Official FlightLine 1600mm P-51D Mustang Thread

[davegee]

Hi All: Well, it only took 45 days to receive my P-51D drop tank mounts, but I'm glad they are finally here. I think the hang up wasn't with the supplier, RC Castle in Hong Kong, but rather I think it got delayed getting through US Customs in LAX. Once it finally cleared there, USPS got it to me in just a few days. I have ordered a second pair of these mounts as a backup, but for now, whenever they come someday is fine.

So, Flightline designed this airplane to be able to drop OEM 75 gallon foam fuel tanks on the wings with these mounts. As I reported before, I think the shape and size of these scale drop tanks is quite good, and I commend the designers at Flightline for their work. I am hoping later this week, possibly even tomorrow, I'll test out dropping the OEM tanks to see how they do.

But, I didn't want to stop there. I bought an STL through CULTS and scaled up 500# bombs to 1/7 scale to also drop using the same mounts. That is still a work in progress, but I'll post a couple pics today. They do indeed work to drop during very preliminary tests this morning.

Also, Danger Dan and I are working on a larger scale drop tank, but there is still some more design and building work to do before we unveil that one. We hope to test all three of these various droppables later this month. Hopefully we can get some inflight photos of these departing the airplane. It's sorta fun thinking outside the box to get these things accomplished. It's all fun!

Cheers

Davegee

[jetfool]

Davegee,
Fantastic work! Qudo's to you and Dan on designing extra scale acc. for this plane. Have you seen on the other forum where a guy has installed an operable inner cooler/exhaust door underneath the fuselage. Kinda neat
Best Regards, Rex.

[davegee]

Davegee,
Fantastic work! Qudo's to you and Dan on designing extra scale acc. for this plane. Have you seen on the other forum where a guy has installed an operable inner cooler/exhaust door underneath the fuselage. Kinda neat
Best Regards, Rex.

Thanks, Rex. Weather permitting, I'll be flying HHH tomorrow morning at my local field and test out dropping the 75 gal. fuel tanks to see how that goes. I have already flown them "captive," lightly glued onto the foam pylons to test if they had any bad effects on flying the airplane. Absolutely no problem with them attached, so it will be neat to see how they depart the airplane. These Flightline pylons have two spring-loaded plungers that put some pressure on the drop tanks or bombs, so that when they are released, they are pushed away from the airplane with gusto. Not sure if that is all that necessary or not, based on all the drop tank tests I have done with other aircraft, but it isn't a bad idea, I guess. Maybe the designers saw something in testing that they wanted to be sure the drop tanks would quickly get out of the way when released, lest they hit the airplane, or something.

Yes, I have had P-51s before that had that feature with the aft cooling flap on the underneath of the fuse. That could certainly be done on this airplane, although if I add something down the raod, I might buy that detailed cockpit kit to dress up the airplane interior.

I'm very happy with this P-51 overall, and think it will be one of their better sellers among warbird enthusiasts.

Cheers

Davegee