Official FlightLine RC 1600mm F7F-3 Tigercat Thread

[themudduck]

Pat, Grossman, you guys are reading the instructions? Wat? :Confused:LOL

[Beeg]

Pat, Grossman, you guys are reading the instructions? Wat? :Confused:LOL

LOL! Yeah, I start with what's in the manual and like most planes you have to tweak it little but makes for a good starting point. I've found with the Flightline and Freewing planes the guys do a good job flight testing and the settings they list in the manuals and pretty darn good for a stock configuration.

[Grossman56]

Yes, out with the ruler last night to dial everything in. I expect a great flight the next time. I have all my full flap birds set at 15 and 30 degrees of flap, works like a charm. I I feel like she needs more, I'll adjust from there.

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

Hey guys!
Second and third flight in on La Patrona. Played around with the flap settings and here's something interesting. First flight with half and full flaps and 4 down mixed in with the half flap and 14 mixed in with the full flaps as per manual, still didn't work, so brought her in with no flaps (good news, she lands fine with no flaps, just follow the rules, keep the fuse level and use throttle to control descent. touch her back slightly to raise the nose just before touch down and she lands like a champ!!) Reset the mix for half flaps to ZERO elevator (in other words no mix) and rolled the full flap mix back to zero as well, just to see.
Half flaps were perfect and full made the nose climb, better than the dive it was doing!!
So, somewhere between zero and 14 is the sweet spot, so I'm adding 7 elevator down on the mix (DX8 old version, it actually reads -7) and will try again.
As I only have 5x3600 batteries and since that was the size I started out with, I'd like to get it all worked out with that size first. Of course the 5th battery ain't worth :Poo: on a two engined airplane, so looks like its time to purchase a new 3600 and a new 4000 to boot as I only have 5 of those as well.
So, this is the first airplane I haven't put a gyro in as you may recall, but she is a rock sold airplane as I would expect from FlightLine after the success of the Bearcat. Not the first plane I've flow without a gyro as well so.....
Now, in regards to the flap/elevator mix, I don't know how to explain it, but she doesn't need as much as called for in the manual, at least in my case. The altitude in Cody, Wy is 5000 feet so maybe that has something to do with it, or my fancy paint job or that awesome decal on the nose, don't know. But at the rate she's going, she'll be dialed in by the next couple of flights. She's sure a pleasure to see fly and handles the breeze extremely well. Had a bit of a cross wind on the final landing and you could see her crab a bit, so fly the body of the plane and ignore the nose and a great landing!
One bit of advice to anyone in my position who has flown nothing but tail draggers. Don't forget to push the elevator stick forward instead of back and its the right stick not the left, I keep giving her throttle with the stick back, but I correct myself extremely fast for an old guy!!

Grossman56

[Lon]

Great report Gman! She will be dialed in soon.

[Grossman56]

Thanks Lon, I feel much better about her, but the first flight got me thinking, I must be a bit better of a pilot than I give myself credit for, got her on the ground in one piece, where before that didn't happen!
I'm figuring one or two more flights should do it. Take offs and landings with a nose wheel are so great! She pulls a little to the right so I have to do a slight adjustment on the wheel, but no big deal. I'm really impressed on how fast she can be up in the air. If she looked like she was pulling off to far, rather than correcting it, I just gave her 3/4 and before I could think about it, she was up and gone. Pull up the gear and flaps and man she climbs out beautifully!
A little more playing around with trim settings (minor adjustments) and the flaps and she's ready for Nefi.

Charlie, any flying yet??

Grossman56

[OV10]

Not in almost 2 weeeks Dan since I did the preseason opener maiden on the Razor. We've been getting monsooned so the club field is a bog again.:( Another inch of rain tomorrow :Angry:
A little advice on trike landings.........no need to push the nose over, just let the airspeed bleed off as a function of motor speed reduction and the nose will drop naturally. (reduce throttle while holding some back pressure or neutral on elevator stick) Pushing over is an un-natural control that can get you into some bad ground handling issues.
Hope that was a typo/brain fart when you mentioned half flap to ZERO aileron mix;)

[Grossman56]

Zero is what I have for elevator mix with 15 degrees of flap, mine, for some reason, doesn't want any elevator mix and by the looks of things, around -7 elevator with full flaps set at a bit more than 30 Why are mine always different !?
For instance, everywhere else I've read, the Pitts needs the battery ALL the way forward to the point of cutting the foam in the fuse to get it even more forward. Not mine, she's back in the straps at mid fuse !!??
Same with My Little Gal II, I have to use a 1300 3s, as dead weight in the nose to hit the CG, even with the 650 kv in her. Good news is that both fly great, so I'm not complaining. The the Flite Metal on MLG, I can kind of see it, but the others??

BTW, thanks for the trike tip, it IS an unnatural movement so I'll avoid it. All in all she's a great plane, but what would you expect from FlightLine. Batteries all charged up in anticipation of decent weather tomorrow, wind was dead this morning when driving to work at 6:30 am, so I'll try to hit the field around 8-8:30. Taking both La Patrona and My Little Gal II as both are the lowest time birds that I'm taking to Nefi, tight in the truck, but not far to travel.

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

PS, sorry to hear about the uncooperative weather! We've watched the Weather Channel and you guys are getting the short end of the stick out there! Not long to Nefi, hopefully the weather there will rock!!

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

Dialed in!!!!
Perfect day for flying so I was out at the field at 8:30am.
Took La Patrona and My Little Gal II.
MLG has a problem that I have to solve. She likes to pirouette to the right at about 1/4 throttle, no matter what you do with the rudder. I'm thinking I have to shim the motor slightly and recheck the CG, just to be sure. Finally said to heck with it and gunned her and got her up, but the takeoff isn't pretty. She flies well once airborne and the landings are good until she get in the zone then she does what she was doing at Nefi and I remember Captain Mike telling me that the FW Mustang's tail authority leaves something to be desired. Anyway, something to be solved!
La Patrona on the other hand just demonstrated the difference a few years of technology makes. Got the full flap settings on the money now and she's set to the point where I can turn her, level her off again and hands off fly her to the other end of the field, just great!!
Diane came out with me and jumped on the camera and took a kazilliion pictures of which I've gone through to show you what a beautiful Spring Flying Day in Wyoming looks like.....


Note the flap settings in my DX8. the Norm settings were to advance the flap control arms back far enough so that the pushrods would work. 27% gives me 15 degrees of flap and _40% with 10 elevator mix works great for full flap/elevator mix.

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

BTW, this is the first landing with the flaps at full with the mix at 10%. Doesn't get any sweeter than that!

Grossman56

[boomer108]

Forgot how beautiful Wyoming was from my Air Force days. Beautiful pictures Dan and nice flying.:Cool:

Roy B.

[Dewey H Lee]

Dang Dan your king us guys on the east coast. Nothing but rain and high winds and with Joe Nalls just a week away. It hurts:Crying2:. Send us some of that beautiful weather. Congrates on getting things dialed in. Great Job.:Cool:

[Dewey H Lee]

Thats suppose to be killing us.

[Beeg]

Looks like a beautiful day! :Cool:

[TiredIronGRB]

BTW, this is the first landing with the flaps at full with the mix at 10%. Doesn't get any sweeter than that!

Grossman56

I told ya...;)

[Grossman56]

Thanks guys, hoping for more tomorrow morning, we'll see..........
Haven't had the Flying Tiger out in a while. There's a sweet flyer as well!

Grossman56

[TomPatton]

I am interested in putting a few coats of the Gloss Spar Urethane on my F-7. I am not familiar with that product, but from what I have seen here in these posts it really makes the planes color pop out.
Where do you guys buy this at, or do you have to order it. All I have close is a Lowes and a Menards...
Thanks...

[Beeg]

You can use Varathane if you want but I use Minwax water based polyurethane (light blue can) and it doesn't seem to yellow. Readily available at Lowes or Menards in smaller containers. Goes on easily with a high quality brush in multiple thin coats.
A lot of the petroleum based clear gloss will yellow so if you use something else check it on scrap painted white, leaving a section of the white paint uncovered and let it sit a few days before covering your model.

[Grossman56]

I got mine at either Lowes of Home Depot, a can last a long time. Minwax is pretty good as well, just try to get the kind with UV protectant, Spar Varathane has UV protectant. I used Minwax on several of my planes as well and switched to Varathane on the advice of Doc. I found it to be a bit better a product, although both will give you great results. I haven't observed any yellowing from either product and my red white and blue Pandora has been coated for years now. You've seen the pictures of the Bearcats before and after I gather, so you know the results, just remember that the UV protectant will give you some protection, but, as with any dark painted airplane, keep it out of the sun when she's on the ground