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

[xviper]

Hi I have the Flightline Corsair ,what a lovely airplane but I have one major problem with it that has stop me flying the Corsair .I have had only 10 flight with the Corsair and gone through 4 retracts .The landing honestly have not been heavy .What happens is it gets into a slight bouncing and then one of the retract gives way so .The actually retract is fine no problems it is the retract servo that is the problem .IT seems to get pushed passed the worm drive piece ,So I take the servo apart to put the retract leg back inline with the worm drive and the little leads come off the circuit board and there is no way my soldering will cope with re soldering the tiny little leads back on to the circuit board so I have to buy and new retract servo .I have just brought 2 retract servos a week ago and it two flight they have both failed again .I just can not afford to keep buying new retract servos every couple of flight so I have grounded the Corsair. I also have the 1600 Spitfire but have no issue what so ever with that I know everyone is going to say I am landing it to heavy but honestly even people at our flying field have commented that the landing was OK and could not believe the retract gave way .Has anyone else experience this is is it just me .Sad not to fly such a lovely aircraft

I have both this Corsair and the FMS 1700mm Corsair. Oddly enough, it's my FMS one that has done exactly what yours has done. My FL has never had a retract problem. However, it has taken me 2 years of practice on the FMS to NOT bounce, so when I got the FL, it never bounced. But then, I broke an FMS retract only 2 weeks ago when I hit a gopher hole. At the field where I have a GeoTex runway, I take off on the runway and land on the grass. This makes for no bounce. Also, when I landed on the runway and then run the plane off onto the grass, usually a retract will snap.
If you are able to "set" the internals by taking it apart, it could be that the plastic casing has cracked, causing too much "give" for the moving mechanism inside. Look carefully at the casing to see if you can detect any cracks. These cracks can blend it really well when the retract is not under load. If it is cracked, then no internal fix will work for long. The wiring coming off the board is another matter. I find it is impossible to go in there and resolder.
PS, one more thing. Practice landing with no flaps till you get good at it, then try it with 1/2 flaps (take off flaps), then full flaps. I find it easier to learn to land with no bounce if I do it in this progression of practice.

[Captain Moron]

Thanks Joe that is some good advice .That sounds like you are right and makes sense Thanks again .A bit of practice needed on my part

[Hugh Wiedman]

Hi I have the Flightline Corsair ,what a lovely airplane but I have one major problem with it that has stop me flying the Corsair .I have had only 10 flight with the Corsair and gone through 4 retracts .The landing honestly have not been heavy .What happens is it gets into a slight bouncing and then one of the retract gives way so .The actually retract is fine no problems it is the retract servo that is the problem .IT seems to get pushed passed the worm drive piece ,So I take the servo apart to put the retract leg back inline with the worm drive and the little leads come off the circuit board and there is no way my soldering will cope with re soldering the tiny little leads back on to the circuit board so I have to buy and new retract servo .I have just brought 2 retract servos a week ago and it two flight they have both failed again .I just can not afford to keep buying new retract servos every couple of flight so I have grounded the Corsair. I also have the 1600 Spitfire but have no issue what so ever with that I know everyone is going to say I am landing it to heavy but honestly even people at our flying field have commented that the landing was OK and could not believe the retract gave way .Has anyone else experience this is is it just me .Sad not to fly such a lovely aircraft

Totally agree with paladin . I too went through a number of retracts when first flying the Corsair. She needs some speed on landing and you must bring it down with the 2 mains touching with the plane almost perfectly level, then cut the throttle. I found that I need to land with the throttle at 40%, although that seems high but I have an extra heavy bird with a sound system, extra weight in paint/coatings and a heavy warbirds.com pilot with a servo in the head. You should be able to do this with something like 35% throttle. Let it come down to about a foot off the runway, but before touchdown, make sure it is level, then ease it down with lowering the throttle and easing off the elevator. It's bouncing because it is dropping too fast onto the runway. Pretend you are doing a soft touch and go, just don't go.

Since I have used that technique over the last 50 or so flights, never lost a retract since, but I still have a huge stockpile of them from previous experience.

[f4u ausie]

Hi I have the Flightline Corsair ,what a lovely airplane but I have one major problem with it that has stop me flying the Corsair .I have had only 10 flight with the Corsair and gone through 4 retracts .The landing honestly have not been heavy .What happens is it gets into a slight bouncing and then one of the retract gives way so .The actually retract is fine no problems it is the retract servo that is the problem .IT seems to get pushed passed the worm drive piece ,So I take the servo apart to put the retract leg back inline with the worm drive and the little leads come off the circuit board and there is no way my soldering will cope with re soldering the tiny little leads back on to the circuit board so I have to buy and new retract servo .I have just brought 2 retract servos a week ago and it two flight they have both failed again .I just can not afford to keep buying new retract servos every couple of flight so I have grounded the Corsair. I also have the 1600 Spitfire but have no issue what so ever with that I know everyone is going to say I am landing it to heavy but honestly even people at our flying field have commented that the landing was OK and could not believe the retract gave way .Has anyone else experience this is is it just me .Sad not to fly such a lovely aircraft

the spitfire and corsair gear r mounted differently .....rotate back corsair or out towards edge of wing spit so the corsair jackscrew takes some of the landing force...instead of that nice metal trunnion..... to me if its bounces many times as palidin said likely to high angle of attack..... most have have had same prblem,,,,it needs a bit tlc on landing........ most 2 wheel land it i 3 point it,,,slight flare last split second.... it changes the strut angle so its les likely force it backwards..... anyway works well 4 me but more than 1 way to skin a cat ,,lots and lots info back in this thread.... dont ground it ,,its to good flyer good luck

[themudduck]

Hi I have the Flightline Corsair ,what a lovely airplane but I have one major problem with it that has stop me flying the Corsair .I have had only 10 flight with the Corsair and gone through 4 retracts .The landing honestly have not been heavy .What happens is it gets into a slight bouncing and then one of the retract gives way so .The actually retract is fine no problems it is the retract servo that is the problem .IT seems to get pushed passed the worm drive piece ,So I take the servo apart to put the retract leg back inline with the worm drive and the little leads come off the circuit board and there is no way my soldering will cope with re soldering the tiny little leads back on to the circuit board so I have to buy and new retract servo .I have just brought 2 retract servos a week ago and it two flight they have both failed again .I just can not afford to keep buying new retract servos every couple of flight so I have grounded the Corsair. I also have the 1600 Spitfire but have no issue what so ever with that I know everyone is going to say I am landing it to heavy but honestly even people at our flying field have commented that the landing was OK and could not believe the retract gave way .Has anyone else experience this is is it just me .Sad not to fly such a lovely aircraft

We've had a lot of experience with this, if you read through the thread you'll probably see more complaints about this than anything else! You've already seen some great advice in the last few posts, let me add one more tidbit to this subject for you. On my Corsair, I finally tamed the beast by dialing in a little bit of down elevator trim when using full flaps. So now, when I come in and land using the technique that Hugh described, when it touches down the slight nose-down trim stops that dreaded bounce and it sticks like glue. I went through at least 6 retract replacements before I got this figured out and now I couldn't be happier with it.

[paladin]

We've had a lot of experience with this, if you read through the thread you'll probably see more complaints about this than anything else! You've already seen some great advice in the last few posts, let me add one more tidbit to this subject for you. On my Corsair, I finally tamed the beast by dialing in a little bit of down elevator trim when using full flaps. So now, when I come in and land using the technique that Hugh described, when it touches down the slight nose-down trim stops that dreaded bounce and it sticks like glue. I went through at least 6 retract replacements before I got this figured out and now I couldn't be happier with it.

+1 .

after reducing throttle 12-15 clicks, deploying the flaps, I want it to require as much up E hold as a trainer being floated in so I add 3 to 6 clicks of down E (plane dependent, e-flite T-28 requires 16 clicks of down).

[Captain Moron]

Thanks everyone there is some really good advice there . Think I might be coming it to slow and to high l .Reading the advice I thing I can make some progress now thanks to your good advice Thanks again

[Tdrewdale88]

Be side’s flying techniques is there any modifications that can be made to the landing gear on the flight line Corsair...

[f4u ausie]

Don't Wana b too complicated. But if u can strengthen the case!! The internals!!!! Jacksrew and it's mounting points r less likely too break. Or. Move,,, The trouble is. If u improve 1 week point. U likely will find the next 1 ,,, hope that makes sense;;;;. These planes r. Well made to an awesome price. Ye ye??? Easy answer. Fly better or put in aftermarket. Gear. Just my opinion

[Denniswpb]

Had a bad day at the field yesterday with my Corsair. As I was ready to take off for my second flight of the day, something didn't sound quite right so I started to taxi it back to check it out. Smoke started to bellow out of it, and when I took the hatch off there were flames. I got the battery out and another club member put the fire out with an extinguisher. Fortunately, the exterior of the plane is undamaged and there is a bit of melted foam under the battery and soot in the compartment. That's the good part.... The bad part is the ESC is what caught fire and it must have allowed high current to flow through the plane and it fried the receiver, blue control box, every servo, and the landing gear servos!! The battery turned out to be good, just coated with soot and the motor is fine. Just priced out the replacement parts which comes to just over $200. The fuselage ESC area where the foam melted should be fairly easy to repair. Not sure if I want to throw more money into it or just parts it out.

[paladin]

sorry you had problems! I worked for IBM for some time and one of the big problems we had were called "circuit board extras", they were little balls of soldier not attached to anything and serving no purpose. the problem was if they broke loose during the life of the board where they wedged could cause a problem, like yours. we used to wash the circuit boards several times specifically to ketch these little buggers. I had and extra problem just like yours ~10 years ago took out ESC, battery and motor, smelled like a fire the rest of the planes life.

Joe

[Denniswpb]

sorry you had problems! I worked for IBM for some time and one of the big problems we had were called "circuit board extras", they were little balls of soldier not attached to anything and serving no purpose. the problem was if they broke loose during the life of the board where they wedged could cause a problem, like yours. we used to wash the circuit boards several times specifically to ketch these little buggers. I had and extra problem just like yours ~10 years ago took out ESC, battery and motor, smelled like a fire the rest of the planes life.

Joe

My wife is still complaining this morning that the house smells like burnt electrical wires!

[Beeg]

Had a bad day at the field yesterday with my Corsair. As I was ready to take off for my second flight of the day, something didn't sound quite right so I started to taxi it back to check it out. Smoke started to bellow out of it, and when I took the hatch off there were flames. I got the battery out and another club member put the fire out with an extinguisher. Fortunately, the exterior of the plane is undamaged and there is a bit of melted foam under the battery and soot in the compartment. That's the good part.... The bad part is the ESC is what caught fire and it must have allowed high current to flow through the plane and it fried the receiver, blue control box, every servo, and the landing gear servos!! The battery turned out to be good, just coated with soot and the motor is fine. Just priced out the replacement parts which comes to just over $200. The fuselage ESC area where the foam melted should be fairly easy to repair. Not sure if I want to throw more money into it or just parts it out.

Not too bad. Couple months ago mine was a bit worse due to a shorted out battery. Came out to about equal to total replacement plus the loss of the battery.

[Captain Moron]

I have been told to land this Corsair with no flaps but was interested to now what other pilots do What is the opinion with landing this Corsair with or with out flaps .Not had much luck landing this Corsair and it is costing me a fortune on replacing the retract .I think my angle of Attack may be to high plus to slow .Had been given some good advice from this forum but have not had chance to try them out yet due to the crap weather .While I am waiting for weather to improve though I check out if I would be better to deploy the flaps on landing while adding a bit more power ,it seems that I have read on this forum a lot of you are coming in with 30to 40% throttle on landing At the moment I am using no flaps on landing Would I be better using the flaps on landing ?

[Hugh Wiedman]

I have been told to land this Corsair with no flaps but was interested to now what other pilots do What is the opinion with landing this Corsair with or with out flaps .Not had much luck landing this Corsair and it is costing me a fortune on replacing the retract .I think my angle of Attack may be to high plus to slow .Had been given some good advice from this forum but have not had chance to try them out yet due to the crap weather .While I am waiting for weather to improve though I check out if I would be better to deploy the flaps on landing while adding a bit more power ,it seems that I have read on this forum a lot of you are coming in with 30to 40% throttle on landing At the moment I am using no flaps on landing Would I be better using the flaps on landing ?

As I mentioned in my previous post on my personal landing technique (works for me but others have techniques that work as well) I like to land with 35%-40% throttle, keeping it level. Forgot to also say I do like to land with full flaps, even slightly more then the manual calls for only because I love the way it looks coming in. Wind (10-15 mph or more) or no wind, I still use full flaps which is not exactly "by the book", but in a stiff breeze at 40% throttle and full flaps, wow, it gets very slow (relative to ground speed) and stops as if catching a hook. As far as take-off flaps, I no longer ever use them on take-off. For me, it causes the Corsair to lift off almost too soon and threatens a stall. Without flaps, and a 2 to 4 degree nose down attitude on take-off, it won't lift off until I give it a nudge of elevator when I'm sure it's reached or exceeded V1. But that's just me, others have just as successful techniques.

[f4u ausie]

I have been told to land this Corsair with no flaps but was interested to now what other pilots do What is the opinion with landing this Corsair with or with out flaps .Not had much luck landing this Corsair and it is costing me a fortune on replacing the retract .I think my angle of Attack may be to high plus to slow .Had been given some good advice from this forum but have not had chance to try them out yet due to the crap weather .While I am waiting for weather to improve though I check out if I would be better to deploy the flaps on landing while adding a bit more power ,it seems that I have read on this forum a lot of you are coming in with 30to 40% throttle on landing At the moment I am using no flaps on landing Would I be better using the flaps on landing ?

i like half with less power ... most like full with power ....if u choose full u must keep some power or it will tip stall as i did.... req new wings...not enough power im sure ....it hurt me after 70 odd flights....best advice ive seen when landing is from patrick croasedale from motian .... landing techniques on aproach elevator is speed power will control height ....do yourself a favour watch it... one last thing i often pull apart the wheel struts and lightly oil them .... i also cut 5 mm off the springs ,, makes them just a little softer good luck

[long-love-rc]

Questions on size of this 1.6m corsair: I am wondering if it fits my Honda Odyssey minivan 2013. I feel it should fit in with the last row of seats down. Could you share how you transport this plane? thank you.

[xviper]

Questions on size of this 1.6m corsair: I am wondering if it fits my Honda Odyssey minivan 2013. I feel it should fit in with the last row of seats down. Could you share how you transport this plane? thank you.

I think it would fit in an Odyssey without disassembly. The biggest that will fit into my Golf is 1500mm. For this Corsair, I take the wing off in one piece. It's very simple to assemble, with few connections and 4 screws.

[paladin]

I have been told to land this Corsair with no flaps but was interested to now what other pilots do What is the opinion with landing this Corsair with or with out flaps .Not had much luck landing this Corsair and it is costing me a fortune on replacing the retract .I think my angle of Attack may be to high plus to slow .Had been given some good advice from this forum but have not had chance to try them out yet due to the crap weather .While I am waiting for weather to improve though I check out if I would be better to deploy the flaps on landing while adding a bit more power ,it seems that I have read on this forum a lot of you are coming in with 30to 40% throttle on landing At the moment I am using no flaps on landing Would I be better using the flaps on landing ?

from full throttle, bring the throttle down 12 clicks let the speed reduce (you will see it by the E you have to add to stay level, deploy full flaps on the down wind leg and trim to require held up E just like you R landing clean. bring it to final approach and fly it to the ground still at 12 clicks of throttle below full throttle, when you get to 3 or 4 ft reduce the throttle and let the AoA go negative. you will go long 10 or 20, or 30 times, just bring the throttle back up to 12 clicks below full throttle to full throttle and go around( DON'T PUT THE FLAPS UP). on the down wind reset the 12 clicks and try again. eventually you will get it on the ground, best not to hurry here cause the plane rotated nose down with flaps so it will look like a dive when you are at 0 AoA and your mind needs to get used to that look while building new muscle memory.

Joe

[Flyboy999]

If I may add my two penn'orth... This Corsair is not a trainer, and will never land like one. May i suggest your state of mind as you approach a landing is an intended slow-ish skim of the grass, not a 'landing'. If you practice flying the plane in sustainable level flight, a few mistakes high, as slow as you can (with and without flaps) you'll get a feel for where the throttle and elevator should be.

When landing, reduce height early, then fly a low flat approach to the strip. You should be able to fly the whole landing strip 2ft of the ground and go up again. Or....about 30ft before the strip, very slightly reduce the throttle. This will cause the plane to reduce height. At the same time time add a tiny bit of elevator. Just before the plane touches down, give a tiny blip of throttle. this will ensure the softest touchdown possible. As soon as you are absolutely sure the wheels are touching the grass, quickly but smoothly reduce the throttle, and immediately equally smoothly apply more elevator. Do not yank the elevator up or you may allow the plane to rise again and stall (if your speed still a little too high).

In still or low wind conditions I always use full flaps for landing. I use half flap if headwind is a reasonably constant 10mph+. When landing in a significant crosswind, full flaps create a speed and 'float' which is hard to control, so mostly use half flaps. For take-off I use half flaps, a bit of 'up', and let the plane take off when it's ready. It works for me, so i hope is helpful.