Official FlightLine RC 1600mm Spitfire Mk. IX Thread

[downwindleg]

Here's a vid of my maiden of the Spitfire this last Saturday. Had to make the landing without flaps due to a way wrong mix with elevator. Started with 5% down and it looks like it's going to be 15% up before it's over. I can't post the link from my work computer but if you go to BP's Spitfire on youtube, it will come up. Maybe someone else can post the link after watching it. My friend Carlos did the video on his cell phone and added the music, Brad

[dkalwishky]

Here is the link.

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

[dkalwishky]

Those who know me know that I love Corsairs; they are my favorite prop warbird with the P-51 a close second. Many don't know of my love for Spitfires, there is something about that elliptical wing that I find sexy. When FlightLine RC and Motion RC announced the 1600mm Spitfire I preordered within an hour of the announcement.

The build was super easy for this ARF although the wiring from the wing to the receiver in the fuselage is a bit of a mess but nothing unmanageable, I'll need to do some thinking on how to clean it up and make it easier to remove the wing for transport. It’s not too bad now but I think it could be better.

I knew when I ordered the plane that I wanted to do something different with it, almost every spitfire you see has the British Roundels on in which make sense since it was a British fighter but I wanted something to set my plane apart from the others. I looked at what Callie Graphics had for the Spitfire and found one with U.S. markings which is what I wanted. I started with the base graphics of Maj. Garth Jared's Eleanor; he commanded the 309^th Fighter Squadron from November 9^th, 1943 until his death in action on April 18^th, 1944.

I asked Callie for some changes and she was happy to oblige. I changed Eleanor to Terri in honor of my wife for supporting my aviation addiction and putting up with all the planes I have. I changed Maj. Garth Jared's name to my name, I thought about giving myself a promotion to Colonel but the research I did seemed to indicate that very few above Major were flying combat missions, I did find a couple of Lt. Colonels though. I changed his two Nazi kills to three because that’s my favorite number and finally the lettering on the side of the plane. The WZ was the squadron identifier, Major Garth's plane was WZ GJ (his initials) so I changed the GJ to DK (my initials). My decals arrived within a few days and looked great; Callie puts out a quality product, if you interested her website is www.callie-graphics.com

On maiden day when I left home there was really no wind, when I got to the field there was a 90 degree crosswind. Anyone who's flown a Spitfire knows they can be a handful in a crosswind with the narrow gear. I waited quite a few hours for the wind to be acceptable for my maiden.

I’m running an Admiral 6 cell, 5000mAh, 50C battery pushed all the way forward, I didn't check where the CG was, this is the battery and position that one of the test pilots from Motion was using and he liked how it flew.

Takeoffs are pretty straight forward, advance the throttle slow and steady and use right rudder to counteract the torque, a little up elevator and your flying. I didn't notice any bad habits on the three take offs that I had. It’s worth a little extra time to get the tail wheel straight when setting up the plane so it’ll track straight when taking off and landing.

The plane looks beautiful in the air and is a joy to fly. Most of the flights were done at 1/2 throttle which gave it scale looking speeds. Low presentation passes were done at 1/2 and full throttle. The plane tracks nice and straight in big loops and rolls are really nice.

I did my landings without flaps and they were a nonevent, on final I was at ¼ throttle, over the runway threshold I cut the power and she settled right in. I’ll need to experiment with the landing technique but I suspect with flaps or wind you’re going to need to carry a little power in to keep things stable. Once the mains were on the runway the small crosswind caused the left wind to rise thus scraping the right wing on the runway. I think some kind of protection is in order, perhaps some kind of clear tape on the wing tip bottoms to help minimize the scuffing.

On the third landing I bounced a bit so I powered up and went around for another try, being low and slow and hitting the power means lots of right rudder. About 20' above the corn on downwind I felt my next strap's buckle had become twisted at the transmitter. I don’t know why I cared but I jerked my hand to free it and in the process pushed full down elevator and into the corn I went. That was completely my fault and a lessoned learned.

Based on my three flights I'd say this is an honest flying plane, I kept the plane on low rates as called out in the manual with 30% expo and that turned out to be perfect for me and my style of flying.

I'd like to give a big thank you to Connor and Duane's son Griffen for going in the corn with me to find and retrieve the plane. The damage isn't really as bad as I had expected, a little Foam-Tac and she'll be back in the air keeping the skies same from the enemy.

Motion RC and FlightLine RC have another winner with this plane; the quality of the foam and paint is excellent. I’m looking forward to many more flights this summer.

[Aros]

Nice job on the maiden Brad and glad the damage wasn't too bad dkalwishky, good write up as well. She's a nice flyer for sure.

Ordered a new right gear and housing today.

[Oxotnik]

Sad to read the pilots lose their landing gears. Because the wings are 2 halves, the manufacturer can put a piece of plastic (square eg. 3 inch.) between the 2 halves and with 2 or 3 screws attach the
outside plate of the gear. to the inner plate. I have done did before with the same kind of wing and gears. It will hold the landings.
Because the wings are now glued-in (the 2 halves), i don't want to pull them from each other to do this procedure. I'm intending to inject with a needle ultra thin foam safe CA under the plate.
Hoping this will give some strenght.

As I've already said, be sure to remove your retracts from the gear well before squirting some CA down there. If the CA gets on, or inside, the motor/trunion unit, you could have problems.

[franky]

As I've already said, be sure to remove your retracts from the gear well before squirting some CA down there. If the CA gets on, or inside, the motor/trunion unit, you could have problems.

Thank you for advice, i will do it secure to prevent other problems with the motor/trunion unit.

[downwindleg]

I used a single edge razor blade and just slide in under the edge of the decal to get it high enough to peel. There is definatly no bending the edge to get it up. My first attempt just bending or trying to catch it with a fingernail resulted in the paper pull. Thank god i caught it on the othe end and got it peeled with the blade. After that useing the razor blade it was quite easy. Hope this helps. I just hated putting on the yellow stipe on the edge of the wing:Silly:. Made my eyes go crossedLOL.

Thanks Dewey and Aros on the decals...........had the same frustration.....even tried soaking one of them thinking maybe they were water transfers:Thinking:Brad

[Aros]

As I've already said, be sure to remove your retracts from the gear well before squirting some CA down there. If the CA gets on, or inside, the motor/trunion unit, you could have problems.

Yes don't be a dumb dumb like me. LOL :Silly: :Loser:

[Beeg]

But man are we having fun! I can't believe I totally messed up my first propeller assembly install but what the heck, I'm enjoying myself!

[TiredIronGRB]

You might want to shim out the strut covers on the bottom two screws, one of my covers broke on takeoff this evening and it looks like they were rubbing on the lower strut scissors.

[2FewDaysAtFlyingField]

Even tried soaking one of them thinking maybe they were water transfers:Thinking:Brad

In the future it might be a simple add if the decals had a little note that said, "Dry Transfer, Wet Transfer Decal, Vinyl Peel and Stick" or something similar. We always reserve the right to be smarter and better tomorrow than we are today. I'm sure our friends at MotionRC are on it and will improve these aspects. Personally I am addicted to Callie....

[downwindleg]

In the future it might be a simple add if the decals had a little note that said, "Dry Transfer, Wet Transfer Decal, Vinyl Peel and Stick" or something similar. We always reserve the right to be smarter and better tomorrow than we are today. I'm sure our friends at MotionRC are on it and will improve these aspects. Personally I am addicted to Callie....

Plus one on that. Here's another little thing I figured out on the decals, of coarse after I had half the upper ones on. Steal one of your wife's or significant other's emery boards and use it to sand flush those dumb steam vent stars where and only where the decal is going. This way it wont look like a pup tent underneath the decal....very annoying. That's my contribution for the night, Brad

[downwindleg]

O.K. I lied here's another one. In stead of using those big fat black decals that run along the panel lines on the top of the wings. I used a Vis-a-Vis fine point black marker and made two passes "down the ditches" of the panel lines as indicated. Looks much more realistic. Also noticed the roundels for the fuselage have a shiny clear over coat on them that the others don't have. I was bummed at first because I didn't cut it very evenly but then realized it peals off.:Ligthbulb: I'm sure most people already figured these things out but this is for the other dunder heads like me, Brad

[franky]

On my new Spektrum DX8 G2 TX there is a fail safe option. Its my first time with this mode, what are the best settings for this? I don't have experience with fail safe and what to use this with my Spit.

[franky]

On my new Spektrum DX8 G2 TX there is a fail safe option. Its my first time with this mode, what are the best settings for this? I don't have experience with fail safe and whant to use this with my Spit.

[franky]

Sorry 3 times the same reply

[Flyer Phill]

Did some research on prop details...

[xviper]

On my new Spektrum DX8 G2 TX there is a fail safe option. Its my first time with this mode, what are the best settings for this? I don't have experience with fail safe and whant to use this with my Spit.

I hope that you are clear about this "failsafe" feature. It is not a function of the TX but rather, a function of the RX. If you don't have a RX with failsafe function, you will not have failsafe. With a failsafe RX, "last programmed functions" of the sticks can be done with virtually any transmitter. Check to see if your RX has failsafe. Otherwise, it's all for not.
As for what you want the plane to do when signal is lost, that depends on where you fly. Does your flying site have endless uninhabited terrain? Or do you fly very close to buildings and cars and people? In the one instant of clear territory, you might want to choose to bring the plane down slowly to minimize damage - perhaps a slight spiraling downward pattern with little to no throttle. If you fear the plane hitting someone or something, you might want it to come down more quickly so that it doesn't travel too far - perhaps a severe spiral to the ground and no power to minimize damage to people and things. A 1600mm Spitfire is NOT a tiny, light plane. It will make a good dent when it hits no matter what kind of failsafe flight you choose. Either way there is no guarantee that the plane will come down without damaging or hurting "things". If you are really worried about stuff like this, perhaps other kinds of failsafe might be in order ................................
https://www.amainhobbies.com/scorpio...sc-bug/p239994
and/or ............................................
https://hobbyking.com/en_us/arkbird-...w-version.html
One will provide emergency power to your RX if your BEC loses power. The other can bring your plane home if you lose radio signal.
Even with these, Murphy can always rear his ugly head.

[paladin]

On removing the retract plates:
The first year I had the FMS FW190 I had occasion to leave it in the van while attending a party on a very hot day. during the party someone wanted to go see it so we hoofed it out the van. As we approached it I could not see the plane, I had left it on its wheels so it should be visible. Once we reached the car the cause was obvious the struts were splayed out in front of the LE as the plane had settled onto its wing. I picked it out of the car and the gear dangled by the servo wire and I tried to put them back in their socket. Then it dawned on me that snot glue had given up because it got hot, if I put them back in and the car cools they r in permanent till they decide to come out. so I left them there and epoxied them in and never had a problem again.

I did not clean up the snot glue because any thing I use to remove it would most likely cause problems with bonding, more problems than leaving the snot glue there. So I plugged all the holes in the LG plate and filled the hole with epoxy and pushed the plate in, 30 min epoxy squished from all the ends of the LG plate and I cleaned it up with alcohol, then used backs of lead shot to weight down the trays till they were dry. This never gave me a problem, and I land on some pretty long grass at times.

We also had 2 FMS ME109’s so we tried the same method for removing the gear and it worked for 3 of the 4 gear (probably would have worked on the fourth if I gave it more time, but seeing three had slid out I grabbed the fourth and applied c constant pressure to remove it from the wing and it plucked right out, I just had to be patient.

On the prop nut:
I have been a ME for 40+ years and the first thing I learned was when two surfaces mate (like in a screw or gears) they can’t be the same hardness or you get what we have seen here. one of my pet peev’s is buying a metal geared servo and all of the gears are brass, they should be brass, aluminum, brass, etc. the reason is if one side is softer it will take the damage from debris while the other stands fast. Its not uncommon to see 30year old gears alum on brass with dirt imbedded into the aluminum completely and the drive still works. Make them out of both aluminum they gall and bind, make them both out of brass and they fracture from the same dirt.

Several years back turnagy made the ama nuts they sent with the motor out of aluminum but they chrome plated it and that provided the delta in hardness to make it work.

In this case I went through the litany above in the hopes that FL FW will take note and change the way they are doing this.

For modelers that already have this plane I use a Remington dry gun lube (Teflon based) sprayed into the nut prior to installation. I also have Teflon lube for the locks on the car which is probably the same stuff but with a carrier that evaporates slower to allow it to run into tight places. Either would have worked.

Joe

[downwindleg]

Did some research on prop details...

Hey Flyer Phil, did those prop decals come with the plane ? I haven't seen them yet. Or did you print them up yourself? Brad