Andre's Durafly P-51D Mustang 1100mm

[Andre]

Hello my name is Andre and I have a problem.

I've not even flown the P-40 and there is another warbird in the hanger.

I picked up the Durafly P-51D Mustang 1100mm from Joshua aka willsonman.

How could I refuse a decent deal on a used warbird.
The goal was to use the FT network to try and ship it North for a cheap as possible but in the end I pulled the trigger and had it shipped directly. Added to the over all cost but still was cheaper then buying new.

The Mustang is a welcome addition to the fleet and I plan to fly it as much as I can into the winter.



PS after showing my wife the plane was renamed "Dog House".

 

[Spastickitten]

I saw this, but I didn't have the monies... Are you going to repaint?

 

[Andre]

I saw this, but I didn't have the monies... Are you going to repaint?

Ditto hence the dog house.

Joshua was in the experimenting with painting and refinishing the plane.

I just applied some silver $ Store acrylic paint on the tail section which seems to match up so for now I'll do touch ups and enjoy.

I was thinking my T-28 would be my first restoration project but this one could be fun.
Maybe do some Canadian markings.

 

[Spastickitten]

Yea, I haven't seen very many Canadian markings on planes, but from what you said about the p-40, they are made from other schemes

 

[BeezerFish]

There must be more than 24 hours in the day in Canada. How else are you going to be able to fly the p-41, p-51, and the chinook with the soon to be added fpv gear?

 

[Andre]

Slight delay

One of the retracts had a circuit burn out.

Going to try and recover/repair it with the help of my Dad.

I did do some paint touch up using $Store acrylic.

Silver came out nice, yellow is close but I did not manage to colour match the tone on the wing.
Oh well.



If I can't get the retract to work I might turn this into a belly lander.

 

[airhawk]

p51 belly lander this thing lands with speed id recommend wheels if this is anything like thee umx horizon one

 

[ZoomNBoom]

It has flaps and slows down fairly well. You can easily belly land it on grass, assuming you remove the fuel tanks.
Actually, you might even use them as skids. I just find it flies a whole lot better without the tanks.

Either way, its a bit of a shame to have retractable gears and not use them. Replacing the retracts is easy and cheap. These should fit I think:
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/...with_Reversable_Mount_and_Metal_Trunnion.html

 

[Andre]

Nice. Yeah if I do make it a belly lander I'd need to swap the prop out as well.

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/...for_Small_Models_32mm_x_25mm_Mount_2pcs_.html

 

[ZoomNBoom]

True, but I almost always fly like this anyway:



Stock prop minus 2 blades. Batteries last considerably longer and I would swear its faster too, although that might just be me misjudging or possibly I used a FMS P47 prop with larger pitch. You do have less pull, but still plenty and other nice side effects are easier take offs (less P factor / torque)

 

[Andre]

Hmm nice. Access to those props seems to be a bit of trouble.

But I do want to get the retracts working so I have a plane to really improve my landings with.

 

[willsonman]

Sorry to hear about the retract problem. You may want to look into your endpoint adjustment settings in your Tx. The earlier models did have this issue if your endpoint setting were too far. You could probably just pick a spare set for $15 or so from HK as a drop-in replacement. You will notice also that I placed a piece of wood to shim the retracts to give a bit more forward rake to help with landings. That was a real life saver. The next step that others have taken is to get slightly larger wheels and hog out some of the foam in the wheel wells to make them fit. I'm sure you will work it all out but Frankie has never been a bad bird to fly. Just be careful not to leave her in the sun for too long I've gone so far as to bring a small rag to drape over the canopy when going to the field for longer durations. It keeps the sun from cooking the cockpit and avoiding what happened to the wing. Never had a problem with the flap servos either. They deploy slowly and once you fiddle with them you may want to mix in some elevator to avoid excessive ballooning.

 

[Andre]

No worry man. Looks like it may have just been old electronics.

2 components burnt out and one of the switches will not close the loop.

Worst case if I can't recover them I'll add 2 new retracts to my HK order.

 

[ZoomNBoom]

Hmm.. is it possible your receiver is configured for digital servo's, and thats why they are burning out?

As for the props, yeah they are out of stock (again). but you probably still have a suitable 2 blade somewhere? I just checked, Im flying a 10x8 FMS prop (4 blade cut down to 2, well, you could also say, 'recycled' ). Im guessing the stock is more like 10x6 x4 ?

 

[Andre]

Everything I've read points to the MAS 11x10 props as being really good on this plane.

 

[willsonman]

Yes. 11x10 or 11x8. 8 will give thrust over speed and should pull those fuel tanks with a bit more authority. You risk stalling the 10 with all the drag from them.

 

[Andre]

Yeah there are on there for now so it sits nicely on the floor.

Tipstall eh.

 

[Andre]

Watt Test Results

All of these are WOT tests.

3S 60C A-Spec 2200 = 38.0A @ 436.5W
3S 25C Zippy Comp 2200 = 34.6A @ 363.0W
4S 30C Turnigy 2650 = 50.30A @700.6W
4S 40C Flight Max 1800 = 51.32A @ 728.2W

I'll hold off on the 4S usage until I upgrade to a bigger esc.

 

[airhawk]

what pack do you plan to use on it

 

[Andre]

A Spec 3S 60C 2200.