Official FlightLine RC 1600mm P-38 Lightning Thread

[Mizer67]

Out of curiosity...is anyone else noticing the sinking on final? Anyone else feel like they are fighting the glide slope? Not knocking the plane. It may well be me. I land my other aircraft fine, but this one is giving me some trouble. I land OK, but usually bounce a little. Trying to get a nice smooth slope going.

Tips and criticism welcome. I'm open to suggestion so I can become a better pilot.

I think this plane drops like a rock on final, with full flaps. The one I've flown has a Mr. RC sound system in it, which required another 7 oz of lead in the tail to balance, so it's quite a bit heavier than normal.

I don't find it difficult to land on grass though. It's actually nice to get that sink rate with low power as I've been flying EDFs lately. I don't have to worry about overshooting.

I use the sink rate to my advantage. Half flaps and gear on the base leg, full flaps on final then cut power to ~25% wings level and watch it drop like a stone. Blip the throttle to control the sink rate when a few feet off of the ground while applying a slight touch of up elevator and with those two big three bladed propellers you can gently settle into a nice flare for a smooth touchdown.

[mz34334]

[downwindleg]

Hey Mike, Thanks for the feedback. It looks just like mine !! Another issue I ran into after the posting for the steering mod was that, because the arm protrudes a little farther out in this configuration, I had to carefully grind some foam/plastic along the arc of that tiller arm so that it doesn't hang up along that inner wall of the gear bay. Also on mine, because of the tiller arm length issue, I had to pull the tiller arm back off- drat- and grind a flat surface on the aluminum strut big enough for that end of the tiller arm to fully rotate as you screw it back on with a new dose of loctite. My screw shaft stayed put in the tiller arm when I unscrewed it ,so after I ground the flat spot, I was able to screw it and the tiller arm back on as a unit. I dry fitted it a couple times first to make sure that when it was fully seated against the flat spot that it had the right orientation. This also cuts down on the tiller arc. Hope you don't have to go through that but you might, Brad

[ruffneckx1]

Delizar.....thanks. I'll try it out.

[ruffneckx1]

Delizar.............just loaded it up and it works great.

Thx.

[Grossman56]

Open Real Flight. Go to the simulation tab (top left) click on it, scroll down to 'import' and browse to the file where you keep the downloaded swap files. I just keep a file named swap files on my desk top. Go into the file and select the airplane and RF will do the rest

Grossman56

[Lon]

I have a little room on my spare parts pegboard here in the mancave. Is the retracts for the P-38 the same as the FW P-51??(I have those spares)

[Aros]

Delizar, thanks for the links. I've downloaded the files but have to admit don't know what to do with them. What's my next step?

Open up Real Flight 7.5...From the drop down menu select Simulation > Import > RealFlight Archive (RFX, G3X)... and locate the downloaded files and select them.

That's it!

[Grossman56]

That's what they've been modding the P38 with Lon, it looks great but I would hold off to see what they come up with for a mod kit, apparently they are working on a bolt on L/G that will be basically the same. Aros could probably tell us more about that>

Grossman56

[ruffneckx1]

Thx for the info guys.

Any word on the retract upgrade from Flightline ?

Woody

[mz34334]

Hey Brad, thanks for the heads up. FYI: At MotionRC navigate to FW spare parts and you will find tiller arms slightly shorter in length. I bought three just in case. Mike

[dkalwishky]

Here the the thread on the upgraded landing gear.

http://www.hobbysquawk.com/forum/motion-rc-general-topics/motion-rc-product-requests/37953-retract-upgrade-for-your-nice-new-p-38

When I asked about it earlier in the week I got this response:

"Yes Flightline is looking into doing a upgraded landing gear set but they have not done anything yet on this.Their is no release date on them at this time."

[TiredIronGRB]

Here the the thread on the upgraded landing gear.

http://www.hobbysquawk.com/forum/motion-rc-general-topics/motion-rc-product-requests/37953-retract-upgrade-for-your-nice-new-p-38

When I asked about it earlier in the week I got this response:

"Yes Flightline is looking into doing a upgraded landing gear set but they have not done anything yet on this.Their is no release date on them at this time."

Here's my FW P51 strut conversion...

http://www.hobbysquawk.com/forum/rc-airplanes/propeller-airplanes/35457-tired-iron-s-p-38-build/page2

[downwindleg]

Hey Mike, I assume you meant flightline parts on that tiller arm. Is that what they are referring to as type b ? If so, are you cutting those down as well ? Please let me know, Thanks, Brad

[mz34334]

Brad, try "https://www.motionrc.com/products/freewing-landing-gear-steering-arm-type-d-metal". So far I've just used the P-38 stock tiller. But comparing the stock tiller side by side with these, these are just slightly smaller. Mike

[Lon]

That's what they've been modding the P38 with Lon, it looks great but I would hold off to see what they come up with for a mod kit, apparently they are working on a bolt on L/G that will be basically the same. Aros could probably tell us more about that>

Grossman56

I'm not looking to do the mod now, even with the required strut parts hanging on my board. The actual retract is what i was wondering about. I'll pull a spare out of the package and see. Thanks

[Marco Polo]

Silver and Green P-38s are back in stock.

Happy flying,
Mark

[TwistedGrin]

I am very pleased with the Oleo suspension retrofit upgrade I made for my FL P-38...using FMS 1450mm P-51D Oleo's by cutting off the stock struts and notching each of the remaining pins accordingly for insertion into the Oleo strut.

The nose gear was nearly the same procedure regarding cutting the stock strut for use as the male pin for the FMS P-51D Oleo....however I found the FMS 1450mm P-51D Oleo strut a little bit long....so I cut off a few MM of the Oleo compression rod then drilled a new hole for the slider screw. I don't have a tap set that small for creating new threads - therefore I deployed a wood screw as the new slider bolt. So far it is nice and tight - holding just fine. It may not pass for scale fidelity but is easily overlooked on the bench and no way impede flight performance.

In the end I was able to retrofit all of my Oleo compression struts without removing anything from the airframe via dremmel tool. Cutting the FMS P-51D Oleo compression rod was straight forward but drilling the new slider screw hole was accomplished with a standard drill press....then installed it to the remaining stock nose gear.....easy greasy

So far so good after about 20flights and at least 30 touch-n-go's

[Grossman56]

Man, these planes are looking so great guys, I just mentioned to the wife that the green ones were back in stock, it was like I had a hammer hovering over my head as she said, "Don't do it!"
So, I'll sit back and admire from a distance. At least I got to see Lon and Ryan fly theirs at Nefi, they are great birds!!

Grossman56

[Dewey H Lee]

Yes since I hadn't been able to get up with Weedsnagger reading everything on this plane makes me want to take my money and go ahead and buy one. I put a little aside every week for the hobby and when I get the bug I buy. This plane makes the bug hard to ignore any longer. Just may have to spend the money for the p51 for a p38. Room is starting to become a problem. I guess I could find somewhere to put it.