Hello !
I just finished my FT Spitfire and the maiden flight will be soon ! Here it is :
This was my first Flite Test build. I can say I am a beginner, even if I am used to hand crafting things, gluing, cutting etc. But this was my FIRST RC build ever.
And I am making this post in the hope it can help other beginners like me who would like to build it. I will explain what difficulties I faced, what steps are the most difficult, what I did differently... I will try to make it quite short.
What I messed up :
The first thing that gone wrong is when I tried to fit the pod inside the airframe after the plane was (almost) finished.
The problem was that the pod was too hard to fit in ! It was almost impossible to put it in, and so is to clip it in the airframe.
Why I faced this problem ? Answer :
When I glued the upper surface of the wing to the fuselage (I decided to go on a non-removable wing), I pressed on the fuselage side and when it was glued the fuselage didn't keep its original shape, so it was not wide enough anymore to let the pod fit in.
How I solved that ? I unglued one joint of the upper surface of the wing, I let the fuselage take its original shape and reglued with the pod already inside.
To avoid this : PUT YOUR POWER POD (not precisely, just fit it in) BEFORE GLUING THE WINGS ! So the fulselage won't get messed up when you glue. Or simply go on a removable wing ! You won't have this problem.
Next problem I had : RC Veterans, prepare to laugh !
After gluing the wings in, it was time to pull the servos wire out of the wing, inside the fuselage.
Before putting the wing into the fuselage, I put a tape on the servo extension so that I can pull them easily.
But when I tried, only one wire came out. What a mess to get the other one ! Took me 30 minutes at least.
I had to cut a hole in the upper side of the fuselage to access the wing center, and finally managed to get it out.
To avoid this : Do a knot with some string on the two servo wire so that you can pull them after you put the wing. OR SIMPLY GO ON A REMOVABLE WING ! Everything is easily accessible then.
Gluing the fuselage bottom at 90° :
When I did the fold to bend the fuselage 90°, the holes for the wing came out so it was extremely difficult to keep a nice 90° angle at the bottom of the fuselage. I know they said in their build video to keep them in place but mines just came out on their own.
What to do : PUT TAPES ON THE 2 SIDES OF THE FUSELAGE TO KEEP THEM IN PLACE BEFORE GLUING.
Other problem : plane was too tail heavy. And I could'nt move the battery any closer to the nose.
As you can see on the photo above, I add a sort of cockpit and pilot. Problem was : even when putting the battery as close to the nose as possible, it was a little bit tail-heavy. So I had to add some weight (about 30g) into the nose.
My tip : Think about it before you make any cannopy or before you add anything that adds weight close to the tail. That's very important when you are underpowerd because adding nose weight makes your plane heavier, just to balance it.
How I did the upper-fuselage paper things :
In the video, Josh and his friend are sticking the sheets of paper to the fuselage using some thin, transparent packing tape. I tried it but it was not sticking enough.
What I used is double-sided, thin tape and it just worked perfectly !! Impossible to remove, very strong and invisible because inside of the fuselage.
One last tip : Use very long servo extensions !! That's even more important if you DO NOT HAVE removable wing !
Mine were a little short and it was difficult to reach the RX and then put the RX in the power pod. All that can be eased if you have long servo extensions - which give freedom of liberty-.
Well, I think that's it !! Sory for the mistakes and langage errors that might be in, I am french.
If you avoid making the mistakes I made, the build of the FT Spitfire is simple and can take less than 1h30 (but take your time) !
Feel free to give me your feedback about my plane, some piloting tips (I will need them for the maiden !
), and tell me what happens during the build of YOUR plane. I will be doing the maiden flight in few days.
Thanks for reading !!
I just finished my FT Spitfire and the maiden flight will be soon ! Here it is :
And I am making this post in the hope it can help other beginners like me who would like to build it. I will explain what difficulties I faced, what steps are the most difficult, what I did differently... I will try to make it quite short.
What I messed up :
The first thing that gone wrong is when I tried to fit the pod inside the airframe after the plane was (almost) finished.
The problem was that the pod was too hard to fit in ! It was almost impossible to put it in, and so is to clip it in the airframe.
Why I faced this problem ? Answer :
When I glued the upper surface of the wing to the fuselage (I decided to go on a non-removable wing), I pressed on the fuselage side and when it was glued the fuselage didn't keep its original shape, so it was not wide enough anymore to let the pod fit in.
How I solved that ? I unglued one joint of the upper surface of the wing, I let the fuselage take its original shape and reglued with the pod already inside.
To avoid this : PUT YOUR POWER POD (not precisely, just fit it in) BEFORE GLUING THE WINGS ! So the fulselage won't get messed up when you glue. Or simply go on a removable wing ! You won't have this problem.
Next problem I had : RC Veterans, prepare to laugh !
After gluing the wings in, it was time to pull the servos wire out of the wing, inside the fuselage.
Before putting the wing into the fuselage, I put a tape on the servo extension so that I can pull them easily.
But when I tried, only one wire came out. What a mess to get the other one ! Took me 30 minutes at least.
I had to cut a hole in the upper side of the fuselage to access the wing center, and finally managed to get it out.
To avoid this : Do a knot with some string on the two servo wire so that you can pull them after you put the wing. OR SIMPLY GO ON A REMOVABLE WING ! Everything is easily accessible then.
Gluing the fuselage bottom at 90° :
When I did the fold to bend the fuselage 90°, the holes for the wing came out so it was extremely difficult to keep a nice 90° angle at the bottom of the fuselage. I know they said in their build video to keep them in place but mines just came out on their own.
What to do : PUT TAPES ON THE 2 SIDES OF THE FUSELAGE TO KEEP THEM IN PLACE BEFORE GLUING.
Other problem : plane was too tail heavy. And I could'nt move the battery any closer to the nose.
As you can see on the photo above, I add a sort of cockpit and pilot. Problem was : even when putting the battery as close to the nose as possible, it was a little bit tail-heavy. So I had to add some weight (about 30g) into the nose.
My tip : Think about it before you make any cannopy or before you add anything that adds weight close to the tail. That's very important when you are underpowerd because adding nose weight makes your plane heavier, just to balance it.
How I did the upper-fuselage paper things :
In the video, Josh and his friend are sticking the sheets of paper to the fuselage using some thin, transparent packing tape. I tried it but it was not sticking enough.
What I used is double-sided, thin tape and it just worked perfectly !! Impossible to remove, very strong and invisible because inside of the fuselage.
One last tip : Use very long servo extensions !! That's even more important if you DO NOT HAVE removable wing !
Mine were a little short and it was difficult to reach the RX and then put the RX in the power pod. All that can be eased if you have long servo extensions - which give freedom of liberty-.
Well, I think that's it !! Sory for the mistakes and langage errors that might be in, I am french.
If you avoid making the mistakes I made, the build of the FT Spitfire is simple and can take less than 1h30 (but take your time) !
Feel free to give me your feedback about my plane, some piloting tips (I will need them for the maiden !
), and tell me what happens during the build of YOUR plane. I will be doing the maiden flight in few days.Thanks for reading !!
