FMS/Airfield 800mm F4u Corsair

lobstermash

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I managed to land myself one of these babies as a freebie a couple of weeks ago. Everyone I've had contact with about the FMS/Airfield models has found them to be great fliers; especially with an upgraded ESC and 3s batteries. They also look very nice on the ground.

My Corsair is no exception in the looks department. The paint is nice. The foam is good quality EPO, if a little thick in parts (I've not seen a model of this scale so chunky!). I got it for free, but at full price it's about $60 plus shipping. Good value I think, though there are better out there...

On a quick glance over, I was wondering if I got a return... On the back of the wings, the foam was pushed in at the bend while in the box. This was fixed with a little hot water, although it removed a little paint in the process. Also, the canopy is laughably small. You can barely stick 3 fingers in there, let alone a LiPo. The motor is alright - a bell type with enough cable for about 15-20A and shouldn't have too much trouble swinging either the stock prop or a 2 blade 8x6 on 3s. The connectors are the little 2mm jobs. The ESC is not 3s capable according to other reviews, so I'm swapping it out straight up, probably for an 18-20A Hobbyking SS.

The main mod for this plane will definitely be a new, bigger, improved canopy. There's a logical groove to follow, and I can't fathom what the designer was thinking with the original... I've also removed the foam filling in the rudder servo slot and will be adding this function. This will take about 2 minutes I reckon. It's a shame I can't connect the tail wheel to the rudder without a bit of effort, which I'm not going to make unless the plane tracks really badly. The plane feels a little heavy straight up, but I think the thick wing and 3s performance will make it feel lighter in the air.

Compared to the GWS clones, there's really very little to do to get these in the air. Not true PNF, but pretty good nonetheless. I'm told that you can squeeze a 1000mAh 2s into the stock canopy, balance it with 30g more in the nose and it flies OK, but I like to make scale-type flight an option rather than the mode. I'll take some photos of the mods and pre-flight glory when I put it on a runway. Stay posted!
 

lobstermash

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Sorry Glydr, got fiddly tonight and did the build/made all my mods already... I have a feeling I won't be using much above half throttle most of the time. On 3s with the stock prop (~7x5 3 bladed thing) it pulls like a terrier! I'm still a little anxious about the cg, which with a 1000mAh 3s is right on the 60mm recommended. I like to maiden just forward of the recommended in most cases. Another mod that I've yet to do is to hollow out the battery bay another few mm to get a 1300 in there - I've got 3 of those and only 1X1000.
 

lobstermash

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Finally maidened it today. As mentioned above, I hollowed out the tray to fit the 1300 3s. The plane feels really heavy and solid, but with such a thick wing, I thought there should be some good lift available in spite of the loading being a little higher than expected.

I'm glad I put the rudder on, because it handled pretty well on the ground with it. I got to the flying field a little late, so the wind was coming up - probably about 15km/h. It didn't need much runway or throttle to lift off and caught me by surprise a little. The plane darted around a little at first, so I gave it more throttle to steady it up. The motor kicked off, not being able to handle the prop! Thankfully the plane plopped down neatly on the grass, no damage done.

I had to replace the stock prop, else I'd have the same issue, so I pulled a 7x6 APC out of the box, stuck a prop saver on (there goes the scale look :( ) and static tested it. There was a slight buzz at 3/4 throttle but it was fine above and below there. Thrust was still pretty good.

The plane took off in much the same way and I had to punch the throttle again to stop it tip stalling after the very quick takeoff. Before I knew it, the plane was at the other end of the field. Very, very fast! It needed a little up elevator trim, but the ailerons and rudder were dead centre. After a couple of circuits on half throttle, I went for a couple of rolls and loops. The roll rate is scale, not ballistic, but acceptable. Full throttle low passes were incredible! Did I mention it's fast? Without the ability to measure speed on my own, I'd estimate it's about 75-80mph! Vertical is unlimited and it drops the nose fairly tamely on stall. Glide slope is a little on the aggressive side, but you can fly controllably fairly slowly. I didn't try inverted because I was a little afraid of losing orientation with the identical top and bottom colour scheme. Maybe after a couple more flights.

I practised the approach twice before touching down. I came in a little hot and touched down slightly too early. It bounced a couple of times, but settled on the gear without tipping over. Unfortunately I left a small amount of paint from each wing tip on the tarmac though.

I'm not convinced that the motor is just 1400kv - I've got other 1400kv motors that don't create anywhere near this performance. It's probably the first under-rated motor I've had from HK. I'd now love to try this plane with the stock prop and about a 1500 2s, but I'm not going to buy a battery out of my generic series (1300 3s and 2200 3s) just for this plane. Maybe I'll paint one of my many unused small black spinners silver and live with the 2 blade prop.

For a freebie, this is hard to beat. In fact, I'd probably buy one quite happily just to have in the collection.
 

lobstermash

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Wow, just plugged the battery used in the maiden to charge... I didn't try too hard to pack the battery alarm in, so flight times were guess work. The pack voltage was down to 11, so I only had a couple more circuits left in it! Going by that, I'm drawing around 15A on average for a mixed throttle flight. I'd love to have a meter to check the amp draw on full, but I'm pretty sure it'd be over 20A. Lucky I'm using a 30!!!

Interestingly, the motor and battery were both warm rather than hot.