Aw, nuts.

The refitted P-51 went up yesterday and for all intents and purposes, the flight was a success.

I was afraid that it would be underpowered, but hoo boy, was I wrong.

She lifted the tail and was off like a rocket. The ailerons were a bit twitchy, but not bad.

It ripped through the sky at 3/4 throttle; full throttle blasts made it nearly ballistic.

Nothing but fun.

I bounced it a bit on the rather springy mains when I touched down and I knew I could do better.

Since the flight was only about two minutes long, up it went once more for a quick trip around the pattern. I was absolutely ecstatic at the results.

Turning from base to final would be the last time that poor little bird would fly.

I suspect the old Zippy battery I used for the test may have given up the ghost with the combination of the 1400Kv motor and 9" prop because it, well, simply kept turning left, augering itself into the clubs helicopter/control line pad. No evidence of any failed servos or control linkages at all.

I had far more time than money into the project, but it was a shame to see what was a castoff return to the air in such a spectacular manner only to fail just as spectacularly.

That leaves the World Models P-51 EP and the brushless Sky Fly 2, both of which are just fine.

I'm going to be phasing out all of my remaining 2200mAh off-brand packs for some 2100mAh Venom packs. Great reviews, multiple plug choices through supplied adapters...and only $20 a pop.

On to the Great Planes Ultimate bipe...

...consider putting the stuff over at the classified ad section.

I gave that reborn Blade CP helicopter project my best shot, but alas, it wouldn't fly right. The tail simply wouldn't hold and the instructions with that cheapie little Assan MEMS gyro were useless.

Flew like the proverbial bat on idle up, but again, there were times that the tail wanted to do its own thing.

It finally up and just quit in midair. I don't know if the 2-in-1 blew out, if it just lost the radio signal or what.

All I could do was to watch it slap the ground.

I'm honestly considering putting it up on the classifieds for a few bucks as is less the receiver.

Or, if you're interested in parts for your CP, hey, drop me a PM. I'm looking for an old .46 two-stroke for another project (it was an old but perfectly good plane which blew its Evolution .46), so let's talk.

In better news, the electric conversion of the old .15 P-51 continues. I'm pretty much down to installing a shelf for the battery, hooking up the servos and doing the aileron pushrods.

So, all is not lost after all. Smiley face!

If you happened to catch my last entry, you may have noticed that my rebuilt The World Models P-51 EP was suffering from motor timing problems.

No mo', Joe.

It went up on Saturday with the new SuperTigre ESC working in perfect harmony with a SuperTigre .10 outrunner and man, was it fun! It's a smoking fast little thing, but no bad habits other than a tendency to climb under power. No biggie. I'll double-check the trim and CG next time out. That motor is the same as in the much larger and heavier Flyzone Switch and it has no trouble whatsoever motivating the little P-51. I used the 1650mAh li-po from my late, lamented Escale A6M5 Zero. Plenty of oomph, but lighter than my E-flite and Flightmax 1800s which I used to set the intial CG on the maiden flight.

The newly brushless Flyzone SkyFly 2 was an oddity. It literally would not take off despite being plenty fast enough to do so.

I remembered a thread over here that discussed the wing's poor angle of attack. Up went the LE of the wing with the aid of a stick between it and the fuselage and sure enough, up went the SF 2! The lighter weight and extra power turned it from a model that wanted to drop like a rock when not under power to a thermal-chasing little monster.

Might have been a bit too much of a stick since it almost didn't want to come down, but I'm about to do a more permanent and less extreme fix thanks to some rectangular basswood stock. So far, I only have $15 into the thing, but it flies so...Continue Reading