Official FlightLine RC 1600mm F7F-3 Tigercat Thread

[Dual Prop Dave]

Exactly, wanna know how bad it can be?? Try taxiing with one motor, it ain't pretty...

Grossman56

No Thanks! LOL Seen a beautiful OV-10 and a Really sweet B-25 go in due to One motor out, and that was at the hands of a very competent Pilot! (not me) I'm average.:P

[Grossman56]

Exactly, wanna know how bad it can be?? Try taxiing with one motor, it ain't pretty...

Grossman56

[Dual Prop Dave]

Good idea, but the 3600's and 4000's work well too. What you might think about, as we've talked about earlier in the thread, is running the ESC's and batteries in parallel. One big tank feeding both motors.

Grossman56

I agree with Grossman56, I run mine in parallel. It's comforting to know if something would go wrong with one battery, you still have the other feeding both motors. I fly all my twins in this fashion.

[Grossman56]

I am going to order some 3000 batteries for my Tcat tomorrow so by next Friday I will punch some holes in the sky with it.:Cool: Think fly Tcat FLY!

Good idea, but the 3600's and 4000's work well too. What you might think about, as we've talked about earlier in the thread, is running the ESC's and batteries in parallel. One big tank feeding both motors.

Grossman56

[Dual Prop Dave]

I am going to order some 3000 batteries for my Tcat tomorrow so by next Friday I will punch some holes in the sky with it.:Cool: Think fly Tcat FLY!

Your going to really like this one! She's sweet!:Cool:

[rifleman_btx]

Sounds great!

[Mad Baron]

I am going to order some 3000 batteries for my Tcat tomorrow so by next Friday I will punch some holes in the sky with it.:Cool: Think fly Tcat FLY!

[Grossman56]

Hey MB, I did the same as Dave did, just followed the video, but I did check it out just now as a matter of interest. Now I had her up for three flights just this last weekend and they were flawless with the batteries in the forward position

with the bottom battery placed at the forward edge of the plywood platform



Now, I have flown her with the top battery at the point of the strap...



And she flies great there as well. With the battery at that position, the CG comes in about 65-68, close enough to the CG that CB is recommending...




And of course, when the gear swings down, she'll get nose heavy, mine will touch the table and slide off if I'd let it.

So, with that in mind and remember, both these positions have been flight tested, when I drop gear and half flaps, I have no elevator mix. At full flaps, I have a small amount of down elevator.
On my DX 8 first gen, the mix is 6%.

She's extremely forgiving and I really don't think you'll have any trouble flying this one.
Hope this helps!

Grossman56

[Dual Prop Dave]

I fly mine with Admiral 3000's with both as far forward as possible and it balances very level gear up. when I drop the gear in flight, I don't really notice any change in attitude and have landed with no flaps using throttle management on descent and had no problems what so ever. Like everyone else on here has stated, this is a very sweet flying bird!

Hope this helps.

Dave

[dkalwishky]

I set up the balance at 1/2 inch down from level CG at 70mm and when the gear extends the nose drops almost to the table like the pic in my earlier post. I am at a loss at what to do next.

I fly my Tigercat with a pair of Admiral 4S 3600's all the way forward, no idea where my CG is but the plane flies really well there. I notice NO pitch changed when the gear is deployed or retracted.

I'm sure I picked this battery location from the flight review video that Ryan & Mike did.

[Hardway]

If I get the courage up I might fly it on my next day off that CG shift with the gear bothers me. I need to be sure it flys good before I sink in the cash for more batteries for this bird.

Mine does that... Nose drops when gear is down. It flies great!!! Just take your time and be careful when you retract the gear the first time. :Cool:

[Mad Baron]

If I get the courage up I might fly it on my next day off that CG shift with the gear bothers me. I need to be sure it flys good before I sink in the cash for more batteries for this bird.

[Woodcock]

I balance my planes with my fingers.... old school.

My opinion guys, those pin-point stand balancers are super-sensitive and although they work, they can be somewhat misleading. Case in point, as Maddie showed in the previous post, the nose "drops to the table" when the gear is extended. yeah, well so what, is that meaningful? Probably not!! The plane isn't flying on a pin-point.

When I'm flying my Tigercat and I extend the flaps and gear for landing, I can't say that I notice much difference at all. The CG shift helps counter the ballooning, and so I just feel it all cancels out. Anyway a little more nose-heavy during landing (with the flaps out) isn't a bad thing - I mean having the extra stability is useful. Its not like the plane dives for the ground when you put the gear down - it flies great and there is certainly no problem.

I'm using the stock gear.
The only caveat is that I have never landed without flaps!

Like Maddie said on post #1504 - being tail heavy is no fun at all. So DON'T add tail weight, no way!!

Couldn't have said it much better myself. But basically, especially in planes with retracts! Check it out in all configurations. You should never have an Aft CG in any configuration, landing or otherwise. So you need to check it with the gear up, I usually start here. BUT! if you lower the gear, and end up with an aft CG, changes need to be made. I discovered this early on with my A-4 models. When you lower the gear on an A-4 and planes with landing gear like an A-4, you can magically end up with an aft CG on landing, very bad situation. Aft CG's are bad enough, but when landing is almost the worst possible time. So in short, if your plane is like this, yer just going to have to fly it a bit nose heavy. Get use to the idea, it's a must have situation.

Best Regards
Woody

[themudduck]

I balance my planes with my fingers.... old school.

My opinion guys, those pin-point stand balancers are super-sensitive and although they work, they can be somewhat misleading. Case in point, as Maddie showed in the previous post, the nose "drops to the table" when the gear is extended. yeah, well so what, is that meaningful? Probably not!! The plane isn't flying on a pin-point.

When I'm flying my Tigercat and I extend the flaps and gear for landing, I can't say that I notice much difference at all. The CG shift helps counter the ballooning, and so I just feel it all cancels out. Anyway a little more nose-heavy during landing (with the flaps out) isn't a bad thing - I mean having the extra stability is useful. Its not like the plane dives for the ground when you put the gear down - it flies great and there is certainly no problem.

I'm using the stock gear.
The only caveat is that I have never landed without flaps!

Like Maddie said on post #1504 - being tail heavy is no fun at all. So DON'T add tail weight, no way!!

[OV10]

I set up the balance at 1/2 inch down from level CG at 70mm and when the gear extends the nose drops almost to the table like the pic in my earlier post. I am at a loss at what to do next.

Since I no longer have my Tiger, maybe we can get Gman to show a pic of his LaPatrona @ 70mm CG mark with gear retracted and extended using his 3600's in his preferred location for the many flights it's had.
This should give you a visible bearing on what to expect.

[Mad Baron]

I set up the balance at 1/2 inch down from level CG at 70mm and when the gear extends the nose drops almost to the table like the pic in my earlier post. I am at a loss at what to do next.

[OV10]

Gear up----Level
Gear down---nose dive more than 2 inches
Is this normal for this plane?
CG set at 70mm

It's normal for ALL aft swinging retract birds to get nose heavy when gear is lowered.
From your comment of "Gear up----level, I see you didn't follow the instruction :Straight-Face:
Position placement of batteries so that Gear Up and CG at 70mm with tail about 1/2 inch down from level is achieved.

[Mad Baron]

Gear up----Level
Gear down---nose dive more than 2 inches
Is this normal for this plane?
CG set at 70mm

[Grossman56]

Right On!:Cool::Cool:

[OV10]

I balanced it with the gear down and retracted it is tail heavy a tail heavy plane is no fun to fly.

Let me help here MB:Cool:

1) ALL aircraft that have aft retracting gear get balanced with gear up.
There are those that will want to contradict this but............:P l'll test their warbird flying skill strengths all day long ;)LOL

2) The long established CG SWEET ZONE for the Tiger is 70mm

Here's a pic of what I did with my 4000's(took this from a post Brandon did back on 11/25/16 on post #107

The tail end of the top batt and front end of bottom batt are 1 inch forward of that canopy magnetic
ps........I had a foam block support spacer under the front batt overhang.
Also serves to keep bottom batt from shifting forward.
These 4000 give close to 10 min of mixed throttle operations

For your 3300 use the below setup plan which is no different than for the 3600 or 4000.;)

Position placement of batteries so that Gear Up and CG at 70mm with tail about 1/2 inch down from level is achieved.
When gear is lowered the nose will drop 1-2 inches but this is fine because when full flaps is engaged it will want to balloon which is what Gman was referring to with down E mix which won't be as much.
This bird can/will fly very well in nose heavy position while you work out the inflight trim levels.
This bird really is a sweetheart to fly. It's like a twin engine trainer in warbird clothing so go have yourself some FUN:)

Best regards,
Warbird Charlie