I got the phoenix models strega and it is all done! Powered by a TT Pro .46 ballanced at the recommended CG.
My question is: In the manual sais it should have a right thrust of 2 degrees and a down thrust of 0 deg. which seems to be built in the firewall. The thing is that visualy seems like a lot to me. Never had experience with this right thrust since it is my first low wing build. Any comments a very wellcome. Thanks!

G'Day Mate,
For that aircraft, it will be about right, DON'T change it. you may need more or less, but don't change it because it "does'nt look right". Only flight testing will determine that.
I trust you will have an experienced pilot take it up for you!

Yeah, When I (rebuilt) the front on my 4-star it seemed like Way too much angle.. I laid it out by the plans and placed the firewall exactly where they called for it to be. I looked at it after the engine was installed and thought there was no way that it could be correct........Well long story short, it performed just as well as it did before the,You know...
(crash[:@])Good luck with your Strega! Looks like a real nice bird!

Ray

Thanks for the imput guys, I know I can always count on you Alan, your help has been very enlightning to me. Yes I will have a war bird pilot maiden it for me. Now please what are the simptoms of having the wrong thrust?

G'day Mate,
In actual fact, no right thrust &/or no down thrust, & the plane will still fly, get that straight in your head. IT WON'T CRASH. Ok the reason for adding right thrust to an engine is to help YOU fly the plane straighter through manouvers, like loops, stall turns & so on, I'll keep this simple, without too much technical crap OK. As the nose is pulled up in a loop, the torque effect of the prop, will make the plane YAW to the left, which takes it offline during the loop, that is the effect of too little right thrust, so some is added usually around 2 or 3 degrees, & this depends on lots of variables, eg. prop pitch, speed & so on. A good way to find the right amount of right thrust needed, is to pull vertical at full power, & adjust rudder trim to the right until the plane flies straight up, this may take a few tests to get it right, then land, & measure the angle of deflection of the rudder, note that angle, & increase the right thrust of the motor, exactly HALF that rudder angle. & check this with the radio on of course, So if the rudder trim moved the rudder, say 4 degrees, then 2 degrees, of right thrust is needed. More flight tests may be needed to confirm this setting, of course.
Ok now for down thrust, this is used to counteract the lifting forces of high lift wings, Eg, flat bottom wings, as on a trainer. The motor will pull the wing through the air much faster than it needs, to overcome the weight of the aircraft, & so it climbs, this is when down TRIM is applied, fine, but this is only effective at that particular throttle setting, any slower & the nose will drop, any faster & it will climb again.
So down thrust is added to the motor to reduce the effect of unwanted climbing under power, & also the plane will not need as much retrimming during the flight.

Sorry to ramble on, I have just come home from flying, & I had to maiden 3 new planes, 1 of which is a SIG Kadet, 25 size. It needed some down thrust, to help it fly better.

I have this same plane with a Supertigre .45 and set up to the specifications and it flies great. It's pretty quick and lands nicely. The only problem I have enver had is take-off, I fly off a grass field and with the .45 it want's to rotate quickly and gets squirrly, but onces it's up to speed to flys great, turns quick and lands slow.

Thanks F-18 it has been so windy here in south Florida that I did not want to maiden it yet. I will keep you posted and can't wait to fly this bird!

I'm sure you'll be happy with this plane. I was just out today, alittle cold but I think it's getting faster. I added more expo (30%) to help calm it down in the turns and it still flies like it's on rails. I have another P-51 with the same engine and it's not this fast. These planes are so small and light, it's like flying an arrow. I did like the idea of the wide stripes on the wings, I'll have to add them.

F-15: Went out today and let me tell you that this thing is just fantastic, even had one dead stick and it just glides beautifully, It is very well built. This is my second Phoenix Models after the Sea Bee and both are just enjoyable. The stripes do help telling which side up! My expos are at 35%, TT .46 APC 10X6 and JR 6102. Someone at the field told me that he had one and did install retracts on it.

I think we made a good choice!

Retracts....... I thought about that but thought the airfoil was to thin? do you know what kind or retract they used. When was finishing mine I took some of the covering off and placed a couple of hardwood blocks by the wheels to keep them in place. And yes, this plane can take some abuse. I've have had a few dead stick landings 2 of which where pretty hard - coming in low and banking hard right the engine just quit and had to try adn get it level for a bouncy landing but nothing came loose. I also lost the entire muffler on one flight which one a Supertigre is quite a lot of weight and that made it quite tail heavy and had to come in pretty fast to keep it from getting out of control and again - no damage. This plane is fun to fly and fast, I've seen people hear talk about putting lasrger engines in them and they were not very fast? I'm not sure how that can be mine only has a .45 and it's fast enough, I'm not trying to break the sound barrier and I'd hate to ask them what they consider fast?

You know, people talk too much and whatever you have on your plane is not enough. everybody allways say they have installed something better than what you have. I love it with the TT .46 and it will stay that way! They said it would be fun with a .61 but I think it is too much. It is fun as it is an I know that because after each and every flight someone will aproach me and ask about the model and its setting. I guess good advertisment for Phenix Models because other 2 modelers purchased stregas. I guess it also make my flying look good! jeje

I'm glad to here that. I was reading a post the other day where they were talking about putting .60's and larger on smaller planes.. I'm not sure but I think that sometimes you have to use some common sense and say - "hey, that might just rip the plane apart". And like I stated before I have 2 of these with just ST .45 on them and they are plenty fast. I guess my eyes are just not fast enough to watch a 50" orange plane tear through the sky at 150 mph or faster. So I guess I'll enjoy my less than 100 mph racer and hopefully have the wings attached after a few more races around the track. I was flying here sat (even up north it was 60, go figure) but breezy and had a blast with it. It goes verticle far enough and falls over on its back nicley into a smooth power dive...