Carosel43

That new nose gear looks great! I should get my spinner (at last) this week or early next week and that means I can finally finish mine off. All it needs is c/g, ground runs and u/c checks and its good to go.

Ed Couch

Not much being said on this thread over the last month so I figured I would kick it up a little. I'm about 60 percent complete on an ESM-39 with all major sub assemblies completed. Air vehicle will be electric powered by the 80 by 85 Turnigy on two 6/4500 Lipoly packs. Initial prop will be a 19/12 Beila three bladed carbon fiber prop and is the same power system I use on a large Bononza of over 24 pounds. The new bird should be a little bit lighter so should go like stink in full military. Interior is completed and pilot figure fitted. Presently working on the exhaust stacks which were provided by Keith Sparks of Parkflyer Plastics. With twelve exhaust stacks that must be built to look correct its not a 10 minute cut and fit. Landing gear is the ESM third generation electric with a modified nose gear. A machinist friend worked up a convex and a concave fittings that allows the gear to castor in appearance correctly including the 105 degree correct angle for the nose gear strut and actually allowing the tire to fit completely inside the fuselage. Fitting the doors for the main landing gear this afternoon so all goes as expected. I will do the initial weathering before actual assembly to make it easier to complete. Once it has proven its worth the second cycle of weathering will be completed and probably a third session of weathering will be completed once summer is over and I have a little more time to play. I have followed this and another thread and was able to bypass a number of issues already noted.

Also if anyone is looking for a canopy for the Iron Horse we pulled four new ones of better quality than those from ESM before I did the initial fit. Its normal for all the scale modelers in the area to take the canopies to Sparky and have a mold made once the kit is received. Murpy's law and all that. There are three left as the mold cracked on the last pull. You can contact Keith at http://www.parkflyerplastics.com/cart/. If interested drop him a line. He also does all types of tanks, bombs, and other hardware needed to fit the ship out to an actual war bird.

Photos of modified nose gear attached. If anyone wishes I will drop a few more photos of the work in progress. Its already been done before but will be glad to do it again.

ed

Carosel43

Its all gone quiet for me as im still waiting for a spinner!

I look forward to more pics of your model

Plano78

My Feedback: (39)

Ran into a take off issue with my P-39. The first 3 times it took off were perfect (into about 15 mph wind). The last 2 times (into almost 0 mph wind) she wanted to track heavily to the left (tourque) and it wouldn't respond to rudder. My thought is, in lower winds the rudder isn't as effective and the nose begins to lift so the wheel doesn't help either.

I'm thinking of applying a touch of down elevator until the plane is no longer green and see if I still have positive control with the nose wheel.

Thoughts?

Carosel43

I am surprised there is that much torque effect, what motor are you using again?

Plano78

My Feedback: (39)

DLE-30 with a Xoar 18x8 prop, turning around 7800

NoFlaps

My Feedback: (131)

I've got the PTE35cc in mine and don't recall torque being much of an issue, but I've been having engine troubles, so she hasn't flown in quite some time. I hope to have her going in the next few weeks, so i'll follow up~

hyflyer9

I wouldn't be a bit supprized to find that the problem is in the nose gear steering I had an over steer issue with my ESM p39 until I upgraded to the Sierra nose gear And I am using a DLE 55 with an Xoar 20x10 prop and no torque issues at all .

hyflyer9

Hello folks I am looking for a replacement canopy for my ESM P39 and can not find one in stock at any of the LHC's that I know of Does any one out there have one to sell please get in touch . [email protected] Thanks .

warbird51

My Feedback: (12)

Contact Park Flyer plastics. They have them listed on the web site home page. www. parkflyerplastics.com

Better hurry as he only had 2 left when I ordered mine last week.


Wayne

glazier808

My Feedback: (1)

I got mine from ARFPROS

Casey

hyflyer9

I did order one from arfpros as well but even though the website say's it is in stock it turned out that it's not and is now on back order and I have a war bird rally to go to the end of June they say it will be in sometime in June but can't guarantee it will.

Plano78

My Feedback: (39)

Finally figured out I didn't have my nose wheel properly trimmed (I'm blaming Gremlins). All fixed and flying just fine, lloks good in the air.

AZThud

I finally was able to get around to doing some work on the P-39, seeing as its getting a hot out there staying in and building something seems like a pretty good idea. Iam working towards getting the Airacobra ready for WOR this Sept.

Ihave been doing some work on the cockpit and am just about done with the instrument panel. I cut off the top and made a second upper part that will attach to the front of the cockpit and will protrude above the dash a bit, this is to better match the photo's in the P-39 Detail and Scale book I have. The Seirra nose gear is in and the Lado 666 electric acuator is installed as is the metal geared steering servo. The wings have been stripped of their covering as this plane is being glassed and will have panel lines installed, with some luck they will be similar to the ones moleded into the fuselage. The gear inserts have been left in the box, when Iput in the Seirra main gear, I needed to tighten up the gear door openings, Iused some paper templates to cut out some balsa and glued it on the inside of the opening. This is not finished but its getting there. Iwill make new main doors as the ones in the kit are plywood and warped, servo operated lower gear doors will be installed. Ialso made a mold of the nose gear and will be installing servo operated nose gear doors. Chad also was kind enough to use his laser cutter to make some new servo hatch covers, the fit is perfect and as Iam using rotary drives for flaps and ailerons the bottom of the wing is nice and smooth!!

Here are some pictures of what Ihave been up to.

AZThud

Couple more photo's

Ed Couch

A couple of shots of the Iron Dog setting on its gear for the first time. its about two weeks from first flights at the present rate. I needed to back away a little and slow down so as not to make any mistakes at this time. Signing the red Xs off as I go. The X page has at least 30 items that need to be cleared but that is modeling at its best.

Carosel43

I am still waiting on my spinner! sigh. I think im going to go insane if it takes much longer. Your models are looking great though, and I would like to see some pics of this screw jack for the flaps/ailerons

timbee

Hello

AZThud

Hi Carosel, The RDSsystem is not a jack screw, its a rotary system that use bent wires (wipers) that are turned by the servo, for my ailerons and flaps I used slim wing servo's as they were easier to install. In future Imight use regular servo's mounted sideways, as you know there is room in the 39's wing to do that. Ihave put in a couple of pictures

1) The bits the kit from IRFMachine Works ( http://www.irfmachineworks.com/rds/ ) That site can explain much better than Ican
2) Assembly attached to the Servo Iadded another set screw to hold onto the rotary drive shaft
3) In the plane attached to the aileron, this is the 30 degree wiper at about 3/4 travel, this is about what the manual calls for in deflection.

Ialso complete the lining of the gear well, as I was not going to use the wheel inserts from the kit Ihad to make them a bit smaller and closer to scale, please guys no rulers, it is not 100% scale, but it looks better. The wing is almost ready to be glassed, all the holes under the plastic covering have been filled and the speaker mounts for the benedini sound system 4 inch speakers have been hacked into the wing. These will be covered with 1/8 plywood covers that have had a bunch of holes burned through them, Thanks Chad!!

Carosel43

Hi Thud

That bent wire method is used on DB kits here in the UK. I have found it very sloppy and so don't intend to use it on my Hurricane or Spitfire. that said it all depends on the thickness of the material used.

In other news my spinner is FINALLYhere and installed. I hope to perform some ground runs tomorrow.

AZThud

Hi Carosel, I was a bit worried about these until I bought them and got them in my hands, The wires, (wipers) are 1/8 inch and fit into an aluminum tube,that connects to the servo. The Pocket is made from a formica like material that the wipers just fit into, after a bit of sanding on the wires. The ailerons pockets are glued into the aileron and are surrounded by balsa, the net is these are tight and I wanted them that way. Testing has shown the end to end movement of the aileron is OKand they are more rigid that my conventional ailerons, the flaps are just as rigid. My concern now is wear, and I will put in a bit of light weight grease in the pockets, but for now these are very tight. Time will tell and its something I will be keeping and eye on. The one thing I can do is replace them with a convential setup if they prove to be an issue, and said issue is discovered on the preflight and not the post flight incident review!! Time will tell, but as with anything new will keep an eye on it.

Can't wait to see and hear how the maiden of yours goes and I wish you the best of luck.

Cheers

Carosel43

Well I am hoping that tomorrow is the day my P39 will take to the air. My ground runs were fine and I have the spinner installed (but not painted yet). I will be doing the first flights without the cowling as my cooling arrangement is complex to say the least. As a result I don't want the engine going just as I am getting the thing trimmed out. AUW looks like 20lbs for the moment and balance is set a little nose heavy. I did however remove the ali hub/rubber tyre I had on the nose wheel and substituted a far lighter foam/plastic one as I was having trouble with the C/G and I also didn't want the weight shift when retracting the gear.

In any event I will keep you guys updated

Carosel43

It flew!!! kinda... Ok so there were some problems. First off, torque. It swings like mad and so I will try and put some right thrust in there but I don't hold out much hope. Next it was a touch tail heavy but was manageable and did not cause a problem.

After trimming the model flew well and there was more than enough power with the Laser V twin. the stall seemed benign when I tested it and so I set up for landing. Now I did discover that the model has a strange tendency to drop its nose suddenly at low airspeed. Its not a stall as elevator corrected it but it did seem odd. Anyway 2nd approach was better and the model touched down ok but bounced a little, when it came down again the nose leg hit a large bump and it bounced the model 45 degrees nose up in a split second. No suprises what happened next so, I will stick the nose gear back in (the rails I mounted are solid, it was the esm mounts that broke apart around it!), add some weight to the nose and have another go!

indycustombikes

My Feedback: (11)

I am finally getting started on my p-39, thinking of the mintor 33 I have as a power plant....... wondering what you guys have found fits best and has a little too much power? not sure what size 3 blade prop to run..... I did order the esm v3 electrics and ty's cockpit kit..........

warbird51

My Feedback: (12)

Have you been able to test fly your bird yet? I'm really interested in how it flies with the electric set up.

Wayne