05-05-2012, 04:38 PM
A couple of weeks ago, Junoir and I went to Hobbies in the Hills "...just to get a roll of solarfilm" - we know how these stories end up. So ...
Date: 5 May 12
Conditions: Light breeze, good visibility, good smooth strip
Aircraft: Eflite PT-19 (1440 mm wingspan, 910 mm length)
I hadn't actually bought and built an EFlite kit before, so this was it. It's slightly unusual in that it can be field modified to fly control-line (if you build in the options, which I didn't bother). Build was easy enough, except that the wing saddle was slightly too small for the wing chord, so I had some trimming to do there. What was really annoying was the recommended setup for the aileron servo pushrods - it came with rods which had a Z-bend in one end, but we're supposed to use those crappy brass retainers at the other end, where you slide the rod into a hole through the retainer and then lock it in place with a screw. The brass retainer is supposed to be held on to the servo arm with a plastic disk which is a friction-fit onto a pin on the brass thing - what a load of rubbish. The disks wouldn't fit and the whole thing is unnecessarily heavy and clunky - I junked them and used a couple of rods with threads and clevises from a downed Parkzone P-51. For power I went with the tried and trusted combination of a Turnigy 3530 with a PZ 9x6 propeller (same setup I've got in our Parkzone F4F).
I got the weight well-forward of the recommended CoG with a 2200 mAh battery and took off. It needed quite a lot of down elevator trim, so it was a good idea to pack the large battery up front. It seemed pretty good in the air - not super fast, but good enough to look alright. I had the throws dumbed-down (as always) and no expo (as always) and it was still happy to loop and roll without problems. Landing was easy and it is actually quite well behaved on the ground for a tail-dragger (I was pleasantly surprised with that aspect of it) - probably where the tail-heaviness was actually helping out.
Not a bad little machine - behaves pretty well. Junior had a fly and I think he thought it was pretty lame, so it's a good match for me.
George was right ... it badly needs a pilot or two, but of course, they're a separate EFlite purchase!
Date: 5 May 12
Conditions: Light breeze, good visibility, good smooth strip
Aircraft: Eflite PT-19 (1440 mm wingspan, 910 mm length)
I hadn't actually bought and built an EFlite kit before, so this was it. It's slightly unusual in that it can be field modified to fly control-line (if you build in the options, which I didn't bother). Build was easy enough, except that the wing saddle was slightly too small for the wing chord, so I had some trimming to do there. What was really annoying was the recommended setup for the aileron servo pushrods - it came with rods which had a Z-bend in one end, but we're supposed to use those crappy brass retainers at the other end, where you slide the rod into a hole through the retainer and then lock it in place with a screw. The brass retainer is supposed to be held on to the servo arm with a plastic disk which is a friction-fit onto a pin on the brass thing - what a load of rubbish. The disks wouldn't fit and the whole thing is unnecessarily heavy and clunky - I junked them and used a couple of rods with threads and clevises from a downed Parkzone P-51. For power I went with the tried and trusted combination of a Turnigy 3530 with a PZ 9x6 propeller (same setup I've got in our Parkzone F4F).
I got the weight well-forward of the recommended CoG with a 2200 mAh battery and took off. It needed quite a lot of down elevator trim, so it was a good idea to pack the large battery up front. It seemed pretty good in the air - not super fast, but good enough to look alright. I had the throws dumbed-down (as always) and no expo (as always) and it was still happy to loop and roll without problems. Landing was easy and it is actually quite well behaved on the ground for a tail-dragger (I was pleasantly surprised with that aspect of it) - probably where the tail-heaviness was actually helping out.
Not a bad little machine - behaves pretty well. Junior had a fly and I think he thought it was pretty lame, so it's a good match for me.
George was right ... it badly needs a pilot or two, but of course, they're a separate EFlite purchase!
Steve Murray