Andre's Durafly P-51D Mustang 1100mm

Andre

Fly yes... land no.
Admin
Ready to go

Well the flights will be done with gear down only.

We confirmed the retract circuit board is done.
The main controller chip overheats.

So set the gear to the down position and removed the electronics.

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Setup the CG and finished off all the checks.
I still need to do some tweaks on the radio.

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airhawk

Crashing Ace
thats too bad but the mustang still looks good with the gear down in fact i think it looks better but it might hinder performance
 

ZoomNBoom

Senior Member
thats too bad but the mustang still looks good with the gear down in fact i think it looks better

Blasphemer! It looks good on the ground, but any warbird that flies with gear down (assuming it had retractables in full scale), looks so wrong in flight. It looks wrong on almost anything, I even cringe when I see a boeing or mig test flight with their gear down at altitude. Its like driving a car with the trunk open.
 

Andre

Fly yes... land no.
Admin
Relax. Replacement retract was ordered.

Didn't get to fly this weekend. Very windy.

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Andre

Fly yes... land no.
Admin
Go Time

The P-51 flew last night for the first time.

No real issues.
3S, removed the drop tanks and of course both flights were with the retracts down.

I did not like the low rates settings so flew with middle rates.
Good plane but need to remember to stick the tail down on touch down.

Nosed over at the very end of my landings.

Looking forward to flying with the retracts working but suspect I'll be converting over to 4S for that extra punch.

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willsonman

Builder Extraordinare
Mentor
Yes. The flare on landing is one thing to master. Waiting to the last minute and knowing when to fully flare is something you will find that is unique to each warbird.
 

Andre

Fly yes... land no.
Admin
Mustang Down

So after several good flights this morning the Mustang suffered a sudden power lose while in flight.

I managed to get it down with very low damage. Knocked off the rudder and broke the prop (boo).

I suspect bearing failure but won't know till I pull the motor.

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That said I'm not too worried and admit this is the best part of used warbird.
No stress.

Before the final flight I managed to get some fantastic photos of the P-51 in the morning frost.

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Andre

Fly yes... land no.
Admin
Loose Screws

Well good news.

It was the screws from the motor to the mount.
I'll lock tight those right away.

I grabbed a prop adaptor I had laying around since the stock one is a hex style.
It does sit out a few mm more but the stock spinner would not accept the MAS 11x10 prop.

Foam Tac repair on the rudder worked well.

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Andre

Fly yes... land no.
Admin
Master Air Screw 11x10

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Interesting results from the watt metre.
11x10 MAS Prop

3S 60C A-Spec 2200 = 25A @ 290W
4S 30C Turnigy 2650 = 37A @ 544W

Might fly the plane on the 4S now 3S might be under powered.

Old setup, 4 blade prop

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
 

willsonman

Builder Extraordinare
Mentor
Interesting. I suspect the 3S battery will fly but not with much authority given the pitch of the prop. Its likely to not be as punchy on throttle-up due to prop stall. Please do make sure your spinner is balanced in addition to your prop. A lot of folks do not take the time to do this.
 

Andre

Fly yes... land no.
Admin
Yeah the MAS was the go to prop according the to details I read on the RCG posts.

Might go 4S ;)
 

willsonman

Builder Extraordinare
Mentor
Well, the good part is that should the retracts fail, the likelihood of the prop breaking on a belly landing is very minimal. Did you keep the forward rake shim I put in there? It really did make a world of difference for me in terms of nose-overs on takeoff and landing.
 

Andre

Fly yes... land no.
Admin
Yep and I had no issues landing minus the last one but that still was pretty good compared I was going between posts on the field.
 

Andre

Fly yes... land no.
Admin
Grey is a pain

So good news the new prop setup is great.

Bad news this plane is really annoying to fly under overcast sky conditions.

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I am going to have to add some more colour to this plane for sure.