Official FMS 1400mm P-40B Warhawk Thread

[martin.skerlec@gmx.at]

Maiden flight today.
FMS P-40
What a great warbird.
Looks fantastic on the ground and in the air.

With some updates:
retractable landing lights.(also had some original P40)
Sound system with V 12 Allison Sound.

[Grossman56]

Interesting, I'll have to try that. I'm using Wenol as I had a couple of quart cans left over from my days polishing full sized.


I like shiny things!

Grossman56

[Sky5900]

Oh yeah, she's got to be polished some more yet, then handled with cotton gloves on!

Grossman56

Nice look! Fingerprints on glossy finishes drive me nuts. I found that polishing the surface with pledge furniture polish (lemon pledge is what was in the closet) makes it virtually fingerprint-resistant. I hope there is no downside to using that stuff but it takes care of the fingerprints.

[rifleman_btx]

Oh yeah, that is hotness!

[Grossman56]

Oh yeah, she's got to be polished some more yet, then handled with cotton gloves on!

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

The sun is out today so here are the fresh pictures as of 15 minutes ago.



Of course, the ailerons, rudder and elevators were fabric so I painted them for authenticity. Panel lines were followed on the wings as close as I could. The best part is the prop blades have a history too. A couple of seasons ago, after I installed the 6s system from Ryan's old Thunderbolt, I was still flying with the stock prop and spinner. Suddenly, it felt like I had no power! Thinking I'd burnt out a cell on the battery, I quickly dropped gear and flaps and landed safely on the runway. Upon closer examination, I found that I'd lost my prop!! My buddy Charlie Brown (OV-10) put me on to a prop and spinner that he uses on his 6s system in the same bird.
A couple of months later a couple of the guys were walking the walk of shame and came across the back plate complete with propeller blades on the back side of the field. I had actually flown a half pattern and landed sans prop! When looking for some prop blades, I realized I didn't have any new ones, so refurbished these, they balanced up really well, so there they are. The old hub BTW was ground away in the center which slides over the prop shaft, now the Flying Tiger now sports a one piece prop and a different spinner. This is what that looks like. The 6s system rocks in the P-40!



Grossman56

[rifleman_btx]

Heck that that's gonna be great!

[davegee]

Nice job on those two airplanes, Dan! Look forward to seeing them fly at the field when it warms up!👍👍

Cheers

davegee

[Grossman56]

Thanks RM, I started out with an idea and an old fuse, then had a new kit donated to me. Originally I did it with chrome duct tape simply because I had a bunch of it laying around. Had a major problem trying to get it in the air and ended up doing some body work and stripping off all the tape and replacing it with Flite Metal. It looks a lot better but under florescent lighting it looks rough. I'll get it outside on the next sunny, non windy day now that I'm feeling human again.
This was the old fuse with duct tape:


And this was the new plane with duct tape:

So I have to order some decals from Callie again, then she's back! The plus side is that beautiful shine, the negative side is that you are constantly polishing out finger marks unless you wear gloves while handling her. BTW, The Mustang has been refinished from the cockpit forward as I just wasn't satisfied with the job. Looks much better now.

Grossman56

[rifleman_btx]

Man that's so cool, I like that look

[Grossman56]

WOW, been a while since anything was posted in this thread!
The 'Hardway' P-40 has been recovered using Flite Metal and is looking great!

I found out something interesting that I wanted to share with you. the gun bay on the top of the fuse,

is actually removable (to a certain degree)

Underneath it FMS has put a large weight for balance
I had some problems with getting the plane in the air which really surprised me as the old P-40 flies and continues to fly so well. So the plan is to balance this one exactly as the other and see what happens this time. After all the work on her, I admit its a little scary to try again, but, fly or die. Won't be 'til next season anyway.


Grossman56

[Grossman56]

Ah, the good old days when Motion RC handled FMS. Remember when, if your retract servo died you could just order one! Now, with Horizon Hobbies, you have to order two, complete with the struts and tires at a whopping $112. Man, I wish for the good old days..................

Grossman56

[bchboy1206]

I had wrecked my p40 in a tree and after a year it came down. The motor works and the wing LED but nothing else does so I believe it is the multi-connector is ruined. I ordered 2 from Horizon and they are different, they have 4 connectors instead of 5. Does can anyone help me out here, is there a way to hook up a 4 connector in it's place?

[Grossman56]

I'm considering buying this plane. Next shipment is due in at Horizon Hobby this month. I hope they addressed the known rudder/tailwheel servo issue at the factory. I also hope this plane does better on grass than the P-51 June Nite which is impossible. Even with full up elevator at start of take-off roll it noses over every time, even with a light 2200 mAh batt installed.

I dropped Horizon Hobbies a note telling them that the plastic servo support bracket in the fuse has been installed backwards. As described before, I solved that problem by moving the outside servo from one side to the other and installing it facing the opposite direction. It's pretty obvious when I compared my old P-40 to the new one. See poste #317
Grossman56

[airotroy]

After reading about the suspicious 70A predator esc - which I have _ i went ahead and put in a stand alone bec with its own battery. I have this in my b-25 and has saved it at least twice. Couple coats of Minwax poly and it goes up.

[airotroy]

Have this in the hangar and so far have had both gears tore out and the rear wheel and rudder going in the wrong directions. Upon reading the "be aware of" items I read where one should check the gear housing screws that hold it in as well as the retracts themselves. I thought surely everythings ok so I took it out. After a normal landing the hole assembly tore loose and layed to rest on the asphalt. Got it home and took the retracts out where to my surprise there were NO screws on either gear holding the housings to the wing. Nor was there any adhesive. Notified TH and of course everythings back ordered. Through trial and error I was able to find some self starting screws that worked. Added a little foam tac and put everything back together. The rudder/wheel issue was solved by repositioning the servo arm 180 degrees. So I guess I'm ready for another remaiden. Soooo - be aware of these issues and dont do as I did and assume after laying out over 300 dollars everything is going to be perfect. Will say - while up it flew great.

[Sky5900]

I'm considering buying this plane. Next shipment is due in at Horizon Hobby this month. I hope they addressed the known rudder/tailwheel servo issue at the factory. I also hope this plane does better on grass than the P-51 June Nite which is impossible. Even with full up elevator at start of take-off roll it noses over every time, even with a light 2200 mAh batt installed.

[Grossman56]

see post 317, the servo mounting plate is incorrectly installed

[flyguysc1]

Fedx delivered my p40 to someone else today filed a search claim and now in a holding pattern.Tomorrow will be a better day I’m sure of it.Maybe a little less wind

[SDRick]

Got all the controls hooked up and ran across the same problem that some of the guys have been reporting. The rudder moves opposite to the tail wheel. I compared the old P-40 servo setup to the new and guess what? Someone has installed that white servo mount backwards! In the old P-40, the servos are mounted on the starboard side and the center, the new one has the elevator servo against the port side and the rudder in the middle, there is a third servo mount position, but its not hollowed out enough to accept a servo. Also the servo arms in the new one are at the three o'clock position where the old P-40's are at the nine.
So, out with the Dremel tool and I hollowed out the third position and installed the rudder servo into that with the arm facing the nine o'clock position, I just reversed the elevator servo within my radio. Fired her up, works like a charm. Must have hired a new guy on the line and he/she is putting that piece in the mold backwards:thumbsdown:

Grossman56

Went out to maiden mine today and realized the tail wheel was going in the opposite direction. I made a couple calls to horizon and the local hobby store. Their advice was to purchase a servo reverser. I ended up turning the servo arm around 180° so it was working in the proper direction but it interfered with the elevator servo. I shortend the rudder servo arm for the maiden and looking for a better solution, perhaps moving the servo to the partial third servo mount position as mentioned above.

Other than the messed up tail wheel and the faulty center of gravity spec in the manual, this is a great bird!