Official FlightLine RC 1600mm Spitfire Mk. IX Thread

[Sheriffjohn]

Maidened my Spitfire today! All went pretty well but even tho I reduced the elevator throws, take off was spooky! The tail went up and kept going! almost dragged my props. Landed into a crosswind with full flaps. It was OK landing, not too pretty. Next flight I used 1/2 flaps, much better.

I have one problem, however. I have about a 5 second delay when I activate the landing gear to when they actually start moving. I wired the LG into the Blue Box. Does this have anything to do with it? My radio is a DX9. I didn't see anything in there to cause this.

Is this normal? What causes this?

Thx for the help

SJ

[Grossman56]

Check to make sure that the Landing Gear wires are plugged into the correct side of the blue box.
The box is pretty generic and also includes gear doors for planes like the Mustang that have clam shell doors. If you plug them into these connections, there will be a delay. I did it with mine so that one gear retracted after the other for a more scale like retract/deploy, but it wasn't great during flight so switched it to normal. Here's the box....

Note, the landing gear plugs into the left side and the separate gear doors plug into the right side, also note that there is a third landing gear plug for a retractable tail/nose gear. Also note where the lights are SUPPOSED to plug in.
That might be your problem, take a look.

Grossman56

[Sheriffjohn]

Thanks Grossman56! As soon as I saw this, I went to the garage to have a look. Bummer, it's hooked up correctly! Tomorrow or later tonight, I'll switch them to the LG Door slots, just to see if that's it. Or I'll by pass the blue box and see what happens.

When I was plugging things in the first time, I noticed the lighting labeling issue and worked that out. :)

So during the maiden, I had enough on my mind so when I flipped the LG switch to land and nothing happened I just about had a heart attack! Ha!

SJ

Update: I checked all the various ways to plug in the Landing Gear and with any combination, I still had the delay. I by-passed the Blue Box and the delay went away.

I filled out a customer service ticket on line with Motion RC and they responded within 10 minutes telling me that they will ship out a new Blue Box right away! Thanks M.R.C.!

SJ

[Grossman56]

That's good to hear!
Right now mine is down until they get the retracts back in stock, the dang wire broke right at the retract and its micro surgery to solder it together again, besides, why take the chance. I'm looking suspiciously at the blue box as well and will replace it when the retracts come back in stock.
The Tigercat has the same delay for retract deployment, but I 've just got used to it, I deploy the gear and give it about three seconds then drop flaps rather than everything at once, she used to do a little dance, but the delay smoothens her out perfectly. So, the retracts being the same on the Tigercat as on the Spitfire, I wasn't surprised. It'll be interesting to see if a new blue box makes a difference, I seriously thought of eliminating it too, but the Bearcat has one and I've never had a problem with it, so....

Grossman56

[dfordham]

Update: I checked all the various ways to plug in the Landing Gear and with any combination, I still had the delay. I by-passed the Blue Box and the delay went away.

I filled out a customer service ticket on line with Motion RC and they responded within 10 minutes telling me that they will ship out a new Blue Box right away! Thanks M.R.C.!

SJ

Your blue box is working normally, I believe.

It appears that the blue box is the same on the p38, f7f, and big Spitfire. It has a sequencer in it that will output to the gear door ports as soon as you hit "gear down" on the xmttr, and will output to the gear ports after a short delay. The only one of the 3 planes that needs this delay is the p38 since it has servo actuated gear doors. So on the p38 the delay allows the gear doors to open without racing with the gear; on the f7f and Spitfire, it simply results in a short delay in the gear dropping.

Don

[Grossman56]

So, if you want the gear to retract quicker, try plugging into the landing gear door plugs, here's a video of the difference in the times when I had mine set so that one would retract before the other.

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

You can hear the click of the switch and notice that the gear plugged into the gear plug deploys last and retracts first.

Grossman56

[RCAV8R]

Hey Guys...I'm just going over all my connections, throws, etc. and will maiden Monday! I'm excited!

SJ, I did notice tonight that my gear took a while to deploy, so I don't think that is anything to do with the blue box.

My pre-maiden questions are:
1) Did I understand someone to say that when gluing the mirror on the canopy NOT to use CA glue? I think the concern was that it would fog the plastic, but my concern is that canopy glue won't be strong enough?
2) So I need to hold strong right rudder and pin the tail down with up elevator on taxi and take-off, right?
3) Are most of you using low rates or high rates?

Anything else??? Thanks everyone! :Cool: Rob

[RCAV8R]

I almost forgot...I was having trouble getting my starboard and port flaps to move equally. I knew I could split the channels and adjust them individually if I had to, but as I looked at the mechanics of the servos and pushrods, it seemed that one side was not as parallel as the other. So I reversed the linkage on one...now they are in the exact same orientation as you look at them (instead of mirror image) , and to me it is symmetrical. Here's a photo of what I'm trying to say. The long part of the flap is to the right of the servo on both, and the same with the short part. The net result is that they are both deflecting the same now...FYI! Rob

[Elbee]

Hey Guys...my concern is that canopy glue won't be strong enough?

RCA, I used clear Gorilla glue (it's non-foaming) and I scratched the paint on both surfaces first and cleaned that with Isopropyl Alcohol as I only had enough Grey Goose for one more cocktail. It will need to dry over-night, I trimmed the offending 'ooz' the next morning. I think I could lift the airframe by the mirror, though I have no idea why I would do that. LOL Best, LB

[OV10]

1) Did I understand someone to say that when gluing the mirror on the canopy NOT to use CA glue? I think the concern was that it would fog the plastic, but my concern is that canopy glue won't be strong enough?

Foam-Tac glue is plenty strong enough for gluing plastics together and on stuff.;)

[Grossman56]

Stuart gives a good description of take off, worth watching a few times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsZz7lYxsuc&t=630s

Grossman56

[Hardway]

RCA, I used clear Gorilla glue (it's non-foaming) and I scratched the paint on both surfaces first and cleaned that with Isopropyl Alcohol as I only had enough Grey Goose for one more cocktail. It will need to dry over-night, I trimmed the offending 'ooz' the next morning. I think I could lift the airframe by the mirror, though I have no idea why I would do that. LOL Best, LB

Never, ever, use Grey Goose to clean with if there is an alternative lying around!!! :Drinks::Cool:

[RCAV8R]

I had my maiden today and WOW, WOW AND TRIPLE wow!!!! I LOVE THIS PLANE! This is now my favorite, and I am looking forward to a long relationship! I have the A-10 and a Stinger 90, so it took a bit to get used to a prop again, but with 6 flights my timer is no up to 8 minutes (Admiral 5000) and I still have time to spare!

I fly off asphalt, so here's my debrief:

Winds were calm. I pegged the elevator to hold the tail down, and gently increased throttle to avoid nosing over (per the Stuart video). I didn't experience as much need for right rudder as I expected, but I didn't release the elevator as fast as I should have and the plane jumped into the air and almost tip stalled right away! I almost lost it right there, but the Lord was good to me! I found that even at low rates things were too hot for my taste and I needed about 5mm of up elevator for the flap trim (as opposed to the 3mm called out). I flew the first flight with the batteries right on the 90mmm COG, and it was a bugger to land. By he second flight I had the batteries all the way forward and it was all good. Total of six flight today...silky rolls, climbs that were out of sight (pun intended) and the only thing I wasn't used to was the drop in altitude on banks was more than I'm used to with jets.

I did have a slight nose over on landing and dinged the prop tips, and I had a couple of wing wags that scraped the paint on the wing tips (thanks for the hard plastic tips...saves the foam rash!), but all things considered, it was great. I am still high from the rush and loving this aircraft!!! Rob.

[Hardway]

:Cool::Cool: Congrats!!!! Good airplane for sure!!

[axerhand1976]

5 flight's in and the little blue box almost killed my plane...…… amazingly I got it down with just a broken prop. when I I was adding any elevator the ailerons would twitch badly, so im going to use the box just for the lg(that seems to work fine) and so I will have lights since I don't know if I plugged them directly into the receiver if they burn out, and then put the ailerons on a y and plug them directly into the receiver I hope that will fix my issue. other than that it is a wonderful plane, I cant wait for flightline to make a zero!!!

[Grossman56]

I had my maiden today and WOW, WOW AND TRIPLE wow!!!! I LOVE THIS PLANE! This is now my favorite, and I am looking forward to a long relationship! I have the A-10 and a Stinger 90, so it took a bit to get used to a prop again, but with 6 flights my timer is no up to 8 minutes (Admiral 5000) and I still have time to spare!

I fly off asphalt, so here's my debrief:

Winds were calm. I pegged the elevator to hold the tail down, and gently increased throttle to avoid nosing over (per the Stuart video). I didn't experience as much need for right rudder as I expected, but I didn't release the elevator as fast as I should have and the plane jumped into the air and almost tip stalled right away! I almost lost it right there, but the Lord was good to me! I found that even at low rates things were too hot for my taste and I needed about 5mm of up elevator for the flap trim (as opposed to the 3mm called out). I flew the first flight with the batteries right on the 90mmm COG, and it was a bugger to land. By he second flight I had the batteries all the way forward and it was all good. Total of six flight today...silky rolls, climbs that were out of sight (pun intended) and the only thing I wasn't used to was the drop in altitude on banks was more than I'm used to with jets.

I did have a slight nose over on landing and dinged the prop tips, and I had a couple of wing wags that scraped the paint on the wing tips (thanks for the hard plastic tips...saves the foam rash!), but all things considered, it was great. I am still high from the rush and loving this aircraft!!! Rob.

I had the same thing on take off on my last flight. You have to let up on the elevator and get the tail up, let her run and get some lift on the wings, the motor has a tendency to drag it in the air when the wings haven't enough lift. Next thing I knew, she was standing on her left wing about 4 feet off the ground. Stuart's video really helped, especially the tip of switching from high rates when taxiing to low for take off. I finally had some good landings when I didn't try to pin the tail, but used the rudder to control direction until the speed was down. I was talking to a guy at Wings and Wheels who has big military drones and he said something interesting about the tendency to tip on a wing. Instead of having the wheels completely straight, he suggested a slight toe out. That way, it would tend to swing the airplane to the same side as the wheel in contact with the ground (or, at least no swing at all), instead of, say the right wheel wanting to swing the plane to the left, therefore dragging the right wingtip on the pavement as opposed to his suggestion which would swing the plane in the opposite direction, keeping the tips off the ground, does that make sense?? He said it would only have to be maybe a degree of toe out.

Grossman56

[Hardway]

Use the box for the lights.... I trash every one of them if possible... Handy, but unreliable in my opinion...

[RCAV8R]

I had the same thing on take off on my last flight. You have to let up on the elevator and get the tail up, let her run and get some lift on the wings, the motor has a tendency to drag it in the air when the wings haven't enough lift. Next thing I knew, she was standing on her left wing about 4 feet off the ground. Stuart's video really helped, especially the tip of switching from high rates when taxiing to low for take off. I finally had some good landings when I didn't try to pin the tail, but used the rudder to control direction until the speed was down. I was talking to a guy at Wings and Wheels who has big military drones and he said something interesting about the tendency to tip on a wing. Instead of having the wheels completely straight, he suggested a slight toe out. That way, it would tend to swing the airplane to the same side as the wheel in contact with the ground (or, at least no swing at all), instead of, say the right wheel wanting to swing the plane to the left, therefore dragging the right wingtip on the pavement as opposed to his suggestion which would swing the plane in the opposite direction, keeping the tips off the ground, does that make sense?? He said it would only have to be maybe a degree of toe out.

Grossman56

For me, I didn't have much feel of torque on landing. It was more a balance of throttle and elevator (isn't it always?) and holding the right AOA for touchdown.

What about the decals...didn't I read somewhere that guys were putting down water before applying the stickers? I get how frustrating it is to try and get them right the first time, but it strikes me as counterintuitive to put water underneath a sticker? Thoughts?

Rob

[Elbee]

For me, I didn't have much feel of torque on landing. It was more a balance of throttle and elevator (isn't it always?) and holding the right AOA for touchdown. What about the decals...didn't I read somewhere that guys were putting down water before applying the stickers? I get how frustrating it is to try and get them right the first time, but it strikes me as counterintuitive to put water underneath a sticker? Thoughts?Rob

Rob, Putting water down is the only way to go. Works great and positioning is simple. Be careful when you 'squeegee' the water out towards the sides of the decal as not to dent the foam. Paper towel works. Within a few minutes, the decal will stick on its own and you can squeegee again to smooth it out completely. Best, LB

[RCAV8R]

Got it...thanks! I'll dive in this week. Rob