Official FlightLine RC 1600mm F7F-3 Tigercat Thread

[Alpha]

These ESCs and their onboard BECs were redesigned to be able to used in a twin environment. For competitive reasons I cannot elaborate. ;) But suffice to say we have thousands upon thousands of these units in service worldwide that demonstrate the design functions dependably as intended.

[TSHobbies]

I do recall when I got the P38 about this discussion,which I did cut one red wire from one of the ESCs. havent had any issues yet. and so far with the Tigercat no issues..though Ive only run it on the ground, maiden will be today btw

[OV10]

These ESCs and their onboard BECs were redesigned to be able to used in a twin environment. For competitive reasons I cannot elaborate. ;) But suffice to say we have thousands upon thousands of these units in service worldwide that demonstrate the design functions dependably as intended.

Thanx Alpha..........My suspicions have been ratified that they are a new proprietary design. I can rest my techy fears a little on this Tiger and it's electrical hookup which will save me a 10 spot for a separate ZTW. I now know that these ESC's will be great assets for other non FL twin applications.

[crxmanpat]

Many flights on the P-38, and 5 flights so far on the Tigercat, no red wires pulled, no separate BECs, no issues so far. :)

[Beeg]

Beautiful day in Houston today so took the cats out to play. Left the Tom at home due to busted nose gear.
First picture is a size comparison for those that don't have theirs yet. Pretty much fills the bed of my truck.

What surprises me most about the Tigercat is how slow and stable it can fly. What a *****cat. Also, if you takeoff with full flaps it only rolls about 20 feet and gets airborne quick and is a pleasure to land.
Something I had to try after reading the flight test of the real F7F they said it will roll just as fast or even faster with just the rudder. The model exhibits these exact same characteristics with all the dihedrahl. When you use both full deflection it really goes around.
I tried to cram a Admiral 5000 pack in there but just not enough room in the forward bay. Didn't try packing them both in the aft bay. As folks have said, the 3600's give a solid 6min and 4000's are good for at least 7min. with plenty leftover after hard flying so I'm happy with both of them and will fore go trying to shoehorn larger packs.

[crxmanpat]

Very nice! I didn't want to disassemble mine Sunday coming back from the field. Thank goodness it was the only plane I took as it just barely fit into the back of my 2012 Honda Pilot. And I had to put it in at an angle at that.

Now I need to get me another Bearcat to keep it company.

[TSHobbies]

Maiden mine today! WOW!!! very short time at the field though, but first impressions ..I wanted more time! First minute of flight it was tail heavy...so I landed ,reset the batterys ,and tried again... (first, let me say, even with it tail heavy, this plane flew so great ,Id have to say it was my best landing ever)
second flight ,still slightly tail heavy, so decided to bring it back down and set the rear battery a little more forward.... buttt this is when I discovered I forgot to put some goop glue on that damned C clip! oh well... it was a really fun 2 minutes anyway...no damage to the plane, other than a flat spot on the bottom of that leg. will try it again tomorrow...

[TiredIronGRB]

Got mine finished except for the nose art...set the CG at 71 and will maiden there.

[RCjetdude]

Beautiful! And look at all that horizontal surface that is void of clutter..... impressive.

[Alpha]

All I want for Christmas is more Horizontal Surface! Great shop, TiredIronGRB! And thanks to Beeg, Pat, and TSHobbies for posting your successful maidens. Beeg I really like your twin 'Cat photos.

TSHobbies' C-clip brings to mind another pre-flight check. While I never experienced it, and it doesn't appear any of the other flight testers did, it is still a good idea to visually inspect the C-clips to ensure they're properly seated in the groove. With the P-38 we used the wheel collars, which are easy to adjust but they also take up lots of space. With the F7F we went to a wider tire like many people requested, the one tradeoff being we needed to use the flat C-clips to save us the few mm of width that we have added to the wheel.

[TiredIronGRB]

Always make sure the sharp edge of the C-clip is always to the outside.

Yes horizontal space is a good thing...I'm spoiled.

[crxmanpat]

Power System Evaluation

Batteries - Turnigy Graphene 4S 4000 45C (true 30C confirmed), one per motor, fully charged to 4.2v per cell

Meter - E-Flite Power Meter

Static test with the stock 3-blade props, motors, and ESCs supplied with the PnP kit.

Results:

Left Power System after 30 second run
Volts = 16.2
Amps = 40
Watts = 633

Right Power System after 30 second run
Volts = 16.0
Amps = 41
Watts = 655

Since these Turnigy Graphenes seem to put out a little more power from the top end (it can safely put out 120 Amps), I'm getting slightly higher readings than what Yak52Driver was getting at 35A and 525W per side.

Hope this helps!

[Beeg]

Maiden mine today! WOW!!! very short time at the field though, but first impressions ..I wanted more time! First minute of flight it was tail heavy...so I landed ,reset the batterys ,and tried again... (first, let me say, even with it tail heavy, this plane flew so great ,Id have to say it was my best landing ever)
second flight ,still slightly tail heavy, so decided to bring it back down and set the rear battery a little more forward.... buttt this is when I discovered I forgot to put some goop glue on that damned C clip! oh well... it was a really fun 2 minutes anyway...no damage to the plane, other than a flat spot on the bottom of that leg. will try it again tomorrow...

Bummer. Hope you didn't get a prop?!

[DonRhone]

My order for the F7F which was to have been mailed to me on Dec 13 seems to have disappeared. Other than USPS picking up the parcel there has been no updates since. I wonder if this is one of those computer glitches, perhaps there was not enough F7F planes to go around after all. I spoke to someone yesterday on the Motion RC chat line and was advised that I would be contacted today. I was at home the entire day more or less waiting for a status report. No one contacted me. One thing is for sure no plane under the tree this year

UPDATE - The package just showed up on the USPS tracking site. The package just arrived in Chicago, It took one week to get that far. Usually the packages take two days to get to Canada then four to five days to reach me if it does not get hung up in Customs. Well the next couple of weeks are not going to be flying weather anyway. I doubt that this bird will see any airtime until Spring anyway.

FINAL UPDATE: The Flightline F7F arrived today, Dec 28th. What a great looking plane. The finish on the plane is the best of any foam plane I have seen to date. Time will tell how well the paint holds but at first look it is flawless.
I have carefully inspected the plane and this is the first plane that I have received that is entirely blemish free. I have other foam rc planes that are close, but this is the first that is completely blemish free.

I watched the two build videos for this plane and in both the Motion RC and the RC Geek build videos they do not show where they ended up putting the receiver. I read somewhere on the Motion RC site that the Flightline planes were specificaolly designed to place both a receiver and a gyro unit. It this is true then the designated spot certainly is well hidden from these old eyes.
As it is winter here now it will not be until the Spring now that I can expect to maiden this plane. Will certainly post pics when I do.
Question to those reading this, where did you mount your receiver? are any of you using a gyro unit as well, if so where did you mount it. Pics would be great. The only logical place I see would be besides the second battery, aft of the wooden battery mount.

[Beeg]

My order for the F7F which was to have been mailed to me on Dec 13 seems to have disappeared. Other than USPS picking up the parcel there has been no updates since. I wonder if this is one of those computer glitches, perhaps there was not enough F7F planes to go around after all. I spoke to someone yesterday on the Motion RC chat line and was advised that I would be contacted today. I was at home the entire day more or less waiting for a status report. No one contacted me. One thing is for sure no plane under the tree this year

I ordered two of them and had one sent USPS expedited shipping and one regular UPS. The USPS delivery took twice as long as it was suppose to and was shipped three days earlier and they both arrived within a day of each other. I'm not a big fan of our US postal service. Gubberment employees where you can't get fired even if you don't show up for work.

[TSHobbies]

Bummer. Hope you didn't get a prop?!

nope, its all good, ready for flights tomorrow! going to maiden my Thunderbirds F16 tomorrow too

[The RC Geek]

Hey Guys,

Here's my full assembly and flight review video for this Tigercat. Also, I have a full article posted at http://thercgeek.com/FLRCTigercat. Took a little longer than I had hoped based on the timing of the holidays and weather. Anyhow, I hope you guys find it helpful!


Chris

http://thercgeek.com

[lpcustom73]

Has anyone had a balance problem with prop and hub combination. If so, how is balancing accomplished? Thanks for info.....mbw

[Aspirin]

This is how I accomplish balancing props and spinners.
You will need tooling.
I'm under the impression that there are phone apps that use the accelerometer in some smart phones, but this is beyond my comprehension
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...ance-A-Spinner
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...6&postcount=21

And here on Hobby Squawk

https://www.hobbysquawk.com/forum/rc-airplanes/airplane-tips-and-tricks/55259-how-to-balance-larger-props

All the best,
Konrad

[xviper]

Has anyone had a balance problem with prop and hub combination. If so, how is balancing accomplished? Thanks for info.....mbw

With a component prop (ie, each blade is separate and gets screwed in), I do it as simply as I can. This can be done with any number of blades. Weigh each blade on a scale that is good to at least 0.1 grams (0.01g is better but not essential). Keep track of each blade's weight. You can sand the heavy ones on the back side till they all match the lightest blade OR, as I prefer, add enough shiny, black electrical tape to the middle, back side of the lighter blades so they match the heaviest blade. Clean the back with alcohol and make sure it's dry before sticking the tape on.
Now for the spinner and blade holder. This depends on if you can mount the whole thing (without blades) onto the balancer. If not, then balance each component (ie, backplate, spinner cone). If you do the whole thing, make a Sharpie mark so you know how the cone aligns to the backplate. (I prefer to balance each component separately but this is personal preference.) Add a small dab of hot glue to the inside of the part's lip and gently press it with your finger while it's still warm. If it's too much, use a razor to slice a part off. If not enough, add another dab. Now, you should have equal weighing blades and a spinner/backing plate that is balanced. Unless you've done a sloppy job, once you put it all together, it should be all balanced. Test the whole assembly if it will fit on your balancer. Some assemblies are simply too big to do this and you must have faith that you did a good job on the individual pieces. When it's all on the plane do a run up in a clear area with nobody in the line of fire and look, listen and feel for any imbalance. I've done this with muti-bladed props up to 5 blades and 6s power. (And no, that electrical tape won't fly off.)