Tony Cooper Posted June 22, 2009 Share Posted June 22, 2009 Nose wheel held in by four wood screws which did not penertrate the bulkhead fully. On second landing by my instructor the screws pulled out causing the mouting ply to delaminate. Cured by fixing a new piece of ply mount to the bulkhead and mouting with bolts going through the mount and bulkhead . No further problems. Flys extreamly well and looks good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Cooper Posted September 14, 2009 Author Share Posted September 14, 2009 Further to my woes with thia ARTF, I had a slightly heavy landing, on the wheels). This caused the former to which the main undercarriage mounting block is attached to delaminate, seems to be very poor lite ply selection , the undercarriage block which is channeled for more than half its thickness split in half. the model flies great but for me is spoilt by the quality, its a trainer, but I question weather its rubust enough for this roll? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Cooper Posted October 18, 2009 Author Share Posted October 18, 2009 And further still, I crashed it on Saturday, a low slow turn onto final. The fus has broken in half, I am starting to repair it but need to replace a lot of the liteply formers they just shattered ( delaminated ). also found that alot of the "slotted" joints have just sprung apart, no glue has penetrated the joint. As I've said before I like to fly the model to fly but I will not go the ARTF route again, as the material selection and build quality is crap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyS Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 Sounds like you've had a few problems with this one Tony. Like you say, you sort of expect trainers to be built with, well. novices in mind i.e. able to take the odd knock. I built my own, a Condor 40 (there are pics in my albums). It's only flown once so far but it does seem quite strong but then I built it with my amateur status in mind . The only thing I would change on my kit are the blown plastic wingtips which don't cover with solarfilm - they wouldn't take the heat. On reflection I should've gone with my gut and made up some balsa replacements. I hope you get some use out of the Tamecat but if you don't there are lots of trainer kits out there and the chaps on this site will be only too happy to share their experiences. T Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Webb (Steve Webb Models) Posted October 8, 2010 Share Posted October 8, 2010 Hi Tony I’m sorry I only just saw this post and I’d like to clarify a few things you may or may not know. The first delivery of Tamecat’s actually had a fault on the nose leg. The leg was designed to go on a bracket the ‘wrong side’ of the bulkhead – The design feature was deliberate, but what wasn’t deliberate was the use of self tapping screws. The fixing should have been bolts. As you quite right say and are correct to do so – The nose leg (fixing) was faulty. I actually had a plane off the first delivery of Tamecat’s and during a very light, perfect landing the nose leg came off. I’d actually dropped out of the BMFA for a while and they had lost the 'A' certificate reference from 1982 and so I had to retake my 'A.' to fly solo at the club. Can you guess what I was doing when the nose leg came off? Not good for the importer and distributor I can tell you and the retake of the ‘A’ test had caused me a great deal of ‘ribbing’ - Imagine what it was like when the nose leg came off during my test. I had to retire from the field (red faced), fix the leg with bolts and re take my ‘fail’ the next weekend. Regard the next landing /complaint about the main undercarriage block. The block is Liteply and would pull out of break before the rest of the model did, I would hope. I have flown my Tamecat for a few hours and it has never given a problem on my model. There’s no production fault regard the main block, to give you a specific analysis I would have to see your model. The ply is similar to Liteply’s sold by Flair , Slec in the past and Pilot kits used similar ply – It’s not different to any other quality ARTF. The ply on all the models I have seen is the same ply through the entire range and many other ranges of ARTF. (I heard lit ply was originally shuttering ply on skyscrapers in Asia, but I'm not sure if that’s fact or fiction) Before ARTF I built many models using balsa, ply and heat shrink covering, which is exactly how the Tamecat is built and TBH it's a good as anything I've built. The wood and ply is typical of many kits and models. See part 2 Steve Edited By Steven Webb (Steve Webb Models) on 08/10/2010 16:57:05 Just to put a link http://www.stevewebb.co.uk/index.php?pid=A244&area=Aircraft Thats my model in that listing, flying on its first half dozen flights back then Edited By Steven Webb (Steve Webb Models) on 08/10/2010 17:05:06 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Webb (Steve Webb Models) Posted October 8, 2010 Share Posted October 8, 2010 Part 2 the crash? The third and final ‘landing’ on finals sounds more like a stall and crash. Unless the model is made from EPP it’s unlikely to survive such an incident. Ply and balsa will break. The Tamcat fuselage is actually stronger than many other models, because it has false jet intakes and more structure than usual, to snap the fuselage in two would indicate a lot of inertia in the landing (crash). In the wonderful hobby of model aero planes such crashes and damage are common place, because of your comments regard the ply and balsa construction I’m presuming that you have never built a model aeroplane or had much experience of such models. May I ask did you get tuition or just go solo? If it was the latter I can see why you would have crashed. The Tamecat is a great second model or first model if you are on a Buddy box system. If you are training yourself an EPP model might be a better way to go. If your still flying the Tamecat and need any assistance please call 01928 75225 and speak to the manager (Adrian). If you feel the model is sub standard and wish us to take a look at it you would be welcome to call in to SWM and we could check it over for you. It’s a while since you posted and so I’m not sure if your problems are still ‘current’ with this model My Tamecat 40 is hanging up in SWM at the moment, apart from a small dent in the covering where the nose leg came off, it’s like new – not a scratch. I think my Tamecat is in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0fLZjiQe1E and this is from on board on one of the early flights ( after I fixed he nose leg) from on board http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npeL882rSRU Hope that the vids are of interest Cheers Steve SWM - Importer and Distributor for the Tamecat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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