dionysusbacchus

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Thanks Al, Yea I needed some parts for my Yellow F-15, really sad to see them go.

raptureboy

well luke if you decide to refinish her this would be a good choice and not seen very often.

dionysusbacchus

My Feedback: (25)

Good one Rapperboy! That would hide the air intake in the cowl nicely for sure. On your signature, I don't know the truth I just have the best possible answer at this time, truth is kind of like confidence, it's that feeling you have before you fully understand the situation!

Well I have 72 flights on my Hobby King Spitfire so far, very nice flying plane. The firewall definitely needs added epoxy, mainly due to all the vibration and having the 4 1/2 lbs of weight screwed to it does not help. The wings are in perfect shape, main spar from the factory is holding up just fine. Another area that developed problems was the hatch latch for the canopy, the original Chinese one lasted 50 flights. The metal rod snapped and my canopy came off in flight, with the cross wind it came right back towards me and landed on the concrete, did a nice number on the clear parts. Spent a few hours sanding it down with 1,000 grit and buffing it out with auto scratch remover, it is clear again thankfully!

Next I installed a BVM $9 hatch latch, that lasted 10 flights before it broke! So I cut a PC board tab, epoxied a block of hard balsa in the fuselage with a blind nut. So now I screw the canopy hatch down, a little less convienent but I don't anticipate anymore problems! The pictures explain how I did it.

I also have a video of some crosswind landings I did, it is a bit of a bear in a crosswind but when the wind is light or right down the runway it is a real joy to land, I really have a lot of fun with this plane.

Luke


I cut into the fuselage. Nice clean fit. You can see the natural weathering after all those flights!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdAzbAASf9k

Shaun Evans

Hi

How are your HK gear for this bird holding up? I have a set and put them in a TF Spit. They fit like a glove but I'm nervous because I don't necessarily believe in HK quality. The knock-off of the Robart pressure gauge that came with it fell apart when I put 20 psi to it. The brackets to mount the door to the gear are defective. There was some flashing/fod in the retract units themselves and I had to take them apart and clean them with an xacto. They look great, though, and I want to use them but I don't want to buy myself any headaches...

dionysusbacchus

My Feedback: (25)

The retracts are great, I had to clean mine up also and make sure the air fittings were air tight. My door brackets were fine, but a lot of this stuff is hit or miss. I've got hundreds of cycles on the gear and I never worry about them not coming down. Just use other T's, another fill and air valve and mount the gear. Check for leaks and see how long they hold air in the up and down position, if that all checks out I would use them.

Shaun Evans

Hi,

Thanks. Yeah, they seem to hold air so they're gonna fly in this bird first.

dionysusbacchus

My Feedback: (25)

You say you have a HobbyKing Spitfire?

On another project I called you about I finally bought a pipe for my Yellow F-15 from Tam when he lowered the price by $100!

Not a great day weather wise but I got two more flights on my HK Spitfire today, 73 so far and I feel I have all the bugs worked out, very enjoyable now.

Shaun Evans

Hi,

No, I have a Y/A Spit and a TF Giant Spit. Glad to hear Tam got off the juice for a minute on those pipes (at least for you). He makes great pipes but the price increase was just laughable. Something like a 60-80% increase overnight!

Kim Couturier

My Feedback: (120)

Well guys, been reading this thread as I built mine. I used a gear set I had...air up, spring down. Dropped right in. I did tilt them forward as you all suggested. I'm using a Moki 210 in mine.....side mount....yes cylinder does stick outside the cowl! Profile however, has no holes showing...I made a stand off for the engine mount, and closed it in...on 3 sides..made a great place to mount wt. for CG. One thing I did about the tabs...I made sure they were glued in very well, and opened a 3/4 inch whole in the bottom of the wing where the wing tube comes through...5 inches out from where wing mounts to fuse....then put a 3/4 inch hard wood dowel in epoxied to the wing tube, and the wing skin. Drilled through wood, tube and into the aluminum tube. Used a long metal screw to go into the tube to be sure it holds the wing on. Was a simple fix, and should work well. Going to set CG at 5 3/4 inches...let you all know how it flies in the spring! ( Live in northern lower Mi.)

dionysusbacchus

My Feedback: (25)

Sounds great Kim, if you can it would be nice if you could post some pictures! What brand retracts are you using?

Remember on takeoff to keep full up elevator until it is off the ground, otherwise it will nose over. 3 point takeoffs are cool! Also once it is in ground effect I land with full up elevator for 3 point landings, just use power to control the descent and for the flair. It's just a really cool plane to fly, but you just have to pay attention on takeoff and landing, once you get it though it's a real blast. Good luck and please keep us posted!

cshayes

Hi dionysusbacchus
I found a post from you from way back!! You were making a canopy set for a guy. I need all three canopy's for a Wing MFG B25. Can you help me on this?
THANKS Chris

dionysusbacchus

My Feedback: (25)

I know it's a little late, but no Chris, I do not make parts anymore, sorry.


Well I would like to finish this thread with a notice that my Hobbyking Spitfire flew it's 100th flight this afternoon! It took a while because the weather has been so bad, but today it was just gorgeous! HobbyKing is not even selling this plane anymore, but I just wanted to show that it is a nice plane when assembled properly. I have not changed anything in the plane at all, everything is original and working great from day one. I know it is going to give me hundreds of more flights, it is such a nice flying plane.

Got 3 flights on my turbine Yellow F-15 and 3 flights on my Spitfire! I needed some good weather bad!

On to my Skymaster F-18F adventure, yes another Chinese ARF!

Eddie P

My Feedback: (4)

Dude we are always flying the same planes! First the F-100 now the Spitfire. I'm always late to the party though. I've got my Hangar 9 1/5 scale almost ready for final fitment. Hope to fly in a few weeks. Electric though, 12s, about 4.5kw, 20x13 prop about 7500 RPM.

Love your video, and love the old Pancho Barns voice over at the end!

I don't have the Yellow F-15 or the F-18, I went with a Tams A-4 a few years back but it has a new motor in it since last season, it screams and I love kero start. No more scratching for camp fire stove gas for gas start anymore. Otherwise I'd have thought we were on a parallel universe with models.

dionysusbacchus

My Feedback: (25)

Hey thanks for stopping by Eddie! Yea I would say we have similar interests for sure, to bad we don't share the same club though! I'm finishing up a Ziroli Panther now, I added all the detail I thought I could get away with, have a propane start K80 but it aint so bad!


Just some teaser shots of my Ziroli Panther!


Flew the HK Spitfire again today, after this one I think I will always keep a Spitfire in my hangar.

Eddie P

My Feedback: (4)

The Z Panther flies like magic, my buddy used to own one and it's a beautiful machine. Perfect engine for this jet too, the K80... That's some great wood work too, my friend! The cockpit on that baby begs for some serious detail also.

Propane is great but kero suits me as I fly at 5000 feet one day and sea level the next - I was always having to fiddle with mixture and having cold starts (no lightoff) while getting it right the first start of the day. My standard position was kneeling down by the jet burning through ECU batteries and not going anywhere for the first start. Once I got it dialed in it was good but I had too many flashbacks to glow days so I sprung for the new motor. Kero start for me has lit every single time like clock work. Sorta like discovering a quality BEC and never having to mess with a RX battery again. It's my situation that complicates things more than any, always going back and forth from high alt and sea level.

You have a build thread cooking for that bad boy? It looks just fantastic!

nemesis4u

My Feedback: (77)

LUKE,

Hi ... Don't know how else to contact you... Please send me an email ... looking for a VHS tape Striking Back...
I don't know if I loaned it to you... was gonna make a digital copy ... Thanks Tomas contact please at [email protected]

tmaucher

Do you have a build thread on the DO335 Kahlog?

dionysusbacchus

My Feedback: (25)

Got 115 flights on my Hobby King Spitfire, she is holding up very well, such a nice flyer.

I will be taking my Spitfire to a static display in the Commemorative Air Force hangar at the San Marcos airport this Saturday. I decided to spruce it up a bit, so I found a Dupli Color primer that matched the gray and I mixed some Model Masters to match the green. The green was not a perfect match, but it works well to make it look weathered, so a bonus! I added the guns from Hobby King and they look pretty good.

The CAF is having an open house and will be flying the B-25 and giving rides, there will be a car show and a model airplane static display. I will also be flying my micro P-51 and other types inside the CAF hangar. Come on out if you are in the area.

Vettster

Great thread Luke! So after allllll these flights.. surely you know what CG you are using now
I had mine originally set at 5.5 back.. then 6" but the plane was very difficult to land as it would porpoise at 5.5. a bit better at 6" Then one day for what ever reason I had the sweetest landing ever(just like you describe your landings) When i removed the canopy, I found the 3Cell Lipo that was mounted behind the firewall.. now sitting directly under the windshield. Talk about a huge change in weight transfer/cg

Just bringing this up as I have finished rebuilding her after I lost a wing. Totally my fault, I guess the wing bolts are there for a reason. I going to set the CG at 6.5
Trevor

Katniss

I will tell you from my own experience , that 6" is too far back, let alone 6.5". I had mine balanced at 5.5" and it was super easy to land.
However, if you feel comfortable at 6.5", best of luck. Hope it all goes well.

Vettster

Hey Kat.. Really trying to get my head around this.. Like I said.. I had it at 5.5 before and it was a bear to land (actually a porpoise) Nose would drop, add a bit of power and up she climbed, slows down.. nose dives, back on power and up she goes.. all the time running out of elevator. Then the battery moved WAY back on its own and it landed perfectly!

Question.. How does a nose heavy plane land vrs a tail heavy plane? Not trying to be a smartazz . I would love to here opinions.

In any case I chickened out and stuck with the 6" that I have flown with before. maybe I dont need the flaps as Luke has mentioned before//

Katniss

Porpoising to me would be an indication of tail heavy... .A nose heavy plane wouldn't behave like that. However, also keep in mind. .. If you had flaps deployed, on spitfires, they usually require a flap to elevator mix. So... If you didn't have that setup... That could be a cause of the porpoising as your varying quite quickly the lift of the wing(with throttle changes)

A tail heavy plane, when attempting to land, is going to try and constantly throw the nose up requiring you to put in down elevator.... That's if you can keep the plane under control.
Did you balance your plane with gear retracted or deployed?
Upside down with gear retracted...balancing at 5.75" should give you a super stable plane that's easy to land even with flaps down. Elevator throw at 60% with some Expo.

Maybe someone else might have some ideas.

If you go back and read other's experience, several pilots I believe stated that 6.5" back was a recipe for a rekitted plane. One of my club friends had his balanced at 6.5" and in the maiden attempt, it promptly wallowed and crashed.

Vettster

Alright Kat.. I'll take your advice and set CG at 5.75 with gear up. I balance with gear down earlier cause I wanted the CG to be correct on landing. I can handle a bit tail heavy in the air.. but low and slow..

I did have flaps down.. but I also have elevator mixed in.

Thanks a ton for your help

Trevor

Katniss

Just curious what your motor setup is?

Vettster

EME60cc with Electric start.