FW P-51 Old Crow

[curlyculp]

That's bizarre that you have a melted motor mount. For some, it's tricky to get the right setup. Factory planes never seem powerful or fast enough, so we tinker and put Cobra 427's in the engine bay. You do lots of experiments to get the 4 components to streamline until they work together. I put a Castle Talon 90 and a Tacon Bigfoot 32-770kv in my FMS Zero with a 13x8, 3 blade and that combo pulls the plane around and makes it do what you want! The battery was always warm. Although I use 60C and 70C batts. You might use a Dremel to extract the motor mount. If it's impossible, then say goodbye to Petie; because it's discontinued anyway and buy the Freewing Old Crow....

I split the fuselage and even sawed through the motor mount trying to free it up. It's glued in there hard. The replacement is still available, but can't get the old one out.

Got the Old Crow now. Seems nice. 90% complete.

Anyone have a hint how to slide the canopy open? It's resisting so much I'm wondering if there's a trick. Don't want to break something. I'd like to get in there and paint over that silly yellow interior.

[xviper]

Anyone have a hint how to slide the canopy open? It's resisting so much I'm wondering if there's a trick. Don't want to break something. I'd like to get in there and paint over that silly yellow interior.

Mine is very hard to get open. There's a sort of "catch" (more like a detent) on each side of the canopy. Examine it carefully and you may see these. You have to fiddle with them to get it past those detents. Then it'll slide fairly easily.

[OV10]

I split the fuselage and even sawed through the motor mount trying to free it up. It's glued in there hard. The replacement is still available, but can't get the old one out.

Got the Old Crow now. Seems nice. 90% complete.

Anyone have a hint how to slide the canopy open? It's resisting so much I'm wondering if there's a trick. Don't want to break something. I'd like to get in there and paint over that silly yellow interior.

I provided a suggestion on post #136

[curlyculp]

I provided a suggestion on post #136

Saw it. Crazy talk.

Seriously it's a lot of surface area and not sure how the zippo stuff would penetrate. I'll play with it this winter.

[Hardway]

Naphthalene

[curlyculp]

Got a couple flights on my Old Crow. Using a pretty hefty 5000ma 4S it CG'd fine. Battery barely fits the compartment. But it's definitely NOT tail heavy. However, like a couple others reported, on takeoff it pitched hard nose up and I fought for the first 30 seconds to get the nose down. Ended up with LOTS of nose down trim. (I set up to cross trim so it's easy to do while holding the right stick) Between flights adjusted the elevator pushrods to bake in the nose down elevator. Played with some flap/elevator mixing. Using an Admiral 6000 with stabilization and it definitely smooths it out.

I have or have had three other warbirds, all with 4 bladed props. Flying this thing I see the two blade advantage. In a dive it just keeps accelerating. 4 blades act like an air brake.

With the nose down bias dialed in, it definitely doesn't "fly" tail heavy. It tracks great. I think the horizontal stab may just be slightly out of alignment coming out of the mold. I've had other models similarly, not perfectly aligned and trimmed in some axis, having to fly it with a control surface sticking up somewhere.

Still haven't figured out how to open the canopy. And mystified by their decision to paint the cockpit interior yellow.

Nice airplane. Lots to like about it.

[curlyculp]

I think I've made peace with the 2-bladed prop. So I blinged it up from the stock black. (Guess what? Frog tape doesn't work on Testors ;)

[ScottMe262]

I got the Freewing Old Crow back in June and got it built a few days ago. It did not have the speakers.

It balanced perfectly with a 4000 4s all the way forward. with the 100-110mm cg or on the little boxes on the wing top.

On takeoff it went for the moon. i dialed in massive amounts of down elevator. Got it going straight and this thing acted like it was so out of balance for the crazy flight around to get it back on the ground.

So what gives? its virtually un-flyable. Stalled out on landing and popped a gear assembly out.

I took two other aircraft up today for their first flights Bf109 1100 and A6M5 1100 and they were perfect. this thing is terrifying.

Any suggestions on keeping it in the air?

[deadbug]

Yes...since this plane was built with a sound system, and you don’t have one installed (nor do I) you can't have the elevator aligned with the fuselage per other planes. A substantial downward deflection needs to be mechanically added. Of course, zero out your TX trim first. The deflection needs ti be at least as much as I show below on mine.

Then try again. My CG is in the same place as yours, right on the wing squares. Mine flies beautifully with an Admiral 4000 all the way fwd. it flies even better with a Ternigy 5000 in the same place. I'd also check your engine thrust angle and motor mount installation. Its all prefabbed, so it shouldn’t be a problem, but I’d still check it.
make sure you post how your next flight goes. Best wishes, and hang in there.
DB

Oh, you don’t need full throttle on takeoff. My takeoffs in this bird work out much better when the power isn't firewalled. 😃

[curlyculp]

I got the Freewing Old Crow back in June and got it built a few days ago. It did not have the speakers.

It balanced perfectly with a 4000 4s all the way forward. with the 100-110mm cg or on the little boxes on the wing top.

On takeoff it went for the moon. i dialed in massive amounts of down elevator. Got it going straight and this thing acted like it was so out of balance for the crazy flight around to get it back on the ground.

So what gives? its virtually un-flyable. Stalled out on landing and popped a gear assembly out.

I took two other aircraft up today for their first flights Bf109 1100 and A6M5 1100 and they were perfect. this thing is terrifying.

Any suggestions on keeping it in the air?

I had the same "go for the moon" experience on the maiden. Ran almost full nose down trim. Came in OK. Then checked the elevator and it looked like the pic above, so adjusted the linkage to position it that way with neutral trim. The CG is fine. I just think the horizontal stab is set a little wrong. Has flown fine since.

I was taking all my taildraggers off in full power in an effort to get rudder effectiveness as soon as possible. But they didn't look smooth, or scale. An old guy talked me through using far less power. Add it slowly and start with full up elevator to keep the tail wheel on the ground, for steering. Ease the elevator to neutral as it accelerates. It still happens fast. If you hold it back too long, the airplane gets airborne too quickly. If you don't hold it long enough, you lose rudder effectiveness.

It's a learning curve. But I do WAY prettier takeoffs than when I cobbed the power.

[deadbug]

Another "Old Crow" tip for landings: She likes "wheel" landings--not three-point, full stall landings. She is a warbird--and relatively heavy; fly it down final approach in an attitude just very slightly below level with about 1/4 throttle or so (depending on winds) and when you're about a foot or so above the runway, smoothly raise the nose to level and play your flare from there to "kiss" the runway with the mains...keeping the tailwheel off the ground until the last minute--tracking straight with rudder until you have to get the tailwheel on the ground to stop any ground loop tendency. I recommend putting a Dave Brown tire on the tailwheel. It grabs the runway so much better. The stock one just slides a lot more.
On takeoff--agree with curlyculp's power application--pretty much how I do it. BUT, I don't "pin" the tailwheel with full up elevator...just somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 up elevator allowing the tail to lift off the runway--then I just keep the aircraft in a level attitude and lift off when I want--working that (almost full) right rudder until then for perfect directional control parallel to the runway heading.
Make sure you let us know how it goes when you fly again--
DB

[curlyculp]

Kept telling myself the two blade prop was fine, but never liked the look. As I ordered the 4-blade with the model, I finally put it on. I see maybe a very slight reduction in speed. Little affect on battery duration. And it just plain looks way cooler. Not going back to the two.

[deadbug]

Curlyculp...Very nice pics there!! Looks great.
Re the 4-blade vs. the 2: Out of 70-some flights on the 2-blade, I tried one flight with the 4-blade, and it was so anemic compared to the 2-blade, I went back to the 2-blade and vowed never to repeat that again. If I ever use mine for static display, I'll put the 4-blade on. 'Cause, like you said, the 4 does look better 😉

[curlyculp]

Curlyculp...Very nice pics there!! Looks great.
Re the 4-blade vs. the 2: Out of 70-some flights on the 2-blade, I tried one flight with the 4-blade, and it was so anemic compared to the 2-blade, I went back to the 2-blade and vowed never to repeat that again. If I ever use mine for static display, I'll put the 4-blade on. 'Cause, like you said, the 4 does look better 😉

Based on other threads on the subject, I almost sent my 4-blade back. I was expecting lousy performance. But it wasn't. It was barely noticeable. Much better than my FMS V8 mustang out of the box. I'm getting good vertical. Plenty of power. Plenty of speed. 5000ma 4-cell, stock motor.

The pics you see are with my Nikon D500, which is a pretty spiffy camera. I've taught a couple flying buddies to use it. So I'll always be seeing pics of it airborne. And I just can't stand the look of the two bladed prop.

[Grossman56]

Mine has never had a two blade prop, she spins a four with a 650 kv motor driving it, as do all my Mustangs. The only way to go if you want the best of both worlds with a 4s system.

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

Oh, BTW, if you change out the prop shaft as well, you can get a nice tight fit as shown on My Little Gal

[deadbug]

Based on other threads on the subject, I almost sent my 4-blade back. I was expecting lousy performance. But it wasn't. It was barely noticeable. Much better than my FMS V8 mustang out of the box. I'm getting good vertical. Plenty of power. Plenty of speed. 5000ma 4-cell, stock moto

Okay guys--It has been a while, so I thought I'd take Old Crow up with a 4-blade prop. That lasted for about 2 minutes--I immediately brought it around, landed and replaced the prop back to my standard 2-blade. I'm sorry to say, as I did in my original post about the subject, the difference in the 4-blade performance is very noticeable to me and significantly below the 2-blade performance. This is with the stock motor and stock 2 and 4-blade props...all balanced. My fellow club members also noticed the performance drop. So, yeah, I like the scale look with 4...but when they're spinning you cant really tell...unless you have cool photos 😉.

Oh well, different strokes for different folks; just know that there is a difference! It's a great airplane--I do love it!
DB

[FPV Iron Ass]

I've been flying the FW P-51 for a few years FPV. I had the same issues as listed here. I put 8 1/4oz weights into the cowling, which solved the "Moon Shot". I'm also using 3 batteries, one for the Engine, one for the Sound System, and one for the FPV Gimbal/FPV TX. That's a lot of weight up front, but it flies great. Control Surfaces are set really low as to make the flight characteristics feel real, and if you back off the throttle, it drops rapidly. (Flies level in flight without elevator). The second thing is "GEAR SPRINGS". I swapped them out because I kept ripping the Gear out of the wings. So, when the plane is sitting, the Shaft sinks slightly. The last thing I did was add a Gyro N-9 Gunsight, and a Mirror. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PR75lwlgWg AND, SLOW FLAPS Servo, and a Landing Gear Light Indicator. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAJv7oaiCPE

[Grossman56]

Okay guys--It has been a while, so I thought I'd take Old Crow up with a 4-blade prop. That lasted for about 2 minutes--I immediately brought it around, landed and replaced the prop back to my standard 2-blade. I'm sorry to say, as I did in my original post about the subject, the difference in the 4-blade performance is very noticeable to me and significantly below the 2-blade performance. This is with the stock motor and stock 2 and 4-blade props...all balanced. My fellow club members also noticed the performance drop. So, yeah, I like the scale look with 4...but when they're spinning you cant really tell...unless you have cool photos 😉.

Oh well, different strokes for different folks; just know that there is a difference! It's a great airplane--I do love it!
DB

Actually, I agree with you, its not a hot plane with the stock system and a four blade prop. At Nefi, Mike pointed out to me that 3/4 throttle and full was no different. Compared to my two FMS P-51's which have the 650 kv motor, she was a dog. Now with the 650 in both my Freewing Mustangs, they are much better performers.

Grossman56

[curlyculp]

One thing that bugs me about my Old Crowe is the cockpit interior is painted this funky yellow. I want to slide the canopy back and see if I can get a brush in there to paint it, but I can't for the life of me get the canopy open. Any tips??