After a little break and taking a trip to Canada for the big Father’s Day Fun Fly weekend, I am now back in the shop and working again on the assembly of the new Top Flite giant scale F4U Corsair ARF.
The next step is to install the elevator and rudder pushrods and attach to the control horns. I found it easier to attach the clevises to the control horns and then slide the rods into place and screw them into the clevises.
The instructions suggest installing the tailwheel assembly now, but I decided to install the servos so I could finish the pushrod assemblies and solder the clevises in place at the servo ends.
The two outboard servos are for the elevators (one each for each elevator half) and the two in the middle are for the rudder and the tailwheel steering (double arm servo).
I used Y-harnesses for the elevator servos and the rudder/TW steering servos.
Minor Set Back!!
I was all set to go on to install the rest of the servos and the fuel tank when I decided to cycle the retracts and check the servo leads powering the gear. I flipped the retract switch and….NOTHING !!! Nothing at all happened. So I removed the gear from the wing center section and got a big surprize…
It seems that while I was away from the shop, some adventureous mouse tried to make a home in the Corsair and started to make a nest in the center wing section. The little guy also must have thought the wires tasted good as he munched right through both sets of wiring!
Here’s one of the wire extensions and some of the nesting I removed from the wing. Who says all the MAN review planes go together perfectly without a hitch?
A little time at my soldering bench and the wires were joined back up again. Look how close to the gear the wire damage was.
A little heat shrink tubing and the repair is complete! I just replaced the other wire extension with a new one.
I attached the retract control box on top of the wing just aft of the leading edge so it would clear the internal fuselage formers when the wing is screwed into place. The control box is held in place with two layers of double sided foam tape.
The Corsair comes with very nice looking scale wheels that look scale and are made with a plastic hub and foam tires. They fit the Robart axle bolts perfectly. If you want to go with metal rims and scale rubber tires, the Robart aluminum 8-spoke wheel sets are an excellent match to the Corsair and the gear.
The axles screw into the base of the gear and the jam nut is tightened against the threaded base piece.
The head of the bolt fits into the recessed center of the wheel hub.
With the gear reinstalled and the wheels attached I checked the fit with the wing and everything fits perfectly. I will wait until the airplane is almost complete before adding the trim pieces around the landing gear. I may install main gear doors to cover the retracted wheels as an upgrade after the review is done.
Another little surprize I got, (this one a good one!) was that i got my custom MARINES decals from my buddies at Red5 Designs. Their peel and stick on Vinyl markings are just the best, and very reasonably priced.
The markings are for the USMC fighter squadron VMF 232, the Red Devils from the 1950s Korean war era. Lets face it, there are just too many NAVY Corsair around! More on the markings and the real aircraft later!
That’s it for now, will post more when I finish up the fuel system and the engine installation! Stay tuned! CLICK HERE TO GO TO PART 6.
What is the stock number of those wheels?
I am building my kit / scratch build 75″ wing Corsair, it is part kit and part scratch build, mods are difficult but you gave me some great ideas, Beautiful plane, I think i should have gone with an ARF or “complete” Kit such as Top Flight etc, but mine is a kit thats getting ALOT of custom mods, but thank you for the ideas, (servo placement, duel servos, and waiting on tail wheel install), I implimented those i saw from you.
Beautiful Bird, Thank you
signed, Son of a F4-U Corsair Pilot
what is the circumference of the 8 spoke wheel? can you give me the part or stock number of the wheels thanks