Official FlightLine RC 1600mm F7F-3 Tigercat Thread

[I-fly-rc-aircraft]

Great! I think you'll like it.

davegee

Yes, me too. It will go well with my 1600mm Bubbletop F4U Corsair and the 1600mm P-38 I have.

Tom

[Grossman56]

Mine, which I thought was a total loss, is one front fuse and a nacelle away from flying again, all the other parts are rebuilt and looking great. I agree with Dave, you really miss it when she not there.

Grossman56

[I-fly-rc-aircraft]

I've read a few pilots having a prop fly off because the hub broke. Is this a common problem?

[Evan D]

Not on this plane, you sure you are thinking the Tigercat and not the P-38?

[I-fly-rc-aircraft]

On the P-38 the issue with the backplate was addressed by flightline beefing up the backplate.
Here's one example of the hub issue on the tigercat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mULarZp5B4c&t=99

[Evan D]

At 1:29 you can see the whole prop assembly come off. That does not look like a hub failure. Maybe if the person over tightened the center screw to the point of cracking it internally. The hex on the motor fits into the hex on the hub. The screw is lightly tightened just enough to hold it on and not like a standard nut were the nuts force on the prop stops the prop from spinning.

Do you have any other failures you can link to? While I have never heard of one on the TC (and the hub on this is much more robust than the P-38) there may have been some, I've just never heard of one. I would think a prop blade broken at the root would happen before the hub fails.

I'm on my third TC, sold the first after hundreds of flights, crashed the second due to a gyro failure on it's third flight and have hundreds of flights both LOS and FPV on #3. On the one that crashed the prop roots broke, no hub failure.

I also never had a spinner hub failure on my P-38 and that was one of the originals with the weak hub.

[davegee]

At 1:29 you can see the whole prop assembly come off. That does not look like a hub failure. Maybe if the person over tightened the center screw to the point of cracking it internally. The hex on the motor fits into the hex on the hub. The screw is lightly tightened just enough to hold it on and not like a standard nut were the nuts force on the prop stops the prop from spinning.

Do you have any other failures you can link to? While I have never heard of one on the TC (and the hub on this is much more robust than the P-38) there may have been some, I've just never heard of one. I would think a prop blade broken at the root would happen before the hub fails.

I'm on my third TC, sold the first after hundreds of flights, crashed the second due to a gyro failure on it's third flight and have hundreds of flights both LOS and FPV on #3. On the one that crashed the prop roots broke, no hub failure.

I also never had a spinner hub failure on my P-38 and that was one of the originals with the weak hub.

On my first Tigercat, during its first static power runup at my house, both blades spun off and went flying into a bush! They weren't damaged, but obviously I didn't snug down the screws enough as I had thought adequate. I use a little bit of Loctite now, and a standard preflight for me is checking each screw for snugness before flying. I have a second plane now (sold the first, undamaged after many flights) and haven't had another incident like I described above. That was just operator error, no fault of the design of the hubs and props, IMHO.

davegee

[Evan D]

I know you know... Be careful with loctite around plastic, it is corrosive to it. For things like the prop screw on this even though the screw goes into metal I use the white tube glue that comes with many FW/ FL airplanes.

[davegee]

I know you know... Be careful with loctite around plastic, it is corrosive to it. For things like the prop screw on this even though the screw goes into metal I use the white tube glue that comes with many FW/ FL airplanes.

Good point, Evan, thanks for the reminder. I was careful to just put a drop on the screw and not get any on the plastic parts. Been there, done that, school of hard knocks!

Cheers

davegee

[I-fly-rc-aircraft]

I can go through the 108 pages to find posts of hub failures but I'm not inclined to do so atm. I will say that in most cases I read that loctite was involved. I just purchased the Tigercat but prior to me hitting the buy button I read most of this thread.
I just purchased the P-38 in May and have no issues with the backplate. From what I read about the P-38 the backplate has been upgraded since the earlier releases.
I hope to have hundreds of flights on both the P-38 and the F7F-3 Tigercat.

Tom

[Evan D]

Okay, but to your original question. No, it's not common.

[I-fly-rc-aircraft]

Received my Tigercat this afternoon. What a beauty.

Tom

[davegee]

Received my Tigercat this afternoon. What a beauty.

Tom

👍👍😁

[I-fly-rc-aircraft]

I assembled my 'Cat yesterday.
I intend to use a 7 channel spektrum rx with a satellite but can't seem to find a good location. Where are you all putting your receiver?

Tom

[Evan D]

Belly of the plane behind the battery area and under the turtle deck aft of the interconnection board are good for the receiver. I have a satellite in the nose wheel well too.

[I-fly-rc-aircraft]

Maiden in the books on my Tigercat. Only needed some up trim. Rolls kind of slow even oh high rates. She's a keeper.

Tom

[davegee]

Got my Tigercat back up into the air this morning. Had to replace the prop hubs as a part inside on each one had cracked material and wouldn't cinch down properly on the motor shaft to fly safely.

Stock build, pretty much. Did add some antenna wiring, but otherwise pretty much as I put it together out of the box a few years ago. Don't fly it much these days, but it is always in the "rotation" with the other planes to go up and do its thing. Really enjoy this plane.

davegee

[Evan D]

Today. The double trouble behind is two Kaos’ powered by TC motors.

[Denniswpb]

Well Damn!! It happened again last week. Perfect take off with a nice shallow climbing left turn on crosswind and the left wing dropped suddenly, and I lost a lot of power. I immediately corrected to the right but had no choice but to go left to avoid trees and try to get it back on the runway. As I turned back left, it rolled in! When I got it back on the bench, everything was still connected even though both wings were cracked, and the fuselage nose was pretty crunched. I put the battery back in and all the flight controls worked fine. When I spooled up the motors after removing the props, that's when I discovered the issue. The left motor thew a magnet and obviously took a big duce while climbing out on crosswind!! I happened so quick and dropping fast right toward the trees I didn't have time to think of what was going wrong at the time. Others at the field who were watching also started it looked as though the left motor had an issue.
Ordered a new fuselage, motor, props, hubs, and nose gear door and already got the wings and nacelles back together but will have to respray everything all over again.... Arrrrrgh!

[JustPlaneChris]

I got mine last week, but knew I'd have to put off the maiden until after Halloween (which is a big event at our house). A friend came over Sunday, and I ran it up for the first time to show him. BOOM! All six prop blades departed the hubs! After the shock wore off, I was like "WTF!". Turns out it was stupidity on the part of my mechanic (me). I didn't catch the step in the instructions where there are two screws per prop blade to hold them in the hub, I thought the locater pins did that duty. 🙄 Of course, those plastic pins all sheared and allowed the blades to depart the hubs. No airframe damage other than some dents on the fuselage (right over the 'danger propeller' sticker, imagine that) and my pride. New blades and hubs are ordered, but probably won't be here in time for a weekend maiden. <sigh>

And here I was thinking that after over 40 years in this hobby I'd done just about every stupid trick there was. Nope, still doing stupid things after all these years! 😬

Chris