FMS 1450mm P-51B Mustang Thread

[STOOPIDMONKEY]

RE: FMS 1450mm P-51B Mustang Thread

No flight today, all of my flying areas are either sheet of ice or have plow mounds of snow in the way. I am probably going south to the flying field this weekend it looks like.

[Flygirl]

RE: FMS 1450mm P-51B Mustang Thread

6 to 8 inches of snow coming tonight and tomorrow here. I'll be in the same boat. Will this winter never end?

[STOOPIDMONKEY]

RE: FMS 1450mm P-51B Mustang Thread

I hope so, and soon my thumbs are itching.

[STOOPIDMONKEY]

RE: FMS 1450mm P-51B Mustang Thread

Good morning pilots,
 
  I got to maiden my Mustang yesterday afternoon!!!!  :D  I can honestly say I love the way she flies , in the air she handles like a dream doing exactly what I want her to do :cool: . That is in the air though, I had a fairly big problem at takeoff. My left wheel came off the plane as I pulled up! While bringing her up on power I noticed she was searching the road a little, I did not think much of it just figured that I needed to adjust my tail gear before the next flight :s . However; when I pulled up, about 3-4 feet off the ground the wheel came off and rolled down the road! I went ahead with the flight since I was up and had no real way down without a crash :huh: . I trimmed her out and flew like I usually would, damn she flies great. When it came time to bring her in I thought about belly landing her in the snowfield but I was scared of breaking a prop or worse; so I dropped the gear, 2 tires and a strut that is. I floated her in; on touchdown I held the left wing up as long as I could, as soon as that left wing settled in all hell broke loose! The strut did not slide at all; It grabbed the pavement and stopped the left side of the plane in a hurry, she nosed over and cartwheeled taking out the prop, bending the motor shaft, scrubbing foam off both wing tips somehow breaking the right side retract, and breaking the left side gear door at the hinge :@ . I am not at all happy about this!!! Freaking $300 dollar plane and the first one crashed on her 4th flight due to faulty electronics, this one crashes on her maiden because the main gear falls off!!!! WTF over!!!! :@ The best I can figure is the "C" clip that holds the tire on was not in its channel and slipped off, possibly when installed it was spread out too far and slipped off, or it broke, I wish I knew for sure. I went over this plane with a fine tooth comb before I flew it, making sure all screws were secure and tight, but never thought to give the tires a good pull to see if they would come off. I did not even look at the "C" clips to ensure proper seating but the clip on the left strut simply is not there now and I have a crashed plane again! I guess the moral of this story... Check your tires before flight and make sure they are not going to fall off!!!! :rolleyes:

In all this is a great plane, I love the way she flies, her looks, and the attention she gets! I just wish there was better QA/ QC at FMS, no one should have issues like this with a brand new out of the box airplane.

[Flygirl]

RE: FMS 1450mm P-51B Mustang Thread

I had that happen once with my FZ Cessna Corvalis. The nose wheel and pant fell off as it lifted off the ground. Uh oh! There was a small patch of somewhat longer grass and I somehow managed to come in really slow and stall right on that spot. One of my better saves.

[Grossman56]

RE: FMS 1450mm P-51B Mustang Thread

Ahh Crap!! I really feel for you Sean, this kind of thing just should not happen!  I'll put that on my list of preflights as well.  See what MotionRC says, because, again, its not your fault unless they say we should be checking absolutely everything!  Which, after your experience combined with some of my own personal fubars, tells me that there is a weak QA involved here and we DO need to be checking EVERYTHING!
Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming MotionRC, but I hope they have a serious discussion with FMS about this as I'm sure they will.  FMS should be providing you with new parts at least!

Grossman56

[Lon]

RE: FMS 1450mm P-51B Mustang Thread

Yikes!! I feel for you Sean.....I know if I was in your shoes, I'd have that sick feeling in my stomach.

I know with my P-51 IronAss, I check the set screws that hold the wheel shaft, that holds the wheel on.

But on my 1100mm Old Crow, the wheels are held on the same way as your's was....have to admit, all I ever do to check, is give the wheels a spin, never looked closely to see if that "C" clip is seated....dang.....

[STOOPIDMONKEY]

RE: FMS 1450mm P-51B Mustang Thread

I place no blame on Motion at all, in fact Motion is and has been awesome through my whole experience with these planes. Murphy must be sitting on my shoulder lately when I fly, because when nothing can go wrong it does. Had a elevator servo fail on my Parkzone Corsair today, mid flight. Luckily I was able to get her down by playing the throttle and "flying her down" way glad that corsairs are inherently "floaty" she is still in one piece minus a prop not bad if you ask me. I guess they say bad shish comes in 3s.

[Grossman56]

RE: FMS 1450mm P-51B Mustang Thread

So what do you think, is she repairable?  Sounds to me like she probably is (hopefully) but its the old shell out thing.  In retrospect, you might have been able to salvage parts from SS-1, but oh well.  Speaking of which, have you heard from the person who was going to try to repair SS-1?   It'd be interesting to see how that works out.
After reading your maiden flight post, I went right down and checked my two P51's, the clips look good but I did notice the slop between the wheel hub and the axle.  There's quite a bit, I wonder if that might have had something to do with it.  I'm not really fond of that system of locking the wheels on, but I guess it has to do with scale appearance, but that being said, I wonder if something as simple as putting a thick grease (bearing grease maybe) on the axle might help to take up some of the slop there.  Eliminating the chance of the pin working its way loose. 
Just a thought......

Grossman56

[STOOPIDMONKEY]

RE: FMS 1450mm P-51B Mustang Thread

yeah I can fix her just going to need a prop shaft, props, spinner, retract, wing set, struts, and a new "C" clip and all will be good in the life of Sean. The damage is not that bad at all, just upsetting that plane #2 and I got 1 flight out of this one before she needs to go under the knife.

I donated SS-1 to the gent who wanted to fix her I guess he is getting along with it well, I am just as curious as you to see how it turns out.

[Grossman56]

RE: FMS 1450mm P-51B Mustang Thread

Well, it always seems that bad luck comes in threes. By the sound of things, your Corsair problem should get you over the hump and back in the good graces!

Good luck to you!!!

Grossman56

[Flygirl]

RE: FMS 1450mm P-51B Mustang Thread

Got my new Dave Brown 3 inch wheels for the P-51 yesterday so I took a look at the stock wheel and axle last night. Those C clips are teeny tiny! I just know one is gonna go zinging off when I replace the wheels... ;)

[STOOPIDMONKEY]

RE: FMS 1450mm P-51B Mustang Thread

May as well replace them with some from your auto parts store they will open up some when you remove them. No need to risk one slipping off!

[STOOPIDMONKEY]

RE: FMS 1450mm P-51B Mustang Thread

Well MRC customer service strikes again! These guys are awesome! I do not know what I did to deserve this; but they are sending me ALL the replacement parts I need to fix my Mustang, and bring her back to her original glory! I was a little bummed to have this much damage done on the maiden flight. However thanks to Motion RC, and the awesome team of fellow pilots they have who understand how these things happen I will have a perfectly good plane again. This company never ceases to amaze me, I am happy to call myself a life time MRC customer. I just bought another plane from them, and I see many more purchases to come, all of which will be accompanied with a invoice headed by MRC. THANKS AGAIN MOTION RC!!!

Only question is do I send flowers? :D

[Flygirl]

RE: FMS 1450mm P-51B Mustang Thread

I'll take the flowers! LOL!

[FLY BOY]

RE: FMS 1450mm P-51B Mustang Thread

You tell an amazing story Stoopidmonky,

I once had to make an emergency landing on my P51 because of landing gear problems. One of the retracts failed to deploy because it came unplugged at the Y harness during flight. I chose to belly land her in the the grass.
It was beautiful to say the least. All that happend was a little belly scratch. Even if I chose the pavement, I believe the damage would have been min. Better to tear up the scoop if anything. 

Good job though. and you can send me the flowers if you like, HA

[Flygirl]

RE: FMS 1450mm P-51B Mustang Thread

"Good job though. and you can send me the flowers if you like, HA"

Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! 

[STOOPIDMONKEY]

RE: FMS 1450mm P-51B Mustang Thread

Yeah if I had to do it again I would definitely belly land I just thought that it would slide on the strut, boy was I wrong! LOL oh well live and learn.

[Grossman56]

RE: FMS 1450mm P-51B Mustang Thread

Hey that's great news!!
I'm thinking that it would fall under the thirty day warranty thing, but still, its pretty awesome that any company would back a customer up as much as MotionRC has.
Good on you guys at MRC!
Now Sean, next time maiden somewhere near a large haystack!!!  (LOL)
I predict an amazing flight and followed up by many more!!

Grossman56
P.S. You best put them on your Christmas card list, for that matter so should we all!

[STOOPIDMONKEY]

RE: FMS 1450mm P-51B Mustang Thread

Got my parts today I will be putting my Snoot's back together and trying another maiden flight 3rd time is the charm they say! I don't know when, the weather just took a turn for the worse again.... It will be soon. I just want the joy of flying this plane like I had with the first one, until the ESC blew apart that is.