RE: CMP/GSP Spitfire
 

Get rid of the vac-formed wheel wells and open them out to accept 3.5" wheels and 1/2" oleos. Sheet them in afterwards. I'm using the plain shank of a 5mm Cap Hd Screw as the interface between the oleo and the retract - that mutha ain't gonna bend!!

Pete

RE: CMP/GSP Spitfire
 

I could use these 90mm wheels and struts, but the pair weighs in at a hefty 500g !

Thats quite a lot.....got to think about it..

RE: CMP/GSP Spitfire
 

Robart 609HD + Unitract 1/2"oleos + 90mm foam wheels = 130g

You definately don't want 500g dangling under your Spit!!

Pete

RE: CMP/GSP Spitfire
 

now why didn`t you say that in the first place :-)

but they are 85 degrees.....that would make the gear "bend" even more outboard ?

RE: CMP/GSP Spitfire
 

I just found a german company that makes retracts specialy for the spitfire.

http://www.einziehfahrwerk.de/index.htm

Ill try order those...

RE: CMP/GSP Spitfire
 

Nice 26cc or 160 MVVS gas engine on the spit from them..

RE: CMP/GSP Spitfire
 

The reason for the 85 deg retracts was to increase the wheel track with the gear down to give better stability and improve ground handling. I know this will upset the scale experts, but it works for me. The true scale wheels were very close together making ground handling very unstable.

That MVVS 1.60 gasser looks cool - at least it'll be able to throw a more scale size prop (1/6 scale should be 20" dia)

Pete

RE: CMP/GSP Spitfire
 

Nice job with the 1.6 gasser. I love it! That should have plenty of power for this plane and would easily allow for a three blad prop. How did the balance come out with this engine?

Travis

RE: CMP/GSP Spitfire
 

Travis, I found the pics on the german retracts site.......so its not mine :D

RE: CMP/GSP Spitfire
 

But I doo own a MVVS 215, which is exactly the same size, but a wee bit taller than the 160......


Mayba an engine upgrade later on :D

RE: CMP/GSP Spitfire
 

Yes, that would be quite an upgrade!

Travis

RE: CMP/GSP Spitfire
 

Actually, Im pretty happy with how mine looks, and specially how it flys. The last time I flew it with smoke, I did such a low pass that the propeller tip peeled off! I've also scratched the wing tips from doing extremely-low knife edge passes.
Really, the best ARF I've flown. I've won sportsman with it, and it was the strangest looking pattern ship in the competition.:D

http://www.rcuniverse.com/gallery/ga...s/lg-13334.jpg

RE: CMP/GSP Spitfire
 

.........with a Spitfire??

RE: CMP/GSP Spitfire
 

Yes sir. As you can see, mine's far from perfect scale. it is more of a sport plane than anything else. You could knife edge this model forever, left and right.

Funny you ask, are scale Spits difficult to knife edge? I once saw a Pica, but it was way too heavy, looked like a balsa tree with an engine. It flew prety bad.

The GP ARF is great for combining precision with scale flying. I love it. Too bad they don't make them anymore.

But I agree with Sonnich, the GSP is by far better looking!

RE: CMP/GSP Spitfire
 

I believe Pete has/had some mechanicals in his originally....right Pete?

In the UK Flair (Importer of the same Spit) have introduced a set of heavy duty retracts for the ARTF range. These are mechanical jobbies too and retail at £25. Maybe these are the same as the German ones. I am tempted as this is quite a saving from buying air retracts here in the UK, but dont want to get the wrong ones...which is why I am following this thread with great interest.

See....
[link=http://www.flairproducts.co.uk/Accessories/aircraftframes.htm]Flair Retracts[/link]

RE: CMP/GSP Spitfire
 

Yes I have mechanical retracts in mine - Robart 609HD's. They're quite expensive at around 70 quid. I recently trashed them during an off runway excursion and found the at $39.99 a pair (+$26 P&P) from Hobbybarn, a bit cheaper than UK prices.

I had the original ones for about 18 months and they were great. Not sure of the quality of the Flair ones though, I've only seen their twist & turn ones for the Corsair and they were crap.

BTW have you heard tha Flair are in financial difficulties? I heard they were closing down, then Al's Hobbies told me they were just not supplying the shops any more but only selling direct from their website.

Pete

RE: CMP/GSP Spitfire
 

Hi Pete,

Yeah there has been a thread running on www.*************.co.uk, apparantly they went down last week but the direct distriution will continue.

I know that Al's Hobbies import their "Flair" ARTF direct in from Germany, so you dont get the addendum pack, and which is why they offer it cheaper than some, but being one of our largest retail chains you can begin to see why importers like Flair suffer.....Although I have looked at a few German model sites and some of the kit is way cheaper than we can get it here in the UK. We do seem to pay through the nose

Back to the retracts, I must say the German retracts look neat and seem to come with some plywood doublers too, unless thats just their recommendations. I have just bought a 2nd hand Top Flite Corsair complete with air Robarts and oleo's...they do look nice, but not flown it yet. I think if I go the air route I will order some in from Towerhobbies, I think I worked it out to about £70 to get a full setup with pump, whereas to go mechanicals it will be about £50-60 including a Hitec retract servo.
I guess the smart money says get the Robart gear from the States.....

RE: CMP/GSP Spitfire
 

Guys, have been following you with interest as I have final got down to start doing something with my Spit - Pete any chance of some photos re your retracts ? re engine I am going for the ASP 120 FS 4 as the 91 seems not enough ( according to Pete)

Re Flair yes mother company has gone into receivership I had some stuff ordered but they just advised that they can't do at the moment but Flair direct is still working - albeit slow at the moment.

re retracts I am looking at the Robarts ( like Pete's) Flair mechanical tempted due to price and even unitracts but I am not sure which would be right.

Re fuel proofing done as it's so dammed easy to scratch in fact wing paint is a disappointment.

Now some other questions. do you need special servos I was looking at using Futaba S3001s ? I am also putting in onboard glow, has anyone done that ?

RE: CMP/GSP Spitfire
 

Good choice with the 1.20 4-str. A .91 2-st will power it, but who wants a Spitfire screaming around with a 2-stroke!
You'll need a 15 x 8 prop on the ASP 1.20. I have flown with a 16 x 8, which looks better but flies a tad slower.

Can't provide you with retract pics at the moment as I'm in the process of rebuilding that area after one of my heavier landings which broke one of my retracts. Unitract oleos were fine though (gool old solid British engineering), but the retracts were torn out of the wing.

As for the servos - standards are fine as you're not trying to 3D this plane are you (are you?) I set all the throws to the instructions then put them on 40% rates, which I find gives a very scale-like flight.

Hope this helps

RE: CMP/GSP Spitfire
 

Pete,

thanks for your usual prompt reply, I will try to post some pics myself once I finish - re oleos which model/specs ?

best regards

Joe

RE: CMP/GSP Spitfire
 

Joe,

The oleos are Ø13mm Unitracts sports series at £30 per pair. Just let them know how long you want them and they'll make them to suit.

http://www.unitracts.co.uk/spo_oleo.html

The guys there are very helpful.

RE: CMP/GSP Spitfire
 

Pete,

thanks for the info

Joe

PS sorry to hear about your heavy landing

RE: CMP/GSP Spitfire
 

Ooookayyy guys, so who's flying this spit? I've got a real interest in this one and raidentech seems to have them in stock now. Would like to know more about how the better retracts are holding up. I'll probably go with spring-air pnuematics and robo struts if I do this.
Edwin

RE: CMP/GSP Spitfire
 

I used Spring Air retracts with 3/8" Robart Robostruts and bored out the hole in the Spring Airs so that I could put the strut directly into the retract, without having to use a 3/16" retaining rod with set screws. I spoke to the guy at Spring Air a few weeks ago and they now sell their retracts pre-bored to different sizes to directly accept strut tubes. I am satisfied with my setup, although if I were to do it again, I would use larger Robostruts--probably 7/16".

Travis

RE: CMP/GSP Spitfire
 

I ordered mine today from raidentech. The retract mounting rails LOOK pretty solid. Are they? I was planing on using the spring airs that are already predrilled for struts. I'm already using them on a TF giant P-47, still building. So I'll be doing the same for the spit. I just want to make sure the rails are'nt flimsy. If I need to beef them up, thats ok. I dont expect ANY arf to assemble good right out of the box.
Edwin