diabolic-mind

i got my micro raf spitfire today. at first look its a incredible looking bird, the color scheme and decals are nice. but upon testing it i found several defects. the first issue was when i opened the box and one of the wheels was sitting on the radio. not to big a deal to me as i was going to remove it anyways. after charging both lipos and the usual start up stuff, i powered it up. throttle-check, aileron -check, elevator-no go. i could hear the motor spinning but wasnt getting movement. so i opened it up and found that the motor was out of the holder that holds it in position. with a bit of superglue, it was back in place and working. the next thing i came across was while testing the elevator and ailerons with the belly pan off the left aileron input was getting stuck when i gave it left input. i noticed that one of the pushrods z bend wasnt properly bent and was catching on the board. i had to take the pushrod out and re bend it and the problem went away. so off to the park i went.

the first flight was good for the most part. the first launch it went hard left and lost altitude and hit the ground. so i picked it up and bent some right rudder into the rudder and re launched it. still had a bit of left turn so i trimmed it using the controller til it flew level. i gotta say it flies pretty good, but it seems tail heavy, anything around or above half throttle and its nose points upwards. it also seems to want to stay in a turn too. i think it might want to climb so much because of the outdoor prop i put on it. but it could use the lipo being a bit farther forward in it. but overall its nice bird, it takes a bit more skill to fly than the erc micro p-51 mustang, but it is still a great flying plane. if i had to say which of the 2 micros from erc was better my choice would be the mustang. the mustang holds a level flight much easier, and is alot easier to control. but for 60 bucks eack they are both awsome planes to have. ill have pics up of the spitfire tommorrow

oldvet70

My Feedback: (10)

I have one that will be delivered tomorrow so I'll see how mine is compared to yours.

diabolic-mind

i think i got a random "bunk" plane, but after tht little bit of work getting it assembled and working properly it flies pretty good. its a bit tricky to fly in comparison to the mustang. either mine just flies like crap cause of the issues it had, or the planes design isnt to great. bt its still fun to fly either way. i also put the outdoor prop on it and moved the aileron pushrods to the holes closest to the carbon fiber torque shaft that move the ailerons flaps, it gave it alot of throw, it turns very tight now

oldvet70

My Feedback: (10)

Well I just got done flying mine. Mine came with more throw than my Mustang. It flies very similar however. I think it rolls a little quicker but since neither are great aerobats it kind of hard to tell.  All in all not a bad little plane to fly. Especially since it was on Crash sale with an extra Battery, outdoor prop and free shipping for $49.99.  When my wife gets home we'll fly them at the same time for a little better comparison. Both are stock with the outdoor props.

diabolic-mind

glad to hear yours worked out better. ive read on some other sites that there has been alot of issues with these spitfires. but regardless of the problems i had it does still fly and it isnt the worst thing ive ever flown, and for the price its unbeatable. it looks pretty cool in the air. wish i had a flying buddy that could fly the spit while i fly the mustang, would be cool seeing them fly in formation

oldvet70

My Feedback: (10)

Well we flew both at the same time and quite frankly there is little difference in the planes, other than appearance of course. Surprisingly I find the Spitfire easier to maintain orientation even with the camouflage paint scheme.

diabolic-mind

i agree, its alot easier for me to keep my eyes on it while its flying and easier to tell where its headed, flying the stang i sometime have a problem telling what directin its going, something about its silver paint scheme is disorienting, lol.

joizeex

mine also had a aileron pushrod that was hitting the board. elevator motor popped out after 2 crashes. it also climbs a bit with throttle on outdoor prop and likes to stay banked. i can just leave it like that and it'll keep going in circles. it's very responsive though.

i just finished putting together the rest of my Airfield 800mm Spitfire, but unfortunately i won't have time to fly it until after the weekend. this should give me time to practice landings on RealFlight or Aerofly sims. i'm wondering if it'll fly even remotely similar to the micro Spit. it'd be interesting if it does.

diabolic-mind

ive read from alot of people that the larger size spits fly very well. so it sounds like your spitfire is exactly like mine, im guessing that what we are both experiencing is just the normal flight characteristics of the micro spitfire. i do like that it has such a quick climb rate. the mustang climbs really well too but i think the larger wing on the spitfire is why it is able to climb so quickly. i have my aileron pushrods set to the holes that give it maximum aileron travel and i still cannot get it to roll. are you able to roll yours joizeex? if so have you done any other mods to get it to roll?

joizeex

haven't rolled it with max travel yet, but then again, i haven't tried doing it all that often. most of the time there's wind and i'm more focused on keeping the darn plane in the air lol. there's a vid on youtube where the guy is doing rolls like it's nothing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goscG5Shdeo&feature=fvw you can see he compensates with elevator on the start and halfway through. i was gonna put the clear tape on the ailerons like you were doing on the 'stang before, but i've been busy getting my new planes flight ready and all, plus keeping up with heli crash repairs. i want my weeknights back!

joizeex

so how are you guys flying these? any good/bad things to say? my wings are atrocious at this point lol. they've been completely separated at the root from each other and i always have to reglue them there. now i need to reglue the spar into one of them too.

i finally had a successful real maiden flight on my Airfield Spitfire and it was a joy. check out my thread here, i highly recommend this plane at only $90 RTF or $50 for airframe. the power package i got for it is perfect.
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_98...tm.htm#9924884

oldvet70

My Feedback: (10)

Just flying without any issues.

joizeex

that's good to hear. are you able to loop/roll this thing?

diabolic-mind

i havent been flying mine much, i am able to loop with it but it doesnt hold a solid loop, the wings tend to roll as it gets vertical and the loop turns into a half roll. compared to the mustang its flight is somewhat unpredictable. its a great looking plane but performance wise i think the mustang is much more fun to fly.

oldvet70

My Feedback: (10)

I can loop and roll both planes. The Spitfire is a little more twitchy than the Mustang  so it takes a steadier hand to fly it well. All in all I think both are very very easy to fly.

diabolic-mind

its not so much a issue of having a steady hand, i can fly the flyzone playmate and my mustang practically blind folded. the issues im having with the spitfire arent related to my ability to fly, its that these are so cheaply made that having great flights vs. poor flights is all a matter on chance. for instence the first mustang i bought would not roll at all and had a very difficult time looping, then i got the second one and out of the box without any mods or without switching the servo pushrod links for the ailerons it would roll and loop. with these its pretty much hit or miss on who gets a good one. but i enjoy flying the spitfire, its just not as stable as it should be.

oldvet70

My Feedback: (10)

I agree the planes are inexpensive and do not perform in the manner my Goldberg SU 26 does. But I don't have $900.00 invested in the ERC planes. They are good inexpensive RC airplanes for someone who wants something different or less challenging to fly. I fly them at a local park and in winds up to 5mph and have never had a flight that was bad due to the design of the planes. I've flown several other peoples  ERC planes and I don't think there is any quality issue with theirs. Theirs fly just as well as mine do. I think that anyone who gets one of these planes that has Real Quality issues should return it rather than try to modify it into something it is not.

joizeex

i like the bit of instability of the spitfire when banking and yanking hard. it can be flown in a very relaxing manner, but then you can change up your flying style, especially in stronger wind, and the challenge goes up. i think overall it helped to prepare me for the bigger foamies that i got now, with respect to wind handling and trying to avoid death spirals. planes are easier to fly for me than helis, but there are a bunch of things that set them apart that need to be learned also.

how about other ERC planes in terms of quality and performance? i can honestly say that the quality, strength and durability of my Airfield model is noticeably better than the Parkzone one and i was completely surprised by that because i've never heard of Airfield until few months ago. I understand that on small models like the ERC Spitfire and mustang, it's difficult to stay consistent, but i think overall it's a pretty well made for what it is.

diabolic-mind

ive been considering getting one of the larger size erc park flyers. they have some very nice looking jet and reasonable prices on them. come tax time im going to be getting another park flyer. im pretty happy with the erc planes sofar, and hobby lobby has good customer service so i might end up with a erc jet.

joizeex

for the past year i've been eying F16's from various manufacturers, so that might be something to get next season. possibly one with retracts, in a size that could use my Scorpion 3000kv motor on 4S that i swapped out from my 450 heli. ERC has that nice looking Typhoon, but that's a little too big for my apartment. i already ran out of room for rc's with my 2 "big" foamies.

hobby-lobby is great, but my only gripe is the PARTS. they don't sell all the parts for some models and for others, something is on backorder for MONTHS at a time. i do like that they have airframe only options for many of their products. that's a huge plus because i like getting electronic components from hobbyking.

diabolic-mind

i ended up trading my spitfire and my blade msr for a xbox 360 with 20 games . i kept the mustang though because it flies great and i havent had even a slight issue with it. plus i got the um j3 cub, and 2 playmates. im debating on making the j3 a bipe.

joizeex

man, how'd you get all that xbox stuff for only 2 toys, that's crazy! well good luck with the project. you think maybe you can make J3 into a triplane?

diabolic-mind

possibly, i never considered a triplane, i can imagine that the wings would need to be clipped because 3 wings creating lift would probably make it fly and feel tail heavy

joizeex

so i lost one of the metal aileron linkages in my apartment [] anyone has any ideas what to use as replacement? i tried searching for some thin steel wire online, but can't quite find something exact.

oldvet70

My Feedback: (10)

If you need some small diameter steel wire go to your local Gunsmith. Any good one will have a very large assortment of the stuff.