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

[Elbee]

Hey Elbee, I turned off my flash!!! ;):Cool:LOL

Still looks like metal. Bravo Zulu. did you get the Instrument cluster from Callie or are making those? LB

[Cws]

Thank you mr. Smoothie for some useful information on what you're finding on test flying your Corsair, this is the kind of information we need.

[Aros]

Nice looking panel there Hardway! Looks great. Love the distressed effect.

[themudduck]

Sounds nice. I have two TT-25's mounted on the sides opp each other. I posted pics somewhere !. Mine is quite adequate in flight, easily overcomes any prop noise. I had the "whistle" energized on the maiden but had the Aspire board facing wrong way and it whistled in climb, dive and turn --- I should have read the manual ! Have not turned it around yet. Sounds like you got your sound sequence timed well with the actual Tx throttle stick position. Luck or did you have to play around a bit ?

Still having trouble keeping this thing from taking off before I am ready, she really needs some piloting to run her on the mains before lift off. Haven't seen a video yet of a "scale" take off -- of this model --- on tarmac.

I can hardly wait - I will endeavor to do a realistic takeoff as soon as I get the chance! Spring is a ways off yet - and the weekends have been either snowing or raining, or both!
I energized the sound system after I had already powered up, with the throttle closed, and it calibrated itself. No fooling around needed.

Elbee - I didn't try full throttle, I have too many flyable things in my workshop!! :Scared:

[Grover54]

I installed the MrRCSound "Aspire" sound system, with the board and transducer mounted under the battery hatch. Here's a quick video of it being tested inside. (with the 4-bladed FMS prop from my previous post)

:)

The sound is very good in person (and quite loud). The cell phone mic doesn't really do it justice, but you'll get the idea.

https://youtu.be/KfUi047VUN0

SWEEEEEEET!

[Hugh Wiedman]

I can hardly wait - I will endeavor to do a realistic takeoff as soon as I get the chance! Spring is a ways off yet - and the weekends have been either snowing or raining, or both!
I energized the sound system after I had already powered up, with the throttle closed, and it calibrated itself. No fooling around needed.

Elbee - I didn't try full throttle, I have too many flyable things in my workshop!! :Scared:

I played around with the Sound system start up because I use my throttle cut switch a lot. I like the start up to begin just as the prop barely turns when I put the throttle cut switch to on, but don't want to shut the sound down when I reduce the throttle to O (as I may do in the air, or on the runway before take-off and landing). I want it to stay on until I'm ready for the sound to shut down, even with the throttle at 0. The sound then does not shut off till I hit the throttle cut switch, so in essence, the start-up and shut down is keyed off the throttle cut switch.

In order to accomplish that, I need to have the throttle at 0, throttle trim at 0 and plug in the battery (not the sound card though), this is to make sure the ESC is calibrated correctly. Then I reduce the throttle trim to something like -50 to -66 (different in each of my 8 planes I have the system in). Then I plug in the sound card. Next I turn the throttle cut switch off. At this point, if the sound system comes on, you need to reduce the throttle cut value amount to coincide with the reduce trim so the sound card doesn't "see" any throttle movement when switch is activated. Then, with the throttle cut, I increase the throttle trim back to a point that the prop just starts turning (anywhere between +6 & +24 depending on the plane and ESC calibration).

The result is that while the prop is not moving, no sound, but as soon as you turn the throttle cut switch to on and the prop just barely starts turning, the sound comes on. Your throttle stick is still at 0 so the sound system won't shut down in the air or on the runway when landing or taking off when you reduce the throttle to 0. As I'm taxing, I may reduce the throttle trim a couple clicks so when landing, it doesn't keep moving in the event of a nose over, but haven't done that in a while. Then as you taxi back to the pit area, you won't inadvertently shut the sound system down and re-cycle on you until you want to by switching the throttle cut to off. You can also give it a little "gas" just before shutting the switch off so the prop continues to wind down to off as the sound system goes through it's shutdown sounds.

Sounds confusing, but it's not. Took me hours of trial and error in the settings to get this to work.:Thinking:

[Ole-Timer]

F4U-1 Birdcage
Factory fresh and in Theater touch up painting.
Is it just me or exactly what am I seeing here...?

We can all plainly see the lighter areas on wings where cloth was used on the Corsair. Visible before the aircraft even sees the light of day.



Between color photo’s, colorized photo’s, and black n white photo’s there are many dark areas on worn Corsairs in theater.
Is it just me or am I seeing wide spread use of dark blue paint being applied on Intermediate Blue upper surfaces being mistaken as dirt and grime by some...?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OI14bhHzSJo

I’m getting ready for the paint booth and do not plan to use too much in the way of dirt on my bird. Tropic thunderstorms and bleaching sun. I think it’s all about subtle fades and dark blue oversprayed areas depending on the particular choice of livery.

But, this could just be my interpretation and it’s south of the equator :Confused:

[Aros]

Based on some of those photos it might be prudent to take chalk, break it up into a fine dust and rub it all over your model. THAT will give it a level of realism that most don't attempt. :Cool:

[xviper]

As I'm taxing, I may reduce the throttle trim a couple clicks so when landing, it doesn't keep moving in the event of a nose over, but haven't done that in a while.

For an electric plane, the throttle trim on the face of the TX should be clicked to as low as it will go. The default throttle trim in the middle is for gas planes where the engine has to idle. Electrics don't idle. Lower it to the bottom and then do the throttle calibration as all electrics should have done as the first thing after binding. Then you won't have this situation. Your throttle should now be completely off when the stick is at its lowest position and the throttle should begin within 1 to 2 clicks of movement - as it should be.
The sound system should then follow naturally without all the messing about.

[RCAV8R]

My theory is that the differences have to do with sun, so I am planning on doing aggressive pre-shading with navy blue, followed by a light dusting of blue-gray. Then follow that with lighter shades of almost white to give the 3-D effect. I'm also going to pre-shade with a heavily thinned navy, dripped down from the panel lines and on the wings to give the effect of fuel leaks. Those shades from fuel don't seem to have bleached the paint as much as stained it darker (for some reason). Later Corsairs have a bleached out color where the leaks were, but these earlier birdcage's not so much.

Also, for those real history buffs, I've been tracking down photos of Ken Walsh's Lucky 13. I noticed in the corner of the familiar photo we see, that they mentioned the vertical stab had been pained in the light gray (you can barely see the color difference in the edge of the photo). And, the photo clearly shows the light gray underside color coming up almost halfway on the fuse. I tracked down this rendering showing both, and as unusual as it is, That is what I think I'll do. After all, it's those unique one off's that make the plane so special! Rob

[Ole-Timer]

I thought I had my livery all worked out with several pictures available.
Right
Turns out since I’m scrutinizing them for details, what i’m really looking at were two different airframes with the same name.
Silly me.
The first Birdcage Gus’s Gopher with the Gopher nose art and mostly stock paint was shot down sometime in August over Bougainville, 1st Lt Thomas survived and was rescued.
That same Plane Captain from VMF-213 got busy on a replacement bird asap.
The second Birdcage Gus’s Gopher had the name only on each side of the cowl. It must have been built up from wrecked parts and sported a completely new three color paint scheme applied in theater.

Also, for those of you who are not in the know.
Airplanes do not belong to pilots. Pilots may have their names on them but they belong to the assigned Plane Captain in the Navy/ Marines or Crew Chief in the Air Force.
Pilots mearly borrow them and most times do terrible things to them ! ;)
Once their broken their handed back to the knuckle dragging dim whits to fix. :Silly:

[Ole-Timer]

My theory is that the differences have to do with sun, so I am planning on doing aggressive pre-shading with navy blue, followed by a light dusting of blue-gray. Then follow that with lighter shades of almost white to give the 3-D effect. I'm also going to pre-shade with a heavily thinned navy, dripped down from the panel lines and on the wings to give the effect of fuel leaks. Those shades from fuel don't seem to have bleached the paint as much as stained it darker (for some reason). Later Corsairs have a bleached out color where the leaks were, but these earlier birdcage's not so much.

Also, for those real history buffs, I've been tracking down photos of Ken Walsh's Lucky 13. I noticed in the corner of the familiar photo we see, that they mentioned the vertical stab had been pained in the light gray (you can barely see the color difference in the edge of the photo). And, the photo clearly shows the light gray underside color coming up almost halfway on the fuse. I tracked down this rendering showing both, and as unusual as it is, That is what I think I'll do. After all, it's those unique one off's that make the plane so special! Rob

I agree with the light fin and rudder, also from the photo’s I’d say the entire turtle back was repainted in dark blue, parts of the cowl, and several other spots. I’m seeing a lot of repaint in dark blue going on there. The sun will cause widespread bleaching on upper surfaces but not the dramatic differences present in the pictures. That’s repair and repaint from battle damage and there have been quite a few repairs done to #13 for sure. I’d say she was regularly in the thick of it! The fuel spill on this port side did bleach the paint.

[MrSmoothie]

With respect to birdcage color schemes -- I did a lot of research on this, as there are some really cool color profiles out there that show the gray extending halfway up the fuselage sides and also the vertical stabilizer and rudder repainted in gray. I was all set to do one of these.

Then I stumbled across a Corsair color scheme thread on the WWII Aircraft website and was able to make contact with Dana Bell, noted author and expert on WWII color schemes -- he is the author of "Aircraft Pictorial, No. 7: F4U-1 Corsair Vol.1" (all Birdcage).

Dana strikes me as somebody who is careful to not speak in absolutes as he knows full well that "more documentation" may turn up in the future. But his strong opinion is that these "more gray/gray rudder" schemes did not exist -- but rather, assumptions were made, and nice color profiles created, which then became popular with plastic scale modelers looking for "something different" (like me). His opinion, which I'm paraphrasing, is that most of these planes were repainted in the new multi-blue scheme, and that the "gray rudder" is actually the mid-blue. There are other subtle clues which led him to this opinion.

I'd also point out that some of the WWII "color photos" posted earlier are actually "colorized" black and white photos, so not really useful as documentation.

Sorry for all the scale police stuff, but I know at least a few of you care. As I pointed out earlier, my main goal was to try and find a legitimate example of a birdcage corsair where the original "barless" stars (4 positions on wings plus 2 on fuselage) had white bars added in the field during 1943. "No. 570" may or may not have been one -- I decided to trust one of artists Mark Syling's profiles in this respect (note the star/bars shown under the port wing) -- try as I could, I could not find any photos of this aircraft. Another one I had considered was "MY BONNIE" (no. 7) -- which is sometimes shown with 4 stars (with added bars) in plastic model decal sets -- yet in actual photos, only has two stars (with bars) in the usual locations. Just to show that there really were birdcage Corsairs with the four-position stars with added bars, I'll attach a photo. I probably should have just done one of those -- were these ever beat-up Corsairs!

Another "scale police" bit of info -- I've recently learned that the "red outline" US markings from 1943 pretty much did not exist in the Pacific. In fact, there's a book about Corsairs where the authors sought to specifically dispel this "myth" -- that the red outlines were overpainted almost immediately due to the chance that red would be confused with Japanese markings, especially by AA gunners who seemed to shoot first and ask questions later. I'll dig up the book title if anybody is interested. I believe that they could only document one red-outline marked Corsair in the Jolly Rogers!

[Hugh Wiedman]

For an electric plane, the throttle trim on the face of the TX should be clicked to as low as it will go. The default throttle trim in the middle is for gas planes where the engine has to idle. Electrics don't idle. Lower it to the bottom and then do the throttle calibration as all electrics should have done as the first thing after binding. Then you won't have this situation. Your throttle should now be completely off when the stick is at its lowest position and the throttle should begin within 1 to 2 clicks of movement - as it should be.
The sound system should then follow naturally without all the messing about.

You've missed my point completely. The Sound system will always shut off as soon as the throttle is reduced to it's lowest point if you just hook up the sound system as is. Therefore, every time you drop your throttle to 0, on the runway, in the air, landing, where ever, the sound system will shut off. Then, when you taxi, it starts back up and goes though it's whole cycle again. This results in the system coming on and going off several times when you take it out, kind of defeating the purpose of trying to make it sound "real". If you advance the trim just to the point that the prop barely turns, your throttle stick is still at 0 and yes, an electric prop plane looks like it is idling like the real thing. The sound stays on the entire time, the prop is always moving and sound shut down only occurs when the prop stops rotating, kind of like the real thing. :Thinking:

[Ole-Timer]

I have to agree with Smoothie on what Dana Bell says on Birdcage paint schemes. I saw this trying to research my livery. Repairs and overall repaint to these birds was being done with multi-blue scheme in mind. It was likely driven by orders from higher authority. The best advice I can give you is if your fortunate enough to have multiple photo’s of the livery you want to do, it should stand to reason that any upper surface color close to what the national insignia is, will likely be dark blue and anything lighter will be mid blue. The center aircraft in this photo likely shows this transition and it was happening before white bars were added to insignia.

[Ken Smith]

Also, for those of you who are not in the know.
Airplanes do not belong to pilots. Pilots may have their names on them but they belong to the assigned Plane Captain in the Navy/ Marines or Crew Chief in the Air Force.
Yes Ken Walsh won his Medal of Honor in a borrowed Corsair which he had to ditch after taking down four Zeros. He was protecting a rescue mission.
For those who may have missed the last time I posted this, here are photos of Navy & USMC Pacific combat units https://www.asisbiz.com/Corsair.html

ken

[Ken Smith]

Another interesting historical site https://www.pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/f4u/index.html
Check it out.

Ken

[Ole-Timer]

Ken Walsh had also begun his military career at the bottom as an Enlisted man and worked his way upward from aircraft mechanic to pilot.
I’m inclined to believe he was respected by his subordinates and provided the type of leadership required in the environment.
The kind of person that inspires those around him to give everything they have in a common cause, crushing the Japanese.

[Ken Smith]

Not all friendly fire was from the gunners, this is a tragic story of another friendly fire episode:
Pilot 1st Lt. Edward B. Cochran, O-016970 (MIA / KIA) TX
Crashed April 29, 1944



Aircraft History
Built by Goodyear Aircraft Corporation in Akron, Ohio as model V-166B. Delivered to the U. S. Navy (USN) as FG-1A Corsair bureau number 13307. Disassembled and shipped overseas to the Pacific and reassembled.

Wartime History
Assigned to the United States Marine Corps (USMC), 1st Marine Air Wing (MAW-1), Marine Air Group 12 (MAG-12) to Marine Fighting Squadron (VMF-215) "Fighting Corsairs". This aircraft had no known nickname, nose art or squadron number.

Mission History
On April 29, 1944 took off from Piva South Airfield on Bougainville piloted by 1st Lt. Edward B. Cochran on a mission to strafe any targets of opportunity in the vicinity of Rabaul. The formation included three Corsairs led by Major James K. Dill. Inbound, one of the Corsairs developed engine problems and Dill ordered it to return to base.

Only Major Dill and wingman Cochran proceeded to the target area. Cochran radioed that there were two ships off Cape Lambert, behind the enemy demarcation line off New Britain.

Climbing to 6000' the two planes dove on the targets and initiated a strafing run. Dill later stated: "there was no recognition signals of any kind." Both were unaware the targets were actually a pair of U. S. Navy (USN) PT Boats: PT-347 and PT-350. During the strafing run, Cochran was shot down by defensive fire from PT-347 and crashed into the sea.

Afterwards, the Major Dills circled once and did not see his wingman. Major Dills then flew back to Green Island Airfield (Nissan) and after landing "Ordering immediate Attack!" on the enemy gunboats, still unaware they were friendly vessels. When Cochran failed to return, he was officially declared Missing In Action (MIA).

Memorials
Cochran was Officially declared dead the day of the mission and earned the purple Heart, posthumously. He is memorialized on the tablets of the missing at Manila American Cemetery. Cochran also has a memorial marker at Mission Burial Park South in San Antonio, Texas at section 5, Oakview Garden. The inscription on his memorial marker grave reads: "In Loving Memory - Capt. U.S.M.C. Lost Rabaul Harbor".




© Pacific Wrecks - FG-1A Corsair Bureau Number 13307
Source: https://www.pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/fg/13307.html

[Elbee]

Also, for those of you who are not in the know, Airplanes do not belong to pilots, [those] belong to the assigned Plane Captain in the Navy/ Marines or Crew Chief in the Air Force.ken

Copy. "Don't break my airplane", was never a request. :Straight-Face: Best, LB