Hey all,
I've been wanting to post about my Spit for a while now, so I finally took a camera to the field today and snapped some pictures to share.
Ialways like to make changes to the cookie cutter ARF to make them stand out in the crowd, especially when it comes to warbirds. With this Spitfire, Isought out a full scale replica and did my best to follow the layout and trim scheme as best I could without altering the airframe. In the end, Iam very pleased with the final result and she looks gorgeous in the air. Some of the cosmetic changes include:
[*]Updated cowl from Hangar 9[*]Removal of the yellow on the leading edge of the wings (from the research I did, Ifound that they only started doing that on Mk IV and later)[*]Removed the stock fuselage lettering for a more scale version in both size and location (new lettering is just ultracote)[*]Added gun ports in each wing[*]Added nomenclature around the plane in different areas[*]Minor weathering, mainly in the gun and exhaust area as well as a light paint chip effect. (my first weathering and airbrush attempt)[*]Entire airframe was covered in 3 coats of Lustercote Flat Clear paint to seal in all the detail and kill the stock shine.[/list]Under the cowl is a Saito 100 using a 90 degree muffler adapter that did a very good job of keeping it hidden. Taken from posts in this thread, Iadded the vent at the bottom back side of the cowl as well as opened up the dummy exhaust stacks for more air flow. As with my other Saitos, I put a velocity stack on the carb to assist fuel consumption. An Electrodynamics on-board glow system is utilized on a switch setup to keep things easy and clean. I am currently using Rich's Brew 25% nitro/20% oil (5%castor/15%synthetic blend) that Ipicked up at Toledo this year and Iam extremely impressed with the performance (and price, only $18 a gallon!). Last Ichecked Iwas topping out at 9500 rpm (9300 flying rich) on a 14x7x3 MAS prop held in place by a Tru-Turn 3.5" P-51 style spinner.
In typical Hangar 9 fashion, their airframes are great but their hardware package is almost throw away. Idecided to upgraded the fuel tank to a 20oz Dubro tank with a fuel dot, as well as upgrading the rudder and elevator pushrods to 4-40 and ball links for better control. I still plan on upgrading the aileron linkages later this season, but currently they are the stock 2-56 size. The last big upgrade went into replacing the horrible stock music wire that is used for the landing gear. After a few heavy landings last season, they bent to the point that there were not even worth bending back. I decided to upgrade to Robart robostruts, using the stock tires and stock retracts utilizing a Hitec 75BB retract servo. The end result is a much smoother taxi, takeoff, and landing and Iam very happy that I invested in them.
The brains of the operation is a Hitec Optima 7 Rx and Aurora 9 Tx which I have absolutely fallen in love with after upgrading fromSpektrum around this time last year.
Like others have mentioned in this thread, Idid run into many of the same issues associated with this airframe. Iglassed and reinforced the firewall before it could give me any issues. My final CG was right around 4 7/8" from the leading edge, using only the Rx battery as the counter weight. I also used washers to shim the back side of the retract to rake the gear forward making taxing much easier.
All in all, Ihaven't had many hours with this plane yet, but after being out of commission multiple times last year, the few times I have flown her this season has really gotten me excited for the weather to break. Iwill hopefully have some pics/vids of her in action in the near future.
