Official Black Horse Spitfire 2000mm ARF Discussion Thread

[Aros]

Congrats on a successful maiden! Bringing her home in one piece is the sweetest reward. What level was the Pucker Factor at takeoff?

[Cfreuen20]

Congrats on a successful maiden! Bringing her home in one piece is the sweetest reward. What level was the Pucker Factor at takeoff?

Pucker factor was at an 8 or 9 before takeoff, off the charts during the extremely short roll out (especially when it came a fraction of an inch from nosing over, I can't believe the prop didn't strike) and then I barely remember it leaping off the ground and almost stalling. We did a couple of exaggerated ups and downs as I struggled to keep it under control while gaining altitude. I had to fight a pretty severe tendency to roll, it required a surprising amount of aileron trim. At one point, I mentally accepted that I was going to crash it. I had no choice but to engage the gyro.

Have others had a similar experience? - the factory CG seems to be as far aft as is flyable. But if you move the CG forward, it wants to nose over at the slightest bit of throttle on taxi. It leaves an incredibly slim margin for error.

Maybe it wasn't tail heavy. Maybe the pitchy-ness was the elevator throws, combined with using the fastest and strongest servos I've ever put in a plane, while using less expo than I typically use. I'll play around with the setup.

[Carm]

I have been following this thread with great interest, great to see the improvements in the Black Horse models. Will these models becoming to your European warehouse as I live in the UK and want the Spitfire first then the Corsair. I will be using the NGH38cc with auto start when Ican get hold of the model.

[dblmars]

Hi Alpha, is there, or will there soon be an electric retract option coming for this BH Spitfire...? Year's ago I went strictly electric RC, so pneumatics are basically useless to me...

[jasmiller]

Maiden today. NGH 38cc.

[Cfreuen20]

[QUOTE=timmybeetle;n232186]
Building,
Keep posting some more pics,
I build also BH136 Spitfire, see my build on RCgroups link posted in previous post.
I use a DLE30, but to set my CG I needed almost 1kg lead.
So tail should be as light as possible, if I new it before I removed as much balsa,plywood from tail.....
Flying it is easy it flies almost as a trainer, it has a lot of lift.
I converted to electric retracts, using only struts and wheels from kit.
Only after some flight I had a hard landing and stock wheels broke, plastic is not that strong.
Good luck with building this beautiful plane.
grts Hans

ps I see that struts looking better quality than in my KIT


Considering you have flown yours numerous times, do you feel like you had to rake the landing gear forward at all? I have flown mine once, and only one time. It had a pretty bad tendency to nose over, and it flew tail heavy. If I shift CG forward more, I'm afraid it will nose over every time I give it the slightest bit of throttle on the ground.

[Cfreuen20]

Maiden today. NGH 38cc.

How did you feel about your flight? I will ask you the same question, did you feel that yours flew tail heavy, and if you were to move the CG forward do you feel yours would have a tendency to nose over?

[timmybeetle]

Hello


Considering you have flown yours numerous times, do you feel like you had to rake the landing gear forward at all? I have flown mine once, and only one time. It had a pretty bad tendency to nose over, and it flew tail heavy. If I shift CG forward more, I'm afraid it will nose over every time I give it the slightest bit of throttle on the ground.


I flew it a lot, my LG is build in stock.
I have no nose overs at all, my CG is at 100mm from LE.
It's a tail dragger, so when taxing you keep elevator up.
On take off roll keep elevator up and when gaining speed I gently let elevator down, plane is level on ground building up speed and just a bit up and I'm airborne.

It takes a lot of practice before you can do it, I practice it on another plane before I flew my spitfire.

Recently I bought a second one elektro from a friend, and same procedure as with my Gas Spitfire.

Landing

https://youtu.be/d07mm1Onkak

sadly I don't have a video of take off.

This is video of my practice spitfire

https://youtu.be/RWoztcEOSug

grts Hans

---

[Aros]

Wow you nailed that landing. Beautiful greaser well done!

[timmybeetle]

Wow you nailed that landing. Beautiful greaser well done!

Thanks

Practice practice and practice more.....

grts Hans

[jasmiller]

How did you feel about your flight? I will ask you the same question, did you feel that yours flew tail heavy, and if you were to move the CG forward do you feel yours would have a tendency to nose over?

It balanced perfect. The NGH four stroke needs to be broken in well before your first flight. I thought the characteristics were great.

[Cfreuen20]

Well it seems my experience was unique.

Timmy, thank you for the advice. I have been flying warbirds since I was a teen ager in the mid 90s, I use those same techniques. Maybe nerves got me, I know I was too aggressive on the throttle. I've avoided flying it again because life has been so busy, but I'll get back out there and see if it handles a little better. I'll have the aura turned on next time.

[Cfreuen20]

I finally had time to get my second attempt at flying this plane. I made sure to set the center of gravity a good 12 mm further forward, and I suspected that the planes desire to nose over was related to some binding on the main wheels, so I said everything up a little better this time and outside of an almost disastrous take off that was completely my fault, everything went great and it flew easy as can be. I got three flights in, and they were smooth and easy. When this plane is actually balanced correctly, landings are simple. My preferred set up at the moment is zero take off flaps and half flaps for landing. I had half laps on my first flight for takeoff, and it lifted off the ground at about 15 mph it caught me off guard and fortunately the motor had enough thrust to pull it through any potential stalls.

[Fett vision]

How does the wrap hold up in sunlight?

[Cfreuen20]

How does the wrap hold up in sunlight?

It definitely wrinkles, I would say quite easily. I went over it once with a heat gun and it's holding up for now.

[dsa44]

So are you guys pretty happy with the BH? I was looking for a new spitty, and compared to the offerings from seagull, phoenix and toprc, this looks nice, but kinda pricey. Is it worth the premium? Thx

[timmybeetle]

Hi

I own V1 of this Spitfire from BH.
It flies very well, mine came with air retracts, but I replaced them by electric.
Mine I fly with a DLE30 but also bought me one from a friend which is electric, with the same electric landing gear installed.
Compared to the other brand I can make any comment on that because I don't have them in my fleet.
I looked at Toprc but you have to buy LG separately and original cost a lot of dollars....

Anyway for me de BH is a great deal for the money.

Regards Hans

[dsa44]

Well I pulled the trigger for an early xmas gift to myself, LOL, and just so you all know, they are now shipping with ELECTRIC Retracts!! Can't wait to get it out of the box and test fit. Cheers, DSA

[dsa44]

Guys, I am dry fitting together and having a devil of a time lining up the aileron connection. What did you do to get this aligned? Move the aileron mount? Widen the hole towards the outside? Anything else to consider?

Thx all.

[Terminater007]

Try mounting like this