tevans55

Sonny-
I have the prototype Century Jet retracts in my plane. They have worked flawlessly for four years now with no adjustments. They are rock solid. Here are some photos. they are a drop in install although I would put some fiberglass on and around the rail mounts for the retracts. Hope this helps.

jet22b

tevans55;
Thanks for the pictures and info on the gears. They look good on your Spitfire. I did email Troy Built about the retracts for this model and they told me that they will have a set of electric retract gear coming sometime soon, but he could not give me a date when they will be in-stock. It is no rush for me because I will not start the build until next fall!! This will give me time to have everything I need to finish it. When I do start the build, I will post everything here so other who my want to go with the ESM 72.5" Spitfire will get the pro's and con's of this ARF!! I will do like you said and go with glass around the rails for the gears!!
Thanks again for the info. It is a big help!!!
Sonny
aka
jet22b

tevans55

I believe Century Jet can make these gear electric if you prefer that as well. Also I have built 2 of these Spitfires...the first one hit a bird...I believe they both met their demise although the only confirmed kill was my Spitfire. Let me know if I can be of any additional assitance.

jet22b

Thanks tevans55!! I will do that if I need help!! I know how you feel. One of my club member lost a kit build P-51 on its maiden flight. He hit a crow on downwind that rip the right wing off of the plane. Both was D.O.A!!! He was not a happy person after that!!!
Thanks, again!!!
Sonny

OldScaleGuy

My Feedback: (2)

It has been a while since i spent any time on the TF Spitfire, between yesterday and today i did get the retracts rough fitted.
I know you guys have been really waiting for an update....

facia

Hi Steve,
definitely are looking forward to some build pictures. You bet!
Not too much happening. You guys must be out at the field flying
or doing yard work.
Looking good.
Keep em' coming.

Still no maiden on my finished Spitfire that is waiting to see some sortie action.
I got so frustrated with the weather here, I started on my Top Flite Corsair 60 kit
that wasn't to start till sometime in the fall.

Andreas
Happy building & flying.

OldScaleGuy

My Feedback: (2)

Mowed for the second time yesterday, hope to get out the flying field today.
Should the landing gear be canted out this much? Looks a little strange.

jet22b

Steve;
That is the way my retracts looks. Make sure you build in wheels well for the tires. You will be happy you did. They will beef up that part of the wing real good. My club had a field party yesterday to get the field ready for flying!! Flying weather is here and shop work have come to a stop for me. I can not find myself in the shop working when the sun is out and the sky is blue!! That flying bug bite very hard!!!
Sonny
aka
jet22b

OldScaleGuy

My Feedback: (2)

Thanks Sonny, that is good to hear. Heading to the field myself, we have a decent day going.

ddemarco

Hello brotherhood friends,

I'm thrilled to report that maiden #2 was a complete success. A friend of mine took a few low-res pictures, attached. This is a TF Spitfire that turned out quite heavy (around 12 pounds), and I was really worried about that. I equipped it with a Saito FA-115. It's in fact my First Saito, and I must say I've become a huge fan. It sounds wonderfully realistic, and it delivers 2HP which is outstanding considering its size.

Take-off was a little scary for me, considering that maiden #1 resulted in a nose-over that broke the valve-case of the previous engine (an OS .81). So this time I applied substantial up-elevator to keep the nose down. This resulted in the plane taking off prematurely, and almost stalling, which I could fortunately recover (sweating copiously). The flight required little trimming, mostly to correct a tendency to turn to the left. I'm unsure as to whether this is related to the torque of the engine, so any comments on that will be very welcome.

The Robart landing gear worked without glitches. I don't like the fact that the wheels come down (and up) separately (i.e. not at the same time). This has no effect on the flight, but from a pure aesthetics perspective, it's not very nice.

Landing was done with flaps down, and for these first flights I always landed very "hot". I still need to determine the stall speed to improve my landing. It nevertheless went very well, and past the paved runway a little bit into the grass.

My first conclusions:
1) Take off does not need as much elevator as I used in the first flight. In the second and third flights I used the elevator with more judgement, keeping an eye on the tail, and it turned out to be quite easy to have the tail raise progressively into a nice take off.
2) Landing is challenging, but I always did it a quite high speeds, to avoid stalling. The next thing to do will be to determine the stall speed (which seems to be much slower, based on the take-offs) to make slower landings.
3) The plane in flight was absolutely beautiful. The look (even without the decals, which I will apply in the next days) combined with the gorgeous sound of the Saito, left me breathless.

Good flights to everyone!

jet22b

ddemarco;
Congrat on your maiden flights!!! The next time you fly her, take her up high and do some slow flight to see what the plane do. See if the nose just drop or will it tuck a wing, ( left wing drop or the right wing. ) do it with the flaps down and up.
This will give you a ideal of how slow you can land the plane before it drop from the air. The plane do look good in the air!!!
Again, congrat on the maiden flight and keep us up-dated!!!
Sonny
aka
jet22b

facia

Congratulations Diego.
She looks really nice in the air and will be a looker
once the decals are applied.

Thanks for sharing your maiden flight experience.
Please, post a videoif you have a chance to make one.

Andreas
Happy building and flying.

WARBIRDRCER

My Feedback: (22)

Looking good OldScaleGuy!!

Ddemarco, Thanks for the update. Now I want to get into my shop and do some covering. How did you finish yours; i.e. glass or monokote?
As far as the landing gear actuation, no problem, a lot of full scale hydraulic systems do the same.

jet22b

Hi Brothers;
Below there is a link for a video that I saw some years ago and I think the Brotherhood will enjoy. While it not on our beloved Spitfire, but it show just how close this team came to bring this plane home!!
His is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u4YBwjQTds
Some of you may have seen this, but, if not, enjoy!!!

Sonny
aka
jet22b

albsurfer

Diego,
congratulations on your 2nd test flight!
Your Spitfire looks great!

mad web tv scientist

Please put me down for a cap! I am enjoying wearing my Spitfire Brotherhood shirt in the nice spring weather but could use a cap especially in cooler weather when a T-shirt is just not enough protection from the elements. I would have posted a response earlier but fighter sweep and interceptor air fighting action hindered my mission. Below is a sample of the kind of action on the Park Flyer & Backyard Flyer forum fighter threads that have been keeping me so bogged down.

I wonder if anyone is as suspicious about the negative news concerning the Burma Spitfires as I am. We know there are "negative forces" against the positive cultural values represented by the Spitfire ( please see Churchill reference below) but we also know by faith in the unstoppable trajectory of history that good will ultimately be triumphant over evil. As it has in the past so shall it surely be in the future - inspiring heroric actions that will be praised as part of a modern FINEST HOUR for the Spitfire. Maybe I'm just dreaming, but I see the Spitfire Brotherhood as a force for good in a world of unrelenting remorseless despair.

SCRAMBLE!

Out.


__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________
Thank you gentlemen! You are forcing me to rethink what I am doing and why I am doing it. I'm thinking it might just help me deal with the over excitement of flight that tends to incite "dumb thumb" mistakes if I were to become "somewhat" (?) proficient with a dandy little 3D machine. I wouldn't want to become too proficient, of course, because it's the challenge of that "little whiff of terror" that can make our toys so much fun to play with. Because of my interest in safety and practical science applications of modeling in education, a lot like China is so successfully doing, I would have been a very strong advocate of those fantastic micro sized fighters (I do recommend them along with other good stuff for beginners) had they been available when I actually started my R/C career. My problem at the moment is that I am addicted to that "little extra" whiff of danger that our killer size park flyer fighters can provide due to their size.

I'm not going to do it right away, but at some point I just might have to buy a Kondor Model Products SCARY 135 ounce ARF model of the greatest fighter in the European theater of WWII.

Breaking off the attack now.

Out.



Spitfire Brotherhood (All Spitfires Welcome) #64 - Post #407 - Battle of
Britain & Winston Churchill relevancy to modeling -
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11007416 PLEASE SEE POST 852
(Page # 35) on Spit thread for FANTASTIC INFO. See why we fight -
www.goodfight.com
__________________________________________________ _________
FIGHTERS - AVIATION'S ULTIMATE CALL TO GLORY, HONOR, AND IMMORTALITY -
http://community-2.webtv.net/RICHARD...4/CALLTOGLORY/
__________________________________________________ __________
The following URL brings up the most concise, non-technical (with
technical references) discussion about the revolutionary THORIUM PLASMA
BATTERY technology I have found on the web. ENJOY! Oh what fun we are
going to have in the future of flight!

http://www.ecocarforum.com/ev-forums...t_a_recha.html

''mad thorium batteries'' typed in Yahoo and/or Google brings up some
great information about thorium plasma batteries.

OldScaleGuy

My Feedback: (2)

Diego your Spitfire looks great in the air, congratulations.
The caps are on order. Will let you know as soon as they arrive.

mad web tv scientist

Thanks Steve. Your post signature reminded me of a manifestation of the cultural bias against modeling that I recently experienced by an eldery woman with a dog in tow on a soccer field where I was flying and practicing taxiing a fighter around. She said, "cute toy." I smiled and responded with: "Yeah, I enjoy it." We can call them toys but we all know there is a whole lot more to our "REAL AIRPLANES" than mere frivilous toys!

Out.



Spitfire Brotherhood (All Spitfires Welcome) #64 - Post #407 - Battle of
Britain & Winston Churchill relevancy to modeling -
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11007416 PLEASE SEE POST 852
(Page # 35) on Spit thread for FANTASTIC INFO. See why we fight -
www.goodfight.com
__________________________________________________ _________
FIGHTERS - AVIATION'S ULTIMATE CALL TO GLORY, HONOR, AND IMMORTALITY -
http://community-2.webtv.net/RICHARD...4/CALLTOGLORY/
__________________________________________________ __________
The following URL brings up the most concise, non-technical (with
technical references) discussion about the revolutionary THORIUM PLASMA
BATTERY technology I have found on the web. ENJOY! Oh what fun we are
going to have in the future of flight!

http://www.ecocarforum.com/ev-forums...t_a_recha.html

''mad thorium batteries'' typed in Yahoo and/or Google brings up some
great information about thorium plasma batteries

Chucksolo69

Great to hear about the caps. I can't wait to get mine.

Warbirdguy

My wife used to call them "toys" also, till I messed up and let her see how much I sold one of my "toys" for. Now she makes it a point, when I sell one, to ask " How much did WE make on that one?" LOL Im screwed LOL.

NEVER let your wife know how much your toys are worth. LMAO

Burn receipts, tell stories, claim they arnt yours, anything but the truth on how much the cost LMAO

WBG

WARBIRDRCER

My Feedback: (22)

Good Advice

OldScaleGuy

My Feedback: (2)

Got a question. I am seeing quite a lot of variation in the wheel/tire cant angle on the Spitfires. Which one is right? Or are they all right? Wheels canted inward, outward or perpendicular to the ground. I am a bit confused, C.O. and i need to get our Top Flites as close to scale as we can.

Chad Veich

My Feedback: (60)

The struts are very nearly perpindicular to the ground and the wheels have a slight toe-in at the bottom. Please don't do it like Top Flite show it! The retraction angle of the full size airplane is 96 degrees. I believe TF show a 90 degree retract which is why they have to have all that non-scale "splay" in the gear in order to make it work. I can send you the pertinent sectin of the Brian Taylor plan if you like which shows the scale angles.

dcwwcp

just a few more details worked out on the Mk.1a.

Here's the link : http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...1838567&page=3

OldScaleGuy

My Feedback: (2)

Nice work dcwwcp.
Chad that would be great. Looks like at this point i will have to fudge a bit with axles bent appropriately.