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I finally managed to maiden my Eflite P-51 today and do a second flight even. The maiden showed me that the plane needed a LOT of UP elevator in the trim. No wonder the tail came up so quickly on the first attempt that broke the blades grinding them into the ground on the take off roll. Anyway, being very careful to keep the tail on the ground till it got some speed going, it lifted off OK but kept wanting to dive. Finally got it trimmed and it flew quite well. It has great presence in the air with its stripes and multi-blotched paint scheme. The second was picture perfect, take off was straight and true with no veering off to the left or torquing to the left as many have witnessed. The key is to run up the speed gradually, keeping the tail on the ground a bit longer than one normally would. This same approach works for both my Corsairs, too.
Comparing this Eflite to my old FMS 1450mm BBD with the FMS P-47 motor, bigger ESC and 6s power, the Eflite flies HEAVY at about 1 kilo more weight. It's very sluggish in the air but with that massive, high pitch propeller, it pulls like a freight train. Nevertheless, the 6s powered BBD is faster and more nimble. Landing the BBD is smoother for me but I think I can do just as well once I replace the stock hard tires with Robart low bounce ones like what I have on the BBD even though the second landing was quite smooth (with no bounce).
The BBD you see in my picture is my old one that I gave to my flying buddy, who brought it out today but didn't feel confident enough to fly it. If I had to do it all over again, I would get the the bigger FMS 1700 P-51 Redtail. These foamie warbirds need the bigger size to do them justice and if the higher kv motor of the Eflite or Jug can take spinning the giant 1700 prop, I'd give that a try. But for now, I'll just content myself with flying the Eflite for a while.
Comparing this Eflite to my old FMS 1450mm BBD with the FMS P-47 motor, bigger ESC and 6s power, the Eflite flies HEAVY at about 1 kilo more weight. It's very sluggish in the air but with that massive, high pitch propeller, it pulls like a freight train. Nevertheless, the 6s powered BBD is faster and more nimble. Landing the BBD is smoother for me but I think I can do just as well once I replace the stock hard tires with Robart low bounce ones like what I have on the BBD even though the second landing was quite smooth (with no bounce).
The BBD you see in my picture is my old one that I gave to my flying buddy, who brought it out today but didn't feel confident enough to fly it. If I had to do it all over again, I would get the the bigger FMS 1700 P-51 Redtail. These foamie warbirds need the bigger size to do them justice and if the higher kv motor of the Eflite or Jug can take spinning the giant 1700 prop, I'd give that a try. But for now, I'll just content myself with flying the Eflite for a while.
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