I just bought a 50size CMP Mustang from a friend who did not like it. .
I have a YSFZ91 and 12x12 prop, its flies like its on rails. I think its great. I had no CG problem (crash),
but do think its setup to far aft. Battery and receiver are aft of servo trays. I have only flown it once as of today. I did find it was way way pitch sensitive particulary as the fuel tank ran empty. Hint hint

I've read about the paint on the CMP ARFs chipping easily....I just purchased (still in the mail) the 1.20 size Corsair and need to know if I have to seal the paint and if luster cote will work as a sealant and fuel proofer.
I hope to use a 1.00 Evolution engine.

TY


Tom

[&:] I just bought the GSP 70" Focke wulf. I first ordered it from Nitroplanes and first thing I know... they double charged our Visa and froze the account until it cleared. My wife and I both called them and they could hardly speak English! And to top it off... they argued with us on the phone about how many we ordered. They gave me and my wife a hard time all the way.

My wife and I lost $20 to unfreeze our account with the Federal Credit Union. The Visa Company and FCU now has Nitroplanes on the watch list. BBB is looking into the matter because it is a Federal Crime to freeze anyones account until it clears. Sure they canceled the order and gave me back my money ... after I called the BBB and Visa. Now, Visa also has them on the watch list.

When I ordered my plane from GSP they matched Nitroplanes price and treated me like GOLD! Best service I've seen! They took interest in what planes I liked the most... asked me about my strengths and weaknesses in building planes etc. I was so frustrated at GSP at first... for some reason there Web page needs work, and they don't answer or write E-mails. But any of you call them, they will be right there to answer all your questions... and they tell you the exact amount that it will cost for shipping.

Now as for the plane itself... #1) fantastic quality for the price! #2) Get rid of the Wood Dowel Control Rods. #3) Get rid of 90% of your hardware... unless you like to take chances with fate. #4) If you're going to use retracts, reinforce your retract housing. #5) Get rid of your stock Styrene Wheel wells and either fiberglass ( which makes the plane heavier ) or use CA Glue and Line the whole inside of your wheel wells with thin Balsa sheets. #6) The Canopy is way off scale! #7) Flap and aileron spacing was off on the right wing... had to sand the spacing to match left wing. #8) Stock Landing Gears were bent... they tires were crooked. (I got rid of them, I'm using retracts) #9) Quit calling the CMP Focke Wulf Scale! It's more Semi-Scale!

So far that I know of... the people at the CMP Focke Wulf Build Forum hasn't lost a plane yet. We are talking about the perfect CG for the plane as I write this.

Remember Sales Reps out there... ARF means Almost Ready to Fly or Almost Ready to Cover. It does not mean that we should sand and reinforce and scratch are heads over the instructions. Almost Ready to Fly means, stick your hardware in the plane... Check CG and your adjustments, and GO FLY! And the last but not least thing I can think of ? When your trying to sell a product in America... you'd better speak English fluently, or you ain't gonna get my bucks.

Test before you sell, and we the customer is always right... or we will close you all down. [>:]


Peter Dowling aka Luftwaffe Oberst
AMA District II #56404
Aero Modelers Club
Pulaski, NY

Well, I bought an AK P-51 "Marie" last year and I'm still trying to figure out how to mount the wing since BOTH ply tabs (that are also the root ribs), were snapped off. I never noticed in the sealed polybag when I 1st opened the model...I had to figure out engine mount placement, (no reference marks, nothing in the manual, etc) as well as trashing the retracts and all the hardware,(nothing new, I know).

The purpose of my post isn't about old business...it's about my **last** purchase of a Chinese ARF; Chipmunk.

I posted in another thread all about the landing gear blocks, (or rather the LACK of correct landing gear blocks) and how I had to rebuild and add 1/8" ply false ribs and rock maple slot-blocks.

I took the plane out today to fly for the 1st time. Check out the photos attached. The plane DID fly quite well, by the way. The SK50 was ticking over at slow idle as I flared on landing. The tail was a tad high and I had a prop strike. Ever have THIS happen? Great quality on their glass-filled nylon engine mounts...just like those stock retracts on "Marie"...junk.

PM

I have a CMP Corsair that I'm building but have not had much luck in finding any input from others on the CG, flight characteristcs, suggested mods etc. Has anyone had any experience with the CMP model(70" plus size)? I waited a life time for the Sierra retracts for it and I finally received them after nearly 7 months of waiting. I would ap
preciate any information anyone might have. Thanks

Hi, I received a 40 size P40 arf from Berlin. When it arrived I didn't know who the manufacturer was until I started doing research and found out it is a CMP P40. After reading through this forum I'm wondering if I would be better off trying to sell it. Anyone ever figure out the correct C.G. for this plane?? Anyone interested in buying it let me know..NIB Thanks....Mike[&o]

I have read that on the smaller CMP warbirds you need to start with the COG 3 inches back from the leading edge. I personally do not know it's just what i have read and would do if i bought one.

On the large warbirds. I have the P-51 and P-47 Both balanced at the listed COG.

On the Corsair 70WS?...I have a friend that had one. Balance at the listed COG. He also used Robart 615'S and the set up worked fine. The fiberglass in the wing will get soft in the sun so keep it in the shade. Unless they have fixed the wing you will need to figure out someway to get some epoxy into it as the ribs are a very bad fit with lotsa gaps as we found out on his first wing. On the second wing. We ran 30 minute epoxy down it where ever we could and it held up fine. The fuse will need a little help at the front and rear of the wing saddle to prevent cracks.
Pat

I am reading a lot about cg problems, where would anyone recommend the cg be for the CMP/Raidentech p-51 60

I have the CMP / EBAY ZERO with the 71" wing. Go check out the thread Labled GSP ZERO it's the same plane. This is a great flying plane. YES, you will have to change out the hardware, but most do on arfs anyhow. I have a Birelli 25cc GT in the nose of mine. Century jet retracts. I built this plane for under $800.00 Balances out perfect. It comes in a Dull finish which makes it easy to weather and look great. < Yes, the paint will chip... It's a zero get some paint make it look like it's been in WAR... I have taken mine to 6 airshows this summer and always with great reviews... You can pick this plane up for under $200 - If you can find a 25cc Birelli it's a perfect match. Of the warbirds this plane flys great and even though it does not have flaps it lands with ease. Any questions PM me...

LOL Now that I think about it I don't want too many of these Zeros around... I like the attention... the plane SUCKS>... Don't buy one... LOL I want to have the only one around... Go with this guys World Models...

Proulxlaw get off this thread...it is for posting positive suggestions for imroving China Model Products aircraft, not venting off because you bought a plane and crashed it...!!
I think we have all tolerated your particular form of venom withh all your 'off topic' posts already.

Personally I have the Zero, Mustang, Hellcat, Warhawk, Giles 3D and Passion.....no problems with any of them.....but then I have built a few planes and am bright enough to check a CofG is correct before I fly.

I also realise that if I am flying a 'scale' aircraft I may need to add nose weight to balance.....of course you can stretch scale by making the nose way longer...it will balance without added weight but then it isn't scale.

All those pictures of planes you have built would suggest to me that you should have some experience and ability.....obviously not..!!

Now make us all happy and stop whining......and let Alex get on with what he is trying to do

I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with AT-6 Texan? I've been thinking about getting one - it appears to have good detail and scale appearance. Thanks....Eric

I've bought 2 ARFs from Raidentech/Nitroplanes and one of them was very nice with no glaring defects, the other, well, it did have some glaring defects; but after going round and round with Raidentech on replacing the kit it was going to cost me another $63 or so just in shipping to replace it with a kit of who knows what quality.

Then this past Sunday morning I placed an order for one of the electric Long-EZ models from e-hobby.com---Monday mid day they email me a garbled message letting me know that the servos and Y connector (all Rich-Model accessories) that I had ordered were not in stock, and wanted to know whether to send just the ARF and backorder the servos, or wait on the servos to send everything. I emailed AND faxed e-hobby to tell them to send just the airplane and cancel/credit my account for the servos. Interesting enough, to only ship the kit was going to cost me $18.50 as I checked it out before adding the servos to "the cart" when I ordered the stuff. Now that I have cancelled the servos, shipping has increased to $21.95 and I find out later in the day that my kit will be sent to me direct from the manufacturer in China.

Long story not so long, I cancelled the order with e-hobby immediately after consulting my credit card company. E-hobby did have an authorization for the order, but had not charged my account at the time. Later that evening I get an email from e-hobby telling me they could NOT cancel my order as it had been shipped 2 days earlier. THEN I get another email with the tracking numbers, and it first entered the system on the day I cancelled the order, NOT 2 days prior.

Oh, and by the way, if you don't want to send your credit card info online to e-hobby they suggest you just pick up the phone and call them------THAT IS IF YOU CAN FIND THEIR TELEPHONE NUMBER anywhere on their website.

After cancelling the order with e-hobby, I immediately called Alex at AKM to order the same kit.

1) Alex at AKM DOES HAVE A TELEPHONE number on his website. In the USA.
2) I reached Alex on the phone. Not some tech support, but Alex himself.
3) He had the airplane on hand. He could put his hand on it. Not only that, but he had the Rich-Model servos as well. We did the transaction over the phone and he shipped it out the same day.

I told Alex about the other outfit selling the same plane, he made the comment that he thought he was the only distibutor in the US selling that particular kit. I told him he in fact WAS the only distributor in the US selling the kit that I could find......because the other guys are sending it direct on the slow boat from China! HOWEVER, the other guys were giving me a great discount on the kit, just making it up in the shipping!

So I guess the moral of the story is if you want to deal with who knows who and where and take your chances to save about $15 email e-hobby.com and order you one. If you want to TALK to the OWNER of the business on the PHONE in the USA and get the same thing-----and also a contact should there be a defect----call Alex at AKM.

Rant over.

I have not spoken to Alex on the phone, but have ordered a few arfs and accessories from him and have had great communication. Delivery is fast, shipping is reasonable. He has even been willing to look into helping me with replacement parts for a CMP ARF I bought on E-Bay.

Have any other suppliers of these arfs and kits opened a thread asking end users to offer input for improvement?

I purchased the super Chipmunk 120 back in March 06. It is a beautiful airplane and well constructed. there are a couple of issues with this airplane, one the Landing gear blocks are made of laminated plywood and not sutible for this application becouse of the horizontal pressure put on them...

They broke loose just running around on the field. they are eaisily fixed by cutting away the sheeting between ribs 2 and 3 and replace the laminated blocks with a Hardwood block. Make sure to glue this block to the #2 plywood rib as well as to the bottom of the Landing gear rail.

The other problem is the CG is not correct on the instructions, however I always recalculate the CG of all my planes before there first flight so it was not a suprise.... I would suggest using any of the many different methods on the internet for doing this but check it with a model you know is balanced right.

Other than that it is a sweet flying machine and very good looking.....

My Flying buddy bought this airplane to, about 5 months ago, we had allot of trouble getting it to fly, the CG on the plans is wrong and the cowling acts like a big parachute on the airplane... We put a Super Tigre 90 on it and the weight was 10lbs as well... Once we removed the cowl and recalculated the CG it flies great.... Did not have any problems with tipping with the landing gear in the place the factory placed them.

I think I came up with a solution for the cheap pushrods that come with the kits. I just made a guide for the pushrod to go through so that it will not have very much side to side movement. I also wrapped the joint holding the metal rod into the dowl with carbon fiber with CA instead of using the shrink wrap.

Not sure if this has been addressed yet or not, but the very nice carbon fiber wing tube that is supplied with the 1.40 size Giles 202 is way to small for the tubes. I had to add about four layers of black "Zagi Tape" to the tube to get a nice slip fit. Hopefully, it holds up. Otherwise, a vey nice model for the price.

Hi,
I have a CMP Yak-54 140. Have not flown it very much so I can't comment on the long term quality of the covering etc.
With my kit I did not get any building instructions other than the plan and a separate sheet with CG information.
No big problem here if you have built a couple of ARFs.

However, the main problem during building was to get the CG right. The plan is way too tail heavy, it is
not possible to place servos according to plan, without placing huge amount of lead in front.
The design is very bad and I guess that CMP never actually tested the kit before shipping.

Solution: Re-design so that CG can be correct.

Here is a list of the things I have done to minimize the weight needed in front.
- I only have 1 elevator servo (instead of 2) and have moved i forward to just behind the undercarriage mounting. For this I use pull-pull.

- I have my batteries as far in front as possible under the cowl.

- I have my throttle servo in front of the firewall.

- The engine is moved forward 15mm (from what the plan specifies). I guess I could move the engine a bit more forward, but I don't know how it will affect the flying characteristics.

I have added 280g in front and my CG is about 140mm from LE.

Here is a thread on the Yak-54 140 and many posts is about the CG problem.
[link]http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_2162263/mpage_1/key_/tm.htm[/link]

/Erland.

Had experience with Yak 140 (No suggested control throws-scary maiden), Edge 540 (Super flying characteristics, all glue joints needed beefing up tho), Extra 300 140 size ( Superb airframe-no vices-well done! ), P-40 Warhawk (Great detaling, super value). Katana 120 size (Stunning flying characteristics-Mk1 vers with weak wings due to shear webbing going HORIZONTAL across the wing.... P L E A S E !!!!! UK distributor denied it would be a problem.. fixed by peeling covering and glueing VERTICAL sheeting over the top of the original webbing... Should never have had to do that...)

As with ALL ARTF's, they do need a little work to make them flyable, I would never buy an ARTF and assemble it hoping it would be OK. Instructions are so-so, Some good, some bad.

Generally CMpro are my favourite brand of ARTF.

Does Anyone have a lancair from CMP I'm thinking of buying this kit I have a giles 50 and have not got to fly it yet but am happy with the arf thus far!

Hi model-pilots,

I`ve ordered the CMP Cessna Skylane for four-stroke engines from 1.20 up to 1.80 size.

I think all parts in the kit were very well wrapped for shipping. I received the kit from a dealer in Austria - withou any damages The kit -especially the fuselage- seems to be build excellently although the parts are not a lightweight. Altogehter -without engine and RC- the kit is about 3,6 kilogramm. That`s a lot of stuff for a 2 meters airplane!

I thougt even the hardware in the kit would be excellent - but in this threat I`ve read some other opinions. To be honest I don`t want to loose this lovely aircraft in flight caused to misfunction[&:]

Does anyone of you have experiences with this CMP-kit?

Regards

Quax4412 [8D]

I purchased the electric version of the spitfire, thinking it would be a great planes. Well, maiden flight didn't go so good. Back to that in a minute. First of all, the plane says it's electric, but the model doesn't give you a place to put the battery. There is absolutely no easy access to change out the battery. Putting a 11.1v 1500mah battery barely fits into the front of the plane. I actually had to cut the covering on the bottom and fabricate a latch to make the battery fit. It's a nice looking plane, but a very poor design. Now back to my maiden flight. Rather than using the landing gear, i hand tossed it. I thought it would look better without gear, and being that it's a light plane, under 1lb, hand tossing would be a breeze. Don't count on it. I tossed it and it went straight into the ground. The plane would not fly. "DON'T TRUST THE CG PRINTED ON THE INSTRUCTIONS!!!" It's not where it's supposed to be. There is more than enough propeller power to keep the bird hovering. However, something is wrong with the CG and I have to figure out if it should be moved aft or tail. When I find out, I'll let you guys know. Good thing is the plane didn't break up into a hundred pieces. Just a little of the fiberglass broke off from the nose.

I just bought a CMP P-47 120 size ad everythig so far looks good .The box for the retracts was off about 3/8 inch so I had to heat and bend the gear to fit in the wheel wells.The instructions are not real good but manageable.Does anyone have and flown this plane?After all the talk about cg I hope this one is right.AK Models are good people to deal with...........

I have the 120 size P-47 also, but have not started assembling it. I have found the fuse is split between the firewall and leading edge where the two fibreglass sides are joined, but it can be repaired lickety-split. I would recommend strengthening that area, even if it is not split.

Please keep us posted on your build: links us to a build in another thread, maybe?

Thanks I will,took me all day to get the retracts in and they still don't work all that good.I may go to air retracts.