dsilver668

Thanks Kahloq good to know. I figured it would be but just wanted confirmation.
@guy 5927
I have only had one bad launch with my stang and I am completly stock. The other issue I have had was my own fault and a poor battery which PZ is replacing. They aren't replacing the wing, but they are sending a new spinner and cowling and I can't complain. That is better parts support than most places I know.
I think in the end the Typhoon engine, E-flite ESC and powerzone are the answer. Even though I may only have short flight times with the Nimh batteries I doubt I will have any more issues with regards to power. Sounds like I can do most of my flying at less then half power sooo my hope is I will get six minutes or so out of a battery. If that happens I will be happy for the time being before bying lipos.


BTW just saw the Alpha models P-51 for $75.00 on www.hobby-estore.com

kahloq

Check this out King. This is exactly what you are talking about, except done with a Flying Styro B-25.
Here is link to pic:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/attac...hmentid=813607

There are a few more pictures on the "current" last page of the discussion about this plane. Thread here:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=482056

I have this plane, but have not begun building it(will this week hopefully).

kahloq

It is not the same plane. That one at hobby-estore.com is not an Alfa. It looks close, but look at the prop, the top front of the fuse are different colors, the exhaust stacks are different colors, theres no pilot in the hobby-estore one, the decals are placed different and the Alfa has 3 red gun spots on each wing...the hobby-estore does not.
The Alfa has 192 sq in wing area, the hobby-estore has 198.

Im sure its a nice plane though, but since I cant see the interior, I dont know if its even a balsa or lite-ply build up. But at $75 instead of $119 like the Alfa, the hobby-estore one might be a nice buy comparatively speaking.

dsilver668

Sweet Kahloq,
I really liked the finished pics for Styros plane. I would be really tempeted to build it with all the detail parts. It is so pretty when done that way.
On Hobby-Lobby's web site they have a vid showing it use the gear that comes with it. It even roles into the grass with out damage. I am not sure how many times it can do that but all the little details is what makes is so special. Just don't skimp in going all out on it. It shouldn't add that much wait and believe me everyone will be so impressed with it.

I was looking at the P-51 B and their P-38..
Man this is getting out of control I got to learn how to fly my PZ first..
One thing I do like is the level of detail on Styro's kits, it blows away everything else. Alpha Models is close, but sometimes I think they would almost be to nice to fly.. Nah!!!

dsilver668

You are right about that. It looks real close though. Kinda strange.. HA!!! I thought it looked familier. It is an AK Models P-51, of Balsa Contstruction. Not a bad model, but only $60.00 off AK's website, so not the deal I thought. Although Estore does seem to have real cheap batteries and radio gear. Not sure if that is good or bad. some times you can get the far east nock off made at the same plant as a higher end radio but half the price. A 6 channel for less than $50.00 seems strange. They have recievers, and other gear for nothing. There is a ESC for $13.00. Doesn't have much info on it, but heck for that price you might be willing to chance it. They have Li-Poly batteries for cheap to.

kahloq

The B-25 is a really nice plane and yeah, I'll be a little scared to fly it. I built the Flying Styro ME-109G and it looks awesome, but again, Im nervous about flying it. As far as landing gear for the B-25...yes it does come with some nice thick wire struts, but the tires that come with the kit are simple foam tires. Although they would work, I like better scale and am using 2 1/2" Dubpro treaded rubber low bounce tires on the mains. I am also going to be installing retracts. My plane will also have 9x7 3-blade Master Airscrew counter rotating props/on eflite 450 BL engines. The kit comes with FS 9x7 3-blades that are decent, but they are not counter rotating.

AK Models P-51 $54.95. Hell, at the price...I may have to pick one up. I want a P-40, but Im not too keen on the AK version.

kahloq

Aftre looking at the AK models, I've decided not to buy one. Although decent looking, the P-51 is ok, but I've got the PZ P-51 as well as a glow powered PTS P-51. I dont need another P-51. The P-40 from AK is ok, but I dont like the paint scheme at all. I was very close to buying a Camo Spitfire, but started noticing non scale looks of the plane. The canopy looks more like a P-51 then an actual Spitfire, there wre no underwing air-intakes, and the cowl and the bottom of the plane are flat. Honestly, it was the canopy that soured it for me the most. I'd be better off getting a GWS Spitfire. I'd get a Flying Styro P-40 or Spitfire, but, the motor I have is a himax 2816 outrunner with stick mount and it was too big to fit the FS ME-109g so probably same issue with P-40 or Spit. The GWS would be perfect for this motor as it uses stick mount. So does AK, but I am not liking the AK variants as much as when I first saw them. Maybe I should get an AK Cap 232 instead. It also uses stick mount.

Glacier Girl

My Feedback: (4)

kahlog,
You sound like me, a kid in a candy store when it comes to buying birds.
I'm actually enjoying the work involved in making them right, before flying them.
Heck I've spent nearly 3 days grafting in air retactable/steerable nose gear in my Lightning.
The B25 is next up for me too, we should compare notes on it. Or maybe I'll take notes on yours as the P38's going to take me a nother month or so.


Some one had mentioned bungee launching. It can be done, I have a stock Mustang set up for it. Simple enough to do. Made a hook out of a coat hanger, and it attaches to the front wing screws. With the bungee, you get a nice launch, and don't run into any type of motor torque condition. It's like click, swish, engage throttle, and away you go. Something to think about when you get older and don't have the arm strength to hand launch multiple birds all day long.

guy5927

Hmm ... I have 1 lipo and 2 stock 9-cells ... the nihms give me 10-13 minutes of flight using a high quality charger ...

dsilver668

Yeah Kahloq I know what you mean. I love building like GG does. Making a model look like it's big brother is half the fun for me. I can totaly understand once you get a Styro looking that nice flying it is something else.
Sometimes I wonder how the guys who fly scale jets do it. You are zipping around with a 14,000 dollar model in the air. One slip and it is toast..
Crashes happen to everyone, but I guess it comes with the territory.

Good to hear GG that someone else thought of this. I would think bung launching would be the way to go with the larger models as I have my friend tossing mine every time..

Guy5927, that sounds about right. I bring her in when I feel her start to lack power at full throttle. I don't run her completely out as I like to have plenty of juice prior to landing. My hope would be is if I upgraded to the PZ brushless and shut off the voltage regulator I could get 6 or 7 minutes. In that case it would be very doable. Having enough power to get tou of trouble probably would have saved me at least twice from my crashes. Only had three. One was no damage, so it was rerally more of a bad landing. the others were a tip stall on launch, and the second was loss of orientation and tip stall prior to landing which put me into a tree!

I am trying not to throw to much money at my stang and keep it afordable right now. I was looking at the Venom P-51 one night. For $200 it comes with everything except a 4 channle radio and battery / charger. It has a brushless, ESC, and micro servos installed. Unfortunatley there isn't much out there on the quality of the build, but it looks like it is foam. It is also smaller than the PZ, but not bad if you ask me. For someone who might not be ready for a flying styro kit, but wants more than the PZ I think it is a good middle of the road choice. I am not sure how the parts avalibility is or support.

kahloq

You are so right about "kid in the candy store" Often times, I can't stop myself from buying another plane. Last night, I happened across a site that was selling the Flying Styro kit Spitfire for $99 instead of the $139 Hobby-lobby lists it at....so I bit and bought it. I also have that Electrifly Corsair coming even though I have GWS, Alfa, as well as 2 glow ones. Corsair is my favorite plane so....well, had to buy it too.
I now have more electric planes then radio settings on my radio. Guess I have to wait on some to build until an inevitable crash frees up one of the 10 slots on the DX6.
So, for electrics I now have the following on hand(or on the way in the mail)
GWS Corsair(built)
Alfa Corsair(built)
Electrifly Corsair(on the way)
GWS ME-109(half built w/retracts)
FSK ME-109G(built)
FSK B-25J(not started)
FSK Spitfire(on the way)
GWS A-10(still in box but have all BL motors/esc)
PZ P-51((3rd airframe....built)
PZ FW190(built...no radio gear in it yet)
PZ 3D Typhoon(built...best stable plane I got at the moment)
Precision Aerobatics Katana Mini(still in box)

So...thats twelve planes and only 10 model settings on radio

The PTS P-51 has a radio with two model settings, but it is a marginal computer radio...the trims are manual, not digital.
The Alpha 40 Trainer is a bare bones 4 channel w/manual settings as well.
Kyosho Corsair has a Futaba 6C radio, but isnt computer or digital.
Lanier Corsair has no radio(was planning on using 2nd setting on PTS P-51 radio for this plane eventually)

AND I STILL Want a B-17(electric would be good...eam.net has a good one)

dsilver668

I found a post on RCGROUPS from somone who looks like they work for Venom.
Now I am really interested...
The pics of the Zero and P-51 both look awsome. The details are way up there and the both come with working ruders right out of the box!
Here is the other post:
Well I cant get into a debate about who copied who and what looks like what but I think for the value you would get from these models anyone would be happy to own one.
The interior is reinforced with laser cut light ply. They come with the servos installed and the BL ESC and motor installed ready for your battery plug and Rx. There is very little assembly to get you going. I love the fact hat the P-51 comes with 3 decal choices, FRENESI is my favourite.
The Zero is pretty sweet and decals are nice and colorful, plus we took the time to make them pretty accurate to the real plane, same goes for the P-51.

No other planes on the market come this complete with this much performance to my knowledge. They include a 3980kv motor and 25A ESC and two 10X8 props. The gear ratio is 5.33:1 so with a good Lipo and keeping the weight light these will climb vertical no problem, see video on our site.
Thats me flying the P-51 and going vertical on take off. I will say the GWS 4 blade prop makes a distinct sound when diving, pretty cool actually.

We are very close to releasing these, they should arrive within a couple of weeks.

Chris

kahloq

I enjoy the build process too(sometimes its stressfull though).

As far as wanting something more then a PZ P-51, but not ready for flying styro......put a lipo in the PZ P51 with brushless and you'll really see a huge performance difference. Another option besides Flying Styro($139) is the Alfa($119). They are slightly cheaper, almost totally done for you and from most reports actually fly well on speed 300 geared brushed motors(even though I use BL outrunner on my Alfa Corsair). Yet another cheaper solution about the same size as an Alfa is the AKM electric P-51 previously mentioned($54.95) http://ak-models.com/electric.htm. They are basically same look as the Alfa P-51 with the yellow tail and "Marie" scheme. There is a little more work to do to build this compared to the Alfa, but not near as much as the Flying Styro. The AKM P-51 is the only plane from AKM that I would consider buying. The Spitfire and P-40 just don't look right.

dsilver668

HAHAHA Kahloq man you need help!!!
I mean really you need help building! LOL
Well never bad thing because if you crash you always have something else to fly...

Yup you are right about the AK models. I like the Alfa Models though. Styros are way cool but I would be scared to fly it.
I am proably going to go Brushless PZ TYPHOON Motor, and lipo this summer on the PZ P-51. It should give me what I need..
By then the Venom's will be out and I can see what the reports are on it. They look real nice, but I want to hear about crash reports, and overall value. It looks pretty good considering I can get a radio and reciever from hobby estore for less than $90.00. I don't care for the wire landing gear on the Venoms, but it is better than nothing, and retracts would add a lot of weight.

kahloq

Whats the site for that Venom P-51?

dsilver668

Go here
http://www.venom-aircorps.com/

Check out the vid and see how he goes verticle right after take off with the P-51!!! Not bad if you ask me..

L0stS0ul

There are rumors that the Venom planes are just GWS planes resold. Just be aware of that.

I think we all get the model fever once you get into it. I'm currently looking at:

2 GWS Corsairs (1 built and flying other 1/2 built)
2 Red's Miss Hanger One flying boats. (1 built and flying and the other still in the box)
1 E-Flite Ultimate FX ( Currently flyabale)
1 Parkzone P-51 (still flying after over 110 flights)
1 Parkzone Cub (still flyable but don't often)
1 E-Flite Blade CP (crashed and probably won't fix)
1 E-Sky King (waiting on 1 servo)
1 Foker DR1 from plans on RC-Groups (electronics/motor bought, depron on order)

I got yelled at from the wife that I need to find a place to store these things the other night

kahloq

Oh yeah ... forgot to mention the Blade CP I have as well...LOL

So total = 16 planes + 1 heli(wife knows about 8 of them)

dsilver668

Chris did nod to but did not alaborate on the GWS resell thing. I haven't seen a GWS this nice. Not saying it isn't but the venom is pretty much done for you! That alone along with the servs ESC and motor have to account for something. Not sure if it is a deal or not since I haven't gone through and priced everything assuming you were doing a GWS with all the gear.

L0stS0ul

All they are is painted. I suppose if you don't want to paint that's good for you but just because they are pre-painted does not make them nicer than a GWS plane It's not that hard to put a GWS plane together. The problem is if you look closely the P-51 has the exact same panel lines (same depth too) as the GWS P-51 and the zero even has the same wing Incidence problem. Without saying for sure since I've never actually seen one up close I won't say it is for sure a copy but the pictures are convincing.

As for a price comparison:

Venom plane comes with:
• V Series V20L™ 3860kv Brushless Motor
• V Series 25 AMP Brushless ESC™ with LiPO Safe Technology
• 3 Micro Servos Installed

for $200 with no battery, radio, etc... Performance unknown

GWS P-51:
[link=http://www.bphobbies.com/view.asp?id=V071948&pid=U536685]P-51 Slope Glider Kit[/link]: $30
[link=http://www.bphobbies.com/view.asp?id=V443293&pid=T557857]3 BlueBird BMS-371 servos @$13 each[/link]: $39
[link=http://www.bphobbies.com/view.asp?id=V672768]BP-21 Brushless Outrunner and Castle Creations Thunderbird 18 speed controller[/link]: $47.09

Total: $116 for a comperable package for a plane that is known to perform well on that setup. Now is $80 extra worth a little paint and 5 hours of your time? That's up to each person. I enjoy building, painting, and flying my planes so for me it is not. But that's me. It might be worth it for you. If they would have included the transmitter and receiver for $200 then I would agree that it's a deal but I don't see it as such in the package they actually are trying to sell.

My corsair is just as attractive as my Parkzone P-51

dsilver668

Well I have to agree with you on that one.
I can paint just fine, I have a Pachee VL air brush just screeming to get used for something other than my friends Heli canopies.
I did some Lexan Bodies for my RC cars with it too.
Actually the GWS looks like it has nicer landing gear as well if you get the one with the motor, but I would want to go brushless right away.
BP Hobbies
BP-21 Brushless Outrunner and Castle Creations Thunderbird 18 speed controller: $47.09
GWS P-51D Mustang Slope Glider Park Flyer EP ARF 34" $29.75
P-51D Landing Gear and Wheel Set (GW/P51D-FAS3) $3.63
Total Minus battery and radio EQ: $80.47
NOTE: Not sure how much 'juice the BP21 needs but I am guessing this will work.
E-TEC Lithium Polymer 11.1V 1250mAh HP $39.95
I put together a flight pack using the E-fly radio. It is 72 MHz and may not be the best radio, but I am going for low end right now. I am thinking about the Spektrum as I have it for my cars and love it..
My Time: Priceless!
Flight pack with Blue bird rx, BMS ball berring servos, another E-TEC battery
E-Fly TX, and Apachee 2020 charger. Not sure I want to pitch for a balancer right now.
149.94

Total: 230.41 for the complete setup RTF plusd a little of my time and I get everything I need.

L0stS0ul

I flew my corsair yesterday on one of the cheap GWS 1300mAh 11.1v lipos. The BP-21 pulls around 12 amps on the 8x4 prop and unloads to about 9 amps in the air. They say the GWS packs are 6 C which would only rate them at around 8 amps. The instructions that came with mine puts it at 10 C which would be 13 amps so I think it's truly somewhere in between that. I don't push the pack past 10 amps and it has never come down warm. Even so though the performance difference between the GWS pack and my Thunderpower 1320 prolite pack is night and day. The TP pack is much more powerful. The GWS packs really sag a lot. Still very flyable and much better than the stock 400 though.

If I were going to put together the same thing on BP's site I'd definitally get the BP-21 on the P-51 with the thunderbird 18 speed controller. The E-Tech 1250 is good to 12 amps so it will be just fine with this setup. I'd actually go with the Hitec Micro 05S receiver with the 1 mile+ range. The 650 foot range on the bluebird stuff scares me. I like to have range to spare. I'd definitally spend the extra on the better receiver. I'd also get the BMS-371 servos instead of the 306 servos. The 306 might be faster but the 371 are much higher torque. That's what you really want. I can't speak to that transmitter. The price scares me a bit. I don't like to go that cheap on radio equipment but assuming that it works ok and you keep everything else you'd be looking at about $20 more for $166.02 for the different receiver and servos but it will be worth it.

dsilver668

Yes agreed. I was thinking about the Hitech Laser. It is a little more but would a be more notable radio to start.
The price isnt that much more than the 306 servos. The extra range would rock on the RX part of things.
Also how did the build go for you on the GWS bird. I don't think the wings would have an issue, but mating the two halves of the fuse might be tricky. Also what type of paint did you use? I was thinking basic acrylics should be ok.

kahloq

The two halves of GWS birds have alignment foam pegs. You really cant mess up the alignment. Paints I used on my GWS Corsair were the Model Master Spray Paints found at most hobby shops.

kahloq

Double post....deleted.