I must say that Top Flite does a kick-ass job with their manual and if you can read and follow directions, you can build this plane (yes I know it's an ARF). Powered by an OS FS-91, total AUW is ±9½lbs dry. I had one of my buddies maiden her for me. I set the CG to be a tad nose heavy at ±5¼" without fuel. Rollout was uneventful with the gradual application of throttle and the take off went off without a hitch, soon as the gear was retracted she required some down trim to stay level. HOWEVER the engine decided it had had enough of being airborne and decided to quit during a swooping left turn (turns out that I had the tank mounted upside down).

Now, all I have ever heard about Mustangs is that they glide like typewriters, so I was pretty sure that I was watching the end of her. Much to my surprise, he put her into a shallow dive and lined her up for an easy landing. BUT she glided so well that he overshot and was quickly heading towards a fence! So I yelled to him to pancake it down! He plunked it down from about 3' up about 10' from the fence and I watched the plane bounce about like an injured pelican. Once I retrieved her I was delighted to find that there wasn't any major damage! One of the landing gear was slightly tweaked (cracked the rear mount rail) and the ply where the wingbolts screw in had broken and come clean off the inside of the fuse (check the pics)!!

Took her home and with some time, epoxy, and alot of dremelling, I repaired and reinforced the cracked landing gear rail. Beefed up the one that wasn't broken and fixed the wing mount by punching out the blind nuts and making some doublers out of some basswood.

This is one rugged bird!

Mine isn't quite finished yet. I went with the OS 120 Surpass and a seperate battery for the included retracts, so I don't think I will be under 10 lbs. Very easy assembly, and a great looking model. I had already added epoxy to the wing mount system, and added some hardwood to the retract mounting area. I wish I had been more creative with the exhaust. Too nice a model to have the muffler sticking out

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=790577

electric thread but talks a bunch about the mechanicles and flight charachteristics

That electric conversion thread is a fun read. But it is electric, which would fly differently than the glow version. Besides, something about not having an engine snarling from within the cowl on this beast just doesn't seem right to me.

Great info on the plane . I was starting to worry that it had QC issues based on reading a few poat (3 separate planes ) that stated the plane wanted to go left --more then the usual warbird , to the point that the experienced pilot put the plane in !!!! .

On another note dont you hate when you survice one part of the unexpected to get thrown another ---fence !!!!

I had a P40 engine quit , I did the same thing went into a dive , added some light flaps and everything looked good , then the dreaded fence forced me to try to turn at the last miniute creating a lateral bend in my landing gear

I don't have the Mustang..yet but I do have the P-47 and what a pleasure it is to fly! It build just like the book and this plane is now the my favorite steed. The only problem I had was getting it balanced. I added almost 7oz to the nose! When I got to the field and added fuel the fact that it was REALLY nose heavy came out. I had several prop strikes and it was a general handful on the ground. I have removed almost all the weight and it flys fantastic! I'm in a quandary right now though. I'd love to have the Mustang but the Warhawk is looking awfully good too!

I'm still putzing around with mine. Went back to a sport model after putting my P-40 in last week. You mention yours being tail heavy. I threw mine on the balancer last night to figure out where to put the battery. I'm going to need an awful lot of tail weight the way this beast is balanceing. It balances at about 2 1/2 inches from the leading edge. Instructions say 5 5/8.

Hello guys,

Well, at last i decided for my first warbird ARF from Top Flite P-51D Mustang 60 size with retracts. Last night I started to build it but unfortunately I made a huge mistake and really I don't know what to do.

If you experience guys help me, I really so much appreciated and thankful.

The problem is with "right wing aileron", in the manual it's written for low rates 1/2" up and 1/2" down also for high rates 1-1/8" for up and 1-1/8" for down.

As you can see from the photos, unfortunately in right wing I left so little space between the aileron and the wing and that's why the aileron DOWN rate less than the manual describes. Because of much free movement towards to UP it seems it satisfy the recommended rates.

For the "left wing aileron" it seems much better than the right wing accordingly.

So my question: Do I have to cut the CA hinges and clean the area and try to re-connect the aileron to the wing? Or because of it happens only to the DOWN rates; it will not affect the flight characteristics of the plane??? (shortly, leaving it as it is)

If some one of you can reply to this problem I will be really glad.

Ozgur,

Measure the max travel on the down trim at the widest part which is near the fuse. What is it? MIne also has less travel on the down trim than the up trim and it flies ok with an os 120FSIII

tony

Originally Posted by ozgur

Hello guys,

Well, at last i decided for my first warbird ARF from Top Flite P-51D Mustang 60 size with retracts. Last night I started to build it but unfortunately I made a huge mistake and really I don't know what to do.

If you experience guys help me, I really so much appreciated and thankful.

The problem is with "right wing aileron", in the manual it's written for low rates 1/2" up and 1/2" down also for high rates 1-1/8" for up and 1-1/8" for down.

As you can see from the photos, unfortunately in right wing I left so little space between the aileron and the wing and that's why the aileron DOWN rate less than the manual describes. Because of much free movement towards to UP it seems it satisfy the recommended rates.

For the "left wing aileron" it seems much better than the right wing accordingly.

So my question: Do I have to cut the CA hinges and clean the area and try to re-connect the aileron to the wing? Or because of it happens only to the DOWN rates; it will not affect the flight characteristics of the plane??? (shortly, leaving it as it is)

If some one of you can reply to this problem I will be really glad.

You know I read this post a while back and had been meaning to get back to it. Were you able to get things fixed?

Hello once again alienteabagger and ton2di,

I was absent for a while due to some problems and suspend my P-51 building accordingly.
But finally I get back to work and last night I complete the aileron and flap servo mounting and their control rods. Up to now everything seems ok, tonight I am planning to join the wing halves together.

My right wing aileron up/down rates problems still valid, as ton2di advice, yet I did not measure the max travel on the down trim at the widest part which is near the fuse. But tonight as soon as glue the wing together I will do that.

But my question to you ton2di; you mentioned similar problem on yours, but i thought mine is a little bit different than yours, in my case rather than "less travel on the down trim than the up" in one aileron, I have the problem while comparing both right and left aileron travels on down trim. Is that matters a lot??? This is what I need to be sure...

best regards,
Ozgur

Ozgur,

Even if the down travel on one of the aileron is less than the left or the right side... as long as they meet the max or close to the max recommended (which is 11/16" as supposed to your earlier post of 1 1/8" - it's for the rudder I believe) it would be fine. Let us know what measurements you get tonight.

ton2di

Guys, having less down aileron than up is aerodynamically good as in fluid dynamics there is something called "adverse yaw", which is caused by the down aileron producing more drag than the up aileron with equal deflection relative to the wing chord. This causes the aircraft to yaw in the opposite direction to the turn and thus requiring rudder input to make a coordinated turn. So having less down aileron is good. You should also do the same with the opposite aileron. Most transmitters have this "differential aileron mix" in there program menu to allow the flyer to reduce the adverse yaw. This link explains the effect in detail:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adverse_yaw

Hope this is helpful?

Yup. I have read about this and actually applied this to my warbirds. The turns look much scale.

Nice to see some other builders out there for this one. I seem to have a problem with the size or scale of the outer Instrument Decal. It looks like it is not to the same scale as the rest of the parts. How is your's ? The picture in the instructions looks out as well, but not as bad.

I am looking for some pictures of the radio box of the real plane, so I can add some detail wires.

I am also looking at putting in NAV and Landing Lights. I think I can find lots of pics to do this from Airliners.net

Thanks for the other info.......