Beothewulf
New member
I've been a fan of the FT crew for a while now, especially the youtube channel, every week it's some new shenanigans. I've been a balsa fixed wing and heli guy for a long time, never had a foamy of any kind but the flite test stuff looks really fun and cheap so I bought the FT Spitfire.
When the kit came in I popped everything out made copies and went to town cutting. First spit was ready to fly after about 4 hours. She was rough around the edges but flew like a dream. Got 2 really great flights out of it for a total of about 13 mins before a wind induced nose dive killed it. It was really windy but the plane was still very enjoyable.
Instead of repairing I decided to build a second and try the battery hatch mod as well as cover up the hole on the underside of the nose. I also used foam to make the front and rear turtle decks. The rear turtle deck has tape hinges on one side and taped closed on the other. The front turtle deck is just glued in place. I added some racing numbers and stripes, a 3 bladed prop and sent her up. Flew better than the 1st, I get about 6 - 8 mins on a 2200 3s pack, motor is 1000kv with 40amp esc. Plenty of power to go fast, seemingly unlimited vertical and can still slow down and smoothly belly flop. I loved it so much I scaled down the pdf plans to 45% and made a baby spit!
I still need to figure out what motor and esc to use for the mini but hoping something in the FT store will work. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I was gonna make a canopy for the big guy but I really like the open cockpit racer look so maybe on the next build I'll go scale warbird.
I have a 2 ½ inch prop spinner coming to pretty up the nose a bit.
The battery hatch mod was inspired by somebody here, he simply cut out a hatch after it was all put together, genius idea. Once I had it opened up I glued the power pod inplace and fashioned a nice battery box then added extra glue to all the seams. I also put a triple foam bulkhead between the firewall and the battery area just incase. The battery fits snugly in the tray and the hatch is held in place by popsicle sticks and a skewer. The only other thing I'd like to try with the spit is flaps but ill save that for another build.
I'd like to thank the forums for inspiration and Flite Test for making this awesome little kit. I can't wait to order the MS Spitfire!
When the kit came in I popped everything out made copies and went to town cutting. First spit was ready to fly after about 4 hours. She was rough around the edges but flew like a dream. Got 2 really great flights out of it for a total of about 13 mins before a wind induced nose dive killed it. It was really windy but the plane was still very enjoyable.
Instead of repairing I decided to build a second and try the battery hatch mod as well as cover up the hole on the underside of the nose. I also used foam to make the front and rear turtle decks. The rear turtle deck has tape hinges on one side and taped closed on the other. The front turtle deck is just glued in place. I added some racing numbers and stripes, a 3 bladed prop and sent her up. Flew better than the 1st, I get about 6 - 8 mins on a 2200 3s pack, motor is 1000kv with 40amp esc. Plenty of power to go fast, seemingly unlimited vertical and can still slow down and smoothly belly flop. I loved it so much I scaled down the pdf plans to 45% and made a baby spit!
I still need to figure out what motor and esc to use for the mini but hoping something in the FT store will work. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I was gonna make a canopy for the big guy but I really like the open cockpit racer look so maybe on the next build I'll go scale warbird.
I have a 2 ½ inch prop spinner coming to pretty up the nose a bit.
The battery hatch mod was inspired by somebody here, he simply cut out a hatch after it was all put together, genius idea. Once I had it opened up I glued the power pod inplace and fashioned a nice battery box then added extra glue to all the seams. I also put a triple foam bulkhead between the firewall and the battery area just incase. The battery fits snugly in the tray and the hatch is held in place by popsicle sticks and a skewer. The only other thing I'd like to try with the spit is flaps but ill save that for another build.
I'd like to thank the forums for inspiration and Flite Test for making this awesome little kit. I can't wait to order the MS Spitfire!
