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Hi everybody,

I think I need to choose a different plane for FPV. I crashed my Airfield 1450mm P-51 mustang today during testing and Nitroplanes.com is still out of everything for my plane. Anybody know where I can buy replacement parts for my plane? This is driving me nuts!!! I have had this plane for a year and they still don't have parts for it!!! Nitroplanes & Xheli never have anything in stock for the stuff they sell which is kinda ridiculous. I need a new cowl, prop spinner, (I can buy spinner local at hobby shop if they have one that big) The cowl isn't that big a deal and could fly without it if I needed too, but they never have squat in stock for the aircraft they sell. I regret buying this plane from them and don't think I will buy anything else from them since they don't carry replacement parts. So any help in the parts department would be greatly appreciated.

Also this is my first EPO foam plane. Any ideas on straightening out the nose area on the plane? I have heard pouring boiling water over it, but not to sure if that is true. The right side of the nose is pretty much like an accordion and pushed back about 8mm and the 2 halves are seperated.

I will post crash pictures or a video on it tomorrow after I finish surveying the damage and can bring myself to look at it more. I'm hoping to get this back in the air because I am and have been going through some serious flight withdrawals.

Sorry to hear about that.
I remember you was setting it for FPV with 900Mhz vTx.
What caused the crash?

From my experience of foam planes, I cut the crashed part and make it my own. However my planes are not scale planes. Usually they are more similar to a flying brick

sad news ! Hope you find your parts!

TOmas

The boiling water trick really does work.Just have some thick rubber gloves handy because as soon as you pour the water on it you will have to bend back in place and the foam is really hot at this point.You will have to be quick as the foam cools quickly. Good Luck

(10-30-2011 08:14 AM)schumixmd Wrote: [ -> ]Sorry to hear about that.
I remember you was setting it for FPV with 900Mhz vTx.
What caused the crash?

From my experience of foam planes, I cut the crashed part and make it my own. However my planes are not scale planes. Usually they are more similar to a flying brick

Well since you asked I will just tell it like it is.


The main causes of the crash is the following.
1. Impatience: I couldn't wait to fly. Didn't feel like driving to a better area 30 minutes away.
2. Being lazy: Should have relocated my base of operations when wind direction & speed changed.
3. being stupid: Taking off wearing goggles for the first time towards my patch into wind.
4. Screaming wife: Wife screaming VERY LOUDLY "YOUR GONNA CRASH!!! YOUR GOING THE WRONG WAY!!! YOUR PAST THE ANTENNA!!! YOUR OVER THE HIGHWAY!!! YOUR TO FAR AWAY!!! YOUR GONNA KILL SOMEONE!!! Turn! Turn! Turn! PULL UP!!! PULL UP!!! GO DOWN!! GO DOWN!!! It's over there!!! It's RIGHT THERE!!! Behind the trees!!! SPEED UP!!! SLOW DOWN!!! LOOOOOK OUT!!!!" (Profanity left out to maintain G Rating )

I mostly fly FPV helicopters and I always wear the goggles from take off to landing. I decided that I could do it with my plane facing the patch too. WRONG!!! It's easy on a helicopter because you take off straight up and I can fly the helicopters behind me with no problem. So it was my first goggle take off and I flew past my patch antenna to far on take off and then right on top of some high voltage power lines. Lost video signal over the power lines and the plane ended up out over the toll road, flying blind at full throttle. When the goggles went black (never went black before, always static with a fuzzy picture but still can see) for more than a few seconds I freaked out & ripped the goggles off and tried to find the plane. The last thing I saw on the goggles before they went black was a highway full of cars right below me and my plane aimed right at them. I aimed the plane back towards us and away from the cars right as the goggles blacked out. My wife pointed to where it was but I couldn't see it because it lost massive altitude and was behind some trees. I cut the power on it and was basically flying it by memory of where it last was and how it was last pitched. By the time I gained visual sight of it, the plane was already tip stalling 25 feet off the ground. I have to say that I actually did pretty good for flying by memory of its last position & heading with a screaming wife standing next to me. The crash really wasn't that bad but the plane does need some work and minor parts. I noticed last night that the fuselage is broke in half at the balance point where the spar goes through. No big deal, just needs some 30min epoxy. Haven't checked my video gear yet, but I am sure it is fine. I will be posting the video here later today. I hope my public display of stupidity will help someone else be smarter. But if not, everybody loves a good crash video.

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(10-30-2011 01:50 PM)airwolf Wrote: [ -> ]The boiling water trick really does work.Just have some thick rubber gloves handy because as soon as you pour the water on it you will have to bend back in place and the foam is really hot at this point.You will have to be quick as the foam cools quickly. Good Luck

Thanks, well I woke up this morning and it appears that the EPO foam expanded back into place quite a bit. Now it's only off by about 3mm. But you can still see the wrinkles in the foam and stickers. Started splitting the fuselage to see how bad the motor mount area is. Looks like I am gonna have to do some fabricating and modifying. I am not so concerned with scale appearances outside of the canopy. I bought the thing to be an FPV hotrod and beat on it. Just pisses me off that there are never parts available for it. I'm probably just gonna buy a kit version and use it as a parts plane. But in the mean time I am seriously considering building a Skyfun or a flying wing for FPV. Because I hate that I am limited on landing strips using a scale plane. Have to have a somewhat smooth surface to take off and land. So I am thinking about building a belly lander so I can fly just about anywhere.

Here is my last "flying brick" for FPV. Yesterday was its maiden FPV flight with 5.8Ghz ImmersionRC 600mw + Windmill and Helical antennas, FMA Copilot CDP4, DragonLink LRS on it and 2200mAh 3S Turnigy battery.

I always takeoff with goggles on and into the wind (on a windy day )

(10-30-2011 05:39 PM)schumixmd Wrote: [ -> ]Here is my last "flying brick" for FPV. Yesterday was its maiden FPV flight with 5.8Ghz ImmersionRC 600mw + Windmill and Helical antennas, FMA Copilot CDP4, DragonLink LRS on it and 2200mAh 3S Turnigy battery.

I always takeoff with goggles on and into the wind (on a windy day )

Looks good. Yeah I want a Dragonlink long range system. Maybe after Christmas I will be able to get one.

Yeah I have always taken off with goggles on. But yesterday was my first time with a plane & I screwed up and took off towards myself & ground station thinking I would be able to turn as soon as I left the ground. But once in the air all I could see was clear blue sky. Wife started yelling at me saying I was past the power lines and headed for the highway. I am posting one of the videos from one of the test flights from the same day as the crash. I am uploading the crash video and it should be available soon. Don't know why my goggles would black out but not as bad on my video recorder. Might need to turn up the video amplifier some for the goggles. We also discovered many pieces of crashed airplanes and broken props all over the ground where I recovered my downed plane. My wife is convinced that it is the field and area & I am starting to agree with her. We have FPVed this plane and many helicopters out in the country with no problems. A friend thinks I am picking up on interference from the toll center next to the soccer field I have been testing in. He says they use RF jammers at the toll center to block all other signals other than those of the toll tags and says he thinks that is why I keep having issues there from time to time. When the plane is flying again I am taking it to my normal place out in the country and going to test it there. Wife told me if I try to fly at the soccer field again she is going to do unpleasant things to me.

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Here is one of the test videos from earlier in the day before the crash. Haven't figured out why the goggles black out more than the video recorder. Maybe the drink she threw at my head a while back had something to do with it... Hmmmm

Here's the video of the crash.

Fancy selling an aircraft with no support or back up spares for it, thats lame! Dont buy from them again!


Atleast you get some feedback from your spotter/wife! I ask my wife, 'where abouts am i?' her reply is normaly something like'what, i don't know, i just seen a deer over there' sigh....

Boiling water is a good trick, but dont scald yourself!

(10-31-2011 06:10 AM)Cosha Wrote: [ -> ]Fancy selling an aircraft with no support or back up spares for it, thats lame! Dont buy from them again!


Atleast you get some feedback from your spotter/wife! I ask my wife, 'where abouts am i?' her reply is normaly something like'what, i don't know, i just seen a deer over there' sigh....

Boiling water is a good trick, but dont scald yourself!

Hahahaha I hear you... Man I can picture that in my head. A friend of mine used to take his girlfriend with him and all she would do is paint her nails or text message the whole time. Yes if it wasn't for her paying attention to where my plane was, things would have been much worse. She saw the plane drop down behind the trees so when I ripped the goggles off I had no idea where it was and was trying to fly it by memory of it's last heading. Her screaming at me that it was behind the trees and pointing in that direction is the only reason my plane is fixable. If it wasn't for her paying attention I would have been looking for my plane in the wrong place out over the highway expecting to cause a pile up or something.

So to show her my appreciation for helping prevent a potential freeway disaster, I took care of the kids, cooked all the meals, washed all the dishes and did all the house chores and all she had to do is read her book in bed all weekend. Which she gladly did & she loved it and I think it's me doing things like that, that makes her want to help more and be more involved. But after her seeing all the other broken plane parts where we recovered mine, she has laid down the law and prohibited me from using that field anymore for testing.