Official FlightLine RC 1600mm P-38 Lightning Thread

[Lon]

Obviously, when downloading this video. I didn't get it done in 1080p. Sorry about the quality. But it was a great maiden. The pilot(me) flew the first few minutes with the flaps in the take off position...at least that was the worst thing that happened. I hadn't done any mix with the landing flap position...so had some ballooning effect. I've since got that mix pretty much dialed in. With the crosswind i missed our small runway, I was more concerned about all the other things, than touchdowning on the runway. She handles the rough grass very well. The stock retract system and wheels handled it very well, though after the 3rd flight while checking her out, i caught that the right strut was becoming loose. So a couple minutes spent tightening the grub screw on that one before the next flight. With the weather forecast for tomorrow, I will have her in the air again tomorrow morning.

Here's a better quality of my maiden today.

[TSHobbies]

Nice! I "re-maidened" the New Journey today...went quite well, and the mix of FMS & Freewing gear works great too.

heres the takeoff vid...I kept it high this time though in case anything went wrong

https://youtu.be/rw0PfaYy_Io

Heres the landing part..at 53 seconds

https://youtu.be/CFixB5AYDbk

[TiredIronGRB]

Nice! I "re-maidened" the New Journey today...went quite well, and the mix of FMS & Freewing gear works great too.

heres the takeoff vid...I kept it high this time though in case anything went wrong

https://youtu.be/rw0PfaYy_Io

Heres the landing part..at 53 seconds
https://youtu.be/CFixB5AYDbk

Nice, where was your CG?

[TSHobbies]

Im thinkin it was 70-73 ..pretty sure...before the mod..I had dead weight in the nose..after the mod I didnt need any weight

[Aros]

Nice Lon! Boy I envy your non-obstructed flying field! And is that a geotextile runway? I wish my club would do something like that.

[Sky Wolf]

Well done Lon! Huge congrats.

[Lon]

Thanks! And Arose, yes it is. Packing up now at the field now. 5 flights logged with the P38 and 4 with the Iron Ass. One video I'll post later.

[Capt. Crunch]

Great job guys!! Congrats to both of you! Those twin engines have an awesome sound

[Arycon]

Whew.

I've pretty much finished the weathering on my P-38. I broke out the airbrush today and added a light khaki color around the supercharges and overlaid it with black to create a mottled effect. I also added exhaust trails to the back of the superchargers and vents, and also trailing behind the guns. The photos don't do it justice, but the last photo shows the mottled panel effect I managed to get using pastels and overlaying the panel by drybrushing the Home Depot matched paint over it. Made a really nice "worn in" look. I still need to put in my order to Callie Graphics, which I can finally do. I put in some extra time to finish the nose art.

I'm really glad to hear someone is installing the Mr RC Sound module on this plane. Luckily, my power supply is not dead after all. I am going to return the new one I purchased and get a new charger instead...either a Revolectrix Powerlab 6 or GT500. I'm leaning toward the GT500. I plan on using the money from the power supply to purchase a sound unit. I am really excited to bring this project together. I go on vacation starting the 24th of this month. I need to get my parts before then so I can enjoy a week of flying.

Side note: The nose art is -not- original artwork. I am skilled at graphic design, but used an existing pin up photo I found online. I would notate the original artist, but I do not have a name. The artwork was altered slightly with a new swim suit and long, black hair. I take no credit for the overall work since it was originally created by someone else. I give credit for it to the original artist.

Photos below. I welcome feedback or if anyone has questions, let me know.

[Pheonix]

You really put much work into this one. I am getting ideas for my next one. Thanks much as I already have most of the parts.

[PlaneCrazy]

Ok, thought I'd share how I modified the FW P51 Strut for use as the nose gear in this plane. I cut off the stock nose gear strut at the bottom of the steering tiller. Then I drilled out the top of the compression cylinder of the P51 strut to the depth of the stock wire. Then I opened up the side of the cylinder enough to slide over the tiller arm. This gives a length that is about 1/4" longer than the stock nose strut. I then drilled a hole in the spring shaft that shortened the length of travel when there was no weight on the nose gear. I found a spring that was the same weight material but about 1/4" which works just fine. I then JB welded the cylinder to the steering tiller and re-assembled the whole strut and it fits just fine with the Robart 2.5" tire. A pretty simple exercise with minimal change.

[Brandon Moon]

THe FMS Mustang is 1450 mm while the Freewing is 1400. I would try the Freewing struts first, because they are shorter and also because they are metal. I can only imagine that the main strut may need to be shortened and tapped to fit on the original strut pin while making sure to maintain the offset.

Actually the FW strut is longer than the FMS strut

[Brandon Moon]

Just a few shots of her today after returning from my "Bandit" field

Also had a ball with my 1100 mm Zero...Excellent flying plane and very spirited.

Had to keep her covered....sun was pretty hard on her

Fly's like a dream

[Brandon Moon]

CG per the manual is measured from here: Not the Leading edge

[Trobinson99]

Well, I went to the field with the p-38. I intentionally only brought 2 batteries at storage charge.

I wanted to show off and do some taxi, ground handling trials with the new gear.

After all the club members ooohed and ahhhhed I did some ground handling tests.

The new landing gear setup worked amazing.

As I came back to the pits, the club president walks up and says "give me your batteries". He then proceeds to throw them on the charger and said he was not leaving the field without seeing Honey Bunny fly.
Needless to say I succumbed to the peer pressure and had an amazing flight.

This plane is awesome. Thank you Motion RC.

One item to note. I am not sure if I read that the elevator needs about 4mm of up trim from neutral or if this was a result of the heavier landing gear, but I needed about 4mm of up trim. The bottom of the elevator lines up with the top of the horizontal stabilizer.

[Pheonix]

Thanks Brandon for the tip. I got it now!

[Lon]

Well, I went to the field with the p-38. I intentionally only brought 2 batteries at storage charge.

I wanted to show off and do some taxi, ground handling trials with the new gear.

After all the club members ooohed and ahhhhed I did some ground handling tests.

The new landing gear setup worked amazing.

As I came back to the pits, the club president walks up and says "give me your batteries". He then proceeds to throw them on the charger and said he was not leaving the field without seeing Honey Bunny fly.
Needless to say I succumbed to the peer pressure and had an amazing flight.

This plane is awesome. Thank you Motion RC.

One item to note. I am not sure if I read that the elevator needs about 4mm of up trim from neutral or if this was a result of the heavier landing gear, but I needed about 4mm of up trim. The bottom of the elevator lines up with the top of the horizontal stabilizer.

That peer thing will get most guys everytime! Glad you found it a awsome plane. Same with me. And yes, I had read about the 4mm, and dialed that in before the maiden. It is needed.

[OV10]

And yes, I had read about the 4mm, and dialed that in before the maiden. It is needed.

Hello Lon,
Back on post 1552 I had asked Aros about the 4mm up elevator being rather contrary to everthing I've practiced regarding control surface neutralization in relation to CG adjustments and asked if it was because the cockpit pod has no room to adjust the battery(s) aft more to zero the need for up elevator to hold level flight but he responded with he didn't know. Same question to you........is there room to move battery aft? Even if it means cutting some foam as long as it doesn't jeopardize the hatch latching mechanism?
Thanx,

[Shirty]

Hello Lon,
Back on post 1552 I had asked Aros about the 4mm up elevator being rather contrary to everthing I've practiced regarding control surface neutralization in relation to CG adjustments and asked if it was because the cockpit pod has no room to adjust the battery(s) aft more to zero the need for up elevator to hold level flight but he responded with he didn't know. Same question to you........is there room to move battery aft? Even if it means cutting some foam as long as it doesn't jeopardize the hatch latching mechanism?
Thanx,

Yeah, gotta say I'm curious about this as well couldn't the need for up trim be removed by placing the battery further back? I'm also pretty OCD about having my control surfaces perfectly aligned at neutral, and finding my cg from there. I'm still waiting to get this bird so I don't have one to check myself yet.

[PlaneCrazy]

Yeah, gotta say I'm curious about this as well couldn't the need for up trim be removed by placing the battery further back? I'm also pretty OCD about having my control surfaces perfectly aligned at neutral, and finding my cg from there. I'm still waiting to get this bird so I don't have one to check myself yet.

Well, it just might be that the original designs were like that. Another example was my FW F86 where the instructions for elevator setup involved a slight up setting for best performance. I've also noticed that on most P47 models a bit of down elevator is required or they will head for the heaven's.