F4 Corsair Freewing or FMS and which batteries?

[Simon Bee]

Just bought a F4 Corsair from a guy for not that much money. He’s never flown it and he bought it from another guy.
He doesn’t know what batteries it uses but I’m hoping my Admiral 4S 4000s will be OK.
It doesn’t have flaps, it’s 1400mm and the motor is a 4250-KV 500. Just wondering whether it’s an old FMS or Freewing model and what would be the best batteries.

[Evan D]

I don't think FreeWing made a 1.4 F4U. You should be able to look at things like the motor, ESC and servos and tell from their brands what it is. Thinking FMS and if so it would be 4S and 4000...

[Simon Bee]

Yes I’m thinking FMS too. It must be quite an old version because it doesn’t have flaps.
The gear servos make one hell of a buzzing !

[xviper]

You should look carefully for more clues about what brand of Corsair that is. For one, the FMS 1400mm Corsair had fully functional flaps and a 540kv motor. The tail wheel does not look like what the FMS 1400mm Corsair came with. That FMS one is retractable and has blue plastic strut parts. It took a 2600 - 2700 mah, 4s LiPo. It also had completely different dorsal antennas. Yours shows only one antenna and it's not even blue.
Here is the last discontinued FMS 14000m Corsair:
https://www.horizonhobby.com/product...M024PBLU.html#

[RRHandy]

That would be the Airfield corsair (FMS), with the 4250-500kv motor 70 amp esc, I fly mine on a 5s battery and 10min, flight times.

[Simon Bee]

That would be the Airfield corsair (FMS), with the 4250-500kv motor 70 amp esc, I fly mine on a 5s battery and 10min, flight times.

Great thanks, mystery solved. Can you still get spare parts for it ?
Also the main gear servos hum like mad especially when lowered, just wondering whether they need replacing.

[RRHandy]

Great thanks, mystery solved. Can you still get spare parts for it ?
Also the main gear servos hum like mad especially when lowered, just wondering whether they need replacing.

Parts, not much unless someone is selling them, FMS made changes over the years that made the interchangeability not. I believe that to be V1 for the one piece cowl. The noise might be the gear door servos and not the gear themselves.

Ron.

[Tom]

Agree, it looks like an Airfield which was made by a factory called A-RC at the time. I don't think they have existed for many years at this point. The retracts or retract servos should be standard size and can likely be swapped without issue. Are the retracts the old type which are driven by a 9g or 17g servo or are they the newer "servoless" retract design?

[xviper]

The parts for the latest FMS planes may vary from the previous generations of the same plane and certainly, when talking about a very early version of a plane that was branded something different. I have a V2 1700mm FMS Corsair and I wanted to replace the main retracts with the newer, cheaper, more efficient V3 retracts. I got a set and guess what? The holes don't match up and I can't use them without some modifications to the mount and even then, the positioning of the retract may not allow it to clear the space provided. Additionally, I've had V3 prop blades on order for over a year now and still nothing. If they can't provide parts for a current model, I'm not hopeful they can provide parts for one that is many, many years gone by. It's likely necessary to get what parts are as close as possible and get out your fine hobby skills and modify.

[Simon Bee]

I like this model 😁 This is the first warbird I’ve owned and considering it’s about 10 years old it still flies really nicely. I’ve steered clear of warbirds because at my level of experience I thought they’d be too tricky.