What a beautiful landing! Heck, an uneventful maiden is what we are all shooting for. Well done!
Thanks Buzz. Quite a departure from my maidens with the Simple Scout, ha.
Yeah, I was pretty excited about how calm it all was.
So for those of you who haven't maiden your P 40s yet. I have a couple of suggestions. Do the first flight with the 10x4.5 prop that comes with the plane. (it's just easy to fly with this prop, perfect for a maiden). The spec cg is 2.0, I used 1.75 and that is darn near perfect (for me). Not sure I'd recommend the spinner, it looks awesome but 49 grams and it needs to be balanced.
Today, I put 2 batteries through it with a 9x6 prop (c pack motor). This did increase the speed and it's about right, however, I did notice the lose of thrust. Both of my hand launches today were a bit sketchy as it just didn't launch out of the hole the way the 10x4.5 did. I'm now going to try the 10x5 for the next flight. I think this is going to be the right prop for my set up. I bought a kitchen scale and have weight my 3 ft planes. I was thinking the P40, weight-wise was much closer to the Scout, but it's not, it's very close to the Sportster.
My P 40 (with the spinner) weighs 612 grams, with battery (2200 mah) it's 750 grams. It's 26% higher than the Scout and only 3% less than the Sportster.
I'll be getting at least one larger motor and probably some 4s batteries too, in the future.
Flying the P 40 with a 9x6: I liked the speed, it was just about right for me. It carved very smooth, scale turns and big smooth loops. I struggled a bit with the rolls, it rolls much slower than my other 2 ft planes. It was fine, but I was nervous as it seemed so slow. That is probably due to lack of speed and thrust and poor technique . I'm looking forward to learning to fly this plane with authority, it feels more real and I'm pretty sure it's not going to forgive mistakes like the Simple Scout. Funny thing, the Sportster is a great transition plane because it's right in the middle of the Scout and P 40 as far as flying characteristics.
Good luck on your maidens.