Official FlightLine RC 1600mm Spitfire Mk. IX Thread

[Grossman56]

"Us" being the allies, right? USSR, Britain, Canada, Free French, exiled Poles, etc. had some involvement in liberating Europe too (although the USSR would re-enslave it)

I wonder what the world would be like if the Battle of Britain had gone the other way.

Yep. definitely! As I had two uncles that fought in the Royal Canadian Army (one in Italy and the other in Europe) and my wife's dad served in the RCAF, us meant the Allies not U.S.

Hey Dave, glad to see you at least got the pic, I see that big ugly coming in from the NW over your shoulder there. I kept hoping that the weather would improve, but that wind just wouldn't let up. Of course today was beautiful as I was working.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Elbee]

freakbrother

Re: "The Man in the High Castle" by Phillip K. Dick (1962).

A bit dystopian and a challenging read.

Have not watched all of the series of the same name, just too slow for my ol' Dude ADD .

I've read a couple books by Harry Turtledove, an alternate history fiction writer.

I understand his book "In The Presence of Mine Enemies" is well reviewed and similarly themed, though I have not read this one.

I struggled with German 1 & 2 in high school and presume I would have equally struggled with it if it were required by law.

The good guys won and believe I am better off with that outcome.

Best, LB

[davegee]

Hi Dan: I like this size a lot more that our previous attempts. I'm happy with the size of mine, too.

I did go out to the field to get a picture of me with LOU IV that the buyer wanted. But it was too windy to put the Spittie up today. Maybe next time.


Cheers

Davegee

[Grossman56]

The new pilot installed in the cockpit of the Spitfire Mk IX:



The weather hasn't been cooperative today so the mission was scrubbed, but that won't stop us from remembering those who saved Britain in those Darkest Hours, enabling England to go on, eventually giving us a 'floating aircraft carrier' from which to ultimately free Europe.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[davegee]

Burning the midnight oil (well at least its late to me) and got the new pilot pretty well done.
The face looks better in real life, not so bleached out, but hey, I'm happy!
Here he is hanging out with the boys:



Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

Nicely done, Dan! Even that "American chap" looks good with the RAF pilots!

Let me know if you're going out to the field tomorrow for "Battle of Britain" day. My Spittie is ready to go for a flight or two!

Cheers

Davegee

[Elbee]

Grossman56
Your figure painting skills are exemplary, 'Ol' Bean'.

Best, LB

[Grossman56]

Burning the midnight oil (well at least its late to me) and got the new pilot pretty well done.
The face looks better in real life, not so bleached out, but hey, I'm happy!
Here he is hanging out with the boys:



Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Elbee]

We're approaching the 85th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain, coming up this September 15th. Better known as Battle of Britain Day in the UK...

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

Danger,

The Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy is "Ready, Willing, and Able, Sir."

Best, LB

[Grossman56]

We're approaching the 85th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain, coming up this September 15th. Better known as Battle of Britain Day in the UK, this was the crucial day that ended up inspiring Winston Churchill's "Never in the field of Human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few."
Thus inspiring the name given to all who flew in the battle, "The Few"
Little know fact is that about 2/3's of the kills during the Battle were made by Hurricanes, but the Spitfire MK I, II and IIa's became the iconic fighters.
One day, we may be lucky enough to see a Hurricane come down the Flightline tube.

In the meantime, I've been putting paint on the new, upsized figure, have him ready and in place by the 15th in honor of the day.


Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[davegee]

Well, despite his large size, he Looks the part. Ours looked like the pilots’ little brothers found a uniform that fit to go play in the cockpit! I’m glad we came up with something a little more scale.

Good luck getting some flying in with those seasonal storms down Miami way! We’re currently getting choked by numerous distant forest fires blown this way from Canada and elsewhere. It’s just part of the summer season in these parts!

Cheers

Davegee

[Hugh Wiedman]

Thanks. The “too small” pilots we printed definitely bugged us, even though the prints and paint jobs came out great. This larger version looks much better now, to us, anyway.

Did you say that "too small" pilots bugged you? How about my "Clint Walker" size pilot in my Corsair? Hooked up the RC Geek random servo generator to his head. Looks like he's trying to figure out a way to get out in case of trouble! Took off his boots so his toes can operate the rudder and elevator servos just underneath him, so if there's ever a crash, I can blame it on him!

[davegee]

Thanks. The “too small” pilots we printed definitely bugged us, even though the prints and paint jobs came out great. This larger version looks much better now, to us, anyway.

[jetfool]

Awesome, great job you guys are doing.

[davegee]

Danger Dan and I have been working on some resizing of Max Grueter Spitfire pilot figures for our Spitties. The first ones I printed up looked nice, we both did a good job on painting them up realistically, but they just looked too small for this model. Just recently, I increased the size of the original pilots we installed by 15 per cent, and I think we are more in the ballpark now for how they should look. I flew my Spittie today, the one honoring Witold "Lanny" Lanowski who was a Polish pilot who flew with the RAF and later with the USAAF with the 56th Fighter Group. This model is still hanging in there going on 9 years old.

I'll attach a few pics I took today. I decided I wanted to use a different headsculpt and printed a different version of the Grueter figure, wearing an oxygen mask. The plane flew beautifully, especially after I replaced the faulty left aileron servo that was making the aileron flutter. It worked great today.

Cheers

Davegee

[Grossman56]

That makes sense, I now have Flight Modes set up on every plane in the hangar, I tried it on the Corsair and it's great. Big Beautiful Doll got it as well last weekend. I'm a believer now!
I can see how that would be great with the F14 as well. I know one of the guys at the club, who is an excellent flyer, has one and had some difficulty transitioning from normal to swept wing configuration. I don't know whether he was using Flight Modes, but he was following RC Geeks recommendations.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Grossman56]

Ah, I see what you're saying. As someone who has never played around with flight modes, I can see the benefits from it. Setting the flap switch to activate flaps and flight modes makes sense.
Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Hugh Wiedman]

The flap elevator mix is fairly simple if you set your radio up to trim the flaps on the fly. I recently found the video on just how to do this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAveSSW0rUQ

No more guessing and landing to readjust. Check it out.
The one thing I did find is that my NX 8+ trims the nose up if I push the slider up and down if I push the slider down, opposite to what he has. Check on the ground first to confirm which direction is which.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

That's one way to do it, however, there is another that is much better and easier to do. I've found virtually all experienced pilots use this method (not saying I'm experienced, but they all taught me it-especially those flying big expensive turbines).

All Spectrum and most other TX's ket you set up Flight Modes (not to be confused with FM's on a Spektrum RX). Go to flight mode setup in the menu and select FM switch. Then select your flap switch. This gives you 3 FM's assuming you use say switch D, your 3 position flap switch (the IX TX's will give you 9 seperate FM's, but that's another story). Now go to Trim Utilities. Leave throttle as common digital, but on elevator change it to FM. Also do aileron to FM, rudder you can also, but not necessary as flaps won't affect rudder. You're Done!

What this does is at each flap position, you can separately trim both elevator and aileron in flight to your preference and it keeps those trims individually at each flap setting and allows you to adjust on each flight if you need to for changing conditions. The elevator compensation you initially set stay where you started, but those are just a guess starting point. Elevator is a must, aileron is suggested as well in case each flap does not deflect the exact same amount, which in my experience is the norm, not the exception.

This, IMO, is the SINGLE most beneficial TX setting for any aircraft with flaps. Forget setting up mixes as the above video suggests, use FM's for flap trimming as TX programmers intended it for, not just elevator but also aileron. Using mixes, how crazy, like using a 500 foot extension cord to plug a lamp in 2 feet from the outlet! Keep It Simple!

All my aircraft with flaps have this set up, one of the first things I do when setting up a new plane.
Takes me 1-2 minutes on a maiden to perfectly trim a new plane with flaps for consistent level flying in every position from then on, no landing, retrim, do it again for ever! And if you decide to alter any flap deflection later on, simple retrimming operation.
My 2 cents for the day.

[Grossman56]

The flap elevator mix is fairly simple if you set your radio up to trim the flaps on the fly. I recently found the video on just how to do this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAveSSW0rUQ

No more guessing and landing to readjust. Check it out.
The one thing I did find is that my NX 8+ trims the nose up if I push the slider up and down if I push the slider down, opposite to what he has. Check on the ground first to confirm which direction is which.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[paladin]

the problem you are experiencing is CTE (coefficient of thermal expansion). the steel pushrod changes very little with temp. but the foam fuse expands greatly with temp. so i would bet the last time u flew it it was colder than today.

[Evan D]

Maybe a 1/8"? CG is about on the black pinstripe but it's not critical so +/- 1/4" at least.