Originally Posted by microDan

I'm glad you were as impressed as I was with this great bang for the buck war bird.
The only improvement I made was bending the landing gear forward and added 2" wheels.
This might help for short grass take off and it actually looks better too.

I don't think the wheels will be a problem for our grassy field. I bought a banana hobby jet with some really small wheels and it worked out just fine. Maybe its because we keep the grass nice and short. If its problematic we do have a good patch of pavement to go off of. I can't wait to try this out, but since I am in WI.... weather is going down hill.

The one thing that concerned me was on the belly where the wing bolt is covered by a small piece of foam that is held in place by a couple of magnets. There is a small lip that protrudes and you can see in my last photo. I wonder if that will ever be problematic? In other words do you think its possible for air to grab that lip and pull off that cover?

Thanks for the code, but it didn't work either. Just got another discount email this AM though. That'll do.

Originally Posted by shoeler

I don't think the wheels will be a problem for our grassy field. I bought a banana hobby jet with some really small wheels and it worked out just fine. Maybe its because we keep the grass nice and short. If its problematic we do have a good patch of pavement to go off of. I can't wait to try this out, but since I am in WI.... weather is going down hill.

The one thing that concerned me was on the belly where the wing bolt is covered by a small piece of foam that is held in place by a couple of magnets. There is a small lip that protrudes and you can see in my last photo. I wonder if that will ever be problematic? In other words do you think its possible for air to grab that lip and pull off that cover?

I really don't think there would be enough air speed to cause a problem.
But just for the heck of it I might add 2 small cf rod spikes to add some more rigidity to it to spike it to the fuse. But I'll have to remember the spikes are there when removing it or I'll cause more damage than the mod was worth

I just took it out for the maiden flight! I will tell you that this thing had a lot more power than I imagined it would. I have a Parkzone Wildcat and assumed that it would fly slower like the Wildcat. No sir, it zipped through the sky! It was 26 C outside so I had two flights that left me wanting more!

I really like this plane! This is one electric that I am really glad that I bought, in fact it was such a good price I am wondering if I should grab another!

Our field is mostly grass, but we also have some pavement too. The manual says that it doesn't like grass, that is true... it nosed over pretty easy. I have a Hangar 9 P51-D 60 size and thought that I could possibly make it work on the grass just like that one, but it didn't want to work. I might try putting a little larger of a wheel set on and see if I can give a better angle of attack so that we can make the grass work or even been the gear as microdan suggested. The road obviously worked just fine to take off as expected. The one thing I didn't like about the gear is that its really stiff and doesn't have any spring to it.

Overall I am very satisfied with this and can't wait to take it out again. Weather forecast says snow tonight so I might be taking the landing gears off and taping up the bottom so I can hand launch it. This is an excellent addition to the Hangar for anyone! Way to go Tower!

shoeler,
You really told me what I wanted to hear I'm glad the initial flight reports have been very positive. A few details I'd like to know, are the control surface throw specs a good starting point and does the plane have any so called bad tendencies, such as being twitchy or tip stall prone etc.? Of course your overall opinion on flight characteristics would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

Originally Posted by microDan

shoeler,
You really told me what I wanted to hear I'm glad the initial flight reports have been very positive. A few details I'd like to know, are the control surface throw specs a good starting point and does the plane have any so called bad tendencies, such as being twitchy or tip stall prone etc.? Of course your overall opinion on flight characteristics would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

No I didn't notice anything that seemed really off. When I took off the nose was really going up and I had to give it a lot of up on the sticks to keep her nose down. I went full trim and needed more so I landed it and added a lot of sub trim and centered the trim. That was really the trickest part. Ailerons didn't need any trim, and the rudder needed a hair to make it go straight as an arrow. I am attaching a pic of the elevator with what I found to give me straight level flight.

I initially balanced it using a Turnigy 2200 battery, but at the time of flight the only batteries I had charged were some Zippy 2200's. They are a bit smaller and lighter. I might have had the CG slightly off with those because when I went inverted it took a little more up than normal to sustain it at level flight.

Like any mustang, I could feel some stall at lower speeds. The control throws were just fine for me. I didn't try high rate on the rudder, but high rates for the elevator and ailerons were spot on. I think for the future I might increase the low rate, but thats my personal preference.

I was going to get some video of it, but my wife was chasing the kids around the pits and since it was so freezing outside I didn't bother. Maybe I will get some tomorrow if the weather is nice.

shoeler,
Thank you so much for the quick reply and detailed info.
As this is my first war bird your experience and tips are extremely helpful.
I'm sure we all enjoy reading about a good flight and the fine tuning.
Always look forward to video. You're the best, thanks again.

Snowing pretty good right now, No flying today

Added a little paint to the exhaust and guns today.

I got mine yesterday. Hopefully no one will crash as I noticed that Tower hobbies doesn;t stock any spare parts. Has anyone found out what motor is on the plane?

Originally Posted by w5kfg

I got mine yesterday. Hopefully no one will crash as I noticed that Tower hobbies doesn;t stock any spare parts. Has anyone found out what motor is on the plane?

I took off the cowl yesterday when I painted it. Absolutely no markings or anything on the motor. I am not a motor guru so I couldn't even attempt a guess!

The dimensions of the plane are basically the same as the Parkzone mustang, just and inch wide wingspan and half inch longer fuse. My guess is Tower told their chinese friends to basically copy it! I called Tower to ask the specs and they told me they didn't know!? I asked how they couldn't know and the rep called prod sup and he came back on the line and said they didn't know either, but probably after x-mas they would know. Hopefully they stock a few parts, they would be stupid not to!

...

I think this plane is made by Hobbico for Tower. It came in a shipping box marked Hobbico.
The original press release for the mustang also had a Hobbico contact person phone & email.
The sponsor decal sheet included with the plane also tells another story. Great Planes is a distributor for Hobbico.
So I believe these are labeled for Tower and made for them by Hobbico/Flyzone, as they all seem connected in some way. Just my 2 cents on this theory.

It's all the same company. Just different doors that lead to the same offices.

I'm waiting for a answer about spare parts as well.


Here:

http://www.hobbico.com/career.html

I maidened mine today! Great flying plane. I crashed on the first launch trying an overhand throw, much better under-hand! Great bird for the money. I think flaps for landing(no gear for me) would be great. Does anyone know if I can program flaps and still have aileron control for landing? I have a futaba 8fg. The manual does not indicate this type of mix available? thanks....

jz