07-05-2011, 04:47 PM
Date: 7 May 11
Conditions: Ideal - almost no wind at all, excellent visibility
Aircraft: Parkzone F4F Wildcat
A month or so ago Junior, ChrisM and I bought some "airframe only" Parkzone kits from Modelflight. In this instance it was the F4F Wildcat, a 4-channel belly-lander. The plane arrives nicely boxed up and contains everything except motor, ESC, servos, receiver and battery - so all the push-rods, horns, clevises, prop-adapter, propeller, motor-mount and decals are already prepared. This was a pretty good deal for about $124.
The only question of course, was precisely which motor to put into it. I decided on the Turnigy 3530C (1100 kV) because I thought it would offer about the right amount of power transfer and because I happened to have one handy
Luckily, the stock propeller fits perfectly onto the motor shaft, as does the stock hub/retaining nut. It means that unless you get right up close and look through the cooling holes in the mock radial engine, you can't tell it's not the stock motor. On the bench, the motor and stock 9x6 prop drew about 18A, so that's quite manageable. The only real work that was required in the whole build was to get some 25 mm M3 bolts and nuts and use these as standoffs on the stock motor mount. Not difficult to do and not magic at all, so I didn't bother with a photograph. I completed the build (as much as it can be called that) late last night.
This morning, it was in with a 1600 mAh 3S 20C battery and a check of the control directions and throws. All sorted out there, no changes necessary. I wound it up to a little over half-throttle and got Junior to pitch it. It left us climbing perfectly steadily and straight as a die - very nice, just like the P-51D, I thought. Once it was up about 10 m or so in the climb out, I went up to full throttle and it tracked very smoothly across the sky. It has more speed and momentum than the Mustang and climbs and rolls a bit more briskly than scale. Very well-behaved though - it didn't do anything it wasn't asked to do and ripped around the sky making me look a much better pilot than I really am.
Landing was just as per the Mustang, only slightly better because a rudder is stock. It glides smoothly and is easy to settle onto the belly-pan skid.
Overall impression: It's a gem, and I'm not going to change a thing!
Conditions: Ideal - almost no wind at all, excellent visibility
Aircraft: Parkzone F4F Wildcat
A month or so ago Junior, ChrisM and I bought some "airframe only" Parkzone kits from Modelflight. In this instance it was the F4F Wildcat, a 4-channel belly-lander. The plane arrives nicely boxed up and contains everything except motor, ESC, servos, receiver and battery - so all the push-rods, horns, clevises, prop-adapter, propeller, motor-mount and decals are already prepared. This was a pretty good deal for about $124.
The only question of course, was precisely which motor to put into it. I decided on the Turnigy 3530C (1100 kV) because I thought it would offer about the right amount of power transfer and because I happened to have one handy
Luckily, the stock propeller fits perfectly onto the motor shaft, as does the stock hub/retaining nut. It means that unless you get right up close and look through the cooling holes in the mock radial engine, you can't tell it's not the stock motor. On the bench, the motor and stock 9x6 prop drew about 18A, so that's quite manageable. The only real work that was required in the whole build was to get some 25 mm M3 bolts and nuts and use these as standoffs on the stock motor mount. Not difficult to do and not magic at all, so I didn't bother with a photograph. I completed the build (as much as it can be called that) late last night.This morning, it was in with a 1600 mAh 3S 20C battery and a check of the control directions and throws. All sorted out there, no changes necessary. I wound it up to a little over half-throttle and got Junior to pitch it. It left us climbing perfectly steadily and straight as a die - very nice, just like the P-51D, I thought. Once it was up about 10 m or so in the climb out, I went up to full throttle and it tracked very smoothly across the sky. It has more speed and momentum than the Mustang and climbs and rolls a bit more briskly than scale. Very well-behaved though - it didn't do anything it wasn't asked to do and ripped around the sky making me look a much better pilot than I really am.
Landing was just as per the Mustang, only slightly better because a rudder is stock. It glides smoothly and is easy to settle onto the belly-pan skid.
Overall impression: It's a gem, and I'm not going to change a thing!
Steve Murray