Kow

Hi all.

I'm still learning on my Alpha 40 trainer, and have already purchased an H9 Pulse XT as my second plane.

I have also been drooling over the H9 Hellcat. I'm considering picking one up to work on over the winter. In your opinion, if I master the trainer, and get proficient with the Pulse, could I safely move up to the Hellcat, or would it be too much plane for someone with that level of flying experience? At that point, I will have already flown a tail dragger, so near as I can tell, the biggest difference would be the speed difference on the landing approach. I hear warbirds tend to come in a little hot.

Any thoughts?

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

I reviewed the Hellcat last year. It was designed to fly more like a sport plane than a warbird, so yes, once you are proficient with the Pulse, you should be able to handle the Hellcat.

Kow

Cool. Thank you!

v8mini

i dont know about the hell cat, but your choice to go from trainer to a Pulse XT is good. i found it to be a good move to my first low wing tail dragger, pleasure to fly

Scar

My Feedback: (3)

Responding to your topic - A warbird is generally a good <fill in the blank> plane - I would fill in the blanks with <example of a high powered> or <example of a heavy>

On the other hand, one might suggest an alternate topic : A [fill in the blanks] can be made to look like a warbird. That one might be filled in with [Sport Plane] or [aerobatic plane] or [Profile Plane] and I'm sure other answers could be made.

Scale warbirds usually need a lot of power, and the scale features usually make them heavy. Sounds expensive & demanding to fly, right? That's why there are a lot of fun scale warbirds available, build like sport planes.

Best wishes,
Dave Olson

Kow

Thanks, Scar. I guess what I was looking for with the <fill in the blank> mumbo jumbo was something like 3rd, 4th, etc. I suppose it would be hard to make that determination without knowing what types of planes the pilot had previously flown, eh?

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

It depends on the warbird. Most of the stuff available today looks like a warbird, flys like a sport plane. Especially the good looking, good flying H9 arfs.

Build a scale Ziroli Corsair or something along those lines and it will fly like a warbird and not be suitable for a 2nd or 3rd plane.

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

H-9 planes are, as minnflyer put it, sport planes in warbirds clothing, there lighter than the typical warbird,the wings are not fully sheeted and the formers and fuse structure is not as beefed up as say a Top flight plane,they tend to come in at about 8lbs or so,and tend to float in a bit better on landing,my 3rd plane was a H-9 P-40 and I did fine with it,I also have the mustang there both great flyers with no bad habbits, I would think the Hellcat would be the same.
one thing to note the Hellcat has rotating gear and do require a bit more maint.and adjustment than standard retracts.
also it does need a little larger engine for power,the real difference is the take off roll, speed is your friend with any warbird they don't take kindly to the yank it off the ground style that many sport planes do,and will tip stall without enough airspeed,again not as much as say a 12lb warbird but it should always be in the back of your mind.

Jester241

I rebuilt a Hanger 9 P-51 .60 plane and it was about my 3rd or 4th plane,and its been a handful so far with about 10 flights with it. I have a stightly larger then recommended engine in it (OS 1.20 4 stoke) and it was pretty nose heavy. My first obstacle to overcome was that I had to shim out the retracts to kick the wheels further toward the nose of the plane,otherwise it would nose over very easily. My P-51 is also hard to slow down on landing,so be careful if your flying field is short like mine. I also have to trim the crap out of the elevator in order for it to fly level,problem is when its trimmed that much it wants to nose into the ground when building up speed to take off. I think the engine just has too much up thrust. I've compensated for that my mixing in a little elevator action when I flip my "flaps" switch on my transmitter(my plane doesnt have flaps). I flip the switch right after I take off,thus letting it roll the runway nice,but giving me my set amount of trim for level flight once in the air. My plane has been fixed up a couple times from past owner crashes and that doesnt help any.

I think as long as you go with the largest engine your hellcat (I love hellcats too!) recommends and not over it....and build it right,it should fly pretty decent for you. Once I got all my problems worked out,she doesnt fly too bad,but it sure dont fly like my other planes. I'd have a good instructor take it on its maiden flight though. Just watch those cheap Hanger 9 landing gear ires,mine bend everytime upon any landing that isnt perfect. Good luck!!

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

shoot jester I just got a OS120 for my TF P-47 and thats a big engine to cram into a H-9 Mustang no wonder you have had some tipping issues my OS91 is fine for the H-9 airframe,I also use a OS91 pumped for my 11lb TF spitfire there is plenty of power for it as well its not going to hang on the prop but what warbird does.
my Jug is going to be about 11lbs as well I just needed a little nose weight so I went for the 120.

Jester241

Yeah,its got plenty of power,lol. Another issue I had was grinding enough of the motor mount away in order to be able to slide the engine back far enough to get "close" to proper firewall-prop clearence. I couldnt help myself with the engine though,I got it off ebay in mint condition cheap and its pumped. I was glad for the power 1 time......When I was learning to take off before I got the elevator issue worked out,I overcompensated for the nosing over effect while rolling and the plane came off the ground too soon and almost rolled over into the pavement. I punched the throttle and the power pulled her right up in the air.

Another thing I like about the big engine is that it sticks out the bottom of my cowl a good inch......just enough to protect my nice new cowl by hitting the ground first during all those "nose overs".