darnold

Yeah Avindair, I'm hoping to get one or two more flights in later this week or next week, of course this reminds me that I have to get that final round or two of golf in over the next week or two as well. [8D]

The RC Racing Indoor Carpet season is upon me and it's bad enough that I am going to miss the first big race in Las Vegas. Now I have to tune up for the Halloween Classic and we'll see if I finally make it to Snowbirds in Feb. 07 before going to the Carpet Nationals and hopefully there will be another Regionals Championship to boot.

With all of that said man do I love flying my P51, and I'm going to miss flying it a little during the winter but spring will be sweet, golf and rc flying. [8D]

With the sluggish activity on this thread I was starting to think that people were no longer interested in their PZ P51's. Maybe they had "retired" them permenantly in the old hangar on the farm for love of some other bird or because they were tired of some of the "little nags" that this warbird can have.[8D]

Guss34

You don't fly in winter??? Why??? I am new in RC and I planned to fly this winter, is there any problems with theses aircrafts, motor or battery? I love my P-51 but after 17 flights I broke two propeller in a row! On on rought landing but the other on a perfect landing... and I am sure that I cut the motor just before touching down. I heard about some guys trying the four blade from Hobbylobby (fs-400), can I use it with the stock motor?
Thanks.

darnold

Guss- I'm not one of the experts like GlasierG, Libertairian, Marshman, etc. but there are some post regarding this change such as the following that I found for you after a bunch of searches:

1. Very much doubt you would get decent performance out of the 4- blade prop using the stock motor. A brushless has more ooomph and allows the less efficient 4- blade to do the job. Remember, in smaller rc planes, the more blade s you have, really the more inefficient it is. The larger the plane, the less backwash that the preceeding blade has to fight through to get a bite of air. A 4 blade looks really good and scale, but unless you got a motor to turn it fast enough, your not gonna get good performance.

ALSO:

2. Hey,
The Stang on Hobby Lobby's site is similar to PZ's, and it's running a 10 x7 4 blade prop.(part # FS400 $5.00)
Hmmmmmmmmmm, maybe I'll hack one into my Mega version.
It's a Mustang for goodness sake, gotta have a 4 blade .

ALSO:

3. L/S,
According to David @PZ, the Jug prop is more of an all around design, low to high speeds, where as the Stang version is more of a low speed design.
The Stang version puts out about 1.6 oz of additional thrust, but also pulls a little more amp wise.

ALSO:

4. BTW for you 4 blade prop fans I'll be using a 4 blade Pt #FS400 (from Hobby Lobby) Brand name is a VrTule 226. It's a 9x7 with smaller low drag blade s that should (I think) keep amp draw down.
Comes as a hub and 4 seperate blade s. Nice, if you damage a blade you can replace it vs replacing the whole prop.

Thanks,
Richard
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Probably even better I've read are two others props to try. One is from the PZ/HZ/E-Flight family itself as used on the E-Flight P47 (referred to in #3) if I am not wrong, just check the thread somewhere between pages 30-70 maybe but even better do a quick search. The other prop that some have used is a fiberglass prop from APS??? that many use on GWS warbirds (they also use the PZ P51 prop). Again you can do a quick search.

Hope this helps

Guss34

Thanks darnold! Very interresting, thanks again!

darnold

No problem, glad to help. Guss I had not thought about flying her during the winter so that might be a possibility. The biggest thing for me are the 20+ wind gusts that we can get which is what I'm having to watch out for now.

Today was calm and about 67deg F. (I live about 20miles outside of Chicago).We got a break in the weather here and it was a Beautiful day today so Mrs. DeeDee went up. After a few minutes on low rates while I was making sure that the CA'ed pinion and elevator hinge fixes checked out and that the wing fix was still holding fine I decided to switch her to high rates. I took a gulp and did some rolls, first to the left and then to the right and everything worked fine. [8D]

Then I gulped again and did another roll but added down elevator while she was inverted to keep her axial and she had no problems with the added stress. I then pulled some nice tight turns putting her on her wing and pulling up elevator and she either didn't loose altitude or she lost very little.[8D]

Finally I could tell she was loosing battery although she was still under plenty of control so I brought her in for a soft, wonderful landing. Prop, gears, and all in fine shape. Then while I held her in my hand I ran her at full throttle for about another minute before she started to audibly slow to about 1/2 power and then within another minute she was down to about 1/4 power and just draining residual juice (this is how I check how close I came to running her "dry"). [8D]

Next flight plan: Under high rates do a couple of normal inside loops and at the top of the second one input full down elevator and see if she pulls the outside loop "over the top" if she doesn't want to make it then I will roll her out, push some down elevator, cut some throttle to not over speed her and regain control. However, even if she does pull the outside loop under this circumstance I will NOT attempt an outside loop from normal level flight as that got me a destroyed plane last time!!!!!!!! I still haven't implemented the fix for elevator rod flex! Hopefully this will be a safe way of see how she handles this type of a manuever.
Hopefully the weather will be good over the next week or two and I will get some more flights on her.

60buick

I'm about to start flying combat with my P-51 has anyone else done the same? If so what were the results?


The planes I am going against are WW2 planes the same size with gas powered .15's. I have an Eflight Brushless 10 with the 2100 lipo and it has the same top speed they do with the added bonus that since the Mustang is much lighter I can fly slower and even cut my engine all together which is usful when you need to be behind the plane you are attacking. I filled the wing and fuse with Great Stuff foam and it is much more durable. I hope to be taking out some streamers in the next week or so.

darnold

60Buick- I've never flown combat and I have asked a similar question but with regards to the PZ P51 vs. the PZ FW190. I would think that you will do fine as the PZ P51 is a pretty nice performer.

Please keep us updated as to how you do and what you notice in performance differences against different types (any Me 109's, FW190's, Ki 61's/Ki 100's or Zero's that you will be going up against???).

bianca121

Guss, i'm also new in RC and i flew Franky last winter with no problem. I even think that it is flying better because of the cold air density. It have a great ground effect over the snow and it glide for ever and land softly on it. However, i fly only when temperature is above -10C because "c'est frète en cr...s pour les doigts".

Guss34

Salut Bianca211! I will fly my p-51 for sure this winter!! But, did the snow enter in the cowl on landing in the snow? If yes, with the heat of the motor, you didn't have any problems with water on it? And, where should I buy rc stuff on the internet in Canada? I tried GreatHobbies but the don't have alfa airplanes.

bianca121

Bonjour Guss34, I almost did all my flight on iced snow or with very thin layer of snow on ice but yes, snow enter the cowl but didn't had any problem.. just have to shake the airplane with the nose down and "le tour est joué". It's fun to see that the airplane fly nose up and the underwing scoope mark the snow for about 10 feet before the prop touch the ground....

I also buy from Great hobbies in I.P.E and they do sell Alfa model... Try a search under: (vendor):HOBBYLOBBY INTERNATIONAL (HLI)
(category):RC ELEC AIRCRAFT ARF (AER)

and you will see the airplane listing...and you only pay for the GST...

lthibault

Salut Bianca,

as-tu essayé le P-47 Thunderbolt de la compagnie Eflight? C'est un excellent produit et l'avion vole vraiment bien. Tu peux voir l'avion sur le site d'horizon Hobby.

Tu peux te le procurer chez distribution aux modélistes au coin de Saint-Martin et Curé Labelle. Le kit coûte environ 100$.

Si jamais tu cherches de l'info sur cet avion il y a plusieurs messages sur ce site, dont plusieurs de moi pour l'amélioration de l'avion.

bianca121

Oui Luc, je l'ai vu mais je n'est pas d'électronique encore ( Servo,Tx,Rx) et j'ai tout cela avec parkzone. Pour l'instant, je prend de l'expérience avec mon mustang... Prochaine étape, Peut être un Alfa F86 !!!!

sniper1

As i only fly first thing in the morning or late evening when there is no wind, my flying season is coming to a close. But i did manage a sunset dogfight a few weeks ago, with my friend's fw 190. The first flight ended in disaster, as the 190 pilot got disorientated in the fading light and flew into a tree at high speed, getting stuck in the branches 40ft up. So we spent the last light throwing sticks at it until we eventually shot it down,slamming into the ground. The only damage was a stripped pinion, and a few small holes and creases in the wing! Any other model would have ended up in a hundred pieces and binned! Some quick repairs made the 190 operational in time for the next sortie the following evening.
We flew small circuits in the fading light to keep track of the black crosses in the sky, and noted while the 51 was cruising at 3/4 throttle, the 190 was barely keeping up at full speed. But the fw taking advantage of its superior roll rate and rolling out of trouble at very low altitudes. This is suicide for my Mustang as it loses a lot of altitude during its lazy roll. I only roll above 100ft and at full throttle, as i cant afford a lawn dart at the moment. As always are included some stills from video taken. Enjoy

tclaridge

Sniper,
Excellent pics! The two birds in the air are an awesome site!

Guss34

Merci pour les infos bianca, j'ai bien hâte d'essayer mon p-51 sur la neige! J'imagine que les atterrissages doivent êtres assez doux sur la neige. Donne des nouvelles si tu tentes l'expérience avec l'alfa f-86 car je suis bien tenté moi aussi par un ducted fan et je regarde vers le Mig-15 d'alfa. J'ai lu beaucoup d'articles sur les avions de cette compagnie et elle semble produire du matériel de très grande qualité. Le prix semble cependant venir avec!!! Au fait, j'aimerais peut-être repeindre mon p-51 aux couleurs de l'armée canadienne de la fin de la guerre ou de l'après guerre, quelqu'un connait-il un site web où je pourrais trouver des exemples?

timothy thompson

My Feedback: (1)

those are beautiful pics nice job

darnold

Sniper- So you did notice some definite differences in performance characteristics!! Awesome!!!!

It would be neat to see which one turns the tightest, if there is any difference at all.

I have found that if you add some down elevator while you are in the inverted part of your roll with the Mustang it will stay level, just be ready for to have to add some up elevator after you complete it to handle the dip. Of course the rolls should still be done with at least 50-75ft in my opinion for comfort sake. Of course you have to be flying with full rates ("B") to do this anyway, at least on my Mustang you do.

Did you notice any difference in climb rate?

Thanks for finally letting us know some of the differences and I'm glad your buddies plane is in good shape.

60buick

Another one bites the dust!


I crashed my Mustang HARD Sunday on the first flight. I had a good launch and gained a good bit of altitude on climb out when she started to bank left. I was trying to correct but the more I fought for level flight the more she banked until the stick was full right. She rolled inverted then started to spin straight down to the ground from a good hundred feet or better. I turned the cowl to splinters and crushed the fuse to behind the battery. The battery was pushed back into the plane which was a feat being that it was full of foam. The brushless was pulled loose from the speed control and about 10 feet from the plane with both prop blades broke off even with the spinner. The right wing was broke off and the whole wing was broke off the fuse. The Elevator was gone on the left side of the plane. I even knocked the pilot out of his hole to lay in the canopy. I have a new wing waiting but I need to get a fuse and cowl.

This was going to be my first practice with the plane for combat but I won't have it together in time to compete now. I had 100+ flights on the plane so I think this sucks. I don't know what the cause was either the aileron servo came loose but it was epoxied in place well and was seamed OK when I did a preflight. The only other thing that could have done it was Radio Interference but I am leaning towards the servo coming up.

Avindair

That flight behavior sounds almost identical to Frankie I's final flight (look earlier in this thread). Mine was caused by the elevator slipping, however.

Avindair

darnold

Sorry to hear of your loss Buick. Looking forward to you getting her going again. Do you think that maybe one of the aileron knobs came loose and let the wire come free??? Did you elevator or throttle stop responding to your inputs since this may indicate radio interference or Rx/ESC failure if they did? It's just kind of hard to imagine the epoxy working free like that on the aileron servo with the plane in such a nice, straight and level climb out especially since you had already checked that out in pre-flight. Of course stranger things have happened.

It was too windy to fly today but the temperature and sun were lovely. Hopefully tomorrow it will be nice and I can fly Mrs. DeeDee again.

darnold

Buick- The more I think about it the more something else seems to have been the problem if this is a stock PZ P-51.

First off you had not apparently changed direction with the plane so the plane had not encountered any control surface stress that could have caused the aileron servo to dislodge.

Second, it seems that the airplane gradually received some type of input that started the bank in the first place except it didn't come from your radio inputs. I doubt that it was a tip stall because you don't get a tip stall with such a good climb out at 100 ft unless something happened to all of that full power airspeed like spinning a pinion or a motor cut out.

The third point is the part that really throws suspicion on something other than the aileron servo coming loose because of the "opposite" plane reaction when compared to your radio inputs. The more you went right the more it went left until it was inverted and then spun. If the servo had come loose I'm not sure this would have been the response. When I think about it the servo is already wedged deep and tight in the wing so even if the epoxy had failed that quick and the servo had dislodged for no reason the only place for the servo to go is up out of the wing or forward but that would have either pulled BOTH aileron cables down or up thus making the plane flare like landing flaps or speed brakes had been applied . The result I would think would have been a nose up snap and then flip over or something.

If the servo had been moving around then why did the plane continue to roll? The ailerons wouldn't have been able to hold the left bank against the load. It seems from your statement about fighting for level flight that the left bank of the plane was a slow and non-linear one. In other words it seems like you were able to counter the left bank to some extent only to have it start banking left some more untill you were out of right throw on your transmitter. This to me suggests that something else was inducing that left bank other than a loose aileron servo.

To be honest I really think you may have had your aileron servo go bad. I know in RC Racing if you blow a gear the motor will basicially turn to one side and not center. Usually the more you turn the wheel the more "off" from center it will get when you return the transmitter steering wheel back to center and thus the more you will pull to one side until it's just undriveable. This is what it sounds like happened to your aileron servo.

Of course you may have simply gotten a bad radio hit to the point that something/someone else was really flying your plane.
What you can do is hook up the battery and test your servo.

-If it is humming badly when you turn on the transmitter that could be a sign that the servo is bad.

-If it is way off of center when you center the trim that is probably a VERY GOOD sign that the servo or servo gears are bad.

-However when slowly pushing the transmitter stick side to side if you notice that the aileron servo is having problems moving proportionally or it is not returning to center and getting further and further away from center when you return the stick to neutral then you pretty much KNOW that either the servo or servo gear train was the problem and probably not the servo becoming loose in the wing.

In the end this is only a hypothesis, I am sure some of the other more experienced flyers here can give you better analysis and information so I would look to them for guidance. Hope this helps so that your next P51 runs as sweet as your first one did and never encounters this or any other problems.

rifleman_btx

I'd put my money one the servo gears failing

60buick

That was what happened. I pulled the radio gear out last night to get stuff ready to go into a new fuse (when I get it). I tried the aileron servo and it is dead. It won't work on any reciever port but the elevator servo works fine. Its a JR Mircro servo and this is the first one I've had go out unless it was involved in a crash. [&o] It will be back up in a week or 2.

darnold

It was a beautiful warm fall day here with the wind about 5-10 mph. down low but noticeably higher at altitude (100ft. +) so Mrs. DeeDee went up today TWICE!! I followed my flight plan that I laid out above and had TONS of fun.

Hand launches were no problems. I really think that full right aileron and full up elevator trims set on the radio before launch along with taking 5-7 steps to get some wind going over the wings at a level attitude (and launching directly into any wind above 5 or so mph) are ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL TO EASY AND CONSISTENT HAND LAUNCHING!!!

Regarding the flight plan, on the second inside loop I tried to get it to do an outside loop starting at the top and it wouldn't go. I had to roll her out and pull up to correct. Good thing that I didn't try to do an outside loop from level like the one I did that ended Mrs. Dee the first time. [X(][X(][:-]

I tried it again, starting from an inside loop and at the top I tried to get her to go outside and it did the same thing. WOW!! This is with me having my elevator control horn set to the second hole from the bottom which is one hole up from stock for more control. Maybe it needs to go up one more hole to get the elevator authority that is needed for this manuever.

The plane did some nice rolls and inside loops and was a joy to fly. After trying the outside loops I just wanted to get more stick time with high rates. When I flew Mrs. Dee I was only able to get about 4 minutes of high rate flying before the dreadful "outside loop no work here" debacle. Today I flew both flights with high rates almost exclusively except for the take off's. [8D]

I have noticed that I have to keep full right aileron trim in her for low rates and about 2/3 right trim with high rates but I tested left/right rolls on the first flight to compare and make sure that things seemed symetrical and they did. The elevator trim is full up for hand launch and then I move it to full down for regular flight (2/3 down on high rates). [8D]

Turn rates each way were close but she did seem to turn a little tighter to the right which resulted in a little more loss of altitude in the really tight "knife edge/elevator pull" turns than to the left so I stayed a little more aware when turning hard right.

Started working towards some high speed passes (about 50-70ft up) to get a feel for the tendancy of the P-51 to climb under full throttle so I may start doing some 25 ft. high speed passes in my next flight. [8D]

After two good landings it was getting dark so I packed up (I almost didn't do the second flight due to the Sun setting so fast).
Over and out.[8D]

Flyer 1

This may or may not be a stupid question/post, but I'll take the heat.
Recently I came across a Megatech P-51 at a garage sale. The woman having the sale was selling her ex-husband's RC stuff, and I gave her $20 for it still in the box. It's the ARF version with no electronics and without a motor, too (although the gearbox was there... guess he yanked out the motor for something else).
I've read plenty of negative stuff about Megatech planes and therefore was skeptical about it's flyability. However - this aircraft is VERY nicely made, is tough, and looks terrific. In fact I'd say that it rivals the new Venom P-51 for sheer aesthetics. So - I bought it.
I hustled home and saw that the fuselage was one long, empty container. Nothing there - no ledges, servo mounts, battery holders, etc.. Just empty room for anything you wanted to stuff inside.
I filled it with an AstroFlight geared Mighty Mite 10 and various brands of equipment served to move the control surfaces. In short, the thing had about ten different brands of equipment.
Now - I've been flying for many years, but hadn't flown a Mustang in a looooong time. I was hesitant at first to chuck 'er into the blue, but chuck 'er I did and it flies amazingly well. That little AstroFlight motor is the real deal, lemme tell you!
Now. My question is: Is the ParkZone P-51 a better-built plane than the Megatech, does it perform better, and if so does it perform ENOUGH better that I should get one? The Megatech does everything I ask it to. Does the ParkZone? I'm speaking of aerobatics.
I've never had a chance to see a ParkZone in person but it looks great.
Another thing - I searched the forums and there was very VERY little about the Megatech plane. Why is this? Has anyone but me flown one of their P-51s?
Anyhow I began reading this thread and watched the reputation of the ParkZone product go full circle several times, from superb to junk and back to superb again. The one thing that seems universal is the opinion that the electronics are basically worthless. I haven't read the ENTIRE thread (it's LONG!), but would simply like to ask if the ParkZone P-51 has advanced/been "tweaked" by the factory and new ones fly well. I'm confused about the entire issue on this plane - seems it's either A: Junk and to be avoided at all costs, or B: A superb airplane.
I would dearly love to see one in person to evaluate, but I can't travel much right now due to a family illness. I'm pretty much restricted to flights at local schoolyards, and it's a workout to keep the Megatech in that small an area. I'd say my flying space is around 100 yards square.
Still, if the Megatech will behave well enough to dodge the numerous trees and such there... will the ParkZone do the same or does it fly too fast?
Sorry for the length of this post, but I really like the looks of the ParkZone P-51 and I'm leaning towards purchasing one. However, I'd like some advice from some good pilots about it's ability to handle a field this small.
One reason my Megatech 'stang will handle the area is the power ratio: the AstroFlight 10 will literally allow vertical flight to around 200 feet, then it settles into a less dramatic but still very fast climbout to 400 feet or so, which is my comfort level for this baseball diamond. In other words - it's got enough power to literally leap above the obstacles that would prohibit most small warbirds from doing likewise.
Dang! What I'm asking, I guess, is: Will the ParkZone P-51 be a good SMALL park flyer, or is it quick/touchy enough to require a more substantial flying area? I certainly don't want to buy one and find it's not going to behave in the flying area it's been alloted. The Megatech can be at 100 feet by the time it's 40 feet downwind, already out of danger.
I'd also like to know if anyone else has/has had a Megatech 'stang, or am I alone? Granted the purchase of it wasn't planned but sheer chance, but the performance easily justifies the price tag (although I don't know about the RTF version; I've no idea what type of electronics it uses).
If you can make sense of this post and let me know if the PZ will do baseball-diamond-sized duty, please let me know!
Many thanks in advance,
Flyer