Official FlightLine RC 1600mm F7F-3 Tigercat Thread

[The RC Geek]

Hey Guys,

Here's a little interview video with a former Tigercat Fire Bomber pilot. Bob Forbes flew for TBM, Inc. (company who operated the Fire Bomber Tigercats) and so talks about his experiences including flying the airplane at Reno, doing airshows, and what it was like performing drops on fires. It was wonderful to talk with him and hear his stories! The video also includes a bonus flight with Bob's commentary as I flew the airplane. Full article (with the full size pics from the video) is available at http://wp.me/p5LuFX-Z1.


Chris

[themudduck]

Great job Geek, I enjoyed the video a lot.

[rifleman_btx]

That was fun to watch!

[70sflyer]

are the battery's hooked up series or parallel?

[Hardway]

As it comes out of the box, they are parallel. 3000 mah to one motor, 3000 mah to the other.... (Or whatever battery you can fit!!) I use 3000's and get about 6 minutes easy.... Hope that helps...

[rifleman_btx]

Yeah I made an adapter so I can run both batteries to both motors, reason being is if I have one battery fail, i have a backup sorta a power redundancy system.

[PlaneDoc]

What do you guys think about the C.G. location of 70 - 80mm? I'm concerned that it might be nose heavy at the measurement.

[rifleman_btx]

70mm has been perfect for me

[pmisuinas]

As it comes out of the box, they are parallel. 3000 mah to one motor, 3000 mah to the other.... (Or whatever battery you can fit!!) I use 3000's and get about 6 minutes easy.... Hope that helps...

Out of the box they are independent (i.e., one battery per ESC/motor). As rifleman said, if you want them in parallel, you need to make an adapter so that both batteries are hooked up to both ESCs....

[OV10]

Out of the box they are independent (i.e., one battery per ESC/motor). As rifleman said, if you want them in parallel, you need to make an adapter so that both batteries are hooked up to both ESCs....

:Cool: Right on.
About a month ago Gman asked how I do my twins for parallel connections.
As I showed him, a pic is better than a 1000 words.;)

[Dual Prop Dave]

OV10, Thank You for posting that pic. I too was wondering how to achieve this. It'll be a huge peace of mind knowing there is some sort of back up on my twins. (kinda):Cool:

[rifleman_btx]

Here's a pic of my homemade adapter I use in both the P38 and Tigercat. Simple and works great

[Dual Prop Dave]

Here's a pic of my homemade adapter I use in both the P38 and Tigercat. Simple and works great

Nice Rifleman-btx! Thanks for that shot. eliminates any question what the finished adapter should look like.:Cool:

[rifleman_btx]

No problem, for the tigercat, if you have to pull the wings for transport and storage, the adapter is your only option, you can do the hardwire in the 38, as the esc wires stay in place. But I opted to do the adapter as I am also running fpv in my P38.

[OV10]

OV10, Thank You for posting that pic. I too was wondering how to achieve this. It'll be a huge peace of mind knowing there is some sort of back up on my twins. (kinda):Cool:

Really no backup, you just lose both motors at the same time when the voltage bottoms out for whatever reason and you are in the dead stick mode like any single motor plane.
A lot nicer than worrying about corkscrewing in after a loss of one side.;)

[PlaneDoc]

On the very first flight with my Tigercat today the RH gear didn't retract, so I landed and tried the gear and it worked fine. On the second flight to check the gear the RH aileron went full up on climb out. I had to use full left aileron and some rudder to keep the wings level. Never tried the gear because I was busy getting it back around to land. Glad my buddy was with me to keep me calm. Landed fine and called it a day. Must be something at the wing root to fuselage connector that is causing the problem with the gear & aileron. :Sweating:

[Sky Wolf]

Yikes! Glad you were able to get her down safely. :Cool:

[rifleman_btx]

Crap that's never any fun. :Scared:

[PlaneDoc]

I thought it was goner. I was able to get the aileron to act crazy moving the wires at the fuselage connector were it mates with the wing. I tried to tighten the pins in the connectors & think I might have fixed it.Moving the wires with it powered up and the servo isn't jumping around now. So I guess it's ready for flight again.

[rifleman_btx]

I truly hope so, man that's scary since I have to pull my wings on every trip to the field