Official Black Horse Pilatus PC-9 1840mm ARF Discussion Thread

[Alexpsa]

Here is the 4th flight on my PC9, absolutely love that aircraft, she is pretty locked in and does slow down enough to land in less than 300’ with full flaps
I went with a 6s power system which is just at the edge of being underpowered, I’ll try a different prop, 17x8 instead of the 16x7 as well as a smaller capacity battery this week
hoping to get more vertical climb before she ran out of juice

https://youtu.be/yHD1GqddBE8?si=1Lnt0WzgSJqhE8OQ

[Alexpsa]

Just ordered one kit with the xwave retract and I m super excited as I love the full scale counterpart
now I have one T28 CZ power system with the 14.75x10 prop and one Badass 4320 470KV with 100a ESc and a choice of 16’s props 7, 8, 10 pitch or a 4 blades 14x8
really tempted to go with the 14x8 4 blades
I also got a good deal on a set of Spektrum A6380 ( 42 gr 7-9kg torque )
I have other planes for speed fix if I want that, with this one I will fly scale so as long as I can get some “ scale vertical” I m happy
having said that our runway is short so I’ll need 3 things : enough power to go around at a mid steep rate to clear a bunch of tall bushes and/or brakes or thrust reverse
the badass Rebel ESC can do that
what do you guys have in yours as far as power and how did you balanced the model? I like to build them as light as possible so I can get the slowest landing possible for each aircraft as well as slow low passes
I read a few bad stories but I m hopeful it won’t happen here, like every kits some are nice some are finished on a Friday afternoon …

[Lj_hobby_life]

By far one of my favorite planes in the hanger, this plane flies amazing. I went with the power system from the Carbon Z T-28 but with a 100amp esc in case I wanted more prop later, but with the CZ’s factory prop the plane GPS’d at 96mph so good enough for government work. Plane is extremely well built and comes together fairly easy. I had no problems with CG I fly it with a 5000mah and 6000mah 6s. The Xwave retracts have been good so far with over 30 flights on the model. The nose gear does need a bit of finesse to get in correctly, but nothing a modeler cannot do.

https://youtu.be/mwrRKNOXclw

[gerijuvy]

I purchased this model in September of 2020 and, without a doubt, has been the worst lemon I have ever purchased. It is a beautiful kit but the problems I've had have been horrible.

I powered it with an electric motor, an E-Flite Power 90. The stand-offs that came with the kit put the motor 2 inches behind the cowl so I had to purchase additional stand-offs to get the motor in front of the cowl. I also had to extend the battery tray aft to get a decent CG. When I installed my batteries 2 6s (even though the Power 90 is rated for only 8s but the Admiral motor is rated up to 10S), the front nose gear collapsed. 4 months later I received from MotionRC a new nose gear that had a stiffer compression spring and would take the weight. Finally, I thought I was good to fly...not true. The new nose great was slightly longer than the original and would no longer fit into the nose gear well with the standard 3" tire. In order to not remove a significant amount of the fuselage, I had to go to a smaller tire that would fit a 5mm axle and support the weight of the plane. After working with MotionRC, I received new 2 3/4" Robart wheels and installed them on the plane. I still had to trim some of the nose gear well and fuselage to get it to fit. Finally, I thought I was ready to fly...not true. The electric retracts XWave RM400-90 recommended for the aircraft were totally unreliable. I had an issue early on and thought it was a single defective retract which MotionRC happily replaced. But this was a much more serious problem. I had accumulated a total of 6 retracts and all 6 of them failed to reliably activate the landing gear even when the wheels were removed from the struts. MotionRC is now dealing with this issue.

This has been an expensive, frustrating, time-consuming, and unhappy ordeal. It's been 5 months since I bought the ARF and have been able to fly it only once and believe me, that was an frightening flight. I wonder if there was ever a competent engineer that designed this product to make sure the finished product ever functioned.
I would NOT recommend buying it until these defects are addressed and fixed.

[Dirk.S]

So to be clear, it comes with struts but not the actual retracts, correct?

Correct

[V12Kid]

So to be clear, it comes with struts but not the actual retracts, correct?

[Int3rM1xxx]

Any idea if this guy could be made to work?

https://www.fb-rc.com/products/x45-turbo-prop

[Dirk.S]

The maiden went very well. She flies beautifully scale like and was just like watching the real ones at airshows in previous years before they replaced them with the Pc21.

[Dirk.S]

Wow, very quiet in here, no responses in 4 months.
Anyway I worked out my issues and bought slightly smaller wheels.
She's all done and ready to maiden this weekend hopefully.

[Dirk.S]

Hi everyone. I got aot of work done on my PC9 yesterday but have a couple of minor issues I'd like to check with the brains trust.
The mains wheels rub on the strut (stock wheels and struts) did anyone else experience this?
My nose gear strut seems to be too long so the nose wheel hits the plastic wheel well (doesn't just rub - it won't fit in the space provided) I'm using the motion rc recommended and supplied electric retracts. Any tips from fellow owners would be appreciated

[Husafreak]

I'm wondering how well this model would hold up to an I.C. engine. I have been looking for a plane for my Saito 150 (24.5cc) glow engine. So the size looks perfect but some wood ARF's that are really intended for electric don't handle the vibration too well. How sturdy does it seem?

[Dirk.S]

I've just ordered one, looking forward to getting started on it soon!

[Kencz]

Any timing for the restock of PC-9 ? Hopefully early 2021?

[Piano0412]

As the original Blackhorse PC-9 didn't have flaps, it looks like a "V2" to me. Does anybody know if the wings are a direct fit to a V1 fuse or is it a redesign with modified interfaces?

[James]

Any update on the PC-9 shipment? Hope I didn't miss it! Feel like I've learned as much as I can from an old Great Planes rapture .40 and looking to move up in size and speed. This seemed like next logical step before I began tackling warbirds and EDFs.

Hey Dogbait, Welcome to HobbySquawk by the way. Our PC-9 is back in stock too!

Had a chance to get mine out again along with Patrick Croasdale who reskinned his to a T-6 Texan II which is the aircraft he trained in (He flies C-130's now!) They really looked stunning together

[Dogbait]

Any update on the PC-9 shipment? Hope I didn't miss it! Feel like I've learned as much as I can from an old Great Planes rapture .40 and looking to move up in size and speed. This seemed like next logical step before I began tackling warbirds and EDFs.

[swill]

Thanks Alpha for the response. I appreciate it and always love hearing you on the podcasts. Thank you, thank you, thank you for making the AL37. It looks beautiful and as a pilot for a major Atlanta based airline, I always yearned for a model of this nature. I had it pre-ordered but didn't follow through because of what you mentioned above... it's balsa. I'm a balsa plane guy through and through. It's in my blood, it's what I know and to me... it's what lasts. That's why I'm searching for a good jet trainer type of plane such as the PC-9 or PC-21!! Would love to have more high performance jet like aircraft (retracts, flaps) but with a prop .. or turbo-prop!

But who knows... I may order the AL37 and put the Widget on it! It's kind of too big to easily transport in my cars but it sure looks beautiful! Good job!!

and keep the balsa coming!!

[Alpha]

swill Thanks for the opportunity to earn your business! The Black Horse PC-9 is likely going to be restocked in late January at the earliest. We don't have a clearer ETA at this time, but when we do, we'll post here, so please consider subscribing to this thread for updates. Balsa planes are difficult to keep in stock and our sales rates haven't normalized yet since they're relatively new on our website. The PC-9 was in stock for a while, then all of a sudden sold out within a week without warning. That's a good problem to have, from a certain point of view, but also problematic in terms of predicting the demand for a product ~6-8 months in the future. There is such a long gap between when we order a balsa plane and when it arrives. It's basically looking into a crystal ball, but in the case of the PC-9 I can assure you it will be worth the wait, if you choose to give it a try!

Also, I agree, the Texan II livery is solid!

[swill]

Any updates on when the PC-9 will be back in stock? I'm itching to get one in the air. I have the Phoenix LARGE PC-21 but it's too big for my car... therefore I'm looking for something similar but just slightly smaller. I think this fits the bill perfectly. Would love to bash it into a Texan II like others have done.

[Canada Goose]

Yes, they are completely custom. I gave him the desired length and the thread size needed. He uses aluminum stock and turns it on his lathe. In my case the length was 83mm and the thread size 4mm. His product is excellent. Please tell him Mike from Canada referred you as it will put a smile on his face! His email is Draknkep@pacbell.net

A tip for anyone putting together the PC-9 is that there are some small vertical and horizontal marks on the firewall to help with aligning your motor mount. They are quite hard to find due to the black paint and they are quite short but if you have a good light source you will find them etched into the wood. Using a ruler and a pencil between the marks will greatly help.