic of my current (and 3rd) Top Flite Corsair. Power is Saito .82 swinging Master Airscrew 3 blade 13 x 8 (staic picture with 2 blade prop was taken 2 years ago, before 1st flite: 3 blade was installed shortly after). It has all 3 wheels retracting (Robart retracts), full flaps, and 2 operating (Vortac) bomb drops. Empty weight (no fuel, no 'ordinance') is 9 lbs. 3 oz.

NCIS

CorsairJock,

Thanks for the reply and I will be asking you questions, you can depend on it. I think your Corsair looks great. I never thought about the belly bomb. Nice recreation of the other Corsair. Heres my first question. Do you have pictures of how to install the tailwheel retract? I am putting one on mine also. I am using Centurey Jets air mains and mechanical tail with a seperate servo using a Y Harness for both of the servos.

Thanks,

Gibbs

SMUGator

Chris (rollo) and I are just a couple of weeks ahead of you, so we'll chime in on the build and mods we are doing if you want some company.

Tom

Farmbuyer

Since we're in the process of building, is anyone doing any mods with respect to strengthening the fin and rudder in the event of a rollover? I went ahead and imbedded two 1/16" carbon fiber rods up each side of the vertical stabilizer immediately ahead of the hinge locations, two rods up the rudder immediately aft of the hinges, thin twin plywood strips outlining the top curve of the rudder and three of the 3/16" robart hinge points on the rudder. Overkill? My experience is limited here.

I know this is the last place one wants to start adding weight but I tried to keep it minimal.

Farmbuyer

CorsairJock

My Feedback: (90)

Check out the Top Flite Corsair mods thread: this is one of the 1st issues that I address. I feel that it is inevitable that a Top Flite Corsair will eventually tip over for one reason or another. An un-modified rudder will break, so again: check out the mods thread.

About that retractable tailwheel: I'll say this starting out- it was a real pain to install and get working properly. In fact, I have to do some 'surgery' sometime this winter to get mine working properly again. Since I do have to 'open it up', I'll post pics when I do and describe how I did it.

Farmbuyer

Thanks Corsair Jock, On my way over there.
Farmbuyer

Rob Schaffer

That tail mod is precious,... landing No 4 for my Corsair, I saw it all in slow motion,.. tail too high,.. slowly getting higher,.. uH o,... she perched nearly balanced on the nose for a second then flipped on her back. No damage to the tail, not even loose. Great investment of time and material.

NCIS

CorsairJock and the rest of you,

Thanks for the replys and I would like you to come in and help on this build. Any building pictures are great and welcome.

CorsairJock,

I already ordered the retract for the tail wheel so it's to late to change back to a fixed gear. Can you tell me maybe a better way to install it and how to modify the fuselage to work with it better?

Thanks All,

Gibbs

CorsairJock

My Feedback: (90)

Looks like I might have a little extra time the next few days, as I am on funeral leave: my sister's husband passed away (suddenly).
He was my age (mid 50's), and we used to play sandlot baseball every Sunday when we were in our 20s & 30s, and did all the things that a lot of people did during the 70s (NOT listening to disco music).

So, I'll try to find the time to address the retractable tailwheel. Perhaps the biggest 'issue' for me was: hooking it up so that it steered with the rudder. I have seen pictures of the CenturyJet version (of retractable tailwheel), but never seen one up close. From what I have seen tho, it would be no easier to install/ no better than the Robart, other then it is made from mostly aluminum rather than plastic. As far as I'm concerned: the Robart will work just fin, and I would not spend the extra money ($20 for Robart, $40 for CJ) to get a CenturyJet.

Please be patient, and I WILL get pics and text posted within the next few days.

NCIS

CorsairJock,

I plan on using a pull/pull system hooked to the same servo as the rudder. I don't see why this shouln't work. Right is right and left is left. I will use a double horn on the rudder servo and have the tailwheel on the outside hole so it will turn better on the ground. Do you think this will work alright? How does everybody do it on the Giant scale Corsair?

Thanks,

Gibbs

NCIS

CorsairJock,

I'm planning on using a seperate servo maybe mounted near the rear of the fuselage and then hook the rudder and tail wheel steering servo together with a Y Harness and exstension. I will use a pull/pull system. I don't see why this shouldn't work. Do you think this will work alright? How does everybody else do it on the 1/8 scale scale Corsair?

Thanks,

Gibbs

SMUGator

We started cutting the parts tonight for the retractable tailwheel featured in Luke's F2G and Royal .60 thread. Should be a fun project. Got the package, Jim. Thanks a million! Really sorry to hear about your brother-in-law. All the best to you and your family.

Tom

NCIS

SMUGator,

Will you post some pictures of the tailwheel installation? It would be very helpful.

CorsairJock,

Disregard my first post about hooking the tailwheel and rudder up to one servo. I realized it wouldn't work and posted the second one with how I plan on doing it. I hope it will work OK.

Gibbs

SMUGator

Will do when we get to that point. Still have to build the tailwheel and frame the fuse. Most of our work right now is on hinging and actuating the main gear doors.

Tom

Blue_Moon_

CorsairJock, Do you got any pictures of your bombdrop mecanism? Im very intrested in this.

Your plane looks fantastic! I hope my tf Spit will look at least half as good as your corsair...

CorsairJock

My Feedback: (90)

Starting with post #323 in the 'mods' thread.
& BTW: Thanks!

Larry S

My Feedback: (6)

Good hearing from you again Jim,
If you're interested, our Warbird event is scheduled for August 25. That is on a Saturday. As of now, hours of event will be 10 AM to 3 PM with lunch between 12 PM to 1 PM. I am the CD of the event. I plan on NO flying during the lunch hour break but want a static display set up because I intend of inviting some the veterans out from the Vererans Home here in Manteno. Hopefully, we can get a couple of the old guys that actually flew warbirds in WW 2. Their stories will amaze you, I know, I've heard them. There will be NO contest because what I'm after is to have several warbirds in the air at once and have no pressure on any flyer who may not want to fly but like to bring their bird out. I have not decided on what the entry fee will be but we will charge a small fee to at least try to raise some money for the club. I'm looking at $5. I plan on having food which we never done before. Again, charges for the food will be very reasonable. To anyone who would like to join our event, SAC Warbird event, you're more then welcome. The more birds we can get the more fun we'll have. If some guys want to dog fight, let me know and I'll announce it, if some guys want to fly solo, let me know and I'll make sure no other planes go up during your flight. I plan on starting a threat on Events, hopefully other clubs will post their events. One more thing Jim, our event is Saturday, August 25 and Palos has theirs Sunday, August 26, same as last year when you came.
More details will come later.
Larry

NCIS

Larry,

I would like to come to check out the event and meet the people I've been talking to on RCU. Where is this city in IL. I live in Janesville, WI. about 90 miles north of Chicago. Do you know how far away you are. I am almost on the WI. and IL. State line.

Thanks,

Gibbs

CorsairJock

My Feedback: (90)

OK, here is promised retractable tailwheel info & pics, as installed on my Top Flite Corsair.

1st 3 pics attempt to show details with cover removed, 4th pic shows with cover installed. I fabricated the cover from Dow blue foam, sheet plastic, & glass cloth.

The steering linkages are what was most complicated for me, but getting the retract unit installed properly was no easy task either: it took trial and error, holding the unit over the drawings, to determine best location/ mounting method. NOTE that the full scale Corsair tailwheel does NOT retract completely: the bottom half of the wheel remains exposed.

Because of the complications involved with making it steerable, I originally flew this Corsair several times with the tailwheel steering fixed/ not steerable. However, I found it to be VERY difficult to taxi when winds were above 10 mph, so I went back into it and made it steerable. The reason I found it so difficult to add the steering linkage is the geometry: the (fish) lines must be pulled taugnt when the gear is down, but must be slack when the gear is up. The steering horn on the retract (NOTE: I did NOT use the stock Robart horn). is below the fuselage line when the gear is down, which further complicates things.

ALSO NOTE: I installed a Sullivan sprung tailwheel strut on my unit, which is VERY nice, but further complicates installation.

My solutiuon for the steering: I installed 4 small eyelets on the mounting plate of the retract unit, and ran the (fish) lines thru them. This works very well for me, I hope you can make everything out in the pics to see how they are all conected.

NCIS & LarryS: Hoping to see and fly with both of you at the 2 SW Chicago area events in August.

NCIS

CorsaiJock,

I only want to know where the sevos are mounted for the retract and the steering. I can't see where they would fit or be. Will you tell me where you mounted them and what you replaced the horn with. I am using a Century Jet retract and don't know if the horn set up is the same as yours. It seems very cramped to work in that area.

Thanks,

Gibbs

CorsairJock

My Feedback: (90)

BOTH servos are in the fuselage above the wing saddle. The rudder servo is connected via Sullivan precision control rods to the black 'bellcrank' in the pictures. The bellcrank has a wheel collar in it which 'binds'/ attaches it to the metal rudder post. The bellcrank also has the fish lines attached/ connected to it, which in turn connect to the tailwheel (after traveling thru the eyelets) for tailwhhel streering.

I replaced the stock Robart steering control horn (I didn't like the set screw in threaded plastic setup) with a servo arm, which appeared to be the right size for my needs. A small wheel collar was installed in the control horn to attach it to the strut post (a hole had to be drilled into the servo arm for the set screw).

The retract servo is mounted right next to the rudder servo (in the fuselage, above the wing saddle). Thus, it has 2 retract servos: one to mechanically actuate the tailwheel retract via another Sullivan Precision control rod, the other is mounted on the wing to actuate the air retract valve for the mains. The 2 are on separate channels, but controlled by the same transmitter switch on my Futaba 9CAP.

And yes: it is a very cramped area, which is part of the reason for the difficulty. Like I said: I put a lot of effort into making the retract tailwheel work properly, so plan on the same. If your's turns out to be easier, more power to you. In the end, I think it was worth it. I don't really notice it so much when I'm flying it, but it sure looks better when I take pictures of it (in flight).

NCIS

Thanks CorsairJock.

Gibbs

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

Larry thats awesome! I wish I lived in the area. The only warbird event here is limited to IMAA and they usually only get 8 or 10 pilots, I've been quietly campainging to get an open warbird event but now that I've gotten my CD to run our annual helicopter event I may just put on my own.

I did mine in local hometown pilot LCDR Tommy Blackburn, CO of VF-17, I spoke with him several times during the construction process (years ago) but he passed on before I could show him the completed model. This thing has been following me from house to house since the early 90s, I just put a new motor in it and programmed up a slot for it in my 9c and plan on getting the dust off her this weekend. I'll post some pics when I get home from work.

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

Here you go