I am a novice at this hobby and tried my hand with the ST Standard Spitfire. I have had terrible luck. Kept nosing in on me. I am using the FT C pack with the 10x4.7 SF props it comes with and an 1800mah 3S battery. I thought I had the CG correct, isn't it located at the spare? I then added landing gear because I have gone through three props already. It lifted off, then banked left and nosed in again. I can't keep this in the air. Is this a novice thing? It would be great if someone could give some pointers for us newbies on how to keep a plane in the air. I would really like to have an experience like everyone else is talking about with these warbirds.
Yes it's a novice thing. I'm going to tell you things you probably aren't going to want to hear. First, ditch the landing gear, you aren't ready from them yet. If you are a beginner, you will do a lot of damage trying to land with the gear. The landing gear isn't helpful when you are learning. Second, build a more beginner friendly plane. I highly recommend the Ft Scout. Build it without gear and learn to land launch that plane. Then add gear later, it's a great plane to learn landings and take offs with and you can easily remove/attach the gear.
Everyone wants to fly a warbird, me included, but it is best to work you way up. The Spitfire in my opinion is the best flying of the non masters level design by ft but it shouldn't be your first plane. You can always come back to this plane or build another. If you aren't already, build from scratch, you will learn a lot and won't feel so bad about destroying planes. BTW, I've got hundreds of flights on the FT Spitfire, but I've also built 5 of them in less than a year. BTW, I still don't run gear on the FT warbirds. Why, well first it slows them down (landing gear creates a lot of drag, the drag numbers suggest about 18%). They just fly better without gear and they can belly land on anything. The Spitfire is a great glider, and come in smooth without any throttle. For example, I have a Mustang 1.2 meter eflite with retracts, and when I drop the gear, you can see the plane slow down, it's quite surprising.
The bank to the left is called TORQUE ROLL. It happens during take off if you don't have enough ground speed before you throttle up and try to elevate the plane. It also happens on hand launch. It's a tough thing to deal with (hand launch), too much throttle, torque roll, too little throttle and you stall out. Hand launching just takes a lot of practice. That's where a plane like the FT Scout comes in, easy plane to build, easy flying and a better introduction to this hobby. There are other FT beginner planes too, but I've had a lot of success with the Scout, built 4 or 5 of them too. A great take off and landing trainer too. I learned so much with that plane.
As far as balance, I've made mention of where I found the best balance positions in this thread. I tend to fly a little nose heavy, tail heavy is the worst. You can balance top or bottom, which ever way you feel is the most consistent.
Good luck.....lots of stuff in these forums. Go to the lessons learned area, that might be helpful. A lot of this stuff you just learn on your own, that's part of the fun.
