Robert Menhofer, a very experienced RC pilot, would be responsible for the Tigercat’s maiden flight. Of course he had the advantage of not having the 3000 man-hours of designing and building, in the back of his head….; and thus would be able to concentrate on the flying.

At 2:30 p.m., the moment had come: We refueled the Tigercat, the engines were started, checked again, and then Robert rolled the aircraft into takeoff position.
He applied full power, the Tigercat started to move and accelerate nicely, and after 40-50 m of ground run, it took off, as if it never had done anything else!
After gaining some altitude, he trimmed the airplane out; it needed very little trim, and gave the first comments: very stable, very nice to fly, superb!
 

He retracted the landing gear, and the Tigercat now was speeding up.

After a few circuits around the flying field, he throttled back, to check the slow flight characteristics. A little up trim, reduce power, keep the nose up, and it looked like the Tigercat was standing still in mid-air…. The stall, when it came, was straight forward, without any bad habits at all.
These docile slow flight characteristics gave Robert the necessary confidence for the first landing:
Gear down, flaps up, a slight headwind, the Tigercat comes in and touches down softly.
Applause and hurrahs from everybody present!
 

We now reprogrammed the TX, to incorporate the trims required when extending/retracting the landing gear, etc., and rechecked the whole airframe for loose parts, etc.
About half an hour later, we refueled, and took off for the second flight.
During this flight, Robert explored the Tigercats behaviour with different flap settings. 10 degress flap required some down trim, and 35 degrees required a healthy amount of down trim, but this was to be expected.
This time, he wanted to land with flaps extended, so he flew a few approaches. With the flaps in the landing position, the Tigercat comes in, as if it were floating on an air cushion.
After a few low fly-by’s he comes in for landing, and makes another „greaser“ landing!
 

After some rest, and a flight of Robert’s big Moki-powered AT-6, we prepared for the 3rd
test flight.
Since the normal, as well as the slow flight regime with and without flaps had been already explored, Robert decided to put the Tigercat through its paces:
He takes off with 10 degrees flaps, and the Tigercat is airborne after 35m of ground roll. He gains some altitude, then puts it into a full power dive, screams over the field with full power, and pulls the Tigercat into a huge looping – fantastic !
Afterwards, a roll, inverted flight, with no nose down input required. Then a slow roll, as if pulled on a string. By now, everybody was staring the model with their mouth hanging open….
During all this, the airplane is moving around the sky with considerable speed, but very docile again during the landing approach, and soft touchdown.
Again, applause for the pilot and the model.
 

Then, Robert’s judgment:
“Finally, a model of the F7F Tigercat, which looks and flies like the real thing: fast, agile without being nervous, but docile at slow speeds and during the approach.
Hans, you have built a fantastic model, my congratulations!”

It is hard to describe how good these words from an experienced model pilot sound, after having invested do much work in a model.
 

With the knowledge, that the Tigercat is a well flying model, it is now time to put it into series production.
My own model still needs to be painted and have lot’s Cockpit detail, to be really finished.

Unfortunately, the pictures from these first flights are of low quality, since I had only taken my small digi-cam with me, but even so, they should give an impression.


regards,

Johann Schwöller



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