Official FlightLine F4U-1A Corsair 1600mm (63") Wingspan

[xviper]

Thanks viper. They are currently in stock at amazon with prime shipping if that helps you. https://smile.amazon.com/Lemon-RX-Co...s%2C163&sr=8-3

Also: Doesn't the corsair already have the spot set up for the receiver? I downloaded the manual but it doesn't say anything about how/where to mount the receiver.

Thanks for the link. I'm not desperate yet. I've still got a couple of Lemon RXs and a couple of HobbyEagle gyros.

OK, I lied. I have two Corsairs - an FMS 1700mm and the Flightline. The FMS has no gyro while the FL has a HobbyEagle. Comparing the two, one with gyro and one without, I'd say they both fly about the same. So in fact, neither one really needs a gyro. I had a few laying around, so I put one in the Bubbletop just for the heck of it.

Here's a picture of my interior compartment. As you can see, the Lemon RX is stuck to the floor beside the blue box and I built a small wooden shelf for the HobbyEagle. For you, you could just as easily stick it where I've got my Lemon on a double sided sticky foam pad and it'll work just fine. Make sure the antennas are at 90 degrees to each other. My Lemon has a satellite antenna.

[evensen007]

Thanks for the link. I'm not desperate yet. I've still got a couple of Lemon RXs and a couple of HobbyEagle gyros.

OK, I lied. I have two Corsairs - an FMS 1700mm and the Flightline. The FMS has no gyro while the FL has a HobbyEagle. Comparing the two, one with gyro and one without, I'd say they both fly about the same. So in fact, neither one really needs a gyro. I had a few laying around, so I put one in the Bubbletop just for the heck of it.

Here's a picture of my interior compartment. As you can see, the Lemon RX is stuck to the floor beside the blue box and I built a small wooden shelf for the HobbyEagle. For you, you could just as easily stick it where I've got my Lemon on a double sided sticky foam pad and it'll work just fine. Make sure the antennas are at 90 degrees to each other. My Lemon has a satellite antenna.

hah, no worries! One can never have enough warbirds. Looks simple enough. I watched some setup videos on the lemon and it's a bit complicated. I also saw some of your old posts where you had some issues with the way the telemetry model was soldered and caused engine cut-offs, so I'll steer clear of that. I don't see a WHOLE lot of use in the tele data anyhow.

[xviper]

hah, no worries! One can never have enough warbirds. Looks simple enough. I watched some setup videos on the lemon and it's a bit complicated. I also saw some of your old posts where you had some issues with the way the telemetry model was soldered and caused engine cut-offs, so I'll steer clear of that. I don't see a WHOLE lot of use in the tele data anyhow.

It's been a while since I had those problems. I should mention that it was only the voltage module that was troublesome. It's that little thing that plugs in between the battery and ESC that was defective. I went through about 6 of them and I recall that only one ever worked consistently. The other 5 worked intermittently, with a couple of them dropping dead entirely, resulting in no power transfer from the battery. I was lucky to lose only one plane as a result. The other one that failed, I had an external BEC and that made it possible to dead stick it. I have never used those modules since. The rest of the telemetry still worked and I find them quite useful for my sailplanes where knowing the altitude is really nice.
Other than the two that's stuck in the Twilight Zone of the postal service, I currently use another 2 of those stab PLUS RXs. Although they initially appear to be "complicated", once you read the instructions carefully, all be comes clear. The most complicated part is adjusting and finalizing the gain for gyro response. Setting the wing type and direction of gyro response is easy to forget but just take note of those points in the instructions. I don't use their "fancy" features like failsafe or recovery modes. I just want it for the stabilizer. You can download the proper instructions (several pages long, ~10 pages) from the RC Castle webpage for that product. I also find the videos a bit lacking and I think some of those are old and outdated. The PLUS is their latest and newest product and most of those videos go back before it came out.

[seaviper]

Not sure about any adjustments. I will probably play around with a little expo if needed. That was only flight 4 so I still have to learn the bird.

On the maiden, I trim her out first then start shooting approaches. On flight two, I verify trim adjustments and perform some maneuvers, then more approaches. I also make sure to check everything in between those flights just in case there is something loose or hot. I am really close to the factory spec for CG. But I am using a heavier battery than the Admiral 5000, so I had to put in just a smidge of up elevator. On my radio it's 10% up. But my radio goes from -100 to +100. I think that equates to about 5%. I really prefer my planes to have zero trim in the radio. But in this case I will leave it.

Quality time on the bench equals happy test flights. But I still overlooked an aileron that was off by one turn of the link. Another thing I did was to put my tail wheel steering on a separate channel. I programmed it to stop following the rudder when retracted. And I can easily trim the tail wheel steering from the radio if need be.

Two things I like most about her is the ground handling and the sound. I am very happy with the Corsair and look forward to flying her a bit more.

[seaviper]

Broke out the air brush. Now she's customized

[djmoose]

Wanted to share a nice video of my flying my Birdcage. No Gyro. (there was also no wind!)

[Aros]

Beautiful! Nice greaser too! And welcome to Hobby Squawk djmoose !

[seaviper]

Nice landing!

[KC8REH]

Very Nice Landing!

[f4u ausie]

Got my new wings very well boxedthanx to a warehouse person at Motion. Now just need to match up the weathering::::: easy peasy!!!! Have changed from mode 1. To mode. 2. Bit nervous will fly wako 4 a while on mode 2. Color match!! From factory is. Really good

[f4u ausie]

[themudduck]

I've had this plane for a couple of years and 've been really struggling to land this plane correctly. I have replaced the retracts about 6 times (getting pretty good at it) but its so frustrating. Its a great model and flies so well, but I keep bouncing it. The retracts are mounted solidly and if you land too hard, you can split the plastic case or bend the jack screw. 2 weeks ago I collapsed one gear and stripped the gears on the outboard flap servo as well. Broken case, bent jack screw, new flap servo. It seems like each time I fly it its "here we go again". Today I received an order from MRC with two more retract units....

As most of you already know, from advice in this forum, the Corsair needs to be flown all the way down to a 2-point landing, holding some throttle (as opposed to gliding it in with the throttle cut and trying to make a 3-pointer). And you do need to use flaps (this is a heavy plane). I found that takeoff flaps aren't really needed (it makes the plane take off too quickly) and using the flaps doesn't really change the flight trim very much. Full flaps mainly act like brakes.

That "landing under power" technique has definitely helped but I was still having problems. At the last moment before touchdown I end up over-controlling the elevator and can't seem to get it settled down. Touchdown, bounce up, blam! A slightly bad landing will wreck the retract every time. I know it was my thumbs, not the plane's fault, but I couldn't seem to get it sorted out until today. I've finally got the solution.

I was using about 20% expo on the ailerons and 30% on the elevator. I increased the expo on the elevator to 35% and decreased the elevator throw some more (from 60% to 55%) and that helped a bit, but that was not what solved the problem. When I come in, the model still seemed too touchy and wanted to balloon at touchdown, and still wanted to bounce. So what I did was change the elevator trim with the flaps. The trim is neutral for takeoff flaps, but I tried using some "down" trim with full flaps. This took some experimenting in increments, and after about 6 attempts I found that I have about 2-3 mm of down elevator with full flaps. (less than the width of the TE of the elevator) That's all it took. Now when I come in to land with full flaps, I drive it in with 25-30% throttle and the model comes in nice and easy with a slightly nose-down attitude and when it touches down, it doesn't bounce back into the air. It just touches down normally and behaves perfectly - then I cut the power and it rolls out. I had such a good time today, it was so much easier and less stressful not having to fight it.

I like landing using full flaps with this plane, just like the real one. It does require some power to maintain flying speed on the final approach, which is completely normal with this much flap.
My club's runway is rolled Geotex fabric. Full flaps help it to slow down nicely. (I also fly from grass, which slows it down like having brakes)
I took this pic just to show how much flap I have - and this was AFTER the last flight of the day - first time in months that I didn't break one of the retracts.

Other info in case you're curious - I am using a RT 6250 battery, placed all the way forward, no extra nose weight. Its a FMS 4-bladed prop. It has a MrRC Sound system. It flies beautifully, exactly as it should. And now it lands that way as well!
I'm not saying this will fix it for everyone, but it definitely worked for me. Its just a really small adjustment... that solved my problem.

[xviper]

"Needing" full flaps for landing is a matter of personal technique and isn't really necessary. It just looks neat. Start practicing touch N goes with NO flaps till you get real good and smooth at it. Then do it with 1/2 flaps till you figure out just what kind of approach speed and throttle you need to bring it to the ground. Once you get good at that, then try full flaps. You need to learn just how much throttle to carry for this plane all the way down to the ground as you increase the flap deflection. My best landings started with NO flaps. Now I can land this thing with any deflection of flaps since I've gotten used to what the plane needs to look like as it comes down with different flap settings. Same goes for all my planes, prop or jets.

[f4u ausie]

I tip stalled mine turning to final on full flaps,,,,. But I've noticed at times ,on mode 1. It's not hard by mistake to pull throttle back ,,,not what u need with full flaps. I find half flaps good.... Been driving it out on the street to get used to it.. changing to mode 2. Have not seen anybody on u tube on mode 1 new wings on ready to go. Waco on mode 2 first. .... I. 3 point mine. No throttle last 50 yards. Small flare last second. (No more broken gear). I only have maybe10 mm elevator and on inside hole on the servo ,,, can't wait to get my baby back in the air. Cheers all

[Hugh Wiedman]

I've found that if I do my final and glide slope with full flaps and 40% throttle all the way to 6" off the ground, then reduce it to only 35% & 28% throttle and let it settle on the mains , it gives me a nice smooth 2 point landing. Like themudduck , the first 20 flights or so I crushed a retract 50% of the time (replaced at least 6-8 of them and a few gear doors and I still have a ton of replacements just in case) as I came in too slow or tried to do a 3 pointer. After I worked with some of the guys with large scale gas warbirds, I realized I needed more throttle and 2 pointers only. Since I went to the 40% throttle rule (and I have my timer set to let me know when I hit 40% on the throttle), I haven't had to replace a single retract in maybe 40 flights. I also tend to use more expo than most and on the elevator high rates at 100% I'm using 40% expo to keep the pitch on landing from being too sensitive for me. But then there is a hundred ways to "skin a cat", so what ever works for you is the ticket.

[f4u ausie]

I think I got in the 3 point thing cause of longer grass it seems to catch the grass. The struts r more raked if u 3 point ,,,and yep. Never seen a big gasser 3 point. Lastly. 2 pointers look way cooler.

[themudduck]

I've found that if I do my final and glide slope with full flaps and 40% throttle all the way to 6" off the ground, then reduce it to only 35% & 28% throttle and let it settle on the mains , it gives me a nice smooth 2 point landing. Like themudduck , the first 20 flights or so I crushed a retract 50% of the time (replaced at least 6-8 of them and a few gear doors and I still have a ton of replacements just in case) as I came in too slow or tried to do a 3 pointer. After I worked with some of the guys with large scale gas warbirds, I realized I needed more throttle and 2 pointers only. Since I went to the 40% throttle rule (and I have my timer set to let me know when I hit 40% on the throttle), I haven't had to replace a single retract in maybe 40 flights. I also tend to use more expo than most and on the elevator high rates at 100% I'm using 40% expo to keep the pitch on landing from being too sensitive for me. But then there is a hundred ways to "skin a cat", so what ever works for you is the ticket.

Hugh, exactly the same as my experience. It feels so good to do it t correctly now. And XViper, that's truly good advice for the inexperienced, a good method is to work up to it.
And yes you're correct that our models don't actually require flaps for landing, but in my mind I have to do it because I love the thrill of flying these scale warbirds as close as possible to the real thing! Its the factor. And I've never seen a real Corsair land without flaps. So yeah, I like using them just because I want to, but different planes require different techniques to make them perform correctly. My understanding is that the real ones were pretty hard to tame as well! Yeee hah!

[Hugh Wiedman]

My last 3 landings, darn, and here I thought I had it licked! So deep 6 everything I said about landing this bird. Back to the drawing board.

[xviper]

YIKES! Quick! Get the FoamTac.

[paladin]

I WENT ON THAT RIDE AT DISNEY