bacon104

Wheel wells...green fabric needs a little trimming after the pic, but looks better than before.

RBean

Like Paint-boy, I also have a kit built 60size Top Flite P-40. Its heavy at about 12 lbs 3 oz. I also installed a DLE 20 and that is adequate power. I have over 120 flights on this plane but compaired to other warbirds I have it does not fly very well. I put a small stall strip on the right wing which taimed its vicious stall charateristics. Before, in landing configuration, gear and flaps down in a stall, it would snap left to inverted and go straight down. Now stalls straight ahead. It has too much dihydral, does not want to stay in a bank, rolls are funky unless you work real hard. Going up, must hold right rudder, throttle back going down, left rudder etc. Put in mix for left rudder with throttle back, two other mixes which I can't even remember now. If its windy it fish tails etc. I can make it look like its flying ok, but its work.

Used a BH Cowl modified so now its a P-40C, sort of. Thanking about retiring this turkey, getting the ARF and taking all my hardware out and installing in the ARF. From the reports here it seems the ARF flys better. I compaired the drawings closely. Seems the ARF has less dihydral, slightly shorter nose, slightly longer tail? and is probably lighter. Using CJ retracts. I suppose the ARF could be modified to accept them. Do the ARFs fly ok? Is it worth while to do this?

raptureboy

I have the arf with the DLE in it and it flies great. I had no problems at all with it. The rolls were very slow on the recommended low rates but switching to high solved that. Landing is a non event drop gear then flaps and she drops in real nice. Your not far from our club www.tcws.org and we are having a open fun fly 6/9, free food. Your invited if you would like and you can see for yourself how she flys.

RBean

I may take you up on that. I'll bring some planes including the turkey.

orthodoc

Hey guys, 

raptureboy

Great!We would love to have you. If I'm not mistaken; don't you have the PT- 17 also? Iseem to remember that from the thread. PMif you decide to come out.

Aluminum Overcast

Hello, Fellas...


Have not posted here in a while. Flying season is here and in addition I have continued to add details to my P40 arf. Below are a few pics. I am working on this thing heavily as we have our warbird event coming up on the 16th of the month at the PAMC field here in Michigan. Club website is PMAC.us and contains the event flyer and maps to the field if you can make it. As always, it will be an event to remember.

Regarding the arf vs. the kit: I have both, in fact, you can see the kit wing hanging on the wall in some of the pics below. Both use similar parts on the build but the arf does have some mods that make it fly better. I believe the wing is thicker on the arf and a lot of it's flying advantage is from this. Flaps are more scale on the kit version and less prone to warp as is the trailing edge of the wing directly above. Fuse front is handled differently as well. Lighter wood seems to be used in the arf overall. Ever seen the kit version fly? I have. Looks great at speed but has some very nasty tendencies for high speed snap even on a fast final aproach. you must use flaps here! arf has less of this problem, actually, I think with some practice you may even be able to land without flaps at all. I have also seen the old, non Gold Edition version fly....for a very short time due to even more tendency to high speed snap which resulted in a HUGE crash at which time the pilot said "Good, I'm glad it's finally over." This was from a long time, excellent pilot in both instances!

Aluminum Overcast

More pics...

Aluminum Overcast

MORE....


This plane flies very well but it is no sport plane...If you want that get an old Hanger 9 P40. Looks are okay and fairly scale until you put it next to the far more scale Top Flight but at only 8 or 9 pounds, you can really fly that H9 like a fun fly. At our field, I have seen many H9 and TF P40s fly over the years. All are completely different animals although the new TF arf is far more civilized than the kit built versions.

RBean

Aluminum Overcast, that is about what I thought. I have several other warbirds, some fly better than others, but the kit build Top Flite P-40 is the worst. It is so much work to fly that it just is not fun. Not long ago, I almost lost it turning from down wind to final. Got it too slow in a bank with gear and flaps down, and it just fell. Didn't snap, because of the stall strip on the right wing, just fell. I thought "well its over". No big loss but I didn't want to mess up the engine. Recovered at about five feet altitude. Now I keep the turns to final wider, less bank and more power. I have about made up my mind that it is time for this plane to retire before I destroy the equipment in it.

Your plane looks great. Great work. Watch out for those trees.

raptureboy

A couple of pics of the Real Deal from ww2 wkend in Reading Pa this wkend. Great details AO! But way too much work for me anymore for a 60 size plane. Flying at 200 ft up youbarley see the planelet alone all those cool details. But I agree she is a sweet flyer and with the DLE 20 it's a rocket ship looking for a place to blast off to. Had mine outlast eve, a perfect day, no wind and blue sky with puffy clouds Beanhope you come out Sat to our flyin. We are inviting guys from local clubs to come out and then they will do the same atalater date. Trying tobuild new relationships and find new places to fly.Only bummer yesterday was the robart gear twisted on the last flight and bent the links But I have spares.

jet22b

Now that the way to see this bird!!! Sitting in a cold hangar is okay, but to see it out on the flight line and them come to life. Rolling down the t-way to the runway and then into the air, take you back to the days, when young men would do this and hope they make it back. Thanks for sharing the pictures too!!
Sonny
aka
jet22b

Aluminum Overcast

Always love to see new pics of the full scale warbirds....Thanks for sharing those!

Regarding the details: It's true that at 200 feet details won't show but, that goes even for the full scale too! We all take part in this hobby and its particular facets for different reasons. For me, when the model comes by on a low (head high or so) pass dipping a wing as is passes and climbs skyward is about as good as it gets, all the while looking and sounding similar to the full scale is most important to me. We shoot a lot of HD video and High res digital photos on these as they pass and You do see many details this way....I don't want to see mufflers, cylinder heads other modeling stuff hanging off the airframe, nor do I want to hear any electric prop/ motor noise (sorry, don't mean to offend the electric guys). All I want to see is the detail at any distance that the full scale has. Then you add a few of your buddies doing the same thing right next to you in formation and that is what it is all about, for me. In addition, this and other models I have built, are a test ship for some ideas I have had regarding reproducing details, hiding modeling stuff, and the challenge of flying a very heavy warbird (I fly her at 14lbs!). All that is in prep for a larger Zero with all details here as well as a radial engine to boot and an even larger (210") multi engined bomber I plan to build in time, again with radials. All the smaller stuff and detail work are simply stepping stones and in prep for a goal that demand prior experience and achievement. Again, this is a personal goal of mine and don't mean to imply others goals are less valid.


Cheers,
Geo

raptureboy

+1 on that AO. It's all about the fun you have in this hobby. I hope Ididn't come across the wrong way. Iprefer to just do the little things witharfs anymore, it's so much work undoing all the mistakes of the manufacturer that I find it easier to build it right from the start.I have a TF p-47 I'm building from a kit and I am planning on adding all the details to that one. Already have the scale hinging done and a retractable tail wheel in the right location, scratch gear doors etc..I modified the wing to relocate the gear to the correct position and on and on. Your skills are way ahead of mine though, and your attention to detail shows, great work! Here are a few more for your pleasure.

RBean

I had already to decided to retire my kit built TF P-40 because it didn't fly very well. I was flying it earlier this week when the engine just quit. Like someone switched off the ignition. It was on down wind leg but this plane was so heavy with such a high wing loading, I couldn't get turned 180 degrees to land on the runway. When I tried to tighten up the turn a little it started to try to roll in the opposite direction so I had to reduce the bank and lower the nose. Landed in the corn. Just minor damage. Broken prop, cowl and landing gear plastic pod broken.

The engine is ok. It quit because the prop came loose. I had used an alumium nut and was afraid to tighten too much and strip it. I'm removing all the equipment and installing in something else.

raptureboy

Time for a new one http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...0&I=LXYYC9&P=K I boinked mine on Sunday in a cross wind landing. I no sooner got off the ground than the wind began to kick up to a full 90 deg cross wind at 10-12 mph.Istayed up for as long as I could and made several passes trying to get her on the runway, almost losing her one time when see settled on the runway and then popped back up and I was able to gun her and come back around. Finally got a short lull in the wind speed and tried it again and just at touch down she got hit again with a gust and twisted sideways a little which caused the gear on one side to twist and she went tail over nose. Bent the gear links and cracked the cowl pretty goodBut other than that no other damage. I'm amazed at the strength of the tail section, as it flipped pretty hard onto the rudder. She is definitely a good flyer and when you open up the DLE Whew! My flying buddy has a kit still on the shelf and I suggested he sell it and buy the ARF instead. I wish I could afford the Sierra gear the Robarts just will not handle any sideways torque.

RBean

Yes I thought about it. I a member of Tower "sucker club" so I can get $50 off a $300 purchase. If I could take off another $15 would be $275. Not bad. But I decided to change sides and got the Flight Models KI 61 Tony. 71" wing span. Its built light and should have a low wing loading. The DLE 20 should be plenty of power. Then I can go chase P-40s.

raptureboy

Awesome Man!bring it on.

Aluminum Overcast

Hey guys,

Hope your summer flying has been great!

I have been doing some flying myself, but mostly with our little phase3 F16 edf jets, huge fun with a group of about 7 or 8 flying formation! Good practice for the warbird formation flying too. I wish I could say I have been flying my P40 but my YS120ac developed a surging issue at full throttle early this year that was impossible to deal with on my own so, back to YS for a piston porting mod and new ring. From what they told me this is a known issue with this engine but the porting resolves it. While the engine was out I was able to finish paint, print and apply custom decals I made and do final weathering to my P40. Engine was back to me very fast (I can't really say enough about the great service I got from YS). Since it's been back I have had about 6 flights with the model. The engine is re-breaking in on the ring so just last Tuesday I went from a 16X8 3 blade to a 16X10 3 blade. the model rolls out and accelerates much faster than before. The prop still goes supersonic but no where near as much as the 16X8. We all love the sound that thing makes on fast flybys! Last few things to do will be a cockpit gun sight and over the winter rig a bomb drop for the aux fuel tank the full scale was so commonly seen with. Hope your builds and enjoyment of flying this model is great for you too, challenging at times but very rewarding when flown well too.

Aluminum Overcast

Here's a few more...

Chad Veich

My Feedback: (60)

Stunning AO, really nice craftsmanship. Best of luck with her in the future.

Super Kupfer

Hi guys, have you seen the new OS GT22.

Antoinebobrob

Hey Guys, I ordered a P40 on Tower Hobbies. I am planning on using the O.S 110 Pumped or the O.S 120 Pumped. I am using Robarts on this one. I hope it all goes well

raptureboy

Good luck with the Robarts. If your flying off grass they tend to fold up on you. If you can swing the money go with the Sierra precision gear, well worth the money and frustration from having to repair your plane and fix the gear each time they collapse.

CorsairJock

My Feedback: (90)

I've had many successful takeoffs and landing with Robart 615s, almost exclusively on grass runways, and have NEVER had them 'fold up'.
Sierra is not without issues either: they don't rotate linear (most of the rotation occurs within the 1st half of retraction).

In my opinion tho, for the P-40: Lado retracts set-up for 3/16" dia strut wires are the best way to go.
BTW: I have a such a set for sale: $150 shipped. I installed Robart #102 mechanical rotating retracts in mine, but wish I had gone with the Lados.