How many of you guys fly your jets in primer before painting? I'm building my first turbine jet and I'm thinking of flying her first to ensure I have no problems before I spend the time on the finish and detail. Is this a good idea or am I just being paranoid?

Thanks

THATS A VERY GOOD IDEA. WHENEVER I BUILD A NEW PLANE, I PUT ONLY THE ABSOLUTE NECESSARY ITEMS FOR FLIGHT IN IT AND THEN FLY IT TO MAKE SURE EVERYTHING IS FINE. AFTER I KNOW THAT EVERYTHING IS FINE, I GO BACK AND FINISH THE REST OF THE PROJECT. GARY.

Tried this route.....Flew my bobcat for 1.5 years before I finally got around to painting it [] I made a promise to myself....NEVER AGAIN. Build, paint, then fly.......otherwise other projects always seem to get in the way [:'(]
Todd

I agree with Tod, Although Sometimes I wish I would have flown in Primer. Ha Ha

I like to finish the model all the way up front. I feel it is easier to paint control surfaces before they are attached, and not have to worry about getting paint on anything that should not be painted. Flew our BobCat in primer for about 2 months, then had to remove everything to paint it, and then put it all back in again. Turned out okay, just not sure I would want to do it again.

Steven

Several years ago I built an old George Miller F-4 (DF powered) and flew it 9 or 10 times in primer. I then painted it to look like our local Air National Guard unit that flew F-4s. I crashed it on the first flight with paint. (It wasn't the paint's fault..[sm=crying.gif])

I flew my Isobar in primer some 50 flights. First flight after painting it, it went in. Whether it's the paints fault or not, it always bugged me.

The F-15 flew two flights in primer, and was not unstuffed for painting. Just a heck of a lot of stuffing paper in it, all in all, I'm happy with the way the F-15 turned out.

I don't know what the ultimate answer here is, but it's probably go ahead and paint the jet before you fly it. You'll be a lot more thorough with the airplane before the first flight then you would had you flown the airplane before and were re-maidening it.

Sean

I finish it all off first then fly. My approach to this is that you're more likely to introduce a problem by pulling all the gear out and re-installing it (which is mostly necessary if spraying a model). As far as I'm concerned once you've done that the first flight after it is painted is the same as the very first flight the model ever had anyway!

Rgds,
Mark

See this paint job that went to waste? Ugh.

I was going through the same question with the Hornet. I have decided to paint it before flight. I may get the base colors down and wait to do the detail and weathering until after the first flight but you don't have to remove surfaces to airbrush the details in.

I think for sport planes or well proven designs it is OK to paint it. For scale or something with some risk in the design, definitely fly it in primer. I have also found that if you wait and leave the fiberglass canopy on and paint it black it really helps with the visibiliy, I gave up trying to put monokote trim sheets and all of that stuff on it, I just paint the canopy black and fly it in grey primer, keep her close in, once you know you can fly that you know you can see/handle any paintjob

As for me, a long time ago I started building in such a way that every surface and door can come off for painting. Personal thing but it works well for me.