Thanks, guys. It is a blast to fly!

AP,

The Corsair needs a fair amount of power all the way down to the deck - just like full-scale warbirds do. You don't want to get too slow. Remember that when you're on approach, elevator controls speed, and throttle controls descent rate. Set up the approach by pulling the power back a bit to establish your glide. The plane will start to descend. During the descent, manage your speed with elevator, and manage your rate-of-descent with throttle. Don't let it get too slow. If it starts to feel mushy, lower the nose to pick up some speed. Use the rudder for course corrections. Use ailerons only for bank angle corrections - and then, use them gently. The last thing you want to do with any plane when you're slow is to be aggressive on the ailerons - especially when it's a warbird, as doing so will often cause a tip-stall. You're aiming for the first eighth of the runway. If you're getting a bit too slow, lower the nose. If you're coming in a bit hot, raise the nose. If it looks like you're going to land short, add a bit of power. If it looks like you're going to land long, reduce power a bit. When you're 2-3 feet off the deck, slowly ease the stick back as you smoothly reduce power. At this point, the plane should be descending at a moderate rate, and at a slightly nose-high attitude. Just before touchdown, ease the stick back to flare as you continue to reduce power. The stick should be all the way back & the throttle should be closed just as the wheels touch the ground. Practice the above, and you will be rewarded with greased 3-point landings that will make you grin from ear-to-ear!

Joel

Joel,
thank you, im not sure that necessarily my issue(may be plane or pilot specific), but tomorrow ill spend my flights trying what you just explained and some other techniques. I think i just may be going too slow and the plane torques left and then i try to compensate by adding a bit of up and alot of right rudder which just causes a tip stall.

Originally Posted by airpower

Joel,
thank you, im not sure that necessarily my issue(may be plane or pilot specific), but tomorrow ill spend my flights trying what you just explained and some other techniques. I think i just may be going too slow and the plane torques left and then i try to compensate by adding a bit of up and alot of right rudder which just causes a tip stall.

Hmm.... sounds a touch tail heavy.

Could be! From the start i had about a half inch of foam in front of the cowl flap cut out for the battery to slide forward, and it flew nice with regular hyp 160s. And then i used the heavier MA 190s and had an extremely noticeably smoother flying plane! So i might see more of that improvement by making the cg even farther forward, will do!

Originally Posted by airpower

Could be! From the start i had about a half inch of foam in front of the cowl flap cut out for the battery to slide forward, and it flew nice with regular hyp 160s. And then i used the heavier MA 190s and had an extremely noticeably smoother flying plane! So i might see more of that improvement by making the cg even farther forward, will do!

AP,

This is a common thing with the F4U, as many (most?) of them are somewhat tail-heavy out-of-the-box. A higher-capacity, more powerful battery is by far the best engineering solution, as it eliminates the need for dead-weight. I'm running Hyp 240s right up against the cowl.

Joel

I'm in the club now! I picked up a used Corsair on Craigslist from a very serious RC airplane guy. He must have had fifty planes in his basement and big expensive ones too. The corsair is in perfect condition and only cost me $50 for the BNF. Now for some good flying weather please.

I am only on page 30 of this thread and have compiled a bunch of good info to implement before I maiden this little bird. Thanks for that guys.

Chris

I got a trade from another RCG member...so I am in the club to.

Welcome and Happy Flyin Chris.

Welcome to you too Daryoon. Happy Flyin

I'm excited to be part of the "gang" but I have yet to maiden her!!! I'm hoping Monday is the day!!! I was thinking about having a go with her stock before I do anything but after Turboparker suggestion about being tail heavy I may dremel out room for my 1S 240mAh batt I got from RCBabbel!!!! I'll check out the stock prop before I put the GWS 5043 prop on for giggles. Good luck with your maiden flight and look forward to hearing bout it!!!

Guys,

Welcome to the fray & good luck with your maiden flights!

Rcoconut,

Your 240 mAh 'Babbelbatt' will be great for this bird. The battery alone will increase thrust by ~20%, and the 5043 will add another 10-15% on top of that - along with a large increase in top speed. You'll be able to cruise along comfortably at 45-55% throttle, and you'll have plenty of reserve power to execute large, scale loops from level flight - instead of having to do small, non-scale loops to keep her from stalling-out when going over the top.

Joel

Originally Posted by turboparker

Guys,

Welcome to the fray & good luck with your maiden flights!

Rcoconut,

Your 240 mAh 'Babbelbatt' will be great for this bird. The battery alone will increase thrust by ~20%, and the 5043 will add another 10-15% on top of that - along with a large increase in top speed. You'll be able to cruise along comfortably at 45-55% throttle, and you'll have plenty of reserve power to execute large, scale loops from level flight - instead of having to do small, non-scale loops to keep her from stalling-out when going over the top.

Joel

Good to know!!! Maybe I should just put the prop on and be done with it!!!! Scale loops and increase in top speed will be nice as well!!!! Thanks again for all the help!!!

Rcoconut, maiden her first, these pager motors vary in power, some have plenty of power, some are lacking, fly her a couple times before deciding.
About landing, I was thinking about what you said RG, and I found my problem. I always take my planes far out, slow them down to just above landing speed, and touch her down right in front of me, never had a Problem. Except with this corsair. I brought the corsair in at low cruise speed, then as I was above Tarmac I lowered throttle and elevator. Great! Been doin this hobby for 4 years and still learning about landing!!!

Can anyone post some good TX settings for dual rates with expo and spoilerons. I am a noob to planes so I like the thought of dual rates. I have a bunch of 240 Hyperions and 160s as well so I should have the power after grabbing the new prop today. Still too windy to maiden her here today.

Some plane setup would be cool too as to the positions and throws of the pushrods and such.

Thanks.

Hey Guys, I bought a brand new BNF UM Corsair last summer and was thoroghly disapointed with it. Right out of the box it was uncontrolable under power. I spent many hours reading thru this thread trying to figure out what might be wrong with my plane. Tried the extra 2g of weight on the nose. Tried detuning the controls in the radio to 50% dual-rates, no change. OK, stepping up from my Champ, maybe it's just to advanced for my skill level.

I discovered by accident the stock 150mAh battery didn't have enough "something" to run the motor and flight controls at the same time. Under power, the flight controls would jump to full deflection after about 75% control input. Then after releasing the stick, they would jump to half deflection and stay there for about 5 seconds before returning to neutral. After cutting the Throttle to prepare for a crash landing, I could regain flight control and dead stick in from there. Not excactly something that showed up on a pre-flight.
(Throttle - up/down - check, flight controls - check. Ok, we're bound up and good to go.)

One of my flying buddies suggested I try a 1S 240mAh. I plugged in the battery, ran it up to full throttle and all control surfaces operated smoothly, OH YEA! Now that's what it's supposed to do. Something still not right though. It should run fine on the stock battery.
Not wanting to hack up the fuselage to run the 240, I taped two 130mAh together and ran them in parallel. After gluing the torn wing, aileron servo, and replacing the prop I took it out today and it flew just beautiful. It seemed a little under powered though. I had to keep about 75% throttle just to maintain level flight but at least it's not headed for the trash can. I guess today would qualify as a maiden.

Thanks for all the good info, Corky