FliteLine F7F Tigercat Nose Gear Upgrade Alternative

[70sflyer]

What really needs to happen, is that MotionRC (FlightLineRC) needs to have a new nose strut piston made that is 3.5 to 4mm shorter at the connection end to the trailing link and send those out to customers that have already bought them and replace the pistons in their existing unsold stock of them....Problem cured ;) and simple fix. Then they will qualify as "Drop in" upgrade replacements.

Brandon,that's what I did with mine and it works Great.Your right, MotionRC (Flightline) needs to get on top of this.Dean

[Brandon Moon]

What really needs to happen, is that MotionRC (FlightLineRC) needs to have a new nose strut piston made that is 3.5 to 4mm shorter at the connection end to the trailing link and send those out to customers that have already bought them and replace the pistons in their existing unsold stock of them....Problem cured ;) and simple fix. Then they will qualify as "Drop in" upgrade replacements.

[OV10]

Brandon & DK..........many thanx, just the mad modder in me!! :rolleyes:

[Brandon Moon]

Had mine out last weekend with the mod I did to mine and it worked flawlessly. Made the landings much smoother and softer, both on hard tarmac and on the bumpy grass field.

[dkalwishky]

Nicely done Charlie.

[Brandon Moon]

Good work Charlie ;)

[StormyDog1962]

Freewing is aware of the issue and we do have parts coming soon to remedy this. Just let anyone know if they have this issue to please contact us and we will get them taken care of.

[Pheonix]

This is really a good idea. I am still working on my cat. I tried Minwax for the finish and am having all kinds of issues getting the wings to accept the finish. There are areas in the foam that will take the wax and other areas that will not. This is an issue that I have never encountered before. Of course, I will not give up until I get it right. Not sure why I wrote this in this space. Getting old I guess.

[rifleman_btx]

Very nice! I will definitely have to do that when I get mine! :)

[OV10]

Since I run off a grass strip it was a must have for me to do the optional (Oleo) Shock Absorbing Upgrade Landing Gear Set. The mains are rock solid from all reports that I have been able to confirm but not so much with the nose gear.
The major problem with the nose gear upgrade was it not being able to go all the way into the bay before having the nose gear doors close on the nose wheel. This was brought to our attention by Brandon Moon on post #446 over on the Official Announcement thread of the Tigercat.

https://www.hobbysquawk.com/forum/rc-airplanes/propeller-airplanes/51987-official-announcement-flightlinerc-1600mm-f7f-3-tigercat?p=55632#post55632

So the mad modder in me gets into research mode and what do you know, I find a strut that is almost the same profile configuration of the original non sprung strut and without the stirrup style wheel mount that is on the upgrade which isn't scale looking and it is also the exact length. What's even more crazy is it's a Freewing part. It is the right main gear strut from the 90mm T-45 Goshawk.

https://www.motionrc.com/products/freewing-90mm-t-45-main-landing-gear-strut-and-wheel-right

I also had to use this main gear axle from the 90mm Eurofighter to fit the wide stock nose wheel. (Note: used a alum roof nail for demo till I get the axle)
https://www.motionrc.com/products/fr...main-gear-axle.
The only alterations was to drill the end pin hole in the strut to the same diameter as the retract pin and make it 3/16" deeper and to shorten the nose door spring 3/16".
The strut door spring hooked into the top front compression arm and the T-45 door was removed from strut.
Pictures say a 1000 words. I have no way of posting a video of the actual closure process but the pics show a sequenced event for you.
Now if Motion can get this strut incorporated as a replacement to the existing problem nose strut in the Upgrade Landing Gear Set they'll have a winner.



Hope you pilots of this great bird find this helpful !!!
Best regards,