E-flite 1.2m P-39

[Tim K]

My P-29 arrived today and it went together in about 15 minutes. The quick connect servo plugs build into the wing and fuse were a bit fussy, I would have just prefered to connect them like normal. It looks ok but not spectacular. The fit and finish isn't anywhere near what I have come to expect from companies Freewing or Flightline. The CG does look very far forward if you go by the manual. I am just going maiden it with the recommended battery and see how it goes.

[TiredIronGRB]

My P-29 arrived today and it went together in about 15 minutes. The quick connect servo plugs build into the wing and fuse were a bit fussy, I would have just prefered to connect them like normal. It looks ok but not spectacular. The fit and finish isn't anywhere near what I have come to expect from companies Freewing or Flightline. The CG does look very far forward if you go by the manual. I am just going maiden it with the recommended battery and see how it goes.

Still looks nice, I have the small one on floats (long story) but always thought a larger one would be much a better handling plane.

[Tim K]

Still looks nice, I have the small one on floats (long story) but always thought a larger one would be much a better handling plane.

Its not terrible, just not the quality of Flightline. I'm really happy that Eflight has decided to make something a little different for a change. Now if one of these companies would come out with some more German, Russian, or Japanese warbirds.

[Tim K]

First maiden report: Number one, the cg is at the written range of 44 to 55mm, the cg shown in the illustration is wrong, almost 100mm off!
First flight was with 2200mah 4 cell 30c. All setup was as book, very slight amount of up elevator trimmed in. The best way I could describe it would be to say it went they way you'd like all maidens to go, lifted of after about a 60ft roll, needed no trim except 3 clicks of aileron. No bad habits, looped and rolled, just as easy as pie, oh and all so far at low rates.
Stalled it and there was an easily identifiable break and mushed straight ahead. Landing was easy with half flaps in a good headwind but I have to remember how light it is compared to what I usually fly.
Flight two was with 3000mah 4s30c which just barely allowed the canopy to close, had more poop and top speed was higher, as far as I could tell there was no weight penalty with the heavier battery.
One more thing, the instructions for installing the pitot tube say to slide the tube into the slot....WRONG. where the tube mounts there is a small hatch at the leading edge of the wing held on by a piece of doublestick tape. That little hatch has to come off and then the pitot tube mounts inside and the hatch closes over the tube to hold it in. I used a little bit of foam tac because the doublestick tape was not very secure

Do you know what your CG was actually at? And did you fly off of grass or pavement?

[Quickstop]

Do you know what your CG was actually at? And did you fly off of grass or pavement?

The book stated CG is right, but the picture showing where the CG is located is wrong. Just go with the 44-50mm back from the leading edge where the wing meets the fuselage. I flew off pavement. CG didn't seem very sensitive as long as it was within the stated range.

[MANFRED]

Had to get rid of "PAT and WALLEYE". Don't like the fake blue for spinner and tail and they are now yellow. Matching the brown color was a beotch! Mine is now "Yellow Rose" with a Texas Maiden. Screaming for some weathering. I wish they had included the U.S.ARMY decals for the bottom of the wing. Will fly her on Saturday after I figure out how to cram the sound into her.

[Tim K]

It stopped raining and the sun came out long enough for me to run over to the local Jr High School and maiden the P-39 this evening. I flew four flights, two one 3cell 3000s and two on 4cell 2500s. The plane flew just fine on 3cell and had no bad issues what so ever. It was a bit faster on 4cell but not terribly much, but the vertical was very impressive. I will probably keep flying it on 4 cell just because I don't have that many good 3cells any longer. after 4 back to back flights the ESC was warm but not to bad. All in all it is a really solid plane.

[TiredIronGRB]

It stopped raining and the sun came out long enough for me to run over to the local Jr High School and maiden the P-39 this evening. I flew four flights, two one 3cell 3000s and two on 4cell 2500s. The plane flew just fine on 3cell and had no bad issues what so ever. It was a bit faster on 4cell but not terribly much, but the vertical was very impressive. I will probably keep flying it on 4 cell just because I don't have that many good 3cells any longer. after 4 back to back flights the ESC was warm but not to bad. All in all it is a really solid plane.

Good to hear :Cool:

[MANFRED]

My P-29 arrived today and it went together in about 15 minutes. The quick connect servo plugs build into the wing and fuse were a bit fussy, I would have just prefered to connect them like normal. It looks ok but not spectacular. The fit and finish isn't anywhere near what I have come to expect from companies Freewing or Flightline. The CG does look very far forward if you go by the manual. I am just going maiden it with the recommended battery and see how it goes.

P-29

[MANFRED]

[Tim K]

P-29

OOPS! :) Although I am partial to the between the wars planes as you can see by my profile picture.

[Tim K]

Look good. Did you have any issue's taking off the stock decals? Did it peal any paint? I am thinking about repainting mine in a Soviet scheme.

[MANFRED]

I have never had good luck removing the decals without destroying the foam underneath. I matched the paint, painted over the decals and applied new ones, then weathered it. Looks good

[Tim K]

I was wondering what you did, Great job, I can barely see where the decals you painted over are. I keep wishing these companies would at least send out these planes without the decals attached, or better yet offer a unpainted version for those of us that like to customize our planes.

[tengarang]

This seems like a fine model and the videos on Horizon Hobby look great as well. I am assuming the 5.5x8.5" 3-blade is actually an 8.5x5.5" 3-blade Diameter x Pitch x Blade to stay with the conventional propeller definition nomenclature.

I fly my Eflite P-51D with a 70Amp FMS esc with 5A SBEC with a 4000uF cap in a spare rx port to couple the external 20A CCBEC output regulated voltage // when operating 4s

	Diam.	Pitch	Blades	Load
p39	8.5	5.5	3	4776.77147
	Diam.	Pitch	Blades	Load
maule	11	7	2	9317

advantages for upgrading to the new motor

-higher performance on both 3s and 4s

-if going with 3s the 40A stock ESC will not have to be changed out, due to the fact that the eflite Maule which comes stock with the 1050KV BL15 motor also equipped with a 40A eflite esc and is rated for 3s/4s. The fact that the stock p-39 8.5x5.5" 3-blade prop is almost one-half the loading factor of the Maule prop suggests the higher KV motor be an electrically feasible upgrade at no additional cost with the exception of adding the higher kV motor mentioned; if desired. // assuming only 3s operation

-if going 4s with the 70A ESC mentioned coupled with the 4000uF cap which you can build yourself or you can pick up a 16v 6800uf from Amazon; and put it in a spare RX port to help couple the two regulator outputs from the ESC and the external BEC to ensure no brownout condition arises due to higher amp draw which may happen from time to time; this ensures security and is cheap insurance when overpowering your electric RC plane. Go this route if you feel like going to war as I do every time I go flying.

Disadvantages

-Additional cost
-slightly heavier due to additional minor components, while the additional power, especially on 4s, will more than compensate the insignificant weight gains.
-runs hot and electrical feasibility of the 4s lipo voltage rating under load nominal value 14.8V will be in violation. So use the full throttle sparingly. Realistically you wont need to gun it all the time, for me its 5 second bursts here and there and if i really need to keep the pedal to the metal, that's fine too but just keep in mind while she's screaming up there make sure to let her cool down a bit from time to time. Think of it as having a war emergency power feature to be used sparingly.

Enjoy your P-39 guys

[tengarang]

Editing add on post#35

My friend Karltrek from RC groups just brought to my attention the size of the p-39 prop doesn't seem to be the size that eflite/horizon hobby is reporting. As you can see the sizes are very similar when comparing the roc hobby p-40 / p39/ki61 980mm/995mm models which hold a 10.5x7x3 prop. In this case, the loading factor of the p-39 prop will be greater than what was reported in post#35. As a matter of fact, it is comparable to the loading of the eflite maule given that the prop is just a hair smaller than the roc hobby counter part.

So what has been said is still true as far as going 3s the stock 40A esc will still be able to handle it without additional modification

	Manual load calc.
	Diam.	Pitch	Blades	Load
p39	10	7.5	3	10606.6017
	Diam.	Pitch	Blades	Load
maule	11	7	2	9317

[MANFRED]

This thing screams on a 4s, almost too much for scale flights

[theoldALFER]

This thing screams on 4s...

How does it do on 3s? :Confused:

[MANFRED]

Does fine, but needs nose weight. I have a sound system on her, with the 4s it seems to balance better

[dkalwishky]

This is my unboxing of the P-39 Airacobra from e-flight. This is a really good looking plane that I can't wait to get into the air.

I mention in the video that I couldn't get my Admiral 3300's into the battery bay on the tray, I've read that guys are using this size battery without the tray. There seems to be enough friction to hold a bigger battery in place.