Another Harbor Freight P-51 Fire & Ice video. Sept. 2017 (10 min 39 sec)

Can't wait for April to roll around.

Last FMS 1450 P-51 Flight before winter break 23 Oct 2017 (11 min 36 sec)

First flight of the day

FMS 1450mm P-51 Red Tail V8; 1st flight of the day, 15 August 2017 (7 min 53 sec)

2nd flight of the day

FMS 1450mm P-51 Red Tail ; 2nd flight of the day, 15 August 2017 (4 min 35 sec)

E-Flite Timber Rough Field Flying (9 min 59 sec)

The FMS F-18 version 2 ( Blue Angel) has been my winter build this year. It's an older, discontinued model. I managed to get one of the last couple hanging around.

I just got a receiver to put in it: a tactic 6ch. I know the plane is only a 4 channel, but they had a 2 for 1 special on these and I have a tactic 6 channel radio and I use the same type 6 ch receiver for my Timber also.

Today I completed all my fight control checks: throws and alignments. I also tested the engine for the first time. Did engine runs out on the deck, chocked and into the wind for max power run ups.

Didn't do any power or thrust measurements as I do not have any equipment for that...just basic functional checks. It does have a slight vibration at low ( idle) power, but seems too go away as throttle is Increased.

Only thing left to do is to determine how I am going to secure the battery in place. It's a 3s 2200mah Lipo and it lays down on its side nicely, tucked back behind the canopy. Fits nice that way so there is no side to side play. But there is a ton of top space that I need to worry about. I need figure a way to keep it from shifting that way when in inverted flight. I thought of placing a Velcro strip to hold to to the deck, but that would make it difficult to install and remove. Then there is placing a chunk of removable soft foam in there to keep it held down in place. But that might effect battery cooling issues.

So I have to still figure that last part out, then it will be ready to fly.

Spent New Years afternoon at the RC airfield in Orrington Maine (Perry Field) with some of the local RC flyers from around the region.

While this probably used to be simply an airplane flying event; they now have all the action from all generations represented. It's a bring whatcha got event. We had the gas and glow plug airplane senior and Baby-boomer folks. We had the foamie electric airplane generation X and younger guys. And we had the Millennials with their drones and quads. And we also had the RC car and truck folks. Of course there are plenty of cross generations too. It was a nice afternoon. There was hot dogs and beef stew. Now that's how I like to celebrate a New Year; being around like minded people, doing the activities that we all enjoy...... on Day #1.

Here are a collection of images and video clips that took of several of days activities. Lots of flying from the airstrip with both gas and electric planes as well as drone and quad activity in the parking lot. I added some RC car and Quad action at the end of this'

I set this to some Native American flute and guitar background music. I hope you enjoy it and have a great and Happy New Year in 2017.

RC Flying; New years Day, Orrington ME. RC Planes, Quads & Cars (10 min 17 sec)

Spent New Years afternoon at the RC airfield in Orrington (Perry Field) with some of the local flyers from around the region. We had all the action from all generations represented. We had the gas and glow plug folks. We had the foamie and electric guys. We had the millennials with their drones and quads. And we had the RC car and truck folks. Nice afternoon. There were hot dogs and beefstew. Now that's how I like to celebrate a New Year; doing the things that I enjoy on Day #1.

Here is a short video (short relative to my usual videos) of my Timber on DU-BRO 826 skis, taking on some 12 mph gusts. I had to edit out some shots that were all blurred out. I had forgot to set the focus to manual and lock it out. Missed a great shot of the Timber pulling a half loop, holding inverted at the top for the full length of the runway because of blurred video.

I set this to some Native American flute and guitar music.

E-Flite Timber New Years day at Perry's Field cookout and fly-in (4 min 10 sec)

Received my FMS FA-18 Blue Angel from Hobbygulf this week. It is one of those discontinued EDFs that, if you want one, you have to hunt down one of the last remaining out there. This one was in a warehouse in the middle east.

Because it is winter, I am in no hurry to get it built. SO. So I decided to do a little work on it. I started by making the stock fighter pilot look more like a Blue Angel pilot. So i took my exacto blades and removed his O2 mask and gave him a boom mic instead. I then painted his flight suit blue and painted straps on him as well as on the seat back.

I downloaded some images of F18 and other fighter jet cockpit panels. I opened them up with paint and then copied them to a word document where i could print them to scale and glue them in the airplane's cockpit.

These photos are the finished product for my mods to cockpit and pilot.

This is a medley of footage of proficiency practice in shooting approaches and landings, a collection of the days bad landings follies, and finally some aerobatic play time with the two P-51s and my E-FliteTimber. I hope you enjoy.

These are my two Harbor Freight P-51s (Fire & Ice) and my E-Flite Timber at Perry RC Field in Orrington Maine. This was 11 October 2016. I decided that I needed some landing and approach practice. It started out as an ideal day, but a crosswind quickly picked up with variable gusts up to 9-10mph at times.

I backed this video up with some good ole Americana classical music by Mark O’Connor, featuring one of my favorites, ’The Flowers of Edinburgh’

.Since I repaired my red nose P-51, I haven’t gotten it trimmed out ideally yet. The blue nose plane is steady as a rock and flies on a rope. I looks as though I am going to have to redo the weight and balance on the red nose plane and get it to the same balance as the blue nose one. I’ll probably have to mechanically adjust the elevator to match the blue one as well. All the repair glue and paint added almost 2 oz to the red one and all of it in the front end. I have 0.75 oz weights added to the blue planes front end and only 0,125 oz at the tail of the red nose plane and nothing in the front. The red plane still weights 0.5 oz more than the blue one.

Flying my 2 HF P-51 Mustangs and an E-Flite Timber; landings, follies & aerobatics (14 min 14 sec)

Resurrection

(Fire & Ice)

2 Modified Harbor Freight P-51 Mustangs

70 deg Crosswinds today at 9 mph and 11 mph gusts. Not the ideal day I wanted, but it's what I got.

I call this 'Resurrection' because my first rc airplane, a Harbor Freight P-51 and a birthday present from my daughter was resurrected for the 3rd time after undergoing extensive major rebuilds following 4 crashes; one minor and 3 major. It is the red and yellow nose P-51 in this video. They should have given it some sort of cat name as opposed to Mustang, because like a 'cat' it seems to have nine lives. It's currently on its 4th life. I have made a 2 Part video of the repair and restoration process that I have yet to post or upload.

These are modified nearly identically. Both are for the most part stock externally. They are original Harbor Freight air frames and both still use the original style gearbox (original gear ratio and tooth count). The only parts modified are the replacement of motors, speed controllers and batteries. Well I also placed bigger wheels on the stock gear springs and the Blue nose plane has a modified steerable tail wheel added. They each have a 4100KVA Park 370 (E-Flite) brush-less Inrunner mounted to the gearbox, a 25A ESC, and 1350Mah, 40A E-Flite Lipo Batteries. That's it. Occasionally I use a longer narrower 1800Mah 20A E-Flite Lipo batterys for longer, not so aggressive flying.

Clearly, I did not fly these at the same time. I flew both planes back to back separately and then edited the two separate videos to create a medley of two airplanes flying as though they were performing together as an opposing solo performance.

This video was shot at Perry's RC Airfield in Orrington Maine

Resurrection Fire & Ice Harbor Freight P-51s (7 min 45 sec)

I have been nervous about flying my Timber off water, because although I live an a state and area where there are many lakes and rivers, there are not many locations for flying off the water near a beach or open land area so as to keep the plane over land. There are too many high trees and / or structure near the waters edge keeping the entire flight over water. My boat is not in working condition right now and if the plane goes in the drink, that is where it is staying. It's not like the mid west or down south where there are wide open flat lands along the waters edge.

This place is no different as you can see in the video. No Where to bring the plane down accept in the water.

That's why i am more comfortable flying with the wheels at large parks, fields, or RC airfields.

But I have to force myself to use the floats sometimes because i have them, although even after 20 or so flights off land, I am still just getting the hang of the stabilization modes (this plane is Plug n Play with an Eagle Guardian system).

So here is the link for the river flying video and a few pictures taken of the Timber on her floats in my shop.

My first water takeoff and landing with the E-Flite Timber (5 min 52 sec)

I've had my E-Flite Timber for almost a month now and have flown it maybe around 10 times. My feelings on it are somewhat mixed. They are tainted of coarse by the many claims found in forums as well as on youtube. I've seen the videos of people holding the transmitter with one hand while landing and have read the threads of claims that these things fly out of the box smooth as silk and almost fly themselves.

Well. If i hadn't had that build up to grade this plane off of, I'd say it's a nice plane to fly and it lands easily as long as you have a straight in approach. Make a landing on a turning (curved) dirt drive that is also slightly sloped with only a small pocket of an opening on the downwind side, I would have thought that i could swoop right around and set her down nicely on the curved turn in the dirt road.

I have to be honest though--I have the Plug and play version--so i am using the Eagle Tree Guardian stabilizer and not the AS3X. I found that with any wind or breeze, the timber is very unsteady at slow speed with 1/2 flaps. Even worse with full flaps (set to 40 deg.) With the stabilization on (similar to safe mode), it fights the whole way. I have to have stab off and flap mixing to even have a chance in this condition.

It does fine with a straight on approach but doesn't like those turning landings.

Mine is slightly under powered. Will only do a clean loop if it is gaining speed first out of a steep descent. Trying it from level at...Continue Reading

Packed up the trio in the bed of the Ranger and took them to the airfield this morning. This is the second flight overall for the blue nose Harbor Freight P-51 and for the Timber. Had to Trim up the elevator clevis on the Blue nose and add a little weight to the front to help it out. It flew a little rough last evening--tail heavy in 9 mph winds (especially since I have put a steerable tail wheel on that one which is heavier than the original plastic tail wheel.

The red nose has a bunch of flights on it already and is already trimmed up. She doesn't mind the wind as much.

The Timber maiden-ed yesterday as well. It is a PNP so it does not have AS3X. It does however have an Eagle Tree Guardian Stabilization system in it. Unlike all these Youtube videos of Timber maiden flights that are smooth and flawless in 14mph winds....I struggled with it a little bit in yesterdays 10-12mph winds. It wanted to rock n roll a little bit. I guess i was not used to the guardian system first time up. Landing however was smooth as silk. Once the plane got down below 10 feet, it smoothed right out and touched down nicely.

Today however was much easier. I made no changes to the Timber and the winds today were around 8-9mph. mostly 8. I was able to test the guardian out where yesterday was just too much work getting used to the controls and the new radio. Today I flew it with guardian off and in 2D mode. 2D mode held level flight consistantly in the breeze. 3D mode held the odd attitudes i...Continue Reading

Flew my red nose P-51, NF 129 this evening after installing a 9x6 in place of the stock 8x6 prop that came with the plane. While the plane sounded like it was pulling more power in the blocks on the ground, it really didn't appear to get any more speed in the air than it did with the old 8x6 prop. (See prop picks)

The larger 9x6 GWS prop sure was noisy. It had the hollow muffler sound like a revved up little 4 cylinder car would have. Very odd sound. Flew nice though, almost the same as the old prop. It did get moving on its take-off role more quickly.

Did a 7 minute flight on my 1350 Mah 30A 3S Lipo, then i installed the 20A 1800 Mah 3S Lipo and flew for about 8 minutes.

Here is where I apparently made that rookie mistake. Put the plane back in the blocks to run it with the voltage buzzer installed (beeps when below 3.5 volts) to see what the battery flying time might be on the 1800Mah battery before cuttoff. I ran it in the blocks for almost an additional 6+ minutes going from 1/3 power to 2/3 power with occasional 100% power for 15 seconds at a time or so. Right at the 6 Minute mark I did another near full power advance, when suddenly----'POP'. Prop spools down and the smoke comes out of the nose between cowl and spinner.

motor is a 4100 KVA Inrunner geared down to 4.6 to 1 on the gearbox. It has an 8A continuous rating and a 13A burst. Been flying with it for 15 to 20 flights now. Only difference is the new prop. I have two theories and maybe you all can explain what happened:

1 I ran it too long in the blocks at power without the cooling airflow it may otherwise get during flight.....probably a No No.

OR

2 The larger diameter prop may not be generating enough air flow near the hub pulling air into the nose of the nacelle cooling the motor.

No flying for me for the last week. Too much wind during my entire weekend. Been like that all summer. seems like almost every day has 9 mph winds with gusts in the teens. Occasionally there is some quiet time for an hour or so early in the morning at 6-7am or sometimes between 7-8pm. It's getting more rare though.

So! I spent yesterday and part of today breaking airplane no.2 out of it's box (same model as my 1st one), assembling the empennage (tail section) and giving it its paint scheme and tail number.

This plane has a much more powerful motor than the 1st one. My first one, 129 NF (the last picture with the red nose section and red tail trim) has a 4100Kva Inrunner on the gearbox. This 2nd plane is going to have a 5400Kva Inrunner. I gave it the tail number 216 NF. I simply rearranged the numbers and flipped over the 9

Because it has more power, It's getting a slightly bigger Lipo Battery. As you might be able to see in the picture, I also replaced the fixed plastic tail wheel with a home made steerable tail wheel set up. This adds some weight to the tail, so I'll have to add some weight to the nose to counter this along with the larger battery in order to keep it balanced.

With any luck I'll be flying it in a couple of weeks.

When I removed the horizontal stabilizer out of the box, I noticed that the foam was bent so that it had a negative dihedral (Stab was lower at the tips than at the root. To fix this, I mounted it to the fuselage anyway. Then after...Continue Reading

Here is my last RC Flight a couple of evenings ago. I taped a digital camera to my bike helmet and video'd my HF P-51 (Brushless set up) at a local RC grass field. I did a dub over naration of the plane with some basic technical info.

Yes it's a You Tube link. First one I have put up on YOU Tube. It joins all the other Harbor Freight You Tube collections.

Had some slight camera issues. It seemed to want of lose focus whenever i looked Left down the field in the air for some reason. But it stil came out rather nice. It starts with a couple still shots of the plane then goes into the flying.

Harbor Freight P 51 Flight (6 min 54 sec)

I just recently received a HF P-51 as a birthday gift from my daughter. (yes I requested it) I already new that I was going to modify it.

I researched brushless in-runner motors, ESCs, and batteries. I am sticking with the in-runners because i don't want to make to drastic of changes (it is my first plane) and i want to keep the gearbox (5.3:1) that came with it--thus the in-runner.

The plane came with a brushed 370 motor which someone claimed to equate to 3860 rpm/v. My math with their test numbers came closer to 2530KV on average. This, with the gearbox reduction would bring prop rpm down to 460-470 range.

The two I narrowed down to are the Park 400 3700KV and the Park 370 4100 KV. Both by E-Flight. I want increase in power and speed for a nice strong park flyer, but not crazy fast. I am into more realistic flight ratio than in bat crazy 3D flying. I'm old and my eyes don't move 'that' fast.

Most columns that i read say that i do not need more than 105 continuous watts for a 18-20 oz park flyer and a 800-1000 mah 11.1V 20C Lipo battery for a 4100KV, 8 amp cont./13 amp burst inrunner motor.......or....... a 1000-1300 mah 11.1V 20C Lipo for a 3700KV, 15amp cont/20 amp burst motor.

Given the Park 400 3700KV motor is indeed 10 mm longer in length than the Park 370 4100KV motor.

My issue is that the E-Flight page for those to motors recomends a 1200-1320 mah 11.1V lipo for the smaller Park 370 4100KV motor and a 1800-2100 mah 11.1V lipo for the Park 400 3700KV motor.

The latter one seems considerably large and heavy for a 18-20oz park flyer plane (HF P-51) and for a 3700KV 15 amp / 20 amp motor.

Is this recommendation just a selling pitch for a larger than necessary battery and maybe ESC ? Are my estimates wrong? I am adding 1-2 size larger wheels and a steerable tail wheel to this thing.

What do you folks who have similar size foam electric planes think??