Went to the Indiana Warbirds at Munice, Ind. last summer. My Eflite's all retracted as they should on 1st flight. However neither main gear would extend for landing. Had to belly land. No damage. I messed with the gear but could not get them to extend. The next day I looked at the gear again and discovered a very small speck of dirt in the threads of each gear jack-screw. Cleaned them out and the gear have worked ever since. I don't really know if the problem was the specks of dirt or something else. Now I check the threads for dirt and place one drop of turbine oil or 3 in 1 oil on each jack-screw before each days flying. Have had no further problems since. I have had the gear get out of sequence a couple of times which I fixed by turning all power off and back on.
Hope this helps, Ralph

I suspect that there is a current limiter on each gear's circuit. That is what triggers the power off. If the worm is bent, dirty or dry, that could cause excessive current draw. But, … another issue could be a burr or dirty surface in the gear's pinion tracks and/or some of the jet guys have slightly rounded off the sharp point on the gear pinion track. If the "rounding" is done correctly, it does not affect the locking.

Thanks Len, Good to know about the point in the pinion track. That may have been why my right main gear did not go up completely a few times.
Ralph

Over the years I have had the gear not fully retracting issue. Here is what I have found. My Stang travels on its gear in my trailer. This puts a lot of stress on the gear.
Make sure all the set screws are tight! I have had the trunnion get loose and the strut would slide forward and back.
Don't fly full throttle and pull up while retracting the gear.
I am still running my original gear from 4 years ago. I have only had to change one trunnion.

I made a cradle that took the pressure off the gear in the trailer so they werent knocking around on road trips. Regular trips to the field I didn't bother with it but road trips it sat in the cradle.

And yes, get the gear up before its hauling butt and slow it down to approach speed before extending them.

Great comments/replies. I suspect the power down and power back up RESET the gear and we were good to go....they are very clean, no dirt that I can see.

Hi guys.
This is an old thread and I have read it all. I was hoping that near the end I would see that they released a second generation with all the fixed incorporated. I am interested in this model but dont need another headache. Does anyone know if these issues have been resolved? Anyone have any feedback who has purchased one recently?
Thanks,

I don't think H9 fixed all the issues and came out with a version 2, so to speak. Mine crashed due to engine failure. Engine quit, it immediately snapped and spiraled in. There was not enough altitude to get a recovery. Got a lot of parts including wings and some gear, etc. If anyone wants them they can PM me. The plane flew and landed nice. Just was a PITA build.

I agree with Len. It could be a pain to put together. But the flying made it worth the effort.
It is easy to assemble at the field, slide on the wing tips and put to bolts on each side. Fuel and fly

Thanks Guys!

Hi,
Maybe I missed it or it was another thread but can anyone post a pic or two of a DLE 61 install on the P-51D? I am alos shopping for the best usable exhaust and right now it looks like the JTEC is the way to go. Thanks in advance.

Ken

p51 mustang 60cc retracts
 

Anyone have any information on changing the values on the controller of Eflit 60cc retracts.....

I just got a Xicoy LG15 for mine. Had to after accidently hooking up a 3s battery to the e-flite, but much nicer. What happens when both batteries are sitying side by side..same plugs, wrong lead...oops. There was smoke, heat, maybe a small fire in the programmer...
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got a build thread going in mine. Readying the hanger 9 mustang.
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Waiting on a replacement canopy frame from tower, replacement tail wheel door springs, and golden-rods for throttle/choke.
Yes, rudder color has changed.

You'll ask, I'm sure: Engine is a performance unlimited products modified Zenoah G62 now putting out 7 hp at 8000 rpm with peak torque at 6500.
Prop is a 23.6 inch Ramoser Teknik Varioprop.

Spinner and exhaust are still in the "being made" stages. Spinner coming from Phil at www.fighteraces.co.uk CF cone, aluminum back plate drilled for the zenoah and prepped for the prop. It will be painted the proper red/yellow at some point.
Exhaust is a modified bisson wrap around. Lance should hopefully have it completed and on the way soon.
Bear in mind..this plane was built in, basically, an extended stay while waiting on permanent residence to be finished. Space has been....limited lol.
Half of the "apartment" is overrun with ply, balsa, carbon fiber, and tools..lol..the wife has been...patient.
The dogs...not so much. Hence the need for a replacement canopy frame...and probably the missing tail wheel door springs...

60 cc retracts
 

Any advice on setting travel values?

Travel for the inner doors? They should open to 85 degrees adjust the travel till you hit the mark. The linkage lengths in the instructions are just a starting point.
They take a lot of fiddling. Its simply trial and error.
start with getting them to close properly. Then adjust on open.
As for the gear..until they lock. My numbers cuz of the LG15, will be totally different. Just take your time.

Start out at +/- 20 and adjust the end points in one direction first, until they are closed and in contact, with no servo buzz, then do the opposite end point until at 85 degrees. They should lean towards the wingtips slightly. Use a deflection guage.

Thanks so there is no adjustment as far as travel made at the controller it’s just a matter of linkage length hit or miss

On the eflite, I don't think so. I have that ability on the Xicoy. I will forewarn you. Treat that programmer like its made of the most expensive glass crystal known to mankind. E-flite has discontinued them. Be very, very hard to get a replacement.
In my opinion, anyone who intends to build one of these with the e-flites, would be well served to put the eflite controller and programmer in a nice, padded drawer, and just drop the cash for a Xicoy LG15. Honestly. It will make your life much easier when it cones to setting up the gear doors. Its like setting up servo travel in a transmitter. Color touch screen, and can handle up to 8 servos, plus three retracts. Designed for turbines, but perfectly capable for use on giant scale warbirds.
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its not much bigger than the reciever, retract power from a dedicated 2s to the mtx connector, servo side (gear doors) can be powered either by the dedicated battery or via the reciever.
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The only thing you have to do is move the pins to the red wire in the actuator connectors from the outside spot in the connector to the middle..lift the plastic tab, gently, slide it out, and slide it in to the center hole. Nothing else needs done. Tailwheel in the nose gear slot, mains in the other two, mtx from battery, plug in the gear door servos in 1 and 2 on the other side, matching polarity, Power it up. In the manual screen (man) from main screen, you can manually cycle the doors, independent from the gear, or cycle the whole system. Radio screen in setup, just tell it what channel its hooked to as far as reciever and transmitter, servo screen, you can set your travel..so, if you set the linkage to the manual, you can then adjust the servo travel to where it needs to be to open and close the doors per servo..headache free, just like setting deflection on an aileron.
It don't get better than that. No seperate programmer, etc. Self contained, easy to setup, easy to tweak.
and, yes, if you felt the need, or fly from short fields, two brake channels.

If you are using e-flite retracts and need this info because you are using a different controller. Heres the numbers for setting it up.

From E-flite: Both of those (EFLG700 & EFLG75190) can only operate between 6-8.4V and Current draw Idle: 10mA | Operating: 500–700mA | Full Stall: 0.8–1.0A

meaning max amp cut off in a Xicoy LG15, or other controller needs set at 800 miliamps to 1000 mili-amps
Normal operating load 700 mili-amps.

those settings will prevent burning out the actuator motors.

When I get back on the plane near end of April, I'll show, by screen, the LG15 setup for them. Pretty straight forward.

What are the best retracts available for this plane? Is there something better quality than the e-Flite and Robart stuff available or is that about it?

The e-flites are ok, struts appear very strong, about as thick as your middle finger from just above the tire arc to the end. The actuators have no slop, and positive lock at both ends of travel.
If I had to do it again, I would use the eflite struts, and electron 90 degree retracts. This is based solely on some issues I've read of the gear stalling on take off and a hard climb while retracting the gear..the G-force stall the actuators.
I do know, If I have that problem, that I will go to electrons, set up for the e-flite struts. I don't think it will be an issue with the adjustable max amp cut off points in the LG15.
I think, what might actually be happening, in those instances, is the controller is cutting the actuator too soon, under amp'ing it, if you will.
I don't think it an actuator problem, but a controller problem. This, in part, may be why e-flite has discontinued the eflg 1000 programmer, hoping to bring more adjustability with a new controller to go with a new programmer.
Time will tell, both on my theory, and what eflite does next.
Retracts, specifically for this kit, e-flite is owned by tower, they also own H9, so eflite for a kit specific set, is pretty much the only game, but, with some wing surgery, and mounting plate modification, electrons SHOULD be able to be fitted.
Otherwise, it might be a pneumatic setup as an option.
I still think a lot of the retract stalls some have reported aren't the fault of the actuators, but the controller. Even with 8.4v going in, I don't think the eflite controller can carry the amp load of a high g retraction of the gear. I think they set it up very conservatively at 800 mili-amps cut out when the actuators can max at 1000 mili-amps.
A controller, thats customizable, with updatable firmware would be the permanent fix.

This is why I recomended the LG15 in an earlier post. I can set the amp cut off from 0 all the way to 3000 milli-amps. Triple what e-flite says the actuators can handle, giving me the ability to tune the actuators a bit between the 800 and 1000 marks they provided. I can do that by checking how hot the actuators get by cycling them a few times..as well as flight testing.

I've had my H9 P-51 since they first came out and I can't even tell you how many flights are on it. Definitely 500+ and the e-flite gear in it are the original. My maiden flight, I had one gear that would not come down and it turned out the trunion was just a little tight inside the frames. Sanded it down a bit, polished it up and it's been fine ever since. It IS true the gear will stall out if you take off like a F-18, but just take off with a bit of flap, get the gear up before going to full throttle and no issue, you know - scale like!!! If you still have an gear that doesn't go up, get up high, slow down with a take-off flap position, and cycle the gear. I've had to do that a few times and it always gets the gear up. That plane will fly unbelievable slow with some flap down that you won't believe it. I run my gear off the receiver power (6.6v LiFe) and like I said, very rarely have any issue with the gear not going up.

Thats why I wonder if the controllers might, occasionally amp out the actuators early. I don't believe its a gear problem but the controllers. No way to check since I cooked mine by accident, but, for sure, the LG15 should give them the proper volts and let them pull all the milli-amps they want up to what I set the controller to.

Add in options like what power on state you want, etc..as in, Yau can have it automatically put the gear and doors in accordance with transmitter switch position, or require it to wait for you to cycle the switch completely to arm the gear. The former, could cause the gear to fold with weight on wheels..not good.
i detailed some of the other stuff in the earlier post such as door servo travel settings, speed, and so on. As I've studied up even more, I can also set the gear actuator speed as well as the time between each movement, based on time to cycle, etc. This basically would end up the same as the delay settings on the eflite controller but with 10th of a second adjustability on the cycle time.
Add in servo travel adjustments and it gets much easier to dial in the end points of the doors on both positions. The color touch screen leaves no doubt as to status, and settings.
It also gives voltage state to actuators on power up, etc. Nice little system.
The only drawback, if you can call it that, is it does have to have a dedicated power supply to the actuator side..it won't cycle the gear without it, only the doors. Goid that its a tick towards gear that should always have power if battery is charged, bad thay, as a back up, it can't pull from the rx battery to cycle the gear if its primary goes flat for any reason. A low voltage gear down fail safe would be nice.

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She's coming along. In her new hanger.

The swamp fox isn't finished yet and already has a dominating presence.

Big syeps happened today. Yesterday evening, a box from the UK arrived. Fighteraces.co.uk did up a fantastic spinner for the mustang. Their first 5.5 inch.
Got the back plate drilled for the antirotation pins and slid it home to figure out how much I needed to shim the engine. One washer at each end of the stand offs will put it right where it needs to be. According to the back plate the adapter is dead flush with the upper cowl.
No biggy.
Got the cone notched for the varioprop, painted and mounted and began work on the lower cowl, with only the mounting holes yo drill in the morning. A quick trip to lowes for some 1200 wet/dry to finish off the spinner paint job and some scrap lumber to build an engine test stand, plus hardware tomorrow as well, then back on the main wing and figuring out why my mains won't cycle, and get the inner gear door linkages done.
Then it will be off to the LHS for some tidbits,
On the home stretch.
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