Official FMS 1400mm P-51D V8 Thread

[OV10]

TomC,
I happen to have both so here are my observations of differences on top of what Delta has already pointed out.

Freewing:
Pros=
Better struts and larger wheels.
Plastic pin hinges instead of foam
Control linkages are ball/socket
80A ESC
LED(BRIGHT)Landing lights on both mains
Cons=
2 blade stk prop(Old Iron Ass which I have came stk with the 4 blade - been discontinued) 4 blade is optional now

FMS:
Pros=
Stk 540kV motor has more grunt than the FW 580kv
Stk 4 blade prop
Can easily upgrade to the 580 or 650 motors
250g lighter
40mm larger span(57 versus 55.5)
Cons=
Foam hinges

It's all gonna come down to the age ol' Ford versus Chevy syndrome and what shiny object tweaks your fancy.
No matter which one you choose you just won't lose.
Best regards,

[F106DeltaDart]

I have the FMS V7.5 P-51B and it is a fantastic flier! It is very forgiving and light, with a good amount of power stock. If you are really looking to kick it into high gear, the 650kv motor from the FMS P-40B makes for a great upgrade in power. I don't have the Freewing version, but it has both pluses and minuses. It has a better scale outline than the FMS, with scale hinging on all surfaces. However, it comes stock with a 2 blade prop, which is a real negative for me personally. Performance is probably slightly improved with the 2 blade however. The Freewing is also heavier and a bit less forgiving in flight.

[dkalwishky]

Several guys have the FMS P-51 and they love how it flies.

[TiredIronGRB]

The Freewing has nicer struts.

[TomC]

Need Opinions Please.. I am wanting to get a bigger P-51 than the Eflite 1.2 48''wingspan that I fly now, In you honest opinions which one of these P51's are the better quality retracts Etc..... which one is most powerful bird?

Thanks,

[OV10]

I have two questions please, does the Minwax Clear Polyurethane develop a yellow tint over time, especially from the sun, and secondly, what are the best choices for a spray can and a bottle to match the base FMS P51D 1450 stock factory Silver for touch-ups?

To answer your second question regarding the silver, I have not found anything in a spray and the closest that is in my preferred media of acrylic is a silver by Craft Smart which is available at Michaels.

https://www.michaels.com/craft-smart-multisurface-premium-metallic-acrylic-paint/M10371093.html?dwvar_M10371093_color=silver

[Grossman56]

Hi Moodg, welcome to the forum first of all. Over time it will, a better product is Varathane Water based spar urethane as Doc and I have been spouting for quite some time now. Got it at Home Dept or Lowes, it has a UV protectant in it and is easier to work with, I usually give mine three coats, first sinks into the foam the second gives a fairly good, but swirly coat, third cleans that all up. I use a 1" foam brush for mine.
Apply the decals first then coat right over.

Grossman56

[moodg16]

I have two questions please, does the Minwax Clear Polyurethane develop a yellow tint over time, especially from the sun, and secondly, what are the best choices for a spray can and a bottle to match the base FMS P51D 1450 stock factory Silver for touch-ups?

[moodg16]

Thanks to "wrongroad" for your kind reply regarding future updates to the FMS 1450 P51. I have owned several of the FMS P51Ds and I'm happy with the version 8. Better hinges, ball links, more power, better connectors etc. will be appreciated but not a deal breaker. One important problem I have discovered on my recent purchases that the junction boxes in the wings have loose solder connections which can result in total loss of power to one wing half, causing a crash. I would not be so concerned but it seems to be a pattern of poor technique and QC with the soldering, as all of my planes have had this problem. I recommend everyone pry open the two little black junction boxes in the wing to inspect and re-solder the connections if needed. It's also a good idea t silicone everything once properly soldered to seal out moisture and to reinforce the wires from moving from vibration. The first black wire in particular is one of the main culprits. Scanning through the other posts, I know this is not a new problem, so I hope FMS can correct this potential "Fatal Flaw" as it will certainly ruin your day if the wire comes lose in mid air and you lose control. Without knowledge of this flaw, a pilot may never know what caused the mystery crash of a sudden roll-over and dive in, and assume it's pilot error, a bad receiver, loss of signal from the transmitter, a bad servo etc., especially hard to diagnose after a hard ground hit, with everything broken up. Also, a couple of the models had cold solder joints at the EC3 plug lead of the ESC, when the wire came loose, there a trace solder at the top rim of the connector fitting and the fitting itself had no traces of solder where the wire was inserted. The main power lead coming loose will also lead to a total loss of control, resulting in a crash. I now only fly with the Scorpion Battery Backup with a Y harness to the receiver. If you lose main battery power, you can dead stick it in. You'll have receiver power, full flight controls and about 15% motor power to get you down, it's saved my plane a couple of times already. I hope the info helps.

[wrongroad]

G'day moodg16,
FMS do not give any secrets away but the Mustang is their 'flagship' of the 1400mm series and has been upgraded through out its production run.
However, to make wholesale changes, as with the other models, would mean a redesign of the aircraft. Now, having said that, moulds wear out and have to be redone, so I would imagine as this production mould reaches the end of its useful life, the new moulds could well contain the new ideas as well.
I emailed FMS about what changes might be in the wind and, of course, they told me that they could not give out that kind of information. Understandable.
FMS added though, that they did consider the Mustang as their flagship [as I mentioned] and the Mustang would continue to feature all and any upgrades as time permitted.
I have owned four Mustangs now [all the D model] a V7, V7.5 a so called V7.6 [not officially] and a V8. Even with the V8, there have several minor upgrades within each of the upgrades. Most not even noticed by the owners and only noticed if, like me, you continue to fit upgrades to the models.
Simple things like, the axle thickness, six second gear, fully sequenced gear doors, motor up grades, landing gear oleos, opening canopy [cosmetic], a 'better' sequencer that was rubbish followed by another sequencer that is good, multi connector, better ESC, sliding battery tray, Slight internal modifications in the fuselage, six second retracts, so on , so on.
It will be a case of waiting.
The modifications will no doubt come.
Regards and respect
Daryl

[moodg16]

Any word if FMS is planning new generation P51 Mustangs with the upgraded hinges, clevises, improved motor etc. similar to the recently released P40 and the all new 1500 P47?

[wrongroad]

G'day Dewey,
[this info is for anyone interested] OK, the Corsair will always want to get airborne early due to the high AoA of the wing at rest. Note the difference between the P-51 and the F4U.
The trick with the F4U is to get the tail up as soon as and use that big rudder with plenty of right 'foot' to keep straight. Not the tail wheel.
The Mustang is much easier to control on the ground as we all tend to keep the tail on the ground for the first part of the run and let it come up when it is ready. Yes you need right 'foot' but not as much as the Corsair.
Having thick grass is no help as you mentioned!
I put the V2 Corsair into the deck after four seconds on its maiden flight as she had jumped into the air before flying speed was reached. I was left red faced until a wise older pilot whispered in my shell like, 'you flew her like the Mustang.' And he then told me to watch how full sized Corsair pilots do it. Get that big rudder in the air ASAP. It is more effective then the tail wheel for directional control. Now, of course, our FMS birds are not equipped with brakes but sit through a few episodes of Baa Baa Black Sheep and you will note that the pilots have the brakes on and go to full revs and almost get the tail in the air before they move.
The trick is the same for the model. Without the brakes of course. Get the tail up and gather speed before you rotate or she will jump into the air in a [usually, fully] stalled condition.
Now the Mustang rolls much better than the Corsair and I think the Corsair is better in the climb [in stock form] but the Mustang has the better everything else.
Yes, you do still have to manage the take off with the Mustang and she will still get away if you go to sleep at the sticks.
The moral of the story is simple, each aircraft has its own manners. Learn each aircraft and remember it when you go to fly.
In fact, before you fly each type, do a mock take off in your mind. I have even been known to do the arms out style and talk myself through the take off...does it look silly? More than likely but I do not crash many either.
I have offered this before and I am willing to do a comparison between models if anyone is interested. Just remember, they will be my thoughts and only on the models that I own. I can not and will not make comment on something that I do not fly.
FMS 1400mm
Mustang P51 V7, V7.5, V8 [all mod to V8 with 650kv but all flown in stock condition and with 580]
Corsair V2, V3
Zero
Bf109
FW190
T-28 V2, V3
P-38


FW
Mossie
B-17


Regards and respect
Daryl

[Dewey H Lee]

Wow Daryl sorry to hear of your unfortunate accident especially with such an impressive record. I'm glade the the damage was at a minimum. I finally got the Snoots Sniper straightened out but have still not done a maiden as of yet. Been up a couple times but only carried the Airfield 1450 corsair and my eflite 1.2 corsair. It's funny that you mentioning about the mustangs disappearing. I've had the same thing happen with my corsairs. Both are dark blue and the 1.2 even has the green stripes on it. One thing that I've been meaning to ask you guys about the mustang. We all know about the tourqe effect on take off with the mustangs. This is really bad on the corsairs also. lately they have been lacking at the field for cutting the grass and even thought it's not really tall it's thick. I find that this really causes a problem on my takeoffs because my corsairs are wanting to lift off before I've gotten enough speed to actually fly even sloooly getting on the throttle.(alot worse with the 1.2 than the 1450 even with both pulling 4 blades). Will the mustang have this same tendency. I'm use to my corsairs but not the mustang and was just looking for a little heads up. They really seem to have s short fuse and large wing. Just looks like a stall to me coming out of thick grass like is at the field now. The last time I flew I had to get a nudge to get my plane even rolling it was so thick and then when it lifted off naturally knowing I've not got enough airspeed getting on the throttle a little harder it naturally wants to torque left. I'm really looking forward to the maiden though. Then off to the 1700 and Iron Ass.

[Grossman56]

Yep, I hear you, nothing like when camo does it's job. My worst was at Muncie and the sun was setting, Warbird Charlie and I were together while I was landing my
P40, when she got below the horizon, she disappeared!! I gave her throttle and pulled back to get it up to where we could see it again, whew!!
As for Shangrila, the only thing that has bailed me out of a disappearing act was the bright red nose, which I promptly polished with everything known to man to make it glow.
Grossman56

[wrongroad]

G'day Grossman,
The invasion stripes only help you from the bottom:D. I find when I make a wide left hand turn, the models [all three Mustangs] can reflect the light and vanish. Even the red tail!
The only field that this does not happen at is in Brisbane [Tingalpa] but every thing is a silhouette against the back lit sky. You are always looking into the sun at this field.
On a day like today, heavy dark grey clouds, the nav lights are good and help a bit but the overall disappearance is always interesting.
I warned a newcomer to the Mustang family about this and he kinda scoffed at me with almost the 'yeah, sure old man' look that young blokes can give you.
He almost had to change his underpants when he lost sight of the machine in the exact way I had warned him of.
A wiser pilot now, he is!
We have a large stand of trees [well four hundred acres of them] over three hundred metres to the north of our runway and it is amazing how hard a model can be to see when you drop down 'though' the canopy of these trees. Even a bright yellow model had vanished from the view of the pilot while landing. It is only under certain cloud conditions that this happens.
Hope you are safe and well.
Have a great weekend, mate.
Regards and respect
Daryl

https://www.graftonmac.com

Our web site is a good one:cool:

[Grossman56]

I hear you Daryl, I've had BBD and Shangrila disappear. Thanks to the Big Red nose on Rudolph (Shangrila) and the black stripes on the bottom of BBD, I haven't completely lost them. Old Crow and the Spitty have the invasion stripes, if you can get away with putting those on the bottom of the wing and still maintain authenticity, I'd recommend it.

Grossman56

[wrongroad]

G'day gang,
Put flight number 171 on Shangri La today and she flew well after receiving a new propeller hub, spinner, four blades and new landing gear mechanisms after dumping in on a landing last Sunday.
The landing was a shocker but I did have a battery die on me at three minutes when I normally get a good safe six.
I was coming in for a landing due to the gusty conditions and had, what I thought, was time up my sleeve in case of a go round.
I flew into a heavy gust, with gear down and flaps one, so I throttled up to push through. I got the impression that nothing happened and as the model came out of the gust, there was dead air and no airspeed. She hit wings level and broke two blades and bent the joining piece between the oleo and the mechanism.
Unfortunately, the impact also broke the mounting lugs on the mechs so I will get some CNC parts and fix it.
Remember, these broke after a big dump of a landing and 169 flights. I can not complain about how long they lasted:p
One thing that helped me out was the fact that I did not have to balance the prop. For the first time ever, the prop was perfectly balanced after assembly. That saved some time:cool:
The two flights I put in her log book today were treated as straight test flights so there was nothing fancy.
I am always amazed at how hard the Mustangs can be to see against certain sky colours and today, with a very heavy back ground of storm clouds, was no exception.
I find that a clear blue sky can also hide a model as the blue reflects off the silver and makes the aircraft blend in. No need for camo colour schemes.
This time the landings were near perfect.
Regards and respect
Daryl

[farmflyer]

My Hellcat is sitting also waiting for Eflite retract installation. Flew it once liked it a lot but both retracts will not work at all I may fly it with them locked in down position a few times until I get them replaced. I didn't mind you mentioning that we had talked. That's what we are here for is to help each other when we can.

[Grossman56]

Busy guy!
You'll love the P51B, they fly like a dream, just remember flaps at 15 and 30, and keep the power up around a third and then judge from there.

I had a couple of young guys out at the field last week and they're flying quads but want to get into planes. The one fellow wants a warbird but has heard of the dreaded tip stall. I had Shangrila with me and showed him how straight forward it is with proper flaps and power. Brought her down on her mains, and pinned the tail, one of the prettiest landings so far, of course, didn't tell him that!! Heck, I land like that all the time!!

Grossman56

[Dewey H Lee]

Thanks Farmflyer. hope you didn't mind me mentioning that I had spoke to you on a previous post. I've taken your heed about the power of these planes. I'm at least going to maiden the sniper on the stock configuration but I've already gotten the 650 and esc to drop in afterwards. I appreciate the heads up. Also took the warning from dkalwisky on the lack of power on the 1700mm and have the 360 that will go in it before the maiden. I just hope when I start putting it together I don't run into alot of trouble. BTW the hellcats still not maiden and sitting there with the new eflite retracts half installed. Need to get it finished.