Official FlightLine RC 1600mm F7F-3 Tigercat Thread

[OV10]

The main etracts on the Tiger are the same as on the 38 which has been out for a year and half now without any concerns that I've seen.
The Lightning tends to land slightly "heavier" than the Tigercat and so if there was an endemic issue it would most likely have surfaced before this so I would bet that your looking at an isolated incidence.
The fracture is in a really strange position to look like it was induced by landing stresses.
Probably just the one in a thousand bad molds.;)

[Tony617]

Received my F7F-3 Tigercat today. Very nice finish but I little different blue color the then the F8F FlightLine Bearcat. I need to take the elevator into Home Depot to do color match before I put it together.

[themudduck]

The main etracts on the Tiger are the same as on the 38 which has been out for a year and half now without any concerns that I've seen.
The Lightning tends to land slightly "heavier" than the Tigercat and so if there was an endemic issue it would most likely have surfaced before this so I would bet that your looking at an isolated incidence.
The fracture is in a really strange position to look like it was induced by landing stresses.
Probably just the one in a thousand bad molds.;)

Thanks for your comments... that's the cool thing about these forums, we can share our experience and bounce things off each other, and everyone benefits.

[themudduck]

Received my F7F-3 Tigercat today. Very nice finish but I little different blue color the then the F8F FlightLine Bearcat. I need to take the elevator into Home Depot to do color match before I put it together.

See Post 479 on page 24 of this thread!

[Grossman56]

Got the new retracts yesterday and they're now installed. Watched Ryan's video and thought it looked pretty simple. Started with the nose gear and right off the bat a grub screw stripped. Ended up having to take the whole retract apart and drill out the grub screw. After an hour of messing around with it, I finally got it apart. Reassembled the retract and, of course, hooked up to the steering tiller backwards, took it apart but the clevis pin refused to come out of the tiller arm, ended up snapping, picked out the remaining piece and found another clevis. Finally got it assembled. The main gear went very easy compared to the nose gear. One thing, the pin that you attach the nose gear door to, don't tighten it all the way as the retract won't compress.
Since she was up on the table, got another coat of Minwax Pro series Spar Urethane on her. I find the way to work best is to put her on as thick as you can before getting a lot of runs and hit it with a hair dryer, you get a great shine by doing that.

Grossman56

[xviper]

Got the new retracts yesterday and they're now installed. Watched Ryan's video and thought it looked pretty simple. Started with the nose gear and right off the bat a grub screw stripped. Ended up having to take the whole retract apart and drill out the grub screw. After an hour of messing around with it, I finally got it apart. Reassembled the retract and, of course, hooked up to the steering tiller backwards, took it apart but the clevis pin refused to come out of the tiller arm, ended up snapping, picked out the remaining piece and found another clevis. Finally got it assembled. The main gear went very easy compared to the nose gear. One thing, the pin that you attach the nose gear door to, don't tighten it all the way as the retract won't compress.
Since she was up on the table, got another coat of Minwax Pro series Spar Urethane on her. I find the way to work best is to put her on as thick as you can before getting a lot of runs and hit it with a hair dryer, you get a great shine by doing that.

Grossman56

Don't ya just hate that. Whenever I see someone post that it's a "10 minute job", I plan for an hour, maybe two.

[Phatbob]

Got the new retracts yesterday and they're now installed. Watched Ryan's video and thought it looked pretty simple. Started with the nose gear and right off the bat a grub screw stripped. Grossman56

I've stripped a lot of these crap grub screws over the year. The cheap hardware is soft metal. When disassembly is needed, always replace with quality fasteners. In some cases I've had to drill and re-tap threaded holes. One other tip, buy and use quality tools.

[ryramZ]

Sometimes the grub will be cross threaded from the start. I tend to cut off the end of my wrench so it's fresh. If you go into a tough situation with half the bite you need it may end up being trouble. Once there on it's done and it's nice to have them.

[rifleman_btx]

Yeah I'm sure everyone in the hobby has their stories of the dreaded grubs. I know I do! Blah!

[Grossman56]

On the bright side, the sun is out, it's probably 60 degrees hear in the Banana Belt of Wyoming, so, of course I had to try the Tigercat out on the back lawn, which is extremely rough as there is a lot of rocks in our soil...It wasn't pretty but she ploughed through it amazingly, much better than the stock as she wouldn't move at all with those. Looked great in the sunshine as well. That's one mod done!
The big one is coming soon.....
Thought you might get to see the new glossy finish on her,


Grossman56

[Grossman56]

BTW!
When I went to change out the original mains, the grub screws were loose, to the point of concern. So even if your not planning on upgrading, it might be wise to check those grub screws if you have a few flights on yours.
Hey, what else you gonna do during winter??

Grossman56

[OV10]

FOAM-TAC them grub screws whether it's a brand spankin new assembly or an upgrade/rebuild. ;)

[Hardway]

Charlie!!! Just use JB Weld..... They will never move again!! LOL Oh wait......... :Scared:

[OV10]

Charlie!!! Just use JB Weld..... They will never move again!! LOL Oh wait......... :Scared:

They'll move with a flame wrench ;)

[Hardway]

True, but it is hard on the foam!!!! :Drinks: Merry Christmas bro!!!

[Tony617]

I started putting my F7F Tigercat together and fully assembled it and bound the receiver with my transmitter. When I spin the motors I get reversed thrust blowing forward in front of the propeller. Looking at where the ESCs are I need to break the thin plywood and reverse two of the wires to get my motors spinning in the correct direction.

Tony

[fhhuber]

I started putting my F7F Tigercat together and fully assembled it and bound the receiver with my transmitter. When I spin the motors I get reversed thrust blowing forward in front of the propeller. Looking at where the ESCs are I need to break the thin plywood and reverse two of the wires to get my motors spinning in the correct direction.

Tony

2 possible causes of reversed thrust.

1: you put the wrong prop on each side (with counter-rotatng props, norm is the top blade turns toward the center. there are exceptions to this)

2: The factory (or you) plugged the wires between ESC and motors together wrong. If this is it you just swap any 2 of the 3 and that will reverse the brushless motor.

Since you say its hard to get at the wires for reversing... swap props.

Note that if you have the programming card, most modern ESCs you can reverse the motor with the card. (not sure about these, but its worth checking)

[Tony617]

2 possible causes of reversed thrust.

1: you put the wrong prop on each side (with counter-rotatng props, norm is the top blade turns toward the center. there are exceptions to this)

2: The factory (or you) plugged the wires between ESC and motors together wrong. If this is it you just swap any 2 of the 3 and that will reverse the brushless motor.

Since you say its hard to get at the wires for reversing... swap props.

Note that if you have the programming card, most modern ESCs you can reverse the motor with the card. (not sure about these, but its worth checking)

I had the propellers switched. Swapped them and they work now. The only other twin motored RC I own is the B26 Maurader and they both spin inwards

Thank you,

Tony

[Grossman56]

Yep, exactly what I thought as well. When I got back from Nefi and reinstalled the props on La Patrona, she did a turbo prop demonstration of her back up capabilities, oops! Swapped the props and off she went.
There's just something about this airplane that makes people stop and watch, I had her down to Riverton shortly after getting back home and the crowd literally stopped as she flew. All I did was circuits as the wind was up and a good cross wind caught her as she was making a gear pass. Ah ha thinks I, and did some course corrections on the landing approach and she came in like the lady she is. It was cool too because one of the guys was anxiously awaiting the arrival of his and hadn't seen one let alone one in flight he was pretty jacked.

Grossman56

[Tony617]

The nose steering servo was quite loose so I tightened up the screws. Good thing too I would hate to hate the servo to fall out while or come loose while I I was taking off or landing. ;)