Official FMS 1500mm P-47D Razorback Thread

[f4u ausie]

Absolutely stunning Dave great 👍 job congratulations on maiden

[vrosi1963]

Very nice Dave , i guarantee this is the only bubble conversion, people are way to unmotivated as i have found out with the two forums atm. this will be the last conversion i will help with

[davegee]

Success!! First flight of the new Hairless Joe bubbletop in the books as the 5 minute long maiden test flight was performed, plus about 15 minutes of ground and taxi tests. There were no surprises on this one, one of the best maidens I have had in my long time of flying rc airplanes since 2000. Everything was like an old shoe as I have been flying this FMS type P-47 when they came out about 2016.

I used three flight modes which helps compartmentalize various modes of flight and keeps them stored for future flights. Even so, there really was very little trim needed in any of them. If anything, the tail wheel throw is a bit more than I like and I'll tone that down some for takeoffs and landings. But with the Thunderbolt's wide stance on its gear it tracks nicely and scale for both takeoffs and landings.

I'll probably fly a few more flights to duplicate what I did today, and then start adding practice drops of the centerline drop tank, which has already been done several times on my other P-47s.

Very pleased and relieved that this first flight with the highly modified changes to a D bubbletop went so well. Good on James in California for his great work on modifying the fuse and designing and making the bubbletop canopy/windscreen that stayed on solidly during the flight.

Below are some pics from just about an hour ago at the field.

Just for grins, the other day I added a scratchbuilt rearview mirror that you can see at the top of the windscreen. I modeled it after an actual one that I received at a museum in Kalamazoo, MI that is now about 85 years old and in perfect shape. When they gave it to me 20 years ago, it was still wrapped in protective paper wrapping since it had been manufactured during WWII. To my amazement and delight, the mirror had not degraded in the least, and sits in a place of honor in our "O-Club Bar" in our basement, which is a good place to go for a beer and has a lot of memorabilia from WWII and my wife's and my dad who were bomber pilots in England during the war.

Talking with Danger Dan Gross the other day, we think this is the only 1.5m bubbletop foamie P-47D in existence at this writing. Maybe we'll get others to modify their FMS P-47 razorbacks to bubbletops someday.

Cheers

Davegee

[davegee]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16_7...?usp=drive_web

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ipUaihU9wKPmQ1OUAtjyOWrHb5jTN0xm/view?usp=drive_web

Trying to see if I can get Dave's videos to open.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

Works for me, Dan! Thanks so much for that! You'll have to tell me how you did it someday, for future reference.

Cheers

Dave

[davegee]

Works for me, try it!

Dave, the P 47 looks amazing. Have the decals for the P51B ordered, we'll have to get the two together for some photo shoots. they both may be the only ones of their kind?!

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

Absolutely!! Do you know if the scale of the two airplanes is the same? The P-47 is 1:8.28 scale. No matter, it would be a great photoshoot on a nice day with the two of them!

Cheers

Davegee

[Grossman56]

Works for me, try it!

Dave, the P 47 looks amazing. Have the decals for the P51B ordered, we'll have to get the two together for some photo shoots. they both may be the only ones of their kind?!

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Grossman56]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16_7s85xh6omgV7F1kkcIeP7ixrmhoGl-/view?usp=drive_web

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ipUaihU9wKPmQ1OUAtjyOWrHb5jTN0xm/view?usp=drive_web

Trying to see if I can get Dave's videos to open.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[davegee]

Thanks, Rex. Glad to help out if you decide to do an M model. It’s one of my favorite warbirds.

Cheers

Dave

[jetfool]

Excellent work Dave! Makes me want to do a P-47M. Best of luck on first test flight.
Best Regards, Rex

[davegee]

Well, the construction phase is mostly done, time to start on the ground and air testing phase. I'm hoping to do the maiden this week, possibly as early as Wednesday, weather permitting. That is a bit iffy, especially winds, but we'll see.

Attached is a pic of the plane after the last screw and nut had been installed. This is still a work in progress and I'll change things as needed, especially with a prototype mod from a razorback to a bubbletop with powered canopy. The bomb/drop tank mechanism is already installed and I'll test that on future flights.

Cheers

Davegee

[davegee]

I think it may have something to do with your privacy settings Dave, it says that the video is unavailable as its a private video. Check your settings.

Dan

Hi Dan and Craig: thanks for that feedback. There was a series of questions, one of which was asking if this is viewable by everybody. I clicked on that one. I'll play around with it some more. Rats! I thought it would come through! I can pull it up no problem when others took a look at it. Oh, well... back to the drawing board.

Davegee

[f4u ausie]

Same 4 me saying private. Maybe the wrong video :hot_face:. Just kidding

[Grossman56]

I think it may have something to do with your privacy settings Dave, it says that the video is unavailable as its a private video. Check your settings.

Dan

[davegee]

Here is another attempt to play my recording of the working canopy for my P-47D Hairless Joe. Here is the link below:

https://youtu.be/VpGkmjsVCqo

[vrosi1963]

Fantastic Dave! Won't be long now for test flight. Yesterday I watched The Joe Mc Connel story on TUBI tv. Great movie.
Best Regards, Rex

when the second set of canopies arrive i will pm you . late next week would be my guess

[davegee]

I know, it's a pita. What I did was started a You Tube channel, uploaded my videos to that and post the link on H.S.
Like this, just copy and paste the URL:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbIMNEoAklg

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

Thanks, Dan. I did try it once but didn't get very far. I'll give it another go!

Cheers

davegee

[Grossman56]

Dave,

Well above my pay grade, sir.

I have no clue what video formats work directly in this forum.

Most use their own personal "U" toob accounts.

Might try finding someone who has an existing "U"toob account and post through that person and then link that here at HS.

Not much help, I'm afraid.

Best, LB

I know, it's a pita. What I did was started a You Tube channel, uploaded my videos to that and post the link on H.S.
Like this, just copy and paste the URL:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbIMNEoAklg

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[davegee]

Dave i would respray the frame outline ,it looks to low and needs to slightly curve upward by the pilot. it starts low at the vertical frame point then upward and then back slightly curved low to the back . i have two canopies on there way to me to examine and will primer one as a part ready to ship ,i never did see the canopy

Thanks, James. I think I know what you are talking about. I'll do a quick mask and spray in that area to bring it up a bit.

Cheers

Davegee

[vrosi1963]

Dave i would respray the frame outline ,it looks to low and needs to slightly curve upward by the pilot. it starts low at the vertical frame point then upward and then back slightly curved low to the back . i have two canopies on there way to me to examine and will primer one as a part ready to ship ,i never did see the canopy

[davegee]

Last night I got all the parts of Hairless Joe put back together again and screwed into place. Everything works! I have a ton of minor things to do before I call it "complete" and that will take several weeks. For instance, I have an order in to Callie for P-47 nomenclature and that won't be here for a week. In the meantime, I plan on doing the maiden on it within the next week or so, weather permitting.

I was planning on putting the shorter stock FMS prop on it for the first couple of flights ,but when I did a CG test on the airplane with that in place it was way out of balance, tail heavy. So, I was thinking of having to put some lead weights in the cowl to get it back to proper CG, but then thought, what the heck, let's put on the big FMS 1700mm Corsair prop, instead! When I did that, the CG snapped sharply back into place. When I think about it, I haven't been flying with the little stock prop for years. I'm much more at home with the big prop on this airplane than the smaller one after all these years. So, the maiden will be done with the more scale FMS prop on the airplane.

I have a pic of it on the table in the shop as I worked on it last night. I'll be working on various things today and next week, too.

The second photo shows the removable cockpit and the powered canopy that James in California masterfully made. He had to make a plug of the canopy/windscreen and evidently that was a ton of work, but the results are excellent and the model can be flown/displayed with a one piece closed canopy or a powered one, like I decided to try. You can see one of the Actuonix linear servos sticking out the front of the cockpit. That was the only place I could think of to put it for a working canopy. It works great. Super folks in British Columbia not far from Seattle and I highly recommend their line of first rate products. Ask for "Ian!" He's the boss, I guess, and he LOVES P-47s and model rc flying!

Cheers

Davegee