Ben Fisher (blucor basher) recently posted some great landing advice. I find myself searching the Buck Huck thread time and time again to read it so here's a link to the post so now I won't have to search and you'll be able to get some GREAT landing advice....

Recently wedgewing posted how he uses a roll of Reflectix insulation to make wing bags. I stopped by the local Lowe's on the way home and bought a roll to make some wing bags myself. The item number at Lowe's is 13353 if you want to look it up. The process for assembling the bags is very simple and I've included several pictures for you to check out. For the Buck Huck and 42" AJ Slick I measured out a length of 45 inches and then marked a spot 4 1/2 inches from the edge. Then I folded the insulation back onto itself to the spot where I made the mark. This allows me to have a flap so I can completely close the wing bag if I choose. For the Extra 300 SHP wings I also cut out a 45" piece of insulation and folded it in half without any flap. This allows the wing to fit down inside the bag with just the SFG sticking out of the top. I taped the bags together using filament tape that I had picked up at Staples. Thanks for wedgewing for telling us about the bags and to 3DHS for making such wonderful planes for us to fly!...Continue Reading

I read a recent thread here on RCG where folks were posting pictures of their airplane stands. Now that I have 4 Parkzone warbirds finding a place to put them without taking up a ton of room has been somewhat of a pain. Inspired by the thread I went to Lowe's and bought enough material to make the stand described in this post. I decided to build it out of 1 1/4 inch PVC is is probably overkill but I wanted something that would be plenty strong to hold all of my planes. The last thing I wanted was a stand that would collapse under the weight of the planes.

This stand will hold 5 airplanes and can easily be expanded to hold more. Notice how I made sure to leave a spot for another plane -- if all goes well a Corsair will be added to the hangar at some point in the future.

Parts list:
10x - T fittings
2x - Cross fittings
4x - 90 degree elbows
14x - caps
14x - 12" PVC pieces
8x - 8" PVC pieces
2x - 6" PVC pieces
2x - 5" PVC pieces
4x - 4" PVC pieces

Assembly is covered in the comments with the pictures.

I've seen others build airplane stands so if you've seen any of those odds are you won't see anything new here. I had some left over pipe so I decided to build a portable work stand. When I fly at the RC field we have flight stations and tables so I don't need one but when I go fly at other locations where there isn't a flight stand it's nice to have something to rest the plane on when swapping batteries or making adjustments to control horns, etc.

I'm certain you can get by with smaller diameter PVC pipe but because I used 1 1/4 pipe for my other stand I figured I might as well use it for this stand as well. Assembly is very easy and you can obviously use different lengths for the PVC pipe to build the stand according to your needs. I built this one to fit all of my current Parkzone warbirds.

Parts list:
4x end caps
4x 90 degree elbows
2x cross joiners
4x 8" PVC Pipe
4X 12" PVC Pipe
2X 15" PVC Pipe

Like many of my fellow addicts, err, pilots, I'm a huge Parkzone Warbird fan. I started out with the T-28D, followed by the F4F Wildcat, followed by the P-51 Mustang and my latest addition is the P-47 Thunderbolt. If all goes well the F4U Corsair will be my next warbird. I've modified my T-28 by adding an E-Flite Power 10 to it along with the EMax 40 Amp ESC from HeadsUpRC. This upgrade turned my T-28 into a whole different plane. It quickly became a plane that I didn't especially care for to one that I would routinely fly for the first flight of the day. Next I modified the P-51 Mustang by putting an E-Flite Power 10 in it. I put the 30 Amp ESC from the T-28 in her and that has made that plane a total blast to fly.

I had previously modified my Wildcat by putting the T-28 prop and prop adapter on her along with the EMax 40 Amp ESC that I put in the T-28. This inexpensive upgrade give her a little more pep but there wasn't a tremendous amount of difference between it and the stock setup.

Last week a fellow RCGroup member answered my Wanted Ad for a Power 10. Of course I did so I bought it and the pictures below document the installation of it in my Wildcat. I will get a chance to fly her this weekend with the Power 10 and will report back after I've done so.

BE SURE TO READ THE UPDATE DOWN IN THE COMMENTS. I HAVE IT WORKING LIKE A CHAMP NOW.

One thing I have noticed about my Wildcat, especially after putting the T-28 prop on her is that she likes to climb like mad when you give her full throttle. MERLIN V16 posted the settings he uses on his DX7 to mix some down elevator with the throttle channel. I believe I've been able to duplicate the same settings with my DX6i but haven't had a chance to try it yet.

In a nutshell what I've done is programmed the gear switch to apply some down elevator when activated. The idea being that when flying at WOT that I can flip the gear switch on and having some down elevator applied the Wildcat shouldn't climb as bad. That's the idea now if it really works or not I don't yet know .

If you'd like to give it a try as well here's how you do it.

1 - With your Wildcat model loaded in the DX6i press the scroll wheel to bring up adjustment list.
2 - Scroll down to Mix 1 and press the scroll wheel to select it.
3 - Program as follows: THRO -> ELEV ACT (throttle is master, Elevator is slave) ACT means it is active. INH means Inhibited (turned off).
4 - RATE: D -20% (This is just a suggested starting point). Also make sure you program in NEGATIVE not positive value here. U leave at 0%.
5 - SW - GEAR - This binds the action to the gear switch.

See the attachment for an idea what your screen should look like. NOTE: Don't use -100% as shown. I did that so that you could really see the...Continue Reading

I really like flying my T-28 but after seeing other guys flying theirs with the Power 10 I knew I wanted one. When I saw one pop up for sale here on RCGroups I jumped on it. It arrived yesterday and I installed it today. Below are a series of pictures I took during the upgrade process. It truly is a bolt on replacement. I had previously replaced the ESC in the T-28 with the Emax 40 Amp ESC from HeadsUpRC....Continue Reading

While I love the way my F4F wildcat flies in her stock form I like to tinker with things and the Wildcat is no exception. Eventually I want to put an EFlite Power 10 motor on it but because I don't yet have one of those motors I decided to try an upgrade I read about in the Wildcat owner's group. You can get increased performance from the Wildcat by replacing the stock 9x6 prop with the 9.5 x 7.5 prop from the T-28 Trojan. Because the prop adapter shafts are different between the Wildcat and the Trojan I elected to replace the prop adapter on the Wildcat with one from the Trojan.

The process of swapping everything out is pretty simple. You can do the upgrade in under an hour. I've attached several pictures I took while doing the upgrade. Check 'em out along with the description provided for each one.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask....Continue Reading

One thing you'll notice about the canopy magnets on the F4F Wildcat is they are very strong. After a while the back of your canopy will start to look a little ragged from having to squeeze it to remove it when replacing batteries.

One of the things I noticed about the upcoming Parkzone P-47 is they have added a small clear plastic tab to the back of its canopy to assist with removal. Instead of using a little plastic tab you can use clear packing tape to accomplish the same thing. Check out the attachments to see what I did.