JeffP51M

Anybody on this forum have this plane, how does it fly? Is it worth the money for the RTF. Thanks for your guys time and help.

www.nitroplanes.com/93a333-1400-51-yellow-rtf-24g-eretract.html

by the way I'm new to this forum and I hoped I post it in the right forum.I didtry to do a search on it and didn't come up with anything.

transatlanticflight

Jeffp51,

I was getting tired of building and ordered three 1400mm Airfield RC RTF planes...to have some stress free summer fun. I have the p40, the blue nose p51 (1450mm), and the Spitfire. I have opened them all up and checked them out. They are truly amazing as far as foam planes go, in detail, ease of assembly, and quality of construction. The electric retracts are a hoot and for anywhere from $170-$250 bucks for a 2.5 ghz RTF I have seen nothing that compares in wow factor or can be completely assembled in an hour (no joke). But there’s some things you need to know and I’ve included it here for you, but I am thinking about creating a separate post called “tips for airfield rc newbies.�

I have only assembled and flown the Spitty so far. It flies awesome. I was a little rusty when I was flying it and I had a couple rough landings on pavement and the worst that’s happened was a scuffed spinner and a little rash on the wing tips. Eventually on another run I snapped a tip off the propeller…but man I was shocked that my botched take-off/ nose-in didn’t do more damage. Completely pilot error I assure you. I have not flown the p51 but it is bigger, has a larger capacity battery, retractable tailwheel and is impressive looking. I’ve seen video of the p51 flying and think it is probably just as good as the spit if not better. It has an option for flaps but the Spitty lands well without them…the planes have really light wing loading…kind of float in. So that’s the good news.

Now the bad news: spare parts and charge plugs.

Spare parts are copiously listed on the Nitro site...but almost everything is back ordered/ out of stock. I snapped a tip on the 3 blade prop and have found that the spare blades for the Spitty were available, but noticed just about everything else including spare blades for the p51 are not available. Spare batteries are also not available though I assume comparable battery sizes are sold by nitro and others...which brings me to the subject of the power plugs. Nitro does not sell them. If your charger charges through the balance plug than maybe you’re alright…mine does not. Not sure that any 4 cell and larger charger will. And these planes all have 4 cell lipos. But read on because I found a source.

The Airfield RC models’ esc and batteries come with special, large, bullet style connectors that have a red plastic case with different diameter, round barrels. They are pretty good plugs, similar to the blue EC3 plugs used by eflight but different in several ways. First they are longer and larger…easier to grip and plug and unplug. Some people have complained they may unplug or come loose in flight...I dont see that happening except if the battery got thrown in a crash. I think they mate nicely. Second they are polarity restricted but only by the proper assembly of the plug. THE BAD NEWS: As I said, Nitro does not sell the plugs at all! THE GOOD NEWS: I did find a source by Googling “Airfield RC power plugs.� A guy selling them for $3.99 for a pair of mating plugs on Ebay...bought 4 sets...received them in a matter of days to East coast. If you can’t find the link through Google let me know and I’ll dig it up and post it.

THE POWER PLUG: TIPS YOU NEED TO KNOW.

General: Here's how the design works: The casing has two different sized barrels and they can only mate one way. Male and female bullets are installed in the plug casing identically such that the male bullet is always in the smaller diameter plug barrel, the female in the larger diameter plug barrel. HERE'S THE TRICKY PART: The red and black leads are soldered to different sex brass barrels depending on whether it is the battery or the esc (or a charge jack, if you make one). Look carefully before soldering and assembling battery packs or charge cords. The battery plug has the red wire soldered to female brass plug, black to male brass plug. The Esc and charge jack are opposite: Red wire to male brass and black to female. Get this wrong and assemble them and you've ruined the plugs because you will never get them apart in one piece easily.

Tip 1: Unlike the EC3 connectors which are pressed into the back of the plastic plug housing, the red plastic plug casing on the airfield plugs needs to be slipped onto the wires first before soldering the connectors. The connectors are then pressed (not pounded) into the casing with some substantial force using some sort of driver or nail set punch (watch your fingers). They absolutely will not be forced in from the other direction.

Tip 2: The Plastic plug is thin walled and softer than the EC3 Blue connectors. Be careful to let soldered plugs cool before assembly as they will deform and become loose if assembled hot. Also don’t bother with heat shrink tubing, a heat gun will melt the housing in seconds and the plug cavities are deep enough to protect the wire and solder cup even if the wire jacket shrunk during soldering.

Tip 3: The solder cup has an unfortunate hole in the side and solder may spill out all over the outside of the barrel filling the recess and obliterating the detents that hold it in the plastic housing...NOT GOOD. If you take care to heat the side opposite the hole it will be less likely that solder will be drawn out. But if it does get on the outside of the barrel you will need to clean it up. I had one that outflowed and had to use my solder iron and a rag to wipe the bulk off and had to use a small file to bring it all back. If the detents are not clean the plugs will not seat in the housing correctly and will come apart when you plug and unplug.

Tip 4: I made a small jig out of a block of wood rather than use a vise or clamp. I drilled appropriate sized holes in a small block of wood and jammed the brass connectors, cup upward into the holes. I tinned the end of the wires and then heated the cups, filling the cup with solder, pushed in the wire, set for a second remove iron, hold until cool. Done. This worked better than metal vise, clamp or locking pliers since the wood did not suck up any heat letting me work fast and minimize heat on the battery leads or esc leads.

Tip 5: By buying a few extra sets of EC3 and the airfield plugs, I was able to make an adapter for my charger. Since most of my other batteries use the EC3 connector, I had a cable that was banana plug(out of the charger) to EC3 already. I just made a short adapter cable, with an EC3 battery plug to Airfield ESC plug and maintained polarity throughout. Easier than carrying a whole separate charge cable, and unplugging and plugging it each time, since polarity is kind of hard to see on the charger and the banana plugs have no polarity insert protection.

BALANCE PLUGS: The batteries have balance plugs that are compatible with my Thunder Power charger adapter board (listed for many Chinese battery packs). It is a similar balance plug as are used by Parkzone, and eflight. I don’t think they stock these things at Nitro either, so I offer the compatibility reference so you can check your charger or other charger manufacturers for adapters.

I was a while getting this info and was kind of peeved that my airfield RTF plane took two weeks to get airborn because of it all. All I can say is the plane is worth it…and more so now that this info is posted.

Enjoy

Rick

Asanders

I bought the spitfire rtf, came with a pretty cool transmitter. A day after delivery I had her flying. Flies very nicely and is pretty quick. Landings are pretty smooth. I fly on asphalt. Chipped the prop on one bouncy landing after many nice ones. Plane looks pretty good on the ground and in the air. I have no complaints about this plane.

transatlanticflight

Sanders, I agree they are awesome planes, and durable...best flown off pavement as you say because the wheels are too small for all but a putting green quality grass field. But let me ask you, flying the next day, how did you charge the batteries? and Solve the lack of charge plugs? Do you have a charger that charges through the balance plug? If so, can you share the make and model number.

MustangAce

My Feedback: (3)

How about cutting and soldering deans, enough room, or can things be removed for this?

Asanders

I use a charger that has the balancer plug so the batteries can have whatever connectors on it. I bought it from Hobby King, works well. I can get the model number if you are interested.

transatlanticflight

Mustang,

Yes the cowl comes off and the entire esc can be pulled out of the fusealage to solder whatever connector you want, with or without removing the motor. But honestly, I think the existing plugs are fine. The batteries are sized specifically for the plane, esc, motor, balance, etc. Among the three Airfield models I purchased all are the same cell count (4) but no two batteries are the same physical size, amperage or c rating (yet are nicely marked with v, a, and c specs BTW). So I would be reluctant to interchange them. I guess if you have existing batteries, and know more than I do about the consequences of over or undersizing a battery in the world of watts, and/or are one of those guys who just likes to standardize on deans plugs...you certainly could. And if you've got no use for all those connectors you cut off...send em to me.

I found my little charge adapter to be a simple solution (cost two connectors and four solder joints, easily accessible). And I considered making a flying adapter or two if I wanted to mate an ec3 connectered battery to an airfield plane, or an airfield battery to an ec3 connectored esc...for the odd chance I had such a desire to interchange...then I realized all my eflight batteries were 3 cell and the airfields were 4 cell...so why bother.

By and large I find that electric planes are spec'd with a certain size battery, esc and motor, and fiddling with these, has rarely been beneficial and in one case, for me, a beefier battery (which I thought would give me more fuel in the tank), might have been responsible for burning up the esc or the motor windings or both, turning my greatplanes SeA5 into a burning balsa bottle rocket. So I stick with stock set ups...due to my ignorance and the k.i.s.s. principle.

transatlanticflight

Asanders,

Yes I'm interested in the charger...and others might like to know too. I'm also looking for a good multi-battery (4 at a time) charger. Looked at the T6? (I think it's called) by thunder power...know of any others?

GaryM

My Feedback: (14)

http://www.fmadirect.com/new_applica...rger_info.html

FMA has a charger, Cell Pro 4S, which charges and balances thru the same plug. You will need to buy at least one lead / connector to plug into the charger I think the part number for the connector that will charge and balance up to 4 cells is CPBP7. The chargers are around 50. or so and the leads are dirt cheap, maybe 2 or 3.00 dollars each. You just need to solder the matching ends for your battery to the connector. The connector I mentioned above has Red, Balck and 3 white wires. The white wires (balance wires) are nodes 1-3

The charger runs off of a 12v supply or household 110. It is kind of particular on the 110 converter as it has to have at least 5A or the charger will kick off. Fma sells one for about 25.00

I have used this charger for over 6 years on foamy packs as well as Life 123 pack in my large scale planes.

Asanders

Here is the link to the charger a Hextronic HX8080, there are several comment threads on rc groups about this. I have had no problems with this charger. I dont know a lot about electronics being a glow/gas man but this is charging made simple, red light means charging green lights all done!

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbycity/s...idproduct=2055

MustangAce

My Feedback: (3)

My wife bought me the Petie 2nd P-51 ARF for my birthday. I am real impressed about the quality and detail with this airplane. I did have a couple of dings during shipping though

Alexg3265

I have the airfield rc p-51 and it flies great! I have an fpv setup on it now, still working out the kinks. Flew it this morning with someone else wearing the goggles. Said it was crisp and clean so I'll try it later this week. I take it off from short grass and land it there too. You definitely need to use the flaps or you will break props. It floats but you lose lift quick. I've landed it 5-6 times with flaps and no problems. It was windy the last 2 flights and I didn't use flaps and it lands but then rotates forward and snaps off a blade off the prop. With the flaps it does float. I bent the landing gear but bent it back.. That plane is tough as hell. I replaced the esc and run it on a 5s 3000mah sky lipo. Spare parts are a pain to find though.