Corpse_Grinder

Hi all, Im very new here. I stumbled across RC Universe while watching videos on youtube.This looks to be a great forum, full of all kinds of usefull knowledge. I have only been flying R/C for about 3 years now but have always had a passion for flight and aircraft (especially WW2 warbirds).

About three years ago, for X-Mas my wife bought me a Park Zone Firebird Scout, on my very first flight in late December, with my belly aching and jittering, I luanched my Scout, turned left......... directly into a tree. Needless to say my pride was crushed, I felt awfull becuase my wife had gotten me the plane, and I was trying to think of what I was going to tell her when I didnt come back with it! Well I left a note on the gentlemans door whos property the tree was on to call me if he found the plane when it came down. The next day I recived the call I had lost a couple hours of sleep over. To my surprise, when I got there, the plane was almost completely intact (aside from a small nick in the trailing edge of the wing from the prop hitting it). After learning a valuable lesson, I ended up mastering this plane in the coming months and wanted more.

The summer had come and I had read in a magazine about Park Zone releasing a RTF P-51D Mustang.....well.....having prided myself in the mastery of my tiny little 2 channel Scout, I simply could NOT live without this P-51. Mind you at the time I was a father of 2 ( I have 3 now) money was and is still very tight and I knew I would probobly never get a shot to try this new machine. In July my birthday had rolled around, and my wife coming back from arrends in town had said..."why dont you go down and grab the groceries from the car?". I did as I was told as always (you married guys know what I mean) but, when opened the front door, on the front seat was a box containing the Park Zone P-51! My wife had been saving for awhile just to get it for me......I do love my wife so!

Now mind you, I have read in countless magazines about how beginners should NOT start with a warbird, but was not hearing it! After all....I had mastered the Scout! Well, a couple weeks later the weather was very nice, almost no wind and sunny so I thought I would try it. My wife and kids went with me to the field, and as we got out and I started doing all the preflight checks I felt as if I wanted to vomit. I looked at my wife....then the plane...then my wife again.....and thought "Oh my goodness, If I break this thing shes gonna be a little more than annoyed..". Onward I went.........throttled up......hand luanched......left turn......auger. My wife said a couple explitives under here breath as I went to survey the damage. Again, to my surprise the plane was in great shape, a small crack on the engine cowling, broken tab on the battery door and.....a busted prop. For the best really......If If would have stayed for another round things could have gotten ugly. After replacing the prop I just did not have the gusto to try again. So I kept on flying my Scout, and those little Air Hogs Aero Ace things. (What a hoot!)

Today I have reached another rung on the R/C ladder, almost a year after "the incedent", I said "It cant just hang there forever" so, I dusted it off, checked all the controll clevises, and charged the battery while on my way to pick up my wife from work. I didnt have anyone with me to range check as my wife had her hands full with the kids. So, I walked about 15 yards away and could see the controlls moving and decided I was "go" for flight. Throttled up, luanched........and flew that baby till the battery was almost dead!! I did 3 loops and roll with multiple passes around the pattern, even some high speed low strafing passes!! As the battery got lower I went around the far side of the pattern, put the throttle at around 25%, brought it down to about 6 feet cut the thottle and slid it in about 20 yards away from where I stood. No damage.....no swearing......just one happy P-51 pilot!

Im sorry for rambling in my first post here.[sm=red_smile.gif]Im just still beeming about todays events. As it turns out, the weather is supposed be the same tomorrow....You know where Ill be!

Again, sorry for rambling, but I had to vent to people who understand![sm=teeth_smile.gif]

Justin

wings 540

Well, Corpse Grinder sounds like you have been enjoying the hobby so far. How does the P-51 fly? I might buy one just for the fun of it. I am normally a 3D flier but I would like to get a warbird.
P.S. I don't mean to be rude or anything, but it's not a parkzone firebird scout, it's a Hobbyzone firebird scout.

Happy Flying, Wings 540

Corpse_Grinder

Thanks for the correction wings 540! Not rude at all. Well, my impressions of the P-51 are good. The plane seems very stable, has good speed, the motor seems to pull it vertical with athority (with a strong battery). On my first flight with it, its seemed nose heavy, hence the auger incedent. So, I tried to compensate by moving the elevator clevice out a several turns to give it some up elevator without trim. I think I went a bit overboard with it though, as I was flying yesterday I kept having to force the nose forward with stick input at trim full forward. So today I am adjusting the clevice in a bit more to level it out and make the trim actually effective this time. Over all its stable and looks very scale as it flies around the pattern IMHO. Be forewarned, I would not knife edge it without having pleanty of recovery altitude, with no rudder you cant compensate, I scared myself pretty good at one point yesterday and WONT be doing it again! With a good charge it loops from level flight and rolls look great but are not very axial. (more like a victory/barrel roll)

Im very happy with the plane. I would love for Park Zone to release a nice Bf109-E or F model.......I would start saving immediatly! ( though at this point I want to try the FW190 as well!)

Remeber, Im still kinda new at this, so take what I say with a grain of salt!

Thanks for the reply!

Justin

rmenke

My Feedback: (13)

Corpse Grinder:

Welcome to a wide group of the greatest people in the World!! This bunch are a amazing collection of knowledge with generally harts of gold. There is a occasional harsh word, but generally well intended. Where else can you talk to fellow nuts all over the world and achieve a quick understanding of each other. I have become honestly fond of many people here in RCU, located all over the world. Just great outstanding people willing to share knowledge with you without charg. A few people may laugh at you and your overall attitude, being afraid of a little airplane, etc. Most of us have been there and done that, and do understand. There are joys and sorrows associated with the hobby all as part of the experience. Imagine spending 4-6 months building a one off susper go fast thingy. Its done, you go out to fly it for the first time. Off it goes, so darned fast you can hardly keep up with it. Suddingly, down it goes and your lucky to find the pieces of what must be $1,000.00 worth of engne, pipe, servos, and related special gear. Some will focus on the down side here, loss of time and money etc. The majority of this bunch will focus on what may have gone wrong and what is needed to build the next faster and better bird, and can't wait to get to it. Carefull who you pick on, you may bight off much more than you can chew. Some of the Worlds best are in this Forum and share without a attitude of superiority, simply great people. ENJOY

FERNDALE AIR FORCE

Corpse grinder, try GWS I think they have both planes with just a bit of building. And have fun,

Tim

Corpse Grinder, did you find the aeroace mods thread? Or the aero ace thread? The mod thread is a compilation of most of the mods for aeroaces, and the aero ace thread is just that. I'm putting bigger batteries and lipo charge ports in my aces, and using some carbon fiber on mine now. Just curious, Tim

johnpcunningham

CG,

Great Post!!! I remember coming to this forum my first time. First plane was a Hobbyzone Challenger. Now I feel like an old pro with an entire fleet and a nitro plane as well. Built my own electronic ESC and XPORT hardware as well. I'm sure you will get the bug too!
Here are some thoughts for you as you dig into this hobby:

1) Scour this forum for ideas and modifications. There are many here that have great ideas to make your planes more robust, reliable, and/or faster
2) Check out EBAY for hobbyzone & parkzone searches. There are many hobbyshops that sell "lots" of scratch and dent planes. You can get some that work, extra parts, batteries, and chargers. Often I have gotton 6 planes for the price of one new in a single purchase. I bought 6 XTREMES and got them all working. I sold some off to my pals and keep one or two as a backup. Quite ofte, it is worth it for the multiple batteries alone.
3) Fly and buy many planes and pass along what you learn
4) Keep you wife happy so she will buy you more planes You know what I mean.....

Ciao,

JC

2002denali

I too am new to the planes.Been doing cars and trucks for 15 years or so.I bought a PZ FW 190 for my first plane about 10 months ago.My first few flights or should I say attemps were not very good but I bought a flight sim and now things go much better.I flew the FW in stock form for around 8 months but have since upgraded to brushless with lippo.The plane was good in stock form but it's a blast with the B/L and lippo.I am now in the process of building a brushless Spitfire(just waiting for the airframe to show up).I have the brushless motor from the Stryker in the 190 and have bought a couple of outrunners to try in the Spit.

There is definitely alot to learn and I have learned alot the hard way but I always come back for more.The thing I've found with the 190 is that the crashes always look worse then they are.The way the FW is designed it pretty cheap to repair.The only thing that is hard to repair is the wing but I've busted it up pretty good and still managed to fix it.The secret for me is foam safe C.A. and packing tape.I've smashed the fuselauge but always been able to fix it.It may not look real pretty but it still flies and from 50 plus feet away it looks just fine to me.

mad web tv scientist

C.G., Congratulations! Your success is truly inspirational. Not only that but it's nice to see other new flyers that have added to the joy you have started with your post.

Warbirds also excite me as well. I practice "warbird maneuvers" with a modified motor powered glider. My real flying passion at the moment is soaring at high altitude with a few maneuvers thrown in just for fun.

Your use of flight Sims as well as your experience with other aircraft no doubt contributed to your success. You must have a lot of unusual talent and perhaps a lot of good luck to have been so successful so quickly with your advanced equipment.

Model Aviation magazine reported that a father used flight Sims with his kids and they were able to learn to fly aerobatics very quickly. In another MA report young ladies were flying solo for an entire flight after only three training flights with motor powered gliders. It's great to hear about such success stories.

So, keep on having fun.

madwebtvscientist [sm=lol.gif][sm=cry_smile.gif]

______________________________________________

The key to victory for modeling is cultural relevancy. Esoteric, "better felt than told modeling" is obsolete, truth is triumphing - there is no escape.

Corpse_Grinder

mad web tv scientist,

How did you know I have sim experience? Do I know you from IL-2, CFS3, or FS9? Either way yes, I do experience with aircraft. In the I listed here and also real world flight, I have pretty good amount of hours in a PA-28 and Cessna 150H (just shy of solo). But, having children brought my pilotage career to a screaching halt. Thank all of you for your great replies.....I like these forums alot!



Justin

Glacier Girl

My Feedback: (4)

CG,
Congrats on getting the Stang in the air. Welcome to the addiction.

Stop over on the Badius Owners forum, right here in the Park Flyers section. We fly everything, gas and electric, heli/ploat/planes and even a few r/c cars & trucks.

Great bunch of guys to ask for help, or to just chew the fat with.

GG


Oh just thought of something, the big electric show, NEAT Fair, is this weekend in NY. Will make your jaw drop and you'll be drooling all over yourself at the birds there.

mad web tv scientist

C. G.,
Anybody that could do what you did had to have flight sim experience - Just kidding - I confused your posts with that of 2002denali who mentioned flight sim in his post. Sorry about that. Airplanes are much too exciting to get all the facts right immediately. I will do a more thorough "walk around" the next time.

madwebtvscientist [sm=lol.gif][sm=cry_smile.gif]

______________________________________________

The key to victory for modeling is cultural relevancy. Esoteric, "better felt than told modeling" is obsolete, truth is triumphing - there is no escape.