Official FlightLine RC 2000mm B-24D/J Liberator Thread

[Hugh Wiedman]

Mine is not complete yet but I took her out for the maiden flight this morning. I had a wonderful time. It did not require much in the way of trim. Wind was about 5mph.

Great video, you fly it sweet. Your landing wasn't too shabby either. I love flying this bird (I have both olive and silver) and get about 8 minutes on 2-4S 4000's. FL done good with this one. Finally getting around to cover both with the gloss Spar Urethane. Should be ready to fly them again late next week.:Cool:

[WrightBrosRC]

I need to introduce you guys to a good friend of mine. Fred Johnsen at the Youtube AIRAILIMAGES channel. He is a semi retired aircraft historian and fabulous photographer/videographer. His personal website is a vast wealth of aircraft knowledge he has collected through his years working for the USAF as a historian. He is not currently an RC pilot, but he enjoys the hobby a great deal and creates some quite excellent one of a kind videos of RC aircraft events and such. He is my mentor in video editing and likely you will see some of his cinematic elements incorporated into my editing preferences. Anyhow, if you like this video he made of my B24 maiden flight while visiting the other day you should consider checking out all of the video and photo information available on his web site. This video is all his work and seperate from my own video, but the same maiden flight.

[theoldALFER]

Fellow B-24 drivers:
is it me, or does our B-24 have a habit of banking/turning to the right on take off? Both videos showed that tendency (or so it appeared) and the two at our club both bank to the right on take off.
Just woundering if it’s me or the B-24. :Confused::Thinking:

[WrightBrosRC]

Fellow B-24 drivers:
is it me, or does our B-24 have a habit of banking/turning to the right on take off? Both videos showed that tendency (or so it appeared) and the two at our club both bank to the right on take off.
Just woundering if it’s me or the B-24. :Confused::Thinking:

I'm fairly sure the little bit of roll I had on take off was attributed to being out of trim. I haven't noticed any regular problem?

[Hugh Wiedman]

Fellow B-24 drivers:
is it me, or does our B-24 have a habit of banking/turning to the right on take off? Both videos showed that tendency (or so it appeared) and the two at our club both bank to the right on take off.
Just woundering if it’s me or the B-24. :Confused::Thinking:

Neither of my Olive or Silver bank to the right on take off, could it be from a slight cross-wind?

[Hugh Wiedman]

Anyone having any problems with their flap servo's on the B-24's? From virtually day one, one of the flap servos gets stuck in the down position about 1 in 4 flights. After it comes in, I give a little push and it goes back up. I have never been able to get it to stick on the ground, even thought I "recycle" the flaps about 20 times and they work perfect. I always forgot :Silly:which one it was by the time I got it home to replace it, then last week it did it on 1 of the 5 flights I did, and it was the right flap-OK, now I wrote it down. Darned if the very next flight 20 minutes later, the right worked perfect and the left got stuck in the down position. It's not that big a problem, just have to make sure I don't extend the flaps during flight to retrim it, and extend only when I'm getting ready to land. My first thought was that maybe the servo arm was in an "extreme" position on full flaps, but no, its exactly at a right angel (90 degrees) at full extension, giving it the best and easiest possible leverage when fully extended. I'm baffled (more so than my normal insanity). :Thinking: I'm using the 4s 4000mah Admirals and get about 7-8 minutes flying time and still come in with 40% battery power. Can't figure out why they get stuck only when flying.

[boomer108]

I'm fairly sure the little bit of roll I had on take off was attributed to being out of trim. I haven't noticed any regular problem?

I don't know if this could be your problem but when I first started flying I would sometimes experience the same problem. I came to find out that I was inadvertently pulling a little right aileron when I was pulling up elevator. So tightened up the stick tension and haven't had a problem since.

[theoldALFER]

Thanks guys.
Boomer, I’ll “tighten up” my aileron’s tension - good idea. :Cool:

[xviper]

Anyone having any problems with their flap servo's on the B-24's? From virtually day one, one of the flap servos gets stuck in the down position about 1 in 4 flights. After it comes in, I give a little push and it goes back up. I have never been able to get it to stick on the ground, even thought I "recycle" the flaps about 20 times and they work perfect. I always forgot :Silly:which one it was by the time I got it home to replace it, then last week it did it on 1 of the 5 flights I did, and it was the right flap-OK, now I wrote it down. Darned if the very next flight 20 minutes later, the right worked perfect and the left got stuck in the down position. It's not that big a problem, just have to make sure I don't extend the flaps during flight to retrim it, and extend only when I'm getting ready to land. My first thought was that maybe the servo arm was in an "extreme" position on full flaps, but no, its exactly at a right angel (90 degrees) at full extension, giving it the best and easiest possible leverage when fully extended. I'm baffled (more so than my normal insanity). :Thinking: I'm using the 4s 4000mah Admirals and get about 7-8 minutes flying time and still come in with 40% battery power. Can't figure out why they get stuck only when flying.

My flaps on the L-39 does this from time to time and I've narrowed it down to something in the control box that doesn't like a slowed down flap deployment. When I reduce or eliminate the flap activation delay, never a problem again.
I don't know how other feel about this, but I think this is wrong. If your flaps are at full deployment (ie, for landing), the servo arm should be near one end of it's travel. The way you have it, you are not using the broadest span of the servo's travel. You are using less than 1/2 of your flaps servo's travel. On all of my planes with flaps, "0" flaps (ie, flaps even with the wings) sees the servo towards (but not completely) one end of its travel, just as full flaps is near the other end, with take off flaps somewhere in between (and not necessarily at 90 degrees depending on how much take off flaps you like). This may or may not be the cause of your flaps occasional "sticking". I'd start by disconnecting the rods and cycling the flaps to see if you can duplicate the sticking. In that scenario, you can also manually move the flaps to see if there is any impedance to their smooth operation - fix as needed. If the disconnected servo still sticks, then I would suggest that there may be a problem in the control box, perhaps a bad ground or other connection.

[WrightBrosRC]

Anyone having any problems with their flap servo's on the B-24's? From virtually day one, one of the flap servos gets stuck in the down position about 1 in 4 flights. After it comes in, I give a little push and it goes back up. I have never been able to get it to stick on the ground, even thought I "recycle" the flaps about 20 times and they work perfect. I always forgot :Silly:which one it was by the time I got it home to replace it, then last week it did it on 1 of the 5 flights I did, and it was the right flap-OK, now I wrote it down. Darned if the very next flight 20 minutes later, the right worked perfect and the left got stuck in the down position. It's not that big a problem, just have to make sure I don't extend the flaps during flight to retrim it, and extend only when I'm getting ready to land. My first thought was that maybe the servo arm was in an "extreme" position on full flaps, but no, its exactly at a right angel (90 degrees) at full extension, giving it the best and easiest possible leverage when fully extended. I'm baffled (more so than my normal insanity). :Thinking: I'm using the 4s 4000mah Admirals and get about 7-8 minutes flying time and still come in with 40% battery power. Can't figure out why they get stuck only when flying.

Hey there Hugh, I have two thoughts from what you have shared. Both seem to point to the servo as the problem. You said you could not create the problem on the ground via cycling the flaps. Also you said that some pressure on the flap/servo makes it function again. I would recommend more ground testing while placing some simulated wind pressure on the flaps during deployment. My guess (its just a guess, lol) is the feedback loop which maintains proportional control within the servo is having a problem.:Confused: xviper is correct about the possible speed sensitivity issues too. They may be related.

I'm not an expert, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. LOL Good luck with your testing. I'm curious to find out when you nail it down.

[Hugh Wiedman]

My flaps on the L-39 does this from time to time and I've narrowed it down to something in the control box that doesn't like a slowed down flap deployment. When I reduce or eliminate the flap activation delay, never a problem again.
I don't know how other feel about this, but I think this is wrong. If your flaps are at full deployment (ie, for landing), the servo arm should be near one end of it's travel. The way you have it, you are not using the broadest span of the servo's travel. You are using less than 1/2 of your flaps servo's travel. On all of my planes with flaps, "0" flaps (ie, flaps even with the wings) sees the servo towards (but not completely) one end of its travel, just as full flaps is near the other end, with take off flaps somewhere in between (and not necessarily at 90 degrees depending on how much take off flaps you like). This may or may not be the cause of your flaps occasional "sticking". I'd start by disconnecting the rods and cycling the flaps to see if you can duplicate the sticking. In that scenario, you can also manually move the flaps to see if there is any impedance to their smooth operation - fix as needed. If the disconnected servo still sticks, then I would suggest that there may be a problem in the control box, perhaps a bad ground or other connection.

Thanks xviper and WrightbrosRC, those are some great suggestions to get me heading toward a solution. I'll let you know if I find anything. Thank God this forum exists so I can get the help from RC brainiacs like you guys, I really appreciate your help.:Cool:

[WrightBrosRC]

Got some more flight time on the Dragon. Speaking of flight time.. 12 to 15 minutes? Easy enough to get the hours for your rating ;)

[Hugh Wiedman]

Coated both my Silver and Olive B-24's with the water based exterior Gloss Spar Urethane. Love the hard "shell" it gives and especially the shine. The CG on the Silver did not change at all, 76mm, but the CG on the Olive did and I had to add 1 ounce in the tail of all places to get it back to 76mm, why one and not the other, no idea. I checked the CG twice on each plane before and then 3 times after (because of the difference in the one and not the other) but that's what it is. Used the Great Planes CG Balancer and it's always been pretty good for me, so I have no reason to question the results. We'll see for sure next time I fly each one. :Sweating::Thinking:

[WrightBrosRC]

Coated both my Silver and Olive B-24's with the water based exterior Gloss Spar Urethane. Love the hard "shell" it gives and especially the shine. The CG on the Silver did not change at all, 76mm, but the CG on the Olive did and I had to add 1 ounce in the tail of all places to get it back to 76mm, why one and not the other, no idea. I checked the CG twice on each plane before and then 3 times after (because of the difference in the one and not the other) but that's what it is. Used the Great Planes CG Balancer and it's always been pretty good for me, so I have no reason to question the results. We'll see for sure next time I fly each one. :Sweating::Thinking:

You have a nice pair! :Cool: Beautiful work Hugh!

[Hugh Wiedman]

Finally got around to looking at the April edition of Model Aviation and went to the table of contents page and there was a picture of my daughter holding one of my B-24's. At first, I thought what the hell, where did they get that, then I remembered I submitted a short article and pictures for the District News way back last May when our club held our annual Warbirds festival. Sure enough, went to that page and there was my "article" with other pictures. Another club member who has had his articles published and who the editor had asked him for more articles submitted a great write-up with photos, but they never published it. I submitted mine just for a short District article and told them to watch out for the real article, never thinking they would publish mine. My daughter got a big kick out of it, but I didn't have the heart to tell her that I don't think many people actually read this publication any more.LOL

[Hardway]

I do, and I saw the article when it came out!!! Told my wife, HEY LOOK, I know that guy (from here at least) …… :Cool::Cool::Cool:

[Hardway]

Happy Easter Hugh!!! ;)

[Hugh Wiedman]

Wow, thanks, I'll let my daughter know she's almost famous. Happy Easter to you and all the Squawkers as well.

[MikeT]

I also saw it in MA. Congratulations.

Mike

[theoldALFER]

Me, too :Cool: