Official FlightLine RC 1600mm F7F-3 Tigercat Thread

[Denniswpb]

I have a lot of slop in all 3 retracts on my Tigercat. It's not the struts, it's the trunnions on the retracts. So far, the retracts have not collapsed, which with the amount of slop forward and aft, I'm amazed each time I land. Has anyone experienced this, and is there anyway to take out the slop, or are the retracts just getting worn out?

[Grossman56]

Had the Tigercat out at the field today, first flight on the upgraded motor and B25 prop system.
She SCREAMS
The method of attaching the prop to the prop shaft is so superior to the stock method, well worth the investment. The item numbers on the props are one number off, so I check and sure enough the blades are the same as the stock ones, it's just the hardware that's different. Good news all around.

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

I've always got my eyes open for interesting shapes in the same scale as the planes. I'm really blown away by the difference from stock to customized motors, well worth the effort.

Grossman56

[davegee]

Thanks Elbe, here's the finished product...


And here it is installed



The wire is packing slip wire I collected over the years, the ring is tubing interveineous days. and the pushrods a small wooden dowlings. Stuff you see laying around that usually ends up in the garbage but does great detail work.

Grossman56

Looks great, Dan! Amazing all the stuff we have around our workshops to use for detailing projects like this!

Cheers

Davegee

[Grossman56]

Thanks Elbe, here's the finished product...


And here it is installed



The wire is packing slip wire I collected over the years, the ring is tubing interveineous days. and the pushrods a small wooden dowlings. Stuff you see laying around that usually ends up in the garbage but does great detail work.

Grossman56

[Elbee]

Grossman56, very clever and great looking detail touches. Bravo Zulu, Sir. Best, LB

[Grossman56]

Mods to the Tigercat

The motors getting modded. Pushrods on the cylinders, letting the glue dry.


Grossman56

[Grossman56]

Everything came in stock so I ordered one more motor shaft, two sets of props and two spinners. A much better system of locking the props onto the prop shaft! I also reinstalled the 3948 kv760 motors. I ordered one in from Porcupine Hobbies (Hong Kong). Turns out its a Predator make and as I would prefer two of the same motors on the airplane (duh) I pulled the 760 out of my Bearcat and put it on the Tigercat. The Bearcat got the Predator motor, so she's happy! I refined my method of drilling the new holes for the motor mounts as well. Used the same centering device, carefully lined it up to what I considered the best position and drilled the two bottom holes. I then pulled the centering device (which is anything that will nicely fit in the hole of the nacelle)

and enlarged the two holes slightly, then screwed the motor mount to the nacelle. This gave me a definite pattern for drilling the two upper holes. Removed the motor mount and reinstalled it on the motor, using Gorilla Glue to ensure the dang thing stays tight! GG has this great product for doing detail work, it's excellent. I also put shims on the back of the motor mount on the two lower arms to vertically increase the angle of the motor as she looked like she flew nose high in the last flights, again GG comes in handy to hold those pesky shims on. All said and done, everything went smooth as butter. Prop clearance is great and it retains the stock appearance only now I'll have the old power back. From stock 600's to 760's made all the difference. Now she moves out like a racer/fighter, even at 5000 feet.
This is a fairly cheap mod for your Tigercat and a much better way of mounting props, sure beats that one tiny screw holding the whole thing on. Now, all the screw does is hold the front half of the spinner in place.

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

Yay!! I finally have the second prop shaft on order. My big question, when the B25 came out, was whether the prop shaft was compatible with the Tigercat motors and more importantly, with the780 kv motors that I want to reinstall. The props on the B25 are more robust than the stock Tigercat and since I'm convinced it was a prop blade that let go and put her in the ground...

Now that I have her rebuilt and have flown her with the stock motors, they just don't cut it at 5,000 feet.
However, without a better prop system, I resigned myself to using her as a pattern flyer. I managed to get one prop shaft (last one in stock) about a month ago and lo and behold, yesssss, it fits!!
So, once everything arrives, I'll let you all know how it turns out.

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

Rushed home today because, well, today is Tigercat Day!!
Sure as heck, she was there waiting for me!!

So, not to bore you with Grossman enthusiasm, let's skip to the finished product!!


Note the difference between the Bearcat and the Tigercat colors? That's the same color, just with a few coats of Spar Varathane, incredible difference.
Anyway, take a good look 'cause she won't be that color for long. I assembled it and made sure everything was functioning. This weekend, I'll remove the wings and start the paint job.
First impressions, this thing is BIG!!
First comment out of the wife, bless her heart.
When next you see her (the Tigerkitty, not the wife!)
She will be La Patrona.


Grossman56

Hey, she's 7 years old today! Good thing I'm still the same age!

Grossman56

[Denniswpb]

Thanks. That looks cleaner and then what I was thinking of doing.

I attached a drawing also!

[StratoJoe]

Thanks. That looks cleaner and then what I was thinking of doing.

[Denniswpb]

How would you go about running the batteries in parallel? I am trying to picture what kind of harness would need.

You would have 4 connectors ( 2 male and 2 female sets) The 2 male connectors plug into the 2 batteries. The black wires (-) get connected together and the red wires get connected together. The 2 female connectors plug into the 2 ESCs. Do the same thing, Black wires together, and red wires together. Now take the 2 black wires from the ESC connectors and solder them to the 2 black wires from the batteries. Do the same for the red wires.

[StratoJoe]

How would you go about running the batteries in parallel? I am trying to picture what kind of harness would need.

[Denniswpb]

Marke sure your throttle cutoff switch is correct. Next try doing an ESC calibration. There are videos from Motion RC on how to do that, it's easy. Lastly, rebind.

[ronwc]

You may want to try reversing the throttle channel, make sure to unplug lipo first. If that doesn't work, try increasing your throttle throws on tx. Also you may need to calibrate the ESC's.

[TomE11]

I just picked up a New, In Box Flightline F7F Tigercat at a swap meet. It went together smoothly, but... My motors both just set there and beep about once a second. I don't get the 4 initialization beeps, and I don't get any throttle response. I have set the throttle trim all the way down, just in case that was a problem. I rechecked my throttle connections for placement and polarity, and I even tried another receiver, just in case it was a receiver issue.

But no joy. All the controls work with the exception of the throttle.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Tom

[Grossman56]

Definitely run the batteries in parallel. If you loose a motor in flight it could get real ugly. Just try taxiing on one motor, that was enough to convince me!

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

I usually use 3600's but have on occasion used 4000's, they worked fine.

Grossman56

[StratoJoe]

That’s a really idea about running them in parallel.

I do believe it has the stock landing gear, however, that should be simple enough to swap out. The one picked up has a custom paint job on the cowling and tail for orientation. The previous owner even attempted their hand had some weathering.

While I know a lot of people pristine plane, however, I am okay with weathering since it feels more authentic for the time period it would have been used in.