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VQ P-38 - 10/30/2012 7:39 PM   
SJN



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Status: online 		I just bought a VQ P-38

Just unpacked it, and it seems like a very nice ARF


Anyone out there still flying theirs ?
What should I expect the all up weight be with retracts installed ?

Planning on installing Saito 72`s in it.

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RE: VQ P-38 - 10/31/2012 10:53 AM   
Scott Douglas



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http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_8079924/anchors_8079924/mpage_1/key_/anchor/tm.htm#8079924

I built the YT/KMP one.. had to do all the weathering/rivets myself. Flies on 2x OS 70's



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RE: VQ P-38 - 10/31/2012 4:13 PM   
SJN



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Status: online 		Thanks for the link Scott, that will help.

Nice P-38 you have there.
I also had the KMP/ESM some years ago, but it did not fit in my car very well, so I sold it before flying it.


But the guy I sold it to had a few flights, and it flew realy well......until one of the spinners loosened up during flight, and that engine quit.......and you can guess the rest.

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RE: VQ P-38 - 11/1/2012 12:46 AM   
cosmo21


 

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Status: offline 		Hey man, check mine out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4V0XZjAG6Q&feature=g-crec-u

Really nice flying plane. Had 2 OS 55 AX'x in it.
Lost her when I lost an engine at the bottom of a loop, with tail wind. High induced drag ect ect. Cut the other engine immediatelly on confirmation. Almost made it home. Ended in a tip stall.....

Fowler flaps were a pain to set up, with all the crazy bellcranks and frames and things. Once all the binds were out and were reliable(took awhile) they were fine. I was dubious howd they would work in the air as there was some play in the system, but in operation, worked flawlesslly. So dont stress to much if this is the case for you bro.

Weight was 8.2 kg dry.
Once again a very nice stable flyer. Wish I stll had mine.

Matt

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RE: VQ P-38 - 11/1/2012 6:55 PM   
SJN



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Status: online 		Nice video Matt, it seemed very well powered on the 55`s

Tha manual says that the flaps are allready set up at the factory
Mine deffinatly need a little atention, and I have been opperating and checking them manualy for smoothe operation.
2 of the small metal pushrods that are glued into the plastic tubes that actuace the flap where loos in mine, so they needed to be re-glued.
Other than that, it all looks good.

8.2kg........bummer.
I was hoping to get it at max 7kg, as I could keep it under the large model weight limit we have here........but that seems impossible to achieve if I would have to shave off over 1 kg.
Manual says 6.4 to 7.2 kg

I would also realy like to install a sepperate servo in the outer wing panels for the flap, so I can ditch the mechanical flap link
I will be taking the outer wings off every time for transport.

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RE: VQ P-38 - 11/1/2012 7:33 PM   
kram



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Status: offline 		Happy to see you got one.

Where did you get it?

VQ is smaller than the Ziroli or Yellow design, but a much more docile flyer and lander than either of them

The ingenious Fowlers really do serve to slow it and lift it during landing

I have owned and flown 3.

I lost the first one on it's 8th flight in 2004 to a pilot error so foul I can't mention it here without cursing

My green one flew for 6 years, over 130 flights before succumbing to right aileron flutter (servo mount broke loose) last August.

My last remaining VQ-38, flying with O.S.'s also had a little nose gear scuff-up this summer, but will be flying shape again soon. It also has more than 100 flights on it.

THE SECRETS TO LONGEVITY of my two VQ's are simple:

1) Neither engine on neither plane ever quit running....OS 61 2-strokes and OS .72 FS's
2) I fitted them both with Robart's robust 630 and 639 retract gear from the very beginning: that's $300+ upgrade, but worth it many times over
3) During assembly, I made sure to reinforce many sorta weak things like the servo mounts and the crappy foreign hardware: obviously, that may have come back to bite me in the end on the green one, combined with old wood and glue and fatigue

Happy flying

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RE: VQ P-38 - 11/1/2012 7:38 PM   
SJN



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Status: online 		Thanks for the info, and very nice landing gear

They are on sale in the UK for 200 £ reduced from 300£
http://www.hobbystores.co.uk/default.asp?WPG=HOB_HomePage1&PageNumber=2&s=c:0,c:030,b:VQModels

They ship international

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RE: VQ P-38 - 11/1/2012 7:51 PM   
kram



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I'm about due for a fresh one!

Here's a video of my green one flying 5 years ago. The .61 2-strokes give it more speed than the .70 FS's


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=V5ndsHN7hE8




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RE: VQ P-38 - 11/1/2012 8:09 PM   
kram



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Status: offline 		I and more importantly samparfitt, both did construction threads a long time ago on RCU

You probably don't need us.

Assembly is pretty straightforward, esp for an experienced builder like you.

Weight: gotta get out my calculator so y'all will understand me....

My green one was 7.6 kg

White one almost 8.6

They both fly and land just fine

I have found that once you cross over into P-38 insanity, you can abandon all hope of keeping wing-loading down


mt

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RE: VQ P-38 - 11/1/2012 11:54 PM   
evan-RCU



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Status: online 		Not sure if anyone is interested but I have a low hour first version KMP I wouldn't mind selling with 2 stroke .75's. Excellent flyer.

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RE: VQ P-38 - 11/3/2012 3:27 PM   
SJN



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Status: online 		I dont have any hardware for it yet, but I just dry fitted the parts, and it goes together ok.

The upper cockpit fiberglass canopy deck was realy out of shape, and was verry dificult to get right.
I had to warm it up with my heatgun, and shape it to make it fit nice.
It turned out ok.

Overall, it looks nice

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RE: VQ P-38 - 11/10/2012 3:53 AM   
cosmo21


 

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Status: offline 		Yeah the fit and finish on this plane is pretty poor. I also had to reform the fibreglass parts to fit.

She'll end up tail heavy too, I think I put 300grams of lead shot or more in the nose.
Still flew really well at 8.2 kg, so dont fear. Only fear engine failure.

Matt

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RE: VQ P-38 - 11/10/2012 1:45 PM   
JL1


 

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Status: offline 		I had one for a while. It flew very well but on landing it had a sink rate like an elevator. I kept bending gear struts and finally gave up on it as I did not want to spend the money to upgrade the gear.

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RE: VQ P-38 - 11/10/2012 7:17 PM   
SJN



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Status: online 		Thanks , im on the lookout for some tough gear to take the weight, and abuse from our grass field.

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RE: VQ P-38 - 11/13/2012 2:26 AM   
rlinus


 

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Status: offline 		I have just purchased one of these from a hobby shop in England. I live in the USA and couldn't find it anywhere in the states. I haven't started to build it yet but the kit seems ok to me. I'll go over it with epoxy before I start the build. Having trouble deciding on the power plant. I was thinking either OS 72 or 95 four stroke. I noticed in some of the photos the engines were mounted sideways. I was thinking inverted like the instructions show. What are you guys using for retracts? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

< Message edited by rlinus -- 11/13/2012 7:07 PM >

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RE: VQ P-38 - 11/13/2012 4:06 PM   
drifter



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quote:

ORIGINAL: rlinus

I have just purchased one of these from a hobby shop in England. I live in the USA and couldn't find it anywhere in the states. I haven't started to build it yet but the kit seems ok to me. I'll go over it with epoxy before I start the build. Having trouble deciding on the power plant. I was thing either OS 72 or 95 four stroke. I noticed in some of the photos the engines were mounted sideways. I was thinking inverted like the instructions show. What are you guys using for retracts? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks


Here is a pic of mine with Saito 100s for power. (Inverted)

I used Springair retracts.

Plane flew great all the way to the crash site.  It just rolled gently to the right while on final. I think a flap linkage came loose . No snap, just a gentle turn and crash.

How long did it take to get the plane fron England?

drifter



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Why do they call it "dead weight" if it keeps your airplane alive?

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RE: VQ P-38 - 11/13/2012 5:55 PM   
rlinus


 

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Status: offline 		If it wasn't for Sandy it would have been about a week. Took about 10 days from order to front door.

< Message edited by rlinus -- 11/13/2012 7:08 PM >

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RE: VQ P-38 - 11/13/2012 7:10 PM   
rlinus


 

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Status: offline 		Like the picture of the CG machine, that was going to be another one of my questions. How did you put it on the great planes CG machine? Looks like right side up.

< Message edited by rlinus -- 11/14/2012 2:18 AM >

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RE: VQ P-38 - 11/13/2012 7:59 PM   
drifter



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ORIGINAL: rlinus

Like the picture of the CG machine, that was going to another one of my questions. How did you put it on the great planes CG machine? Looks like right side up.


It was more stable balancing it upright.

With a shoulder wing plane the most mass is under the wing.



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RE: VQ P-38 - 11/14/2012 2:24 AM   
rlinus


 

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Status: offline 		Sorry for all the questions, but I would like to know how you mounted the wings. Did you make the tips removable so that the center section stays attached to the booms? Just looking for someone who has built this plane more recently? Most of the post seem several years old.

Thanks

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RE: VQ P-38 - 11/17/2012 11:02 PM   
kram



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Status: offline 		SJN: I didn't build my VQ's recently, but I do have over 200 consecutive landings on this gear upgrade without a failure. Maybe 50% of those on grass


http://www.robart.com/products/90-deg-pneumatic-main-retracts-robostrut-ready-1

http://www.robart.com/products/100-deg-pneumatic-nose-retract-robostrut-ready-1

http://www.robart.com/products/716-dia-straight-robostrut

http://www.robart.com/products/716-dia-lh-offset-robostrut-2-34-3-wheel

Note the nose strut is left-handed on a P-38

Looks like all that is about $420 in 2012 dollars. Whew!

All I can say is it's nearly as important to have good gear as to have two engines that will never quit. Otherwise, the story doesn't have a happy ending, as per JL1's post above.

rlinus: Due to the conformation of the scale cowls, it sure would look cooler with inverted engines, but I never could trust inverted glow engines to run 100% of the time. Then, if one of them quits, things aren't gonna look cool at all. A friend of mine is converting his to small gas engines to solve that problem. He hasn't flown it yet

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RE: VQ P-38 - 11/17/2012 11:18 PM   
SJN



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Status: online 		Thanks for the link to all the gear.

Unfortunatly, Robart gear is very hard to get over here, so I would have to order from the US

25$ shipping + 25$ custom fee + 118$ in tax fee = 588$

588 $ is a little more than I want to pay, when I only gave 330$ for the airplane shipped to my door.


Only option is to get something available here




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RE: VQ P-38 - 11/17/2012 11:22 PM   
rlinus


 

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Status: offline 		Great info, thanks! What engines did you use on yours? I have a pair of the new OS 95's. I am having difficulty with the flap set up, what a PIA they are. Any tips?

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RE: VQ P-38 - 11/18/2012 2:52 PM   
kram



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Status: offline 		SJN: Ouch!. Robart has some cheaper gear that would work, but doesn't sound like it would be much cheaper for you. When I put my first VQ-38 together, I tried some gear that came with the kit, then some beefed-up Spring-Airs. Neither one looked or worked very well. That's when I researched and changed them all to Robarts.

Do you have a Euro-equivalent of Robarts? The gear I use are not that fancy: the nose gear is steerable, but doesn't have to be 100-degree: can just be 90 like the mains. The dimensions of the Robart trunions work well in this plane and can be obtained on the "diagram" part of their website.

Sierra I'm sure has something in that size range, but I doubt they would be cheaper

rlinus: 95's will be PLENTY of power. Two or four stroke? That big of an engine will not tend to have the peak rpm's of a smaller engine, so you can be happy with a nice scale speed, or work on fitting a larger-pitched prop. Ground clearance won't allow more than about 12" diameter. Watch out for short run time on the standard fuel tanks. I put OS 91 2S's on my VQ 61, so I replaced the tanks with larger Graupners, but those won't fit in the VQ-38.

Funny I don't remember the sliding flaps being much trouble at all. I hooked them up with a pair of JR 791 retract servos and I never take the wing tips off: saves wear and tear and hassle, but does force me haul them in a trailer. 8 or 9 years ago, TwinMan designed a home tool to disconnect the ball joint easily and atraumatically for wing tip disassembly.

I wonder if the kits you guys bought are old (I don't think they've had a production run for at least 6 years) and the flap mechanisms are corroded or dry. I've never had any trouble with them: maybe the oil from my exhausts keeps them greased.

Some brands of retract servos, JR 791's included, simply DON'T WORK at 6 volts. Not sure why: they just don't. That's not part of your problem, is it?

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RE: VQ P-38 - 11/18/2012 3:07 PM   
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Status: offline 		They are the newer fs-95v 4 strokes. I don't have them installed yet. What would you recommend? As far as old kits go, I bought this from a site in the UK. They went out of stock and then came back into stock shortly after. Maybe they just have a bunch in a warehouse somewhere. I heard they are hard to come by due to licensing issues with Lockheed Martin.

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