Freewing Old Crow

[Waldopepper]

How does the cockpit open on old crow 1400 p51

[Grossman56]

It's tight, I usually use a flat head screw driver down near the base of the canopy to unlock the pins.
Slide it in and twist.

Grossman56

[Waldopepper]

Okay great that all it was just stubborn I didn’t want to force it
thanks

[Grossman56]

they're pretty sticky, but it does look cool when they're open.



Grossman56

[Woodcock]

Nice Picts, Gman. She looks beautiful!

Woody

[p51mustangman]

anyone know what instrument panel fits this from Callie graphics? she has many sizes but none that specify the scale?

[Jorgcama]

@https://www.hobbysquawk.com/member/410-grossman56; awesome pics, I literally just ordered my Freewing Old crow P51 , any advice to deal with the “tail heavy” issues and to get it refinished as pretty as you have done so?. Stay safe

[Grossman56]

Both my P-51's are originally 'Iron Ass' versions. My Little Gal II

was covered with Flight Metal everywhere but the wings themselves as the actual wings on a factory P-51D were sanded and painted. She was a rebuild of My Little Gal I (duh) who, unfortunately crashed. Shown above before the Iron Ass decal was removed and the 'My Little Gal' one was applied.
I did all the extra riveting with a pin on both planes.
Now, I had some success with with My Little Gal II until she augured in too. She spent the next year and a half in a junk box until one of the fellas here on HobbySquawk asked how the light and landing gear boxes were positioned on the wings. I dragged out her wing and took a pic of it. I got to looking at the wings and decided that they were in good enough shape to at least attempt a rebuild. The fuse was a little rougher and the nose had to be realigned which involved removing the Flight Metal and literally staking the nose straight with skewers. with the resurrection complete, I decided to repaint the nose in the way the original "Iron Ass' was painted. The wife asked me not to rename it My Little Gal so I didn't, but I still call her My Little Gal, simply because that's who she really is Everything on that rebuild with the exception of some screws is original!
What I ended up doing is permanently installing a 1300 3s battery where the speaker would be, under the battery hatch. This was the same battery that I use in Old Crow to power the sound system, which, BTW, I never use but you need the ballast so the battery is always in her as well. Also, I installed 5x1/4 oz sticky weight pads on the forward wall of the battery hatch as well. I run an Admiral 3600 PRO all the way forward, using a 650kv and an 85A Mantis ESC. This made her fly very well.
Also, note the difference between the stock prop shaft and the replacement one, can't remember what it was, but it was an FMS and bolted on and sucked that prop right back to where it should be. Check back through this thread as Charlie Brown (OV-10) was the one who recommended it if you're interested. Most of us agree that the CG is right on the aft end of the squares on the topside of the wing. The extra added weight may have shifted it a bit but not much. I'm pleased with the way she handles now and have added some extra weight to the nose of Old Crow as well as she's been a handful. Hopefully this will tame her down a bit. She's a tough old gal and has had her share of incidents as well, such as wheels suddenly coming off on take off roll, so much fun!! Still in one piece though, after 6 years!

Grossman56

[Jorgcama]

Both my P-51's are originally 'Iron Ass' versions. My Little Gal II

was covered with Flight Metal everywhere but the wings themselves as the actual wings on a factory P-51D were sanded and painted. She was a rebuild of My Little Gal I (duh) who, unfortunately crashed. Shown above before the Iron Ass decal was removed and the 'My Little Gal' one was applied.
I did all the extra riveting with a pin on both planes.
Now, I had some success with with My Little Gal II until she augured in too. She spent the next year and a half in a junk box until one of the fellas here on HobbySquawk asked how the light and landing gear boxes were positioned on the wings. I dragged out her wing and took a pic of it. I got to looking at the wings and decided that they were in good enough shape to at least attempt a rebuild. The fuse was a little rougher and the nose had to be realigned which involved removing the Flight Metal and literally staking the nose straight with skewers. with the resurrection complete, I decided to repaint the nose in the way the original "Iron Ass' was painted. The wife asked me not to rename it My Little Gal so I didn't, but I still call her My Little Gal, simply because that's who she really is Everything on that rebuild with the exception of some screws is original!
What I ended up doing is permanently installing a 1300 3s battery where the speaker would be, under the battery hatch. This was the same battery that I use in Old Crow to power the sound system, which, BTW, I never use but you need the ballast so the battery is always in her as well. Also, I installed 5x1/4 oz sticky weight pads on the forward wall of the battery hatch as well. I run an Admiral 3600 PRO all the way forward, using a 650kv and an 85A Mantis ESC. This made her fly very well.
Also, note the difference between the stock prop shaft and the replacement one, can't remember what it was, but it was an FMS and bolted on and sucked that prop right back to where it should be. Check back through this thread as Charlie Brown (OV-10) was the one who recommended it if you're interested. Most of us agree that the CG is right on the aft end of the squares on the topside of the wing. The extra added weight may have shifted it a bit but not much. I'm pleased with the way she handles now and have added some extra weight to the nose of Old Crow as well as she's been a handful. Hopefully this will tame her down a bit. She's a tough old gal and has had her share of incidents as well, such as wheels suddenly coming off on take off roll, so much fun!! Still in one piece though, after 6 years!

Grossman56

Wow! That was a lot of work but very well done. Let me see if I got it right
1.- Will have to add the 1,300 3S battery plus the 5x1/4 oz sticky weight pads somI get the right CG
2.- The condensed CG is located @
3.- Recomended to upgrade to a 650kv Motor and an 85A Mantis ESC.
4.- Power is from an Admiral 3600 PRO all the way forward

What are your experienced thoughts If I wanted to fly it with the stock motor,ESC and an Admiral 3,600 And the Four blade propeller set up after I add a MrRCSound V4.1 with speaker to the battery compartment and thinking to use your advised 1,300 3S battery set up? Will this (literally) fly well?
I can weigh the sound system and substracct it to the goal weight of the sticky weight....

Thoughts?

can you share the silver paint specs? Dis you use any kind of paint prep color beneath?

Thanks for sharing!

Stay safe!

[Grossman56]

You got it, but the FMS 4258 650 kv motor is now a Predator motor and it has 4 mm wires. I used a ZTW Gecko 85 A ESC from Motion in the P-40

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here you go!
The battery in its flight position...
The weights I added...
the position of the receiver and the A3L. BTW, I extended the floorboard to include space for these...


And last but not least, the same size battery that is permanently installed under the hatch floorboard, directly under the 3600...

My theory is that the front speaker isn't there, so the added weight plus the small amount of extra weight from the bigger motor makes up for that. It mellowed her out and now she flies great!

Grossman56

[Jorgcama]

I cannot thank you enough, these pics are MEGA HELPFUL🙏🏼, now, Remember I am installing the MrRCSound system in it so, I love your advice on the separate 3S pack . I plan to fly it it with the scale 4 blade propeller. Will I still need the extra weights? Where can I find them? Amazon? , thanks again

[rifleman_btx]

I just ordered this one. Looking forward to getting it and in the air

[Grossman56]

I cannot thank you enough, these pics are MEGA HELPFUL🙏🏼, now, Remember I am installing the MrRCSound system in it so, I love your advice on the separate 3S pack . I plan to fly it it with the scale 4 blade propeller. Will I still need the extra weights? Where can I find them? Amazon? , thanks again

I got all my sticky weights from Motion R/C
One of the reasons I made my own Old Crow was that it didn't come with a 4 blade prop. The stock system is, in a word, annoying, so I seldom use it (maybe twice in the 6 years I've had her) Now MLG is lighter because of the lack of the sound system speakers. One thing to note, this airplane is a different animal than the FMS version, so treat her more like the real thing! the rudder/tail wheel authority is poor as Mike demonstrated at Nefi where he maidened her for me. She drifted off to the grass on landing. Lon said that his does that as well more often than not and Mike was saying that its one of the quirks of this plane.


Embarrassing to say the least when she did this exact same thing at Riverton, except there was someone right at the edge of the field working on his plane.
She swung around and taxied up to his plane and bit it!! Fortunately no one was hurt and the guy kept joking that the foamy had no damage. Also, I was lucky enough to have another guy standing right beside me who could see I had the rudder pinned all the way over to the left. Moral of the story, don't let anyone that close to the edge of the runway while airplanes are landing!

Grossman56

[rifleman_btx]

I'm gonna fly mine on 4000mah packs

[boomer108]

I cannot thank you enough, these pics are MEGA HELPFUL🙏🏼, now, Remember I am installing the MrRCSound system in it so, I love your advice on the separate 3S pack . I plan to fly it it with the scale 4 blade propeller. Will I still need the extra weights? Where can I find them? Amazon? , thanks again

Motion RC doesn't carry sticky weights anymore,it seems the manufacture Great Planes stopped making them. I went on Amazon and found sticky weights that are used for balancing car tires. They are the same weight as the ones Great Planes used to make.

[pdansalvish]

Horizon Hobby carries stick on weights.

https://www.horizonhobby.com/product/self-stick-weight-6-oz/HAN3626.html

[rifleman_btx]

Is there anything else I need to know with this plane, or is it mainly balance and tail wheel authority to watch out on?

[Grossman56]

The landing gear has more set screws in it and each likes to back off. I'd remove the retract and start from the retract itself and tighten the pivot set screw in it and work your way down. I had a problem with the gear retracting and hitting the landing light on one side so I just removed the landing light. The real ones only had one anyway.
I don't have any videos of her flying, but the wife is powerful deadly with the camera....

From a couple of years back, but still...

Grossman56

[rifleman_btx]

Very cool and will do. I guess some locktight is in order for those. I will definitely go over the whole plane just in case (and obviously no lock right on the plastics.)