New flite test member

cbarnett

New member
Hello, I'm fairy new to flying RC planes. Have always wanted to get into it since I was a kid, and finally, 50 years later, I bought a nice radio and a few planes. Mostly fly at Tri-Valley Modelers Club on Central Coast of CA. Stumbled upon the youtube videos on the Flite Test channel and have undertaken to build the FT Spitfire. Looking forward to posting and following people's threads. Have a nice day, everyone!
 

The Hangar

Fly harder!
Mentor
Hello, I'm fairy new to flying RC planes. Have always wanted to get into it since I was a kid, and finally, 50 years later, I bought a nice radio and a few planes. Mostly fly at Tri-Valley Modelers Club on Central Coast of CA. Stumbled upon the youtube videos on the Flite Test channel and have undertaken to build the FT Spitfire. Looking forward to posting and following people's threads. Have a nice day, everyone!
Welcome to the forums! Feel free to post some pictures of your build!
 

cbarnett

New member
Here's how it turned out. Not perfect, but looks pretty good. Maiden was sad. You can see the roughed up wingtip in the picture of it hanging from my garage ceiling. Other than that and completely destroying the prop, it held together amazingly well considering what I did. You all know what happened. Tried to keep it straight on the runway, veered off sharp to the left and I tried to power out of it and use aileron to steer out of it instead of just powering down, which just made matters even worse. I need to learn rudder/throttle management on takeoff, instead of panicking and flooring it. My FMS 800mm Corsair behaves much the same way with me behind the sticks. I welcome advice from ya'll as I learn. I also have a Valiant and UMX Turbo Timber, both taildraggers, which are pretty much no problem handling on the runway. Perhaps I should save the warbirds for another day, but then how will I ever learn? I'm thinking a flight simulator may be the answer, but do the low-wing style taildragger models in something like RealFlight present the same challenge of propwash/P-factor on takeoff?
 

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mastermalpass

Elite member
Here's how it turned out. Not perfect, but looks pretty good. Maiden was sad. You can see the roughed up wingtip in the picture of it hanging from my garage ceiling. Other than that and completely destroying the prop, it held together amazingly well considering what I did. You all know what happened. Tried to keep it straight on the runway, veered off sharp to the left and I tried to power out of it and use aileron to steer out of it instead of just powering down, which just made matters even worse. I need to learn rudder/throttle management on takeoff, instead of panicking and flooring it. My FMS 800mm Corsair behaves much the same way with me behind the sticks. I welcome advice from ya'll as I learn. I also have a Valiant and UMX Turbo Timber, both taildraggers, which are pretty much no problem handling on the runway. Perhaps I should save the warbirds for another day, but then how will I ever learn? I'm thinking a flight simulator may be the answer, but do the low-wing style taildragger models in something like RealFlight present the same challenge of propwash/P-factor on takeoff?

Liking the spinner you've got on the prop. Really adds to the finish. You've got some thick struts for the landing gear, though. Aren't those a bit heavy?
 

Matthewdupreez

Legendary member
Here's how it turned out. Not perfect, but looks pretty good. Maiden was sad. You can see the roughed up wingtip in the picture of it hanging from my garage ceiling. Other than that and completely destroying the prop, it held together amazingly well considering what I did. You all know what happened. Tried to keep it straight on the runway, veered off sharp to the left and I tried to power out of it and use aileron to steer out of it instead of just powering down, which just made matters even worse. I need to learn rudder/throttle management on takeoff, instead of panicking and flooring it. My FMS 800mm Corsair behaves much the same way with me behind the sticks. I welcome advice from ya'll as I learn. I also have a Valiant and UMX Turbo Timber, both taildraggers, which are pretty much no problem handling on the runway. Perhaps I should save the warbirds for another day, but then how will I ever learn? I'm thinking a flight simulator may be the answer, but do the low-wing style taildragger models in something like RealFlight present the same challenge of propwash/P-factor on takeoff?
Maybe try hand launching it...
 

tamuct01

Well-known member
Looks like the landing gear is quite tall. That may exacerbate some of the ground handling issues. I have a Durafly P-40 that's a handful. On 4S it has power for days, but that comes back to bite in the form of torque roll at low speeds (as in takeoff)! I also find you have to steer it down the runway all the way until takeoff or it jerks off to the left on you. Some planes are better / nicer than others when it comes to handling. That's why I like flying all kinds of different craft from multirotors, helis, and planes. Every one of them has different characteristics to learn. That's the challenge, and in my opinion, the excitement of model aircraft.
 

cbarnett

New member
Liking the spinner you've got on the prop. Really adds to the finish. You've got some thick struts for the landing gear, though. Aren't those a bit heavy?

They're fairy light aluminum, but definitely add weight.

Maybe try hand launching it...

Yeah, there's no grass at the field I fly at.

Looks like the landing gear is quite tall. That may exacerbate some of the ground handling issues. I have a Durafly P-40 that's a handful. On 4S it has power for days, but that comes back to bite in the form of torque roll at low speeds (as in takeoff)! I also find you have to steer it down the runway all the way until takeoff or it jerks off to the left on you. Some planes are better / nicer than others when it comes to handling. That's why I like flying all kinds of different craft from multirotors, helis, and planes. Every one of them has different characteristics to learn. That's the challenge, and in my opinion, the excitement of model aircraft.

Yeah, that's how it behaved. Thanks for the heads up, I think I'll shorten those up and change the angle...and lose some weight.