tailskid2
Mar 08, 2007, 10:44 AM
!Introduction
| spec2
| @1121529
|> <b>Wingspan:</b> |< 81"
|> <b>Wing Area:</b> |< 1164 sq. in.
|> <b>Weight:</b> |< 17lbs 4 oz. (276 oz.)
|> <b>Length:</b> |< 71"
|> <b>Wing Loading:</b> |< 31.4 oz/sq. ft.
|> <b>Servos:</b> |< (8) JR811 Digital Sport and (2) JR 791 Retract Servos
|> <b>Transmitter:</b> |< JR9303
|> <b>Receiver:</b> |< JR 700
|> <b>Battery:</b> |< JR 1100 mAh
|> <b>Engine:</b> |< Evolution 26GT
|> <b>Manufacturer:</b> |< <a href=http://www.horizonhobby.com>Hangar 9</a>
|> <b>Available From:</b> |< <a href=http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=HAN2700>Horizon Hobby</a> & local hobby shops
A warbird will usually be viewed as a notch above anything else with wings whether along the flight line or in the air. Some go as far as saying there are two types of airplanes: Warbirds and Targets!
Let's take a look at this big beauty...an 81" scale representation of the famous P47. The Thunderbolt has pages upon pages of fan websites across the web, and I won't pretend to provide a better history on "the largest single-engined-fighter of its day" (per <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/p47">Wikipedia</a>). However, I thought this <a href="http://www.zenoswarbirdvideos.com/P-47.html">training video website</a> might be interesting to some! That site also has a lot of stats on the thunderbolt as well as DVDs one can purchase if you're really a Jug buff.
!Kit Contents
@938691:The complete kit contents, including large fiberglass cowl; retracts, struts and wheels.
*Kit Contains:
*Gorgeous, UltraCote covered fuselage
*Fiberglass cowling
*2-piece wing (transports in 2 pieces)
*RETRACTS!
*Canopy & Hatch
*removable stab
*scale details package, bomb set, fuel tank, display prop
*all necessary hardware
@938695
The fuselage is made of all balsa with some plywood in the area of the engine compartment. The vertical stabilizer comes already attached to the fuselage and sports a beautifully covered yellow and black pattern. The fuselage faring over the wing joint produces a nice looking fillet.
*Kit Requires:
*1.2-2.1 2-stroke; 1.2-2.2 4-stroke or 23-26cc gas
*6+ channel Tx & Rx and 900 mAh flight pack (minimum)
*8 servos for flight controls (JRPS811 recommended)
*2 servos for retractable landing gear (JRPS791 HIGHLY recommended)
*6 servo extensions ranging from 6"-24"
*4 Large servo arms (Nylon)
*2 1/2" Aluminum servo arms (for retracts)
I chose to add a Dynamic Balsa Cockpit Kit to really finish off the fantastic scale looks of this bird.
!Assembly
Hangar 9 is infamous for its quality assembly manuals, and I won't belabor every point of it here. Instead, here are some highlights, things to plan for, and interesting points along the way.
@938693
@938692
*The wing is in two pieces and supported by a long (29.25") 1.25" diameter aluminum joiner.
*The wing is secured to the fuselage with a 1/4-20 nylon bolt (which is about an inch too long).
*Our finished wing panels weighed slightly over 3 pounds each!
@938762
@938696
@938694
!!Tail Pushrods Challenge
@938731
@938733
The elevator pushrods consist of some long steel rods, encased in a plastic housing. The housings had already been installed and it seemed to take a lot of force to move the elevators, so some Talcum powder was utilized to ease the friction within the housing. The rudder pushrod on the other hand, moved with very little effort - until the tailwheel was connected. Then the rudder pushrod didn't want to move more than 1/4"! To solve this dilemma, a second pushrod was connected to the rudder pushrod with a wheel collar. Other solutions could be the addition of a tail wheel servo, or just lock the tail wheel in place. It was felt the second pushrod was the easiest to accomplish.
<div class = "leftside">
!!Additional Cockpit Kit
@1132057
For this stand-off scale model, Horizon supplies a very generic decal dashboard. On most models, the area underneath the canopy is limited. This model didn't get that memo because there is a whole lot of room UNDER the canopy in which you can, if you so wish, add detail. A generous donation of a cockpit kit by Dynamic Balsa was requested and received with open arms. One word of caution: this company is SERIOUS about cockpit detail!
@1132062
In addition to a couple of pages of instructions, a colorful CD is included to aid you in detailing this bird. Scale drawings coupled with the CD will produce a faithful rendition of the full-scale bird! The addition of a 1/6th H9 scale pilot bust covered a lot of the details, but I know they are there!!!
@1132063
</div>
!!Engine
The supplied fuel tank was larger than needed for a gas burner, but whereas the Evolution 26 hadn't been run yet, we decided to use it. The glow fuel tubing was replaced with DuBro's Tygon tubing. Horizon indicated the stopper was usable for either glow or gas, so it was used. A three line system was employed with the fill/empty line exiting along the bottom of the cowl area.
@938709
Now the fun started. When the Evolution muffler was attached to the engine, it became apparent something had to give -- and it was the firewall that quickly lost that battle. Approximately 1.375" back from the firewall and approximately 1.25" from the firewall itself was removed. A problem surfaced -- one corner had the aluminum bracing bolted to the firewall. With jigsaw, hacksaw and Dremel tool, all the interfering material was removed within a half hour. Now the engine and muffler could be happily mounted without the need to purchase a different muffler (which crossed my mind - for about 5 seconds).
A fresh coat of Pacers 30-Minute Epoxy was brushed over the entire firewall/engine area to make certain the front end would not suffer from fuel soaking -- the lifespan of this bird should be measured in years, not months.
@938708
@938711
!!Tail
@938783
@938734
@938753
!!Radio Gear/Completion
<div class = "leftside">
!JR Matchbox Help
@matchbox.jpg: Two matchboxes were used for the best possible radio setup.
Some sort of reversing method must to be employed on one of the flap servos or one flap will go up while the other goes down. A separate channel on a receiver (when combined with a computer transmitter) can be utilized or if worst comes to worse, a reversing "Y" connector can be used. I had some bad results with a 'Y' connector in the past, so a MatchBox by JR radios was used.
One servo drives one half of the elevators, so another Matchbox was called into service to coordinate the two elevators' movement. One of the servos could have been plugged into the receiver, but I was out of ports with the need for a choke servo, plus I wanted both servos to move equally and the pre-installed pushrod housing required one servo to move clockwise, the other counter-clockwise!
</div>
@938735
The flap and aileron servos were installed very early in the assembly. The remaining four servos (two for elevator, one for rudder and one for throttle) were installed in the pre-located place, and the hardware lined up perfectly.
Both the ignition and its flight battery were located on the firewall 'box' to aid in balancing. The radio's receiver was placed against the wing tube of the fuselage, as far away from the engine's electronics as possible. Others with an electronic gasoline engine, have placed the receiver in its intended location (directly above the tank) and didn't have any interference, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.
@938754
@938755
No additional weight was needed to achieve our chosen CG's location slightly ahead of the recommended position. All flights were flown at the maximum recommended throws, and she had very nice control response, without concern of over-controlling.
*Specifications:
*Aileron Throw: 7/8"
*Elevator Throw: 3/4" (low rates) 1 1/4" (high rates)
*Flaps Throw: 4 1/2" full flaps
*Initial CG: 5 7/8" back from leading edge (6.125" recommended)
!Flying
@1121521
@1121529
The Hangar 9 P-47 was an immediate 'hit' along the flight line. Its size and color scheme gave it a 'Wow' factor not usually seen at our field (except when the 1/8 Air Force comes in). With the top hatch off, the wiring looked a bit intimidating to some, disorganized to others and let's face it - there is TOO MUCH room in the fuse, now add all those extensions....
@1121519
@1121520
!!Basics
Warbirds are not 3D aerobatic-type airplanes and the P-47 isn't going to make any inroads into that territory. It isn't supposed to! However, what a thing of beauty when flown in a scale manner, doing the maneuvers its full size counterpart used to be so successful in the wars, both air-to-air and especially air-to-ground.
!!Taking Off and Landing
Our Evolution 26 GT had a very short throttle movement between it's idle speed and full-throttle which therefore translates into a similar short movement on the transmitter. There didn't seem to be much of a transition between idle and WOT (wide open throttle) and that displayed itself mostly in taxiing and taking off. A real slow acceleration was a challenge to accomplish, but leave it to my son Jonathan, it can be and was done! Very little right rudder was needed and the P-47 has a tendency to want to fly at a very low ground speed - so be prepared for a short take-off run.
@1121522
@1132141
@1121530
Landings are a thing of beauty as the P-47 displays is stability even more so when when the flaps are used. One word of caution is that when full flaps are deployed, not only is down elevator required, but more power is needed as full flaps really slow the plane quickly. Of course diving toward the runway with full flaps results in a slowly descending model, followed by a short landing roll out.
!!Aerobatics/Special Flight Performance
@1121528
Scale aerobatics are perfect with this bird. Rolls, loops, wing overs and an occasional barrel roll are about all most full-scale Thunderbolts routinely fly in peacetime. During WWII we're sure some 'new' aerobatics were discovered when an enemy plane found its way to a 6 O'Clock position, but for our model here, we have only flown the basic full-scale maneuvers along with hammerheads, Cuban 8's and the like.
All scale-like maneuvers were handled with ease when flying the P-47 with the Evolution 26GT. Could the plane climb out of sight vertically? No, but as the video demonstrates, the 26GT gives this 17 pound airplane some quality climb rate for a good period of time. And please don't forget we had all the drag buckets ON the plane (bombs and drop tank). Nonetheless, every flight resulted in the flight line quieting down as the P-47 was put through some VERY nice pattern maneuvers.
@1132144
@1132145
@1132146
@1132147
Loops could be done on a large scale - but near the top it would start to wane power-wise. Stalls were straight ahead and the rudder was effective all the way through the stalls. Spins were more spirals than spins, but we have only flown the plane when in a slightly nose heavy condition.
@1132150
@1132149
Inverted flight requires a lot of down elevator. (No surprise there!) Which brings us to the control throws - all flights were flown with the maximum recommended amounts. This is one large aircraft and it responds very solidly with all control movements, not like a .40 sized 3-D machine!
!!Is This For a Beginner?
For a rank beginner? Absolutely not! Flying wise, this plane needs competent hands controlling it as it does push the 15-17 lb range.
<big>For a 1st Giant Scale Warbird? Absolutely!</big> Just take a look at what CAN be done with this model to change it from an "ARF" to a custom plane (see the pictures of Bob Hunt's customized airplane, below).
!!Flight Video/Photo Gallery
+1132049
!Modifications
!!Scale Details
On the Horizon web site there is a documentary on how to strip off the covering and, after fiberglassing the plane, create a whole new color scheme. A local modeler (Bob Hunt) did something almost the same. He didn't remove the covering, but added a whole lot of details. Bob's P-47 is a solid performer every time he flies it. I've included some pictures I took of his plane just to demonstrate what a bit of time and talent can do to a 'Stock' ARF! Enjoy...
@1132084
@1132089
@1132087
@1132088
!!Electrified!!!
Also at the fly-in there was an electric powered H9 P-47! The boys from Hacker Motors demonstrated how well the plane could fly with electrons!
@1132107
@1132109
@1132108
@1132110
!Conclusion
The P47-150 maintains all of Hangar 9's smaller .60 sized warbirds stable flying characteristics, plus it adds a tremendous 'WOW' factor to the flight-line. This is one complete ARF - scale static prop, wing bombs and drop tank and tough retractable landing gear make this one of the most recommended warbirds available. Ask around and you will see, flying this plane will make you look good!
*Pluses:
*WOW factor! Size and color scheme will not go un-noticed in the pits or in the air
*Amazingly complete -- retracts, bombs, even static prop!
*Tough, durable retracts
*Excellent scale flight performance
*Excellent ground manners
*A weekend plane - not a Hangar Queen
*Minuses (mostly "nit picking"!):
*Lot of servos and extensions needed
*Had to cut firewall back to fit Evolution's muffler
*Tailwheel setup issues
*Sticking elevator pushrods
*Flap servo installation requires one servo to be reversed, electronically or physically
| spec2
| @1121529
|> <b>Wingspan:</b> |< 81"
|> <b>Wing Area:</b> |< 1164 sq. in.
|> <b>Weight:</b> |< 17lbs 4 oz. (276 oz.)
|> <b>Length:</b> |< 71"
|> <b>Wing Loading:</b> |< 31.4 oz/sq. ft.
|> <b>Servos:</b> |< (8) JR811 Digital Sport and (2) JR 791 Retract Servos
|> <b>Transmitter:</b> |< JR9303
|> <b>Receiver:</b> |< JR 700
|> <b>Battery:</b> |< JR 1100 mAh
|> <b>Engine:</b> |< Evolution 26GT
|> <b>Manufacturer:</b> |< <a href=http://www.horizonhobby.com>Hangar 9</a>
|> <b>Available From:</b> |< <a href=http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=HAN2700>Horizon Hobby</a> & local hobby shops
A warbird will usually be viewed as a notch above anything else with wings whether along the flight line or in the air. Some go as far as saying there are two types of airplanes: Warbirds and Targets!
Let's take a look at this big beauty...an 81" scale representation of the famous P47. The Thunderbolt has pages upon pages of fan websites across the web, and I won't pretend to provide a better history on "the largest single-engined-fighter of its day" (per <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/p47">Wikipedia</a>). However, I thought this <a href="http://www.zenoswarbirdvideos.com/P-47.html">training video website</a> might be interesting to some! That site also has a lot of stats on the thunderbolt as well as DVDs one can purchase if you're really a Jug buff.
!Kit Contents
@938691:The complete kit contents, including large fiberglass cowl; retracts, struts and wheels.
*Kit Contains:
*Gorgeous, UltraCote covered fuselage
*Fiberglass cowling
*2-piece wing (transports in 2 pieces)
*RETRACTS!
*Canopy & Hatch
*removable stab
*scale details package, bomb set, fuel tank, display prop
*all necessary hardware
@938695
The fuselage is made of all balsa with some plywood in the area of the engine compartment. The vertical stabilizer comes already attached to the fuselage and sports a beautifully covered yellow and black pattern. The fuselage faring over the wing joint produces a nice looking fillet.
*Kit Requires:
*1.2-2.1 2-stroke; 1.2-2.2 4-stroke or 23-26cc gas
*6+ channel Tx & Rx and 900 mAh flight pack (minimum)
*8 servos for flight controls (JRPS811 recommended)
*2 servos for retractable landing gear (JRPS791 HIGHLY recommended)
*6 servo extensions ranging from 6"-24"
*4 Large servo arms (Nylon)
*2 1/2" Aluminum servo arms (for retracts)
I chose to add a Dynamic Balsa Cockpit Kit to really finish off the fantastic scale looks of this bird.
!Assembly
Hangar 9 is infamous for its quality assembly manuals, and I won't belabor every point of it here. Instead, here are some highlights, things to plan for, and interesting points along the way.
@938693
@938692
*The wing is in two pieces and supported by a long (29.25") 1.25" diameter aluminum joiner.
*The wing is secured to the fuselage with a 1/4-20 nylon bolt (which is about an inch too long).
*Our finished wing panels weighed slightly over 3 pounds each!
@938762
@938696
@938694
!!Tail Pushrods Challenge
@938731
@938733
The elevator pushrods consist of some long steel rods, encased in a plastic housing. The housings had already been installed and it seemed to take a lot of force to move the elevators, so some Talcum powder was utilized to ease the friction within the housing. The rudder pushrod on the other hand, moved with very little effort - until the tailwheel was connected. Then the rudder pushrod didn't want to move more than 1/4"! To solve this dilemma, a second pushrod was connected to the rudder pushrod with a wheel collar. Other solutions could be the addition of a tail wheel servo, or just lock the tail wheel in place. It was felt the second pushrod was the easiest to accomplish.
<div class = "leftside">
!!Additional Cockpit Kit
@1132057
For this stand-off scale model, Horizon supplies a very generic decal dashboard. On most models, the area underneath the canopy is limited. This model didn't get that memo because there is a whole lot of room UNDER the canopy in which you can, if you so wish, add detail. A generous donation of a cockpit kit by Dynamic Balsa was requested and received with open arms. One word of caution: this company is SERIOUS about cockpit detail!
@1132062
In addition to a couple of pages of instructions, a colorful CD is included to aid you in detailing this bird. Scale drawings coupled with the CD will produce a faithful rendition of the full-scale bird! The addition of a 1/6th H9 scale pilot bust covered a lot of the details, but I know they are there!!!
@1132063
</div>
!!Engine
The supplied fuel tank was larger than needed for a gas burner, but whereas the Evolution 26 hadn't been run yet, we decided to use it. The glow fuel tubing was replaced with DuBro's Tygon tubing. Horizon indicated the stopper was usable for either glow or gas, so it was used. A three line system was employed with the fill/empty line exiting along the bottom of the cowl area.
@938709
Now the fun started. When the Evolution muffler was attached to the engine, it became apparent something had to give -- and it was the firewall that quickly lost that battle. Approximately 1.375" back from the firewall and approximately 1.25" from the firewall itself was removed. A problem surfaced -- one corner had the aluminum bracing bolted to the firewall. With jigsaw, hacksaw and Dremel tool, all the interfering material was removed within a half hour. Now the engine and muffler could be happily mounted without the need to purchase a different muffler (which crossed my mind - for about 5 seconds).
A fresh coat of Pacers 30-Minute Epoxy was brushed over the entire firewall/engine area to make certain the front end would not suffer from fuel soaking -- the lifespan of this bird should be measured in years, not months.
@938708
@938711
!!Tail
@938783
@938734
@938753
!!Radio Gear/Completion
<div class = "leftside">
!JR Matchbox Help
@matchbox.jpg: Two matchboxes were used for the best possible radio setup.
Some sort of reversing method must to be employed on one of the flap servos or one flap will go up while the other goes down. A separate channel on a receiver (when combined with a computer transmitter) can be utilized or if worst comes to worse, a reversing "Y" connector can be used. I had some bad results with a 'Y' connector in the past, so a MatchBox by JR radios was used.
One servo drives one half of the elevators, so another Matchbox was called into service to coordinate the two elevators' movement. One of the servos could have been plugged into the receiver, but I was out of ports with the need for a choke servo, plus I wanted both servos to move equally and the pre-installed pushrod housing required one servo to move clockwise, the other counter-clockwise!
</div>
@938735
The flap and aileron servos were installed very early in the assembly. The remaining four servos (two for elevator, one for rudder and one for throttle) were installed in the pre-located place, and the hardware lined up perfectly.
Both the ignition and its flight battery were located on the firewall 'box' to aid in balancing. The radio's receiver was placed against the wing tube of the fuselage, as far away from the engine's electronics as possible. Others with an electronic gasoline engine, have placed the receiver in its intended location (directly above the tank) and didn't have any interference, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.
@938754
@938755
No additional weight was needed to achieve our chosen CG's location slightly ahead of the recommended position. All flights were flown at the maximum recommended throws, and she had very nice control response, without concern of over-controlling.
*Specifications:
*Aileron Throw: 7/8"
*Elevator Throw: 3/4" (low rates) 1 1/4" (high rates)
*Flaps Throw: 4 1/2" full flaps
*Initial CG: 5 7/8" back from leading edge (6.125" recommended)
!Flying
@1121521
@1121529
The Hangar 9 P-47 was an immediate 'hit' along the flight line. Its size and color scheme gave it a 'Wow' factor not usually seen at our field (except when the 1/8 Air Force comes in). With the top hatch off, the wiring looked a bit intimidating to some, disorganized to others and let's face it - there is TOO MUCH room in the fuse, now add all those extensions....
@1121519
@1121520
!!Basics
Warbirds are not 3D aerobatic-type airplanes and the P-47 isn't going to make any inroads into that territory. It isn't supposed to! However, what a thing of beauty when flown in a scale manner, doing the maneuvers its full size counterpart used to be so successful in the wars, both air-to-air and especially air-to-ground.
!!Taking Off and Landing
Our Evolution 26 GT had a very short throttle movement between it's idle speed and full-throttle which therefore translates into a similar short movement on the transmitter. There didn't seem to be much of a transition between idle and WOT (wide open throttle) and that displayed itself mostly in taxiing and taking off. A real slow acceleration was a challenge to accomplish, but leave it to my son Jonathan, it can be and was done! Very little right rudder was needed and the P-47 has a tendency to want to fly at a very low ground speed - so be prepared for a short take-off run.
@1121522
@1132141
@1121530
Landings are a thing of beauty as the P-47 displays is stability even more so when when the flaps are used. One word of caution is that when full flaps are deployed, not only is down elevator required, but more power is needed as full flaps really slow the plane quickly. Of course diving toward the runway with full flaps results in a slowly descending model, followed by a short landing roll out.
!!Aerobatics/Special Flight Performance
@1121528
Scale aerobatics are perfect with this bird. Rolls, loops, wing overs and an occasional barrel roll are about all most full-scale Thunderbolts routinely fly in peacetime. During WWII we're sure some 'new' aerobatics were discovered when an enemy plane found its way to a 6 O'Clock position, but for our model here, we have only flown the basic full-scale maneuvers along with hammerheads, Cuban 8's and the like.
All scale-like maneuvers were handled with ease when flying the P-47 with the Evolution 26GT. Could the plane climb out of sight vertically? No, but as the video demonstrates, the 26GT gives this 17 pound airplane some quality climb rate for a good period of time. And please don't forget we had all the drag buckets ON the plane (bombs and drop tank). Nonetheless, every flight resulted in the flight line quieting down as the P-47 was put through some VERY nice pattern maneuvers.
@1132144
@1132145
@1132146
@1132147
Loops could be done on a large scale - but near the top it would start to wane power-wise. Stalls were straight ahead and the rudder was effective all the way through the stalls. Spins were more spirals than spins, but we have only flown the plane when in a slightly nose heavy condition.
@1132150
@1132149
Inverted flight requires a lot of down elevator. (No surprise there!) Which brings us to the control throws - all flights were flown with the maximum recommended amounts. This is one large aircraft and it responds very solidly with all control movements, not like a .40 sized 3-D machine!
!!Is This For a Beginner?
For a rank beginner? Absolutely not! Flying wise, this plane needs competent hands controlling it as it does push the 15-17 lb range.
<big>For a 1st Giant Scale Warbird? Absolutely!</big> Just take a look at what CAN be done with this model to change it from an "ARF" to a custom plane (see the pictures of Bob Hunt's customized airplane, below).
!!Flight Video/Photo Gallery
+1132049
!Modifications
!!Scale Details
On the Horizon web site there is a documentary on how to strip off the covering and, after fiberglassing the plane, create a whole new color scheme. A local modeler (Bob Hunt) did something almost the same. He didn't remove the covering, but added a whole lot of details. Bob's P-47 is a solid performer every time he flies it. I've included some pictures I took of his plane just to demonstrate what a bit of time and talent can do to a 'Stock' ARF! Enjoy...
@1132084
@1132089
@1132087
@1132088
!!Electrified!!!
Also at the fly-in there was an electric powered H9 P-47! The boys from Hacker Motors demonstrated how well the plane could fly with electrons!
@1132107
@1132109
@1132108
@1132110
!Conclusion
The P47-150 maintains all of Hangar 9's smaller .60 sized warbirds stable flying characteristics, plus it adds a tremendous 'WOW' factor to the flight-line. This is one complete ARF - scale static prop, wing bombs and drop tank and tough retractable landing gear make this one of the most recommended warbirds available. Ask around and you will see, flying this plane will make you look good!
*Pluses:
*WOW factor! Size and color scheme will not go un-noticed in the pits or in the air
*Amazingly complete -- retracts, bombs, even static prop!
*Tough, durable retracts
*Excellent scale flight performance
*Excellent ground manners
*A weekend plane - not a Hangar Queen
*Minuses (mostly "nit picking"!):
*Lot of servos and extensions needed
*Had to cut firewall back to fit Evolution's muffler
*Tailwheel setup issues
*Sticking elevator pushrods
*Flap servo installation requires one servo to be reversed, electronically or physically