Official FlightLine RC 1200mm Spitfire Mk.IXc Thread

[Alpha]

Bush wheels on a spit? :D

You'd be surprised the kinds of requests people send me. I have in fact received a request for a 4" wheel on a 1200mm warbird before, I believe it was the Dynam Hurricane. My favorite one was a request to put 6" wheels on the Freewing F-14.

[VOODOO]

We do our best within reason, as I described yesterday in this thread. But we can't take all the credit because in general wheel size is mostly informed by the plane's scale from the start, which we can't really adjust much. The scale of the plane will largely decide the scale of the wheel. FlightLine, FMS, Dynam, Horizon, etc, no one can escape the laws of Proportion. Most 800mm-980mm planes have similar sized wheels relative to each other which appropriate for that scale of plane. Most 1100mm-1200mm warbirds have right about the same diameter wheels relative to each other, etc, etc, etc. So ultimately "grass capability" is a function of plane size. The larger the plane, the larger its proportional wheel, the greater ratio of wheel height to grass height, the higher grass the plane can tolerate. From a designer's point of view, those wheel dimensions can be tweaked a little, struts can be raked a little, stance can be widened a little, but, unless it's a Cub, there's no way of having say a 4" wheel on a 1200mm tail dragger. I could bore you with force polygons and the equations we run to quantify all this, but that's the basic summary.

Hopefully the balance we've struck with this Spitfire widens its appeal to some of the grass runway crowd.

I was referring to the statement about forward rake primarily, as this seems to make the most difference, but slightly larger wheels within the parameters you mentioned are also helpful.

[psustan]

... My favorite one was a request to put 6" wheels on the Freewing F-14.

Now that's funny right there, I don't care who you are, that there is funny.

[dkalwishky]

I screwed around when the P-38 came out and did not preorder it and then regretted that once they were all spoken for. I was very lucky to get one when the shipments came in and I happened to see it go in stock, I jumped on it and ordered it immediately.

I am NOT making that mistake with this gorgeous Spitfire, I just preordered it. Now if I can just not drive myself crazy until Mid June when it ships..... :)

[Alpha]

Good call on not waiting, these Spitfires are going fast, which is very encouraging to see. For the wingspan, scale fidelity, feature set, and price point, I think we've found a nice balance.

[Starck Mad]

Good call on not waiting, these Spitfires are going fast, which is very encouraging to see. For the wingspan, scale fidelity, feature set, and price point, I think we've found a nice balance.

I agree Alpha...It's going to be kinda cool having a Spitfire that can handle its natural element (a grass runway) and not nose over. Having that capability and eliminating that frustration may be well worth sacrificing a bit of scale on the gear. Scale is great, but not so much when the plane is on its back...:rolleyes:

[farmflyer]

Exactly! what good is a model that is perfectly scale if it can't be flown by most people. I think MRC is doing a great job in the development of these new models both in subjects chosen and the aircraft frame itself. I also commend them on being able to keep it secret with the amount of people involved to redesign and test them. I know they have got more coming I can just feel it and can hardly wait to see what they are going to be.

[jagdpanther9]

I chose to pre order a spitfire as a go to plane. I had been looking @ the durafly and dynam spitfires but just wasn't really impressed. I have been flying a dynam tempest that had a nasty tendency to go tail up on take off and chew props but once I raked the landing gear and got use to adding up elevator and canning it on take off it has been a good model to bang around with in the below 200 dollar range. I HAD a dynam corsair as a go to plane last summer and was very pleased with it. you could ride the mains for ever on take off and with touch and goes but one happy afternoon while doing an wot pass I added a tight roll and wtf? the Velcro let loose from the floor of the battery compartment and it tossed the battery! not 10 feet from me and my WIFES car it hit the pavement! WHACK!!! bleeew it to pieces. at least it didn't hit the hood of the wifies ride .
SO yea man yea I will need to pamper my tempest till mid june. I am very pleased with my flightline p-38 and feel pretty confident about the spitfire.

[346Sqn_Guyenne]

Hi,
It may come as a surprise to Americans who've always celebrated their air aces, but in Clostermann's own country, his name is almost totally forgotten:exclamation::@ - except by air enthusiasts, of course.
So it's very nice to think of all those little LO°D's flying around soon:cool:. I know many modellers will prefer other markings, but thanks MotionRC/Flightline!:)
Mike (France)
PS: I wonder what other markings will be included with this Spit?

Answer found: can't believe that, once again, it's Johnnie Johnson's JE°J!

[borntoolate]

I saw this Spitfire down at the Apollo Field on April 9-10. It is beautifully done. It looks amazing in the air and on the ground. I did not fly it as weather was working against our flight times, but maybe soon!

[Bajora]

I also saw Alpha's Spitty on a recent trip I made down to LA. In fact, I got to fly it! Awesome airframe ! I today recvd a pre-production sample of the FlightLineRC Spitfire and will be working on a review of this one for one of the print magazines. Spent a few minutes at lunch today shooting a few photos of the kit...

Hope to have her in the air this weekend for in-flight media! :cool:

[Prowler901]

The parts look beautiful. Looking forward to your review.

[ryramZ]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n39147[/ATTACH] This is the first legit British Pilot I have ever seen in a stock model.

[Grossman56]

You're bring it to NEFI, right Ryan?
A visual will help convince the wife, if you know what I mean.......
Grossman56

[karltrek]

Pretty stoked to fly the new Flightline Spitfire today! Thanks to Alpha for sending "Borntoolate" an eval pre-production example. A bunch of us NorCal warbird fliers will get a chance to try her out. I am so glad I already pre-ordred one for myself. Excellent flying model. Flew her with an Admiral 4000mAh 4S. Was a little nose heavy with the 4000mAh. But Bob likes to use a 2S lipo as a UBEC battery. So that added a little extra nose weight. Only needed a little up trim. The second flight was trimmed out.


Here is the maiden flight.

https://youtu.be/aWQckIdIkc0

Here is the second flight. Trimmed out.

https://youtu.be/uIM62bddUmI

The third flight. I really put her through the paces on this one. Unfortunately my hat cam was a little low during this flight. So the plane goes out of frame a little.

https://youtu.be/EgdM4j2vqKs

[PappaBear]

FlightLine RC Spitfire

The FlightLine RC Superrmarine Spitfire is the latest model to come from the company, and I must say right away the first impressions of it have impressed me a great deal.

The model chosen by FlightLine RC is the Spitfire MK. IXc. This version did not see action in the Battle of Britain, although it saw action in many parts of the world including England. Two different decals sets are provided to make one of two models. The first is the French Ace, Pierre Closterman (MJ586). The second choice is the one that I am going to do is for RAF Ace Johnnie Johnson (MK 392). The reason I chose this scheme is because I have a very dear friend in the UK (Bill Hathaway) who flew Spitfires during the second World war and he was Johnnie Johnsons Wingman for a time. So, this is for you Bill.

The model has been designed to a scale of approximately 1/9.5 which provides a wing span of 1200mm. The stock PNP version has a scale four blade propeller and flies very well on a 4S 4000mAh battery. This makes the model very agile and provides a top speed of just over 80MPH, and in my opinion is a nice turn of speed to give a good performance with excellent flying qualities without being over powered. Even at 80MPH this is still faster than what the scale speed would be. However if you really do want more performance an optional High power upgrade motor set can be purchased separately and this will increase the top speed to just over 90MPH.

The first thing I noticed was the way the model has been packaged. The box and all the styrofoam packing has been made especially for this model. The little compartments and the packing all fit together like a jigsaw puzzle to hold all the parts in place to prevent damage, and in my opinion the only way this model would be damaged during the shipping process would be major box damage. All parts including the major components such as the wing and fuselage are packed in separate plastic bags and sealed. FlightLine RC and Motion RC have gone to a great deal of trouble thinking through the packing process for this model. You will also find separate compartments to include a battery if you buy one or more with the model. This will alleviate the problem of searching through the entire packaging to locate a battery. The packing box will also serve a stand to hold the model while it is being assembled or worked on. I don't know if this was a design consideration or if it was coincidence. Whatever , it is a good touch.

Looking in detail at the model the build quality is really excellent with the attention to scale detail well thought out in the design stage. For example the scale panel lines are all mounded into the foam, with decals provided for the correct lettering and wording for the various positions. A scale three view drawing is provided for the correct placement of each word and letter.
The servos are all installed, but the push rods are not connected. The control surfaces are all hinged and the control horns are fitted in the relevant positions. The retract units are fitted flush with the surface of the wing. The mounting does not protrude beyond the wing surface as some units do. This is a nice touch and all manufacturers should follow this practice. It makes for clean lines. The "fishtail" exhaust stacks are finished in a matt rust color to give a scale appearance. The wheels are 2.5" in diameter.so the model can be flown off a short grass runway.

The wings are joined together using two spars, front and rear. I glued the spars and the wing halves together. Although the model can be flown without the wings being glued together. The horizontal stabilizer slides onto a tube and through the rear of the fuselage and is secured to the fuselage by two small screws on each side. A small foam fillet has to be glued in place behind the wing and the radiators and oil cooler air scoop have to be glued to the wing.

At this point the airframe is complete and the decals can be applied. However if you wish to choose another color scheme and squadron marking this would be an easy thing to do.

The control surfaces have to be connected using the pushrods and clevises supplied. I center the servos first using either a servo tester and a 4.8v battery or a RX and battery. In this case I used a RX and battery. In doing this I can make sure that all the flying controls are working correctly and everything is adjusted to the correct throw without fear of the motor engaging. The throttle calibration is the last thing I carry out.

[Grossman56]

Hey Karl, excellent video and a great insight of what to expect. I also caught your P40 video and I see that your first flight went as well as mine did. A very impressive plane as well.
What I find great is the background chat is all about the other planes that Flightline has out as well, I think the ears of the community have been caught!


Grossman56

[CAPT.Mike]

We flew the Spit for video yesterday, one amazing flyer,

[Dewey H Lee]

When do we get to see it??????????

[ryramZ]

When do we get to see it??????????

Very soon! I'll be uploading tonite. The Flight Review comes first, then the build vid. I can't wait for you all to get yours. It is truly an impressive flyer.