Figured I would give it the benefit of the doubt. Overall I'm pretty impressed. Weather permitting test flights this weekend and with any luck video.....good, bad or indifferent.

Mike

mike2663 - That's the FMS P38, right?

Yea the FMS V2. I own the E Flight and really have enjoyed it. In fact I stopped flying it due to the lack of a replacement. This came along I really didn't need another plane right now but fell for this one. I've had pretty good luck with the FMS stuff.

Mike

Only one FMS version out now, the JPower has a V1 and a V2.

Originally Posted by WestTexasKing

Only one FMS version out now, the JPower has a V1 and a V2.

Can't see a big difference. Guess I'm just used to theses thing being re branded.
Mike

Got my servo signal reverser to match up the V2 front and V1 rear movements, hooked up the nose wheel with a new link to a stopper (punched a small hole in the foam to access the servo horn screw), epoxied a short length of control rod to the V2 nose gear to open the door, everything looking peachy for a maiden this Sunday and BAM the servo reverser goes kaputt after about 3 tests.
To his credit, called the Ebay seller Matt and he apologized and will send out a new one today. Said they had a bad batch so they test each one before shipping, but mine obviously had a finite life only a few cycles more...
She does steer really great on the ground - did a few medium speed taxi tests in the culdesac and MAN does she get up and GO when you nail the throttle!
Steering is if anything better than stock, I can spin her around almost within her own wingspan.
So what to do... take her for a maiden taking off from the tarmac with the front gear unplugged in the down position, hand launch with gear up, or wait until next weekend when the new reverser is here? If the weather is nice as expected on Sunday don't think I can wait any longer....
http://www.weather.com/weather/tenda...a+WI+WISPBS:13

Originally Posted by mike2663

Can't see a big difference. Guess I'm just used to theses thing being re branded.
Mike

I think one of the biggest differences is the gear doors. JPower doors are spring loaded and rely on the gear to 'push' them open, where yours have servos, correct? Don't know about the motor, servos, linkages etc but the detailing (rivets, scale gear, paintjob, more scale superchargers and elevator dampener etc) also look quite a bit better on the FMS.
Yours also has flaps, JPower doesn't.
Where did you buy it, and how much?

BH 279 free shipping.

Mike

Originally Posted by Kurt

So what to do... take her for a maiden taking off from the tarmac with the front gear unplugged in the down position, hand launch with gear up, or wait until next weekend when the new reverser is here? If the weather is nice as expected on Sunday don't think I can wait any longer....
http://www.weather.com/weather/tenda...a+WI+WISPBS:13

I'd do either or, prolly gear up & hand launch. She hand launches very easily.

There's a few scale details on the FMS that are better than the JPower, but in my opinion it's negated by the stupid looking landing gear.
I love the paint scheme on the FMS, while the JPower is just run of the mill normal for me.
The power difference is negated when you run the JPower on 4S.
Only considerable difference is price...the JPower has the FMS beat.

Originally Posted by Kurt

Got my servo signal reverser to match up the V2 front and V1 rear movements, and BAM the servo reverser goes kaputt after about 3 tests.

So what to do... take her for a maiden taking off from the tarmac with the front gear unplugged in the down position, hand launch with gear up, or wait until next weekend when the new reverser is here? If the weather is nice as expected on Sunday don't think I can wait any longer....

Can you run the front retract off another channel, slaved to ch5 with a negative 100% mix?

With a 7ch RX, Setup would look like this:
CH1 Aile
CH2 Ele
CH3 Thro
CH4 Rudd
CH5 Mains retract
CH6 Nosewheel retract
CH7 Nosewheel steering

Sub.

Originally Posted by Hornetnz

I'd do either or, prolly gear up & hand launch. She hand launches very easily.

Thanks - but got it sorted!
For kicks plugged in one of the $10 retracts from Hobbypartz that just arrived, and lo and behold it's syched with the V1 rear gear! So a little swapping around and now I have 3 synched LG with no reverser necessary.
Kind of funny that the V2 servo-less retracts are opposite action from the identical looking Hobbypartz ones, but whatever she's now good to go!

Originally Posted by subsonic

Can you run the front retract off another channel, slaved to ch5 with a negative 100% mix?

Thanks for the idea Sub, but I'm using an Orange 6-ch rx (with sat) so all 6 were filled up.
Got her sorted, as I wrote probably 10 seconds after you posted lol

man I'm tired of flipping her over and back effing around with this nose gear, it's time to FLY!

Originally Posted by Kurt

Thanks for the idea Sub, but I'm using an Orange 6-ch rx (with sat) so all 6 were filled up.
Got her sorted, as I wrote probably 10 seconds after you posted lol

man I'm tired of flipping her over and back effing around with this nose gear, it's time to FLY!

you're gonna love it, retracts flipped around or not!
It's still a good belly lander and has excellent manners hand launching, those rubbery props will survive even the worst of landings...so if the gear ever give out on you just know that you can still be in the air so long as you have a modestly soft field.

always double check the ailerons aren't reversed before the maiden....

Gorgeous day, batteries and TX charged, did two nice flights in the micro T-38 to calibrate my fingers and then proceed to fly the Lightning for all of ~5 seconds before drilling her into the turf.

Taxied twice at high speed, then ran up the motors for nice scale lift-off (cg ~75mm back from wing root was perfect), quickly (thank god) flip the gear up as she starts to bank gently to the right so feed in left aileron.... still rolling.... FULL left aileron.... she's inverted... .... BAM nose first from about 10'.

Damage isn't bad IMO considering she dug up 2 nice chunks of earth and at least 75% throttle. Luckily the angle of impact was just enough so she didn't cartwheel or 'spear' into the ground.

Clean breaks at the thinnest parts of the engine booms, one side of the fuse cracked through, ~1/4 of the elevator hinge ripped off, 4 broken props (have spares, more ordered), machine guns speared into the ground. V1 Wings, surprisingly, held together and no damage to the wing/engine boom area. Bent both motor shafts.
Spending some time liberally coating the insides of the wing/nacelle area, wing leading edges, and entire nose with epoxy paid dividends.
The vert stabs are also undamaged, surely thanks to heeding RGS' tip to strengthen the thin area with some epoxy and thin plastic instead of toothpicks.

At least there was only my bud and one other (sympathetic) pilot there to witness it. The last pic of him semi-crash landing into some trees with his 90" span Cub when it didn't have enough power to climb over. He somehow bounced down between about 5 of them from ~25', landing with absolutely no damage. Lucky dog!

Oh well, time to order a bunch of new clevis, break out the epoxy and put her back together. She will fly again!