Official FlightLine RC 2000mm B-24D/J Liberator Thread

[xviper]

How do you get the nose gear doors to go up or down when the gear retracts

The gear doors should be on its own servo, which is connected up with the control board. When the retract switch is operated, the control board has a delay that opens the door first and closes it last. Yank out the gear plug from the RX but leave everything else hooked up to the control board and use a servo tester to run the retract. The door should open and close accordingly.

[fieldofdreamsflyer]

The gear doors should be on its own servo, which is connected up with the control board. When the retract switch is operated, the control board has a delay that opens the door first and closes it last. Yank out the gear plug from the RX but leave everything else hooked up to the control board and use a servo tester to run the retract. The door should open and close accordingly.

Is there a spot to put a servo in there

[crxmanpat]

Is there a spot to put a servo in there

Yes, there are pockets on both sides of the opening to install the door servos. There is one servo for each side. And as xviper stated above, there is a spot in the control board for the nose door servos that has the delay already built in.

[dkalwishky]

I had a buddy 3D print the doors for me, this winter I'll be working to get them installed.

[xviper]

Is there a spot to put a servo in there

I take it you got the ARF version? No door servo? If it's the PNP, the servo should be there.

Hmmmm, I just looked. There is no ARF, only PNP. What happened to your door servo?

[dkalwishky]

The B-24 does NOT come with a gear door servo. Since the gear doors are an upgrade you will need to supply a servo. A Freewing 9 gram servo for under $10 will get the job done.

[xviper]

I had to go look just to remind myself what came with it. It has no gear door servo because it never came with a gear door. It's not even offered as an option in the parts list or the upgrades section. You have to get the file to print one yourself. That's what threw me. I got the impression from his post that it came stock with the plane. I haven't flown mine in a while so I couldn't remember how it came.

[rogbmw]

OK - finally decided to ante up and buy this beautiful bird after thinking about and researching it for months. Plus, it helped that they are now on sale. I plan on building the plane just like my dad's. He was the Engineer on the "Queen Mae" in the Pacific with the Jolly Rogers. I have all his documentation on the plane, including a Christmas card he sent to my mom with a picture of the nose of the "Queen Mae", squadron books, patches, and even a several page write-up by my dad detailing his time in the USAAF from the time he entered service up through many of their missions. I will be contacting Callie-graphics to correct the tail number in their graphics. The proper tail number is 314, not 337. This is actually misquoted in several sites as 337, which is incorrect. Even one of the plastic models available has the incorrect information.

The Queen Mae was one of the newer planes at the time which was silver and not painted. Dad said that they did that to save several hundred pounds of paint (and the cost), and thus the non-painted planes were actually faster! He had some harrowing tales of some of the things that happened with the "Queen Mae" during the war. The "Queen Mae" was actually filmed upon return from the first bombing mission to one of the large Japanese islands (I can't remember the name off the top of my head), because it was the first plane back. I have been searching for several years through archives, but have not been able to find the film yet. I always wanted to ask dad before he passed away if he had anything to do with the naming of the plane as my mom's middle name was Mae.

Here is the correct information on the "Queen Mae":
Serial #: 44-40314
319th Bomb Squadron "Asterperious"
90th Bomb Group "Jolly Rogers"

The "Queen Mae" graphics was painted on the Starboard (right) side of the plane.

Serial #44-40314 was accepted by the Army Air Force on 20 March 1944, and passed through the Tucson modification center. It was then ferried to Fairfield, California to be united with its overseas ferry crew on 23 April 1944. On 29 April 1944 it left the USA and was accepted by the 5th Air Force on 10 May 1944 and eventually became the "Queen Mae" with the 319th Bomb Squadron of the 90th Bomb Group.

"Queen Mae" is recorded as being salvaged in the Philippines, post-war, on 28 June 1945. No reason was given, but since it was not due to an accident or combat, it can be safely assumed that, as not the most modern B-24 available, it was considered to be "war weary", gutted for useful parts, and the hulk dumped in one of the many aircraft graveyards which were systematically stripped after the war by scrappers.

There has been a deal of confusion about the "Queen Mae" due the elaborate art work on its nose. Some have thought this elaborate art work to be another of the well know Bartigan-painted 6PRG aircraft, but through thorough research it was confirmed that it was not. The nose art is the work of Al Merking, who was also responsible for the art on many of the 6PRG 7-F Photo recon versions of the B-24.

NOTE: Sarkis Bartigan was the artist responsible for the wonderful artwork on a number of the 43rd Bomb Group aircraft (not 6PRG) eg ("Dragon and Its Tail", "Michigan", "Cocktail Hour", and more)

From the middle of 1944, the B-24 Liberators of the 90th Bomb Group were natural metal finish. They were adorned with the Skull and Cross Bombs markings of the Jolly Rogers. Each of the various Squadrons had a different tail color background:

319th Squadron - Blue background. They were known as the "Asterperious" squadron

320th Squadron - Red background. They were known as the "Moby Dick" squadron, and the nose of the Liberators in this squadron were painted with a shark's nose.

321st Squadron - Green background. They were known as the "Bombs Away" squadron

400th Squadron - Black background. They were known and the "Black Pirate" squadron

[MikeT]

On sale at Motion save $30, might just be the motivation I needed.

Mike

[dkalwishky]

It's a great flying plane. I'm going to pick up a second one.

[fieldofdreamsflyer]

So just one servo or 2 for the gear doors

[dkalwishky]

The gear doors will need their own servo.

[Hardway]

One per side...
Per door. Is that correct? Mine is still in the box...
To be accurate, it is back in the box again!! I put the graphics on the fuselage and then packed her back up!!!

[dkalwishky]

My "guess" is one servo will run both doors, I'll look at mine tonight.

This is what I planned on doing.

[Hardway]

Right. I have the Mossie, so I understand how it works there!!! Thanks!!!

[crxmanpat]

Not sure, but I think 2. I'm printing doors as we speak. I will let you know.

[fhhuber]

Its possible for some gear door systems to use a string or wire that is hit by the landing gear strut to pull the doors closed, spring loaded opening.

The advantage here being it never gets out of sequence. disadvantage being its a little more "fiddly" to set up.

[crxmanpat]

So you'll pretty much need 2 servos; one regular and one reverse. I just happen to have some door servos that I took out of a crashed plane. You'll also need two pushrods and a Y harness as there is only one plug slot for gear doors. Some foam also needs to be trimmed away. After pulling off the plastic cover, trim the shoulders off near the middle, and trim the raised foam at the front and back.

Got my doors printed, cleaned up, and installed. All I need to do now is paint them.

[crxmanpat]

You will need the following to complete the install:

- Printed gear doors
- Two gear door servos; one regular and one reverse
- Two pushrods
- Y harness
- Sharp knife

First, peel off the gear bay plastic cover. Then you will need to trim the foam shoulders about midway down, as well as the raised foam at the ends. Once the doors are snapped in, there is a hole in the front mount for a keeper screw. You can see the hole in the pics, but I had not inserted the screw yet.

The pushrods, with the plastic keepers attached, need to be about 1 5/8", or 40mm, long. All I did was hot glue the servos in place, then connected them to the board using a Y harness as there is only one slot in the boards for the door servos. Works great!

[MikeT]

Nicely done.

Mike