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

[redbarn]

If you don't have a balance stand of some sort, you can certainly get it close enough to fly it by putting everything in and on the plane that it flies with, retract the gear and hold the plane inverted on your fingertips placed 100 mm back from the leading edge like the manual shows. It should sit atop your fingertips nice and level. Be careful about using too little of the tips of your fingers though, you can leave a couple of dents in the wing.

[themudduck]

The gurus have said it flies great with a 5000 all the way forward, so I am just going to try it. No finger-balancing. I trust the MRC gods.
(I expect that flight-testing will show its a bit nose-heavy. We will see).

Anyway - messing around this evening, I took the cowl off and repainted the "cobs" with gunmetal (mine had a little bit of blue overspray) and then I painted the front of the fuselage (the part that sits behind the fake motor) flat black. I think it looks pretty good. I like the contrast.

[Md_cobra]

Hi guys, I got the Corsair all together this week and did final balancing last night along with balancing the prop. I’m using a China hobby line 6s 5000mah 40c battery. I added one weight and I got a good CG.
Made it out to the field late this afternoon. Had a nice breeze straight down the runway. Double checked all controls, lined it up and advanced the throttle, a little rudder action and she was off. Little elevator trim and even less aileron trim and she was good. Did I a few passes then tried a roll. Was a little slow so I flipped my DR switch to full aileron and it rolls nice! With half flaps I did a stall test , had to let it slow way down before I could add elevator but I did full and only the nose dropped. Was a really nice stall. I then did a full flap and it dropped the port wing and pointed the nose straight down. Easy recovery and flew out of it. Next I set up for a landing. Full flaps and lined it up. Kept a little power on till I was over the runway and then brought it all the way down as it touched down. Was such a soft landing you didn’t really hear it. I did about a 5 min flight and had 50% battery left. I had a second battery and so I flew it 8 min but I haven’t checked the remaining battery level. This is a great flying Warbird. Landings are super simple and very stable. For me the vertical performance seemed to be lacking. But over all happy with it. Now I need to decide on a scheme for it. Also I checked the balance in the air the same way I do my aerobatic planes, I pull up into a 45 and roll it inverted. If it pulls toward the canopy, nose heavy landing gear it’s tail heavy. It pulled toward the canopy so with my CG set at 100mm as stated in the manual I’d say it’s slightly nose heavy. I like it tho and will probably not change a thing.
Sorry for the novel but I wanted to share my maiden flight!!
MD.

[DCORSAIR]

Hi guys, I got the Corsair all together this week and did final balancing last night along with balancing the prop. I’m using a China hobby line 6s 5000mah 40c battery. I added one weight and I got a good CG.
Made it out to the field late this afternoon. Had a nice breeze straight down the runway. Double checked all controls, lined it up and advanced the throttle, a little rudder action and she was off. Little elevator trim and even less aileron trim and she was good. Did I a few passes then tried a roll. Was a little slow so I flipped my DR switch to full aileron and it rolls nice! With half flaps I did a stall test , had to let it slow way down before I could add elevator but I did full and only the nose dropped. Was a really nice stall. I then did a full flap and it dropped the port wing and pointed the nose straight down. Easy recovery and flew out of it. Next I set up for a landing. Full flaps and lined it up. Kept a little power on till I was over the runway and then brought it all the way down as it touched down. Was such a soft landing you didn’t really hear it. I did about a 5 min flight and had 50% battery left. I had a second battery and so I flew it 8 min but I haven’t checked the remaining battery level. This is a great flying Warbird. Landings are super simple and very stable. For me the vertical performance seemed to be lacking. But over all happy with it. Now I need to decide on a scheme for it. Also I checked the balance in the air the same way I do my aerobatic planes, I pull up into a 45 and roll it inverted. If it pulls toward the canopy, nose heavy landing gear it’s tail heavy. It pulled toward the canopy so with my CG set at 100mm as stated in the manual I’d say it’s slightly nose heavy. I like it tho and will probably not change a thing.
Sorry for the novel but I wanted to share my maiden flight!!
MD.

Good job, sounds like you had a nice flight.:Cool:

[theoldALFER]

SCALE POLICE ALERT!!!

Well here I go again...

As some of us “Birdcage” types know, the F4U-1’s landing light is NOT located in the LE of the Port wing, but on the outer bottom of the Port wing (Cessna 140 and 170 come to this old pilot’s memory) and would swing down when activated.

On the early versions, the light was on the underside of the port wing near the wingtip. Starting with the -4 (I think that's when the change-over occurred), the landing light was moved to the leading edge of the port wing, just inboard of the wing fold.

There's a little square window there, probably about 3" - 4"; on the starboard wing the gun camera occupies a similar location.

According to Detail and Scale the landing light was moved from the under wing to the leading edge location during production of the later F4U-1a's.

So: To leave it where it is (yeah it’s neat when it comes on - cool factor).
Remove it, be scale (Scale Police!!!)
Remove it and figure out how to make one work where it should be.

Ah, the fun an many dilemmas of RC Semi Scale Foamies.

I know what I’m doin’...


:corsair

[Ole-Timer]

Indeed so, the Grimes landing light. They take about 5 seconds for the light to deploy. I rebuilt the unit on our Cessna 140. It’s a good thing youngsters with perfect vision were flying the Corsairs as those old sealed beam lights were pitiful in lumen power compared to today’s lighting technology.

[theoldALFER]

OT,

Are you anyway near Beaver Falls? I remember “visiting” there back in the day because it’s the home of Joe Willie Namath. Does it still have a singl traffic signal (flashing as I remember)?

Ever fly that 140 up to the Albany NY area? I flew out of there in the 70s & 80s. N4214V

[Mr D]

My Mr RC Sound system that is aboard my Corsair does have the whistle built in to the P&W sound bite and it does work well ! Does it in the dive but as based on a pitch sensitive gyro unfortunately also does on the climb.

Where did you mount your speaker(s) and sound card?

[Ole-Timer]

OT,

Are you anyway near Beaver Falls? I remember “visiting” there back in the day because it’s the home of Joe Willie Namath. Does it still have a singl traffic signal (flashing as I remember)?

Ever fly that 140 up to the Albany NY area? I flew out of there in the 70s & 80s. N4214V

Beaver Falls is just over a stones throw across the river. It’s actually a fair sized town with a dozen lights on the Main Street. At least some of the Namath family is still in the area.
I thought I’d made it up to Albany but it was actually Syracuse, was in the jump seat of a KC-135E, monitering a fuel quantity issue while the crew was doing transitions. We then went up on track and refueled an F-117 that day.
Most of my Cessna flying was local, primarily out of KBVI Beaver Falls. I earned my private there back in ‘85.

[theoldALFER]

Well OT, Thanks For Your Service!
If you’re ever down in sunny southwest Florida, let me know and we can go out to R/Seahawk Park and fly a few laps.
TOA
Capt USACE RVN 70-71

[Ole-Timer]

Awesome Alfer! Thank you for your service!

[Ole-Timer]

Gun ports on the Corsair have been bothering me. I was simply looking for any way possible to make them look more rounded and not just malformed holes in the leading edges. Since the actual guns were buried way back in the wing and fired through long blast tubes, something had to give. I stock all sorts of odds and ends with that sometimes taking a bit to remember where I stashed something.
I decided the only thing I had on hand even remotely close to a gun port were brass grommets for tarps. They indeed fit the slightly oversized stock holes very well.

I grabbed a piece of scrap wood off the drill press and using the belt sander and dremel, form fitted the wood as a form to the leading edge radius.

On a stout surface, place the grommet into the leading edge form, using a slightly larger piece of tubing over that, pound the grommet down into the form with a small hammer to attain the basic shape.

A small crescent wrench will fine tune any edge to fit perfectly.


Tweek each grommet to fit perfectly. I just hand painted each one for now. You can also reduce the size of the grommet’s outer diameter by sanding it down if you want a crazy scale look!

‘Or just install them as is...


Enjoy!

[Hardway]

Nice OT! You win a cookie! :Cool: Really a very good idea...

[Grover54]

My Mr RC Sound system that is aboard my Corsair does have the whistle built in to the P&W sound bite and it does work well ! Does it in the dive but as based on a pitch sensitive gyro unfortunately also does on the climb.

This has always interested me even though my questions get a lot of cat calls from the Nitro and Gas guys at my club's field. The Mr. RC Sound demo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oybj6rBbiZU isn't near as good as heard in real time. Check out the Corsair sound at 5:48. The demo installed the speaker exposed outward on the under carriage but I don't like that position, too much modification required and the speaker is exposure to the elements. Other demos show trimming a little foam out of the Port and Starboard part of the battery compartment and CA-ing it in speaker outward. This provides a little muffle to the speaker and the sound is smoother and not so mechanical or stark but still loud enough to turn heads. LOL IMHO, the only thing I don't care for are the guns and canon sounds which turns this into more of a toy. There are a lot of different sound systems out there but Mr.RC seems to be the most popular. Good Flying - Grover54

[Grover54]

OT! - This looks absolutely Awesome! Much better finish to the hole. Love your thoughtful engineering approach so you ARE a steely eyed missile man for sure! LOL:Cool: Thanks for sharing.

[Grover54]

I'm sure many of you have seen these F4U Corsair Training Films but it never ceases to amaze me what these pilots had to learn. Not that pilots today aren't pilots but IMHO - flying back then was much more complex than it is today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J0BYq3yevs

Enjoy!

[Ole-Timer]

OT! - This looks absolutely Awesome! Much better finish to the hole. Love your thoughtful engineering approach so you ARE a steely eyed missile man for sure! LOL:Cool: Thanks for sharing.

Thirty years in military aviation as a structural mechanic and systems technician, there ain’t no such thing as 3D printing. You fabricate everything from scratch.
Working stateside was a simple pleasure, working from forward operating locations at X Y Z where you had none of the standard large tools of the trade would make or break your abilities.
A ground handling mishap punched a large hole in this tankers nose, compound curve ... Just awful... My friend John, who was also an ex Navy structural mechanic, had nothing but an aircraft tow bar, scrap wood, and a hammer to create the compound curved patches while I went everywhere to source fasteners. Had Ole Taz done and flying in two days...

[brk6188]

Neat gun ports. Bet today's FAA would love that airplane "patch" !

A couple of pics of my sound system install. Plenty of room to put in other positions but very awkward to get to, to do any foam removal etc

[Ole-Timer]

Not sure what today’s FAA is doing...? Sadly, they weren’t there for us then as the ground troops in Afghanistan that needed the air support couldn’t wait.
There has always been and always will be technical data and specific criteria to follow during any aircraft maintenance.
A patch of this magnitude required Boeing approval, and had to be followed to the letter of their wishes and tech data.
We were the last unit that I know of doing large “authorized” field repairs in theater and at home stateside.
Taz flew with this patch until it was retired.

[Elbee]

Thirty years in military aviation as a structural mechanic and systems technician, there ain’t no such thing as 3D printing. You fabricate everything from scratch [and John] had nothing but an aircraft tow bar, scrap wood, and a hammer to create the compound curved patches while I went everywhere to source fasteners. Had Ole Taz done and flying in two days...

O-T, Ya do with ya got, right? Really lovin' your Corsair Gun Port mod, Sir. I'll need to print me some. LOL Love ya, Man. Best, LB