Official FMS 1400mm P-51D V8 Thread

[OV10]

Stop it Gman, your letting that abstract thoughts musician thing creep out again!!

[olwarbirds]

:D ....what did I miss, scary part is, I understood it all. Even the abbreviated part LMAO ... G'man stop having those long chats with Shirty ! Happy Easter Y'all ... DJ

[wrongroad]

G'day gang,
Another five flights with the Red Tail Duchess today in near perfect conditions and almost no wind.
All flights were finished with good landings and the model has now tallied up 85 flights all in stock out of the box condition and I have changed nothing on the model......hang on, I have replaced the turtle deck and boxes with balsa to eliminate the gator effect.
As for colours, everyone knows that red is faster!
Have a safe Easter.
Regards and respect
Daryl

[Grossman56]

Hi guys, Happy Easter first of all!
I headed to the field yesterday for some maidening only to find too much wind in a crosswind situation, dang!!!
Anyway, we'll see what today brings.

Usually, I'll head to Cowley for maiden flights as the field is huge (See the video of the Cowley Fly In

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OSlBGtgU44

You'll see what I mean)

But the butt heads out here apparently think its a great place to drive their 4 wheelers and chewed the pooh out of it. The guys who maintain it have thrown their hands up in defeat, so there dies another field.
Anyway, the plan now is to upgrade the field here in Cody which is great for me.

We keep hoping to get a piece of land that we could put a gate on and do it up with a shelter or clubhouse, but as it stands right now, we rent a piece of BLM land and its open for public use (Bureau of Land Management) which, to some people, means they can come out and shoot the pooh out of anything that stands there. Sad thing about it is that the Cody Gun Club is about a mile away from here and they don't go there instead.
Welcome to the Wild West!!

Grossman56

[KiwiRod]

Hi Grossman

That sucks for you. It's hard finding the perfect spot. We have 15 acres here but my strip heads towards a fence line which is ok for the C182 but not so much for the P51 so took her to the field in a nearby town this morning for a maiden. It's a good field but presently covered in light poles and rugby posts so obstacles everywhere to keep you on your toes. Aside from dropping a wing on takeoff ( this thing wants to get airborne seemingly) I managed to recover thanks to enough power and got her up in the sky. A couple of clicks down and left is all it took to get flying S &L so had a great zoom around for a few mins and even managed a pretty nice main gear landing so am pretty happy and relieved to have that out of the way. What a sweet plane to fly. It's as solid as in the air and nice and responsive. Can't wait to get a bit more practice and put her thru her paces a bit more. I'll try to get the belly cam video up later. The ground cam videographer was a bit dodgy so may be able to edit the best bits together. 😀😀😀😀

[olwarbirds]

Congrats on the Maiden, Looking fwd to your vids...

[Grossman56]

Great to hear KiwiRod, I had the same thing and had to trim the ailerons a bit, it only took once and she was good. Its a great airplane, my favorite Mustang to fly!
Here's some shots of my cockpit mod, version one. I'm in the midst of planning another more detailed cockpit.

Grossman56

[wrongroad]

G'day gang,
When I read what you blokes fly off I feel so blessed that we have over three hundred acres of fairly well cleared land at both of our home fields. Of course, the few trees that haunt the out field over three hundred metres away still eat the odd model or two.
Gman, the Mustang handles a cross wind better than the other FMS units [maybe I have more practice with the P-51's in my fleet] just keep the flaps up and you will be sweet. But do not ever go beyond your own wind limit. I do not and will not no matter how much the peanut gallery urges me to do so.
I always ask the same question...If I fly it now and it crashes will you buy me a new model?
Can you guess what the answer is??:D
But it does shut them up:rolleyes:
I did offer to sell one to a particular urger one day [when it was really blowing the dog off the chain] and then he could do with it what he wanted and his response of 'no %^$%^% way mate, they are to dear to risk!' said it all.
Rod, I note with interest that you mentioned down trim. All three of my Mustangs required just a bit of up.
Glad you had a safe maiden flight and now it will be a case of waiting on the weather for good Mustang flying days.
Regards and respect
Daryl

[KiwiRod]

Cheers Daryl. It'll be in the hangar for a week or so now, I'm in Oz this week for a few days. The winds are easing off here from now on but with daylight savings kicking in it'll be dark by 6 so no more evening flights. Both the videos are a bit average to put up on the tube so I'll wait for a better one. The guy videoing got the take off and the last part of the landing but the middle is pretty scratchy, and my keychain camera seemed to have fogged up this morning so better luck next time. I'd love to have a few hundred acres to fly off! I could put a new strip down the paddock a bit which would give me more room but the ground would need a bit of work plus it's an inconvenient distance from the house so will have to work on nailing my landings on the strip I've got.

Rod

[wrongroad]

G'day Rod,
Where will you be, just in case you might be close by and need or want to have a fly.
You are always welcome at my place for a feed and a beer and a bed.
regards and respect
Daryl

[KiwiRod]

Thanks for the offer Daryl, but I'll be in Melbourne so wrong state I think. I know everything looks close on the map over there but have been caught out by that before! I appreciate the offer though.

[Shirty]

Grafton is only just up the road mate. Shouldn't take more than about 12hrs driving. ;)

[wrongroad]

G'day Shirty,
A lot of road work around right now, duplicating the highway finally. Might make that about 16 hours:@. Really frustrating coming home from work when you hit a red lollypop for twenty minutes at a time.
And if you are really lucky you will get three of them.:rolleyes:
Makes for a long, long day.
Still waiting to get my promotion but I have been assured by the boss that I will start soon. Probably after July 1.
No wind today but no flying either.
Regards and respect
Daryl

[KiwiRod]

I don't reckon you could drive more than 10 hours in any direction in NZ without getting really really wet...

[wvrailfan]

I am getting ready to build a new P-51B. I skimmed over this thread but still have a couple of questions.

Is the 650 motor from the P-40 the new standard for upgrading the P-51? If so, I assume that you will need to upgrade the ESC for 5 and 6 cell use, can you stick with the factory ESC if using 4 cell? Is there a noticeable improvement using the 650 motor on 4 cell?

Thanks
Jim

[Sky Wolf]

I am getting ready to build a new P-51B. I skimmed over this thread but still have a couple of questions.

Is the 650 motor from the P-40 the new standard for upgrading the P-51? If so, I assume that you will need to upgrade the ESC for 5 and 6 cell use, can you stick with the factory ESC if using 4 cell? Is there a noticeable improvement using the 650 motor on 4 cell?

Thanks
Jim

Most of the others I read about have upgraded their ESC's to the 85amp and above. However, I've kept my 65amp inside and have had no problems so far. I have about 10 flights on it with the original esc. I've checked the esc about 4-5 times to see if it gets hot or is smelly, and nothing so far.

I have the V1 FMS Redtail, so I don't know if the newer versions have a different esc than the 65amp that mine came with. But wow, what an amazing difference in power and sound. I don't know if it's because of the air in my area, or what. But I get unlimited vertical with this new motor. It's an amazing thing to see my Redtail going straight up and almost out of sight!

I definitely didn't have that before this motor.

But, don't necessarily bank on my experience with the esc. Use caution, of course.

[wvrailfan]

Sky Wolf, thanks for the info, what battery are you using?

[Grossman56]

I put a 650 KV in my Freewing Mustang with an 85A ESC. Shirty ran the numbers for me and said they're great. Stock, the sound version comes with a 580kv with a 65A ESC, so I put that combination in the P51B. My Big Beautiful Doll has a 580kv with an 85A ESC and she hauls! I thought that the Freewing w sound was a little underpowered because of the extra weight, so I went the 650kv.
A P51 (FMS Or non sound Freewing) should perform similarly to the FMS P40B I would think.
I'll let you know!

Grossman56

[tdevince]

I upgraded to the 650kV and a CC 100 amp ESC. After downloading flight data, I only see amps above 70 for a very brief period at take off. Once in the air at WOT, it never got above 70 amps.

[Grossman56]

Thanks, good to know.


Grossman56