All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

[Grossman56]

RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

Thanks Lon, yeah, this was an old set that I tried to take apart.  I see where you mean to 'bend ' it a bit, I'll give it a try.  The retracts are just not working well, one comes up just short of retracting and the gear doors are having trouble too.  But, since this will become a spare pair of wings, I have nothing to lose by experimenting around.
I pulled the 12 o'clock screw right out and couldn't get the piece to budge.  I'll give your advice a try .  If the problems still persist, I'll shoot a video of the gear retracting so you can see what you think.

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

Well, I tried twisting it and it broke.  So I took the bottom piece off an old set, man what a chore, after ten to fifteen minutes of working it off, with WD40, it finally came loose!
So I swapped the two ends but it turns out that it was for the other side!  Actually, I chuckled at it.  No biggie as the new wings and gear are on their way.  Hey after what I've put this plane through, she deserves it! 


Grossman56

[Grossman56]

RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

Hey Guys, Happy Aftermath Day!!
As you might have gathered, I'm replacing the wings on Old Crow, it's given me a chance to rethink the placement of the light and gear boxes as well as the gyro.
As some were asking whether you can get a gyro in one of these beasts with a sound system, here's the route I went.

As a side note, I'm using Dubro double sided sticky tape to anchor it as this stuff really works (LHS)
Just waiting on the wings.  I ordered them first, then remembered I needed a shell door servo, so went back and ordered that as well as a spare nose an set of props, hey, might as well make the $5 shipping fee worth while.  So, ordered within hours.  The servo and prop came yesterday through USPS.  Still waiting for the wings from UPS.  Seems USPS is faster in the case at least.

Grossman56
 

[boomer108]

RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

Hey Gman!

    Thanks and Happy after Turkey Day to you!  That is one fantastic pack job,never say never. That tip on the tape is right you told me about it for mounting the gyro in my Waco. Works great. I'm waiting the arrival of my new Pandora I'm glad I waited to order it till the Black Fiday sale saved a few dollars. The Big Brown Truck arrives tomorrow,can't wait!! Well flying weather is all but over here in Chicago so time to concentrate on getting my Corsair back in flying shape and build the Pandora. Good flying if you can Gman.

ROY B.

[Grossman56]

RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

Hey Boomer, you'll love the Pandora!  A few tips you might want to consider.  If you go tail dragger, the foam wheels have a short life expectancy. I changed both of mine over to Dave Browns and I love them.  What happens is they add nose weight, so what I did was changed the battery compartment and put it inside the cockpit compartment.  Much more room for the battery.  Now the old battery compartment has the ESC in it.  I also upgraded to a 50A ESC as the 30A is walking the line.  If you find you want a little more kick, you'll note that the Waco motor is one size up.  Pandora One now has that motor in it.
The weakness in the design (talking tail dragger configuration) is the little landing gear tabs that connect the strut to the fuse.  You'll see what I mean right away.  I took them off and applied Epoxy/Resin to its backside and then screwed it back down.  This will increase the life of the gear, but I always have a spare set of L/G in stock. Note that I wrap the gear pants with tape as well, anything to help
Pandora Two in her new livery.  Did I mention that they're lots of fun to paint?  The decals peel off easily.
Hey My BBT arrives tomorrow with new Mustang wings!! By the way, I have aileron rudder mix on both Pandoras, one to one, but don't tell anyone!!!

Have fun!

Grossman56

[boomer108]

RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

Hey Gman!  

     Thanks for the tips. I already ordered 3 inch Dave Brown's with the Pandora, I have them on all my planes. As as the esc I was thinking the same thing 30 amps not good so I'm going to follow your suggestion and upgrade it. Thanks again. Good flying! 

Roy B.

[Grossman56]

RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

You'll like the tires, check your CG after mounting them, as I said, the battery sits perfectly under the canopy!  Great planes

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

Hey guys, the P 40 is here, I posted some pics
http://www.hobbysquawk.com/Thread-FMS-1400-P-40B?page=4
I'll post more here as I assemble her, great looking plane, beautiful addition to the collection, number ten in the hangar.

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

Hey guys, here's a basic builders guide/experience.  The instructions are......you guessed it, pretty poor, thankfully, the build is straight forward, so....
First of all, the wings assemble so easily, just look at the wiring, simply amazing
And when they're joined, there's hardly anything there!This is the complete set of screws, including the prop screws and nuts!notice that before you install the drop tank, there are four slots on the underside of the wing that the rods fit into.  One screw in from the top of the wing holds the whole thing on, so install the drop tank before mounting the wing to the fuseThe two handiest things to have when building, a magnetic pen and a mm ruler.The drop tank mounted, note the wing joiners are in place as wellCheck the servos firstThe tail section is strange, hardly any bite on the screws for the horizontal stabThe vertical stab is a very tight fit, did a little damage working it into placeThe whole thing is held into place by that short little screw that's left in the bag!  Oh yeah! Retract the tail and install the screw through the L/G bay.  I thought the screw would be longer than that...Flip the fuse over and mount the wings.  Personally, I just get the screws to bite then flip the plane over to make sure all the wires are where they're supposed to be.
The finished product.
As usual, I had a heck of a time getting the receiver to bind.  You'd think after 10 planes I'd get it figured wouldn't you.  Anyway, the darned thing wouldn't bind...
Binding plug in, the throttle wire plugged in, nothing.  Beep....Beep...beep.  Anyway, after multiple try's, the brain kicks in, reduce the trim on the throttle, and wouldn't you know it, the goose call and we're bound.  That was the only trying time in the whole build.
The manual is typical, there is nothing regarding installing the vertical stab and references to screw sizes is minimal, hence the ruler.  But she's quite the bird when she's done. The bay is a pretty good size, reminds me of the P 51B.  The battery tray is cool in that it has a little loop on the end to make pulling it out easier.
All that's left now is placing the receiver where I want it and the gyro, then on to set up.
As I stated before, I was really hoping for a better cockpit and its too bad that the canopy doesn't slide back, little things that would have been nice. Also, I wish that the would have given us the option of applying the different squadron emblems and numbers. There was Hell's Angels, Adam and Eve's and Panda Bears, it would have been nice to pick. Nothing against RT Smith, but the markings are exactly the same as the 980 version.
BTW, the gear is really cool!!!

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

Out in the sunlight as her official presentation.  I'm thinking that this is going to be one of the sweetest flying birds in the stable
Now the one thing I did notice is that the colors for the tiger are off

Also, some have the Tiger jumping out of a blue sideways "V"
Not a huge deal, but interesting.....

Grossman56

[Loneflier]

RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

Out in the sunlight as her official presentation.  I'm thinking that this is going to be one of the sweetest flying birds in the stable
Now the one thing I did notice is that the colors for the tiger are off

Also, some have the Tiger jumping out of a blue sideways "V"
Not a huge deal, but interesting.....

Grossman56

WOW! It really looks nice there Gman. I am anxious to hear your flight report. It would be fun to fly my older version with you new version and see how they compare. I know the new one is a completely new ground-up design. Good luck on the maiden.

[boomer108]

RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

Hey Gman!
    Very nice!! I want one. I swore I wouldn't spend 300 dollars or more on a plane for awhile but man that's nice. I just got that new Pandora but it's going to be old at this rate. I was going to fly my Waco today at our clubs last Chili Fun Fly for the season but the weather went to scrap today in Chicago,60 degrees but rain and fog. Well enjoy and good flying!

Roy B.

[Grossman56]

RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

Thanks guys, check out Ryan's video of his first flight, he says she flies like she's been in the air forever.  The CG positioning is interesting too.  As you know, I just can't leave it alone, the stock paint job was just too shiny, sooo..... out with the spray gun.  This is just with black and white, very thinned out and layer, layer ,layer.  Started with white and then black.  Scumbled the silver in with a brush.  NOW she looks real!

This is a major step up in the way foam warbirds are built.  Haven't done the underside yet, but soon.

Grossman56

[Loneflier]

RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

Thanks guys, check out Ryan's video of his first flight, he says she flies like she's been in the air forever.  The CG positioning is interesting too.  As you know, I just can't leave it alone, the stock paint job was just too shiny, sooo..... out with the spray gun.  This is just with black and white, very thinned out and layer, layer ,layer.  Started with white and then black.  Scumbled the silver in with a brush.  NOW she looks real!

This is a major step up in the way foam warbirds are built.  Haven't done the underside yet, but soon.

Grossman56

Where is this video? I looked at the product page for the new P40, but didn't see it there.

[OV10]

RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

Here ya go on the video Loneflier !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUWhrOk-KNw

Also here
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2428267&page=130

[Grossman56]

RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

Here's some food for thought.  Since the 3600 battery has to go right to the firewall and the 4000 isn't much different, it seems to me that this bird is an ideal choice to go 5 cell with.  Anyone more knowledgeable than me, would you give us some insight about that?

Grossman56

[Lon]

RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

Here's some food for thought.  Since the 3600 battery has to go right to the firewall and the 4000 isn't much different, it seems to me that this bird is an ideal choice to go 5 cell with.  Anyone more knowledgeable than me, would you give us some insight about that?

Grossman56

Gman,  I'm thinking that just like my other planes i have upgraded from 4 cell to 5 cell. The increase in power and performance is well worth it. I still fly with 4 cell, but that's only because i'm waiting for the spent 5 cell batteries to charge.

[Grossman56]

RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

I was just checking into the ESC and it will handle up to 6 cells, so that might be something to try (5 cells I mean).
I was talking to Ryan yesterday regarding the P 40.  Interesting to note that he lost a main wheel while taking off on the first flight.  Now, I had the exact same thing with Big Beautiful Doll on her first flight.  Mine was just as I was approaching for landing, boing, off goes the port main wheel, bouncing down the runway.  So I went around, dropped every bit of flap I had and slowed her down to minimal, did a one wheel landing, keeping the port wing up as long as I could.  When the strut did hit, she ground looped on the side of the runway in what we call grass here in Wyoming (whole different meaning).  I expected the worse, but when I looked her over, I scraped a little paint off the strut and that was it.  Eventually found the tire, went to Ace Hardware and found some clips, reinstalled the wheel and applied foam tack to the c clip so she isn't voluntarily coming off again.

So, with the P 40, I'm doing the same thing.  One thing about the shell over the wheel, it keeps the clip inside it, so you're not trying to find a replacement, but let's not lose the wheel in the first place!!

Grossman56 

[Grossman56]

RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

BTW, I did paint the P40 a little differently, method-wise.  Very thin paint and a piece of cardboard across the panel lines blocking the forward edge.  Went right through the insignias on the wings and it looks great, it locks the markings right into the wing.  I'm debating whether to get a set of the Flying Tiger logo in the correct colors as well...........

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

Good Bye Shangrila!
No, I didn't crack mine up, but I see that the paint scheme has been discontinued.
Also, I see that they're out of stock on the FMS Pitts, don't know whether that's the end of them or there will be more shipments, one heck of a nice flying plane so its too bad to see her go.
Hopefully, some of you guys scooped one up for Christmas!!
Now, a few months ago we were talking about how great it would be if you could buy a generic FMS 1400mm P51 and put whatever markings on it that you wanted, well, over on the
 "site that must not be named"
There is this little tidbit of information............
http://www.diamondhobby.com/airplane...51b-silver-pnp
I'm thinking that Motion R/C needs to check this out and offer this as well?

Save a lot of decal stripping!  Even if you wanted, say the BBD version, the decals for the nose are not installed very well and you may want to tackle it yourself.  You can buy the decal sheet separately or check out Callie Graphics for different sets, they'll even make you custom decals and they are high quality, I've bought two sets so far, one for my "Old Crow" version of the Freewing P51 and for my FMS Pitts.
Personally, I would like to build a "Li'l Margaret" version as she was an Oshkosh best-of-show winner and such a beautiful plane, completely stock, and so accurate, the gun trigger solenoids activate when you pull the trigger.  Check her out.
I'm also hoping for a 1400mm F8F Bearcat as this was the first plane that the Blue Angels flew (well, okay, they used the F6F Hellcat for the first 6  months) and as they first flew in 1946, and being that 2016 is right around the corner, the 70th Anniversary of the Blue Angels, its the perfect time to launch an F8F!

Well boys and girls, Christmas is once again upon us!
I hope its a great one for everyone and the new year brings us peace and prosperity and above all......
A lot of great flying!!!!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Grossman56 and Mrs. Grossman