It's been a warbird weekend around here! Yesterday saw decent weather so my buddy Mike and I spent more time getting planes tuned & ready for Spring. A couple are done so a few more rotated in for work. First, the P-47 in the back is mine, getting a bunch of weight added to the nose. It's designed to handle a bigger engine than the OS .61 I'm running so it's currently very tail heavy
Next, the P-51 in the middle is a gasser that needs some work on the elevator. The guy who originally built it (not me) got a little over-zealous with the CA glue when assembling it so the elevator is essentially stuck. I'll have to cut it free, add new hinges, and possibly do some reconstructive surgery depending on how the re-hinging goes.
Up front is the main work for the day, a Hangar 9 P-51 ARF / PTS. Flite Test did a video on this model a few years ago and it looks like a fun plane. Removable "slats" are attached to the leading edge of the wing making the plane much more docile. When removed and with a 2-blade prop it's back to flying like a warbird. This one had a little wingtip damage, needed programming, and Mike wanted the flaps operable.
The wingtip damage was super easy to fix. The tips were fiberglass and hollow, so all I did was cut a small piece of balsa that could fit inside the wing and CA'd it. A little sanding had it ready for covering - the total job took maybe 20 minutes which included waiting for the covering iron to heat up. The yellow film I had wasn't a great match, but it was better than the ripped up 'glass.
Next was adding operational flaps. The PTS system includes flaps that were pre-hinged and attached at the top of the wing to one of 3 spots (flaps up, mid, or down). In this pic they were at mid. There is a cutout in the wing for the servo so the covering is simply cut, the servo installed, and the original pushrods re-bent and re-used.
With the servo in you can see the angles don't line up for both flaps. A little bending is required which is pretty easy. This project was maybe 30 minutes total including programming the flaps in the transmitter.