Official FMS 1400mm P-51D V8 Thread

[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

[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.

[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.

[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

[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.

[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]

I can't imagine any pilot actually moaning over a new P-51. Especially a good one.

Anyway, it would be nice to have a line of 1400-1500 size warbirds done up with good power, rugged gear, and good hinges. NO GLUED IN SERVOS. Please stop doing that for heaven's sake.

I'm serious, that glued-in servo thing has turned me off from a few new birds lately. I said the A-4 would be my last jet with those things. It looks like a trend. I hate that almost as much as foam hinges. That plus no gear doors, having to remove glued-on components to even get to the gear (a4 nose gear), etc..deal breaker for me. I will go back to balsa and ply before I pay high prices for that kind of stuff again.

Rant over. That being said, I love my P-51. The USPS just advised me they found my 580kv motor and it's on it's merry way again....after two weeks.

[seaviper]

Got my 580kv motor today and installed it. Noticed that they used the wrong screws for the motor mount. Fixed that. Then noticed one of my flap servos not working right. Replaced them with some surplus 9g digitals mg servos from my jet birds. Waiting on weather to clear to test the new motor. I'm expecting more vertical and speed with the 580kv.

[Grossman56]

You'll notice a bit of difference with the 580, if and when you go to the 650kv, the motor mounts line up perfectly with the existing ones on the firewall so its a 5 minute job, even for me!!
Again, you notice a bit of a difference, not an extreme. The extreme comes when you go 6s!!
BTW, if you don't like the gap between the fuse and the spinner, change out the prop shaft with this one.

https://www.motionrc.com/products/fms-1400mm-f3a-propeller-shaft

Grossman56

[wrongroad]

G'day seaviper,
Just keep in mind that the difference between the 540 and 580 is only about seven percent so do not be too upset if you are a little bit underwhelmed by the performance.
Yes, there is a difference but it is not all that easy to pick up. I keep logs on my aircraft and I noted after the first flight after changing from a 540 to a 580 that the expected improvement in performance was not really there,
When I put the 650 into the nose of my 51's, then I still only noticed a moderate gain.
The reason is very simple.
Going from a 540 to a 580 was only about 7% increase. Going from 580 to a 650 is about the same. But going from a 450 to a 650 is a massive 20%.
This leaves us with the situation of, if I had of gone from the 540 to the 650, I may well have gone wooooooohoooooo.
As it is, the math tells me that I have a model that should be doing about 130 kph with fully charged batteries and limited drag. I factor in around 15% loss through these factors, however, I see pilots coming back with GPS numbers saying 130 kph. So my math may not be too far out.
Of course this is all on 4s batteries and I have done nothing on 5s or 6s batteries.
I am happy with what my Mustangs do [I have three] and even today I did a rolling climb [straight up] and I had to pull out as I was getting too close to the four hundred foot limit.
I do this all on a stock set up including the ESC and 4s 4000mAh batteries.
I would be very interested in your thoughts.
Regards and respect
Daryl

[seaviper]

Thanks Daryl. Yeah I've done the math. The stock motor is not bad really. I can fly the Mustang OK with it. Actually, last week, I took the Mustang vertical till she was about out of sight with the stock motor. It's not pure vertical, and it's not fast, but it is powerful.
I also flew around with some gassers and she did fine on the stock setup. If the 580 is not to my liking I may do the 650 thing.

Grossman...so If I get the 650 it will mount to the metal adapter already in the P-51? Or do I have to get another one? I do like the 650 as I have flown it in the T-28 and my first P-40 (destroyed).
I

[Grossman56]

If you have a 650 kv with the original motor mount, you're good, the holes will line up with the holes on the firewall. The 580/540kv motor mount will not line up with the motor screws. If you already have one from the P-40, just take the whole system, ESC and all, and plop it in the Mustang. I just did that last month when I converted the P-40 to 6s and put the 4s system into Big Beautiful Doll.

Grossman56

[seaviper]

Roger that! Thank you sir

[Boots Whirlygig]

Hey Grossman, I’m thinking of pulling the trigger for the P-51 and my plan is this:
i currently own these unassembled fms 1400 planes (not assembled so I won’t be tempted till I get my thumbs right).
1) P-40B
2) A6M Zero Tan
3) A6M Zero Green
Could I without much difficulty swap a Zero 580 into the P-40, the P-40 650 into the P-51, the P-51 540 into a Zero?
I would get the prop shaft for the P-51 gap, and maybe use washers for spacers for the shorter motors for the P-40 and Zero. Did you say the screws don’t line up for a 540/580 swap? So you swap the motor mounts also?
I cant decide Dallas Doll -B or Red Tail -D. :Silly:

[OV10]

Hey Grossman, I’m thinking of pulling the trigger for the P-51 and my plan is this:
i currently own these unassembled fms 1400 planes (not assembled so I won’t be tempted till I get my thumbs right).
1) P-40B
2) A6M Zero Tan
3) A6M Zero Green
Could I without much difficulty swap a Zero 580 into the P-40, the P-40 650 into the P-51, the P-51 540 into a Zero?
I would get the prop shaft for the P-51 gap, and maybe use washers for spacers for the shorter motors for the P-40 and Zero. Did you say the screws don’t line up for a 540/580 swap? So you swap the motor mounts also?
I cant decide Dallas Doll -B or Red Tail -D. :Silly:

Boots........he indicated that the hole spacing for the motor on the X-mount of the 540/580 mount is narrower than the for 650 motor screw hole spacing. X-mount mounting holes for the 540/580/650 are the same.

Let me play devils advocate here on your options. What is your comment of "till you get your thumbs right" all about. The reason I ask this is if you don't feel comfortable flying the P-40 with the 650 why would you put it in the P-51.
If I could make a recommendation......fly the P-51 on it's stock 540 until your time of "right" is reached.
The mustang will be the most docile and slowest flying of the 3 airframes. The Zeros are next in higher speed and will surprise you of how nimble.
The T-28 v3 has the same 580 and flies very briskly with AUW 2450g(P-51 2350g). The Zero weighs about 20 ounces less @ 1880g so you know it is scooting.
And lastly the P-40 is the highest of the three. Going from a 650 to 580 on the P-40 is backwards and counterproductive.
Leave every thing as they are until that "right" time arrives.
Went it does arrive and you want to kick in some ponies..........Leave the Zero's alone and place the P-40 in the Stang and put the P-47 Razor 6S 460 in the P-40. ;)

[Boots Whirlygig]

What I meant by getting my thumbs right is I need more stick time on trainers before tackling my warbirds. The 540 should fly the lighter Zero quite well, the 580 should do well in the 40, and the 51 deserves the highest power plant! I’m just trying to accomplish fixing something I feel fms got wrong with their motors to planes choices! Should be a pretty straight forward multi swap, with the addition of the different prop adapter for the 51s gap and spacers behind the motor mounts on the 40 and Zero.

[Grossman56]

Yup, like he says:Cool:
Get your feet wet with the stock Mustang, they are great flying birds right out of the box. The 540 and 580 use the same x mount, the 650 bolt pattern from x mount to motor is different. The upgrade from the 650 to the 6s system out of the Razor is simple. Plug and play, but wait 'til you've flown the pants off the 'Stangs and P-40 in 4s first.
The day will arrive my friend!
Then you 'll be doing crazy things like slapping a 650 into the Bearcat, now there's a great combination as well!!

Grossman56

[seaviper]

The stock mustang would make a great first warbird. Very easy to handle. Low wing loading. Very very stable with 30% expo and high rate. I put the 580 motor in mine and like it.

[Grossman56]

What I meant by getting my thumbs right is I need more stick time on trainers before tackling my warbirds. The 540 should fly the lighter Zero quite well, the 580 should do well in the 40, and the 51 deserves the highest power plant! I’m just trying to accomplish fixing something I feel fms got wrong with their motors to planes choices! Should be a pretty straight forward multi swap, with the addition of the different prop adapter for the 51s gap and spacers behind the motor mounts on the 40 and Zero.

Dang Boots, wish I'd have known, we could have rigged up a buddy box system at Nefi and you could have tried out BBD or Shangrila!!

Grossman56

[Boots Whirlygig]

Ha ha! I had a great time there. Tell you what, make the long trek to NEFI 2018 and I’ll take you up on that!