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

[davegee]

Davegee,
Yeah, I have the book Hell Hawks. Those guys really had it rough. The guys based in England had better ground facilities and meals. All the people in that war had it rough day in, day out.
Ground strafing had to be nerve racking. Germans were fierce fighters, on the ground and in the air. Rex

The guy I corresponded with, I forget his name now, and I'm sure he has passed on by now. But he sent me a very cool picture of him with his head fully in a huge hole in the vertical fin caused on a bombing run over an Italian port. He was the last guy in a line of attackers. The first guy got through no problem, but the gunners got better and better and nailed him in the tail as tail-end Charlie. He got back to base ok, though.

Cheers

Davegee

[jetfool]

I AM SLOWLY DOING MORE SURGERY TO MY NEW PLANE. I cut the canopy rail troughs and glued the plastic guide rails in. Then I cut out the pilot seat foam and will be adding my more scale seat that my Secert Santa sent. It will allow me to get a pilot to fit correctly. Added the glare shield in front of the instrument panel. Next up I need to cut the canopy apart. Will need a guide line and sharp knife plus steady hands. Believe I will sleep on it tonight and try tomorrow. Until Next Time, Rex

[davegee]

Wow! That is coming along! I guess you're committed now! I assume the canopy will be operable in some way. Will it be powered like LB's or will you manually open it? I was just wondering what you have worked out to keep the canopy in place when you are flying it. Looking forward to updates. Good luck!!👍👍👍

[jetfool]

Davegee,
Only manually open or close. Rails are 1/8" square plasti-strut with the slit made with a small saw and steady hand. Using a dress pin as the slider pin. Will be able to remove sliding canopy.
Cockpit aera was fairly simple, just removed the OEM seat base and new seat will be glued to the backrest before installing. Thinking this mod. will be the last major thing I do before sanding and painting on clear paint.
There is enough friction in the rails to hold the canopy any where . If not I will install a small screw in canopy to tighten down .
After the first cut my nerves settled down and I could cut into a new plane.

Best Regards, Rex

P.S. Installed the sound system and started up. Loud, Loud P&W purring in the basement. This is really making the plane magical.

[Elbee]

Only manually open or close. Rails are 1/8" square plasti-strut with the slit made with a small saw and steady hand. Using a dress pin as the slider pin.There is enough friction in the rails to hold the canopy any where .

JF, Looking good; however, I have a concern with regard to davegee's thought.

You are going to want to make certain the canopy has a 'positive closed condition'.

A screw would do it, but a latch of some fashion seems more aesthetic.

I thought long and hard about this very thing. Airspeeds in excess of 70 mph will find any opening and will play havoc on any loose thing.

Just my $00.02 USD worth. I would recommend a latch and possibly find a clever use for rare earth magnets. Best, LB

[jetfool]

Elbee,
Your.02 are probably worth many $20. I can use magnets in the fuselage and a metal strip on inside of sliding canopy. A latch would be good too
I fly my Wildcat with the canopy in the open position and no problems encountered. It is glued on though.
Getting ready to cut the canopy. Been thinking about this for weeks for the best way to do.

Best Regards, Rex

[davegee]

JF, Looking good; however, I have a concern with regard to davegee's thought.

You are going to want to make certain the canopy has a 'positive closed condition'.

A screw would do it, but a latch of some fashion seems more aesthetic.

I thought long and hard about this very thing. Airspeeds in excess of 70 mph will find any opening and will play havoc on any loose thing.

Just my $00.02 USD worth. I would recommend a latch and possibly find a clever use for rare earth magnets. Best, LB

Elbee and I are in accord on the canopy. I think all of us have had a piece of the airplane, a canopy, a battery cover, etc., depart the airplane followed quickly by "did anyone see where it landed??? I've been incredibly fortunate when I had a piece or someone else had a piece of their airplane fall helplessly into the field, and then the search begins...But we usually find it, eventually!

I think canopies are especially prone to aircraft departures. Especially something like a blown canopy on bubbletop P-47s or Corsairs, bad things can and do happen to those parts and all the hard work spent to create them. In LB's case, he has "positive control" at all times on his canopy with a servo that will hold it in place, open or closed, provided the securing of the hatch or canopy is intact and well designed. I don't think he will have any issues there. On some of my big gasser warbirds, we used pneumatic pressure through a piston to activate or secure the sliding canopy where we wanted it to be. Anything, even like a small screw to insert in the canopy to keep it closed, or even open, too, can help to alleviate any unfortunate events with the canopy for all your flights. I'm sure you'll come up with something, but we think you really need to have a solid latch of some sort for flying purposes.

Cheers

Davegee

[jetfool]

Thanks guys. I understand your concerns and re-thinking if I really want to cut the canopy. May just finish the cockpit and glue the canopy back on.
Thanks for your thoughts and concerns. Rex

[jetfool]

Elbe
I agree with your technique. After thinking it over I think I will just reglue the canopy as is. My sliding pins probably wouldn't hold up in 70 mph. If it flies as good as I think this is something I can go back and do later.
Callie will make the decals for the early Ken Walsh plane for me so I should be good to go on those. Meanwhile I can final sand, spray clear coats, sand and apply new paint, more details.
Still have a few months until we can fly so this will keep me busy and out of the wife's hair. LOL
Hope you all are staying warm and working on your planes, Rex

[davegee]

Elbe
I agree with your technique. After thinking it over I think I will just reglue the canopy as is. My sliding pins probably wouldn't hold up in 70 mph. If it flies as good as I think this is something I can go back and do later.
Callie will make the decals for the early Ken Walsh plane for me so I should be good to go on those. Meanwhile I can final sand, spray clear coats, sand and apply new paint, more details.
Still have a few months until we can fly so this will keep me busy and out of the wife's hair. LOL
Hope you all are staying warm and working on your planes, Rex

I think that is a good way to go for now, Rex. You can Always revisit the opening canopy idea, and in the meantime, really flesh out in your mind exactly how you want the sliding canopy to go together, and how to reinforce it for the winds in flight.

Cheers

davegee

[jetfool]

Elbee,
If I ever crash this model where the wings are still good a conversion to the F2G-2 would be high on my list to try. Always wanted to build one, with the removable front cowl it would be possible to graph on the longer nose and fair in the differences. Motor would need to move forward also (or just install the biggest,baddest motor) ha ha
You have not discouraged me from trying new ideas. I will be happy with a OEM canopy on this one.
There are still many things I will add before this is ready to fly. About blew my mind when I first fired up my sound system. Sounds fantastic!
Looking forward to seeing more of your progress on yours. Rex

[Elbee]

Glad to hear it, Rex. I like all that you are doing. Bravo Zulu, Sir. Best, Steve

[davegee]

Elbee,
If I ever crash this model where the wings are still good a conversion to the F2G-2 would be high on my list to try. Always wanted to build one, with the removable front cowl it would be possible to graph on the longer nose and fair in the differences. Motor would need to move forward also (or just install the biggest,baddest motor) ha ha
You have not discouraged me from trying new ideas. I will be happy with a OEM canopy on this one.
There are still many things I will add before this is ready to fly. About blew my mind when I first fired up my sound system. Sounds fantastic!
Looking forward to seeing more of your progress on yours. Rex

Hi Rex: there is someone on Hobbysquawk that has done the F2G-2 with the R4360 "corncob" engine using the FL Corsair model. I can't remember where I saw it but if you can look up his build on this forum, you might get a lot of ideas for future possible projects. I think he was successful in his build, although I didn't follow it all that closely. But I saluted him for his effort. Definitely doable, I think.

Cheers

davegee

[jetfool]

Thanks Davegee,
Hope I don’t have to think about for a long time. I am going to take my time and use all the great settings, taxing,ect. That everyone has stated in this forum. Before I attempt to fly this one. I hope to practice with my park zone and old Jem-co Corsair to visualize it coming in for landing.

[davegee]

Thanks Davegee,
Hope I don’t have to think about for a long time. I am going to take my time and use all the great settings, taxing,ect. That everyone has stated in this forum. Before I attempt to fly this one. I hope to practice with my park zone and old Jem-co Corsair to visualize it coming in for landing.

Right. I was thinking more if you had a real hankering to convert a FL Corsair to an F2G-2 someday, you might buy another airframe and keep your very cool F4U-1.

I have not flown the one that you have, but I assume that both planes fly almost exactly the same. For my two cents worth, and I have a lot of flights on mine, I use high rates on the rudder, do a slow increase of power while feeding in more right rudder for takeoff, or whatever it takes to keep it going straight down the runway, and gently let it fly off in a two-point attitude. I don't or haven't used flaps for takeoff, but always use full flaps for landings. I think it is important to keep the power up some, land in a two-point, tail low attitude with some power, and then gently bring the power you have to idle and let the plane slow to where the tailwheel wants to come down, and then use the rudder to keep it going straight and a lot of back elevator when you are certain it is going slow enough that it won't try to bound into the air again!

I think you'll find it a great flying plane with lots of presence in the air. It is one of my favorites to fly. I find using the above technique works for me on my E Flite 1.5, P-51D and of course all my P-47s that I have.

You've got a ways to go before weather for you will be suitable for flying, not to mention all the work you still have to do to get it ready to fly. You have been in this hobby a long time, so there's probably not much I can tell you as far as flying tips, but the above techniques work well for me, anyway. I try to fly all my warbirds, (and that's all I have besides a Timber on floats that I use for snow operations) in a scale manner, whether it is a prop or jet plane. They're all fun!

Looking forward to seeing continued updates as you progress on your build.

Dave

[jetfool]

Davegee,
I have plans to buy the Bubble Top, I like the Color of the Corsairs off the USS Franklin. So the F2G-2 could be a possibility. Can't have too many Corsairs! I have plenty of these, kinda like you and the P-47. Next plane I buy is a toss-up between the Tigercat, P-38, ME 262,or Phantom. Several guys in another club are into EDFs, would be my first EDF for me. They are about 30 miles away from me but fly their EDFs every Wednesday all day. Would be fun to fly off their paved strip. Time will tell. I'm waiting to see if Flight Line introduces another Warbird this spring.
I have plenty of work to do on this before spring so will have plenty of time to decide.

Rex

[Elbee]

Rex, quite the 'toss-up' list. lf you go F-4 Phantom, opt for the "High Performance" version. I have the original and while she's goes good, I understand the HP version simply "Romeo India". (Rocks It).
Plus One on the wait to see if FlightLIne Brings us a new Warbird. Best, LB

[davegee]

Davegee,
I have plans to buy the Bubble Top, I like the Color of the Corsairs off the USS Franklin. So the F2G-2 could be a possibility. Can't have too many Corsairs! I have plenty of these, kinda like you and the P-47. Next plane I buy is a toss-up between the Tigercat, P-38, ME 262,or Phantom. Several guys in another club are into EDFs, would be my first EDF for me. They are about 30 miles away from me but fly their EDFs every Wednesday all day. Would be fun to fly off their paved strip. Time will tell. I'm waiting to see if Flight Line introduces another Warbird this spring.
I have plenty of work to do on this before spring so will have plenty of time to decide.

Rex

I had all those planes you listed as potential "next airplane" for your stable! The Me-262 flew great, although with the Me-262, the low-slung motors almost always scraped on the runway on landings. That was more a nuisance than anything, but still a bit annoying. I always repainted the engine pods after each flight, I guess to know on the next flight what damage I might have done to it to try and get better flying it. I do that with all my planes. Anyway, if they don't come up with a new warbird that we would like to see this spring, that list is a good one and you'd enjoy any of those planes that you might buy.

I would love to see a large B-17G come out from Flightline, very detailed, but not sure if that will happen. Still, it would be a nice companion to the B-24 that I have also had. If they get one, I will paint it up as one flown by my now 100 year old father in law, who flew 35 combat missions as a pilot with the 351st Bomb Group out of Polebrook, England.

The Flightline Corsair is a great airplane, I had one several years ago that went in for whatever reason, and got a replacement that you have seen pictures of on this blog of Lt. Bob Hanson's plane that he flew in the Pacific in WWII. Still enjoy flying it and look forward to doing the wheel mod and the scissors mod that we have talked about.

Cheers

davegee

[jetfool]

Davegee,

Cherish that man. Would be great if you could get a museum to interview him about his missions and have on record a living legends account. I/m sure he has many stories to tell.
Rex

[jetfool]

I found a couple more pictures of the Brewster bomb rack for anyone interested. They are in this book. Rex

[davegee]

I found a couple more pictures of the Brewster bomb rack for anyone interested. They are in this book. Rex

Good, I have that book! Great source of details on the Corsair for us modelers!

Cheers

davegee

[jetfool]

Today it is cold and dreary outside so I made some small items to add after painting. I made the light Lense mold from wood glued to a stick to shape/sand and handle to make the imprint in clay. I used this to make the lense and also the radio insulator that goes on the right side of the fuselage behind the canopy. I made the antenna mounting wire holder from an old typewriter spring and alum flashing and Critical Mass nuts. I used clear epoxy resin from the craft store. I will need to polish the lense to brighten , not bad but the clay mold left a slight hue in the lense. Anyone suggest the best way to polish these?
Getting ready to spray some Min-Wax Poly clear satin on plane. How much do you all thin for a consistent coverage.. What air pressure do you recommend? Planning on 3-4 lite coats before color paint. Encluded a couple of photos

Best Regards, Rex