Official FlightLine 850mm P-51D Mustang Thread

[Hardway]

Mine should arrive tomorrow ;) - It will get a Falcon 12 stabilized receiver and some red tail paint. Will hopefully be able to maiden it on Saturday if the weather is ok.
What lipo size are you using? I will be trying 4S 1800 and 4S 2200 packs to see how it handles with them.

I have the 1800, so I bought one 1600 4S with XT60 just to see how it works!! Will advise!! Should be fun!! Maiden on Sat as well.... Jerry

[BRGT350]

I really like the blank canvas approach on the plane as well. There are so many great P-51's to model and the blank airframe makes it much easier to work with. Excited to see what everyone comes up with for schemes and what Callie will offer.

[McLogo]

I got my P-51D today and had to paint it straight away after work. Looking foward to maiden it! :D
I really like how you can paint the final colors yourself and choose between the 2 decals included with the kit.

[James]

I got my P-51D today and had to paint it straight away after work. Looking foward to maiden it! :D
I really like how you can paint the final colors yourself and choose between the 2 decals included with the kit.

Looking good! We are definitely excited to see all the liveries and paint jobs everyone does. Alpha (our product manager) shared this shot with me. he's working on some fun ones!

[andrew_flyguy]

Dang it, Alpha & James! I was hoping to be the first to post The Enchantress all painted up! Lol!!

Sadly my decal sheet had a fold in it in the box and even though I was super careful, I had some paint peel up like a sheet as I was removing masking tape... neither is too big a deal, will just take a little touching up before it’s all perfect.

[Alpha]

We've been having fun with our Mustangs here in Asia. Val-Halla and Ol' Yeller are two favorites. Unfortunately I don't have Callie here, so I hand painted the "R.A. BOB HOOVER" text. Now we have a red tail, a yellow tail, a green tail, an all-yellow, and a custom Corsair-colored Mustang.

Happy Racing!

[Hardway]

Andrew. Nice looking bird! Alpha, love the choices! :Cool:

[andrew_flyguy]

Thanks, Hardway!! And Alpha... dat Corsairified Mustang!! Too cool

[andrew_flyguy]

Glad to have had this can of silver Testors lying around. Like that paint had never peeled! And with only 1 quick coat of paint! :Cool:

[Aros]

Getting mine tomorrow...Love the paint schemes I am seeing folks do so far. I am debating either a Tuskegee tribute, Moonbeam McSwine or Bald Eagle...Hmmmm, choices, choices...

[uscanuck1xa]

Ordered! Plan on an early RCAF livery - the only painting I should need to do is change the green shading to black. Looks like it will be a fun plane and easy to toss in the car. I anticipate this getting a lot of flight time.

James - could you post a photo of your Admiral receiver's switch and gain settings?

[Ole-Timer]

The blank canvas approach is a most welcome aspect.
Alpha, I’d forgotten all about Ole Yeller, was fortunate to see Bob Hoover on two occasions and he flew the P-51 at the Westmoreland County Airshow I believe in 1985. Thanks for reviving that memory!
I was a full time member of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard for many years and the base was formed when P-51’s and P-47’s were available. I’ve found some old color pictures that have recently come available online. Our unit had an F-51H painted orange as it was the Squadron target tow tug. I’ll do one of the PA ANG birds as my livery...

[Hardway]

The blank canvas approach is a most welcome aspect.
Alpha, I’d forgotten all about Ole Yeller, was fortunate to see Bob Hoover on two occasions and he flew the P-51 at the Westmoreland County Airshow I believe in 1985. Thanks for reviving that memory!
I was a full time member of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard for many years and the base was formed when P-51’s and P-47’s were available. I’ve found some old color pictures that have recently come available online. Our unit had an F-51H painted orange as it was the Squadron target tow tug. I’ll do one of the PA ANG birds as my livery...

Just really neat pics OT!!! Love them!! Thank you for your service Sir!!! Orange means "don't shoot at me, numb nuts!!!" LOL

[Ole-Timer]

Thanks HW, your welcome !

One special P-51D was 484900. It was perched displayed on a pole at our base in Pittsburgh for some three decades until it was removed in a trade scam by David Tallichet. Can you believe, he traded the AF Museum a Hollywood fiberglass model for a real P-51D! Yes he did! He took both our P-51 and our P-47 and gave us fiberglass models! What a freakin crock of ****! A behind the scenes story of how he got away with it was he had secretly promised the AF Museum the remains of the Lady Be Good for both our fighters and the entire deal fell through in the end with his company’s bankruptcy.

This is P-51D 484900 during its time with NACA. It’s wings were modified with humps on the upper surface where small test wings were attached vertically and when the aircraft was put in a dive, the laminar airflow over those humps would go supersonic. The airframe was also modified with the addition of a tall H model fin to increase stability in the dives as tests progressed.




484900 as it was painted during its arrival at Pittsburgh



Then as a gate guard for decades.



My my first experience with Ole 900 back in 1976.



It is it is now restored and flying in the Southwest...

[Hardway]

Too cool!!!! Awesome stuff Bro!!! Love it!! :Heart:

[Alpha]

Ol' Timer, those are great pictures and a trip down memory lane. Thank you for sharing! There were so many Mustangs that made it through the post war years. I've never seen the orange one, though. I might have to do that one day.

In the meantime, I'm happy with my yellow Bob Hoover tribute and my blue "Corsairified" Mustang. I applied "46" number on the fuse from the Corsair's decal sheet, to imply a “What If" scheme if the war had continued into 1946 and the 357th's Mustangs were repainted sea blue instead of the ETO bare metal. I also cut out the cockpit to house my FPV camera. Racing around is fun with it!

These were airbrushed with Ammo-by-Mig acrylics, and the green text was hand painted. Total working time was 3 hours total for both. I'm contemplating a yellow spinner on the bluebird... Thoughts

[Ole-Timer]

Those are both sweet! I’d do either white or yellow on the spinner. Something to give a visual que for approaches to land.
Smaller models like this are really fun to burn around at low level and chase each other in a pack. Really helps to paint them in colors that pop.
For something a bit different you may want to do a search for the ANG Mustangs your State Guard units flew.

[andrew_flyguy]

could you post a photo of your Admiral receiver's switch and gain settings?

I got ya, brother. Switches 1,4,5,6 "ON" and 2,3 "OFF". Remember 1-3 are compensation reverse switches for AIL, RUD, and ELE - and always triple check these before first flight. Combo 1 for me (stabilizer on and recover modes) as well as flaperons (thus, 4-6 all "ON") as I anticipated using differential (I haven't yet but the option is there if I change my mind).
IMPORTANT: Getting Recovery Mode to engage was a real head scratcher for me. The fix was setting up a CURVE on the desired switch/gear Mix. Gear needs to be -100 (stabilizer) when bind button isn't depressed, and -105 when it is depressed to engage Recovery Mode. If that doesn't work, reverse your Gear channel.

Here's a pic of my board - disregard the individual gain knobs, they're a work-in-progress.

[uscanuck1xa]

I got ya, brother. Switches 1,4,5,6 "ON" and 2,3 "OFF". Combo 1 for me (stabilizer on and recover modes) as well as flaperons (thus, 4-6 all "ON") as I anticipated using differential (I haven't yet but the option is there if I change my mind).
IMPORTANT: Getting Recovery Mode to engage was a real head scratcher for me. The fix was setting up a CURVE on the desired switch/gear Mix. Gear needs to be -100 (stabilizer) when bind button isn't depressed, and -105 when it is depressed to engage Recovery Mode. If that doesn't work, reverse your Gear channel.

Here's a pic of my board - disregard the individual gain knobs, they're a work-in-progress.

Thanks very much. Plane should arrive this week so I will see how it goes.

[McLogo]

I managed to maiden my P-51D "Lili" today and despite really gusty and strong wind the Mustang was awesome! Great work MotionRC/Flightline this is a Winner :D
I was able to fly 2x 1800 4s packs and one 3S 2200 pack and could easily fly 8mins with the 1800s. The planes glides/floats very well, underhand launches were easy and landings despite very gusty winds a no-brainer.
The suggested high rates work, low rates are perfect to fly imo.
Unfortunately I did not try to fly without the gyro at all because of the strong winds... but with the gyro on it just flies curves very nice and stable. Tbh I did not really miss the rudder other than for the landing with crosswinds.
The plane is very nimble and it has enough power to go vertical with out any limits.
On 3S it is still plenty fast and can climb and loop with ease. Because it's nimbleness I think this is a great fun intermediate plane that looks great and you can toss in any car and go for some fun flying.

I will post a second clip with my 3rd pack (4S) were I'm flying with a club mate with his 3S EFXtra shortly. Edit: Done