maydog75

Barry,
Hey man, I'm down in Atl on biz and will be coming home Monday. Don't give up on the flaps nor thread. You have come too far with an awesome project! And if it helps one person out there inmo it's worth it. I will look at my plans and try to make heads or tails of what's going on when I return home. I know this is a pain in the ***** build and D. S. Plans really are not up to par but so far I have to say everything I have done on this plane for my build 99% you have found a better way. I glanced at the plans when you sent me the last email and thought to myself, wow the plans suck for that part of the build but I had to rush out of town Friday and haven't been home since. Keep it up, your doing an outstanding job! GOOD GAME!!!

NCIS

Just to clear my head on the flaps I referred to my TF GS Corsair instruction manual. It confirms my thoughts on the inner and outer flaps. I'm doing them right.

Gibbs

NCIS

I didn't have much time today for the flaps. I'm still filling and smoothing my cowling. I used paint stripper and removed the primer so it didn't build up to much and then just filled the holes with Evercoat Easy Sand. I didn't use the stripper up where the scoops are for fear it might screw them up plus that part was very smooth anyway. I gave up on my old method of thinning Bondo spot and glazing putty. It shrinks and cracks and when you try to wet sand it for a smooth finish it starts to lift so you have to wait for it to dry to feather it in again. The Evercoat doesn't have a problem with wet sanding. So the cowling is ugly until tomorrow when it dries out in all the seams on the cooling flaps. I don't want to have to do another do-over. I cut and glued the tongue in place for acctuating the middle flap. I also got the ribs on and am waiting for the glue to set overnight so I can put the top spar in place since it has to curve for what reason I don't know. Since the LE is supposed to be straight I'll probably just move the notch back on ribs 11 and 11A so everything is in line. Anyway here is what I got done.

Gibbs

TakingFlight96

Keep going, all the hard work will pay off in the end !!! Shes looking good.

TF96

winc0029

Looks fantastic Barry, I just finished reading the entire log. Sorry, but I can't be much help as I'm just getting into the hobby and taking some "revenge on Guillows kits" (qt Milesperpound) that haunted me in my childhood. If you don't mind, I'll be lirking in the background and learning as much as possible.

Jeff - if you need an extra pair of hands let me know as I'm located in St. Paul. If my time isn't preallocated I'd be excited to help out anytime. I charge 20 stupid questions per hour and the right to take mental notes.

Lloyd

Dr_Arnold

My Feedback: (4)

Barry,

Looking at the pictures you have posted, I think your tonge is at the wrong angle. It needs to be angled up to match the angle of the middle flap. If you put it in staight and flat it will bind up when the flaps extend. I am currently building the Ziroli Corsair from his plans and ran into this problem when connecting the three flaps together, Ziroli has all three flaps connected together and operated from a single servo.

Don't stop the thread as it is helping others, even those not building such a big plane.

Dr_Arnold

My Feedback: (4)

Barry,
One other item. you might want to check on the angle of the inner ribs of the outer and inner flaps. I am at work right now so I can't check my plans, but I believe one if not both ribs are angled to meet the ribs of the center flap and are not perpendicular to the bottom of the flap.

NCIS

After really looking at the top of the wing instead of just the bottom, I needed to put a little bow on the outboard side of inner flap so it has a nice contour with the wings top skin. The outer flap can remain flat except it might have to have the inboard rib angled inward at the top. I think this will make for a better looking flap setup, I hope.

Thanks Dr. Arnold,

Barry

NCIS

I also put another coat of primer on the cowl so I could check for the last time for any pin holes or flaws. I found a few but I'll jsut add the Evercoat in small spots where needed. Then I need to put on any chart tape and give it it's final coat of primer. I'll add the rivets and then wet sand it smooth for the top coat. I used Krylon ruddy brown wet sanding primer.

Gibbs

Skaweee

My Feedback: (11)

Lookin' great! That cowl is almost as big in diameter as the trash can it's sitting on!

NCIS

Yeah and thats a big trash can. My inner flap for the left side of the wing has dried to the shape I was looking for and now it's onto shapping the bottom spar for the center flap. This one I'll do before I build it. That is what I should have done with the inner flap as it was a pain bending the balsa sheeting and the bottom spar when it was glued together. I'll cut the 7/16" spar to length and then soak it in amonia and form it by hand until it's just the right shape.

Gibbs

NCIS

I'm soaking the center flap spar in amonia for the bending. While waiting I finally took off the intake scoop for the carb and sawed it down where it won't interfere with the cowl anymore. After I cut and sanded it I painted it flat black so it's isn't easy to see behind the dummy radial. I set my cowl where it will be permanently placed and need to drill holes for T-Nuts and round head allen bolts to hold it on firmly. I will use a thin piece of rubber between the cowl and the fuse to take up any vibration. The rubber will be rubber cemented to the inside of the cowl wherever it contacts the fuse. I'll probably get the thin rubber from an old inner tube from one of our many out grown bikes. The fuse from the tip of the spinner to the tip of the tail cone turned out to be 93" or 7.75'. It's a little longer than Don Called for but the F4U-5N was longer than the other models of Corsairs. The inner flap now that it's dried in the form I needed fits the top skin of the wing nicely.

Gibbs

NCIS

I finised the bending of the bottom spar for the center flap and glued the bottom sheet to it. I can't wait to see if they really are going to work. I have never been lucky the first time building Corsair flaps yet. I at least feel like I'm back to building after a long burnout and it feels good. I just want to get the rough build done so I can enjoy the finishing. Like the lights, soldering all the servo leads onto the wires I ran, and etc.

Gibbs

NCIS

After I finished the rough framing of the middle flap I started to design my hinges. I decided to make them work #1 and look kind of scale also. I know they are not perfect but at least they should work. The bottom sheeting got a little uneven but when I skin the top it will be nice and curved where it is supposed to be and flat where it isn't. The plans call for 3/32" sheeting but I might also use a thin strip about 1/2" wide of 1/64" ply at the TE behind the end of the ribs tip to ease in straightening out the TE of the flaps. The leading edge from the bottom spar up to the top spar calls for 1/32" ply and I will stick with that. Anyway how do they look and what about my idea of a hinge. It's 1/8" ply with a 4-40 nut and allen head bolt.

Gibbs

NCIS

These are pictures of the hinge prototype from a couple angles. There is plenty of surface for them to be epoxied to both sides of the rib in the wing and sandwiched between hard balsa blocks in the flaps.

Gibbs

maydog75

barry,
Got the parts they arrived perfect THANKS! sorry for the hassle. I see it looks as if you have the flaps figured. Good going! Hey I'm about to cut the belly pan and I can't make heads or tails on how to figure the angle for the saddle on formers 5,6,7 since there is no inner saddle. I measured off the plans from the stringer to where it shows the saddle on the plans but it looks wrong. How did you do this? I'm stumped on how it's done without the wing built :/

All Day Dan

My Feedback: (5)

Gibbs, I can’t give you any advice about those hinges because I have had no experience with anything similar. I do know that a metal screw in any wood under a heavy load and in the high vibration environment our models exist in is a high risk feature. I would look into replacing the wood hinges with some kind of high tech high strength material that is available. Maybe it’s called G2 or something like that. Keep plowing along, Dan.

Jetjockgb

My Feedback: (4)

Hi Barry,
Looking Good, regarding flap hinge, I used Tams offset hinge, they work very well, here is the link http://www.tamjets.com/

Cheers Graham B.
WWW.tigermodels.net

rt3232

My Feedback: (6)

Barry
Just my 2 pennys worth I would agree with Dan Reiss on the hinges you can get G-10 bare orcopper claded from "Mcmaster-car" as I remember the sheets are of different thickness and size and vary reasonable.

Bob T

F4u5

My Feedback: (81)

I would agree with Dan....kinda. You can step up the wood size to 3/16 ply and be OK, but I don't know about 1/8.....this is what I used (3/16 ply hinges) on my 13 foot Corsair with no issues over the life of the aircraft. Use a brass tube as a bushing, so that your screw passes thru the brass and not the wood. CA harden the holes in the wood to accept the brass. Use a 4-40 bolt thru the brass tube with a lock nut on the other side and you will be OK. That 3W200 will produce very little vibration. Just get a good glue surface if you go this route. I have never used the G-10 or the stuff from McMaster, but I can say a friend used the McMaster stuff on his 108 inch Corsair and it broke rather quickly. He used the 1/8 material.

Jeff

David Jackson

My Feedback: (15)

Finally got the main landing gear from Darrell on Monday. Once I complete the F-4, I will get back to the Corsair. As far as the flap hinges, would it help to reinforce the wood hinges with a couple of layers of carbon fiber?

NCIS

I'm not sure what your asking maydog75,

Post a couple pictures so I can see what your talking about. The belly pan should have been scored with the laser so you would know where to cut. Mine had one line to cut for the wing saddle and another for making the pan. It gave me room for error. Plus it was almost cut all the way accross the former for me. I just lined up my razor saw on the cut line and finished the cut.

I have seen many models with plywood hinges and thought it would work OK. I thought they would work fine. I guess I'll go with your idea Jeff and switch to 3/16" plywood and use brass tubing as a buffer between the bolt and the hnge's plywood. Great thinking Jeff. I sure am happy your around. Post a picture of what your hinges looked like if you have any please.

Thanks Guy's for all the help and suggestions,

Barry

F4u5

My Feedback: (81)

Barry, go to my project build here to see the flap hinges as Ziroli does them:

http://www.rcwarbirds.com/Projects/Jeff's%20Corsair/project4page2.htm

Jeff

NCIS

Jeff,

I couldn't see them very good. All I saw was the exposed area and it was very small in the picture. Maybe you could draw them out an post them so I could print them and build them. If you could I'd appreciate it. I ordered the 3/16" ply from BUSA and the 1/8 brass tubing from Tower Hobbies.

Barry

US185Damiani

How about CF reinforcement of the hinge areas and adding a brass bearing tube like Jeff suggested? Sounds like a good way to strengthen and ensure the flap hinges will last.