E-Flite P-47, flight without crash!

[Beavis]

I've been flying since August 2017. After starting on a Sport Cub, I thought it was time to step it up a notch. I bought a 1.2m P-47 from HH, and promptly crashed it. 2nd time out after repair I also crashed it. At that point I decided to ground that plane until I got some skillz. Since then, Flite Test foamies have been built and destroyed in the name of fun and learning. Spitfire (rip), Simple Scout (rip), Simple Scout II, mini Scout, Sportster, Simple Scout modded into P-47's, and Mustang. Lately I've been enjoying the FT Mustang, and practicing up on some 3d stuff. Vertical hovers, knife edges, inverted, etc. This plane is so friendly. I think the Mustang is a better beginner 4 channel plane than the Simple Scout once you get it balanced out and trimmed

This last week was the first flight on the P-47 since October(?). I must say... this plane is balanced sooo nicely! It flies in every way like I thought it would now that I learned how to fly it. I never fly my FT planes on high rate servo, but this plane I had to. It was very forgiving, control rate was what I imagine to be scale, and it looked awesome.

2x2200 3s batteries later, it came down unscathed. I loved the low speed capability with flaps - my first flap experience.

It's not powerful enough to get silly vertical, but it has enough to do Immelmans and hammerheads. It just looked so cool doing low altitude fly-by's.

Finally.

 

[rockyboy]

Congrats! It's a great feeling to overcome that learning curve and fly what you've built, isn't it?

Honestly, that's what I enjoy the most about this hobby these days. Flying is mostly just a way of proving that what I built works the way I intended

 

[PsyBorg]

You know the rules... video or it never happened!!

Glad you are enjoying yourself Beavis. Maybe someday soon I will be able to get over that hump myself.

 

[F106DeltaDart]

Happy to hear of your success, and welcome to the world of warbirds! The P-47 is one of the most forgiving warbirds out there, and just a plain old fun airplane to fly. Once you have it locked in and are very confident with it, you can use a 4 cell in it as well. This will substantially boost the power, and both the ESC and motor have enough headroom that it works without issue. First though, give it time and get used to its characteristics on 3S.

 

[Grifflyer]

I'm glad you were able to get it into the air!!

 

[Beavis]

Thanks, guys. After I broke it up on the first 2 flights, I was debating whether this was a good hobby for me. I think the FT foamies saved me from bailing on RC.

The P-47 flew exactly as I imagined when I first watched the HH promo video:

I loved the flaps. Super silky landings. I decided I am going to add flaps to my FT Mustang.

PsyBorg, as far as video goes, I fly alone. My 16 year old son lost interest, and my friends are probably sick of me talking about it. I might connect my fpv camera to the P-47 and video it that way. I mostly fly an oval circuit with some figure 8's tossed in, so pretty boring.

 

[rockyboy]

My 16 year old son lost interest, and my friends are probably sick of me talking about it.

Now you have a couple thousand online friends to talk about RC with - and if you can get to a FliteFest you can meet a bunch of us in person too

 

[Beavis]

Now you have a couple thousand online friends to talk about RC with - and if you can get to a FliteFest you can meet a bunch of us in person too

Thanks! I like forums. Most of my face to face friends don't share my same hobbies, but we have to connect on other levels.

I suppose I could go do a local club, but I have worked an alternative schedule for decades, and it isn't "weekend friendly" like the rest of the world. They play on Saturday mornings, etc. Most of the time I don't wake up until 3pm!

FliteFest sounds like a blast! Maybe I should get a travel trailer and make some plans!

 

[Michael9865]

Congratulations! Highly recommended FliteFest.

 

[Beavis]

You know the rules... video or it never happened!!

Ignore goofy music as deemed necessary. My son was doing some off the wall commentary, so we opted for music instead.

 

[Beavis]

I so enjoyed flaps on the P-47. As a result, I put flaps on my FT Mustang.

Flaps, where were you all my life? Now I don't have to come in scorching hot or do a belly flop stall landing. It was a pretty easy mod.

I scavenged a pair of servos/linkages/horns from a wrecked plane and spliced together a couple of servo extension leads to make a Y cable. I cut the flaps on the trailing portion of the wing inboard of the ailerons, and beveled the hinge. I used the smallest rate possible (top hole of horn, inner hole on servo arm).

I use the same program on my DXe for all of my planes, so my flap servos functioned exactly as my P-47. I use mid flaps for takeoff, and full flaps for landing.

Pics below. Paint comes next.

 

[Beavis]

Um, yeah... I murdered my E-flite P-47 last week. It is no more. Fuse broke in half, one gear retract ruined, chunks missing from wing, rudder snapped off, stabilizer ripped off with one elevator flap torn loose, prop missing 3 blades, and a stripped aileron servo. I don't think I will bother to repair it or buy new parts. I will probably just use it as a template to make a DTFB version of it with similar dimensions.

This one hurt. I was trimming it when I realized my depth perception was a little off, and a tree was much closer than I initially thought. I didn't have enough elevator deflection set up to pull away. It was brutal.

I'll salvage the receiver, ESC, motor, and servos/rod/control horns. I will probably salvage the little pilot dude and cockpit for use in my foam build. Ughh.

 

[Beavis]

New P-47 build in progress. Using DTFB, and plans from here: http://www.rcfbaircraft.com/p-47-razor-back-build

This is a pretty nice design. It will be interesting to see how the body curves flesh out, and where the balance ends up. Right now it is a tiny touch nose heavy without the battery, rear servos, and fuselage skin.

 

[Beavis]

Um, yeah... I murdered my E-flite P-47 last week. It is no more. Fuse broke in half, one gear retract ruined, chunks missing from wing, rudder snapped off, stabilizer ripped off with one elevator flap torn loose, prop missing 3 blades, and a stripped aileron servo. I don't think I will bother to repair it or buy new parts. I will probably just use it as a template to make a DTFB version of it with similar dimensions.

This one hurt. I was trimming it when I realized my depth perception was a little off, and a tree was much closer than I initially thought. I didn't have enough elevator deflection set up to pull away. It was brutal.

I'll salvage the receiver, ESC, motor, and servos/rod/control horns. I will probably salvage the little pilot dude and cockpit for use in my foam build. Ughh.

I didn't think it would be worth a repair, but it's back. I fixed it.

The horizontal stabilizer was all busted up, so I ordered a new one. The rudder was a clean break at the fuse, so it was a pretty straightforward glue repair. The wing had one of the retracts ripped out/broke, and a break 2/3 through. One of the aileron servos had a few stripped teeth, so that also required replacing.

The biggest question was the fuse. It broke pretty clean immediately aft of the wing. I used some toothpicks and CA glue to get that solidly back together.

I also used some Gorrila white glue as filler and bonding glue. Good stuff, but just watch out for the expansion.

$18 for the elevator assembly, $25 for the retract, and $15 for the servo. It's now all tuned up, and ready for a resurrection maiden.

 

[rockyboy]

Repairs look solid and airworthy! Go baby go!