So I purchased this ARF knowing I had most of the equipment to drop in and get her flying relatively quickly For the most part, the build is pretty straight forward as per the manual. I'll show here changes I have made, hopefully for the better!

So, the kit, including the retracts was around 600 aussie dollars. Pretty cheap I think for a 50cc ARF. The main reason I purchased the model was because of the huge removable canopy for access to batteries. The canopy is gigantic. And while the kit doesn't come with an electric conversion kit, there is plenty of space and easy access for batteries and the esc.

I'll post pics in the next few days of what I have done, but wanted to share some of the text from the box which made me laugh. I don't know how many of my buddies they think I have helping me build this kit, but I think it should read 20-40 hours

Some videos

MUSTANG P51 50cc PHOENIXMODEL (2 min 33 sec)

1/5 Scale Phoenix Models 50cc P51D Mustang (5 min 37 sec)

were did you buy it from. When I look it comes up as AeroWorks P-51 50cc.

I'm in Australia, and just bought it at my local model shop. It would be interesting to see the aeroworks and Phoenix side by side.

Righto, I'm not going to do a complete build log. I'll just document the changes I have made from the manual.

First and most important change I made was to replace the metal rods that are part of the hinge setup.

All the control surfaces except the rudder come pre-hinged. Nice touch from and ARF kit, except.......about half of my control surfaces had what I thought was unacceptable slop. Once servos were in and everything was hooked up, some of the surfaces could easily be moved up and down with no servo movement. So I changed them all out!

Upon inspection, some of the holes the wire goes through were way too big, causing the slop. I just happened to have some dubro park flyer pushrods and sleeves laying around that fit into the hinge EXACTLY! I searched for the right size rod, but everything was either too big or too small. What I used was Dubro 30" Pushrod system for with .062" Pushrods.

Next up, I reinforced a couple of the formers up the front end of the fuse to support the 2 kilos of battery I'll be hauling around. I had some good quality 4mm ply laying around, and after making a template out of card, cut some ply.

The 4mm ply more than doubled the thickness of the original ply, and feels rock solid to support the batts. Also had to make a battery tray, which I scanned before I glued into the plane in case anyone else wants a template It's pretty rough, but has worked out great in the final setup.

So the hole under the tray , that runs all the way through from the cowl ?

Yep, the hole goes the whole way through.

I was explaining to Mackone today that over the weekend, I put everything together to check cog. It was nearly a couple of inches off, tail heavy. Doh. After checking it out, measuring and measuring again, I decided to swap the position of the esc and the batts.

It meant a lot of cutting and sanding with the dremel to remove what I had done! But it's mostly done. The batteries will now be able to move an extra 3 to 4 inches forwards. I'm hoping that's enough to get the cog right. I'll post some pics once the new setup is finished!

Hello,

What was your flying weight at the end?

Can't give you an exact weight yet, I'm still going!! But after weighing all the parts a couple of days ago, I reckon I'll be around the 10.5 kilo mark. Which is around 23 pounds. Once I'm done, I'll reweigh everything and let you know what the grand total is

Thought I'd better post some pics of the new battery setup. As you can see the batts are now on the ground floor, and the esc is on level one Opposite to what I had done before. The batts are now a good 2 inches further forward than they were before. With that, and the additional wood used to make the battery box, I have hit the correct COG. What a relief, it took a while to sort it out but seems it was worth it.

There's just minor stuff to do now. Adjust the toe-in on the mains, cut the spinner to fit the prop blades, can't remember what else. Hopefully maiden within the next couple of weeks.

Stuck it all together today for a few pics. Still missing a few bits but nearly there!

Whoops, I totally forgot to update this thread. I flew the plane a few weeks ago at a friends farm. It's a really nice plane in the air, very stable and forgiving. Has to be going really slowly before it drops a wing tip, and it's not very scary when it does. Only problem I had was on landing, one of the wheel axels unscrewed itself from the leg. Leg dug into ground and everything came to an abrupt halt! I am upgrading the retracts and the legs to better units. I think the retracts are ok, but figured I would just change everything over at the same time. I have the retracts, and will order a set of robostruts to suit over the christmas break sometime. Other the that, just need to replace the broken prop.

I'll post another update when it's all back up and running. I'm looking forward to it, was such a nice thing to fly.......

Nice, wish this was sold in US. I have the a converted H9 1.50

Originally Posted by Thrawn150

Nice, wish this was sold in US. I have the a converted H9 1.50

That's a nice looking bird Thrawn. I always like the H9 stuff, it's normally great quality. I chose this one because I can take the canopy off, which makes access to the batts so easy!