When I first started flying, I saw these guys with these awesomely fast little screamer pusher prop jets. Their speed was impresive and the sound was unbelievable. Right away, I knew I had to have one but wanted to get some experience in first. Now that I have a few planes under my belt and like to think I have developed some reasonably decent piloting skills, the time has come... Behold the newest member of my hangar.

I knew stock white wasn't going to cut it. Not only is in not the most visible color, but I wanted mine to stand out from the crowd. I chose bright color with a high contrast for good visibility and to aid in identifying proper orientation. I must admit that the paint scheme is not entirely my concept. I have seen so many nice paint jobs that I took the best ideas from multiple planes and incorporated them into mine.

The first step in the build process was prepping for paint. I knew I didn't want all those ugly pock marks all over my new plane, so I sanded everything with 220 grit to get rid of them. After the sanding, I installed the wing spar and glued the wings on. I filled in the channel for the spar with light spackel and sanded it. I propably could have done a better job sanding but this is going to be a flyer, not a show piece. Finally, it was time for paint. I used Krylon Fusion paint and applied a very light base coat first, then numerous additional coats on top of that. I applied the yellow to the top first, then masked off the...Continue Reading

After building my new J-Power P-38 Lightning from Banana Hobby, the first thing I noticed was how nice it flew. The second thing I noticed was how underpowered it was. Fortunately, there is something we can do about that...

I obtained a couple of BP A2810-11 motors. These are 35-28 1200Kv, with a suggested operating draw of around 300W. Static tested individually, with the stock 3-blade 9.5x7 props, they drew around 380W at around 30A.

Below are some pics and details of the motor mounting process...

Everything works great. I did some quick static testing and with 2 2200 30C packs in parallel (the way I plan to fly this setup) the two motors combined with the stock props pull around 650W at around 55A. I am using two Hobbywing 30A ESCs.

CoG is pretty much unchanged. I have only done the fingertip method thus far, but will get a more accurate measurement after I build my CoG stand. AUW with the two batteries is ~53 oz. This is only 4 oz. more that it was with stock motors and a single 3300 30C pack. With over a 50% increase in power, I expect some good performance. Now, I just have to wait for the rain to stop so I can fly.