That Formosa flies really nice Semperfi! And, you really greased that landing...perfect! Looks Great too! What did your weight end up being on the Formosa, Semperfi, and which motor are you using exactly?

It seems that my Corsair is going to approach 26-26.5 ounces. It was really tail heavy, and I had to add some weight to the front end to get her to balance out. Must be all the paint, liquid tape, and filler I used mid fuselage, obsessing over a perfect finish in preparation for decal installation, and trying to make her "indestructable" (What folly )

I did bring in the larger motor, the Emax Grand Turbo 2215-20 motor from HURC. I hope that at this weight she'll fly well (KV = 1200, 260 Watt)...Going to be using a 9 x 4E prop, so that should give me around 34 ounces of thrust. If I go to a 10 x 6E prop, I can get up to 40 ounces of thrust out of that motor.

Well, I learned that lesson...Keep them as light at possible, especially the further back you go from CG.

And, Degreen60, really nice job on the Seafire too! I have to get one of those. It's on my list...I am reading a book right now about a WWII pilot that was an American from Texas, joined the Canadian Airforce before the US entered the war, and flew Spitfires over France for England. The main character in the book, a true story, really loved the way the Spitfire flew. His exploits have sparked my interest in getting one. The book is mostly about his being one of the most notorious German Prison Camp escape artists, Great Escape type stuff. But, the first part of the book talks about flying his Spitfire, which was eventually shot down over France.

Speaking of mods, building, decals, etc...I did an experiment yesterday with a roll of vinyl coated adhesive shelf paper, cut to size for the copier. It's so much cheaper than the sticker sheets you buy at Officemax/Office Depot, which are around $6 for only five 8-1/2" x 11" sheets. Anyway, this roll of vinyl shelf paper was only around $2.00 and it was 10' x 12'. So, I figured it was worth a try.

I was skeptical, but it was so cheap I decided to try it anyway. I knew the vinyl wouldn't work well with my ink jet printer...It didn't But, maybe it would work better with a laser printer, which I don't have.

I set everything up last night on the GWS Corsair. All control surfaces are working well, cleaned up the wiring really nicely, attached the wing...just finishing up on the CG now, and tying up some loose ends. She should be ready to maiden pretty soon.

Originally Posted by semperfi1970

Just a vid of the third flight of the Formosa today. I went with a 450 sport motor as the 480 was to heavy. Great flying little plane none the less.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWEjuiuZ87E

Quiz, the exact motor going in your Corsair is what I put in the Formosa. It will more than fly the Corsair as it hauls the Formosa around at 24 ounces minus battery. The motor is very powerful but very light, the Powerup 450 sport has the same power but weights .7 ounces more. A tail heavy plane could use the extra weight of the Powerup motor. The E-Max you chose is more responsive because the can is lighter and the motor picks up rpm's quicker. I maiden the Formosa with a APC 10x5(great prop) but the plane was developing a nasty vibration at mid rpms. The prop was balanced on a magnetic balancer and on the ground had no issues, mid flight it acted up on me. The GWS props seldom need to be balanced and work great so I went with a 1060.

That Corsair of yours quiz will fly fine even though it is heavy. My orange and black Corsair flew with a 480 and a 4s battery in the neighbor hood of 30 ounces. I have put the 450 sport back in it as the power was just to much for school yard flying and my lack of small enough 4s batteries. You will so enjoy your Corsair, it is such a great flying plane. For sport flying and fooling around the Corsair will out fly a pattern plane like the Formosa any day of the week. In my opinion the Corsair is the perfect airframe, flies great over 100mph and flies great at a walking pace, perfection. Now lets get that thing in the air Quiz, it has wings for a reason

Good to know...the battery probably weighs almost 2 ounces. The Corsair is virtually finished, but I still have to install a couple of decals on the sides, so they'll add very slightly to the weight. It weighs-in right now at exactly 25 ounces with battery less the decals, so I should be fine.

I was disturbed to realize that I was having to add quite a bit of weight to the front end of the Corsair, maybe several ounces, in order to balance her out. It's good to know that this particular motor is uncharacteristically light compared to others, which would account for having to add so much weight to the front end. I'm going to an RC club meeting tonight, and I'm planning to have the resident experts check it out before I fly it, just to make sure everything is set up right.

Still waiting for delivery of the decals for the Corsair, so I've been concentrating on building my ME109 EPP Foamy. Turned out great, but the single centralized servo would not fully actuate the ailerons. So, I had to modify it by installing two servos on each wing to actuate the ailerons. But, the end result works really good. So, that's another model that's ready to go into the air.

I love the characteristics of the EPP foam...It seems like it would be super durable. It doesn't look as cool as a quasi-scale model, like the Corsair, but I like it a lot none the less.

Originally Posted by semperfi1970

It will more than fly the Corsair as it hauls the Formosa around at 24 ounces minus battery

Here is a photo showing the addition of two servos, versus a single servo design, which was the intended design of the ME109 EPP Foam model. I cut some holes in the wings, epoxied some popsicle sticks as mounts, then screwed the servos into the popsicle sticks, and attempted to paint them so they would blend in. I don't care for the look, but they do work great, maybe too well!



The servo wires come through the top of the wing, and they extend over to the center fuselage, where they're connected to the receiver. Notice that I used a minature receiver (circled in Yellow below), which fits perfectly in the hole provided for a receiver within the center fuselage. I had some reservations about using the OrangeRX miniature receiver, which uses Molex style connectors, which are the really small connectors that you typically find on the Parkzone style microplanes. I purchased some Molex connectors through HK that have JR style servo connections on one end, and Molex plugs on the other end, so I could attach the servos to the receivers Molex plugs. The receiver seems to be working perfectly. The receiver is nothing fancy, only 4 channels and such, but very, very lite of course. The whole model completely assembled, and ready to fly, only weighs about 14.5 ounces.





The image below shows how the single servo was intended to be installed. I filled the horn slots on the wing with Gorilla Glue, and tried to paint them to obscure the slots that I cut to build it using a single servo. But, since I ended up not using a centralized servo to actuate both wings, I used the cavity for the centralized servo to stuff the wires in place from the dual indpendent aileron servos on each wing. The throws I'm able to get out of the single servos is more than enough. As I said, I tried using a single servo, but only got about 5 degrees of throw, if that. The servos just weren't strong enough to move the very stiff EPP molded hinges. The problem is documented on HobbyKing.com from other pilots that have purchased this model, so it's apparently a relatively common problem. With dual servos I'm getting around 35 degrees of throw, probably more than I need, or want, but I can dial it down in programming.



I've used some servo connector clips to hold the servo wiring connections together, and velcro'ed them to the side wall of the fuselage. I'm hopeful that it will hold, but upon any incidents of impact, they will pull loose rather than ripping up the foam fuselage were they glued in place. I'm not sure this idea will work well, and/or whether the wind will pull them loose in flight.

Quiz, the ME109 looks good. I have never flown a EPP foam plane, they look like a blast.

I'm curious to see how it flies compared to my T28, which I believe is EPO foam. I've heard that the EPP is very durable, but that it's more flexible than EPO. So, maybe when you're in the air, and if your motor is a little "hot" (as in powerful), or the wind's blowing pretty much, there may be more flex than you would otherwise experience with EPO. So, It'll be interesting to see how the flight characteristics differ as a result of the flexibility.

There's a video review of this plane on You Tube by Nitroplanes. Notice around 1:11 he bends the wing, showing how flexible they are compared to EPO.

Tech One RC 4 Ch BF 109 EPP Plane (5 min 44 sec)

I noticed when getting a close up glimpse of the plane (see above), and around 1:15 in the video, that the plane exhibits evidence of being chewed up a little bit under the nose area, probably because they've been belly landing it on hard surfaces.

I have some of those wing skids on order, and I'm waiting for them to come in. I'm going to be using them on the Corsair, the Bixler 2, the Fun Flyer Corsair, and the ME109, all of which are belly landers. But, they're coming from Hong Kong, so it'll be a bit of a wait.

Originally Posted by semperfi1970

Quiz, the ME109 looks good. I have never flown a EPP foam plane, they look like a blast.

Finished my Corsair, and Formosa. Put a 1200 Bell outrunner with a 9-7 prop in the Corsair.I used Krylon Fusion paint. It flys like its on rails.I did not paint the Formosa, just used the stickers. The motor is a Hi-Maxx geared brushless and a 10-7 prop. It is fast and manuverable. These EPO foam models are a little heavier than the older foam GWS planes so you need to put as much weight forward as you can. No landing gear as I have a hay field behind my house so belly flops are gentle.

Jlalonde the planes are looking great, love the blue you chose for the Corsair. The Corsair is an amazing airframe in my opinion. I have flown the two of mine with many motor/battery combos. They fly well with just about anything you can pack in the nose regardless of how heavy it gets. 100mph to a walking pace they just fly great. I enjoy my Formosa but it is kinda boring to fly as it is almost robotic in motion. Most any pattern plane falls into this in my opinion, where you point them they go regardless of orientation of the plane. If the tail moment were to be reduced on the Formosa it would fly more like a 3d aerobat. The Formosa is very hard to flat spin or to get to tumble because of the long tail moment. The Corsair on full throws and a near neutral CG will tumble its butt off just go high as it takes a bit to recover. The Formosa is a great plane, don't get me wrong, it is a pattern plane and does exactly what it was designed to do. In short your planes look great, I'm sure they will fly as good as they look

I think my tiger Corsair has meet its match regarding speed and maneuverability. Had the chance to fly a Multiplex dogfighter yesterday owned by an accomplished flier in my town. What a great flying plane he has on his hands. Looks like the 480 plus and a MAS 10x6 prop needs to go back into the tiger Corsair if I am to keep pace with him. He has more money in his motor than I have in my plane but I believe the little GWS will hold its own with a little help from the 4s battery gods. When I meet up with him in the skies I will report out how the GWS made out. All I had last night to chase him around the sky was the Formosa and the hopped up E-Starter, well to say the least he was lapping me and never went past 1/3 throttle to do it. The Tiger Corsair sure has a fight on its hands being pared with a real dogfighter.

Never cared for the color scheme of the dogfighter series as depicted in their advertising. But, since you mentioned the brand and the model, I did a search to see what I could learn.

I found this video, and at first, I thought maybe your Orange Bengal Tiger GWS Corsair had snuck out for the afternoon to challenge a Yellow Multiplex Dogfighter.

I thought you might enjoy seeing the video Semperfi. These guys created their own color schemes. The Dogfighter looks very interesting...appears to be a great flyer, very manueverable...all-be-it, fast...very, very fast!

Multiplex Dogfighter racing (4 min 42 sec)

Originally Posted by semperfi1970

I think my tiger Corsair has meet its match regarding speed and maneuverability.

Both look great!!!! Nice job!

I've been wondering if I could somehow fit flaps onto my own GWS Corsair...Doesn't seem like there's much room to make it happen though. Anybody tried it?

I had to put so much weight up front it was scary...But, she balances beautifully now. I installed some cone shaped fishing weights pushed into the foam, and taped them down with fiber reinforced tape. I didn't want to permanently anchor them in case I needed to lighten up the nose later. In fact, after weighting the front end, and putting fiber reinforced tape over the weights to hold them from falling forward and out, I wrapped the front of the nose, under the cowl, with fiberglass reinforced tape for strength. Didn't add any weight to speak of, but it sure seems stronger, and the cowl completely covers it. Another on the list of seemingly endless mods that I just couldn't resist doing.


I was able to make a decal for the front cowl...



I'm not sure when the 214 adopted this shield, but I'm sure it was considerably later than the WWII period. But, the 214 is still in existence, so in producing my model I mixed a little of the present with the past.

Originally Posted by jlalonde

Finished my Corsair, and Formosa. Put a 1200 Bell outrunner with a 9-7 prop in the Corsair.I used Krylon Fusion paint. It flys like its on rails.I did not paint the Formosa, just used the stickers. The motor is a Hi-Maxx geared brushless and a 10-7 prop. It is fast and manuverable. These EPO foam models are a little heavier than the older foam GWS planes so you need to put as much weight forward as you can. No landing gear as I have a hay field behind my house so belly flops are gentle.

You see what I'm saying Quiz? The dogfighter when built is insane fast. Back in the day I raced quicky 500 planes with a very hot tuned pipe Fox .50 in a 48" plane. Probably a tad faster but could not bank and yank like that. The Corsair is looking real good Quiz. Here is a pic of the 2nd E-Starter with its new clipped wings. Hoping it becomes a bit more aerobatic because of. I also added a second pair of wing struts just because I could.

Now, after all the work, I have to put the Corsair IN THE AIR, finally!!!! But, you know...maiden flights come with some trepedation, after all that work. But, I'll probalby do it this weekend.

Yeah, the E-Starter seems like a very nice plane, but I wondered whether you might grow impatient with it's standard flight characteristics not being quite challenging enough. I suspected that you might consider it to be a little too docile for the flight characteristics you prefer. With the mods you're making, it seems like you should be able to hop-her-up, and get her to react more acrobatically. Those wing struts should give her a lot of added strength.

Originally Posted by semperfi1970

You see what I'm saying Quiz? The dogfighter when built is insane fast. Back in the day I raced quicky 500 planes with a very hot tuned pipe Fox .50 in a 48" plane. Probably a tad faster but could not bank and yank like that. The Corsair is looking real good Quiz. Here is a pic of the 2nd E-Starter with its new clipped wings. Hoping it becomes a bit more aerobatic because of. I also added a second pair of wing struts just because I could.

Hey Quiz, did you maiden the mighty Corsair? You have that thing built like a tank and ready to tear a hole or two in the sky. As far as becoming bored or impatient with the second E-Starter, well that wont happen. Even if it flies like a trainer no matter what is done to it still flies and is tons of fun. My only beef with the second E-Starter is it refuses to roll with any authority, but then again it is probably the easiest plane to fly out there and I should leave well enough alone. My first blue Corsair just got a new motor and elevator servo as well as a new cowl. I intend to take it out today to see how she does. I'm sure it will fly like all GWS Corsairs do and that would be foam perfection.

GWS E-Starter with clipped wings and neutral CG (3 min 33 sec)

Nice flyer that E-Starter...Seems like you're getting pretty good performance out of her. How would you rate the E-Starter as a trainer?

I made an attempt yesterday to fly both the Corsair and the ME109, but I had problems with the prop savers throwing props. Props were flying off when I would spin up to about 3/4 throttle. Needless to say, I didn't put either of them in the air. I was at the RC club, and a couple of the resident experts were there also, helping try to get them in the air, but no luck.

Upon closer inspection back in the shop, it appears that the prop saver screws were stripped out, and not tightening all the way up. Prior to getting to the bottom of the problem in the shop, the props were coming off left and right, and even after putting LockTite on the prop saver screws. We attempted to fly the ME109 for example, and the prop saver came completely off the shaft of the motor after covering about 20 feet, even after we all believed it was tight.

The other alternative is to fly them with collets style prop adapters, but I didn't have any collet type adapters with me. I would really like to use prop savers if I can get them to work. I can't understand it...both of the prop savers I initially tried were the good ones, the stepped variety, with the three hub steps, the ones from HURC. We tried all the various steps on the prop saver, and various bushing combinations on the props, to eliminate any chance that the torque of the motors were throwing the props. We tried the black bands that came with the prop saver from HURC, including some that I had the flight box, #13's from the plumbing department at Lowes, and a variety of other sizes too.

In the case of the Corsair, I thought perhaps the motor was just too much for the prop saver. But, it was happening on the ME109 too, and it only has a 140 Watt, 1200Kv motor. We messed with it quite a while at the club field, and when we couldn't get the props to stay on, I came back to the shop to figure out what was happening.

That's when I realized that one of the screws was stripped on both of the HURC prop savers. I suspect that the prop savers only appeared to be tight when we were at the club field. It was the same scenario on more than one prop saver, and on different props, GWS and APC. I have several other brands of prop savers too, and I could never get them to stay on. But, the other brands have very short screws, too short to be effectiveluu used with an 9 x 4.5 prop for the Corsair, or an 8 x 4 for the ME109. So, not realizing I had an issue with the screws, I swapped the HURC prop saver screws with the short ones, and used them in the other brands of prop savers I had at the club field. But, after getting back to the shop, I realized that perhaps the screws were ultimately the culprit.

Are you using prop savers on your Corsairs? Any Ideas?

Originally Posted by semperfi1970

Hey Quiz, did you maiden the mighty Corsair? You have that thing built like a tank and ready to tear a hole or two in the sky. As far as becoming bored or impatient with the second E-Starter, well that wont happen. Even if it flies like a trainer no matter what is done to it still flies and is tons of fun. My only beef with the second E-Starter is it refuses to roll with any authority, but then again it is probably the easiest plane to fly out there and I should leave well enough alone. My first blue Corsair just got a new motor and elevator servo as well as a new cowl. I intend to take it out today to see how she does. I'm sure it will fly like all GWS Corsairs do and that would be foam perfection.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTyHHfh81bI