Hook Up The Controls; Scale Details - Top Flite P-47D Thunderbolt User Manual

Hook up the controls

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1. Route the air lines through the wing for the main
gear. Leave the lines long enough to connect them to
the landing gear outside of the wing. Connect the air
lines to the landing gear, then mount the gear in the
wing. Hold the landing gear hatch covers to the wing
with clear tape. If you haven't already done so,
secure the wheel axle and nuts with a drop of thread
locking compound. Add a drop of oil to the axles
(even if the wheels spin freely now, the plastic hubs
can soften and deform due to the friction caused by
the speed and weight of the model while taking off
and landing—we've seen it happen!
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2. Route the air lines through the fuselage, then
connect them to the cylinder on the tail gear.
Mount the tail gear. Make certain all the set screws
on the tail gear are secured with a drop of thread
locking compound.
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3. Mount the engine and hook up all the systems
inside the cowl including the fuel lines, in-line fuel
filler valve, remote glow igniter (if used), etc.
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4. Apply a few drops of thin CA to the holes in the
servo blocks and servo tray for the servo mounting
screws, allow to dry, then mount the servos in the wing
and fuse. Install servo extension cords as necessary.
Secure all connections with vinyl tape, heat shrink
tubing, or special clips intended for that purpose.
Make certain none of the servo cords will interfere with
the landing gear or other moveable systems.
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5. Temporarily connect the servos to your receiver
and battery pack (they may not yet be mounted in
the model), turn on your radio, center the trims on
the transmitter, then center all the servos.
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6. Tentatively connect the servos to the pushrods
(adjustments may need to be made when the control
throws are set up later). Mount the flap and servo
hatch covers in the wing with the #2 x 3/8" flat head
screws. Disconnect the radio.
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7. Add a few drops of thin CA to the holes for the
control horn mounting screws in the elevators,
rudder and ailerons. Mount the control horns using
four #4 x 1/2" screws on each horn.
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8. Connect the horns to the clevises on the
pushrods using 4-40 nuts to lock the clevises to the
rods. Use a silicone retainer on every clevis.
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9. Mount the retract air valve and air valve servo. In
our prototype, we mounted the air valve to the fuse
crutch with a scratch-built mount and mounted the air
valve servo to the servo tray as shown. Though a micro
servo was used, there is room for a standard servo.
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10. Install your scale Top Flite cockpit kit (if you've
built one) and a pilot. We used the Top Flite 1/5-scale
WW II pilot (TOPQ9032). This is an upper body only
pilot, but there is a full body pilot available as well
(TOPQ9030).
One problem that occurred with the removal of the
razor spine to accommodate the bubble canopy
was tail flutter. Beginning with the D-40, a dorsal fin
was added to rectify this. The dorsal fin was also
retrofitted to all previous variants still flying.
-56-

Scale details

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1. Position the turbo-supercharger cover on the
bottom of the fuse and draw a line around it with a
felt-tip pen.
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2. Carefully cut the covering just inside the line
you marked. Peel the covering off.
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3. Glue the turbo-supercharger cover in position
with thin CA. Do not use CA accelerator.