Official FlightLine RC 1600mm Spitfire Mk. IX Thread

[Oxotnik]

Cruiser, the gear have pulled out of the wheel well on every foamy I have. Even with easy landings, on my grass field, if there is any speed at all, the gear can be pulled out, until they are properly bonded in place. I don't understand why the foamy manufacturers (all of them) continue to glue plastic parts to painted foam. That bond is only as good as the paint bond to the foam, which we all know is lousy. Honestly, before the first flight, I'd even thought about purposely forcing the gear out of the well, but couldn't force myself to break something that wasn't already broken. Of course, in hindsight, that choice ended up costing me a propeller blade (I'll carefully inspect the backplate, too, to make sure that it hasn't cracked). Props and backplates are on order.

[Aros]

Hey Aros...great job on the invasion stripes! I'm assuming you sprayed it? What paint did you use and did you prime it first? I'm doing MH434 and I'm gonna do the version with the stripes on the bottom of the wing and lower fuse. Graphics from Callie will be here Tuesday...including nomenclature. Actually thinking of painting the yellow leading edges too...those peel and stick ones scare me...seems like it will be really hard to line up right.

Thanks! I used rattle cans. Fast Drying Flat White and Flat Black enamels from the local hardware store. Worked great. No primer necessary. Actually I found the yellow LE decals to be very easy to put on. Just took my time and used my thumbnail to smooth any creases over the edge.

She's all done! Now I can just focus on flying and mediocre landings! LOL

[Beeg]

Great job Aros!

[Shirty]

Okay can someone share with me the magic technique to peel these decals off the paper? Holy cow I am going to lose it! LOL

Lol, did someone mention a similar thing on another thread? ;)
Man,that looks awesome on the stripes. Great job. Looks like the aircraft letters say DOA, a reference to your landings perhaps? :)

grats on the maidens oxo and cruiser. Glad it's a easy fix and I'll be checking my retracts before maiden, thanks.

And as pogo said, I second the windex method for vinyls.
Tally ho chaps. :)

[Aros]

Thanks fellas! Yeah Shirty, DOA would seem appropriate for my landings these days... LOL

[guylookingup]

Just to add to this propeller discussion, I assembled mine last night. As best I could, I placed the blades with the closest matching weights opposed to each other. Although the plastic "fixed plate" snugly fit over the motor hub, it did not sit square to the motor shaft, thus my blades are slightly out-of-plane during rotation and as such I have a slight wobble when looking into the plane of the propeller. This is also causing a front end vibration on the Spitfire. I will probably disassemble the prop and see if I can decrease the out-of-plane wobble. Also, I just noticed in the instruction manual that there is a flat washer that is supposed to be between the front of the fixed plate and the propeller shaft nut...I did not find that washer with my propeller parts. Wondering if this might be part of my problem? Is anybody else having this problem? Any suggestions out there to get my propeller into planar adjustment? Thanks!

[guylookingup]

I was "perusing" through this forum and came across yesterday morning's thread on Spektrum receiver problems and losing confidence with Spektrum and wanted to make a short comment on that concern. I am a JR guy and am flying with my JR 28X transmitter (loving it more and more!) so I have no loyalty to Spektrum; however, looking through the recent Top Gun issue of Model Airplane News, I noticed that when a radio was mentioned with the award winners, it was, in almost every case, either a Spektrum DX18 or DX20. Unfortunately, I did not see a single mention of the 28X. :Crying:So, if you are flying Spektrum equipment...well, it seems like you are in good company with the Top Gun winners also using Spektrum equipment!!

[Beeg]

Yes, Love the radios! It's the receivers that have issues. All their last batch of "Power Safe" high dollar receivers were recalled a few months ago. Still waiting on the latest shipment of new "power safe" 12 channels for my sailplane. Again, love my DX18G2 and my previous DX6, DX7 and DX8.

[Shirty]

Thanks fellas! Yeah Shirty, DOA would seem appropriate for my landings these days... LOL

Sorry mate, couldn't resist. :)

[Beeg]

Just to add to this propeller discussion, I assembled mine last night. As best I could, I placed the blades with the closest matching weights opposed to each other. Although the plastic "fixed plate" snugly fit over the motor hub, it did not sit square to the motor shaft, thus my blades are slightly out-of-plane during rotation and as such I have a slight wobble when looking into the plane of the propeller. This is also causing a front end vibration on the Spitfire. I will probably disassemble the prop and see if I can decrease the out-of-plane wobble. Also, I just noticed in the instruction manual that there is a flat washer that is supposed to be between the front of the fixed plate and the propeller shaft nut...I did not find that washer with my propeller parts. Wondering if this might be part of my problem? Is anybody else having this problem? Any suggestions out there to get my propeller into planar adjustment? Thanks!

You may have "shaved" plastic underneath your back plate. Pull the assembly off and look behind to see if you have any plastic curls that built up behind the plate.

Reference this post here.. https://www.hobbysquawk.com/forum/rc...9799#post89799

[downwindleg]

I was "perusing" through this forum and came across yesterday morning's thread on Spektrum receiver problems and losing confidence with Spektrum and wanted to make a short comment on that concern. I am a JR guy and am flying with my JR 28X transmitter (loving it more and more!) so I have no loyalty to Spektrum; however, looking through the recent Top Gun issue of Model Airplane News, I noticed that when a radio was mentioned with the award winners, it was, in almost every case, either a Spektrum DX18 or DX20. Unfortunately, I did not see a single mention of the 28X. :Crying:So, if you are flying Spektrum equipment...well, it seems like you are in good company with the Top Gun winners also using Spektrum equipment!!

By the way, Spectrum is made by J R, it was initially a less expensive version to reach a broader base of customers. Brad

[downwindleg]

Congrats Beeg! I flew mine again this morning...Same thing, crosswind and I still needed to dial in a little up trim, and A LOT of up mix in my flap settings. Nothing beats greasin' a warbird! :Cool:

And Ryan/Mike that shot is amazing. Looks completely full scale. Not job!

Hey Todd, I had the same experience with the up mix. Based on all my other warbirds, I started the maiden flight with 5% down mix to counteract the ballooning that usually occurs with flap deployment. Luckily, I tried it out with some altitude and it went down like a yard dart so skipped that and landed without flaps. I got 4 flights in going from +5% to 0% to -5% to -10% mix. Getting close but ran out of time before I was comfortable with a flap down approach. Hope to try again tommorrow if it doesn't interfere with the honeydo list. Love the plane.......tracks well, rolls, loops, and hammerheads are effortless....woohoo! Brad

[Aros]

Yep same thing Brad. Currently my mid and full flap mix is -15%. Agreed, usually it's down mix that is needed but it's the opposite for this bird. Had some nice dusk flights tonight. Really is a great flyer. Very scale. Getting some wingtip dips/scrapes on some of my landings, even my greasers. Not too unusual for a tail-draggin' warbird on pavement. I spent the flights mostly working on landings. Hit stall speed a foot off the ground on one approach and the wing stalled pretty fierce. Hit a curb but no damage other than a scraped prop tip that I can sand and repaint. Lost some balance tape in the process so I will need to re-balance the props tomorrow. Overall I am really happy with my first nice sizec quality foam Spit!

[2FewDaysAtFlyingField]

Made some more headway on my paint project. I sprayed the sky green tail band and the Lemon yellow leading edges tonight. I also put some mild weathering on all the panel lines and exhaust. Tomorrow I'm painting and putting screens inside my radiators and gluing them on. Then, I think I need to do something to the cockpit. Its pretty bland. I ordered a different set of graphics from Callie plus nomenclature since the first set seemed Like they may have been for the little spitfire.

While I was painting my flaps I noticed that one has a smooth external surface and the other has Panel lines on its external surface. Weird. I'm also researching what color the inside of the flaps are when deployed and the color of the inside of the wheel wells.

I can't fly mine till I can get a prop shaft so who knows how detailed this will get. ;)

[guylookingup]

Downwindleg,

No, I didn't realize that Spektrum is actually made by JR. Before JR came out with the DMSS protocol, I was using the Spektrum DSMX/DSMR receivers with my previous JR radios so that makes sense. I like the "JR feel" as they say, but not sure of JR support for the 28X in the future. I almost decided on a DX18 a couple years ago, but Black Friday brought the price of the 28X down at Horizon Hobby and I went for it instead. Nonetheless, if the TOP GUN users are using Spektrum equipment, well then, that's quite an endorsement of Spektrum. Also, thanks for the information on the flap/elevator mix...good to know.

[Aros]

Made some more headway on my paint project. I sprayed the sky green tail band and the Lemon yellow leading edges tonight. I also put some mild weathering on all the panel lines and exhaust. Tomorrow I'm painting and putting screens inside my radiators and gluing them on. Then, I think I need to do something to the cockpit. Its pretty bland. I ordered a different set of graphics from Callie plus nomenclature since the first set seemed Like they may have been for the little spitfire.

While I was painting my flaps I noticed that one has a smooth external surface and the other has Panel lines on its external surface. Weird. I'm also researching what color the inside of the flaps are when deployed and the color of the inside of the wheel wells.

I can't fly mine till I can get a prop shaft so who knows how detailed this will get. ;)

Another Stripey...Welcome to the club brother! :)

[Shirty]

Nice job 2few, looks sweet ;)

save me some research fellas, what's the width of the stripes please? (mm would be good you backward imperial system weirdos) :)

[Alpha]

You may have "shaved" plastic underneath your back plate. Pull the assembly off and look behind to see if you have any plastic curls that built up behind the plate.

Reference this post here.. https://www.hobbysquawk.com/forum/rc...9799#post89799

Good link to a good overview. To add to that tutorial, here's a picture I took at the factory yesterday of the spinner backplate, showing a small line of mold flash in the center hole through which the prop shaft passes. This may be contributing to the tightness some people have encountered. If your backplate is especially tight, sand down this mold flash line as needed. Wobbly assemblies are bad, obviously, so err on the side of tighter rather than more loose.



The tolerances are very tight, by design, and a good indicator before final assembly is to slide the backplate on backwards to verify the proper fit. It should slide on smoothly but snugly, all the way back as shown here:



As always, never use the barrel nut to tighten the backplate over the prop adapter base. Align it by hand and press fit by hand, all the way down. Don't overtorque the barrel nut, either. A half turn past hand tight is sufficient.

We can't put a Tru-turn level spinner ($120+) in a $349 1600mm PNP. I love heavy steel and milspec machined aluminum spinners, too, but that's not in the cards for any of the big foam warbird Mfrs. Some attention of the existing PNP design during fitting and assembly will yield optimal results, as with any prop assembly.

Nice stripes, by the way! Will anyone due a completely silver paint job?

[Starck Mad]

Thanks! I used rattle cans. Fast Drying Flat White and Flat Black enamels from the local hardware store. Worked great. No primer necessary. Actually I found the yellow LE decals to be very easy to put on. Just took my time and used my thumbnail to smooth any creases over the edge.

She's all done! Now I can just focus on flying and mediocre landings! LOL

Thanks Aros...I planned on rattle cans as well. Did you use a clear coat after? The Testors I tested on another plane was also a flat finish, but looks much flatter than yours. What brand did you use? You also have me thinking I may go ahead and try the yellow decals. Just to be sure...as mine seem to have a weird inconsistent finish...I know someone said they are peel and stick, but do they have the top film on them to be peeled away also? If not then mine may not be usable, but if the inconsistency is simply the peel away top sheet I should be okay.

Yours looks AWESOME !!

[Starck Mad]

Yes, Love the radios! It's the receivers that have issues. All their last batch of "Power Safe" high dollar receivers were recalled a few months ago. Still waiting on the latest shipment of new "power safe" 12 channels for my sailplane. Again, love my DX18G2 and my previous DX6, DX7 and DX8.

Curious...which receivers did you have issues with? Like I said before I have had no issues with the standard 4, 6, 7, 8, and 9 channel ones in years of constant use. The AS3X/SAFE stuff is another story...seen a few birds uncontrollably fly themselves into the ground with those to be honest..even after passing a pre-flight check.

I'm always intrigued by the TX/RX debates. The truth is all of the name brands are really good. Spektrum, Futaba, JR, Jeti, Hi Tec...I've seen many pilots having the same results I have with all those. Proper installation and maintaining seems to be the key to "no issues" which by definition to me means "losing zero aircraft as a result of TX/RX problems". Anything electronic/mass produced can fail of course and none of these are perfect, but I personally have had several times where my careful pre-flight check probably saved my plane...one of those being RX related. I always do a range test at the beginning of every flying session (most do one once at the maiden) and on one occasion a plane that always passed the check all of a sudden didn't. I caught it. HH sent me a new RX for free.

The Lemon stuff may be great...never used them so can't speak on that, but justifying buying them by insinuating that Spektrum TX's don't work properly may not be a necessarily fair suggestion...too many thousands of people having no issues with Spektrum for that to be the case, and as a guy that see's hundreds of guys bring stuff in a LHS (where I work) I can tell you most of any issues in this hobby are user related. You wouldn't believe the stuff I see...modelers like us are the minority now...so many new folks that don't read instructions and are convinced the issue is with the product. :Confused: They get this puzzled look on their face when we make it work in two minutes...:Silly:

By the way...not trying to derail the thread or start something, just suggesting that folks can but what they want and in most cases when used properly they will be good to go.;)