Official FMS 1400mm P-51D V8 Thread

[Dewey H Lee]

Thanks Shirty i appreciate it. The only real fault i find is just to many parts on the spinner
The more there the more to balance and to break. Thanks again.

[Shirty]

No worries mate. More than welcome. :Cool:

Ive punished these fms 1400 size birds for years now, and I've found a little preventative maintenance and preflights, goes a long way. Apart from the zero, all these have had a failure of some sort in their lifetime. Luckily I've never crashed one, though I have come close on a few occasions lol. The airleron ripping out of the wing in flight on my D was prob the hairiest. But I'm pretty sure that was my fault, and not the planes. Plus I push these pretty hard compared to most people I know who have one.

[gack]

I don't get the "V8" part...what does this designate?

[Shirty]

Version 8.

[gack]

Oh, ok...I was thinking V8 as in an engine...that makes sense now...

[Shirty]

Ok... extremely frustrated ATM. Started building my new mustang today,

The glass rod that connects the wings simply will not fit. One side only goes in about a quarter of its length, and now it won't budge and is stuck. (The other wing slides in about half the distance, and stops. I can't see anything blocking the hole). I got the rod back out of this wing, but the one that's only a quarter in I can't move, its stuck solid. (Won't even rotate or anything). I've already used waaaaay more force than I'd like trying to get it to come back out, that the plastic tube it goes into has cracked. Any more I'm scared I'll break the wing, the tube or the rod.

Any suggestions???

Motion staff - what's the go? Do I need to make a warranty claim somehow with you guys, do you want to send me two new wings and the glass wing tube? Or is there some way I can get the rod out and maybe sand it to make it fit? Would this compromise the strength of it?

And this is why I hate the build part of this hobby. Usually it's not a big deal when things go together as they should, but when things don't fit due to manufacturing defects and I waste half a day on it, it gets me extremely frustrated.

[OV10]

OK Shirty,
You've been doing this long enough to know they slide in freely without jamming them. ;)
So here is what I've done when being a little aggressive.
Spray some silicone on the inner CF tube and let drizzle down into the outer one.
Your gonna have to be more patient doing this than you were brute-n it in. LOL

[Shirty]

Pics.... you can see I've crushed the foam trying to get it out. Close up shows the crack on the plastic tube, (5 o'clock position, you can just see the line, my camera wontbfocuscany closer), and the other pics shows how far it went in before becoming jammed. (Not even a quarter of its length)

.

[Shirty]

OK Shirty,
You've been doing this long enough to know they slide in freely without jamming them. ;)
So here is what I've done when being a little aggressive.
Spray some silicone on the inner CF tube and let drizzle down into the outer one.
Your gonna have to be more patient doing this than you were brute-n it in. LOL

Yeah, was gonna say I've got two of these mustangs already, the tubes just slid in easy. Same with my mates redtail. I'll try some silicon spray now. Cheers mate.

I'll update shortly, but if it won't budge, what's the go motion please?

[OV10]

From the pics it looks like the tube is not that far in and so the silicone should get it done.
I also used a pair of lineman pliers that has curved notch near the hinge to get a secure grasp on the tube so as to twist as you pull.
When ya get it out then sand the tube with some 400 grit paper. It really doesn't take a whole lot for it to fit freely and it won't affect the structural integrity.

[Shirty]

Ok, cheers mate. Much appreciate it, should have thought of using silicon spray myself. Guess I don't think too clearly when I'm angry lol. Maybe I need a snickers...

I managed to get the tube out (after 15 minutes of pouring silicon spray in and a lot of brute force), I'll sand it later after I clean myself up and see if I need to go to the hospital. (It came out with so much force the other end stabbed me in the corner of my eye - another centimetre and think I would have lost the eye it came out so hard). Got a decent deep cut and already look like I've got a black eye.
Next question - what's the best way to get blood off the foam? Lol, I'm an idiot.... :Loser:

[Shirty]

Righto I'm all good. Once it stopped bleeding and I got the blood out of the way it's a tiny cut, and the bottom of my eye looks like a blood blister you get when you slam a finger in a door. Nice one shirty....

shows you how hard the rod was stuck though... swear I'm becoming a klutz as I approach 50. Might need to go and buy some safety glasses and a helmet to wear 24/7 soon - the way I've been tripping and falling over **** lately. I'm a danger to myself lol. Might need plastic cutlery too.... hmmm.

Looks like the rod is gonna need a LOT of sanding, dunno what's happened with this one but there's no way it was ever gonna fit. Wonder if the plastic tube in the wings has warped a little or something... well, I've had enough fun building today, time to go have dinner and I'll let you guys know how it goes. Cheers again mate.

(Gotta say I don't enjoy it when stuff doesn't go together as it should, specially building rc models whether a kit or pnp. Now you know why my mates call me shirty, I'm easily frustrated lol)
:)

[wrongroad]

G'day Shirty,
I know that I should not laugh but............. I am sitting here with a huge smile on my face but only because I understand, Totally!!!
I finally got some flying back in after weeks of rain, the tail end of cyclone Debbie and working Sundays.
And I got Shangri La back in the air after replacing the wing set after a stupid accident with a car door and it was not even my car and I was not trying to put SL in the other car either. See, I understand!
I do not how many times I have stabbed myself with a hobby knife, hand saw [that hurt a lot] or hit my thumb with a hammer. Why is it that we never seem to learn from these things and we are supposed to be on top of the food chain. HA!:Crying::Crying::Crying:
You should my big toe after a tin of pineapple rings fell on it. It hurt that much I could not even swear.
If the eye blows up, tell anyone who asks, that you walked into a door.....yep, I did that too once. I am only 54, look what you have to look forward to.
{ I hit another driver with my helmet once. I did not get fined or even suspended as the stewards said he had it coming! Yes, I have been know to have short fuse too!]
Have fun my friend
Regards and respect as always
Daryl

[farmflyer]

Ah the joys of not being able to see,hear,feel or do anything like you could just a year ago. It's amazing how it sneaks up on you. After you realize it's happening you can compensate for it then it's not so bad. On the wing spar rod sounds like they are having quality control issues I'm pretty sure I read somewhere else about another person having the same problem not being able to get the rod in the wing and had to sand it quit a bit. Good luck!

[Shirty]

Lol cheers boys. It was stuck that hard, I honestly thought it was never coming out. I seriously spent over two hours trying to get it to budge. Can't believe I didn't even think of using some silicon spray. Not only am I becoming unco in my old age, the brain seems to be following suit. Hahaha. I'm sure the boys at my club today will get a good laugh when they see my eye. Its a weird time, not being able to do things as well as you used to, at least my flying is still good. Hope that lasts a while longer, I love flying too much.

Good to hear from you Daryl. I assumed with all the rain over your way that your club field would be underwater in the floods. Today looks like a cracker over here. Blue skies, and most importantly, very little wind for a change. Was planning to maiden the new blue nose, but got some sanding to do... the Dallas darling will just have to come instead today.

Hope youre well mate, say g'day to dolly and Jon. ;)

[wrongroad]

G'day Shirty,
Our number two field is just back on line after being under water since Debbie but our number one field is a long way from being underwater. Although, there was plenty of water all around the field and I wish that I had of put the go pro up last week. The amount of water was impressive to say the least.
The road to the strip can go out [the Pacific Highway... for our overseas friends, Highway number one in Australia also known as the goat track number one] and we can go via a high level bypass but it will take nearly an hour rather than twenty minutes to get to the gate.
If I see a bloke by the name of NOAH building a boat, then I will worry.:)
It was a beautiful day for flying yesterday and again today. A very light northerly [our normal breeze], almost a full blue sky and nice and warm, not hot.
It was great to get Shangri La back in the air and the sound system was great as we had a new member at the field and he was impressed with it. Shame that the pilot did not do his best landings. Well, take your pick from four bounces. Out of practice.
We are all good here and hope you are the same.
Regards and respect
Daryl

[Shirty]

All good over here mate, can't complain. (Apart from the sanding..) ;)


Bit of a update: well, I sanded and sanded and sanded... and sanded some more. Finally got the rod to fit after about a hour of this. Pnp my arse lol. The tube is now about half its original thickness, but it fits. Hopefully get this model finished today and can maiden it tomorrow, though not sure how the structural integrity of this tube is going to hold up over time, especially the way I fly. The metal one should hold it together though. :)

[Shirty]

Well, the build isn't going well. The rear wing screws don't line up, one of them is so bad it goes in at an almost 70 degree angle, had to enlarge the hole and cut some foam to force it to go down straight and meet the retaining hole. I'm also missing one of the prop nuts, don't have time to get to the hardware store today so no maiden again tomorrow....

my other two mustangs went together fine, this ones a bit of a joke so far. There's no excuse for missing parts or guide holes so badly done the wing won't even attach properly. (Let along a wing spar that needs half its thickness sanded off just to fit). Bit disappointing so far, however I'll get there. I didn't see a build time of 3 days in the instructions... lol.

Seems of late the fms kits are going downhill in a big way on quality. The new a10 seems to be pretty hit and miss too. Might be my last fms plane for a while I think.

[wrongroad]

G'day Shirty,
As I have mentioned, I fitted a new wing set in Shangri La last week. Well, over a period of four months and using the old spars, I found that the carbon one was quite tight to get into place. In fact, I thought the spar was going to jam like yours has. So I did not push the issue but got out the trusty old INOX.
I also managed to get a small rotary brush down the wing tube and I formed an opinion that the wing tube was more the problem then the spar tube.
Someone in FMS is not checking the ID and OD requirements.:Confused:
Perhaps an email to them would not go astray. I will fire one off and see what happens. I have always received a reply from them even when I am giving them some 'advice'.
And now you mention it, the left wing rear screw position was a little hard to get lined up as well. Ah well, I do not have to replace parts too often but I do not think that I would be that happy if I got one that was so hard to assemble.
Regards and respect
Daryl

[Shirty]

Hey mate. so far it's no biggie to stop me getting it done and airworthy, just annoying more than anything. These 1400 birds have risen in price quite a bit (as you know), since I got my first over two years ago, yet still the same little qc issues keep popping up. Retracts being the major one. I paid $300 Aussie for my first mustang. You're now looking at $400 plus freight, about $500 Aussie for one and I'd expect for the increase these ongoing little things addressed. Still, unless the bird is unairworthy or a parts failure in flight leads to a total loss in the first 20 flights or so, (which can mostly be prevented by doing preflights and maintenance), they're still good fun and not bad value. (I wouldn't say great value given the current pricing with our dollar, but still reasonable). I've had easy over 200 flights average with all my fms birds, though again I've needed about 6 sets of retracts total, (none of these are crash damage, all failures, all on the Mustangs), and I've lost about 7 servos. (Mainly the faring gear doors and the 190 has a thing about her flap servos). The servos I sort of expect, they're pretty borderline for the application and I understand they're made to a pricepoint as cost is the factor. Compare the cost to some better servos like hitech or Savox, and you could probably easily add $100 to the model. So I get that. But the little build things like above bug me.

I can't whinge really about my overall experiences with them, especially considering I've modified most of mine and been flying them on 5s and 6s - which they weren't designed to do. (And 6s is pushing the limits for these birds, trust me lol, and the extra voltage might have something to do with my repeated retract and servo failures which is why you never see me post about them). But build stuff qc issues I'll share in the forums, as I believe the model should at least go together as advertised and it's the best way to make the manufacturers take notice in my experience. The big surprise has been the zero. Easily the nicest flyer of the 1400 birds I own, (and including clubmates models I've flown), and not a single thing has gone wrong with it. (Despite its tendency to nose over on stopping on grass). She's been great fun and is the only one I left stock as a result. I'm most impressed with its tracking - the others can move around a bit (especially at the top of loops etc and inverted), but the zero does it all nicely.

Anyway.... hopefully no more dramas and I can find the right size nut for the prop tomorrow. I'm keen as to maiden it and then try get some vid with my old one I gave to al. I'm planning to mount a camera on each (one facing forward, one backward), and see if I can get some good formation type air to air shots that way). Did I mention I hate the build part of this hobby? Lmao. :)