wooferocau

Finally finished my VQ P38. Model has 2 Saito 82,s onboard glow and has Robart retracts and struts..

Ryan I.

My Feedback: (4)

Sweet looking plane! How was the quality of that ARF? I've heard mixed reviews.

Hopefully, you will post a video of it when it maidens...wink, wink, nudge, nudge

CamoCrazy

My Feedback: (1)

Man P-38's are sweet. I will do one one day. A tribute to "Glacier Girl". My daughters on her last year opf college.

Jerry

Jerry

56 CHEVY

Woof,
VERY nice looking plane! I'm working on one of these now. Bought it used last July. I have a question for you, how well did your top boom covers fit? Mine stick up above the boom about 1/4 inch at the back. Everything else fits great, I just cant seem to get it to fit down to the top of the boom.

Dan

KentuckyColonel

One word: SWEET!

nemesis4u

My Feedback: (77)

wooferocau ,

Congrats!! She is beautiful!!!

You will love the way it flies... with those engines she should purrrrr and scream!!

kram here on RCU owns 2 of these VQ P-38s... he has owned 3... he also owns Ziroli P-61, P-38...

he will tell you how well they fly and of their construction!!

I wish we could get more of these beauties!!

If you desire ALuminum 3 Blade VQ P-38 Spinners let me know!

[email protected]

CHEERS!

-TOMAS
VQ WARBIRDS

wooferocau

Dan,

My only real complaint with the kit is the top boom covers, very ordinary out of the box.

I found if you heat the covers with a heat gun , they become very flexible , you can form them to the required shape and when they cool will retain that shape.

Just be carefull and place some masking tape onto the top of the wing section so when you place the "Hot" cover , it doesnt damage the film on the wing surface.

56 CHEVY

Woof,
Thanks for the info. I've tried the heat gun but I was worried I would damage the cover. I'll try it again tonight. Thanks again.

Dan

kram

My Feedback: (7)

woof:

Looks very nice!

You should have a lot of fun with it.

Put the CG right where it says in the manual and set up your landing switch to 1/8" down elevator when the flaps deploy. Program your brain before you fly that will cause a little "mini-dive" when you first flip the landing switch (because the elevator deploys faster than the flaps). Just do it with a little altitude, adjust appropriately, and it will smooth out and land like it's on rails.

For landing, USE THE FLAPS! And about 1/3 throttle.

This plane lands softer and slower than any P-38 I've ever flown, as long as you use the flaps. They make a huge difference.

But if you deploy the flaps with too much throttle, it will balloon like crazy. Slow it down first!

Try for a maiden flight day with a straight 5-15 mph headwind. It will do light crosswinds OK, and I did land it OK one day with 30-40 mph headwind, but not for maiden!

And, of course, make sure both fans keep blowing. Inverted glow engines make me nervous, but I have reliable friends who tell me it can be done reliably enough for a P-38.

But if you lose an engine, especially for a throttle-up go-around, you will probably lose the plane.

Make sure both engines are tuned perfectly and INDEPENDENTLY and do the nose-up test before every flight. Make sure the fuel lines and the fuel tank caps are secure. I find this to be one of the weakest links on ARF's...the cheap and dislodgable fuel tank caps. As a rule, I put Sullivan aluminum cap kits (with the hex screw) on all my twins.

Here is my Black Market Babe. Three full flying seasons. Over 100 flights!

Side-mounted O.S. 61 2-strokes with Bisson mufflers

mt

56 CHEVY

Hey Woof or Kram,
I have a question...What servos did you use on your P38? I know I have to use retract servos for the flaps but I'm not sure what to use for the rudder, elevator or ailerons. Do they have to be high torque, metal gear, ect?

Thanks,
Dan

wooferocau

Dan, i used Hitek 645 for all control surfaces, 422,s for throttle and retract switch and Hitek retract( low profile) for the fowler flaps.

56 CHEVY

Woof,
Thanks again for the info. When do you expect to make your maiden flight? I'm interested to hear how well it flys with the Saito 82s. Mine will have Saito 100s in it. Good luck on your maiden.

Dan

kram-RCU

Interesting that half a world apart we chose the same servos.

I have Hitec 645 MG's all around in mine, except for the flaps.

Even one servo failure in a P-38 can be disasterous. I don't even "go light" on the throttles. Too much at stake.

Also, use a high-end JR or Futaba for the flap servos. Can't remember the number. You'll recognize them by the $80 price tag! Cheaper ones tend to burn out frequently and since one servo powers each side of the plane, one of them quitting will crash you.

Being a cloistered provicial, it just now struck me that woof is in springtime right now and may do a maiden flight anytime!

Video of my green VQ flying at:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5ndsHN7hE8

Not really anything to brag about, just might help you get some feel for speed and attitude before you fly.

Good Luck! Nothing quite like the adrenaline rush of your first P-38 flight.

Warbird Joe

man oh man is that sweet sounding. The plane sure looks great. I am really impressed with VQ and Black Horse planes. They are priced well and put together well.

56 CHEVY

Thank you Kram for the servo information. I'll follow your recomendation.

Your P38 looks & sounds awesome. I saw you fly it in Owatanna last summer for the warbird fly-in & I was impressed. I am planning to be there next year with my P38.

Dan

kram

My Feedback: (7)

56:

Thanks.

Owatonna, my favorite warbird gathering.

If there's any rush that rivals the first flight of a 38, it's putting it up in the air with 5 other WWII birds.

Look forward to seein' ya there. There are never enough P-38's at any meet. We could fly formation.

Except with those engines, you will probably be kickin' my butt. Unless, of course, I pull the ol' "cut-the-corners-short-and-dive-through-the-front-straightaway" trick!


mt

kram

My Feedback: (7)

With regards to my all-too-vague allusion to a good retract servo:

it's the JR 791: I think you can see it here:

http://www.jrradios.com/Products/Def...ProdID=JRPS791


mt

wooferocau

He He !! You could refer to me as a "Penguin" at the moment......... I am just getting a bit of run time on the NEW Saito,s....a fair bit of ground work with the plane and engines....

I have never flown a twin before so conditions will have to be perfect as the stress level will be high!!!!

56 CHEVY

Kram,
The JR 791 retract servos are the ones I plan on using. I've used them before.

Woof,
It looks like both you & I are crazy in that we are going with a P38 for our first twin.

I've been told by many that the P38 is the worst first twin, but I think I'm up for the challenge.

It's going to be a rush!


Dan

swede5

My Feedback: (1)

Count me in for rookie P-38 owner/flyer. The aircraft is on the way. As for it being my first twin ......... no, I'm going with many recommendations to fly something else first. The Dual Ace should be here today. The only decision to make is which engines, the .46 two strokes or the .52 four strokes .........

How tough ..........[sm=52_52.gif]

Lloyd

kram

My Feedback: (7)

Swede5:

There's a nice long thread on the Twins forum about the Dual Ace with a lot of experiential advice on engines, construction, CG, etc. For reasons known only to you and me, I will decline to advise you.

I think TwinMan is watching us with his paternal protective eye and shaking his head sadly at any thought of trying to fly a P-38 for your first twin.

I have to say I agree with him.

Certainly, there aren't many (if any) twins that are less forgiving about any little thing that goes wrong. And I guess that's why an adrenaline junkie like me is hooked on them.

I must confess that the VQ-38 is easier to fly and to land than most P-38's AS LONG AS YOU KEEP BOTH FANS BLOWING.

Even so, an apprenticeship with a "lesser twin" is advisable, if only to learn the instincts and discipline of setting up two engines and two fuel systems to KEEP BOTH FANS BLOWING.

Even the most innocent of inattentions to those principles can have terrible consequences:

swede5

My Feedback: (1)

MT .............

Yep, old enough to pay attention to sound advise. At $149 for the Dual Ace ARF, I consider it inexpensive insurance for the 38 that will fly later. Especially since I have everything else to finish it already in "inventory". I hope that your posted pictures will inspire others to do the same.

56 CHEVY

Well Kram, that picture a smashed up white lightning was enough to get me to order a dual ace to learn on.

WHAT was I thinking!

Thanks,

Dan

kram

My Feedback: (7)

Since such self-deprecating pictures are so seldom shown on the forum, I feel I should explain:

Picture #1) My very first VQ-38, it's eighth flight overall, at the 2004 twin event in Omaha. Me and two others went up for a very rare "group P-38" flight and I went up first. Because of some starting issues and engine crankiness from the other guys, I was also the last to set up for landing and I completely spaced out on flight duration. The adrenalin of flying with other 38's was my excuse, but there really is no excuse for trying to milk 13 minutes from tanks timed at 12 minutes and alarm set at 8 minutes. Two turns from final, flaps and gear down, perhaps 1,500 ft away from me, my left engine quit and I didn't have time to say "Estupido!" before I was in the ground. To make it even worse, TwinMan was in the audience.

Picture #2) My beloved Yellow. Maybe 50 flights over four flying seasons. Late October 2005, I had both 3W24's just screaming along when the left one suddenly quit. I had recently tuned them and "bullet-proofed" the radio and the fuel system, so I had no idea what happened till I put one of the engines in an ARF Gee-Bee the next spring. A old crack in the solder at the ignition switch (vibration, corrosion, both?) caused a very rare deadstick when it separated. No problem on a Gee Bee, of course, but a major problem on a 38 traveling fast and low. I throttled it down and flattened it out enough that the engines and the gear survived, but not the airframe

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

mt

wooferocau

kram

Thankyou for the information , AND the warning!!! .

Though the VQ isnt in the same class as a "Yellow" P38, it is still all in all a nice model, especially for an ARF and i would hate to total it on the first flight..

I will look at an alternate "twin" to tyy before i decide to take the 38 on its first flight...again thanks for the info....