The Build

Since there's plenty of info on the general build I will highlight areas I encountered of note. It's packaged extremely well. I found no "shipping rash" (dings, dents on the foam) which was a nice way to get things started. I followed Alpha's Comprehensive Build Video which was a blessing to have. Not that I couldn't have figured it out on my own using the instruction manual but it's awfully nice to follow along with someone who was integral in the Research and Development of this P-38 Lightning and who quite literally knows the ends and outs of this bird better than anyone else not working for FlightLineRC.

I've heard some have issues with missing screws or wrong screw sizes but I did not encounter this issue. I was able to use every single screw that came in the bag, in the places they were meant for as far as I can tell. The quality of engineering, parts fit and excellent size are self-evident. Everything went together right the first time for me, which I can't always say that.

By far the most "Pay Attention Or Else" portion of the build is the wiring, which is no surprise, especially on a twin. The channels deeply carved into the main wing section is a major bonus which makes the "herding of the noodles" manageable, versus hair-pulling. Still, it's vital you take your time. I screwed up the LED wiring which I didn't realize until I had already snapped and screwed on the booms. I had two wires that had the wrong leads on...Continue Reading

Well I am happy to report a successful maiden of my LX B-2 Spirit!

I can now say I have successfully flown every stealth RC foam jet on the market.

Added in some reflex to the elevons and had the CG aft of recommended with an Admiral 4S 4000 and 1.5 ounces of nose weight. Took off with max throw on the nose gear and rotated fairly scale.

At first I didn't touch the rudder stick but after a few laps I wanted to see how they would effect the bird. Actually found them to be quite nice and effective. I am used to coordinated turns with all my aircraft so I was happy to be able to use them without trouble.

You can see in the video she was yawing and skidding pretty good. Couldn't quite get a feel for what trim was needed (my first flying wing) but I think right rudder is in order.

Oh yes indeed, I will definitely be putting a gyro in her. She can use one no doubt. Even though I don't know what the appropriate throws are, and I likely had too much, I can just tell this bird would dampen wonderfully with a basic gyro.

Flew for around four minutes at mostly 60% throttle. Like said many times before me, flies easy, it's the takeoff and landings that can be a .

True to many of the words said in the build thread, the nose gear totally collapsed on the touchdown but I was anticipating it so it was no surprise at all. Just bummed it scuffed up the gear doors. I haven't decided if I am going to invest in superior servoless retracts, struts and wheels or dump the gear altogether and make her a belly lander.

All-in-all, I would call it a success!

Maiden of the LX Twin 64mm B-2 Bomber EDF (5 min 24 sec)

(Posted in the build thread...)

Alright boys be gentle. I am reaaaally late to the party but I have wanted this bird ever since I saw Pete's video of her. I finally pulled the trigger today when I saw one on consignment at my LHS. Brand new, never been flown, ready to go minus battery and rx. I finagled the price down a bit so I will be picking her up tomorrow.

I would be so appreciative if someone could give me some "Quick Hits", basically a quick overall synopsis on what to look for, what to watch out for, tips and tricks, the usual goody bag. Good etiquette in turn requires that I also spend the time to read through the thread which I promise to do over the weekend.

Thanks in advance! Can't wait to get this big girl in the skies!

(Fast forward...)

Maiden success!

My battery was too light (5S 4000) so I had to add some weight to the firewall area for CG. I was going to film from the H Stab but I needed all the weight I could get towards the front so I put it inside the canopy. It would have been pretty cool but the tape gave shortly after takeoff. I decided to splice together what I could for maximum enjoyment.

The battery was a bit puffed after the 4 minute sortie so I will definitely be going for a 5S 5000+ LiPo moving forward. Flew great after trimming. Flaps had too much down trim in so I will have to change that and try again next flight.

Going to paint her up soon. Most likely Georgie's Gal. Love the yellow trim with OD.

Maiden of the LX B-25 Mitchell. Pilot Shot After Takeoff! (3 min 12 sec)

Second flight a success. Took her to the school and it turned out to be just fine, even with the obstacles and trees. It was a bit windy but it was a constant northern headwind which was perfect for our takeoff and landing position. Temps were high (mid 80's) so I didn't want to push the throttle too much. I kept the flight to 3 minutes.

I tested flaps and she did great. She pitched down mildly at half flaps (gear up) and pitched down even more at full flaps (gear up). I'm going to remove my elevator mix with the flaps since it doesn't need it.

You can see in the video that the inboard port flap is still pretty sloppy so Daviac is going to tighten that all up sometime in the future when he gets a chance. However, I didn't detect any noticeable issue with the slop in the air.

The soccer field proved plenty large enough for her takeoff and landing even though I stretched the landing point to beyond mid-field. I hit the threshold hotter than I wanted so I tried bleeding off some airspeed by flaring but she ballooned a bit more than I anticipated but all was forgiven as I managed to touchdown fairly smoothly. She really slowed down quickly on that grass.

Still feeling her out but today was a BIG relief knowing that I can fly her easily at the school (when it's empty). She is a wonderful flyer. Once I have her fully dialed she will no doubt be the Queen of my hangar (who am I kidding she already is).

Legend Models 83" P-38 Lightning Second Flight (3 min 11 sec)

I am happy to report the maiden went fantastic! I had a nice little support staff with multiple cameras and even my mom showed to lend her support. After running through the pre-flight check list it was finally time. There was a healthy crosswind but it proved to be a non issue. My hands were sweaty as I battled the nerves but once I committed, she raised off the ground in a nice scale takeoff and off she went!

I raised the gear fairly quickly and boy did I need to add A LOT of up trim! The flight was quick, only 2:30 just so we didn't push it and then we could gather the data and adjust the time. She flew every bit as nice as I heard and expected. Never flown a P-38 that wasn't a nice flyer and she is no exception.

The 2:30 came up quick of course so I dropped the gear and setup my approach. I didn't use flaps because I was too nervous to test them and I just wanted her down in one piece so I came in at a decent speed, not too fast, not too slow and she landed wonderfully! A little bounce but overall I was happy with the maiden landing. She's in one piece!

Power was great. Never felt like I didn't have enough "oomph". I flew at around mid to 3/4 throttle for most of the flight. She's at 147 watts per pound (20.5 pounds AUW) so my setup works great.

I can finally enjoy some wine and relax!

I hope you enjoy the video!

Legend Models P-38 Lightning Maiden - Memorial Day Tribute (8 min 44 sec)

Taxi test went great today. Those 16" props look huge and awesome! We'll see if I end up having to trim them down. Hope not. Running Dualsky 470Kv motors swinging Master Airscrew 16x10x3 counter rotating props with Castle Edge 100A ESCs and 20A Pro Amp BEC with a Spektrum AR9020 9ch rx.

Legend Models P-38 Lightning Taxi Test (1 min 31 sec)

I borrowed the booms back from Daviac today so I can work on the radiators. It's another attempt to bring this model closer to scale wherever possible and practical. I attempt to shoot for cosmetic mods that aren't terribly difficult to do, but the payoff is worth it for the added visual detail (especially from a few feet away, heh).

After studying up-close photos of the real radiators, I was ready to attempt the mod. Basically what it involves is cutting out the front section and the back section. I used a hobby knife to start the carving process and the dremel finished the job.

The back area to cut out is thicker than the front. The front you can use a sharp hobby knife to cut out the half circle perimeter. Don't cut too much of the edge of course. Leave a bit of room. Then when happy with the primary cut, go in and use sandpaper to smooth out the edges.

There's a hidden surprise waiting anyone who bothers with this mod. Behind the half circle, approximately 1/2" aft, is a wall. This is awesome because the radiator mesh is recessed back from the front of the radiator in the same general area. Since I wanted some air to pass through, I cut out an opening in this wall, leaving a healthy edge to apply my screen mesh to.

I picked up the mesh from my local hardware store and it was perfect. After some measuring I cut out the half circle shapes and the back of the mesh had adhesive so it was a simple matter of aligning the mesh to the wall edges I...Continue Reading

This is for those of you who own the Legend Models (used to be the VQ) 83" P-38 Lightning, or for those of you who simply enjoy reading about scale modifications to RC model warbirds.

When I purchased the LM P-38, I was like a kid in a candy store unveiling such a beautiful model. I've flown every foam P-38 on the market (I LOVE me some P-38!) and while they were all fun and nice in their own way, it was time to move into the bigger arena and class. I don't have the space nor the funds for a Yellow Aircraft or Ziroli P-38 unfortunately, maybe someday.

Until then, this 83" wing P-38 was the next best thing. Recently, the model was modified for electric conversion. This is the model I purchased. It comes in both silver (Putt Putt Maru) and OD (Skidoo). I went with the silver as it gives me many options to explore different liveries with a silver base.

Since I was stepping up into the next class level, I wanted to make sure she looked the part as much as possible. While this model is pretty scale looking overall (comes with full fowler flaps!), there are some serious deficits in regards to attention to detail. The cockpit and turbochargers are the main offenders.

The mold of the turbochargers was like an afterthought. Void of any true scale detail. Flat, uninspiring and resembled a "blob". That was not going to cut it. The turbochargers on the P-38 Lightning are such a cool and unique aspect of the plane, it made no sense to me to...Continue Reading

The maiden was for the most part a success. Unfortunately, not long after the takeoff, I suffered what I assume is a brown out. I had no throttle for about 8 seconds (power loss occurs at the 48 second mark in the video, and I get power back 57 seconds in), and set the stick to idle and back to full and that seemed to do the trick. Because of the time of day and distance, I wasn't certain I had lost power at all, otherwise I would have landed immediately.

Luckily, the rest of the flight went without a hitch. Still need to fine tune the trim and the elevator mixing on flaps (not enough down mix, she ballooned pretty bad especially on the full flap test)...I decided to land at half flaps and manage the elevator down manually. Due to my high approach over the trees, I chopped the throttle and flew the approach dead stick.

The landing was the best part!

When I approached the plane, the ESC was beeping twice, pause two seconds, beep twice, pause two seconds and repeat. I have the Castle Phoenix Edge 100A in her so if anyone who is very familiar with that ESC can help me figure out what it was trying to tell me (my assumption is that it was signifying signal loss by the rx at some point?) I would appreciate it. The manual key doesn't quite match.

. . __ (two short beeps and one long beep. That was the closest I could find in the troubleshoot section, not quite a match to what I was hearing.)

I was certainly fortunate the brown out occurred well after rotation or there was a chain link fence approaching very fast that would not have been friendly.

Well, she's in one piece, so that's all the matters. Will be running some diagnostics soon to help shine a light on the cause.

Top Flite Gold Edition Cessna 182 Skylane Maiden (5 min 19 sec)

We all have that one plane we never got over losing in a crash. For me, that was the Top Flight Cessna 182 Skylane Gold Edition. I had many, many rewarding flights with that wonderful plane. Such a great quality plane and flyer, so scale and satisfying to fly. One hot Summer day I hit LVC at the worst possible time and she death spiraled in to her early demise.

There was nothing I could do.

Years later, I decided to purchase her again and have my good friend build her for me. He did a fantastic job (engineers tend to pay attention to detail) and I am looking forward to the maiden. Unlike last time, I put the cockpit kit in and added a fantastic scale civilian pilot from warbirdpilots.com.

I'll post the video of the maiden next weekend....Continue Reading

For years I've been wanting a large scale P-38 Lightning. Thus far I've only had foamies. I loved each for differing reasons but always loved seeing the P-38 profile in the air. I was frustrated that none of the foam manufacturers would build a large scale P-38. 40-55" was never enough. I don't have the funds, space or runway for a Yellow or Ziroli P-38 so this 83" scale wood/glass P-38 was the perfect compromise.

My friend Chris will be building her for me in the next couple of months. I will update this blog with the progress and photos as we go. I'm still not sure what motors/ESCs/Servos and retracts/struts/wheels I will be going with but I do plan on going as scale as possible.

For now, here's what she looked like when she arrived today. She's huge and beautiful!

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...LOL.

The good news is the maiden was a success! The bad news is I flew her horribly. At least the rotation. I was flying without any expo or dual rates and to top it off I had waaaaaay too much roll authority. Lift off was an adventure and I almost dumped her but I regained control and eased back on the sticks. Major trim was needed for pitch and roll...I was fighting the sticks/trim through most of the flight.

I have video so you can see for yourself I spent most the flight trying to tame the girl.

Hey, she's in one piece and she's FAST and sounds AMAZING!

test flight (3 min 19 sec)

Just got mine the other day from Motion RC. V1 was my favorite foam EDF jet and I'm sure this will be no exception. As has been tradition, I always paint my F/A-18's in the Blue Angel livery. Since this will be my 4th one (don't ask), she'll adorn the number "4" on the tail.

Maiden is planned for tomorrow. I won't be done with the paint job but I need to take advantage of the good weather coming our way tomorrow. I will post the video in the evening.

This one comes with the 12-blade fan and 7 pounds of thrust! Man on the taxi it sounded like a turbine! Can't wait!

We've all heard it before.

Every plane has an expiration date. It's not a matter of if, but when.

Today was the expiration date of my latest (#11, yes I've had 11) SR-71 Blackbird.

I was just about to bring her in after a fun sortie, flying at the school. Unfortunately I ended up clipping one of the light poles right before final approach. I saw part of the wing fall off and that's all she wrote. She spiraled into some trees at a good clip. The photo below is a good illustration of the final outcome.

Luckily, I can salvage the guts so I will simply purchase a kit from that fruit stand (barfing icon here) and she will live to see 12 incarnations.

12!

The good of the hobby was evident though in the fact that I had two great young kids come up to me with the wonder and curiosity that is only found in unbridled youth. They had seen me fly a couple of my FMS Corsairs just moments before and they were enthralled. As we know, one of the most rewarding aspects of this hobby is helping introduce kids to the hobby, especially when they show real interest.

I showed them my planes and they were so excited, it was great fun. When I showed off my SR-71 I felt like their heads were about to explode. Soon after, their father walked up and he was just as intrigued. I told them I was about to fly the Blackbird so I would be happy to show them how it flies.

So yes, it ended not the way that I wanted, but they got to see her fly for the duration of the sortie. The majestic presence, the sound, the afterburner LEDs...It was all there for them to take in.

Even with the crash they were still so impressed. It was also a powerful lesson as to why we don't fly these jets with people in their flight path. The father took my information and he's going to give me a call so I can help guide him into the hobby the right way. I told them about RC simulators, training aircraft, etc. He's open and excited to share this with his great kids.

So, crash aside, a great day!

I was anxious to take my Baron out for her second flight. My friend isn't in town and although I am having an issue with the aileron throws (up travels just barely above the wingtip TE while down has full travel, same with both ailerons), I felt it should be manageable.

I had the club field to myself even though it was a nice day, but the wind sock would fly sideways once in awhile so I'm sure it was the winds that kept other members away. Weighing at over 16 pounds AUW, winds aren't that much of a concern for this bird.

The rotation on takeoff was a bit drastic due to hitting a bump in the runway which popped her up at a bit of an extreme AOA but that quickly was relaxed. You will see in the video there are times when there is an extreme bank on the roll axis. This is not my inputs. I don't think it is a wind gust. You can see it at 2:16 and especially 2:52. It may be the travel discrepancy with the ailerons. I need to fix this as it is quite disconcerting during the flight.

Even though I flew for less than 3 minutes, I feel like the batteries (two 5S 4400s) lose power quicker than they should as I had to come in to land earlier than I expected because I had the throttle pegged at WOT just to keep her flying.

Landing was not as clean as a good wind gust came up and dang near put her at stall speed right over the threshold...If these were not the robust gear that they are, the retracts/struts would have likely folded. I was lucky.

So I have to still get her figured out. The flights feel too labored right now and that's not all on me. CG may be off a bit, throws need to be adjusted and I've been too busy keeping her in the air to take my thumbs off the sticks to trim.

She'll get there!

Beechcraft Baron G58 Second Flight (4 min 10 sec)

Every SR-71 Blackbird I've ever owned I changed the livery. Most were much more unlucky than others. Not that there was anything wrong with the way she looked when I bought it, but I do like to make them my own. I went for the 17974 "Ichi Ban". It's one I haven't had before. Callie Graphics created the decal set and as always she does a fantastic job.

I added the little protuberance to the already hyper-cool functional pitot tube that the original owner put on her to gauge the speed (the LED read out is in the RSO window so you can see what the top IAS was after each sortie) just to add even more scale realism.

Unfortunately I've found the gear to be extremely lacking in quality and robustness. Not any fault of the original owner, in fact he did a nice job adding the extra wheels to the mains and nose light, it's just that the stock gear was never that decent to begin with.

One of the mains collapsed on one of my landings (I have it on video, it wasn't even that hard of a landing) breaking the plastic trunion to bits. I tried epoxy but to no avail. The nose gear had been giving me all kinds of problems and now the micro servo said "I'm done" and is stripped. The strut spins pretty freely (as evidence of my taxi test, see below...I had to negotiate rudder like nobody's business just on a simple taxi!) so it's time to move on from the stock gear/retract setup and consider alternatives.

I've had much success in recent years turning my...Continue Reading

Looking at the weather, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week looked great. The problem we were having now was trying to find a school field that wasn't filled with soccer and baseball practice. My buddy Chris (the builder of my RC Aerodyne Baron G58) spotted a school not too far from us that from Google Maps at least, looked like a prime candidate.

So we packed her in and off we went. When we got there we were pleased to find no sports activities. Both the track and the soccer fields were clear. Outside of a few folks walking their dogs on the track, we had the area pretty much to ourselves. We flew a couple of our smaller planes just to get a feel for the airspace and then it was time to take the Baron out and get her ready for the maiden. The RE-maiden that is.

We decided to scrub the track for the takeoff. With the people walking that was a no-go. The soccer field could have worked in a pinch but we decided to go with a long walking path running parallel to the soccer field. The pebbles comprising the path were small enough and compact enough which was good but the sheer length of the path made it a no-brainer. That was to be the runway. Outside of the three light poles on the left side of the pathway, it was a pretty wide open space and I felt confident to use it.

Chris had his nice camcorder to film the flight and I had my keychain cam that I had taped to the port-side horizontal stab. Of course, I was so nervous and so hyper-focused on making...Continue Reading

My friend and builder of the Baron and I found an opportunity and decided to maiden the Baron yesterday. The field is HUGE open space but not maintained in any way. It's actually the run-off parking lot for a racing track in our area.

After preflight checks (well what I thought was a good preflight check), it was time to kick the tires and light the fires. I had picked a fairly smooth initial runway where I estimated it wouldn't get too bumpy until past V1/rotate.

Once I hit V1 I placed a normal amount of back pressure and she acted like she didn't want to take off! It felt nose heavy or just really, really heavy! It floated as I fought to keep her in the air and establish a steady rate of climb when I had to abort. She landed okay but bounced and ended up in a rock pit of sorts. These rocks were about the size of very large potatoes. The front nose gear collapsed as did the port side retract housing area. The nose flew off and sustained cosmetic damage.



It was a total walk of shame and I was devastated. Not just for me, but for my friend who has 30+ hours of build time in her. After we brought her back, I noticed the elevator was at a large amount of down. Could have been from the impact but I checked photos we took right before the maiden and the elevator shows the same amount of down!

Could it be in my haste to maiden while checking control surfaces, I forgot to double check the trim/neutral position? It seems that this was the cause...Continue Reading

We finally have some sun here in the Pacific Northwest so I had to take advantage and get some pre-maiden shots. She's just missing the Hartzell logo on the props which Callie Graphics will be providing this week. Still waiting for a decent weather forecast for the weekend to maiden. Stay tuned!...Continue Reading

I want to start off by thanking my friend Chris who quite simply did a masterful job with the build of my RC Aerodyne Baron G58. I honestly couldn't have asked for someone more detail-oriented and meticulous. I'm afraid to ask him how many total build hours went into it but I've already promised him my next born on top of the payment I plan on giving him post-maiden (his insistence).

Unfortunately the rain is relentless this time of year in the Pacific Northwest. Our second taxi test looked much like our first: Soaked.

We weighed the girl and she's a bit, shall we say, "hefty". With the two 5S Admiral 4000 60Cs she weighed over 16 pounds!

So Chris is going to run the numbers and help determine if we maiden as planned at this setup, or if we go a single 6S. Another static test today and she was just over 70A, 1400 Watts, 20V at WOT. In other words, the 100A ESCs and Hyperion motors are barely yawning during the tests. Being a heavier girl, she's going to require some power and power she has. We may want to use the extra voltage to compensate for the weight.

The cockpit kit was added and scale detail to the props. Scale landing lights were added on the nacelles and he also added a nose wheel landing light that while not true scale, it looks fantastic! The landing lights are sequenced with the retracting gear so they turn off when in the up position and turn on when down. The lights throughout really sets her off.

All that is left (besides finding the perfect maiden location and weather) is getting the CG and throws dialed before final taxi and range checking. From there, it's just the time and place.

As you can see in one of the photos, she fits perfectly in my Ford Escape with the back seats folded down. Perfect fit!

Is it June yet???