Dynam 1200mm Spitfire

lobstermash

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My wonderful wife was trying to surprise me with an awesome birthday present by ordering a DO-335 for me. Unfortunately, after sitting in a Hobbyking print queue for 3 whole weeks and a few online chat sessions, it was obvious that it wasn't going to be shipped any time soon. So the order was cancelled with a full refund with enough time to get a plane from the Aus warehouse before my birthday (this Sunday!).

Being a bit stuck as to what to get instead, I was presented with a list of 8 warbirds that I was to give approval or not. I picked the Dynam Spitty, as it's not only a great looking model, it has electric retracts and is big enough to have real presence in the air. Also, it came out about the same price as the DO-335 shipped (bargain).

The box arrived today, and I've been allowed to check everything's in order without opening plastic.

I've seen some reviews on earlier runs of these, and this one is proof that some manufacturers don't like planes being returned with stuff like puffed paint, misaligned joins and transit damage due to poor packaging. This thing looks brilliant.

I'll post some pics of the unboxing and build and give some pre and post flying thoughts.

More to come on Sunday!
 

Mike Worby

Junior Member
Hello Lobstermash

I too got the spitfire for my birthday (well, with birthday money anyway). And yes it does look damn good!
Unfortunately mine was missing the spar, but I had some appropriately sized cf tube in the shed, so no real drama.

I'm by no means an expert pilot, but I am at the point with my Bixler where I can generally go home with flat batteries, and a plane in one piece! 1st flight lifted straight up, got it a few mistakes high, and had a ball. Looks great in the air doing mid speed fly-bys, and even sound cool :) Admittedly the 1st landing wasn't the best, but it was the first time I'd tried to land on landing gear. 2nd one was a bit bumpy too, and managed to bend the landing gear strut on one side so that it wouldn't fully retract.

I read a few forum comments on other sites about it, and went with the recommendation to cant the landing gear a bit further forward (2 popstick thickness under the back screws to tilt it), and it has made a difference to the number of nose overs. Probably worth doing.

Also where the foam joins near the machine guns is a bit of a weak spot. Ended up filling with hot glue as it had cracked on both wings after some "hard" landings...

IMG_0020sm.JPG IMG_0021sm.JPG

I'm sure you will have a lot of fun with it :)

Cheers
Mike
 
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lobstermash

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Thanks Mike. I'm also thinking of installing flaps to ease the strain on the retracts. Looking forward to putting this baby together.

PS, my spar is taped into a corner of the box. One of the first things I looked for
 

Mike Worby

Junior Member
Yeah,I bought a few servos with the intention of adding flaps, just haven't got round to fitting them yet.

Sounds like a good Sunday evening activity :)
 

lobstermash

Propaganda machine
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Yep. Unfortunately it was too windy for a maiden today, so I went sloping with my wing and Bixler instead.

I must say, I'm very impressed at how well thought out everything is. It just goes together, bolts in, and you're away! Fantastic!
 

Mike Worby

Junior Member
Definately a nice kit!

Hopefully the wind dies down for you soon so you can get it in the air. Interested in your first impressions with the flight.

Cheers
Mike
 

Mike Worby

Junior Member
Servos are HXT900's, horns are way to big, and need triming, but it's what I had laying around (nearest hobby shop is 600k's away!)

Hardest part was pulling the cable thru the cavity. Pushed some wire thru, taped the plug to it and pulled. Tape held on the 3 try :)

Still have 30-40k winds, so haven't tested yet...

IMG_0027sm.JPG
 

lobstermash

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Very cool. I'm officially trying to find servos to pinch for flaps. I haven't maidened yet, and I want to make the landing as painless as possible. It's very hard to get a good, slow landing on a cricket pitch. This will hopefully make it easier
 

Mike Worby

Junior Member
My landing strip is not quite so ambitious as a cricket pitch. Somewhere on the claypan not too far away is good enough :)

Flying fieldsm.jpg
 
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lobstermash

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Haha, I did notice the red dust on the wheels. Wear it with pride! There is one park nearby with a few netball courts together in the middle of sets of soccer ovals (that's Kambah field for the fans of Phoenix!) where landing is a bit easier. But the closest ovals offer cricket pitches as best value takeoff and landing. Always makes the first few landings with a new model tough... I tend to use prop savers so guard against damage from the occasional noseover, but there isn't the option with the spitty!
 

lobstermash

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So... Test of flaps? I haven't maidened my spitfire yet. I did the mod to the landing gear tonight, but I'm still waiting for servos to arrive in the mail to install flaps. I'm keen to hear how effective they are and I'm still deciding if I want to go with split flaps to make it more scale.
 

lobstermash

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I've now added flaps. It took very little time to install the servos by feeding fishing line through the hole, slip knotting the connector on and pulling it through.

What took me forever was working out how to program the damned things into my 9x! First I couldn't get them to work at all. I'd plugged one of the servos into the Y cable wrong, but reversing the connector fixed that. Then I couldn't figure out how to assign flaps to a switch! I finally thought I'd try the airbrake function... Oops. But my flaps were moving in opposite directions!

It took a lot of fiddling with the Y cable and searching through settings before I gave up on the Y cable and plugged the servos into different channels. I then used a prog. mix to get both of them to work in the same direction. Phew! All solved?

Nope. When the flaps were down, the left aileron wouldn't work... I put flaps back to neutral, and sure enough they worked fine. Finally I figured that I had to make the aileron mix active with the switches on... At last, after way too much time playing with the radio, everything works on the correct switches. Huzzah! I'm all ready for the maiden, which will likely happen this Friday or even Thursday afternoon if my boss is generous.
 

Mike Worby

Junior Member
Gday Lobstermash

Haven't had the oportunity to fly since fitting the flaps, with bad weather :( and then some well earned annual leave :)

My wife wouldn't let me bring it with us in the caravan, something about there being not enough room... so hopefully in the air soon after we get home in about a week.

I cheated with the servo switching. Hobbyking had some servo reversers for like a couple of bucks. Got a few of them as they could come in very handy. Used one of them on the second flap servo and all was good!.
 

Mike Worby

Junior Member
Ahh, it's been WAY too long!

Video is pretty crappy, good help is hard to find :eek: So is my landing for that matter, but I'll blame all the tire tracks for that! :)

 
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lobstermash

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Nice! I still haven't flown mine yet!!! I've been as far as taking it in the car, but not unloading it... I'm going to kick myself for not flying it sooner I think, as it looks like a baby in the air. How did you find the flaps?
 

Mike Worby

Junior Member
That's my first time out since April. If it's not work, it's bad weather :(

Flaps do work quite well. Gives a nice slow & steady approach speed. For the cost of a couple of servos, well worth doing!
Got out again today, but lost my camera man, so no more video. But I am going to fit a camera to it to get some arial shots. Unfortunately out of town for work again, and the weather from the west looks certain to spoil flying when I get back...
Ah well, such is life!

Cheers
Mike
 

lobstermash

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Not that I have any more excuses not to fly it, but I programmed the flaps onto the 3 stage switch on the 9x... Took some lateral thinking I must say! I might post how to do it as a quick tip article.