Official FlightLine RC 1600mm P-38 Lightning Thread

[Grossman56]

Hey Ryan,
thanks buddy. It would be great if you have the time.

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

"They say to do it with gear down and right side up." Where did you read this? It is not in the manual.

I see a lot of posts on the CG, which makes me wonder, is this a high wing or low wing airplane? Personally, I would have called it a high wing because the majority of what would normally be called the fuselage sits below the wing attachment. So, I would have balanced it upright. Gear up/gear down would seem to be a matter of preference, a 'whatever works for you' kind of thing. Is my thinking right?

Grossman56

[Pheonix]

Ok now. I purchased the Dubro 2.75 and the 3.0 based on recommendations. I am not sure which I will use now:(

[FLTRI]

Ok now. I purchased the Dubro 2.75 and the 3.0 based on recommendations. I am not sure which I will use now:(

So did I, and gave both a shot. Here's what I ended up with, and why.

I tried the 3.00" on the rear first. They fit, and the doors closed. When up, the tires hit the inside of the wheel well, and strained the retracts a bit. And easy fix would be to carve some foam out of the wheel wells. That would bugger up the nice green wheel well paint, so I decided against it. I didn't try to rake the rear gear, as I want as wide of a stance as possible for ground handling. That may have given me some clearance, but I didn't try.

Next, I tried the 2.75" Dubro's in the rear. Perfect fit, no clearance issues. I'm not too much of a scale Nazi, they look better than stock, so I'm pleased.

On the front, I also tried the 2.75" as I don't have any 2.5" Dubros. Again, it fit, but rubbed on the gear door mechanism. I moved the control arm from the rear of the gear door to the front, and it helped, but still hit. I attempted to remove the servo arm from the door servo, but it's super tight in there, and I was worried about getting the screw back in, if I could even get it out. I put on one of the rear mains, and it fits well. Looks Okay (after some silver paint on the wheel hub) and everything clears. I added a couple of washers under the rear set of retract screws, to give the front gear a nice forward rake. The doors close, and the rake looks much more scale.

Overall, I'm pleased with the appearance. The rear foam tires that come with the plane will flat spot pretty quickly sitting on the gear. Also, when you are messing with the rear gear, remove the retract, use an Allen wrench to remove the strut. Makes it really easy to give it a coat of paint. I removed the front retract as well, but didn't remove the strut. Just masked it off, put some newspapers over the plane, and gave it a quick shot of silver spray paint. Super easy to do, and really helps the appearance...

Hope this helps with your decision...

[xviper]

I see a lot of posts on the CG, which makes me wonder, is this a high wing or low wing airplane? Personally, I would have called it a high wing because the majority of what would normally be called the fuselage sits below the wing attachment. So, I would have balanced it upright. Gear up/gear down would seem to be a matter of preference, a 'whatever works for you' kind of thing. Is my thinking right?

Grossman56

Spot on! (Too few characters in my original post, so I'm adding this.) :angel:

[OV10]

And the sound...You bring up a good point that isn't brought up often enough...When the props are balanced, she has this distinct, sweet whine to her as she passes by that is so cool! Even my flying buddy pointed the sound out to me without me saying anything. It's a really cool feature that we don't mention often. ;)

Aros........And now you truly understand the reason for my User Title "Twins are 2X the Funs" ;)

[Aros]

Indeed OV10! Indeed!

Another fine sortie today...Unfortunately my Mobius camera crapped out on me today and only recorded partial footage...What a great bird she is!

[F106DeltaDart]

Flew the P-38 again this morning and did some basic aerobatics. Handles loops and rolls quite nicely, and has plenty of power. The flaps are also quite effective in slowing down the plane for a nice soft landing.

[PlaneCrazy]

Indeed OV10! Indeed!

Another fine sortie today...Unfortunately my Mobius camera crapped out on me today and only recorded partial footage...What a great bird she is!

OK Aros, Now you've got me interested............what Mobius camera model do you have and what accessories are needed? Thanks,
Andy

[FLTRI]

Maiden Flight Success!

I finally quit making excuses, and went to a new field I'd heard about, but never flown at. Turned out to be perfect, it's just a giant asphalt pad. No need to worry about lining up with the runway, which takes out one of the 100 things you need to do in half a second, to grease a landing. As there's the Pacific Ocean in the background, it makes for a perfect backdrop for the flight. (Okay, it's not the ocean, it's Lake Mead. But it was the Pacific Theatre in my head).

As y'all have said, she's a kitten to fly! Plenty of power, and all my hand wringing over CG was for naught. It takes a lot of real estate to make a turn, something you have to plan for. As others have noted, it can be tricky keeping orientation, The plane is symmetrical, and it's a challenge determining which way is up when she's way out there. I'm cailing Callie in the morning, and getting some invasion stripes. That should help a bunch!

Here's some video, and as an aside I can get it in my wife's SUV, wings on!

[Aros]

OK Aros, Now you've got me interested............what Mobius camera model do you have and what accessories are needed?

Here you go my friend. It's a fantastic camera. Wide lens, HD...Quality is fantastic. Just a smidge larger than a keychain cam. I mount it on my planes using Gorilla Tape. Captured some awesome video with it.

http://www.motionrc.com/mobius-actioncam-1080p-mini-hd-camera-w-wide-angle-lens/

[Aros]

Congrats Dan! I had to laugh with your ****ting nickels comment, LOL! We've all been there brother!

Nice maiden. She really is a *****cat and man oh man I salivated looking at your flying area. I really need to move to a place that doesn't have tall trees every 10 feet, sheesh. Your approach was surprisingly low but ya pulled it off without issue. Welcome to the club soldier!

[PlaneCrazy]

Here you go my friend. It's a fantastic camera. Wide lens, HD...Quality is fantastic. Just a smidge larger than a keychain cam. I mount it on my planes using Gorilla Tape. Captured some awesome video with it.

http://www.motionrc.com/mobius-actioncam-1080p-mini-hd-camera-w-wide-angle-lens/

Thanks Aros! Now if I read correctly this will take photos as well as video? Do you have to download the software from Microsoft and is it supported by Windows 10?
I'm on motion's webpage now so tell me a little bit about this toy...........I'm camera ignorant.

Thanks,
Andy

[Aros]

It should work with Windows 10, I don't see why it wouldn't. Yes it takes photos as well as video. Just follow the instruction manual to a tee. There's some setup involved but it's really not that bad.

[FLTRI]

Congrats Dan! I had to laugh with your ****ting nickels comment, LOL! We've all been there brother!

Nice maiden. She really is a *****cat and man oh man I salivated looking at your flying area. I really need to move to a place that doesn't have tall trees every 10 feet, sheesh. Your approach was surprisingly low but ya pulled it off without issue. Welcome to the club soldier!

Thanks Man, I appreciate it! That's kinda funny, I see others fields in the videos, and dream about those huge green lawns, and something beside four shades of brown. The grass is always greener...

My muscle memory told me to hold up elevator while taxing, like I do with all my tail draggers. That's why the maiden takeoff way so jerky. And you're right, I was so concerned about running out of runway, I came in a bit low. Thankfully, I saw it and cleared the mesquite bushes. Those things are unforgiving! The second landing, I actually cut throttle too early. Much to my surprise, it didn't brick into the ground, just settled on the mains and rolled out. Another thing that surprised me was when I pulled the gear up, there was no noticeable CG shift, and I have the rather heavy 2.75" Dubro's on her...

Thanks to you, Aros, and all the others all that put up with my CG questions. I'm gonna remove lead a ½ ounce at a time, until it feels tail heavy.

[crxmanpat]

Congrats on all the maidens and subsequent flights guys! I joined the club myself today. Just one flight, and my photographer was not there today, so no pics. Hopefully we will get lots of pics and video at Apollo next weekend!

[Aros]

Congrats Pat!

[PlaneCrazy]

Haven't had a chance to take my P38 out of the box yet but getting close. Gave me time to do a lot of thinking and I'm gonna try to make the fuel tanks droppable using Efilte servoless electric drop mechanisms. I have 4 of them in a drawer and they look like they might fit so I'm going to look if that is all possible...........gotta love dropping things..............:p

[mr.frankenjet]

congrats to everyone on flights today, some really impressive footage.

Build day for me today. I got the silver off the nose and raked the gear, swapped the main wheel to the nose. I was able to get the door working by moving the linkage to the front of the hinge and added a bend. Also made a block so when the gear retracts it hits it and tilts the wheel out of the way of everything.
Covered all the slots, mold marks and servos (used disposable food container plastic and pin stripe tape)

I like the HD flap paint as it flows better than the lowes semi gloss but it is flatter than the factory paint, hides gator better so likely will skim all in the end.
Finally balanced a prop, required almost no weight, however the CW prop was taking a ton of weight, noticed after a while 1 blade was the CCW type, fortunately already have some on the way.

[TiredIronGRB]

Maiden Flight Success!

I finally quit making excuses, and went to a new field I'd heard about, but never flown at. Turned out to be perfect, it's just a giant asphalt pad. No need to worry about lining up with the runway, which takes out one of the 100 things you need to do in half a second, to grease a landing. As there's the Pacific Ocean in the background, it makes for a perfect backdrop for the flight. (Okay, it's not the ocean, it's Lake Mead. But it was the Pacific Theatre in my head).

As y'all have said, she's a kitten to fly! Plenty of power, and all my hand wringing over CG was for naught. It takes a lot of real estate to make a turn, something you have to plan for. As others have noted, it can be tricky keeping orientation, The plane is symmetrical, and it's a challenge determining which way is up when she's way out there. I'm cailing Callie in the morning, and getting some invasion stripes. That should help a bunch!

Here's some video, and as an aside I can get it in my wife's SUV, wings on!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n37024[/ATTACH]

Nice flights, is that near the welcome center?