Official FlightLine RC 1600mm F7F-3 Tigercat Thread

[Bajora]

After watching the flight videos so far, this is a must have. For me, The dark blue color (top and bottom) might cause orientation issues under certain conditions. So invasion stripes on bottom only might help. Hope that doesn't offend the scale police, but losing orientation is not fun. Now waiting to see Ryan's flight review.

My 50-something eyes often cause me to have the same worries with my models BUT, this one causes me no problems whatsoever. It is a large model ... plus the tall vertical stabilizer and large engine nacelles also really enhance it's in-flight orientation

[Delizar]

Maybe a scheme like this would help.

[Brandon Moon]

Review of the "FlightLineRC" F7F-3 Tiger Cat "Top Secret" project "Lelu"

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Initial unboxing review:

I received the mysterious box from FlightLineRC and MotionRC and upon initial inspection was pleasantly surprised to find a gorgeous 1600mm twin all electric R/C PNP F7F-3 Tiger Cat. Time to do the happy dance and boogie down
. I too have been fortunate enough to have been selected to test and fly a production version F7F-3 for the past month now.

My first inspections were of the foam finish and panel lines; I was pleasantly surprised to find it smooth and beautifully painted in dark sea blue. The texture and finish rivaled my recent purchase of a Durafly British Mk 5 spitfire and P-40N which at the time, was the best foam finish’s I’ve ever seen on a foam RC Model. Can’t say that now after seeing this F7F-3 Tiger Cat from "FlightLineRC". The finish is hands down second to none. I own several of their recent models and this one sets the bar yet higher again than their already high standards, I am thoroughly impressed!!!

After several days of ogling over the pieces, inspecting the electronics, and components of the airplane...I have noticed several nice new features. All the control surfaces are hidden hinged and countersunk (with exception of the elevators) for a scale like look and operation. They’ve included navigation lights and a sequenced landing light that operates on /off with the gear retraction, all very visible during daylight with the use of 3 watt cree lights. The cosmetic plastic pieces, such as the guns, pitot tube, and top antenna are designed to be removable without tearing up the foam. The retracts have nice large scale like wheels. With 85x26mm main wheels and a 70x20mm nose wheel; this will make just about any grass and unimproved field handling a breeze. The nose gear has been incorporated in such way to have the scale like forward rake, which is iconic and very noticeable on the full-sized version of this plane. I was told an optional compression strut upgrade is going to be available soon. https://www.motionrc.com/products/fl...set-flw3021088

Moving on next to the rest of the plane. They have incorporated 3 new PCB connections boards. One mounted in each wing and one in the fuselage. These use a simple quick disconnect ribbon cable to make your wing to fuselage connections quick and easy and eliminates the clutter of wires needed to connect for wing removal and transportation to and from the field if so desired. In addition, the fuselage main PCB has been engineered to incorporate a sequenced gear & gear door delay function for those wanting to modify and add sequenced servo driven gear doors…...BIG Plus in my book and eliminates the need to have external 3rd party sequencers and additional components needing placement in the fuselage…Nice touch and leaves more room for other options . The gear use a simple and very effective spring system on the doors to draw close and open the doors with the cycling motion of the retracts themselves which eliminates extra servos, weight, and electrical draw on the RX. A nice and well-engineered premise to the “KISS Theory”, but for those who like the servo driven and sequenced gear door operations, FlightLineRC has incorporated built in tabbed horns into each landing gear door to facilitate the addition of push rods for quick and easy installation of additional servos for this operation, there by minimalizing the modification work load on the modeler him or herself. This with the included sequenced gear door function already added to the built in electronic PCB hook up setup is a Big WIN WIN all the way around. This one wins BIG KUDDOS from me and the fore thought engineering Brandon Moon Award


Since I am a big fan of the two-seater version of this plane, I naturally wanted to do that version. The back part of the canopy hatch just behind the forward cockpit canopy has been designed in such a way to easily accommodate the simple addition of the second canopy with easy and clean modification. Once again Flight Line RC has though ahead and designed it in such a way as to consider what many modeler’s will want to do in their own personalization’s and incorporated this into the model……Well done "FlightLineRC"!!!

The plane comes with 4 choices of livery decals…I opted to do a mix of the Marines G-142 livery with addition decals used from the AZ livery and a few of my own left over from other Callie-Graphics decals I had, such as the red “No Step” on the elevators and flaps trailing edges. The big “AZ” was placed on the tail to represent my home state of Arizona


The Plane has ample space in the hatch are to accommodate two recommended Admiral 4s (14.8v) 3000 to 4000 mAh lipo’s with built in battery straps and nonskid you apply to the battery shelves for both battery’s. I did my Maiden flight with a pair of admiral 4s 4000 mAh batteries and second flight with Admiral 4s 3600 pro lipo’s. Note: when using the 4000 mAh admiral batteries, you will need to remove about 1/8” from the bottom of the hatch cover tongue lip to clear the battery.

In addition to the fine features already gracing this plane they have even take further steps in providing a flat mounting area perfectly sized just behind the motor mounting plates at the bottom of the nacelles to mount TT-25 speakers for a Mr. RC Sound system. This is done easily with a little modification and removal of the bottom exhaust stacks to access inside the nacelles for speaker mounting and then simply re-gluing the plastic exhaust cover back on. The sound card can be easily placed in the roomy fuselage under the wing connecting PCB. This is a modification addition I will be doing later. With a Mr. RC Sound Aspire unit. SUPER BIG KUDOS!!!! And 5 Stars from me on this fore thought consideration from "FlightLineRC".

Assembly:

The assembly was simple and straight forward. The fuselage came in two pieces requiring the modeler to glue (using the included contact cement) the front and back halves of the fuselage together. The Elevator is a two-piece setup that is simply joined by a Carbon Fiber spar and 4 screws hold it the included mounting tabs. The elevators are joined by a joiner tube which keeps the elevator on the same plane and prevents asymmetric throws between the two elevator halves.

All the wiring is already connected to the installed Wing PCB’s with the exception of a ribbon cable joiner that plugs into the wing PCB and connects to the fuselage PCB making removal of the wings a breeze. Four long sheet metal screws are used to hold the nacelles to the wing, Much like the nacelle booms of the recent Fight Line P-38 Lightning assembly method. Simply rout the battery power wires in the channels on the bottom of the wing and glue on the provided plastic covers and that concluded all the gluing required for this plane. As mentioned earlier, all the included Plastic cosmetic accessories, like the gun barrels, antenna, and pitot tube are designed to be a simple “no glue needed” plug in system, which makes them easy to remove and replace in the event of a mishap, ease of transportation, and storage. Yet again BIG KUDO’S from me on this one. The wing is hel on in the same fashion with 4 screws as the recent FlightLineRC P-38. FlightLineRC and Motion RC have gone through a well thought out and well-designed process to make it easier on the modeler with the assembly and have provided an excellent model which can be assembled in about an hour. I had mine put together and ready to install my RX in less the 45 minutes.

I installed my RX, attached the flight surface connecting rods, and set my control throws per the manual and had it ready to fly in a little over two hours. Talk about easy peazy and had a rarely modeled and beautiful looking F7F-3 Tiger cat sitting in front of me ready to grace the Arizona sky’s

Maiden flight review:

crxmanpat and I made the maiden flight last Sunday with a pair of Admiral 4000 mAh lipo’s and a pair of Admiral 3600 pro mAh lipo’s. We set all flight surfaces set to neutral and control throws set as per the included instruction manual…Initial flight timer was set to a conservative 5 minutes. Taxied out on the rough grass field, lined her up into the wind and gave her the throttles. She lifted off the tall grass gracefully and without even a hiccup. Only a few clicks of up elevator trim was needed to have her flying hands free and level, after which we proceeded to put her through her paces. With her big tall vertical stabilizer and rudder, she tracks like an arrow and low full speed presentation passes were a blast and sight to behold. In comparison to the recent release from "FlightLineRC" of the equal sized P-38 lightning…the F7F-3 Tiger Cat was much easier to fly and landings were a breeze. Pardon the “Pun”, but she fly’s like a lady-cat, and displays a beautiful and graceful presence in the sky. With the pre-installed two 600kv motors she was not lacking in power in any way and easily was put through loops and rolls without even straining or wanting to fall out of the sky. We did most of our flight at ¾ throttle with the occasional WOT full speed presentation passes low and across the field. The Stall is very soft and straight forward on her nose with only an occasion or two of wanting to very softly drop a wing tip…She has a very easily recoverable stall behavior.

After landing from a 4 ½ minute flight, the 4s Admiral 4000 mAh batteries were checked and still had 76% left in them. Flight times of 6 to 8 minutes could easily be achieved with reserves left over using these batteries, with a little throttle management. Since then I have flown her an additional 14 times and I prefer using 4000 mAh lipo’s…for longer flight times. The Admiral Pro 3600 mAh lipo’s are another great battery choice.

My Movie F7F (5 min 59 sec)

Pitfalls:

I honestly couldn’t find any. If I had to comment one something…it would be the fact that the plane is one color (Dark Sea Blue) on both top and bottom and this could cause some pilots some orientation problems in flight? But with her big size and HUGE rudder it’s kind of hard to miss even at a distance


My front battery strap was a bit short, but was easily replaced with a larger one.

Conclusion:

This plane is hands down an all-around winner in my book and sets the bar for all the others to dream about. FlightLineRC has listened to what we the modelers want to see in their planes and have incorporated them into a beautiful flying, rarely modeled, highly sought after, iconic twin electric flying airplane…. The F7F-3 Tigercat

I am beyond simply impressed and thoroughly in awe with this plane, I feel privileged and honored to have been chosen to test pilot this aircraft . Folks...this is only the beginning…..start saving your pennies

Brandon Moon

[Brandon Moon]

More pictures from Day one ;)

[Grossman56]

Looks GREAT Brandon!!
I found with the Bearcat that you sometimes have to remember your control inputs and worry less about visual orientation, if I know my inputs result in 'x' and my eyes are telling me 'y' it's easy to dismiss 'y'. Also, if worse comes to worse, if I can see the yellow 'Blue Angels' logo, I know I'm looking at the bottom wing.
I'm noticing in all the pics from everyone that the radial engines appear to be painted from the factory?!
If so, what a nice attention to detail there guys! Are the wheel compartments painted zinc chromate?
Kudos as well to the design team foresight in incorporating things like tabs on the doors for optional servo operation and great thinking in regards to the sound system as well.
A question to all, I know that Grumman's SOP was to paint em blue and kick em out, but would it be a stretch to paint to bottom grey aka the corsair where the inner wing and fuse were grey?
That might be an alternative to invasion stripes, or possibly a single white stripe on the lower wing surface.
Just thinking.......

Grossman56

[xplaneguy]

Outstanding review and great photos Brandon! Love the G-142 scheme....SWEET! :)

[Fast Eddie]

Thank you for an awesome review. That will surely make the first batch sell out fast(er). How was the orientation against the cloud cover when banking from far out? That would be my only worry. Looking forward to a video with Aspire sound hearing this kitty purr. Now Headed over to the air museum that has an airworthy F7F-3. Will post close up photos.

[Brandon Moon]

I was a bit worried about the "orientation thing" myself, But surprisingly it's very easy to see and we had no problems at all...even on the dark cloudy day we flew on as you can see. The video does it no justice....believe me!!!

with it's big tall rudder and big nacelles, it was easy to keep oriented with.

That was one reason I put the Big White "AZ" on the tail, even though not scale for the chosen Livery and also because she was and is the first one in Arizona ;) my prerogative ;)

[Grossman56]

Great Eddie, the Devil is in the details!

Grossman56

[Brandon Moon]

More close up detail pictures

[Bajora]

Comprehensively covered indeed Brandon! Nice!! And mmm mmm mmm but she does look good in that G142 scheme :p

[Brandon Moon]

Thanks Buddy, I shot a little over 94 photos and still taking more as I work on the sound and personal mods.:)

[Grossman56]

Thanks Brandon, makes me appreciate it even more!!

Grossman56

[Brandon Moon]

Thanks guys for all the great and kind comments I'm humbled.

Big thanks to "crxmanpat" for his help with me on this as well.

[OV10]

After several hours of research, have decided on the livery for me and of course it had to be Navy.
OK Callie, here's another one to add to your files.

[Brandon Moon]

She's a beauty :)

[xviper]

Brandon, as many of us with the FL P-38 have witnessed, flying off lumpy, bumpy grass can vibrate the main gear enough to cause them to bend back. This can cause the gear to jamb up the next time we try to deploy them, making it necessary to give the strut a slight bend forward before each flight for fear of having to do a belly landing due to a stuck retract. Can you comment on this topic with regards to this plane? That is the one thing that detracts from the full enjoyment of the P-38 ownership.

[Brandon Moon]

Brandon, as many of us with the FL P-38 have witnessed, flying off lumpy, bumpy grass can vibrate the main gear enough to cause them to bend back. This can cause the gear to jamb up the next time we try to deploy them, making it necessary to give the strut a slight bend forward before each flight for fear of having to do a belly landing due to a stuck retract. Can you comment on this topic with regards to this plane? That is the one thing that detracts from the full enjoyment of the P-38 ownership.

I have both plane you are talking about, and yes....while the P-38 sort of has that dilemma on rough fields (though I've never experienced it yet), this one does not by any means!!!. I have roughly 16 flight on her now in those same grass conditions pictured, and have yet to have anything bend, loosen, or not deploy, ....though I do check often between flights....it's just a good habit for any plane no matter what

[Brandon Moon]

She sings like a bird, Fly's like an angel, and gives the menacing presence of a "bad a$$ Warrior" ;)

[Brandon Moon]