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

[davegee]

I got two flights on my HHH P-51D Flightline Mustang this morning, and got to test dropping the OEM 75 gal. drop tanks. I was ready to do more tests if anything went wrong, but the first test was perfect. The two tanks landed only about 8 feet from each other after being dropped from an altitude of 80 feet or so. No damage at all to the foam tanks afterwards.

Also flew my Cougar, and a great flight on it, too.

Next week, I hope to do a drop test of my scale 500# bombs from the same pylons used today. We’ll see how that goes. After that, once I get the shackles I ordered from MRC yesterday, I’ll drop the larger tanks currently in development.

davegee

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[Grossman56]

Holy cr@p!! I finally got back on !!!
It's like withdrawals when you can only look in but not participate!!
Now I'm afraid to log out!

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[davegee]

Glad you’re Back!!!

davegee

[davegee]

This last week I've had workers in our house to redo my workshop. Instead of the old carpet that seems to "swallow" anything I drop on it like screws and such, this is a wood plank floor (probably faux wood). It looks so much better and brightens things up a ton! Plus, it was time to do a thorough cleaning and assessment of things I really need, versus things I don't use, won't use, and are better off in the trash. A lot more organized now and I hope to keep it that way.

On the FL P-51D front, I am working on finishing up my droppable 500# bombs that I printed up from Cults. I will be putting a replaceable bolt in the nose for weight to make it drop realistically, hopefully. I have done that with smaller printed bombs that I drop out of my FL B-25 and they work great.

Assuming dense smoke from forest fires further west from us like Spokane start to shift or die down, I'll try drop testing these bombs next week. I do have an identical set for static display I printed that have all the scale details on them, like nose and tail fuzes. I have already done a drop test from the airplane on my bench, and they should work just fine, I think. But that smoke is bad news. Besides eyes burning and coughing, I had a bit of a scare flying my F9F Cougar turning a long final approach the other day. The grey color of the plane just made it disappear in the smoky skies! I just kept looking for it, not changing the position of the sticks on my transmitter, and then, Out it Popped! I don't want to tempt fate twice on that score!

Here's a couple pics from this morning making bombs and my new shop look.

[jetfool]

Davegee,
Nice bombs and that shop looks great. I need to clean mine, so many things I'll never use again.
Our daughter and husband are driving to Oregon to visit some horse people and we hope they don't have trouble with the smoke and fires.
Best Regards, Rex

[davegee]

Davegee,
Nice bombs and that shop looks great. I need to clean mine, so many things I'll never use again.
Our daughter and husband are driving to Oregon to visit some horse people and we hope they don't have trouble with the smoke and fires.
Best Regards, Rex

Thanks, Rex. I'll attach a pic I just took prior to a bomb drop test on the work table into soft pillows for the bombs. Worked perfectly, and I hope to do a flight test next week if the smoke clears out.

It's hard parting with some things that you have had for a long time. Today we just let go of some snorkeling/diving gear that we used on vacations and on my expedition to Palau in 2014. We just weren't going to use this stuff anymore, and it's good to free up space. A little sad, but that is life moving on, I guess.

Hopefully your daughter and her husband won't have problems with the smoke in Oregon where they are going. For us, the worst is that horrible human-set fire that destroyed almost 1,000 homes and structures in Spokane, WA. But it all moves east and if you are in the downwind path, you get it. We have a beautiful mountain just north of us a few miles called Heart Mountain, about 8,500' tall, MSL. Looking out my window right now, you'd not even be able to convince anyone such a natural mountain that tall even existed, for the smoke!

Cheers

Dave

[f4u ausie]

Shop looks great Dave. Almost to good 4 a workshop

[davegee]

Shop looks great Dave. Almost to good 4 a workshop

Yeah, Almost!! But that awful carpet just HAD to go!! You should see the work bench in our garage. That might look more appropriate for what you were expecting!😁😁😁

Actually, the people who we bought the house from almost 7 years ago, the wife made dog clothes in that room for little frilly dog pets. For us, owning bulldogs, that just wasn't going to fly. She had all these little sparkling sequins hidden in the carpet that we kept finding for years!


Cheers

Dave