manual.... what manual? Mine had nothing of the sort in the box. Lol

Hi Guys

What a great day here on a tropical island off the coast of the US! Low winds, warm sun.

I took the DF P-51D out for it's maiden flight. It did not disappoint.

Holding some right rudder from the first tire revolution produced a straight and true roll out. She was off the ground too soon for scale even though I never left 1/2 thottle stick.

The climbout was spritely yet still not at WOT. I tucked the gear immendiately and found no change in pitch. I did need a few click of right aileron but upon landing it did not show up as a bias in the controls.

The CG (as per manual) seemed a good place, no hunting in the pitch axis.

After doing some mild aerobatics I opened to WOT and headed to the deck. It was not much faster! It is fast enough for my liking, but I can see where you speed freaks want to go to 4s.

I shot a high approach with no flaps, half flaps and full flaps. Dropping the landing gear produces more nose down moment than the flaps do. I was very impressed.

Now up to some safe distance for some power on and off stalls.

Power off, it will break in either direction but it does not develop into a spin unless provoked. recovery is quick with speed build-up and some added power.

Power on stalls (<.5 throttle) always break to the left (from P-effect) but again, with relaxing of the elevator and some speed gain, recovery is quick.

Inverted flight requires between 1/8-1/4 forward stick to trim, not unusual for this type of model with a healthy static margin (stabile CG position) and a cambered airfoil.

I flew for 5 minutes and it took 1100 from my TP 3S-2750 45C battery. I sure can add another minute to the timer for the next flight.

The second flight expanded the envelop a bit and I did some spins, and climbing snaps as well as some very tight loops. The model never made me worry about stalling or being overcontrolled. Very nice model.

I did a few touch and go's with no-flaps, half flaps, and full flaps (about 45deg) and I saw no reason to use half flaps any more all the way down. I do reccommend that you retract the flaps soon after touchdown as it has more of tendancy to nose over with the flaps deployed than without.

I busted my prop on the last landing trying to taxi without retracting them.

I brought my "dice" 720P camera with me but the battery died less than 30 seconds into the flight. I guess I was playing too much with it at home.

I did get some flight shots with my D70 with my good friend Bob Erbe behind it. Hid did a very good job after a few lessons!

Enjoy
Tom

Nice Pics! and congrats on the maiden!

I just ripped around for a pack in the p-51, it is a very nice flyer.

I can't wait to see what Durafly has in store for the future.

Thanks Pullup.

I fixed my prop this afternoon and tested it, so I am good to go. Unfortunately will NOT tell you how I did it as I don't want the liability!

let's just say it won't break in the same place again! and I have to move my battery aft a bit!

How does everybody take such great photos. Especially of maiden flights. Every time I try the camera or the person who was suppose to help doesn't work.:mad I'm jealous.

Originally Posted by quitcherbitchen

How does everybody take such great photos. Especially of maiden flights. Every time I try the camera or the person who was suppose to help doesn't work.:mad I'm jealous.

hey!... quitcherbitchen

I'll make it worse... there were only two guys at the field... me and Bob, and he had never used a SLR before!

Doah!!!!

High praise indeed, from Mr. T Hunt. I need to invest in this series, would rather get a Spit or a Typhoon or maybe even a Tempest, to go with my WR Hurricane. This size will fit the back of my small Nissan pickup, making transport very easy. My buddy has a shelf system for his large truck that we are going to reduce to fit in my truck - should get 3 or 4 planes in like this.

Thanks Jim

under close inspection last night before going out again today, I found the plastic landing gear mounts for the e-tracts were loose in the wing, nothing a little glue could not fix.

off to the field!

Tom

Got some video from my Dice camera mounted under my baseball hat visor today of the third flight.

enjoy:

Durafly P-51D 1100mm by scalepolice (5 min 57 sec)

Tom

Well, I finally got the courage up to try the local cricket oval and risk being eaten by trees. It was a blast, easy take off with little drift and surprisingly steady in the air. I had an 11x10 propellor to avoid breaking the currently irreplaceable stock prop, and it went well. I left the gear down, not being used to retracts (or flaps) and did circuits for a few minutes well above the trees. I didn,t notice much effect with the flaps so I came into the wind to land, dropped the flaps again and then had problems as I was too high with little room to land, so I did a quick circle, tried to line up and promptly spiraled in from about 20 feet. The fuel tanks popped off and I was surprised to find the retracts up as we're the flaps. Yes, I was flipping the wrong switch, the gear instead of flaps.

Not much damage except to my pride but I do have a bent prop shaft. Another lesson learned. Can anyone tell me how a) to remove the shaft and b) what to replace it with?

I have trawled the forums and HK but cannot find the motor spec nor what I can replace the shaft with. It looks like torx screws holding it on so that should be easy, but are replacements standard? Advice gratefully received.

you should look for an FMS shaft like this http://www.hobby-paradise.com/en/pro...ct_detail.html

Thanks, they seem good, confirmed by comments from the F4U thread. Have ordered a couple from pw rc, if the planets align I can be back in the air at the weekend......

have stock props ever been in stock???? will they ever be?

Never