Official FlightLine RC 1600mm Spitfire Mk. IX Thread

[Beeg]

Might i suggest that everyone test fit everything while going through the process of putting the assembly together for the prop. Test fit the backing disk before installing the blades and the metal cross. Then if the backing plate fits okay add cross tempararly and the the blades. I remember in somewhere i think the little pictures that Ryan posted one of the captions mention haveing to use a drill bit to help line something up with the cross brace during assy of the prop assy. Hey Ryan can you chime in on that for us please. This might be causeing an alignment problem resulting in the problem people are haveing. Im getting ready to go throught this process now as soon as i finish this. If i run into anything that might help ill post asap.:Confused:

Dewey, it was one of the Aussies that was the first to get one of these. His post about aligning the cross brace is why I left my blade/cross brace screws loose while attempting to install the entire assembly. I was then going to tighten my blade screws after everything was on.
So, it isn't an alignment issue. After hearing from a few other people here and at RCG the problem is mainly the hub itself being too tight or misshapen causing excess resistance which in turn, if forced, is resulting in the seizing of the threads. Sounds like a QC issue with whoever is molding the spinner back plate.
Now, if the shaft and nut were steel it wouldn't be a problem! ;)

[Aros]

Okay I FINALLY figured it out. It was a bad receiver. My 7CH Spektrum receiver was faulty. When I swapped out the rx with a 6CH I had lying around it binded just fine. I unplugged everything, plugged back in and it initialized right up. Did this a few times and each time no problem.

Occam's Razor and all that. LOL

Thanks for helping out folks!

[dkalwishky]

No issues with my prop assembly, went right onto the plane without any issues. Yay for me!

[Beeg]

Okay I FINALLY figured it out. It was a bad receiver. My 7CH Spektrum receiver was faulty. When I swapped out the rx with a 6CH I had lying around it binded just fine. I unplugged everything, plugged back in and it initialized right up. Did this a few times and each time no problem.

Occam's Razor and all that. LOL

Thanks for helping out folks!

Hate to say it but I've ditched my mid/low end Spektrum Rx's. They cost me three planes so far including wrecking my beloved 1/4 Cub gasser. LemonRx's from now on. So far no issues with them and a fraction the cost.

[Beeg]

No issues with my prop assembly, went right onto the plane without any issues. Yay for me!

Yeah! Great news!

[Oxotnik]

Hate to say it but I've ditched my mid/low end Spektrum Rx's. They cost me three planes so far including wrecking my beloved 1/4 Cub gasser. LemonRx's from now on. So far no issues with them and a fraction the cost.

I'm all in on LemonRX, too. I've got a bunch of the Stabilized diversity 7-channel LemonRXs (because, I can fly them either stabilized or unstabilized). But, the one thing that I don't like about the stabilized Lemons is that Channel 5 is unusable (other than for the stabilizer ON/OFF switch) and I can cannot set up my planes in my DX9 as having flaps (to get the flaps configuration menu). It's an inconvenience, but workable. For these bigger-than-1100mm planes, I need to get some unstabilized Lemon receivers. I've yet to have a problem with Lemon receivers (other than the one I accidentally fried when I plugged a RX battery into the RX with the wrong polarity... stupid me).

[Grossman56]

Grossman, here's a project for you..

Just waiting for Alpha to give me the go ahead to do more manuals, have a PM into him as of a couple of weeks ago, but no response.

Grossman56

[ryramZ]

Great news guys! Easy fix Todd Sweet!

[Grossman56]

Hate to say it but I've ditched my mid/low end Spektrum Rx's. They cost me three planes so far including wrecking my beloved 1/4 Cub gasser. LemonRx's from now on. So far no issues with them and a fraction the cost.

I agree Beeg, lost my last plane to a Spektrum receiver, went Lemons on the Tigercat and the Avanti with no trouble at all and they bind up very easily.

Grossman56

[Mixdup]

WARNING : Propeller Nut Binding

OK, thought the assembly was going marvelous until I tried installing the propeller assembly. Before I actually tried installing the prop assembly onto the motor I tested the main prop nut on the shaft to make sure there were no binding or threading issues. They went on smoothly by themselves.
When installing the prop hub, at about the half way point the prop nut was getting pretty stiff and I thought I'd better back it off to see what the problem was. I could feel a little gritty chatter backing the nut off. After inspecting the shaft and looking in the prop nut the threads appeared OK.
Looking further at the parts, I noticed there where curls of shaved plastic on the inside of the prop hub like they were scraped and pushed forward. I then looked at the propeller shaft and noticed the locking ridge that has the 4 bolts that bolt to the motor had a very sharp edge and that is what was plowing the plastic. I'm pretty sure this is probably what was causing the resistance to installing the main prop nut.
So, I took a file and lightly chamfered the edge, just a little to knock off the sharp edge. Thinking I was good to go I tried re-installing the prop assembly but only got about 3/4 of the way on when the prop nut started getting really tight again. I then started to back it off and got about 4 threads out when it seized going out. I can move it a couple turns on and off but will probably tear out the threads to get it all the way off.
I spoke to Wayne at MotionRC and he's going to see what he can do to get parts in more quickly. Those guys are the best!
Fortunately I have second Spitfire for my "project" that I can scavenge parts to get one going until the extra parts arrive.

This is a word of caution for those that haven't yet assembled their new Spitfires. If you get any significant resistance putting your main prop nut on stop! Don't dork up or seize your threads! Maybe put some teflon thread lube on and a lock washer before installing.

Pictures:

I had binding issues as well but discovered the cause was misalignment of the brace:

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=37867248&postcount=727

Cheers.

[Beeg]

Hey Mixdup. Yes, I remember your post about alignment. That's what I put in this post. Just couldn't remember who it was exactly.
https://www.hobbysquawk.com/forum/rc...9767#post89767

[OV10]

our club have had 2 crashes this year from the blue box, last one was yesterday, some blow torch. but I have herd a lot of things to give me pause on these fancy 'Y' connector boxes. my plane will get "y" harnesses for A, F, and Ret. the blue box will get plugged into a unused bay on the RX (or a "y" off the rudder or Throttle) just to power it for the lights.

Joe

Just heard about that one yesterday, hope that Motion can make it right.

[rifleman_btx]

Oh man, so far I've been pretty lucky with my P38... This is definitely worrisome

[2FewDaysAtFlyingField]

Now, if the shaft and nut were steel it wouldn't be a problem! ;)

10-4 on that. Steel is real! Aluminum is light but soft metals are known to gaull easily and the chinese CNC quality of these don't help. There is a reason that I only buy Tru-Turn spinners and motor shafts for all my birds where an easily acquired propeller can be used. I would love to see these birds go to a real propeller with a hub that mounts on the shaft inside a spinner where the propeller blades aren't screwed to the backplate and while we are dreaming, ditch the funky geometry rounded corner square/hex shafts etc and just go old school using knurled friction surfaces and shaft bolt torque to hold said propeller which has worked for decades. I can't think of a time where I only replaced one broken blade anyway. When I have an ugly strike I toss the spinner, and all the blades.

[Aros]

Just got back from a successful maiden. My old buddy I used to fly with was there maidening his Avanti. Happy to say both of us brought our planes home in the same condition we brought them in. :Cool:

Flew great, very scale, needed little trim. Not a speedster by any stretch but perfect for those scale, graceful flights. Beautiful profile, especially at dusk. My buddy took a few shots with his cell phone below. Now it's time to mask her up for the invasion stripes. Anyone else having trouble with the cockpit mirror staying put? I sense some epoxy in its near future. I did have a little trouble trying to get the backplate on to the hexagon shaft head but a little sandpaper and it went on fine. No issues with the threads and nut, thankfully.

My first Spitfire and it was worth the wait! Looking forward to the next flight!

[Beeg]

Congratulations Aros! Now the work begins!

[Beeg]

New Propeller Assembly Install

Alright. Broke into Spitfire #2 box and scavenged the whole motor and prop shaft. Grabbed the new spinner too.

This time, I press fitted the back plate by hand.
In my first picture, as Dewey H Lee pointed out, https://www.hobbysquawk.com/forum/rc...9758#post89758 I kept pressing the back plate on and scraping with my exacto any areas that were shaving from the shaft shoulder until it press fit by hand nicely in any rotation.
Second picture is back plate pressed on nicely but snugly by hand.
Third picture. Installing blades. As Mixdup pointed out, alignment of back plate and cross brace is important to prevent any additional binding. Mixdup just used an 8mm drill inserted in the two when installing his blades.
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...&postcount=727
What I did was, install blades and cross brace on the back plate but left the screws just short of snug so cross brace wouldn't bind. I installed back plate assembly onto the motor shaft to make sure all was aligned then snugged down the all the blade screws. Then pulled the assembly off the motor shaft and finish tightened the screws.
It's all good! Get to fly tomorrow!

PS. I forgot to mention the shaft and barrel nut on this assembly were clean with no aluminum shavings anywhere.

[Aros]

Thanks Beeg and glad you got yours ready to fly tomorrow!

[Shirty]

Awesome todd grats mate and nice pics! I was worried considering your recent run of luck mate lol. Nice stuff man and again, love the pics. Now get those stripes done, sir. ;)

great info on the props fellas, thanks for posting. Im also not a fan of the four piece design, (seen to many prop explosion vids haha), hopefully the motion/flightline/freewing people can consider changing this for future releases.

In other news.... MINES HERE! Woohoo! And wasn't supposed to arrive till next week according to the tracker. Got a little wet just then off the truck (it's still bloody raining cats n dogs here), but considering its epic trip the box is in pretty good shape. (As usual). Was wondering if I get a free motion cap or something as the world record holder for most kilometres from factory to customer? Just sayin... :)

[Pheonix]

I have had issues with two of my Spektrum receivers and these are the high end ones at that. They were 9-channel receivers at that. I am beginning to loose confidence in Horizon products. I have had trouble with some of their planes as well in regards to quality. I mostly use Futaba products now; however, I must admit that the Dx radios are much easier to program. One way around this issue is to use the radios with the Lemon receivers. They work just fine at one-third of the cost. I never lost a plane using a Futaba receiver. I think I will hold off on the big Spit as I have three already. I am waiting for the A-4 Sky Hawk for now.