The Butcher Bird's Maiden Voyage...

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The Butcher Bird's Maiden Voyage...

Postby RitterKreuz » Fri Jul 27, 2007 4:03 pm

...Will hopefully be this afternoon if this isolated afternoon thunderstorm will buzz off.  ::)

I recently Purchased the Hobby Zone FW-190 RC airplane - I built it and got it ready for flying today with a minor modification to the decals.

(http://www.hobbyzone.com/rc_planes_park ... lf_190.htm)

This particular model is bearing the paint scheme of JG54's "Red Six" the only historical inaccuracy short of the missing fuel and gun placards is the lack of the Hakenkreutz on the tail. I fashioned one out of the decals provided with the aircraft by cutting the angled edges off of the Luftwaffe Roundels and adhering them to the aircraft's tail section in such a way that it forms a rather sharp looking Swastika. - snap - historical inaccuracy fixed!  ;D

For anyone looking for a good starter plane but you feel up to the challenge of Aerobatics i recommend any of the war birds from hobby zone.

They have a Spitfire, Mustang and a FW-190. all of which have wingspans of around 40 inches with an overall length averaging about 35 inches.

They are electrically driven and have two control settings for novice and experienced RC pilots. when switched to novice mode the control movements are restricted making for slower roll and pitch rates.

I have flown one of these before - they handle beautifully in either mode of operation... and If you do poorly enough to actually crash it you can replace the parts easily and cheaply - the most expensive part being the spare fuselage with electronic parts already installed runs about 50 bucks (USA) cheaper parts are only about $1.99 to $5.00 each.

Initially the purchase price from a retail hobby shop runs at about $204.00 after tax and out of the box the aircraft is pretty much ready to fly. Screw on the wings, connect the aileron servo plug, attach the horizontal stabilizer and hook the elevator control horn to the elevator push rod and now all you have left to do is charge the battery with the included peak charger and put the included batteries into the remote... after a 45 minute peak charge your in the air. Assuming you charge the battery during the build process your battery should be almost fully charged by the time your ready to go.

Another cool option which i have not committed to yet is the "dog fighting module". an "X-port" under the belly of the aircraft allows a small transmitter/receiver to be attached to the belly of the aircraft. It transmits a signal ahead of the aircraft and receives a signal from the rear of the aircraft. Two RC planes equipped with this module can dog fight against one another. If your aircraft is hit your engine cuts out for 10 seconds but you retain control of the flight controls. Also a loud siren goes off indicating a hit against your aircraft. Sort of works like remote control airplane lazer-tag.

My dad really wants a spitfire but there were none in stock at the hobby shop here in town. I really hoped they would make a ME-109 - but i have not seen one. What a beautiful fighter that is.

Anyway... wish me luck on todays flight!! (hopefully i will get the chance)
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Re: The Butcher Bird's Maiden Voyage...

Postby Mictheslik » Fri Jul 27, 2007 4:12 pm

have fun...the dogfighting feature sounds awesome!!!

I've seen the P51 and Spit in my local shop, and have been very tempted to buy them, but I don't have anywhere decent to fly them around me :(

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Re: The Butcher Bird's Maiden Voyage...

Postby RitterKreuz » Fri Jul 27, 2007 4:36 pm

check out on Google Earth

here are some decent RC flying sites in my area

1. this one is about 15 minutes from my house @  32
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Re: The Butcher Bird's Maiden Voyage...

Postby RitterKreuz » Fri Jul 27, 2007 10:29 pm

well the little plane did well. Im going to try and take it up again tomorrow.

mostly tight turns and loops and rolls was the order of the day. wanted to practice belly landing (no landing gear) so i hand launched her and belly landed in some tall grass a couple of times just to get a feel for it.

i feel like i have created a monster! This is probably going to develop into yet ANOTHER economically straining hobby.  ;D
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Re: The Butcher Bird's Maiden Voyage...

Postby Tom... » Sat Jul 28, 2007 10:23 am

Good choice of plane, we "used" to have the exact same model, but their was another model on the same frequency and it nose dived into the ground.
I have also flown the spitfire in the same range, and i think its a slighty better model performane wise
and if anyones interested in getting flying i would suggest the model i learnt on, this one, once you get flying its great fun!, until you crash :P
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Re: The Butcher Bird's Maiden Voyage...

Postby RitterKreuz » Sat Jul 28, 2007 12:08 pm

Tom you have good taste - thats the exact model i started with. It has good crash survivability if you ask me. I had to repair the tail and replace the prop shaft, prop and spinner to get it back into the air. might have cost me 15 or 20 bucks to fix the whole thing.
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Re: The Butcher Bird's Maiden Voyage...

Postby Chris_F » Sat Jul 28, 2007 1:48 pm

The only way I can justify another hobby like RC planes is if my daughter gets in to it.  She's only 1 now so it'll be a while.  But I hope she does get in to something like that so we can have some cool bonding time.  I've always wanted to try building an RC plane.  :)
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Re: The Butcher Bird's Maiden Voyage...

Postby RitterKreuz » Sat Jul 28, 2007 2:16 pm

not much construction to these foam planes... but i have a gas powered one made of wood i have not dared fly it yet though  ;D
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Re: The Butcher Bird's Maiden Voyage...

Postby H » Sun Jul 29, 2007 6:48 am

[quote]not much construction to these foam planes... but i have a gas powered one made of wood i have not dared fly it yet though
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Re: The Butcher Bird's Maiden Voyage...

Postby -sam- » Tue Jul 31, 2007 10:17 am

I bought myself the Parkzone Mustang last year !! Great fun for that price !
Either you find  these small parkflyers with a wingspan of 50-70cm,  
models that do not look authentic or models that are simply to expensive for my skills :)
The parkzone flyers cover everything. 1m wingspan, authentic looking and a great prize.

I allready had to replace the wing and airframe once.. due to
pilo... ehmm technical failure ::) but it
Last edited by -sam- on Tue Jul 31, 2007 10:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
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