flyboy0608

Listen,...
Learn from our mistakes,.....

I chased this plane for about 4 months until it finally came out and I bought it. I had to decide between this one and the or the Top Flight Mustang and now I wished I had chosen top flight's mustang. I have build many kits, but this was the kit from hell for me. Stay away if you can,...it's not worth the aggravation. In any case, good luck if you do get it. I'm getting rid of mine ASAP ! ! ! !

hidaven

Dear God!!
I'll get the top flite mustang then. Thanks for the heads up!!

-Dave

flyboy0608

LOL,....

Good for you. Until a newer version of the H9 mustang comes out and others give it better ratings, I think the Top Flight mustang is the way to go. Wish I would have done the same. I just burned about $1000 on that plane, and I never even got it off the ground. I've heard nothing but good things about the Top Flight kit. Good luck ! ! !

hidaven

I really want to do it electric. Do you know of anyone who did the conversion?
-Dave

flyboy0608

No I don't, sorry. Let me know how it goes.

erans

Saillfish - So far, with the run-in of the SAITO, it worked fantastic. Started with the slightest starter touch and considering the very reach settings and low idle, it was good. I had it running for 1.5 hours with single fuel fill which was done without the fuel tank being emptied in any of the runs... the one warry I do have is the amount of black oil comming from the breather hole. See the 3rd photo in my original thread... This will be inside the cowl.

As to the cowl holding on with the engine running, I will have to wait and see.

I also had to do some “modification” to get the landing gear into place and obviously had to strengthen the mounting are. Just another annoyance with this “KIT”.

As to my dealing with Horizon Hobbies - I could not get a 90 degree elbow for the exhaust in Australia from their distributor or any of the shops, so I contacted them and enquired regarding buying one directly from them (on the website they sale only in the US). They refused to sell it to me... What else can I say?

zds1

If sailfish can't run a Saito ......any Saito ,then he doesn't know much about engines. Saitos are so easy to start , break-in , and fly , hell I know some people don't even bother to break-in they just fly them, they are that reliable. Sail fish needs a little instruction. The 125 is exceptional ...........aske anyone who is an expierienced RC flyer , they all say the same ...............only beginners that don't know enough will have any problems ,,,,and that would be with any engine........................ ZDS

jet22b

Hey Guys;
There was talk about Top Flite P-51 60 ARF, will, here is a few shots of my baby. I still have some work to do on her, but, the ARF was much better than the Blue Nose P-51. So if you want to save a little money and be happy, go with the Top Flite P-51 60 ARF!!
Like always, this is just my 2 cents!!

Sonny
aka
jet22b

tuantran0107

I had my first flight with my blue nose last weekend with DLE20. it's flies very similary to top flite 60 size, very easy to land with full flap. I don't see any problems with this mustang as people said here. DLE20 is perfect fit in cow with Jtect muffler. I built a top flite 60 arf before. top flite is very good engineer and can be flight straight out of the box but the covered is wrinkle so bad (maybe they fixed it now). The blue nose need to beef up with epoxy and should be the same quality as top flite. I prefered the blue b/c it has better landing gear, panel lines and better covered. After flighing with DLE20 I would never buy another nitro engine.

dionysusbacchus

My Feedback: (25)

To be fair, just give it some time, this was only the first flight. I have flown the TF kit Mustang for a lot of years, and I'm assuming the ARF flies the same way and I would not say they fly the same at all. The wing on the H9 has no washout, with the TF P-51 I can slow it down and keep adding elevator until I have full up elevator and it's nose would start to mush, it is extremely forgiving and stable for a Warbird. The H9 on the other hand will bite you if you are not careful. I have many flights on my H9 P-51 now and was getting very gutsy lets say with it. I was coming out of a loop and started adding elevator a bit to soon before speed had built up (I throttled back at the top) and it snapped and spun towards the ground so fast it startled me. Luckily I was high enough to save it, I got control and pulled out just above the grass. The flaps definitely help with landing, they give the wing a washout effect, but without them watch for the snap! Keep the speed up and becareful with this one...

erans

Another frustrating day with the P-51 Blue Nose. I took it out to the airfield for some more engine tuning and to check how the engine runs inside the cowl. Placing the aeroplane on its wheels on the ground, a gust of wind turned the aeroplane around 90 degree and the back wheel  steering came loose. Obviously the “grub the rudder control link” connection is not up to the task of holding on. On top of that, the back wheel seems to be very soft and with any side pressure (as in steering) looks as the foam part would separate from the plastic hub.

Well, enough is enough, the whole wheel as designed is coming out and I am installing non scale, but workable, tail wheel...

On the same sharp 90 degree turn the cover of one of the main wheels hubs popped out, re-affirming the experience that many others had in this forum that the main wheels will not be capable of the task. I was not intending to even taxi test the aeroplane on these wheels after reading the comments and will wait for my new wheels to arrive.

I have finally made my YouTube debut and posted  (part of) the second Break-in run of the SAITO FG-20 in the Blue Nose. So far, with the exception of the oil running all over the engine bay from the carburettor breather which I have no idea how to resolve, I am happy with the engine. It still left to be seen how it performs in the air.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NuHqohpuaM[/youtube]

flyboy0608

Dear erans,

I feel your pain with this kit. I can show you how to fix the tail wheel problem. You have to buy a "TAIL WHEEL BRACKET " to re-enforce the tail wheel design which truly sucks. Also,..the foam wheel is garbage, you have to buy a stronger wheel which I have copied links to in the bottom as well as added pictures for you to see. I had the same problem and the tail wheel bracket and HARDER new tail wheel did the job GREAT ! ! No more flimsy tail wheel ! ! ! Another thing, the H9 wheels also suck ! ! Get your self another 3.5" set of better quality. Anyway, those are my two cents for you tonight. Good luck. I am selling my blue nose. I just can't take any more disappointments with this plane, and too much money invested already and i haven't even flown it yet,....

Good Luck,

Another frustrated Blue Nose Customer......



Tail Wheel and Tail Wheel Bracket
http://shop.dubro.com/products/categ....5172.5184.0.0[link=http://shop.dubro.com/products/category/TAILWHEELS/BRACKETS/101.0.1.1.5161.5172.5184.0.0]DU-BRO[/link]

erans

flyboy0608 - Thank you for the reply.
I have already ordered the Sullivan Skylite wheels (with Aluminium hubs) for the mains to replace the original rubbish.
As to the tail wheel, I have already modified the "original" setup as much as stop wobbling, but the "grub" of the rudder link is something that I thought will be good enough and just found out that it won't... I have already in my spare parts box a CF tail-wheel assembly similar to the one in the picture (but a bit smaller), so I have decided to modify the Mustang with it. Not scale, but will provide proper steering and ground handling...

Now I am trying to get my hand on suitable video camera to capture the first flight as I have so little confidence that this aeroplane is a "flyer" that I want to make sure I have a good YouTube crash :-) My own camera does not have manual focus and when the aeroplane becomes small in the sky it keeps re-focusing.
Maybe I will be surprised and it fly's well...

erans

<style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }</style>

OK, I got the aeroplane to its natural position (disassembled on the bench for repairs / modification) and had another look at the tail wheel assembly. I think that I can blame the recent steering issue on myself, not providing enough "flat" for the steering horn screw to sit against and therefore the the wheel was steering uncontrollably. This is now fixed, and I have also replaced the pathetic foam tail-wheel with DU-BRU 1-1/4” Tail-wheel (Cat. No 125TW) and had to drill the centre to larger diameter to fit. Finally the whole Tail-wheel assembly give me some confidence. I will have to wait and see how the aeroplane taxi to be fully convinced it is all resolved.
One other modification at the tail wheel area to allow easy access to the wheel collar screw (the wheel collar that holds the tail-wheel from falling off by gravity) was to drill a hole on the side of the aeroplane where a black dot was on the covering. This probably saved 1/2 hour of frustration trying to access this screw.

I have also removed the fuel tank to see how far the oil spill from the carburettor breather travels inside (attached picture). Not good... I have coverd with epoxy the whole fuel tank bay so it will not soak into the wood too quickly and hopefully will drain from the holes I have at the bottom.

erans

After few weeks delay due to different reasons (mostly weather), I finally took my P-51 for it's test flight with very little hope it will fly well. The C.G was set at the 117mm point.
Taxi - You will need a perfectly smooth surface... The P-51 will nose over on the slightest of bump...
Flight - The aeroplane flew amazing, with two clicks right aileron required for hands off flight. Once the wheels were retracted, down trim was required.
Stall test - without flaps I was amazed how slow the P51 can fly. when it finally stalled, it was slow nose down with slow roll to the right. It was very easy to get out off with power and pull out of the dive.
Stall with flaps - It kept flying and flying at almost zero speed (but with some good head wind) covering such huge distance that when it finally stalled it was in the morning sun... With the silver colour covering it was very hard to see and my recovery attempt got it into another stall that ended in nose-in crash (see photos). Engine, receiver, battery packs and many other bits and pieces destroyed (~$1,000US). Completely my fault letting it go that far into the sun, nothing wrong with the aeroplane...

After absolutely hating this aeroplane while building (and still holding the opinion it is a rubbish kit), Iwas very pleasantly surprised by the flying qualities. The SAITOFG-20 was perfect match and if it didn't have the "oil spill" issue as described before, Iwould highly recommend it.

Iwill check if the video footage was any good and if yes I will post a link.

dionysusbacchus

My Feedback: (25)

Sorry for your loss.

Elevator induced stall, exactly what I was talking about. The plane will fly slow, on landing you can flair all day down the length of the runway, but excessive or abrupt elevator input will induce a vicious snap and spin. My Top Flite does not have this problem, I fly all maneuvers with the H9 P-51 with caution.

Also the flaps will always cause the plane to nose over on landing, at touchdown I immediately raise the flaps and the tail comes down.

jet22b

erans;
I am also sorry for your lost. Sound like you was happy in the first part of your maiden flight, but, I think you would love the Top Flite P-51 60ARF. The build was sweet and flying is great!! I am not talking bad about the Hangar 9 P-51 Blue Nose, down the road I may pick up another one!! I know alot of people who have this plane and know about the bad things, love it!!! Please don't let this crash keep you from the P-51 Warbird!! I just finsh the Hangar 9 Spitfire 60ARF and now waiting on a custom build muffler system, ( see link below), to come in.
http://www.keleo-creations.com/index...products_id=55
Get back into the air soon!!!

Sonny
aka
jet22b

flyboy0608

Erans,..

As a H9 P51 owner, I am sorry to see your maiden went bad at the end. It sounds like you had finally fixed her problems. Ranging from tail wheel to retract system, it is all too well known for us H9 owners on this model. I too as I wrote on my previous posts, have had problems with this kit and after 6 months of fixing these kit problems, I finally figured it all out and got her in the air today for her maiden flight. I have to say that I was not expecting it to be a successful flight. But she proved me wrong ! ! ! This bird has her problems at first with the build, but when in the air,..she flies like a beauty. I had to adjust and give it some down elevator cause she wanted to head up into the stars, but once i leveled her out, it was smooth sailing from there. I had given up on this plane. I am glad that I gave her one last shot before I scraped her up. When I went to post my results, I saw your post as well. Jet22 is right, the Top Flight kit is a better build, but these two birds fly very well when in the air.

Anyway, I have a question for you. I was wondering if your RETRACT STRUTS survived the crash. I damaged one of mine during the build process and managed to make it work for the flight but I am scared that it wont hold for long. They are worth $15for both at H9 but they have been out of stock for about a year now, and I don't know when they will have them at all. IF you no longer need them, and they are undamaged, Is there anyway that you can ship me your struts and I will pay you for the shipping if necessary. This will be greatly appreciated from one H9 P51 customer to another. Please let me know if we can work this out. Either way,..good luck with your future builds ! !

Alex

oldtimer4759

Hi all,
I was happy with the way mine flew, it died, but not a fault of the kit, the throttle linkage came apart on mine and it went back to idle, didnt quite clear some trees at the field, but I did like flying it, it has a bad tendency to snap if you give them too much elevator, slow or fast,
as for the retracts, have a look at this site, they look the same to me. http://www.shindinmachine.com/

happy flying, Oldtimer.

erans

Thank you everybody for the kind words. As I said, she went down with no fault of her own (and not as per the comment regarding "abrupt elevator input will induce a vicious snap and spin" as it was not the case here). Pure pilot error of getting to close to the sun while doing my "full flaps stall test"... Once she did drop, the silver colour didn't contribute to orientation and I lost her... I should have known better

Alex -I will have a look (hopefully tonight) at the remains (in two rubbish bags at the moment) and see if the U/C survived the impact and will get back to you.

I am in the process of constructing a BF-109 from Fliteskin (http://www.fliteskin.com/index.htm). I was hoping that the P-51 will be a nice "introduction" to warbirds which it probably could have been... Iwill see what other options I have before deciding my next project. The last thing I want is another extremely law quality kit like this H9 P-51.

dionysusbacchus

My Feedback: (25)

I was making a guess no doubt based on the above comment, now you are saying:

So I am now completely unsure about what happened with your flight. But my advice to be careful with elevator input is based on many flights over 6 months with this plane (I've been flying it almost every weekend), it flies great but it has a demon. I would never buy one and I only have this one because I got it half price, if I paid $300 for this ARF I would be very upset.

flyboy0608

Thanks Erans,

I appreciate anything you can do for me. I have attached a picture of the part I need in case you were wondering exactly which one it was. They are usually protected from damage even during a crash. Please let me know.

Alex

flyboy0608

Thanks Erans

I appreciate anything you can do for me in this case. I have attached a picture of the part that I need in case you weren't sure.

Alex

Sorry,..Some how I sent this message twice,....

erans

<xml><w:worddocument><w:view></w:view></w:worddocument>dionysusbacchus - What happened is as follows:
The test flight was conducted at 8:30AM and the sun at that time is still reasonably low here at this time of year (Perth, Australia). The sun was to my left just off the runway alignment. I was checking the stall speed with flaps deployed and was fully immersed in it quite amazed at how slow I can get her. Slowly she travelled through the sky advancing from right to left until the sun was actually in my peripheral vision. When she did stall, all I could see is reflection of the sun on the silver colour and then "black" as "shadow side" was towards me.
I did manage to level her briefly, but she was "under the sun" and all I could see is black shadow. I had to turn it as I was suspecting she is flying towards the pit area, and she stalled again this time too low to be recovered. Sorry for the lack of details in my early post.

Alex - I had a look at the U/C yesterday. One looks ever so slightly bent and one (I think) is OK. I will send you e-mail through the site with my active e-mail address (different to the one posted on my profile) and we will take this off line.

</xml>

flyboy0608

Thanks erans,..

Just sent you an email with my address. I know how bad it probably got with the sun and stuff and your plane. I hate flying so early. Just the other day,..on her maiden flight,..she was far away and the sun's glare on her fuselage tricked me. I didn't know whether she was going left or right. Luckily for me, i guessed right,...but it was close there for a second. I am planning to take her out Friday again. This time I plane to take pics and video which I will post for you guys.

Alex