Was the Texan a great flier?

Hi Wingchicken, welcome to the forum!!
Scour the posts and use search feature. Don't
settle for the wrong fuel, the correct fuel is
available. Ask, ask, ask. Everyone wants to help.
Again, WELCOME!

They came with safety tip props which lack best use of the engine.
Swap it out for a better prop to avoid a weak 1st flight.

Wing,

Looking at my black NIB T-6 Texan (gift) with the ridiculous bomb drop feature, I would never attempt to fly that thing!

Main problem I see and hear about is the plastic landing gears that I think would break off with even the gentlest takeoff or landings from a hard surface, and possibly the bomb container would go as well. Then it would possibly flip inverted to wipe out the tail assembly and/or the canopy.

Mine would look nice suspended from the ceiling with black Nylon or Dacron thread, but I don't do ladders at my age.

All the instruction sheets have Penrose Colorado printed on them, so mine at least is an Estes product. The Cox designed yellow T-6 Texan is possibly a better design for flying, but may not have the more powerful Surestart engine that came with mine.

I have not owned any Cox plastic airplanes before, and judging from the few that I have flown for other people, I would never want one!

Sorry to be such a spoil sport, but I just don't like plastic flying models. I've seen so many kids and adults demolish them right after Xmas, and the kids leaving the field in tears, that I would not own one except for the one given to me.

Do yourself a favor and use the T-6 that you have as a display model, and buy a Sig 1/2-A Skyray instead, then locate a model club or friend who knows how to build and fly, and get help building and flying it. The Sig Skyray sells for less than $20, is pretty tough, and flys very well. I've built and flown several Skyrays and they are well worth the money. They fly with even the low cost Cox Babe Bee, but I would recommend a little more power.

Good idea to include at least your city, as you may be near a member of one of the model forums, and perhaps someone here on the Cox Engine Forum?

Good luck with your future building and flying.

Bill (Beaverton Oregon)

Lol I’m not gonna fly it I just wanted to know

Also will 25% nitro fuel work with it?

I ordered the red one btw not the black one. I know the black one is the later model with the bomb

That bit of info might have been useful up front. It would have saved a lot of typing 25% won’t hurt it, but why fuel it if you don’t plan on flying it? The castor will get everywhere and will need to be cleaned off as over time it will stain the plastic.

Castor will also remove factory paint and affect decals, if not cleaned off promptly. I used Fantastic spray cleaner and paper towels to wipe off aircraft after flight.

I wanted to maybe run the engine.

I’d be afraid to fly it though. Maybe I will someday.

WC,
Welcome to the forum!

As Mr. Bill suggested...tell us where you live. Which corner of what state? You may have some new friends nearby.

I live in Fresno, California. There’s an airfield in Madera fresno radio modelers, but I don’t go there anymore. I’m the youngest one lol.

Also I don’t really use forums. I’m in an rc server in discord well a few rc servers but they don’t have knowledge when it comes to cox. So I joined and uh yeah..

No shame in any of that. I'm on three forums under the same name ( here, StuntHanger, and RCGroups). Quite a few here are RC guys too.

Nice

Even though I’m young I’m really into these kind of stuff. these were kids toys back then and I wish they still made these..

Btw I got the t-6 for 135$.

Brand new

WC,
If this is about enjoying the plane, and seeing one in flight, then here is a potential solution:
http://outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=3553

This is a quick scratch built plane that will have you in the air the old school way. Members here will gladly assist you with the endeavour. I can print the sheet full size and mail it to you. You cut the wood around the pattern. The cowl can be omitted. The fuselage was a carved balsa block, but you can make this a profile model by tracing the side view into a piece of 1/4" balsa, or build a box fuselage from two 1/8" sides and a chunk of 1/4"-1/2" top carved to shape.

I never built a kit before. Im so used to rtf stuff.

Idk how to build a balsa kit And I don’t really have the patience to build one unfortunately.

I suggest a profile (flat) fuselage with sheet balsa wings, a premolded plastic engine mount that has provisions for mounting landing gear. I can't tell you of a source off hand, because I built these from already available kits years ago. Sterling made a good number of kits called the Beginner series with 20" wingspan.

With minimal amount of parts, mild sanding by rounding surface edges, gluing, then there is learning to apply a finish to the balsa. Today it is probably using a water based urethane varnish to seal the wood grain, then light sprays of rattle can Rust-O-Leum paint. Trim cockpit outlines and simulated movable flying surfaces (flap, ailerons, rudder) with 1.5mm chart tape (if desired).

I learned a long time ago that such a beginner model is capable of handling moderate crashes if flown over grass with very little damage. They are also easy to repair, too. Model I learned on back in the early 1970's was the Sterling Beginner Fokker E-III Eindecker. These photos I downloaded from an E-Bay seller some moons ago, mine had the stamped sheet aluminum engine mount halves like the photo, but later Beginner kits came with a molded nylon mount.





You can't get any simpler with one of these. (Someone may know of a current laser cut kit maker of these or similar.)

By getting your flight experience on such a durable model will allow you to accumulate experience that will allow you to successfully fly the SNJ Harvard (Navy version) / T-6 Texan (Army-Air Force version) when ready, minimizing a possibility of a disastrous crash. (I know from experience. I crashed several plastic ready to flies so severely that only the engine could be salvaged on one-shot flights before I learned on the Eindecker.)