Official FMS 1400mm P-51D V8 Thread

[Grossman56]

I agree, these models are getting dated. I converted both of mine to ball link connectors and a 650 kv motor/85A ESC. It all adds up, plus I ended up with 2x540 kvs sitting in a drawer as well as the stock ESC's.
I don't think Freewing did anything significant with their Mustang either, just did the Old Crow paint scheme and upgraded the Motor and ESC. Originally it had an upgraded sound system as well, but I see that Motion isn't offering that version any more.
I know that a number of guys moan when you mention a new P-51 and in a lot of ways they're right. But, lets face it, it was probably the first thing a majority of us dreamed of having when we first got into this hobby. Maybe the definitive P-51 would be something....

Just saying..........

Grossman56

[seaviper]

It would be nice to see FMS give the P-51 the same treatment as the P-40 such as ball links, nylon hinges, 650kv motor, etc.

[wrongroad]

G'day Shirty,
I think of the the top ten most deadly snakes in the world, Australia is home to eight of them and most of them live in areas that we do.
You are familiar with the 'traveler brown' otherwise know as the Taipan. The Eastern brown and the Tiger. Just to name three that you and I would come in contact with from time to time.
We had an eight foot Brown go across our strip one day and it proved fatal.....for the snake. No, we did not kill it but the ever watchful Wedge Tail Eagle did.
The wedgie came from a long way away to get the careless brown and the hit was hard and fast.
We now, keep a good eye out for any others and we did see one go under the container a couple of years ago but no sign of it since. We make sure that we keep the rodent population down.
We also see plenty of red belly black snakes but they usually just go on their way.
It is quite funny to watch them make haste across the runway with the short grass. A nice shimmery black or brown snake tends to stand out on the nice, green and very short grass. An easy target for any watching Eagle. And the Eagles do watch and the odd rabbit also goes to rabbit heaven when they are stupid enough to come out in day light and onto the runway.

It has been too hot to worry about flying here. Sydney has been bleating about how hot they have been at 47* C but we had a week of 50 + last year and never rated even one line.
Forecast is good for the weekend though some some serious gravity defying missions look on.
There was a 'new' P51 at the air show at Evans Head last weekend and the grey T-28 and a fast Yak 3.
Johnathan liked the Yak the most and was shouting out 'WOW' every time the machine made a low pass. I must say, it was very impressive and fast.
He also recognised the P51 and kept on saying 'daddy's plane'. When the owner asked why he was saying that, it was another hour before we stopped talking about models V's full size. Johnathan knows how to break the ice!
The display by the Mustang was a good one with a couple of low passes, half Cubans, rolls, loops and a dirty pass to tell us it was all over. Simple but nice to watch.
I reckon I can match what he did!! [lol]
Johnathan crashed out before we had the chance to go into the F-111 and the Caribou and, of course, he went to sleep at the far end of the field and it was a long walk back to the car!
Hope you are getting good fine weather.

Regards and respect
Daryl

[Shirty]

At least the all the animals around us at the field aren’t deadly! Seems like every nature TV show I watch concerning The Aussies is about another type of animal that wants to kill you. From foot wide spiders to salt water crocs to great white sharks to killer jelly fish? I’d much rather be higher up the food chain in America

Lol :) One of our club members got bitten by a tiger snake just the other day, luckily there was plenty of people around and he got to hospital quickly and got anti-venom. He's all good, just two nice puncture marks on his leg to show for it, but yeah you gotta be careful in some places.

[condor]

At our field, it's not the height of grass that's an issue. It's the fire ant mounds, armadillo digs, etc. I am convinced an ant mound broke my P-51 gear. Flew with it that way all day and didn't notice till I got home. But I remember hitting something on landing. I heard it but didn't see anything. This theory was further strengthened when I found the broken gear had a bent connecting pin. I'm going to start walking the runway to knock down those things before I fly in the winter.

I quit counting flights on my birds. Too hard to be accurate in the fog of battle. I do keep track of total time on airframe (TTOA) with a persistent timer for each aircraft model on the radio.

Anyway, still waiting on my 580kv motor that ordered back on Dec 27. Flew with the stock motor in some pretty good wind the other day. Didn't like that much.

Sounds like a challenging strip. Our old commercial push mower takes care of any bull ant mounds and doubles as a grader. Bent connecting pins are not uncommon on our strip either - thankfully Motion RC keep me supplied with replacements.

[condor]

G'day condor,
I think you blokes have a great set up for what you have to work with.
I am just having a chuckle when you say your group is three strong. So you get 100% of your club to working bee's. I bet many other clubs would like that kind of roll up:).
I am in a club of around fifty and if we get three to a working bee, we think we are going great!
I am one of three who mow the runway and pit area. And the same three tend to take care of most of the dramas. To be fair to one more, he used to mow and do a lot but the dreaded Parkinson's is taking its toll there. This gentleman did not get a life membership to the club because he sat on his backside while everyone else did something. He still serves as our treasurer and is a good all round person. I actually took over the mowing job from him to help ease the work load and the others now help me out in summer when I am doing a twelve hour shift.
You know [and this is for everyone] we would not have that much to talk about in these forums if we did not have people willing to get out and mow the grass, shovel the snow, chase the cattle and clear away the OLM's. [Never heard of OLM"S?????- - - - - Organic land mines. Run over one with a model and see what damage even a fresh will do!!!]. Ask me how I know and the aroma in the car all the way home is interesting as well.
I had a letter published in the state newsletter where I made comment about the 'someone' in our clubs. The someone who cooks the BBQ, the someone who cleans the toilet, mows the grass, writes newsletters, cleans up the rubbish, so on and so on.
I recommended 'someone' for life membership to all clubs. In condors case it is easy, three life members!
Of course there are those who never show their faces at a working bee but have plenty to say at a general meeting but never allow themselves to be voted onto the committee. Funny that.
I think condor and the other two have done a sterling job and it you know their location, I can pretty much say that they would rarely have a calm day into which to fly. But look at the view.
Condor, it that looking out to Bass Straight or towards the South Pole?
Either way that is a fantastic shot.
Regards and respect
Daryl
PS...29* C today, no cloud, no wind, low humidity and I was not able to go flying:Angry:
But I did spend all day with my little boy and tomorrow we are off to his first airshow!
I love it.:):Cool:

'Mornin' Daryl.
The shot is taken near Devonport, looking to the north over Bass Strait. Fortunately, no OLMs. Fast growing thick weeds are the only headache. Being the only chap without some form of medical problem, I'm the strip maintenance guy. But then, I do most of the flying, so I can't complain. The 1400mm 'Stang that I fly is a V2 Marie, heavily worked to take the V8 undercarriage (bigger wheels) and the 650kv motor. It's a great bird for our set up Clipped the top wire of the fence during landing couple of days back (idle power) and nose dived in. Only damage was a thrown prop blade.
29C is a tad hot for me. I moved down here from Port Stephens to escape the heat and now today is expected to be 29C!! Our summer max, in this part of Tassy, is around 24C - perfect for flying, if you don't mind 25 - 35kph winds, rarely straight down the strip!
Have a great day
Condor

[Patrnflyr]

At least the all the animals around us at the field aren’t deadly! Seems like every nature TV show I watch concerning The Aussies is about another type of animal that wants to kill you. From foot wide spiders to salt water crocs to great white sharks to killer jelly fish? I’d much rather be higher up the food chain in America

[seaviper]

At our field, it's not the height of grass that's an issue. It's the fire ant mounds, armadillo digs, etc. I am convinced an ant mound broke my P-51 gear. Flew with it that way all day and didn't notice till I got home. But I remember hitting something on landing. I heard it but didn't see anything. This theory was further strengthened when I found the broken gear had a bent connecting pin. I'm going to start walking the runway to knock down those things before I fly in the winter.

I quit counting flights on my birds. Too hard to be accurate in the fog of battle. I do keep track of total time on airframe (TTOA) with a persistent timer for each aircraft model on the radio.

Anyway, still waiting on my 580kv motor that ordered back on Dec 27. Flew with the stock motor in some pretty good wind the other day. Didn't like that much.

[wrongroad]

G'day condor,
I think you blokes have a great set up for what you have to work with.
I am just having a chuckle when you say your group is three strong. So you get 100% of your club to working bee's. I bet many other clubs would like that kind of roll up:).
I am in a club of around fifty and if we get three to a working bee, we think we are going great!
I am one of three who mow the runway and pit area. And the same three tend to take care of most of the dramas. To be fair to one more, he used to mow and do a lot but the dreaded Parkinson's is taking its toll there. This gentleman did not get a life membership to the club because he sat on his backside while everyone else did something. He still serves as our treasurer and is a good all round person. I actually took over the mowing job from him to help ease the work load and the others now help me out in summer when I am doing a twelve hour shift.
You know [and this is for everyone] we would not have that much to talk about in these forums if we did not have people willing to get out and mow the grass, shovel the snow, chase the cattle and clear away the OLM's. [Never heard of OLM"S?????- - - - - Organic land mines. Run over one with a model and see what damage even a fresh will do!!!]. Ask me how I know and the aroma in the car all the way home is interesting as well.
I had a letter published in the state newsletter where I made comment about the 'someone' in our clubs. The someone who cooks the BBQ, the someone who cleans the toilet, mows the grass, writes newsletters, cleans up the rubbish, so on and so on.
I recommended 'someone' for life membership to all clubs. In condors case it is easy, three life members!
Of course there are those who never show their faces at a working bee but have plenty to say at a general meeting but never allow themselves to be voted onto the committee. Funny that.
I think condor and the other two have done a sterling job and it you know their location, I can pretty much say that they would rarely have a calm day into which to fly. But look at the view.
Condor, it that looking out to Bass Straight or towards the South Pole?
Either way that is a fantastic shot.
Regards and respect
Daryl
PS...29* C today, no cloud, no wind, low humidity and I was not able to go flying:Angry:
But I did spend all day with my little boy and tomorrow we are off to his first airshow!
I love it.:):Cool:

[rifleman_btx]

Looks great!

[condor]

We have put a lot of work into our runway and when people ask what it looked like before we started, I simply point to the cattle paddock surrounding the strip just two metres off the edge. An out landing is not a good option for us but it does make us good at deadstick landings and getting the best out of a glide. I would say that ninety percent of our deadsticks make it back to the runway.
It measures up at 150 metres long and 18 metres wide and is as hard as a cricket pitch. For my overseas mates, that is really hard, almost like concrete.
The best part about our strip is nothing to hit for three hundred metres in three directions and if you hit the trees to the south, that will be your own fault as they are six hundred metres away.
Our nearest house is three kilometres away, there are no power lines or anything else to run into.
It is a perfect place to fly the FMS Mustangs and all other planes and as our weather is usually very benign, we get to use the field a lot right through out the year. In the four years that we have been there, I think we have lost ten days of scheduled flying due to the weather and a couple of those days being because the road was cut because of flooding.
Regards and respect
Daryl

Howdy, Daryl. I can only dream about a strip like yours! There are only 3 of us in our group, and we use the bottom section of a paddock, owned by one of our group. Took a bit of work levelling (?) it, but it's OK for us. It's 95meters long and 13meters wide. Fences across both ends and high voltage lines across the predominant approach end smarten us up, particularly when aerobatting over the strip. Had to but an arrestor barrier across the western end to capture my 1700 P-51 and 90mm F-18 Hornet when wind is zero (about 1% of the time) if I land a little long. It's fine for the 1400mm and below birds. Hand mowing it, every 5 days this time of the year, is a pain in the neck. We've all hung birds up in the power lines and engaged the fence on the odd occasion - great strip for the Mavic and other quads! Pic of the strip below. Fields around us are full of waist high poppies at this time, which makes finding a downed bird difficult..
Cheers

[wrongroad]

G'day condor,
I read somewhere that the average model airplane lasts an average of thirty flights.So, you are right on the money.:Cool:
The dreaded six second flight has also visited me along the way. You know the one, rotate, go up, stall, go down, crunch! We have all been there I think.
We have put a lot of work into our runway and when people ask what it looked like before we started, I simply point to the cattle paddock surrounding the strip just two metres off the edge. An out landing is not a good option for us but it does make us good at deadstick landings and getting the best out of a glide. I would say that ninety percent of our deadsticks make it back to the runway.
It measures up at 150 metres long and 18 metres wide and is as hard as a cricket pitch. For my overseas mates, that is really hard, almost like concrete.
The best part about our strip is nothing to hit for three hundred metres in three directions and if you hit the trees to the south, that will be your own fault as they are six hundred metres away.
Our nearest house is three kilometres away, there are no power lines or anything else to run into.
It is a perfect place to fly the FMS Mustangs and all other planes and as our weather is usually very benign, we get to use the field a lot right through out the year. In the four years that we have been there, I think we have lost ten days of scheduled flying due to the weather and a couple of those days being because the road was cut because of flooding.
If you want to have a look....
www.graftonmac.com
will get you there.
Regards and respect
Daryl

PS, Shirty, when we are driving on the Gold Coast, Dolly often points the bikini's out to me...Of course I am always too busy driving to take any notice;):)

[condor]

On New Years Eve, I finally got to put flight two hundred on my Shangri La and adding that to the other two machines [Duchess Arlene and BBD] having well over the hundred and fifty mark each, it is not too bad of going I think. Plus fifty each on my other fourteen models in the hanger. Plus family commitments and work and ....
It should be also noted that the only repairs on this machine have been swap outs. The side frames for the landing gear were swapped out at flight number fifty for the metal units and the 540kv motor was swapped out for a 580 and latter for a 650. Other then that, I have not replaced any item due to crash damage or failure......oh, hang on, I did replace the bearings in the 580 motor after five flights, and I kicked the outer gear door once and broke it, but that was my stupid fault for not looking where I was going.
I also had some bronze phosphorus bearings made for the wheel axles to prevent the e clip from cutting into to the wheels. I did this for all my models.
I then coated them with teflon and now I have trouble stopping the models on the runway. But the take off run meets very little resistance from friction.

All in all, I have a ball with this hobby and I have made some life long friends from it. And this bunch of model flying lunatics has to be one of the best groups of people going around.
So with that, I wish you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR and a safe, worry free 2018.

Regards and respect
Daryl R Woolfe

[/QUOTE]

I also fly off a dirt/close cut grass mixture strip, but the only levelling is with a push mower! Gear on our birds lasts a few months then needs replacing due to frequent straightening of oloe legs to enable gear to fit in wheel wells. Wish I could fly as good as you! My birds crash about once every 30 or so flights, mainly because they fly level only for a few seconds at a time. I seem addicted to throwing them around at too low a level! Getting good at repairs, though. 650 motor is as great motor. Happy new year.

[OV10]

You better be blind or I'm telling dolly. My silence can be bought though lmao ;):)

LOL

[Shirty]

You better be blind or I'm telling dolly. My silence can be bought though lmao ;):)

[wrongroad]

G'day Shirty,
We just have had a huge thunderstorm just now and it has cooled the place down to 30*C.
I have flown in a low temp of -5*C and after bringing the aircraft straight out of the warm car and flying almost straight away, I actually came back with ice all over the canopy. That day did warm up to a nice 22*c.

G'day Grossman, Lon and boomer, nup, I just can not get my head around those temps. At a midday temp of 18*C here, we are all walking around like we are going to the South Pole. Heavy ski type jackets and gloves..........below zero in either C or F is no place for my mother's little boy.

This is one of the many good things about living in Australia, we can and do fly all year long. No winter break for us! Jealous yet boys????;):)
And where I live, bikini's on the beach year round!:Cool:[married not blind]

Lets see, I have a week off and, well, I might go flying tomorrow!! 30*C is the forecast!
Just rubbing it in.!!!LOL
Regards and respect
Daryl
Have a great day and stay warm and safe.

[Shirty]

Grats on the big 200 Daryl. Buggered if I know how these blokes fly in snow weather, anything under 16 Celsius is too cold for me, 16F not a chance lol.

[boomer108]

G'day WrongRoad and Happy New Year!

I wouldn't mind some of your Aussie weather right now it's currently 1degree Fahrenheit with a -11 wind chill here. No flying for awhile. Good flying!

Roy B.

[Lon]

Expected high today at the field is -1 Fahrenheit.

[Grossman56]

One extreme to the other Daryl!
our high is supposed to be 17 F today which is 15 degrees below freezing, for a HIGH. Right now it's supposed to be a balmy 6 degrees! So, staying indoors today:Silly:
Got the 650 kv in BBD yesterday so all my Mustangs are running 650's now. The old motor mount is going toward a Tigercat upgrade.

Grossman56