Official FlightLine RC 1200mm F8F-1 Bearcat Thread

[Grossman56]

Yep, I hear they're talking 60's by the weekend, ' bout time!!

Grossman56

[RobWetterholtJr]

Grossman56,

Maidened my Bearcat today. Great flyer. One question...one of the inner gear doors failed to retract fully. I suspect some weird air-load event going on (coupled with a slightly weak spring) so when I got home I had my wife hold the airplane and I ran the engine up at various power settings and cycled the gear. Gear and doors cycled appropriately up until just past three-quarter throttle...the air loads appear to prevent one of the inner doors from fully closing...bring it back below about half and it snaps shut the entire way.

Any ideas? Not sure if I can get to the affected spring to try and tighten it up or not.

[RobWetterholtJr]

Problem solved. It doesn't appear to be springs that control the inner gear door...but rather magnets. I was able to put a small bend in the metal rod that sticks out from the gear door and it appears to solve the problem with the engine at max power.

Next step: Field test. 😁

[Grossman56]

Yep, it's those nasty pins more times than not!

Grossman56

[RobWetterholtJr]

Grossman56,

I've got about 40 flights on my F8F and I've been loving it. Added about an ounce of weight to the nose and am running 4S 4000 mAh packs. Half throttle she flies hands off straight and level. Gear down, flaps down passes down the line are endlessly entertaining (must be a Navy airplane slow-speed handling thing 😉).

One thing I am looking to upgrade sooner rather than later is the motor. I'm not trying to turn my Bearcat in to an absolute speed demon but a touch more power would be nice when there are a few knots of wind blowing. I'd like to keep the four-bladed propellor on it if at all possible. Any recommendations?

[Grossman56]

Yep, my Blue Angels Bearcat has a 650 kv motor with the FMS 1400 mm Corsair prop on it


And my CAF Bearcat has a 3948 760 kv (Which was in all the 1300mm FMS 3D Aerobatic planes) spinning the stock prop.


Both have 85A mantis ESC's the 650 is from the FMS P40 and the 780kv was from an FMS 3d airplane, I'd have to look it up.

Grossman56

[RobWetterholtJr]

Grossman56,

I really like the look of the Blue Angle F8F with the FMS Corsair prop on it. If I'm understanding this set-up correctly...

Motor: https://www.horizonhobby.com/product.../FMMKV650.html

Prop Hub: https://www.fmshobby.com/products/1400mm-f4u-spinner
Prop Blades: https://www.fmshobby.com/products/fm...40189868015701

How many amps are you pulling in the Blue Angel F8F and how does the performance differ from the stock setup?

[Grossman56]

You'll need the x mount for the motor as well and whenever I upgrade, I go with an 85A Mantis ESC. The performance is great, much better than stock. A lot of my 1400 mm airplanes are flying the same system and it improved them, so with a lightweight Bearcat at 1200mm, she's probably the fastest prop driven plane in the fleet. I can fly with 3600's and 4000's moved back. I also found that a tab of weight in the tail...

helped with the CG.
Be careful taxiing if you're on a rough surface as the tail likes to bounce, I keep full back elevator on mine. Also, this one has Dave Browns on it which really help, you can almost feel them stick to the runway when she lands. A bit of back elevator when taking off and man she's in the air in 10 -12 feet with no effort, I use half flaps too. When it comes to maneuvers, she'll do anything you ask effortlessly. The surprising thing is that she loses none of her slow flight characteristics which really made me happy.
I tired searching out the 760 kv with no luck, somewhere out there...
I'm thinking of buying two Tigercat nacelles and redoing them from front to back( 760kv, 85A ESC, LX B25 props, different x mounts and ESC-motor adaptors). Maybe better off to buy the whole airplane, but those 760s were awesome on her.

Grossman56

[derrickt]

Where can one get the retracts for this bearcat? They are out of stock at motion RC.

[Grossman56]

MRC is the only place, you can set it up so you'll get a notice when they're back in stock. Unfortunately, it all comes from China and we all know how happy they are with us. Bare with it, they'll eventually come back in stock. I'd love to see them come up with a spring loaded version of the landing gear, those long legs are hard on the wings without having some sort of shock suppression. I have Dave Brown tires on one of mine and the seem to help quite a bit.

Grossman56

[Timothy]

I have experienced nothing but complete Joy with my airplane this bearcat is outstanding everything I have to say about it is good minus one thing three seasons of flying this aircraft with the recommended battery no problems until now after doing a corkscrew I'm pulling out of it nicely made a nice banking turn to the left and the battery hatch popped off and the battery came out and disconnected and that was the end of that aircraft I couldn't believe my eyes always thought that strap was too short wasn't getting enough of an area for it to work properly but it did for a long time I had so much faith I was not worried and I am so sorry that this airplane is gone get a longer strap for the battery maybe put in a secondary that is my advice and I'm sure this airplane will give you pleasure forever they could have fortified the landing gear a little better too but that's another story for another day

[Grossman56]

I hear you. After purchasing my last Bearcat I messaged Alpha and told him that the battery strap was too small. I had a spare FMS strap that was long enough so subbed that one in. I told him I shouldn't have to use an FMS strap in a Flightline bird. Guess he didn't get the hint. It would be nice if the boys would take a bearcat fuse out of a box and see for themselves back at Motion RC HQ. Just try strapping down a 3600 4s Admiral let alone a 4000. Don't know what happened because I never had that problem with my first Bearcat.
Remember this??


Too bad you had to lose a bird over this. I use velcro on all my batteries. Strange that the hatch came off as well. It didn't happen to be a new hatch did it? I've had hatches where I've had to swap out the magnets because they're the wrong polarity. They fight like the devil to get them even close to each other so I doubt if that's the problem but you never know...

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

Message sent to Alpha July 15, 2021:


Hi Alpha! Long time, no speak! Anyway, I figured I best let you know I just got another FL Bearcat and found that the battery strap is too short to hold a Admiral 3600 4s in place. I can barely get the strap to attach and then it lets go. Seems like its a 3s strap. I happened to have a spare FMS (EW) strap so I compared the two and yep, about a 1/2" longer and it works great, but it looks funny, it should say "FlightLine" damn it! (LOL). Figured I had better let you know before you get a bunch of frustrated customers who can't fly their planes.


Grossman56

[Jimfitz0566]

Grossman56

I recently replaced the wings due to a landing gear ripping out. When removing the servos from the old wings I noticed onenof the flap servos was skipping. Reached into my bag of spare parts and pulled out a 9 gram with long enough leads but didnt give any thought to if it was a reverse servo or regular until I had blue tape and stickers on the wings and back on the plane. Can anyone confirm which wing has the reverse servo for the flaps looking head on from the motor? Thanks?

[Grossman56]

I can't recall, but place it in the slot for the servo and connect the wire. Don't attach the rod to the flap, just fire up the radio and the airplane and try the flaps, see which way it moves.

Grossman56

[Jimfitz0566]

The problem is I already glued them in the new wings and one is going the wrong way.

[Evan D]

Left is the reverse one. Pg 4

F8F-说明书.cdr (shopify.com)

[Grossman56]

Has anyone got the measurements for the P 38 upgrade main retracts?

https://www.motionrc.com/products/flightline-p-38-upgrade-main-landing-gear-strut-and-tire-left-flw3010892

Not concerned about the pin, but the length of the strut itself. It might be a possible upgrade for the wire landing gear on the Bearcat.

Grossman56

[RobWetterholtJr]

Dialed in some Throttle > Elevator mix on my stock Bearcat and MAN does she cruise. Above half throttle she would begin to pitch up, probably due to the short-coupled fuselage, and so I'd have to manually push the right stick forward (slightly un-nerving close to the ground during a low pass).

Love the Bearcat, what a fun airplane.

[billsplanevideos]

This Cat is a blast to fly. Fully loaded with flaps and gear, the stock esc and motor handle 6s great with just a prop adapter and 12x8e apc fitted you'll see speeds over 100mph
It holds my 3300mah 6s all the way forward giving long flights with my throttle timer set to 6 minutes i'm landing at around 3.9v per cell