Official FlightLine RC 1600mm P-38 Lightning Thread

[Lon]

Has anyone tried the upgrade 880kv motor with the 3 blade setup?

[Grossman56]

I've seen Lon's fly and it looks like its going faster than 30 mph, I think that's about top speed for the Pandora. Check out some of his latest videos, she's moving along!!


Grossman56

[downwindleg]

You know, I'm a scale guy and I like to fly at scale speeds just for realism. This plane is about 1/9 or 1/10 scale I'm thinkin' and, at that scale, 35 to 45 miles per hour would be the top speed plus a little for emergencies. I can tell you that the stock setup goes way faster than scale speeds. Just sayin', Brad

[downwindleg]

You know, I'm a scale guy and I like to fly at scale speeds just for realism. This plane is about 1/9 or 1/10 scale I'm thinkin' and, at that scale, 35 to 45 miles per hour would be the top speed plus a little for emergencies. I can tell you that the stock setup goes way faster than scale speeds. Just sayin', Brad

[Airzipper]

I appreciate the comments. My main concern is that I will be flying this airplane with an FPV setup. After equipment and batteries, I expect the weight to be around 4kg. It will be heavy, and thus I wanted to know that the motors could pull her well in the air. If it can cruise at around 50mph, I will be very comfortable, as the stall speed should be around 27mph.

[Airzipper]

I appreciate the comments. My main concern is that I will be flying this airplane with an FPV setup. After equipment and batteries, I expect the weight to be around 4kg. It will be heavy, and thus I wanted to know that the motors could pull her well in the air. If it can cruise at around 50mph, I will be very comfortable, as the stall speed should be around 27mph.

[BadBob]

For those interested in taking detail to the extreme level.

http://www.tompierce.net/SBD/html/paint/weathering.htm

[BadBob]

I just got my 3300 mah, 60C, 4S Turnigy battery packs from HobbyKing and noticed that they have these weird plugs on them. They have a male on one side and a female on the other. (Chinese??)What the heck is this? I want to put Deans on them but I'm told by my local hobby shop that the wires on these batteries are rated at 10AWG and the Deans could overheat. What about it guys, a little help here.

[OV10]

I just got my 3300 mah, 60C, 4S Turnigy battery packs from HobbyKing and noticed that they have these weird plugs on them. They have a male on one side and a female on the other. (Chinese??)What the heck is this? I want to put Deans on them but I'm told by my local hobby shop that the wires on these batteries are rated at 10AWG and the Deans could overheat. What about it guys, a little help here.

Hello Bob,
Check your Wire AWG thread, responded with some help there........cross posting gets a little crazy/confusing.

[mz34334]

Hi Bob,

I've had success with a simple rule: If the battery is 10AWG then its connector is EC5.

Mike

[Flyer Phill]

Finally I got to maiden her. Took her up for 5 flights this morning. Absolutely gorgeous to fly. Only one click of right aileron was needed to get her flying on rails!

Very impressed!

Sorry no video (forgot to pack the mobius) but here's a couple of pics prior to pack up.

[Lon]

Finally I got to maiden her. Took her up for 5 flights this morning. Absolutely gorgeous to fly. Only one click of right aileron was needed to get her flying on rails!

Very impressed!

Sorry no video (forgot to pack the mobius) but here's a couple of pics prior to pack up.

Great to hear your maiden went well!! It's such a solid predictable flying plane. Yesterday I went flying. The first hour was almost ideal conditions. Then the winds picked up to 12-17 mph. I felt confident to fly in those winds because it is such a solid flying plane. As fast as i could recharge batteries, I was back up into the wind! Windy days will not ground me with this plane!!!

[Grossman56]

Hey Lon:
Were you flying the new green one?
Not that it should be any different, but still, it'll look different anyway.
Had a l/g malfunction with Old Crow this morning, Dang wheel came off on take off. Turns out that the grub screw holding the axle in wasn't going through and into the hole. Fortunately, the only damage was a retract door and a prop blade. Had a spare grub screw and worked it until I could see it protruding through the hole, then installed the axle with some Foam Tack on the end to help hold it in. Anyone who's modified their P 38 with FW P51 L/G might want to watch out for this. These were brand spanking new retracts!

[Lon]

Gman,
I was flying the Silver 38 yesterday in those windy conditions(F-86 also). My green one is about ready to go. Need to do decals/detail work, to include balancing spinner and props yet. Otherwise she's ready to go.

Landing gear...sigh...Even when greasing the landings. I always do a post flight check of the landing gear on the FW 51. Make sure nothings loosened up.

Do the same with my FW 86 and P-38. I will say again, except for a grub screw loosing up a couple times out of 40-45 flights on the 86. No issues!

I'm still flying the stock gear on the 38. Out of all my flights on her, have had to tighten a grub screw on the nose gear stearing. And just a couple times, do a little tweeking on the mains (bend strut forward) Out of all my flights, I don't have 15minutes of mess around time on the landing gear. Wish i could say that about the gear on my FW 51 Iron Ass.

I've ordered a set of the new CNC landing gear struts for the P-38 from Castle. Will try them out...if they are low maintenance, will then order another set so both 38's will be fitted with them.

[F106DeltaDart]

Flew 2 flights this morning and yesterday in 15 mph wind, and it definitely handled it better than any of my other airplanes. One thing that suprises me about this model every time is how effective the flaps are. They do an excellent job of helping the airplane slow down to crawl for landing. Managed to get a few photos from the flight as well.

[crxmanpat]

So because replacement props don't come with the prop decals, I decided to make my own. The Curtiss emblem is smaller than what is supplied with the kit. I did this as I looked at a lot of reference pics on full scale birds, and it appeared the emblem is just a tad wider than the blade pitch info stencil. See attached PDF.

I'm printing these on white-back laserjet water slide decals. I'm also using a decal setting solution (I use Walthers Solvaset) to help keep them from peeling off the blades like the last ones did.

[Lon]

CRX, Decals look great. I ordered some from Callie....they are really holding up well...originals were not very durable, and like you said, replacement props don't come with them.

[downwindleg]

Hey Lon, I am dumbstruck about the gear!! First, how did you find these? I went to the site you supplied and they look pretty good except no scissor on the nose gear. I,m wondering if you can get them without the white paint since they are CNC aluminum. Second, why aren't these gears being offered by our freinds at MotionR.C.? I guess that question should be addressed to Aros. Of coarse, as luck would have it, I just completed upgrading my struts with the P-40 mains and P-51 nose as done by Brandon. At any rate, I will be very interested to see how these struts work out for you. Also, great idea using Callie's prop decals, my replacements peeled off on the first flight like a bad sunburn!! Thanks allot for the input, Brad

[F106DeltaDart]

Looks good! Thanks for sharing the file. Will have to use it if I need replacements. I just had to share this photo as well. Apparently I gave the trees a nice low pass yesterday..

[Lon]

Hey Lon, I am dumbstruck about the gear!! First, how did you find these? I went to the site you supplied and they look pretty good except no scissor on the nose gear. I,m wondering if you can get them without the white paint since they are CNC aluminum. Second, why aren't these gears being offered by our freinds at MotionR.C.? I guess that question should be addressed to Aros. Of coarse, as luck would have it, I just completed upgrading my struts with the P-40 mains and P-51 nose as done by Brandon. At any rate, I will be very interested to see how these struts work out for you. Also, great idea using Callie's prop decals, my replacements peeled off on the first flight like a bad sunburn!! Thanks allot for the input, Brad

I found them from a post here at Hobby Squak. The thread of retract upgrade for P38. With the latest post there it's explained why MRC doesn't have this item for the plane. I had the same thought about the nose strut. But from my experience with the stock nose strut. That should not be an issue though I would prefer them with the scissor action. I didn't think they are white. Thought it was the lighting in the picture since they are aluminum. But if so I'll paint them like I did the stock ones.