Official FlightLine RC 1600mm P-38 Lightning Thread

[Bajora]

Four years later ... STILL enjoying this P-38!

[Hardway]

Me too!!! Awesome bird

[tab28682]

This is likely my next acquisition. Have always wanted a nice P-38, plus I need a good P-38 to help fill in my model collection representing the history of Lockheed Martin.

My current hangar has a Flying Styro P-38 which is fairly scale and flies nicely, but is extremely fragile as it is constructed of modern Depron. Also, it is a belly lander.

The FL P-38 always does well when I see one fly at the local events.

[Steve Clough]

Ran into a problem today at the field. My P-38 was pulling hard to the left during flight. I was able to get her down on the ground safely, albeit and ugly landing. Upon inspection everything appeared normal. I did a gear pass and both engines appeared to be running but it definitely wasn't flying right. I recalibrated both ESCs and taxied it up and down the street. Everything appears normal but I'm really nervous about putting her back in the air. Anyone run into this before or have any ideas what might have happened? Thanks!

[Elbee]

Ran into a problem today at the field. My P-38 was pulling hard to the left during flight. I was able to get her down on the ground safely, albeit and ugly landing. Upon inspection everything appeared normal. I did a gear pass and both engines appeared to be running but it definitely wasn't flying right. I recalibrated both ESCs and taxied it up and down the street. Everything appears normal but I'm really nervous about putting her back in the air. Anyone run into this before or have any ideas what might have happened? Thanks!

SC, i don't own this aircraft, but I do want to welcome you to Hobby Squawk. Keep hanging around, someone will chime in on this, I'm certain. Hey Hardway, you there? Best, LB

[Beeg]

Ran into a problem today at the field. My P-38 was pulling hard to the left during flight. I was able to get her down on the ground safely, albeit and ugly landing. Upon inspection everything appeared normal. I did a gear pass and both engines appeared to be running but it definitely wasn't flying right. I recalibrated both ESCs and taxied it up and down the street. Everything appears normal but I'm really nervous about putting her back in the air. Anyone run into this before or have any ideas what might have happened? Thanks!

Sounds like your motors aren't yet calibrated evenly. Were you getting hard left pull on takeoff? On a high power run on the ground can you verify you're getting full RPM on both sides. Either by feel or with a prop RPM meter..

[Steve Clough]

Sounds like your motors are yet calibrated evenly. Were you getting hard left pull on takeoff? On a high power run on the ground can you verify you're getting full RPM on both sides. Either by feel or with a prop RPM meter..

It did pull hard left on take off - like my P-47 does if I'm not on the right rudder. I aborted my first landing attempt because with full right rudder I couldn't keep it over the runway. Maybe my initial calibration didn't go quite right. Only got about 20 flights on it. During a gear pass both engines were running. I got it home and calibrated each ESC separately as others have describe in this blog. I ran the engines up and they both start and run strong now so I hope that was it. It would seem odd that the motor would have gone bad with so few flights.

[Absolarix]

Hello, I am a new-comer to ownership of this P-38. I have read through many pages of this forum, but still have a lot to go. A couple of my friends want me to stream my building of this plane. While reading through this wealth of information, it crossed my mind that some of you may be interested in watching me go through the steps of my first RC plane build. I've taken the plane out and put it back in the box several times, lol. I recieved the plane two weeks ago, but I'm waiting for appropriate batteries to arrive before diving in. I'm fairly patient, but this has been testing it for sure!

I will be starting the live stream of me building my Flightline P-38L on the 27th of May at 11AM Mountain Standard Time
(MST is UTC-6, convert to your time zone here: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclo...T11&p1=80&p2=0)

If you are interested and would like to watch, keep an eye out, as I will post here again shortly before I go live. I will be streaming to Youtube for sure, I will also be Streaming to Twitch ***IF*** I can figure out how to stream to both at once.

[Aros]

Welcome Absolarix ! We'll tune in! Good luck on the build and maiden!

[tab28682]

I just added the P-38 to my hangar. Easy build, model arrived in perfect shape. Maiden flight last Sunday. Used 2x Roaring Top 4s 3700 lipos and an Admiral 6ch RX.

Flies as good as it looks!

[ICM]

I'm using 2x Admiral Pro 50c's weighing 588g. Looking for a 2nd set. Your RT's weigh 800g. Any issue with fit or cg? What flight time did you get?

[tab28682]

I'm using 2x Admiral Pro 50c's weighing 588g. Looking for a 2nd set. Your RT's weigh 800g. Any issue with fit or cg? What flight time did you get?

Fit of the RT 3700 4s was very tight without foam mods, but worked. Ended up slightly nose heavy by a few mm. Flew great. Have not yet analysed flight time, but they were in excess of 6 minutes of mixed power.

[Door Guns]

Fit of the RT 3700 4s was very tight without foam mods, but worked. Ended up slightly nose heavy by a few mm. Flew great. Have not yet analysed flight time, but they were in excess of 6 minutes of mixed power.

I have a set Admiral 3600 Pro and a set of regular Admiral 3200's. My P-38 is stock with the exception of the upgraded struts.

When I bought the plane I followed the more is better thought process and grabbed the 3600's. The fit, tightly as they are a little tall and fit really tightly against the canopy hatch toward the front.

In reality you don't need them. With the 3200's I get a lot of flight time 6+ minutes, and at that point I have about 50% of the battery capacity remaining. I can literally fly, land take a break and fly again on the same battery pack ( I don't but I could do it).

So, the plane flies awesome. It is definitely more fun and more comfortable to fly with the lighter batteries. You simply do not need the extra MaH and its associated weight.

[ICM]

Do you mean the Admiral 4s 3000s? There are no 4s 3200's on Motion website

[tab28682]

I have a set Admiral 3600 Pro and a set of regular Admiral 3200's. My P-38 is stock with the exception of the upgraded struts.

When I bought the plane I followed the more is better thought process and grabbed the 3600's. The fit, tightly as they are a little tall and fit really tightly against the canopy hatch toward the front.

In reality you don't need them. With the 3200's I get a lot of flight time 6+ minutes, and at that point I have about 50% of the battery capacity remaining. I can literally fly, land take a break and fly again on the same battery pack ( I don't but I could do it).

So, the plane flies awesome. It is definitely more fun and more comfortable to fly with the lighter batteries. You simply do not need the extra MaH and its associated weight.

You were unaware of a major advantage I have with these batteries. I already have them and did not have to buy smaller ones. These are also used in my B-24 and F7F and a couple of 70mm EDFs.

I found it very comfortable to fly with these batteries. Faintly nose heavy, but that can be adjusted. A little extra weight does not hurt in turbulent conditions, either. I find that these 70C 3700 Roaring Tops have a little more punch than the typical 40-50c 3000-3300 packs.

[Door Guns]

Do you mean the Admiral 4s 3000s? There are no 4s 3200's on Motion website

Yes, sorry. 3000's

[Door Guns]

Here's the installation of 3600's and 3000's.

May be of some use for guys just putting the plane together or looking at getting one.

tab28682 is right, if you have batteries use them. If not, I don't think you need to spend more money for batteries than necessary, especially if you can keep it lighter / lower wing loading.

[Evan D]

When I built mine I had Zippy Compact 3700's and had to move them back a bit requiring the dremeling of the plastic. I then bought Hobby Star 4600's (380g ea) and that's what I use now. Long flight times, back to glow power 20 minute flights.

[tab28682]

I plan on dong the Dremel work to get the batteries back further. Decided to go to the field last Sunday rather than stay home and grind on the plastic and foam.

The net result of using the batteries that are around 820 gr vs 588 gr is that the model's gross weight goes up about 6%. Not enough to affect the model enough to worry about, in my experience. It still landed like a feather.

[Cobbster]

I lost mine two a crash,I was in a shallow turn dirty { everything down] and it dropped the left wing and went in nose first.I had 8 flights on it and had done stall tests in all configs and it had never shown a tendancy to drop an wing,allways straight soft stalls.My best guess is I had too much rudder with too slow airspeed.It flew fantastic before the crash ,Ill probably get another one.