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Flite Test Spitfire


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Many moons ago, I was Googling RC Spitfires when I came across the Flite Test foamboard model.  For a long time, I hummed and hawwed about whether or not to get one, but eventually I bit the bullet and purchased a kit and, over the past couple of weeks, I've been slowly building it.

 

Here's my progress thus far.....

FT Spit build25.jpg

FT Spit build26.jpg

 

The canopy is a chopped-up Pepsi bottle, and the pilot is a ping-pong ball...!

FT Spit build27.jpg

FT Spit build28.jpg

Edited by Daren Cogdon
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Looking good. Definitely worth doing a bottle canopy and a pilot, they look odd with the solid version on the plan.

 

I have one, built from the downloaded plans and Hobbycraft Westfoam board. This is heavier and I have a fair bit of weight under the motor to balance all the area of board behind the wing. It needed even more once (rather heavily) painted.

It flies very nicely, but is a right pig with the CG too far back. On the spar or slightly in front.

 

Have fun with it.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I was originally going to leave it sans squadron codes, to resemble one of my favourite Spitfires on the day I saw it waaay back in 2000, but I didn't think my build did that machine justice.  So, I added the code letters to make it a bit more like a "normal" Spitfire, albeit one used in the classic 1969 film, Battle of Britain!!

 

119136360_FTSpitbuild32.thumb.jpg.114a2a9ea75f23a43efbd1aa28bdb477.jpg1175595963_FTSpitbuild31.thumb.jpg.4b7debd6c4cd5c78618048e7b8e295af.jpgI was origin

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You will have fun with that. Ours suffered a dumb thumbs moment a couple of weeks ago. I forgot it is not a vintage radio assist model and wildly over-controlled it. It was a clean break across the fuselage so was easily mended and Child_flyer has been putting it through its paces again.

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  • 5 weeks later...

SHE FLEW!!!!

 

(Please excuse the strong language - this was fairly nerve-wracking for the two of us!)

 

 
So, there were a couple of things that needed sorting on the Spit after that first flight.
 
First up, she's definitely underpowered. That flight in the video was at full throttle, and you can see there wasn't much go in her. It's either the motor, the battery or the prop. Easy (ish) fix.
 
Secondly, the trim. Mark (test pilot) said he had to put in full left aileron trim to get her to fly straight. He suggested some tweaking of the aileron pushrod to get it to fly correctly.  We'll also try adding some side-thrust, too.
 
However, I did wonder why the trim was so badly off, so I looked at the wing - it looked as though one wingtip was much higher off the bench than the other (with the belly section flat on my worktop). I measured it using the dihedral gauge from the kit, and the right wingtip is about 1in higher than the left. This must have happened when I was building the wing (although I'm sure I measured it at the time, and it was correct).
 
Aside from building another wing, what could I do to fix this?
 
I don't really want to build another wing because A)I don't have any maker foam (only Westfoam, which is heavier), and B) if I build it from Depron, I would be just as well to build another Spitfire!
Edited by Daren Cogdon
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Well done on the maiden. It does look slower than ours, a bit more power won't hurt. It is probably more scale at that speed though!

 

For the wing problem, I would suggest cutting the wing away from the fuselage and regluing. Even cutting the dihedral and regluing if that looks necessary. Mine has had the wing off several times, never intentionally...

A craft knife with the break-off blades can be extended nice and long to cut through where you need it. 

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I built mine with the detachable wing, so it might be a bit easier to cut the dihedral that way.

 

First off, though, I'm going to see if adding some side thrust will work.  The plans and the kit do not state any thrust at all, so going to see if this will help at first.  

 

Second, I did wonder whether my battery might be at fault, so will try a different 3S battery and see if that gives any help.

 

 

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7 hours ago, Dad_flyer said:

I have not seen it needing side thrust. Folded foamboard is not a precision building material, but it also continues to fly when quite bent from 'arrivals'. I would try to see how to get the wing straight and then go fly.

Yeah, I've seen some very rough FT models (and mine is no exception!), so might see if some gentle..... persuasion.... might help.

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  • 3 weeks later...

https://youtu.be/qAWQIBC-FKo

 

So I had my first flight with the FT Spitfire last week.  

 

It needs a more powerful motor, as there wasn't a great amount of power available as I flew.  A couple of times I nearly lost it, but I averted disaster.

 

The right-turn issue is still there.  A friend of mine suggested I trim the left-side wing seat so that the left wingtip gets raised slightly (and brings the right wingtip down).  Once I get a bigger motor, I will try it out.

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What motor are you using? I have a 2830 1350kv with a 9x5 prop on 3s (~9800rpm with a battery at mid charge). It weighs 1kg with battery as it is the Hobbycraft foamboard which is heavier.p

 

Dumb thumbs bent my one and it was not up to another repair. Everything is stripped out to build a new one.

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Ecalc indicates that you probably have low pitch speed and low thrust, but also low current draw so there is space to go up. What can the motor take? A 10x6 should still be a sensible current and gives very useful amount of extra speed, and thrust of 850-900g. Depends exactly what the motor specs are.

 

My Airmax 2830/1000kv in another model is 18A/200W with a 10x6. 

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This is about as much as I can find on the motor: 

Keesin RC 1000KV Brushless

  • Name: Brushless Motor; Model : A2212-13; KV : 1000RPM/V
  • Motor Part Size : 27.5 x 27mm/ 1.08" x 1.06"(L*D); Shaft Size : 3.17mm/ 0.12"
  • Max Efficiency: 80% ; Fit für ESC: 30A.
  • Max Efficiency Current: 4-10A (>75%),Current Capacity: 12A/60s
  • Suitable for RC Glider Quadcopter Helicopter Aircraft Copter Multi-copter 。

 

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