Skyleaders 1/5 Scale Mustang Build

Well the build started from this back in January 2010


after a year of stop start building due to bad health, in and out of hospital and at times thinking of throwing the towel in the Mustang is ready to maiden!!!!!!

just need the patch to dry out and a nice sunny day the flight will be on













[img]https://2img.net/h/i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii209/flyingjohn/must1.jpg[/

Well done John, brilliant effort. You only have to look at it and you just know its going to fly well and look great in the air. Hope the weather doesn't keep you waiting for too long!

Stunnng looking model John look forward to seeing it in the air soon!!!

That's bl**** terrific John....Bet your made up

nice work john it looks well smart

John looks very impressive and will look great in the air. Well done. Have you fired up that DLE yet?

Make sure you let us know when the maiden is...........Don't wanna miss it!

Well done Mr H

Beautiful John

fly by wrote:

John looks very impressive and will look great in the air. Well done. Have you fired up that DLE yet?

I did not want to take a chance on a new engine so i fitted it in my carden yak had about a dozen flights with it ,it ran faultless just one less worry on maiden

John, have said it many times during the build process but that looks superb mate and i think we can all agree we are proud to have it in this great club and i am sure it will fly just as great as it looks after all the effort and time gone into producing one fine Aircraft


3 Cheers to our Skyleader

Any old excuse to have another opticider!!!

Bang on Ray as always love me Opticider mate

Well after a long patient wait ,i decided to maiden the mustang today weather report said nice Breeze coming over the road Anyway here goes !!!!!!!set model up checked out all movements all fine ,fueled her for first time engine fired up nicely, slight adjustment to the tick over and all ready for ground run taxied her out to the runway handled great no sign of any tipping over rock steady lined up into wind and thought lets go for it i put two clicks of up elevator in just for safety i open her up slowly and off she went nice tail up and solid ,half throttle i gave slight touch of elevator and off she went climbing nicely away ,after a safe height i level out two clicks of elevator were took off she flew straight and level ,only one click of right aileron was needed to fly straight ,i got in to a circuit and flew round getting the feel still on half throttle wheels up looked a treat ,just thinking of openening her right up to see how it handled and all hell Broke loose in that split second the plane turned into a nightmare to fly ,can only compare it to my foamy it started diving ,ailerons all over the place ,managed to pull up and save it still hard work ,then mike bisland standing close by said my rudder or something was hanging down ,the rudder had come off and gone down the side of the rear,trapping one half of the elevator ,and stuck at 90% making the model very unstable i managed one more circuit like this and made a rather unsightly landing tipping her over but came off very light with superficial damage and easily repaired i have given this a lot of thought what could have cased such a frighting maiden flight which started great,and have come to the conclusion that it was some sort of harmonics that caused a high frequency flutter that shattered the four robart hinges ,i spoke to Phil at fighter ace who builds ails big war birds and he agrees, was high frequency flutter probably caused by engine vibration,it points to the big spinner having a vibration problem will sort this before next flight



This is how the rudder looked after bracking off

Glad she flew well for you John (up until the rudder cleared off!).

I know how nerve racking it can be when you carry out the maiden on a plane that's cost you lot's of time & money, but it also feels so good when it flies as well as could be expected!

I'm sure it won't be long before she's up in the air again and I congratulate you on completing this lengthy build right up to the maiden flight......Hats off to you , Sir!!

Thanks for the comments Ian appreciated had a chance to have a good look over the model ,was very lucky indeed,the damage sustained is all repairable just a matter of gluing bits back ,and going to change rudder to pull pull

glad you got it down safely with only minor damage after the nightmare
look forward to seeing in the air after repair

John, what can be said other that really sorry it didn't go as you would have liked.... but really pleased the damage was pretty light and repairable, hopefully you'll be ready to go again soon and with no hitches, will fly like she's on rails this time I'll bet.

Sorry to hear about that John - but also glad since the outcome could have been very much worse.
Sorry, I know you will of course know this but on the basis of "never assume" - when I was fitting Robart hinges to my WOT4 I remember reading in the instructions that cyano must not be used (but only PVA) to fix these hinges, since cyano can cause embrittlemnent of the plastic.
I'm sure you wlil have used PVA.

Hi Malcolm I'm with you on the use of cyano on the robarts as a no no ,but i would never trust PVA glue to hold plastic hinges, its water based, might grip in the wood but not to the hinge,probably fine on a small model i would think, another alternative is Polyurethane liquid gluei have been using it for years in woodwork (sold now as gorilla glue} But very messy to clean up, i use Loctite 9462 quite expensive but best you can get .




See IT here http://www.fighteraces.co.uk/

Hi John - yes I meant Aliphatic, which I believe is supposed to be somewhat better than ordinary PVA, apart from it's better sanding qualities, but fully noted thanks - maybe only for smaller planes. Hope you did'nt mind me mentioning it as it may help others who read this.
Yes I have experiemanted with Gorilla and like you I am somehat put off it by the expanding mess that has to be cleaned off - just before it sets like concrete. But it sure does stick. To me it seems easier to use Epoxy.
Useful tip on the Loctite 9462 - and as I'm a glue-anorak I will now try it.

Hi Macolm, I have experimented with the Gorrilla also... Did you find it got quite agitated when tried to French kiss it?
I do agree that it was hard to clean up the mess afterwards...

Rainman wrote:

Hi Macolm, I have experimented with the Gorilla also... Did you find it got quite agitated when tried to French kiss it?
I do agree that it was hard to clean up the mess afterwards...

you silly sod made me laugh

That's good then, I do like to help keep folk smiling.. After all what's the alternative??

Gives a new meaning to the film Gorillas in the mist....just what is the mist made of?? Any one got any kleenex

Glad your Mustang is okay John and look forward to seeing her soon at the field for some great pics, was down yesterday hoping you would have her there but plenty of other weekends