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Official FlightLine RC 1600mm P-38 Lightning Thread

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  • Brodak has them.


    Or straight from Robart.
    ANY PRODUCT AVAILABLE FOR BACK-ORDER IS A PRODUCT WE INTEND TO CARRY MOVING FORWARD BUT ARE CURRENTLY OUT OF STOCK. YOU CAN PLACE BACK-ORDERS FOR THESE ITEMS. THIS LIST MAY BE ADJUSTED AS WE MOVE FORWARD. 2-4" Scale Diamond Tread Wheels (pr.) These Diamond Tread Scale Wheels are accurate down to their treads and side w

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    • Cool beans 😎

      Thank you!!

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      • Just picked up a Fl P-38 1600 Allied Green from an estate sale. In good shape but the outer wings were removed for storage. Unfortunately, the Ail, Flap and light tags were removed from the main wing leads and the manual doesn't indicate what gets connected to what. Anyone have a diagram, photo, description of the wiring connections between the right and left outer wings and the middle wing section? Thanks to anyone who replies.

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        • Are you talking about from the outer wing side, or fuselage side? If it's the outer wing can just run a servo tester and tag what one goes where, on the plane side I would just slide the wing on part way and plug in the leads in until they are correct and tag them. I'm assuming this is a pre single connection version.

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          • Thanks. Yes, no single connection. 4 connectors on left outer and main and 3 on right outer and main wings

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            • Gotcha the reason for the 4 on the left is the landing light. And as I was saying the best way to test them is a servo tester. As for the lights (two wire leads) just plug those in and cycle the gear, if the light goes out when the gear is up that is the landing light lead.

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              • As for a diagram that is an impossibility as those wires are loose and covered so there isn't a clear way to know without the tags what goes where until after you plug in and the aileron goes to hopefully natural or full deflection. If it is full deflection than you have it plugged into the flap channel.

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                • Although I don't have a servo tester, I set up the plane on my TX, fit the outer wings on loosely, guessed, plugged stuff in and powered up. Got lucky on right wing and all worked as it should. Left wing ail and flaps were good but had to exchange light plugs. Now a little decal work and she'll be good to go. Thanks for your help.

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                  • Excellent! Glad she's ready to go!

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                    • Gentlemen meet Bone-Yard Betty

                      Last season I had a elevator failure and yes it was ugly. I had to repair both wing roots. Both the LH and RH booms at the weak points at the aft end of the MLG. I basically did external doublers with flat carbon fiber strips and then covered that with thick plastic (minus rivets...lol)
                      Attached Files

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                      • Originally posted by Saltydawg View Post

                        Last season I had a elevator failure and yes it was ugly.
                        Looks great! If your crash by was servo related, I found the MKS HV69 is a perfect fit….more robust servo. MRC sells them, too.

                        -GG

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                        • Whoa! BIG difference. I see that the prop hub design has been improved. See the difference (photo).

                          Replacing one that cracked and was installed 10/2020.

                          The new design is a welcome improvement!

                          -GG

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                          • The hub upgrade looks to follow the design of the 1600 Spitty spinner
                            Too bad that they (MRC) aren't a little more proactive in notifying the customer base via the product pages of these important upgrades.
                            Warbird Charlie
                            HSD Skyraider FlightLine OV-10 FMS 1400: P-40B, P-51, F4U, F6F, T-28, P-40E, Pitts, 1700 F4U & F7F, FOX glider Freewing A-6, T-33, P-51 Dynam ME-262, Waco TF Giant P-47; ESM F7F-3 LX PBJ-1 EFL CZ T-28, C-150, 1500 P-51 & FW-190

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                            • Originally posted by OV10 View Post
                              Too bad that they (MRC) aren't a little more proactive in notifying the customer base via the product pages of these important upgrades.
                              That's usually because we are never told by the manufacturer when they make these changes. We have no way of knowing until a customer mentions it to our CS staff.

                              My YouTube RC videos:
                              https://www.youtube.com/@toddbreda

                              Comment


                              • Originally posted by Aros View Post

                                That's usually because we are never told by the manufacturer when they make these changes. We have no way of knowing until a customer mentions it to our CS staff.
                                Looks like management should get Alpha in on that action for incorporating things like that into your supplier/vendor contract.
                                Warbird Charlie
                                HSD Skyraider FlightLine OV-10 FMS 1400: P-40B, P-51, F4U, F6F, T-28, P-40E, Pitts, 1700 F4U & F7F, FOX glider Freewing A-6, T-33, P-51 Dynam ME-262, Waco TF Giant P-47; ESM F7F-3 LX PBJ-1 EFL CZ T-28, C-150, 1500 P-51 & FW-190

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                                • Agreed!
                                  My YouTube RC videos:
                                  https://www.youtube.com/@toddbreda

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                                  • Ouch - I had read in other posts about this and since reading those sometime ago, had "religiously" checked my elevator control horn. All has been very well and the '38 has been flying beautifully. Love this plane! I made two flights the other day with her and all was right with the world. So it seemed until flight 3. Preflight (I always check proper movement before each take off) indicated all control surfaces were normal and ready to go. Power up and she is speeding down the runway. At rotate - NOTHING. I shut it down, but not in time to avoid running off the end of the runway, at speed. Damage was not as severe as it could have been, but at speed, it was enough that numerous repairs have to be made before she flies again. POO (parts on order).

                                    This is a quality built airplane, but even the best need to be checked and rechecked. I'm not sure if the temperature had much, if anything, to do with it but found, post-incident inspection, the elevator control horn had come completely loose (unglued) from the elevator. Really glad she was still on the ground or I would still be picking up pieces.

                                    If you love the P-38 as much as I do, PLEASE ensure all your control horns are secure if you are not already doing that. My pre-flight checklist before EVERY flight, no matter how many flights I have already made that day NOW includes flipping her over and checking every single control horn attachment and making sure they are FIRMLY and accurately attached to every control surface, not just "wiggling" the controls before flight. Yes, a minor time consuming pre-flight step, but it beats hand picking foam from a corn field. Most of you probably already do this and it was just stupidity on my part for not doing it, but wanted to pass my "fail" along in the hope that it may help another P-38 pilot prevent a loss. My pre-flight checklist has been updated. :)

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                                    • Originally posted by Larry D View Post
                                      Really glad she was still on the ground or I would still be picking up pieces.
                                      Glad it wasn’t worse.

                                      Note: Because she pitches up when the flaps are lowered, if you have a vernier knob on the transmitter, you can switch over to using flaps for pitch control should the elevator horn come unglued. It saved my bird once…works well.

                                      Other things to check: Wiggle the outer wings fore and aft. If you see much of a gap opening, your front or aft drag spar fittings may have broken. Mine have! I ended up putting Foam-TAC in the gap to prevent this from happening again. It is easy to cut loose with a razor knife if needed. I also beefed up the plastic drag spar fitting attachment points. You can put epoxy and glass into the U-shaped trough and run it up the side of the fuselage side attachment area. Easy to do.

                                      Listen for any changes in noise over time as she flies by. Louder noise = cracked prop hub.

                                      By the way, the new/redesigned hub is GREAT! It has fixed the cracking problem.

                                      Ref post #4212

                                      -GG

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                                      • I finished up my Lightening, and all the stars and planets finally converged such that I could maiden it last weekend. Between bad winds, weather, family, COVID, and life, it has taken forever to get out to the field. A apologize in advance for the long writeup, but I figured it would all be useful info for anyone building or considering purchasing the Flightline kit. Bottom line is that it’s a terrific airplane, even at the increased price. It’s definitely not for beginners, but even so, it is a stable, predictable, beautiful model.

                                        BUILD NOTES:
                                        • Total Wt: 8 lbs 10.8 oz with two 4S2600 80C batteries
                                        • The only substantive modification is that the undercarriage is upgraded to the shock-absorbing landing gear.
                                        • After much consternation and confusion over CG location, I decided to go with the CG range suggested by Motion RC, which is between 65 and 75 mm. I can put my fat index fingers between the two marks I put on the bottom of the wings (see photo), and all three of the battery sets I use balance the aircraft okay around 70mm.
                                        • All flight controls bypass the LBB and are plugged directly in to the receiver.
                                        • The belly IFF lights are plugged into the LBB strobe light outlet. They really are cool and visible in flight when turning away from the runway.
                                        • I soldered crossover + and – wires on the ESC side of the battery connectors to allow both batteries to feed both motors (Thanks, Evan D!). Both BECs are connected through the ESC servo Y-connector that plugs into the receiver. Since each battery can power the ESC/BECs independently, I don’t feel there is a need for a separate UBEC.
                                        • The power system includes a dedicated voltage telemetry sensor for each battery. Telemetry programmed features (I actually stole this idea, but I can’t find the forum or link to it… I apologize for not being able to give proper credit.) include:
                                            • Voltage of each cell on both batteries presented on transmitter, and recorded in telemetry log.
                                            • Difference between highest- and lowest-cell voltage reported for each battery
                                            • Two-position, spring-loaded toggle on transmitter announces flight time and voltage of lowest cell when pulled.
                                            • Haptic and audible warnings if any cell voltage is 3.5V or less for more than 3 seconds.
                                        • The Loss Of Signal fail-safe is set to auto-level, power off, and gear up using the stabilizer receiver (Frsky S8R). Auto-level can also be engaged with toggle switch in case of loss of orientation.
                                        • All control throws set at instruction manual recommendations, including 4mm up elevator “neutral” position, and recommended flap/elevator mixing.
                                        PAINT SCHEME:
                                        • The paint scheme is from the 459th Fighter Squadron “Twin Dragons” in Burma.
                                        • The airplane represents Lt. Harry Sealey’s P38-F, “Haleakala” (named for the Hawaiian fire god).
                                        • I made vacu-formed hub caps for the main wheels since they are a prominent part of the paint scheme.
                                        • The nose cone and exposed servos were painted with matching Home Depot sample paint. The clear plastic around all of the lights were painted as well. I used a combination of Rustoleum rattle-cans, airbrushed Testor enamels, custom-cut vinyl sheets, custom-printed water-transfer decals, and cut-vinyl masking film to make markings (Yellow dashes were a B#&*%!). I made the vertical tail numbers with my cutting machine using the large, white squares in the kit-provided decal set.
                                        • There is still some detailed painting and weathering to be done, but I wanted to get the bird flying before finishing that up.
                                        FLIGHT NOTES:
                                        • I made three flights, including the maiden. I was very conservative with these flights due to testing the complex radio programming and the testing of the landing gear retract/extend, flap retract/extend, and their impacts on flight characteristics. My key observations after only three flights:
                                          • Takeoffs were easy. I slowly accelerated the throttle, and by the time I reached 75%, the airplane was gently lifting off on its own, in a very scale-like manner, with no rotation required. The maiden takeoff was without flaps, and the two subsequent flights and touch-and-goes were with mid-flaps. The process and characteristics were the same for all takeoffs, with the only difference being that the takeoff run was about a third shorter when using flaps.
                                          • On the maiden, I only needed one click of down elevator for it to be trimmed up. That kinda makes me wonder about the utility of the 4mm up elevator “neutral” position. She flew beautifully. Very stable and predictable. A little rudder is needed to make coordinated turns. It will definitely lose altitude in a turn, so a slight increase in power and up-elevator are needed to maintain level flight. Steep turns at low altitude are probably a bad idea until one gets used to the airplane. It accelerates quickly, but also slows down quickly. The high-ish wing-loading is evident, so the airplane needs your attention throughout any maneuver. Loops and rolls were beautiful, and very scale-like, as were takeoffs and landings.
                                          • With gear down, glide slope on landing is easily managed with throttle. A complete power-off approach is probably not a good idea. Landings were made by leveling out just above the runway, and reducing throttle while holding it off until touchdown. Very little flare was needed.
                                          • Ground handling on takeoff was good, but the tail-end of the landing roll-out seems to be a little unstable. I suspect that giving the main gear wheels a little toe-in would help in that regard. That’s on my to-do list, so it will be interesting to see if provides improvement.
                                          • It’s a very docile airplane, and easy to fly, but does need to be flown while in the air and throughout the landing. All-in-all, a terrific airplane!
                                        • Made three flights, using three different battery sets: 2x 3300mAh, 2x 3000mAH, and 2x 2600mAH. All flights were mostly at or below 75% throttle, with low approaches and touch-and-goes. The third flight was more aggressive with the throttle, with a few loops and rolls. I used my telemetry to tell me when my cell voltage was down to 3.8, and then landed, so I didn’t really pay that close attention to the time. All flights were easily 5 minutes.

                                        NEXT TO-DO’s:

                                        I need to get the airplane on my Watt Meter to get some power system data. I’m a little ashamed I didn’t do that before first flight, but I was so anxious to fly, I just outright forgot. I’m gonna play with the main gear wheel alignment, adding slight toe-in, to see if I can tame the landing ground-run. Also on the list is to add some weathering effects, but that will likely be a gradual add-on a bit at a time. The pilot and cockpit could use a makeover, for sure. I’ll play with the Taranis programming as well. The programming I have done still needs some tweaking, and I need to spend some time working on the stabilize receiver's gain settings. Really, there is nothing critical. The airplane is really a winner, as-is!

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                                        • Great report and congratulations. I built mine before the upgraded gear and used struts and tires from the FMS 1450 P-51 V8. They worked great and looked even better.

                                          I suggest toe out more than in. If you think about it if one side touches down it "pulls" the other side down. Much more stable.

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