Official FlightLine RC 1600mm P-38 Lightning Thread

[Lon]

had the same issue with mine..theyll fit...just gotta work that tube while inserting the blocks (lining them up)

Same here. Just get the tube in and work the blocks, line them up...a little presure and they'll line up.

[Aros]

I forgot to mention that wing tab issue in my report...I'll edit...

The wing tabs when you go to lock the wings in place do not line up perfectly. At first I panicked, thinking the wing spar was hitting something unseen within the cavern of the mid wing section but I quickly discerned the tabs were not aligned with their holes perfectly. To remedy this, simply eye-ball/position each tab as close to the respective hole as possible, and wiggle it in. Worked just fine for both wings.

[TSHobbies]

WOOHOOO!! Got 2 flights in before the wind REALLY picked up..and man oh man what a beautiful flyer she is.. Im sorry to say,my wifes battery was goin dead,so no vids or pictures...bummer ... but needless to say FL and Motion has a great flyin plane..the wind really picked up before my second landing, Id say 15-20mph winds...landing just great in it too.

[Aros]

Congrats!!!

Nothing like the feeling of a successful maiden...Once she touches Mother Earth safely, your BP drops back down to normal levels. Good job!

[Aros]

Now that I have a succesful maiden out of the way, tonight I am going to pour a glass of wine and detail her out...

• Nomenclature decals
• Paint the struts silver (perhaps add some washers to the retracts to maximize rake)
• Upgrade to my Robart diamond treads (unless the hex nut is or gets stripped, DOH!)
• Paint match my counter balance weights
• Add screen mesh to the radiator scoops
• Add antenna line from back of canopy to the top of the V stabs
• Anything else I can think of

[FLTRI]

Great write up, Aros. Also really enjoyed the video, and love the soundtrack!

Congrats on the maiden, my build is scheduled for Monday...

[Grossman56]

Good job Aros, now I did notice that the inner flaps were sagging in the video, did you adjust that? Both were hanging down a bit, but it looked to me as if the starboard side was down further than the port, so it might tend to want to do a left turn, I'm thinking.

Grossman56

[Shirty]

Great flight report Todd, appreciate the effort with vid n pictures too. I also noticed the right flap down a bit, though it didn't seem to get a little squirrelly from it. Big Grats on the maiden.

[TSHobbies]

One thing I noticed after landing was the stock nose wheel squeeling pretty bad...Im going to go ahead and replace it with a Robart wheel too.

[tdevince]

The weather was better than forecast, which made for great conditions to do my maiden. She definitely does have a presence about her in the air. I had change my wheels out to Dubro 2.75" and 2.5" and I still have some grass in the wheel wells from the props cutting grass on take off and landing roll out :). I gave her a good long take off roll as I eased power in and let her rise off the ground. I needed a little nose down trim and due to the misalignment of the outer wing panels, I needed a fair amount of aileron trim. I had programmed in the manual recommended elevator trim with the flaps. I also slowed the flaps down via my radio. Half flaps she would balloon slightly, full flaps she did well. Just need to adjust my half flap elevator mix. Got her sorted out and burned through two sets of batteries. She looks good for those full throttle low speed passes!! Now I just need to clean the grass out of her tonight. Overall, I'm happy with her and looking to putting some time in the air with her. First flight was a conservative 5 minutes, second flight I added a minute for 6 minutes.

[Lon]

Aros....I thought the pushrods for the inboard flaps on mine was short too. BUT, when I connected the flaps to my receiver(had been doing setup and testing of servos with a tester) they was PLENTY long. Infact, i had to re-adjust the outer flap rods, they was now adjusted too long. Kind of has me scratching my head on this.

[Aros]

Thanks guys...We need more video folks! :)

Congrats tdevince! You're already a sortie ahead of me!

Yes as I mentioned in the build report, I thought the inboard flap pushrods were too short. At least they were for me. I tried removing the servos to re-adjust the arm but I think FlightLineRC used cement or something, lol...So I maidened with the pushrod issue, hence the slop.

Just say NO to sloppy flaps! LOL

I jimmy-rigged the setup so now it's perfect. I took two old clevises I had laying around with the rubber part that keeps the clip attached at the end...Well I slid the stock clevises inside the old ones to get me that additional quarter inch I needed to close the flaps and what do you know, it worked! I'll have to take photos so you can see what I did, I know it's hard to understand as I'm not doing a very good job describing it.

Lon, I have no idea how you were able to end up with plenty long pushrods...I tried everything short of removing the servo and re-adjusting the arm.

[TSHobbies]

Mine were fine too..had no issues there

[crxmanpat]

Added some more details today. Put screen in the cowl intakes (may still do the radiators, not totally sure yet), and painted one of the spinners and prop tips to match Putt Putt Maru. Also painted over the nose tip and radiator devil decals, and painted around the light lenses and over the servos.

And I've attached a couple pics regarding the outer flaps. They don't meet up properly with the center section, and could be why the wing mount tabs don't line up properly. Does anyone else's look like mine? It's worse on the right than on the left.

[tdevince]

Pat,
My outer panels are similar to yours but not as drastic. One wing is better than the other, expect some aileron trim to compensate.

[Aros]

Nice detail work Pat! Stripes are especially difficult on spinners. I don't have that alignment issue you have. That's strange indeed.

I started some detail work of my own this evening. Used washers to gain close to scale raking in the nose and main struts...Looks much better! The nose is 105 degrees like the full scale but the nose gear door won't close as the wheel is now in the way. It strains the servo so I have two choices to make. Either keep the nice scale look of the forward 105 degree rake in the nose strut - which would mean cutting out a rectangular section in the door so it will close all the way - or go back to a less-than-scale rake and save the door.

I am leaning towards cutting the door. I know it's not scale but you don't even notice unless you flip her upside down. Photos below. Let me know your opinions if you don't mind.

Painted the struts and wheels. Unfortunately, I couldn't add my Robart diamond tread wheels because only 1 of the 3 hex screws would unscrew releasing the collar. The other are stripped or won't budge. So in order to get my upgraded wheels on, looks like some drilling and new collars are in her near future.

I also put long stripes of gorilla tape over the stock servo wire tape that keeps curling up. I then painted the tape, servos and wires the paint matching colors.

Bummed about the wheels but I'll get that taken care of soon enough.

Next up, antenna, screen mesh for the radiators and finally the livery.

[tdevince]

The screws on the wheel collars are tight because they used a thread locking compound. For those wanting to replace their wheels, maybe a little heat before you try the screws might help. If you already stripped your screws, a drill is the only thing I can think of.

[TiredIronGRB]

Unfortunately, I couldn't add my Robart diamond tread wheels because only 1 of the 3 hex screws would unscrew releasing the collar. The other are stripped or won't budge. So in order to get my upgraded wheels on, looks like some drilling and new collars are in her near future.

Take some pliers and rock the collar back and fourth and it will slide off, it seems like the set screws are Loctited in...I had to replace one of mine.

[crxmanpat]

Another trick for stripped grub screws is to take a Torx star bit to it after heating. I have a tool kit that has all the little screwdriver bits, including stars.

[crxmanpat]

For those of you who have not yet added the generic decals (all the small print stuff), there are several mistakes on the Decal Position chart as follows:

Decal #1 is correct for the wingtips, but where it says use #1 for the inboard wing panels near the nacelles, use #35 instead (both sides).

The sheet shows using six of the #26 decal (gas fill). Obviously, the Stars & Bars are covering the gas cap on the starboard wing, so you can't put one there. Besides, there are only 5 of these decals anyway.

On the outer portion of the port nacelle, it says use decal #22. That should actually be #23.

On the port boom it says use decal #24. Should be #25.


Also, it should be noted that these stencils are like vinyl decals. Pull the entire decal from the sheet, number and all. Place the decal on the plane, and rub down over the stencil only. Then peel away the clear plastic and just the stencil should remain. Using something like an Xacto knife here helps a lot.