i just bought a 60 size sportsman aviation spitfire.i have checked previous post but want to know more.i think they were also the same as jamara.any help or feedback is thankfull

Yeah, David..

... yip....same as Jamara Spit, BUT for some reason you get ..or used to get , the retracts with the sportsman kit....nice enough kit ...lots of room for more " cosmetic " work...match the blue & green up on the cowl to line up the camo & blue underneath....more pannel lines / rivets etc...two servo's to that big elevator is a must realy ...that "staple" joiner is a weak link...i added lots more stringers along from the cockpit to the firewall...doubled the firewall up to ...allso beefed up th landing gear area ...for the price though ...v.good

my buddy doug has one of these with a pumped os91 4 stroke in it. this plane flies GREAT!!.
this plane is fast, agile, and flies very nicely inverted. it slows down to a crawl for landing. so far the covering has held up very well.

i liked it so much i bought one myself- but i haven't put it together yet.

i would reinforce the horizontal stab- his broke in flight but he saved the plane and rebuilt the stab. also on all arfs i normally go over the inside of the front of the plane with a glue bead on every joint i can reach.

this plane is built very much like the hangar 9 mustang that i have. i think it either is built in the same factory or somone copied the other persons basic design/structure.

ed

thank you for your replies im going to start as soon as i find the time

I agree. I have them both also and I compared the Spit & the H9 P40 and for the money, I went with the Spit. Covering looks great. I'm still building it and should have it done next week or so. It looks like more work installing the retracts will be needed on this one then on the H9 P51 that I built.

I'll post pics here as I build. I am putting a Saito 100 in mine. I'm breaking the engine in on my Stik as I do with all new engines I use for warbirds. The plane should come out nice and light and be super fast.

How do you reccomend beefing up the stab? I always use fiberglass cloth and epoxy on the firewalls of my warbirds and paint as much of the inside of the fuse as I can reach with 30 minute epoxy cut in half with alcohol. this strengthens them quite a bit and adds very little extra weight.

I usually insert a carbon fiber rod through the entire span of the rear stab on warbird ARF's. This requires a fairly long drill bit and carefull drilling, but the extra effort will be well worth it.

Thanks. I hadn't thought of that. Where would you position the tube? Near the back of the stab?

I usually position the tube somewhere in the middle. You don't want it to be too close to the back because it will run into the hinges. Think of the tube as a spar, so it's best to put it either in the middle or between 1/4-1/3 chord.

Great. Thanks. I just happen to have the right size cf tube for it but, I will have to go to the hardware store and get a longer drill bit.

The bit doesn't need to be as long as the entire stab. It only needs to be half as long because you can drill in from both ends of the stab.

Richard, that must be like when they dug the tunnel under the English Channel from both ends and were praying the two sides would meet in the middle! (They did.) Seriously, did you take any special steps to assure that the 2 holes would line up?

It was easy for me to make sure the 2 holes would line up because I had the covering off and drew a straight line from one side of the stab to the other. I was able to see where the drill bit was going. With the covering still in place, it will be slightly harder.

I have braced stabs another way, by gluing a piece of ply (good birch ply, not lite-ply) to the underside of the stab. I had to use a 12" long 1/8" drill bit to start an opening thru the fuselage under the stab since it was already mounted in the fuselage. Since it was just balsa, it could be done twirling the bit in my fingers but still had to be held at a slight angle - I wanted the hole, and thus the bit, to be adjacent to and exactly parallel to the bottom surface of the stab so I wouldn't drill into the stab but had to hold the bit slanted back a little to clear my fingers because even the half stab was still longer than the bit. I did the same thing on the other side making it symmetrical and now I had a sort of shallow "X" hole. Fiddling with rattail files and whatever else I could poke thru there eventually left an opening about 1/8" x 1/2" right adjacent to the bottom of the stab. On the H9 F4U I did this under the "spar" near the elevator hinge line and on my FW190 I did it under the stab leading edge. On the F4U I used a piece of 1/8" ply 1/2" wide and 6 or 7 inches long. I removed some plastic film to expose bare wood and glued the ply to the stab with aliphatic resin but used a blob of CA at each end to "lock" the ply in place while the aliphatic dried. I had previously sanded the corners off the edges of the ply and after iron on a piece of matching plastic film to cover the bare plywood.

Tom

Richard, while you were replying to my question, I was writing up my alternative method of stab-bracing and now I see your answer. Yes, with the covering off it would be easier. An internal brace would also be more aesthetically pleasing and CF is light, too.

In the future I intend to take steps to brace the stabs BEFORE I install them in fuselages.

Many, like the Corsair, require removal of covering from the center of the stab so you can make a wood-to-wood joint. But it is practically impossible to slice the covering with a blade without nicking the wood underneath and that makes a weak spot. One tip I found somewhere was to use a pencil tip soldering iron to melt thru the covering a little ways inside your marked line.

Tom