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

[Aros]

Here in the Northwest (Seattle Area) we've been having a very strange light appear in the sky the last several days so the weekend looks great for my Maiden. Excited to say the least so I'll post pictures unless a trash bag is involved! LOLLOLLOL

I too have been marveling over this bright round orb in the skies lately! Good luck on the maiden this weekend!

[sfmadmax]

Is the stock spring tension in the landing struts ok ? I feel like a dap of lithium grease could not hurt a bit, just wondering if anyone else has had experience with that? This is my first ( Really Nice Plane ) I usually fly the more inexpensive ones, so want to make sure I get it right :)

[Beeg]

Is the stock spring tension in the landing struts ok ? I feel like a dap of lithium grease could not hurt a bit, just wondering if anyone else has had experience with that? This is my first ( Really Nice Plane ) I usually fly the more inexpensive ones, so want to make sure I get it right :)

If anything it may be a bit light. When you taxi on a rough surface (mowed grass) it sounds really terrible. Being electric and not having a motor to drown out the squeaking and clunking with the hollow wing may be solved by some lube though.:Thinking:

[Cws]

I use dry graphite powder or ptfe powder on my landing gears that telescope. it doesn't attract dirt and become gummy

[paladin]

Is the stock spring tension in the landing struts ok ? I feel like a dap of lithium grease could not hurt a bit, just wondering if anyone else has had experience with that? This is my first ( Really Nice Plane ) I usually fly the more inexpensive ones, so want to make sure I get it right :)

I HAVE 20+ planes w oleos they usually put grease in with the spring at the factory and over time it leaks out over the lower asm.. I wipe it off with a rag when it gets dirt in it. I fly off grass.

I put 600+flights on the FMS FW190 and it too leaked grease onto the lower asm. so I would not worry about it.

joe

[sethscorsair]

Does anyone with a spektrum as3x reciever have the roll pitch and yaw percentages that work for this plane? So far roll and pitch i have Rate50%Heading20%priority186%, yaw is 65%rate 0 heading and 186%priority.

[Grover54]

Does anyone with a spektrum as3x reciever have the roll pitch and yaw percentages that work for this plane? So far roll and pitch i have Rate50%Heading20%priority186%, yaw is 65%rate 0 heading and 186%priority.

Huh?? Knowing that is above my paygrade. :)

[brk6188]

I am finding that the struts on my Corsair are not compressing very much, indeed hardly at all, when pushing down with the model in three point attitude i.e. taxiing attitude. If I lift the tail to a take off attitude they are much better but still very rough. I have not disassembled and greased the struts, as I usually do, with lithium grease. Not doing this and as they are aluminum on aluminum the sliding components can get quite "gritty".

I believe this was partially the cause of destroying my port gear today -- I tried to three point her instead of wheeling her on. The trunnion totally disengaged from the worm drive but did not rip the gear assembly out of the wing so no airframe damage at all but I do need a new retract unit -- of course Motion is out of stock ! Not buying the whole retract assembly, which is in stock.

Note for Mr RC sound system users:- the board is very attitude sensitive for the whistle option to work in a dive only, mine is still very random. Paul has been working with me to try to rectify. Also note that the Aspire needs AT MINIMUM a 3 cell 1000mah pack to work flawlessly. The "guys in the bleachers" do think that the P&W sound in the Corsair is very good.

[MrSmoothie]

As some of you read, I pancake-stalled my F4U Wednesday morning, ruining what a second away from being a perfect landing (I know, close only counts in...). I didn't get to evaluate all the damage until later in the afternoon and place an order for retracts (yeah, ad to buy "with struts" at twice the cost), gear doors, prop blades, and X-mount. To my surprise, the parts arrived today. And as somebody helpfully posted earlier, the Spit mount is the same -- just different mounting screws. By early evening I had everything repaired and ready to go. I still can't believe the near complete lack of cosmetic damage. Going to pay a visit to my "other" club down in Ocala, FL on Sunday and take advantage of their amazing 650' paved runway (along with my FW F-22).

When remounting the motor, I replaced all screws with hex socket head screws. I find these much easier to get in, and much easier to tighten the right amount -- better "feel" than with phillips head.

The (out of stock) retracts are reasonably priced -- would have been nice to get "just" those and not the retracts+struts. But all things considered, I was happy that the retracts failed -- and not the plastic mounts, or worse, the surrounding foam. Only one gear door actually broke. All the other parts (doors, blades, etc.) were very reasonably priced IMO as well.

[Hugh Wiedman]

Does anyone with a spektrum as3x reciever have the roll pitch and yaw percentages that work for this plane? So far roll and pitch i have Rate50%Heading20%priority186%, yaw is 65%rate 0 heading and 186%priority.

Seth Corsair, I installed the ar636 in my Corsair but haven't flown it yet, so that's no help to you. However, I have that receiver in over 20 planes (including my four 3D Extreme Fight 62") and I have some comparable settings for you:

In 1700mm P-51: (RPY) fly around FM1 at 40/45/50, 150 priority (no heading gain) Fm2 Take Off Flaps at 80/90/100 rate and 0/90/100 heading, FM3 Landing Flaps 70/80/90 rate only
In 1600mm Flight Line Spitfire: FM1 40/45/50 rate only, 150 priority, FM2 80/90/100 Rate & 0/90/100 heading, FM3 70/80/90 rate only
In 1400mm Corsair: FM1 40/50/60 (no heading) 160 priority, FM2 80/90/100 rate & 0/90/100 heading, FM3 70/80/90 rate only
in 90mm Flightline F4 Phantom & Blue Angel: FM1 25/30/35 (no heading on any mode), FM2& FM3 40/50/60

For the new 1600mm Corsair, I have it set so far at: FM 1 40/45/50 150 priority (no heading gain), FM2 & FM3 70/80/90 (no heading gain)

I have no oscillations in any of these planes and all fly rock solid. I have my 3 Flight Modes (FM1-3) tied to the 3 position flap switch, which is why the gains are much higher in FM2 & FM3 because you will be going slower and especially want the stability there. I would not use heading gain, tried it under several circumstances and in the general fly around mode causes me more problems than it's worth. I do have it on some of the planes in the take-off flap position (FM2) but only on rudder (to compensate for prop wash on tail draggers) and elevator (to give a nice smooth take off and forcing the tail wheel on the ground as long as possible). I am in the process of getting rid of the heading gain even on the take-off flaps of the warbirds because I am now (after lot's of flights) much more capable of steering the birds straight down the runway and lifting off smoothly. The only time I use heading gain now is on my 3D planes, in FM3 when virtually standing still, the rate and heading gains are up to 80/90/95. Even with that, I hardly ever use that anymore because I have learned how to hover, harrier, etc without the help of a gyro.

As a general rule of thumb, roll rate should always be the lowest of the three as that is were you will most likely experience oscillation first, then pitch and highest gains on rudder. With these warbirds and the relative small control surfaces and average speed, you can get away with higher gains, although I think 50% on roll and elevator is too high on your fly around mode, and not high enough on your take-off and landing modes. I even use it on my F-4's, as I just replaced my 627T receiver in both of them with the AR 636 and it made a world of difference in the planes stability in all three modes. With that jet, speeds are much higher than the Corsair and the relative surface area of the control surfaces is much greater than the Corsair, so I found that I am at the limit on those gains.

If you feel fairly comfortable taking off and landing warbirds, as I said, I would stay away from heading gains, especially on your fly around mode, but that's just my opinion. I tried it once on landing flaps to keep a nice somewhat high alpha position, which sort of worked, but as soon as I barely touched the elevator stick, the plane lunged downward. That was because the heading gain was forcing a lot of up elevator, unknown to me how much, so when I moved the elevator stick to slow the decent even further, it returned the elevator surface to the original position-which was lower than the heading gain was keeping it.

Hope this helps, happy landings. :Cool::corsair

[sethscorsair]

Seth Corsair, I installed the ar636 in my Corsair but haven't flown it yet, so that's no help to you. However, I have that receiver in over 20 planes (including my four 3D Extreme Fight 62") and I have some comparable settings for you:

In 1700mm P-51: (RPY) fly around FM1 at 40/45/50, 150 priority (no heading gain) Fm2 Take Off Flaps at 80/90/100 rate and 0/90/100 heading, FM3 Landing Flaps 70/80/90 rate only
In 1600mm Flight Line Spitfire: FM1 40/45/50 rate only, 150 priority, FM2 80/90/100 Rate & 0/90/100 heading, FM3 70/80/90 rate only
In 1400mm Corsair: FM1 40/50/60 (no heading) 160 priority, FM2 80/90/100 rate & 0/90/100 heading, FM3 70/80/90 rate only
in 90mm Flightline F4 Phantom & Blue Angel: FM1 25/30/35 (no heading on any mode), FM2& FM3 40/50/60

For the new 1600mm Corsair, I have it set so far at: FM 1 40/45/50 150 priority (no heading gain), FM2 & FM3 70/80/90 (no heading gain)

I have no oscillations in any of these planes and all fly rock solid. I have my 3 Flight Modes (FM1-3) tied to the 3 position flap switch, which is why the gains are much higher in FM2 & FM3 because you will be going slower and especially want the stability there. I would not use heading gain, tried it under several circumstances and in the general fly around mode causes me more problems than it's worth. I do have it on some of the planes in the take-off flap position (FM2) but only on rudder (to compensate for prop wash on tail draggers) and elevator (to give a nice smooth take off and forcing the tail wheel on the ground as long as possible). I am in the process of getting rid of the heading gain even on the take-off flaps of the warbirds because I am now (after lot's of flights) much more capable of steering the birds straight down the runway and lifting off smoothly. The only time I use heading gain now is on my 3D planes, in FM3 when virtually standing still, the rate and heading gains are up to 80/90/95. Even with that, I hardly ever use that anymore because I have learned how to hover, harrier, etc without the help of a gyro.

As a general rule of thumb, roll rate should always be the lowest of the three as that is were you will most likely experience oscillation first, then pitch and highest gains on rudder. With these warbirds and the relative small control surfaces and average speed, you can get away with higher gains, although I think 50% on roll and elevator is too high on your fly around mode, and not high enough on your take-off and landing modes. I even use it on my F-4's, as I just replaced my 627T receiver in both of them with the AR 636 and it made a world of difference in the planes stability in all three modes. With that jet, speeds are much higher than the Corsair and the relative surface area of the control surfaces is much greater than the Corsair, so I found that I am at the limit on those gains.

If you feel fairly comfortable taking off and landing warbirds, as I said, I would stay away from heading gains, especially on your fly around mode, but that's just my opinion. I tried it once on landing flaps to keep a nice somewhat high alpha position, which sort of worked, but as soon as I barely touched the elevator stick, the plane lunged downward. That was because the heading gain was forcing a lot of up elevator, unknown to me how much, so when I moved the elevator stick to slow the decent even further, it returned the elevator surface to the original position-which was lower than the heading gain was keeping it.

Hope this helps, happy landings. :Cool::corsair

Ok thanks i will reprogram it before i head to the field tomorrow! This is what i was looking for thanks!

[Grover54]

Ok thanks i will reprogram it before i head to the field tomorrow! This is what i was looking for thanks!

MAN! Do I have a lot to learn! Thanks for sharing

[brk6188]

You can see where the trunnion has jumped out of the "claw". No cracks in the housing though. Going to take apart just to see if can be fixed.

[Hugh Wiedman]

Ok thanks i will reprogram it before i head to the field tomorrow! This is what i was looking for thanks!

Sethscorsair,

Let us know how your maiden goes and how the as3x performs and the rates you finally programmed in.:corsair

As I said earlier, and this is just my personal take on it, the heading gain should only be used in fairly special circumstances. You will definitely want to trim your plane at the beginning without any heading gain on. This is because if you use heading gain, it will always be correcting for something that's not quite right, and you may not be aware of how far off your trims are. Imagine that your elevator trim is off substantially, then with heading gain, the receiver would fight to keep it level (now your thinking your trim is OK). When you do activate the stick, it will return the elevator surface to the 0 position first (which is not right), and the plane will take a dip down or up, before responding to your input. On take-off and fly around, not that big a deal, but potentially disastrous on landing.

[Hugh Wiedman]

Sethscorsair,

One last thing I forgot to mention, although I'm sure you're already completely aware of this (so for those of you not aware), the single most important thing in programming any as3x is the receiver orientation. If you have too much gains, that will only cause some oscillation in a surface most likely at full throttle, so you slow down, land and reduce your gains (or you can do it in the air if you have enough open channels and you've set the gains to relative vs absolute). But if the as3x receiver programming orientation is wrong, disaster is soon to follow as the corrections will be opposite and compounding. Your transmitter servo reversing should all be on default, only reversing of a servo in the receiver. Every problem someone has had with the as3x has always been because they got the receiver orientation incorrect or they reversed a servo in the transmitter and not the receiver program.

To make sure all surfaces are moving in the correct direction, I always first program 1 of the flight modes with very high heading gain. Then, I can see definitively which direction a surface is moving as I move the plane around (most people can see which direction the surfaces move with only rate gain, but it is only a slight twitch and I'm never exactly sure which way it "twitched"). After I'm convinced that it is correct, I go back and reprogram the receiver to take the heading gain out. Of the 25 or so as3x receivers I have, I did have one that although I had the correct receiver orientation in the plane correct and the servo reversing was done only in the receiver program, but the surfaces moved in the opposite direction. It was as if the gyro was "installed" in the receiver upside down, so I guess manufacturers can screw up too. After changing the orientation in the receiver program to upside down (although the receiver itself was right side up), it moved in the correct direction-go figure.:Silly:

[sethscorsair]

Ok I'm back from the field I set my gains to 40 45 50 and took heading hold off I didn't set flight modes just used fm1. Took off no flaps easy and quick and stable, flew around 5 minutes it only needed 2 clicks of right aileron trim and flew level at 50 percent throttle, I tried using landing flaps and flew with them for a minute, it slowed down and was about level flight, I was going to use full flaps to land but didn't want to stall it because I had a short runway flying on a walking track, I took off the flaps and landed without any flaps and it took every bit of the track to land but it was a successful remaiden. Thanks for the as3x suggestions I may later try and set up the flap settings modes like you showed me in later flights as it started raining as soon as I landed.

[Hugh Wiedman]

Ok I'm back from the field I set my gains to 40 45 50 and took heading hold off I didn't set flight modes just used fm1. Took off no flaps easy and quick and stable, flew around 5 minutes it only needed 2 clicks of right aileron trim and flew level at 50 percent throttle, I tried using landing flaps and flew with them for a minute, it slowed down and was about level flight, I was going to use full flaps to land but didn't want to stall it because I had a short runway flying on a walking track, I took off the flaps and landed without any flaps and it took every bit of the track to land but it was a successful remaiden. Thanks for the as3x suggestions I may later try and set up the flap settings modes like you showed me in later flights as it started raining as soon as I landed.

Great job. If you decide to add a FM2 or FM3 (you can always us one for both) for take-off and landing flaps, you can use the higher gains I mentioned for those. Works like a dream on my Spitfire and other warbirds. I would also suggest that you go to the second menu on your transmitter and under trim setup, change the elevator and ailerons to F mode instead of common. This will allow you to trim, in flight with your normal trim levers, both the elevator and aileron when you drop the flaps. You don't necessarily need that ability on the ailerons, but if the flaps don't drop the exact distance for each, it's a nice feature to have. But for sure, I think it's a must for the elevator and this way you won't have to land first and guess what the correct compensation is in the Flap Setting menu. You will also need to go to the F Mode menu and activate that for whatever switch you use for landing flaps and your receiver designation for your Flight Modes (aux1).

[Grover54]

Well, had my Maiden today in reasonable weather though a bit windy 6 - 8MPH out of the west. Was running a 4500 6S 80% forward with no problem and no extra nose weight needed. Thankfully my mentor helped me with the trim and tweaks. Learned flaps were set way too much at 15/25 so moved it back to 10/15 for tomorrow's flights. Didn't have any issues even with final landing being a bit hard but the gear handled it nicely. This is one tough bird. Everyone loved it at our field and make no mistake most of the comments were about the finish and detail. FL hit a Home Run on this one for sure.

https://youtu.be/s3Oj2ObWs5A

Tomorrow will be better weather and WARMER I hope! :Cool:

[Aros]

Congrats on the maiden Grover! Nice flight! Flown there a handful of times, I recognized it instantly. Not sure what you mean by flaps set way too much, my full setting is as far as the servo can handle! I LOVE seeing the flaps at darn near 90 on approach...

LOL

I was wanting to fly mine today but still waiting for the field to melt from all the snow we got. It's getting there...Tomorrow I will fly her for sure. Nicely done!

[F22trainer]

Ok I'm back from the field I set my gains to 40 45 50 and took heading hold off I didn't set flight modes just used fm1. Took off no flaps easy and quick and stable, flew around 5 minutes it only needed 2 clicks of right aileron trim and flew level at 50 percent throttle, I tried using landing flaps and flew with them for a minute, it slowed down and was about level flight, I was going to use full flaps to land but didn't want to stall it because I had a short runway flying on a walking track, I took off the flaps and landed without any flaps and it took every bit of the track to land but it was a successful remaiden. Thanks for the as3x suggestions I may later try and set up the flap settings modes like you showed me in later flights as it started raining as soon as I landed.

Short runway means use full flaps...
the trick is to stall at the same moment the wheels touch.:)
Aiming point and airspeed are the key ingredients.

And for anyone interested, proper pilot techniques as currently taught apply to both full size and scale aircraft. These techniques are available for free download from the FAA website.
Airplane Flying Handbook

https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/airplane_handbook/