New E-flite Fw-190A, 1.5m

[OV10]

Oxotnik
So tell us how ya really feel about Eflite Chuck Your opinion has not waivered from the beginning (post #10).
I'm just like you pard and am not bashful about shooting it straight about the industries pricing idiosyncrasies.
Congrats on getting your Nowotny maidened especially in nerve testing winds. Keep those Axis birds in the air so the rest of us have some targets.

[Oxotnik]

Twowingtj , thanks! I was glad to get her into the air finally, after getting the repaint completed. Now, I'm looking forward to flying it again on a nice day.

FW-190's are probably my favorite warbird. I didn't hesitate to punch the pre-order button when I saw the announcement. Now, that I've repainted it and have put one flight on her, I'm really liking her and am glad to have her. With that said, though, if the FW-190 wasn't such a favorite plane of mine, I probably would not have bought one, for few reasons:
1. I think that EFlite warbirds and jets are overly expensive. I don't want to pay for the added cost of SMART technologies and SAFE SELECT.
2. EFlite warbirds, in my opinions, have been hideously ugly lately. They're modeling airshow warbirds. What the hell? With so many great liveries out there (and many that have never been modeled), they chose ugly airshow colors, and then do a poor job on the paint jobs? The stock paint job on this FW-190 still makes me want to puke. If I hadn't been able to repaint this warbird, I would NOT have bought one.
3. After the fact (ie, after completing the assembly), I was really disappointed in the design and construction quality of this plane. The hard-mounted interface connectors are a great concept, but seem to fail in practice, more often than not. They certainly did with me. The wimpy elevator pushrod is at the point of making me mad. What the hell were they thinking? A flexing pushrod for the elevator is a crash waiting to happen. This is an incredibly poor design choice. Luckily, both of these items were easy for me to correct. It just irritates the piss out of me that an overly expensive warbird has design/construction issues that you'd expect to see in a crappy Dynam warbird.

[Twowingtj]

Oxotnik Congrats on the maiden! Not sure how much longer I can resist this one.....

[Oxotnik]

how do the wings go on or better yet after you are done how do you get the wings unhinged?

The center-wing section is held in place with 4 screws. The outer wings 'snap' into place. The outer wings unsnap to take them back off and the inner wing unscrews from the fuselage. It's easy. The hard-mounted connectors are more of a concern than the mechanical mounting of the wing sections.

[Ron1950]

how do the wings go on or better yet after you are done how do you get the wings unhinged?

[Oxotnik]

Although I would never maiden or try to properly trim a plane in blustery winds it will definitely show you how good your pilot skills are. Good luck and good flying.

I was only good enough to not crash. The first approach was almost the last approach. LOL

[boomer108]

I maidened my FW-190 today. I had my dorkcam going, but the stupid thing cut off, even before I took off. So no video. Sorry.

I CG’d her at the front of the recommended band (at the 105mm mark). The winds were lowsy... steady at 14 mph, gusting to 22. I did a no-flaps takeoff and as soon as the tail came up, she lifted off the ground. This was partly due to the headwind being at or above stall speed and too much up trim in the elevator. It took me a few passes to get her close to trim (had too much up trim and some right roll). After getting her close to trimmed out, I did a couple low-level passes and a couple rolls and Immelmanns. They were easy and nothing unusual happened. Landing was pretty treacherous. There were a lot of rotors coming off the tree line, and I was getting bounced around a lot. The first approach for landing went really badly when I got close to the ground; I powered up and went around. I had dropped half flaps, and that really worked against me in the blustery wind. The second approach was better. Flaps stayed retracted, and I came in a good bit hotter. I had a noticeable bounce but gave her some throttle and eased her in for a good second landing. I’ll log that as two successful landings. LOL

I can’t really give a decent summary of her flight characteristics because with the blustery winds. I had to work every minute of the flight. It wasn’t a fun flight at all. I do, however, expect her to fly fine in favorable winds.

I did get a few photos at the field.

Although I would never maiden or try to properly trim a plane in blustery winds it will definitely show you how good your pilot skills are. Good luck and good flying.

[Oxotnik]

I maidened my FW-190 today. I had my dorkcam going, but the stupid thing cut off, even before I took off. So no video. Sorry.

I CG’d her at the front of the recommended band (at the 105mm mark). The winds were lowsy... steady at 14 mph, gusting to 22. I did a no-flaps takeoff and as soon as the tail came up, she lifted off the ground. This was partly due to the headwind being at or above stall speed and too much up trim in the elevator. It took me a few passes to get her close to trim (had too much up trim and some right roll). After getting her close to trimmed out, I did a couple low-level passes and a couple rolls and Immelmanns. They were easy and nothing unusual happened. Landing was pretty treacherous. There were a lot of rotors coming off the tree line, and I was getting bounced around a lot. The first approach for landing went really badly when I got close to the ground; I powered up and went around. I had dropped half flaps, and that really worked against me in the blustery wind. The second approach was better. Flaps stayed retracted, and I came in a good bit hotter. I had a noticeable bounce but gave her some throttle and eased her in for a good second landing. I’ll log that as two successful landings. LOL

I can’t really give a decent summary of her flight characteristics because with the blustery winds. I had to work every minute of the flight. It wasn’t a fun flight at all. I do, however, expect her to fly fine in favorable winds.

I did get a few photos at the field.

[sfcfury]

Well I will say that is that is the one thing I didn't do, simply b/c I didn't know where to go and get it... was use the BNF profile. I just created a a normal plane plane profile etc... when I did the binding procedures (for safe mode setting lol) the forward programming showed up etc.

[Cfreuen20]

My apologies- safe mode for all 3 functions. So something I noticed (i'm learning this whole process), that when you put it in AS3X, you have to bump the throttle to at least 25% one time while its in that mode before the servo's do anything. If you bump the throttle while it's off, then switch to AS3X, they don't move. You have to do the bump while its in that mode. Safe seems to work with/without bumping the throttle (or maybe as long as it has bumped in any mode)... so at this point for me it seems that the three are working. I know when i have it in safe mode, and flip it over, the ailerons are trying very hard to right the plane.

no matter what settings I have it on, the plane does not attempt to right itself, and I have activated as3x. I might create a new profile and start over, this one is downloaded from spektrum website.

[sfcfury]

My apologies- safe mode for all 3 functions. So something I noticed (i'm learning this whole process), that when you put it in AS3X, you have to bump the throttle to at least 25% one time while its in that mode before the servo's do anything. If you bump the throttle while it's off, then switch to AS3X, they don't move. You have to do the bump while its in that mode. Safe seems to work with/without bumping the throttle (or maybe as long as it has bumped in any mode)... so at this point for me it seems that the three are working. I know when i have it in safe mode, and flip it over, the ailerons are trying very hard to right the plane.

[Cfreuen20]

Cf... I don't know if you have found your answer yet, but seems how I was in the same situation having never own any version of the AS3X receiver, much less the AR637TA. So what I have found is that in these BNF come the with the TA version (not the AR637T)- which is partially locked and has factory profile preset in it... which specifically means you can't adjust the gains of the AS3X and SAFE modes. I assumed you when you did the binding, you did it so that it would be AS3X mode... so when the receiver is powered on, you can go into Forward programming (I don't know what radio you are using- I have a spektrum radio), and you can assign a flight mode switch, that has the three modes like you want. That's how I currently have it on mine- on the left top three position switch ( I reversed the channel so it would be in the direction I wanted)

If you want to completely unlock it, you of course have to buy the damn programming cable and register/firmware update and reset it. Then it basically becomes AR637T from the factory and you do the base setup, and can set gains and everything else.

Hope that helps!

I bound it into safe mode, and went into forward programming just as I did with a previous unlocked 637t and set up 3 flight modes, but 2 of them appear to be identical. one is safe mode on, and while testing the plane doesn't seem to display any self leveling responses, and the other mode is safe off and as3x is obviously on. I can see the gyro responding, although very lightly. I sure would like some more flexibility with this, and I'm not interested in buying the programming cable. I don't have a PC anyways.

I should have bought the PNP version with the standard 637T, rather than the BNF.

[sfcfury]

hey everyone, I hate to be a pest but I'm a tad confused by the as3x and safe setup. full disclaimer, I have been flying since the mid 90s - I am very experienced with warbirds, I am a good pilot and I don't NEED this system so please spare me the gyro lecture. This is my first as3x/safe select BNF, and since I paid for it, I want to try it out. I activated the safe select just to fiddle around and get a better understanding, I have previously programmed an AR637T for another plane and found it quite easy and intuitive. This one is not doing what I expected, and doesn't give me any ability to "tune" as3x. I don't understand why it's blocking me from some things, and when I have safe select switched on the plane doesn't give me any auto leveling response.

What I want is 3 flight modes: mode 1 - absolutely nothing.
mode 2 - as3x stabilization only
mode 3 - as3x and safe, with auto leveling so I can teach my buddy how to fly warbirds. I want to be able to put it inverted, flip a switch and have it right itself so my buddy is confident he can handle it.

thank you in advance.

Cf... I don't know if you have found your answer yet, but seems how I was in the same situation having never own any version of the AS3X receiver, much less the AR637TA. So what I have found is that in these BNF come the with the TA version (not the AR637T)- which is partially locked and has factory profile preset in it... which specifically means you can't adjust the gains of the AS3X and SAFE modes. I assumed you when you did the binding, you did it so that it would be AS3X mode... so when the receiver is powered on, you can go into Forward programming (I don't know what radio you are using- I have a spektrum radio), and you can assign a flight mode switch, that has the three modes like you want. That's how I currently have it on mine- on the left top three position switch ( I reversed the channel so it would be in the direction I wanted)

If you want to completely unlock it, you of course have to buy the damn programming cable and register/firmware update and reset it. Then it basically becomes AR637T from the factory and you do the base setup, and can set gains and everything else.

Hope that helps!

[starcop]

Figuring things out is one step of the process. figuring out how a toy works is another. :) I will get there in time. I've always been a very patient person. I love to decipher a company. I've spent my life with. Building companies, then I will allow myself to let the flaws work for themselves. It's called a retirement plan. Peace be with you!

[Cfreuen20]

the sad part is I filed a support ticket with HH 3 or 4 days ago and they have yet to respond. Way to stand by your "best ever" product, HH. This was my first HH purchase, I should've stayed with Motion.

[Gilatrout]

Just finished painting my boy Herr Graf. I really need to work on my faces.

I'm going to call this cockpit basically done.

The figure is the ME-109 pilot sold on CGTrader with some modifications I made. I added an iron cross to his uniform and adjusted the arm and figure to a scale and size that fit in the cockpit. The control stick is the one some one here made (apologies because I don't recall who made it) for the avios Mig17. All were combined and modified in 3D Builder and printed on an elegoo Saturn.

[Oxotnik]

With the painting, I just took the horizontal stab to Home Depot and had them match all three colors that were on it. I don't know if I'm color correct, but it sure saves me a lot of work. Callie is making my decals as I write.
FW-190 Red 13 was flown by Feldwebel Heinz Bar, who had over 200 kills during the war. The Knights Cross and Oak leafs encircling the milestone number 200 on the rudder.

And, Bar flew in Galland's JV-44 Experten Me-262 Squadron. Great choice. The Flightline 1120mm FW-190 stock livery is also Bar's.

RE: color matching... I did the same thing. I took the horizontal stab into Home Depot for color matching RLM 74/75/76 paint. The satin sheen seems to be a perfect match, when doing touch-up painting.

[Phatbob]

.

Nice job of covering up the polka dots with realistic mottling. Did you color-match the RLM 76 and simply covered the polka dots (then mottled with color-matched RLM 75), or did you completely repaint the fuselage?

I see the flight photo and painting guide next to your plane. What's the story/history of the plane that you're modeling?

With the painting, I just took the horizontal stab to Home Depot and had them match all three colors that were on it. I don't know if I'm color correct, but it sure saves me a lot of work. Callie is making my decals as I write.
FW-190 Red 13 was flown by Feldwebel Heinz Bar, who had over 200 kills during the war. The Knights Cross and Oak leafs encircling the milestone number 200 on the rudder.

[MANFRED]

I put the finishing touches on my Nowotny Wurger yestereday. She's been thoroughly checked and balanced and is ready to fly (hopefully, this weekend). The White 5 will be added, as soon as I get it from Callie.

Primary source photo.


My hack at it.


I'm pretty pleased with how she's turned out. The RLM70 really makes her stand out. There are a few scale inaccuracies still:
1. The spinner should be solid RLM 70. The spiral spinner is so iconic and well done, that I'm going to leave it spiral for now, but will very likely repaint it to RLM 70.
2. There's no evidence that Weiss 5 carried a grunherz emblem. I'm granting myself artistic license to add it, though, since a Nowotny aircraft NEEDS a Green Heart! Plus, I doubt that no one can ever prove that this aircraft NEVER had a grunherz painted on it. LOL

Great job on this scheme. There are so many variations of this ship we should see a ton of repaints.

[Oxotnik]

Working on my paint scheme now. I'm doing red 13. QUESTION: Once the wing tips are plugged in, can they be easily removed?

A qualified yes. The wings 'snap' into place and can be unsnapped easily enough. The issue that I'd like to call you attention to, is the crappy hard-mounted connector at the interface. It's really easy to have a pin (or two) out of the male connector when mating. The more you demate/mate, the more likely that you are to destroy a connector. As I have posted earlier, my left outer wing connector didn't survive the first mating. I've since gone to soft-mated connectors.

Nice job of covering up the polka dots with realistic mottling. Did you color-match the RLM 76 and simply covered the polka dots (then mottled with color-matched RLM 75), or did you completely repaint the fuselage?

I see the flight photo and painting guide next to your plane. What's the story/history of the plane that you're modeling?