Official FlightLine 1600mm P-51D Mustang Thread

[jetfool]

Sorry to hear of mishap but old Dogs can learn new tricks. Hang in there Dave.
Rex

[Davegeee]

I had a slight mishap with my P-51D yesterday morning, and it has made me reconsider the parameters I'll stay within to prevent it from happening from here on out. Due to winds frequently increasing to unacceptable levels for foamies at my home field during the day, I fly my planes in the summer as early as possible and it usually works out well. However, I found yesterday I was flying my plane in what I call "silhouette mode" where the sun angle on the plane makes it look like all black and difficult to know what its attitude is as it zips by in the pattern. Yesterday, while flying my P-51, I decided to cut the flight short for that reason. Also, our east-west runway has the sun right off the end early on this time of year and that can be a Huge problem. While maneuvering my plane for landing under those conditions, I got the plane a bit too slow just above the ground and it stalled. Not major damage, but one of the main landing gear struts will need to be replaced. And I have to go to China for the parts as MRC is totally out of stock on many items. It will be down for 2-3 weeks.

This morning, I took up Hairless Joe and my Cougar, but waited a bit longer until the sun was higher. That totally fixed that silhouette problem, and landings were pretty good and predictable on my P-47 and Cougar. And SO much better and easier to see them fly. So, I've learned something.

Cheers

Davegee

I'll attach a pic of Hairless Joe after its 12th flight this morning. Great flyer!

[Grossman56]

Thanks Rex! Come to think about it, yeah every one of these with the exception of the Hardway P-40 has spent time in the slammer!
So has the Bearcat but it's not discontinued.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[jetfool]

Grossman56,
A nice squadron of planes. Keeping and rebuild/update these older planes shows how well you take care of them. Most after a major crash throw them in the trash can. Enjoy seeing these older ones still flying.
Best Regards, Rex

[Grossman56]

Meantime, since there's no way short of a divorce that I can afford this Mustang, I'll have to live vicariously through Dave!
Have a project going (one of many) doing some rebuilding and wing replacement on my old and trusty FMS P40. New wings and battery hatch, 3d printed firewall (my design), new old pilot and a new Vertical stab, all parts I had laying around.

All assembled and sitting with her brethren.

Now, you know you've been in the hobby a while when you can get a pic like this and realize that EVERY plane in this pic, with the exception of the Avanti, is discontinued!
And that it doesn't have the FL F7F Tigercat in it.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Davegeee]

Congratulations!

Always good to have a model completed and successfully flown. Danger Dan and I are working on another mod for it, probably one not done by anyone else that I know of for a model of this size. More on that later...

Cheers

Davegee

[Davegeee]

Congrats and well done on a beauty!

Thanks, Aros. Too windy to fly today, but I hope tomorrow morning will be suitable to put some more flights on it. A grand total of TWO so far!! (LOL)

Davegee

[Aros]

Congrats and well done on a beauty!

[jetfool]

Congratulations!

[GliderGuy]

Good story…thanks!
-GG

[Davegeee]

Excellent news! Glad it went well. Congrats!

With practice, you’ll eventually find the throttle rate application speed that’ll get her in the air so fast she doesn’t have time to yaw on take-off roll. So, very little, if any, right rudder is needed. It doesn’t look scale, but it sure is easy. Flaps help shorten the take-off roll, too.

-GG

My Flightline Corsair 1600mm is like that. One of the easiest warbird planes to takeoff and land, for me. It really doesn't need a whole lot of extra right rudder on takeoff as it lifts off in very short time on the runway. I'm glad I got this P-51, I expect good things from it going forward.

Here is an interesting video I found online about an incident that the pilot of my plane, Richard "Pete" Peterson attacked and killed a German pilot shooting and killing helpless B-17 pilots in parachutes after the German had shot down the bomber. Witnessing this from his fighter, this was more than Pete Peterson could stomach. Watch the video if I can pull it up ok.

Here is the video from You Tube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc_RJnXZ8Yo

[GliderGuy]

Excellent news! Glad it went well. Congrats!

With practice, you’ll eventually find the throttle rate application speed that’ll get her in the air so fast she doesn’t have time to yaw on take-off roll. So, very little, if any, right rudder is needed. It doesn’t look scale, but it sure is easy. Flaps help shorten the take-off roll, too.

-GG

[Davegeee]

Good for you Dave. Glad to hear it all went well. It's one beautiful bird ya got there!

Thanks, nuts-n-volts! I look forward to getting a lot of flights on it in the future!

Cheers

davegee

[nuts-n-volts]

Good for you Dave. Glad to hear it all went well. It's one beautiful bird ya got there!

[Davegeee]

Success with maiden of Hurry Home Honey today!

Hi All: winds were light and I got out for a very early flight shortly after sunrise. We have an East-West runway and this time of year the sun is Right off the end of the runway and burning your eyes. So, I took advantage of the high clouds that gave me a short time to be able to fly as the sun rose further up in the sky.

I had two flights on HHH this morning. Did some taxi tests, CG check (again!) and a momentary runup holding the vertical fin just be sure the new motor was up to flying today. It surged and I taxied it into position on our runway. I flew flaps up and applied some UP elevator intitally in the roll to try to get it straight down the runway as it took off. I didn't get enough right rudder in and it took off towards the left angling down the runway. Not pretty, but plenty safe. I then did a number o circuits as I checked trims. It was pretty good, a few clicks right aileron down, and a couple clicks elevator up.

The first landing came in pretty much as I planned, did a two-point, tail low attitude touching on the mains, and then settling down on the tail for a good rollout. I applied a bit too much right aileron and up elevator and it scratched the extreme back trailing edge of the right wingtip. No big deal, easily repaired. Working on that now.

The second takeoff was better, much better controlling the path down the runway, not perfect, but better than the first takeoff. Did a few aileron rolls, a low pass, and then came in for a landing. Same landing as before, although tracking was better and when I lowered the tail to the ground I had better control tracking it to a stop on the runway, pretty much stright ahead with few little oscillations.

Overall, a delightful warbird to fly.. I'll continue to refine my flying skills with this airplane, but I'm happy so far. I used low rates on everything today, but will soon start experimenting with higher rates as I get to feel more comfortable flying it. I've had a bunch of various P-51s over the years, this one might become one of my favorites. Although I don't think this plane needs it, I did fly with the gyro on for the two flights today. Will do some flights with it turned off soon.

Also flew my Freewing Cougar. Got its 65th flight today, and it is always fun to fly. I'll enclose a couple pics of the planes from this morning, after the flights.

[Hugh Wiedman]

Yeah, Dan does amazing work on these figures. I am especially taken with how realistic the leather A-2 jacket looks. The faces as you say are amazingly real looking for a printed piece of nylon. Back then, I bet most all of them smoked and they had the convenience of the flare gun smoke port on the left side of the fuse that they used to clear out the smoke from their cigarettes or cigars or throw the butts out when they were done.

Could be an idea for a future pilot to hook up a small tube that runs to his mouth so he can blow out cigarette or cigar smoke, though. Duly noted! Hope you're having a good summer in the Miami area. You guys have a great field down there when the weather cooperates!

Cheers

Davegee

I think back then all servicemen smoked, as well as most civilians! Interesting story (or not ), my father was stationed on a subchaser during WWII, small enough to avoid targeting by the Japanese looking for larger crafts. As a boy growing up on a farm in southern Michigan, he got to see the world and avoid milking cows, and spent more time fishing then fighting Japs. Most swabbies smoked lucky strikes and actually used them as barter money. Originally, Lucky's box was white with green lettering and a green circle. When the war came, green die was in such demand for uniforms they changed it to white and red, and ran adds that "Lucky Goes To War". After the war, my father and a buddy moved into a bombed out hotel in Manilla and set up a casino, making enough money to come home and get married. My father started an air pollution company in Chicago and by 1995, needed to sell it desperately (for reasons I won't get into to protect the innocent-assuming there are any). Research Cotrell, the largest air/water pollution company made a proposal to buy it. After weeks of final negotiations they were at a stalemate, so the President called my father and said lets meet at a bar and finish it or move on. My dad was very nervous when he walked in after work, and sat down. After a few minutes, he looked at my dad and said I think I know you from somewhere. Turns out he was a Marine in the Pacific and ran into my dad somewhere. A light went on and he said are you the guy that had that casino in Manilla? Yes he was. The man said that was the best time he ever had after the war in that casino. They traded war stories all night and then at midnight the man said it's getting late, gotta go. My dad thought "oh no", he's been stringing me along and asks what about the deal. The man then said, whatever you want for it, it's done, you draw up the agreement! WOW, don't tell me destiny or karma isn't real! Sorry for the diversion

[GliderGuy]

Thanks. I'm all dialed in at low rate for the maiden and first flights. Appreciate the tips. I still hope to do the maiden this week, weather and WINDS, permitting.

Cheers

Davegee

Davgee-I can’t recall your battery capacity. At 75% power cruise and a good amount of full throttle mix and consuming about 3800 mAh of a 6000 mAh battery, 7:30 to 7:30 is what I set my timer to. Longer flights of a reported 12 minutes is possible with 50% throttle, which is still plenty fast. I like to keep a go-around reserve and have a shorter charge time. So 3800 to 4000 mAh consumed is my target.

After a week of strong wind, I got in 8 flights at sunrise today in 6-9 mph variable winds. 7 butter and 1 with a slight bounce. She has a way of making you look good!

-GG

[Davegeee]

Davgee- I did my first flights on low rate. It’s fine and maybe a good idea.

But, soon you’ll be flying on high rate.

-GG

Thanks. I'm all dialed in at low rate for the maiden and first flights. Appreciate the tips. I still hope to do the maiden this week, weather and WINDS, permitting.

Cheers

Davegee

[GliderGuy]

Davgee- I did my first flights on low rate. It’s fine and maybe a good idea.

But, soon you’ll be flying on high rate.

-GG

[Davegeee]

Great pics Dave. Man, I'm starting to understand how Callie must feel, seeing her work on such great airplanes! So cool to see my little guys in all these birds. Just like in all things art, every one is an accumulation of knowledge from the last ones. The mold was a little rough on that particular one, we'll have to play around with the setting per Elbee, he's a great pilot for the inventory and one I'd like to experiment with at some point.
Meanwhile, the new P-40 wings arrived from FMS. I'm totally blown away with the packaging, long tubes of bubble wrap and they didn't go cheap on it either. Got the airplane apart and installed the new Vertical stab that I've had kicking around. Also got into the new battery hatch that was a left over from the Hardway P-40. This is another discontinued airplane. Guess thats what happens after you've been in the hobby a while. Have to get all my discontinued planes out and photographed together.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

Yes, your artistry is evident in every pilot figure you paint! I'm prouud to have your painted works in my cockpits. This is a far cry from those crappy OEM pilots from China. To me, it is worth the extra work to make some good and sometimes impressive changes from the stock foamie.

The roughness of the pilot print was disappointing, to be sure. I wasn't sure if you could save him but you did a great job cleaning up the less than perfect printing to make it presentable. It was even more surprising coming from Max Grueter as his stuff is usually firstrate. Maybe there is something on my end. I did change the settings that Elbee suggested but I might need to do a bit more on that score. For instance the stuff I did for you with those armored plates came out pretty smooth, and other pilots I have printed in the past month or two have been pretty clean and sharp reproductions. We'll figure it out.

I've got your armored back plates done and will drop them off tomorrow morning if I can, along with the prototype drop tank for you to check out.

Cheers

Davegee