Official FlightLine RC 1600mm Spitfire Mk. IX Thread

[RichJ53]

Thanks Alpha. The straight peel-and-stick were pretty easy to apply, but the markings on the sides of the fuselage were peel-apply-burnish, and a giant PITA - not sure why the difference. Anyway, just the waterslide type left to apply. Until the snow melts, it'll be all dressed up with no place to go...

Looking good.... I found the waterslide decals in my old kit were a PIB.... The decals would break apart before sliding off the paper backing. It is possible I got some bad decals. I posted some information back in this thread with photos of some of the tricks used to fix the waterslides. Also, I ordered the nomenclature decals from Callie.... they were perfect.

All the best
Rich

[Neil from Model Squadron]

Hope you all enjoy....I had hoped to go to the British Model Flying Associations Remembrance Day Fly-In at Buckminster, but it was cancelled due to all the severe flooding in England, but did something up here solo to mark the occasion..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwFTdDqJMyo&feature=youtu.be

[Elbee]

Neil from Model Squadron Beautiful tribute, Sir, and your Spitfire is gorgeous. Best, LB

[Neil from Model Squadron]

Thanks Elbee..!

[wldecker]

Hey guys, Just got mine today! I'll be scanning the pages to get help with the 3D printed cockpit. I already scored around the cockpit and carefully lifted it out. Off soon to Home depot for matched touch-up colors! I'll get looks from customers for sure! She came remarkably packaged, with no damage considering Fed-Ex beat the crap out of the box! I'll post pictures when she's finished, I'm gonna take winter to detail panel lines and weather this beastie! Coursair next!

[Elbee]

wldecker , Looking forward to seeing your progress. It's a great model of possibly the most beautiful aircraft ever designed in my opinion. Achtung, Spitfire! Best, LB

[John Card]

Long time lurker here...

I finally managed to get the Spitfire earlier this year, and spent quite a while figuring out how I wanted to detail it, and then get it all done. I had built a same sized Top Flight Gold Edition kit back around 2001 and I think I spent about 8 months building and detailing that one. This one took much less! I did decide to do the same color scheme as my old one though, partially for sentimental reasons, but also because it is one of my favorites. I just hate having the same scheme as everyone else that buys one. I used a mix of stock decals, Callies decals, and hand painted the parts where I just couldn't see a decal laying flat or looking good. I added the invasion stripes even though MH434 usually doesn't have them - I like the way they look and I figure it probably helps visibility. I forgot to take the photos before the first flight - good thing it came back with no problems!

I'm glad to finally be able to post something back!

John

[Alpha]

John Card Thanks for posting, John! I really like your photos. The first low shot looks especially striking to me with the sharp low angle and that blurry bokeh background.

[Hardway]

Welcome to Hobby Squawk John! Very nice job! 👍. Jerry

[Hardway]

Congrats on the maiden too!!!!!

[RichJ53]

Long time lurker here...

I finally managed to get the Spitfire earlier this year, and spent quite a while figuring out how I wanted to detail it, and then get it all done. I had built a same sized Top Flight Gold Edition kit back around 2001 and I think I spent about 8 months building and detailing that one. This one took much less! I did decide to do the same color scheme as my old one though, partially for sentimental reasons, but also because it is one of my favorites. I just hate having the same scheme as everyone else that buys one. I used a mix of stock decals, Callies decals, and hand painted the parts where I just couldn't see a decal laying flat or looking good. I added the invasion stripes even though MH434 usually doesn't have them - I like the way they look and I figure it probably helps visibility. I forgot to take the photos before the first flight - good thing it came back with no problems!

I'm glad to finally be able to post something back!

John

Welcome to the Spitfire gang..... Beautiful job and thank you for sharing. This is a great flying model and should be around for a very long time.

Rich

[Neil from Model Squadron]

Lovely job John C - Mylcraine in all her glory - Pat Lardener Burke, Ray Hannah and Hamish Mahaddie would all strongly approve.....! My Dad saw the latter literally almost cut the grass with the full size when she was sold at auction at Strathallan when I was a nipper...

[John Card]

Many thanks to all of you for the kind words. So far I have about 6 flights and no issues at all. I've been gradually lengthening the run time to see how long the batteries will last. So far I am over 8 minutes with the Admiral 6000 pack and have plenty of battery left. Now I just need to decide what the next one will be. I'm leaning towards something that uses the same battery to keep costs down. Too many great choices!

John

[Elbee]

Dear Elbee ,your way of designing I accept as a pattern, especially since you sent me a 3D printed cockpit ... so I'm looking forward to all the upcoming '' sweet problems '' during the coupling of my pet (read Spitfire)....:Cool: Note:How Mr.Steve has greatly cheered the old man and, also, the Spitfire lover.Thanks from the depth of my heart....your buddy Jos

Jos, I was answering a Spitfire question for another member and I ran across our conversation from last year. It is Thanksgiving here and I cannot help but think of you and your family when we are with friends and family. I hope all is going well with you and your family as we begin the Christmas Season. Much love and respect, Sir. Trust all is well. Yours, Steve & Tamms

[TonyTaff]

After a terrible summer with illness I finally was well enough to fly my spitfire. I figured out all the nuances of the AR636 receiver ( It had a setting builtin that used elevator throttle mix) Non the less the maiden was perfect as was the subsequent two flights.

The fourth however was not so good. Coming in for landing on well mown grass just putting the wheels on the ground when both retracts simultaneously collapsed. The mounting cups came clean out of the foam wings.. Hardly any adhesive was used to hold them in.

I would have thought that Flightline would have figured out that this needs to be the strongest part of the aircraft by now... Very disappointing.

[Grossman56]

After a terrible summer with illness I finally was well enough to fly my spitfire. I figured out all the nuances of the AR636 receiver ( It had a setting builtin that used elevator throttle mix) Non the less the maiden was perfect as was the subsequent two flights.

The fourth however was not so good. Coming in for landing on well mown grass just putting the wheels on the ground when both retracts simultaneously collapsed. The mounting cups came clean out of the foam wings.. Hardly any adhesive was used to hold them in.

I would have thought that Flightline would have figured out that this needs to be the strongest part of the aircraft by now... Very disappointing.

Hi Tony, I hear you , both mine have popped out a few times as well. I found that mine was too tail heavy and loaded some weight into the nose, suddenly she's just an amazing bird. A few fellows have found the same thing. post 2461 and 2462 is where I wrote about it as well as 2483 with a link to a video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EgTgQZdeXs

And finally, 2495 where I just had to brag about how wonderful she is to fly now.
Check all this out and see if this may help you out, good luck!

Grossman56

[OV10]

After a terrible summer with illness I finally was well enough to fly my spitfire. I figured out all the nuances of the AR636 receiver ( It had a setting builtin that used elevator throttle mix) Non the less the maiden was perfect as was the subsequent two flights.

The fourth however was not so good. Coming in for landing on well mown grass just putting the wheels on the ground when both retracts simultaneously collapsed. The mounting cups came clean out of the foam wings.. Hardly any adhesive was used to hold them in.

I would have thought that Flightline would have figured out that this needs to be the strongest part of the aircraft by now... Very disappointing.

I can understand your disappointment Tony, however it is unfortunately not an unheard of event across all the various foam manufactures lines like FMS, Dynam, etc as well as Flight Line.
The issue has been raised across many forums and the key to the problem appears to be that because the adhesive application to these plastic wheel well pockets is not an automated process.
Thus the probability of variance for "sufficient" adhesive is due to the "judgment" of operators.
I've seen it happen having managed operators in a manufacturing environment that have had procedures and training available.
Fortunately it doesn't appear to be a rampant issue for us but when it does occur it certainly triggers the frustration emotion.
The best recourse that I use to possibly help mitigate a touchdown aw crap is to perform a firm tug/wiggle test on the gear to check for any movement of these pockets.
This plan I put into place after a main gear collapse (plastic gear mount box pulled loose) on the FMS P-40B Warhawk..
A gear check pre-flight should be an item that is always done before every flight.

[Beetlemankurt]

Hi all, just interested in how any of you that are removing the wing for transport deal with the need to plug and unplug servo leads.....I’ve fitted y leads to all but the gear on my new bird with the intention of having long enough leads that will allow the wing to be laid beside the fuse without needing to unplug anything. The theory being that when I get to the field, I can pull the leads back through into the fuse and secure somehow to stay out of harms way. The theory being.....if I don’t have to unplug anything I will lessen the chances of an error or bad connection when reconnecting. So.....I’ve used the word theory a lot.... : ).....what are you all doing in the real world? Looking forward to hearing your thoughts....

Cheers
BMK

[RichJ53]

Hi all, just interested in how any of you that are removing the wing for transport deal with the need to plug and unplug servo leads.....I’ve fitted y leads to all but the gear on my new bird with the intention of having long enough leads that will allow the wing to be laid beside the fuse without needing to unplug anything. The theory being that when I get to the field, I can pull the leads back through into the fuse and secure somehow to stay out of harms way. The theory being.....if I don’t have to unplug anything I will lessen the chances of an error or bad connection when reconnecting. So.....I’ve used the word theory a lot.... : ).....what are you all doing in the real world? Looking forward to hearing your thoughts....

Cheers
BMK

Remember this plane has been around for some time now. Improvements have been made on the newer kits. I have seen a few posts about mods, one using the new Blue box with the ribbon cables. I use short 8" servo extensions and a 2 wire light extension. This allows me enough room to manage the wind installation. The servo connections are secured with plastic clips. I have one season with my Spitfire and Corsair….. lots of fun

Rich

[wallacems]

Well, today I was able to test fly my new Flightline Spitfire 1600. I managed to get the build done in one afternoon/evening, but then the weather turned bad. At last today we had a warm sunny conditions with a light wind straight down the runway. Model was equipped with a Zippy compact 5800 6S 25c pack. With this pushed right forward the model balanced exactly at the recommended 90mm from LE. I had already taken on board the need to program in up elevator with flaps down and reduced the throw on the elevator a bit. The result:
Wow! what a great model. Just a couple of clicks of up elevator was needed and the model really grooved around the sky. Delightfully smooth and utterly believable on flyby as it has a real presence in the air and you can really slow it down if you want to with the flaps. Retracts worked perfectly. "Dirty" passes with flaps and retracts down looked really convincing.

Even on such a bright sunny day the lights were visible -must be really bright LEDs.

Landing was a breeze as the flap/elev mix I had dialed in was just perfect. The model dropped in really smoothly as I reduced the throttle and cutting the power just as the wheels touched gave a perfect landing. Timer was set for 6mins but I had 73% of battery left at the end of the flight. The motor/prop/ESC must be a really efficient set-up.

Second flight I upped the stopwatch timer to 8 mins. When I checked the pack at the end of the flight it still had 63% left. So 10 min flights should be a real possibility.
Overall, I am delighted with this model. It looks really authentic on the ground and in the air, has super flight characteristics - you can beat up the strip; fly enormous loops; yet slow it it right down and lands like a *****cat. What's not to like?

Thanks to all the folk who posted their thoughts, info and experience on this forum. Special mention to radfordc who helped with choice of lipo pack. It all really helped to get a hassle-free maiden flight. Looking forward to a lot more enjoyment with this model. Great work Flightline! Now we need a similar size Douglas Dauntless with flaps, dive brakes and working bomb-drop!

I am going to run the 6000 MAH Admiral battery. Can you tell me if you just used the 5800 and placed it all the way forward to the bulkhead? I am trying to figure out if I need to move it back or not to get the CG just a tad nose heavy. Thanks.