FT Spitfire Build

frogman

Member
I have a Spitfire that does similar things. I have to adjust the ailerons too much to make it fly right. I did a bunch of checking on mine and noticed that one wing seems to have a slightly different airfoil. In essence when I look at it carefully I can see the trailing edge on one wing goes a little farther down than the other. It was a laser kit from FT and at the time I got it I was really busy so I had a friend build it for me. I think when he put the wings together there was one that was a little warped or he just didn't get it straight. Essentially the right side is giving more lift on mine so I have to trim it out with ailerons. As a result it will fly but it kind of mushes through the air and doesn't fly straight and crisp like my first one did. I've even scratch built a few for friends and theirs were great. This is the first one I have experienced that didn't fly "on rails." It's a great plane but I know what is wrong with my current version. It just doesn't get flown as much as the original did.

Check the airfoil shape on your wings and see if one is slightly different than the other. It won't take much to make it fly funny.
 

Goose

Member
I have a Spitfire that does similar things. I have to adjust the ailerons too much to make it fly right. I did a bunch of checking on mine and noticed that one wing seems to have a slightly different airfoil. In essence when I look at it carefully I can see the trailing edge on one wing goes a little farther down than the other. It was a laser kit from FT and at the time I got it I was really busy so I had a friend build it for me. I think when he put the wings together there was one that was a little warped or he just didn't get it straight. Essentially the right side is giving more lift on mine so I have to trim it out with ailerons. As a result it will fly but it kind of mushes through the air and doesn't fly straight and crisp like my first one did. I've even scratch built a few for friends and theirs were great. This is the first one I have experienced that didn't fly "on rails." It's a great plane but I know what is wrong with my current version. It just doesn't get flown as much as the original did.

Check the airfoil shape on your wings and see if one is slightly different than the other. It won't take much to make it fly funny.

Thanks for that. Yep last night when I spent some time I did find the wings were different. I did some pushing and bending and they now look a bit more even bit it looks like a new wing is what it needs. I'm in the middle of building a nnp-39 from nerdnic, so m extra time goes into that. If you have the opportunity build one of his planes, they build is really the next level. I'll go and try it on the way to work and if it fixes it all good. If not it can hang from my roof again until I finish my currrent build.

Thanks, for the advise, looks like I may have a winner
 

frogman

Member
Thanks for that. Yep last night when I spent some time I did find the wings were different. I did some pushing and bending and they now look a bit more even bit it looks like a new wing is what it needs. I'm in the middle of building a nnp-39 from nerdnic, so m extra time goes into that. If you have the opportunity build one of his planes, they build is really the next level. I'll go and try it on the way to work and if it fixes it all good. If not it can hang from my roof again until I finish my currrent build.

Thanks, for the advise, looks like I may have a winner

When you do get a chance to try and fix it let us know if that solves the problem. Unfortunately for me I did the permanent mount wing so if I am going to rebuild the wing I may as well start over.
 

Rokcrln

New member
Hello, my name is Kevin and I'm an addict. It has been 28 years since my last my last struggle with CRACK (my normal landing result). About 2 years ago we ( wife ?😉, son 6yrs old then, and my self 44 at the time) moved in to care for my father in law during a fast bought with brain cancer. During that time I slowly got back into planes and started with a HF wild hawk after running across RC Powers on line. Went thru 2 planes in a few months and had a blast but beat them good and they fought back some as well. Skip forward a year and I bought an E-flight Apprentice and love it. I can teach my self to fly better, push things a bit and save myself when I push it too much for my experience, doesn't take much!

That being said I'm not a great pilot by any stretch and in some ways worse than a beginner because I try to fly out of my skill level on most flights. So a few weeks ago I came across Flight Test and here I am. I currently have built the Edge 540 just to see how the foam builds go but have not set it up with equipment yet. Also I built the Spit ( full on muscle car looks in my opinion, another addiction by the way😏) and I have the Flight test pkg to install in the spit but I'm holding back for now. Lastly I built a FT tiny trainer with the speed wing w/ailerons and tried flying last night with mixed results. It flew ok with me as the pilot for 2 laps but as I was trying to trim it out I found the only object in a 4 complex soccer field , the 2" steel upright of a goal post! Well I rebuilt the front of the plane last night so more to come this weekend I hope.

I just finished reading every post in this thread and figured I should introduce myself and say Hi and thank you for all your info and also to FT for these designs. I hope to maiden my spit in the next month after some more stick time with the trainer and app on expert mode and then off to the races !

Kevin
Winters CA.
 

Diegales

New member
My FT Spitfire Build

IMG_20170204_135516.jpg IMG_20170204_135605.jpg IMG_20170204_135547.jpg IMG_20170204_135613.jpg
Here's my build. One coat of polyurethane varnish (for wooden floors) and painted with hardware store spray cans. Canopy and spinner from Park Zone Spitfire, which fit quite well.
Power system is FT Power Pack B.
Will maiden when weather improves here in Madrid.
By the way, that is me in the cockpit.
 

JakeTheSloth

Active member
Hi everybody!
I'm new into making RC planes, and I need your advice guys.
What transmitter and receiver, motor and other needed stuff would you guys buy on my place? I don't want other planes than that, if I crash, I'm going to make another and another. I already have some accus - 11,1v 2,2Ah & 7,4v 1,8Ah turnigy LiPo's. As I read some previous pages the 1st one will work fine, but I don't know how to select other parts for this battery. I don't need pro eq for it, I just want to have fun for reasonable budget:) Please help, and sorry for my bad english :/
Greetings from Poland.
 

Ron B

Posted a thousand or more times
you will need 4 servos
a cheap tx and rx of 4 ch or more In a year you will want a better one but this will get you going for awhile.
build the plane then weigh it and get a motor that will give you at least 100 watts of thrust for each pound of weight ( this will include the battery and esc and motor)

esc of about 40 (may not need one that high but you will have it when you get larger motors.)
lots of props of 8 in and 9 in for the spitfire

a charger that will handle your batteries

good luck and have fun
as a first plane I would do a high wing trainer before doing the spitfire or any other war bird something like the eflite Delta Ray RTF.
 

JakeTheSloth

Active member
I have a question. I bought Graupner Micro 47G heli with 4ch transmitter and 6ch receiver, I crashed it but electronics works fine, and my question is if I can use it with this model? It was powered by 7,4v lipo, can I use 11,1v lipo with it without risk that I'll burn this down(I don't know how to check this)?
Motor that'll give me 100W of thrust for each lb? I don't know what do you mean. If you could just give me a specification or proposition of motor and esc that'll fit this plane I'd be grateful:))
I have a charger for my accus. I think that I'll handle this plane, If I won't I'm going to make Piper-Cub or something like that, I like making models.
Thanks a lot for answering, I really appreciate that.
 

Ron B

Posted a thousand or more times
go to a site that sells your motor and see if they give the specs on it and a chart of prop sizes and what the watts are with that prop and motor
I can't tell you if the motor and esc will handle both 7.4 v and 11.7v or not
 

JakeTheSloth

Active member
Thanks for advices. I watched few videos for newbies, and picked few things already. I still don't know if this radio that I have will work with it, therefore I have a question - which radio would you recommend me to buy? You don't have to give me exact model but just manufacturers name. I'd be really grateful. And yeah, I almost forgot. How thick is this foam they're using for scratch builds? And is it one side covered with paper or both?
 

Ron B

Posted a thousand or more times
foam is 3/16 thick or just about 4mm
I would buy what is used by most people near you
I run spectrum brand
Hobby King may work for you in your area.
 

Strix

Member
Here's my build. One coat of polyurethane varnish (for wooden floors) and painted with hardware store spray cans. Canopy and spinner from Park Zone Spitfire, which fit quite well.
Power system is FT Power Pack B.
Will maiden when weather improves here in Madrid.
By the way, that is me in the cockpit.

That's a real beauty! Great work!
 

JakeTheSloth

Active member
Okay, I ordered some stuff already. I ordered outrunner 1400kv motor, 30A ESC/BEC, Tower Pro 10x5 prop (5pcs) and Radiolink T4EU-6 (6ch) radio + transmitter. Still haven't ordered servos yet. I have 2x9g servo and 2x6g (I guess, I don't have super exact weight). Can I use those 6g servos for this model or other planes that requires 9g servo, or is it not powerful enough? And what do you think about stuff I've chosen?
 

Ron B

Posted a thousand or more times
JTS
I would use 9g servos on every thing
will your motor support a 10 in prop ?
keep an eye on the heat of your motor and may have to prop down to a 9 in prop
 

Rokcrln

New member
Well here is the first spit I have built. Not a great camp job but for the first of many spits I know it will see the ground a few times too quick plus it gave me a chance to try camo.



I st ordered another flight pack C for this one because I mounted the last one I bought for this plane into my edge 540. Should have this one in the are in about 2 weeks depending on weather.



The 540 was so much fun on its maiden that I wanted a better one that did not twist and flex so much. So on a rainy Sunday I build a modified 540 with a symmetrical air foil wing with a 1/4" flat CF spar on edge and 4 corner gussets the full length of the fuselage. I will hide most of the wires in this space as well. It made it very rigid and only added about 25% of the empty weight. It currently has (2) coats of minwax poly, next it will get a light sanding and a high gloss paint job.



Kevin
Winters CA.
 
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Ron B

Posted a thousand or more times
you will love the spitfire but if roll rates are slow just increase each aileron 1 1/2 in and she will roll like a dream
nice paint job on it
 

Rokcrln

New member
Thanks Ron I will keep that in mind for the second Spit. I want to build one that is more scale with a nice smooth fuselage and a better paint job. Also I am already planning a 200% with flaps and retracts, a built up ribbed wing. I'm really enjoying this build style and cost is almost free with DTFB.

Kevin
 

JakeTheSloth

Active member
Ron the prop I choose was proposed by FT crew for spitfire/mustang/storch. I'm going to start up with storch, because it flies pretty slowly and is easy to control. I think the motor will handle it, I bought even more powerful version, because it was supposed to be 1300kv and I've picked 1400kv. I'm going to order some 9g servos if you say so. Thank you for advices :)
 

JakeTheSloth

Active member
You were right, I was too busy to check out everything out properly. This motor A2212/10T works best with APC 8x4 prop, I ordered 5pcs of tower pro (apc like) props. Should've listened :/