Originally Posted by ManTownMedia

Hmmm. Really frustrated trying to hand launch. I did it successfully just a few days ago but already broke 2 stock props and 3 8x6 slow flyer props. I need to buy more and the wind is calm today. Trying again!

Try an underhanded toss throwing up and to the right with your left hand, and leave your right hand on the sticks (for mode 2). I use about 60-70% throttle which is enough to keep it in the air with minimal torque roll left. Works great every time, now if only I could get the same success rate with landings .

I'm with 2 Heads, 60/70% power and with mode 1 tx in left hand and upward toss at about 50* with right arm. Too much power and it rolls left. By the time I get both hands on the sticks the plane is about 2-3 m high and leveling out and it controls fine from there. Ground launching it at full power torque rolls left wing down but at 60-70% power it rog's real nice wings level.

THB, I always glide power off (sorry, is there any other way) and always wash off speed for touchdown. I see too many guys trying to land way too fast. Any aircraft will land properly at the correct speed.
My F4u lands nice on belly but often tails over when I land on short grass with the gear. I cant flare it enough to get a slow landing to stop the flick. Will try programming flaps for landing when I get the chance for slower approaches.

Thanks for all the advice on hand launching. Yesterday, I ended up getting some big 2" hard foam wheels from LHS to replace the stock wheels. It helped taking off from the tall grass! Here is a video of it and onboard video - using the #11 keychain camera that I strapped to the belly of the F4U Corsair 800mm!

July 3rd onboard video v3.wmv (4 min 3 sec)

I will try hand launching again once my replacement motors get here. I now have 2 Yellow and 1 Blue 800mm Corsair! Some of the wings have been repaired as well as a cracked fuselage that I had to repair with epoxy + gorilla glue + some foam safe CA.

Happy 4th of July to everyone!

I had been using a 1000 mAh 3S battery, but a couple days ago she had her motor conk out as the ESC reset?? Good thing I still had control...Too much battery?...So I'm back to 1000 and 1300 mAh 2S batteries...
OHhh! I forgot to mention, my stock motor had its bearing burn out and I have replaced it with a Tower Pro 2408-21T Delta, which looks EXACTLY the same as stock...Maybe I should hook up my meter to it!?!?


Nice video ManTown!

How much elevator throw are most people using on this?

I've got my radio programmed with 120% rudder and elevator. Ailerons are good, maybe even too good out of the box. The 120% is mostly just used for takeoffs and landings, and I have a switch to enable dual rates for normal flying. That setting is 80% for everything, which is plenty at high speed.

Originally Posted by TwoHeadsBrewing

I've got my radio programmed with 120% rudder and elevator. Ailerons are good, maybe even too good out of the box. The 120% is mostly just used for takeoffs and landings, and I have a switch to enable dual rates for normal flying. That setting is 80% for everything, which is plenty at high speed.

How much actual movement (in inches or mm) from center on the elevator trailing edge?

Percentages mean little with different control horn placements and radio settings.

I use about 1/4 of an inch in either direction on the elevator's low rates... I find that that is all I use all the time.. and it loops with urgency.. very, very closed loops.. your CG must be just behind the first of the two lines that run the length of the wing.. CG is very important for the elevator to have both authority and finesse. I do have high rates with all the travel I can get with 85% expo.. but this is only for high altitude, VIOLENT maneuvers... Rudder full motion with 85 expo on low and linear on high.. same on ailerons.

Thanks

Just got myself one of these - not got it in the air yet, but from ground handling tests I can see why my other planes have a rudder. From reviews I've seen I didn't think I'd bother, but suspect I will be adding one just so I can steer it on the ground.

Given my other birds have steerable tailwheels, the question is how effective a rudder is on the ground with a fixed tailwheel, or is there a way to make the tailwheel on this steer?

Originally Posted by aracer

Just got myself one of these - not got it in the air yet, but from ground handling tests I can see why my other planes have a rudder. From reviews I've seen I didn't think I'd bother, but suspect I will be adding one just so I can steer it on the ground.

Given my other birds have steerable tailwheels, the question is how effective a rudder is on the ground with a fixed tailwheel, or is there a way to make the tailwheel on this steer?

There's a Du-Bro tail wheel available that is steerable and would attach nicely to this plane.

OK, so first flight I did the standard thing and broke my prop (hand launched and corrected the left torque roll, but when I pulled up it nosedived into the ground - turned out I'd not noticed the elev servo needed reversing - newbie mistake). The prop broke one blade off right at the root - it was a clean break, so I've fixed it with CA.

Have tried running the motor up to full power and the prop's quite happily staying in one piece, so is there a reason why I shouldn't fly with a repaired prop (I've flown my mini helis with tail rotors and main blades repaired with CA)? Is there something I'm missing here, as I don't think I've seen anybody else mention fixing a prop?

Also I notice the motor thrust line is now down and right - is this correct, or has it got moved in the crash (didn't notice it anything other than straight before)?

On another point, the ESC came setup with motor brake, despite the ESC manual suggesting that's not the factory default and that a motor brake should only be used with folding props - somewhat rashly I reset the ESC to factory default, so no longer any motor brake, but I'm not sure if anything else wasn't default which I've lost. Any comments?

Aracer, not the first and wont be the last for a reversed servo. Feel your pain on the prop, I did mine on the maiden but have been running it since on a 7060 slow flyer and it is fine on the stock setup but with a 3s 1000 mah batt.

Thrust line is correct down and right to counter the torque and releive the trim input required. Personally I haven't used a CA'd prop, as I imagine that it may fail again under the power generated by the motor. I suppose the worst that could happen is a separation followed by vibration until motor shutdown and a pressure glider to earth. Certainly more acceptable than a rotor loss on a heli.

Haven't changed the esc so can't help you with that.

Well the CA'd prop didn't last long.

Managed to get flying, but nosed over on landing. The blade I glued is fine, but broke a different one

Hi there. First time poster.

Now I love my Corsair however it took a number of modifications to get it to that stage. Before flying for the first time I modified the access to the battery area by making the canopy that comes off larger as per Nitroplanes YouTube video. I also added the rudder servo (why not seeing that I had the servo already) and I also added 7 grams of weight in the nose cone. Also used a 3s 1300maH battery and a two bladed 7060 prop.

Unfortunately the plane was almost unflyable! Extremely pitchy and hard to control. Luckily it is a very, very tough plane as it had about 10 hard landings (crashes) but could all be repaired with epoxy (including the two wings which got ripped off).

Eventually I added a total of 35 grams to the nose cone and got the CoG to between those two lines on the wing. Now it flies beautifully! Very fast and stable. Roll rate is great.

So now I am very happy with the plane but one problem still exists. When I pull back fully on the elevator it not only pitches up the plane but it also causes the plane to spiral as well. I am not sure what is causing this problem. I thought it might be one of the elevators flexing a bit too much with the pressure so I added a carbon fibre rod to both elevators to stiffen it up. This made no discernable difference. When elevator only pulled back around 90% it loops fine.

After that I have now moved the elevator out on the servo but added in end points at 85% to see if that makes any difference. Haven't flown yet to be able to see. Has anybody else had this spiralling issue when pulling back on the elevator fully?

Thanks
Brett