Checkmate's Scale R/C Page

April, 2008
The flying season officially started for the Tri-Rivers club on April 10... well, April 9 if you count roling the field. On April 10, 5 of us showed up to complete work on the tractor (belts and such) and then put in some flights. You might also notice that the navigation bar at the top of this page has a link to my F-4 phantom page. Not much there yet, but expect that to change soon. As for the flying season of 2008, I'll have the following available from my stable...
CJM P-51
Airworld Me-262
Top Flight P-39
IMP Fw-190
Skylark 62

selling...
Holman Me-109
Nosen P-51

March, 2008
Well, flying season is approaching, though you wouldn't know it by the weather this month. March has certainly come in like a lion. The TF P-39 is in the final finishing stages and radio re-installation. I've installed my new JR X9303 2.4Ghz radio in it. The programming is very nice. I also installed a small park flyer type receiver in my Zip hlg, which I built (more like assembled) over winter break for the kids. This way I can "burn in " the radio a little before flying the P-39.
In other news... I can see the beginning of my next project taking shape... an F-4 phantom. I've been jumping between an F9F cougar (or perhaps something from TamJets, like an A4) and the F4. I like the cougar because of the "stuff" hanging down on final (gear, speed brakes, flaps, tail hook), it just looks so tough. Trouble is I can't find a suitable size cougar for electric power. Jet Hangar Hobbies is a bit smaller than I like, Tam is still an unknown (due to release this year sometime), Airworld's might be a bit too big (if that's possible in this day and age). Speaking of day and age, Stumax has an excellent 110mm fan that I'd love to install in something (really really REALLY like to install in something). Then there's JHH eTurbax, BVM Viofan, Scheubler as an assortment of sizes, ... and there are others. Lots of choices out there. But back to the F-4... This is one of the few Jets that have always interested me. It has a tough look to it. I've ordered a couple books to be able to check out different schemes and versions plus one "pilots eye" book on the Phantom. Usually when I've chosen a subject I'll start buying lots of books about it (I spent a fortune on the 262 books). That's one indicator that I've made a decision. Give me a few more weeks and I'll probably make a purchase and start a new web page about it. I've also started an excel spreadsheet to compare the various manufactures and prices. At one end of the spectrum is BVM. I'd really like to go that route because it's so darn big (twin 120mm fans, 90 some inches long and a 5 foot wing). However, the cost is astronomical... 2x what I've got in the 262. Century Jet has a big one too, but I'm not sure I want to go there either. Funny, but what's bothering me most about CJ is the one I saw at Toledo over 5 years ago. I was not impressed with the canopy area, and though I know I could build it better, I don't want to mess with stuff like that. I want a high quality kit. Yellow aircraft has one that's a bit smaller, but I've never seen one. The other option is JHH, and I'm leaning there right now. It's smaller, only 1/10th scale (70in long, 44in wing) with a single 120mm fan, but the cost is much better. I've never built a JHH kit, so I'm not sure what to expect there however, Larry Wolfe successfully campaigned one in the 90s so it's got the scale outline nailed. As I get closer I'll give them a call.

February, 2008
Wow, October was my last update??!!? Time flys... There has been a lot of work on airplanes over the last 4 months, I just didn't write about it. The Top Flite P-39 is 90% painted now, and we're covering the P6E Hawk. There is a static display at the local Mall on March 1. After that's done I'll write a bit more... maybe a lot more.

October, 2007
Flying season is wrapping up. Today (Oct. 15th) I test flew the TF P-39 gold edition with electric power (in primer). Perfect test flight. Couldn't have been better. It was only 2.5 minutes long but the batteries and ESC were cool. The plane is not as fast as some glow powered P-39s I've seen but it's fast enough. Most of my cruise will be spent at 3/4 power. This will leave me with the following planes for next year...
CJ P-51 (glow)
Airworld Me262
TF P-39
Skylark
P6E Hawk (winter project)

That's plenty... Guess I'll get serious about selling the Nosen P-51 and also my Holman Me-109.

September, 2007
A quick update for the month. Summer is winding down, though the weather is still nice around here. I've been flying the CJM P-51 a lot. I probably have close to a dozen flights on it now. It's flying nice, no real issues at all. This time of year we seem to start dragging out some old planes from the archives to at least get on flight on the. Today it was the old Royal P-38's turn. Nice flying plane, and those fowler flaps... man it lands slow. Not sure what will be next.
Update Sept. 17th. I put flight number 18 on the Me-262 this morning. The weather was perfect... early fall blue sky, temperature in the 60s, air light with little or no wind. I had one of the best flight I've ever put on the airframe. The take off and landing were very nice. I had the elevator on low rates the entire flight and I think that's just what I needed. No more rocky moments near the ground. Such a nice plane...

August, 2007 ( New link to my CJM P-51D Page )
Recently attended the 2007 Flying Knights Scale Rally in Hamburg NY. My father and I have been attending this rally since the early 80's and have only missed a couple of years. Great flying site, fantastic people. We always enjoy ourselves. I took the 262 (flights 16 and 17 on the airframe) and the CJ P-51. We still suffer engine issues on the 51 so it didn't fly. However, I've removed the spark plug (C&H ignition) from the ST2500 and put a glow plug back in and it's acting much better. The problem we're having is the timing on the ignition system keeps slipping. I need a new tapered collet and thrust washer to fix it. But if the glow version keeps running (and running well) I may just keep it and pull the ignition system off.
The 262 flew great... no issues.

July, 2007
Successful maiden flight on the Century Jet P-51. Not without a few bugs, but it's up and down in one piece. The ST 2500 (with CH ignition) didn't seem to be pulling that well, so the speed was not what I expected. I also broke the cardinal rule about keeping the first flights simple. I retracted the gear, and the valve locking nut had loosened, so the gear didn't make it all the way up, lost all pressure, and stayed there. I also had a few glitches, which I'm hoping was due to the ignition system. I'm going to seperate (move the Rx further away from the ignition battery) the systems more to see if that helps. We'll try again Saturday.

June, 2007
Flight number 14 on the Me262 occurred on June 7. I'm trying to figure out if I'm always this nervous when I fly the 262, or if it's only on the first flight of the year. I checked all the systems, and things looked fine so I had no excuses. The take-off was a bit shaky. It dropped the right wing and it rocked back and forth a couple of times until I settled down. I'm quite sure I rotated a bit too soon and was close to a stall. Anyway, gear up and away we go. I made two "high speed" passes, first time I've opened it up on a low pass (only other times are on take-off and for a loop). It moves right along. We were estimating around 100mph, which is actually too fast for scale. I still need to install the wheel pants too. Landing was about my worst to date (exception was the first landing). It dropped from about 1 foot. Again, I think I was pretty close to stalling and at low speeds the elevator gets pretty soft. No damage, but I'll check it all over before I fly it again. I wonder if I can put 6 more flights on it this year to hit #20.
NEWS FLASH... Flight #15 on June 21. What a way to start the summer !! No real issues with the flight, although the take off was still a little off...

April, 2007
It actually seems that some people visit here... on occasion. I'm still building, and I'll update some of the detailed pages later this month. Most activity has been on my TF gold edition P-39. Going electric on it <G>. Of course, I've had no time to complete the Me262 (just cockpit and wheel pants). It's nothing that keeps it grounded.

November, 2006
It's mid November... I'm late with my updates. Over the next couple of weeks I'll be setting up some new builders diaries for our two main projects this winter. One will be electrifying the F-86. The second project will be building a top flite gold edition P-39 with electric power. I had an opertunity to fly a glow version this fall and it was a very nice flying plane. Looking forward to these two projects.

October, 2006
I'll soon be finishing the final chapter of my Me-262 "part 2" diary. Although I've got some modifications to make this winter, and just plain old finish the details, I think I'm about done with any useful information there. I've had a real rip flying the electrified Skylane 62. Already have 9 flights on it (dispite some questionable weather) and it just keeps getting better. As if that's not enough, my father and I are trying to figure out whether the next big project should be an electric version of palmer's A-20 or if we should electrify my fathers old F-86. The F-86 has never been in the air. I'm not even sure who made the kit originally, though I know it's not BVM or JHH, or anyone like that. It started life with a K&B 6.5 and a kit built fan. Later moved to a viojet fan, if memory serves (though we never tried to fly it). But now... maybe a 120mm electric fan...
And just to give me something to do when I'm bored, I picked up a micro mosquito from Radio Shack. My first helicopter (if it really qualifies as a helo)! So far it's kind of fun. I can hover and fly in a controlled maner most of the time.

September 26, 2006 Quick Update
I thought I'd do a quick update here, as a lot of cool things have been happening. First off, NEAT was a big success. Weather was wet for the early arrivals, but they had the noon demo on Friday and I believe open flying after. Saturday was fine, though there was a lot of overcast during the noon demo, when I flew. Sunday was fine as well. I only flew at noon on Saturday, and I'd like to thank Tom Hunt for all his help. It's a tight fit for the 262 there, and if I stayed low pulling out to the south then the combination of camouflage and the hill was... well... interesting. You can go to my video page and check out the flight. My daughter did her usual great job with the camera. If all goes well, in a few months you might even see the 262 in a magazine or two plus an SKS video ! I was overwhelmed by the interested parties at NEAT. The hospitality was great too. Oh, and by far this is the biggest thing I've been to in many years. The only thing that might come close is the old soaring contest at Harris Hill in the early 70s with maybe 150+ planes (but no vendors). There were over 300 registered pilots at NEAT.
While I'm here, I had a great experience today. We test flew the Skylane 62 (electric conversion). This was from the old kit, not the ARF available now. I wasn't sure it would get off the ground with an AXi 2820/10 on TP 4200 3S2P but it did. It did better when we cut a shorter swath of grass for it on the second flight. I didn't have the timing set to hard (which I now read is preferred for the AXi motors) so tomorrow maybe she'll do a bit better. Still, the last time I flew a Skylane 62 was probably close to 30 years ago and I had such fond memories of that plane. This one is supposed to be for my daughter to learn on, so I have to keep it in one piece.

September, 2006
I've been neglecting updating the site for a while. This update is coming in mid-september. The Hamburg scale rally went well. I got two more flights on the 262 (numbers 11 and 12). We couldn't fly the P-39. It appears to have a leaky retract cylinder and will not hold pressure. We did get one great flight on it (P-39) at our local club fun fly.
I'll be heading to the NEAT fair in two days. I'm really looking forward to that. I'll post some pictures when we get back.

August, 2006
Nothing new in the building arena. I dusted off the Me109 and put two flights on that last month. It's still a nice flying plane. I'll be attending the Hamburg scale rally this month.

News Flash !!! I'm starting to put my R/C videos at morse.nflight.net . Feel free to visit while I'm organizing things. The download is a little slow (and the files quite large), but it's a good start.

July, 2006
A bit of news this month. I've put three more flights on the 262. One at our local field and two at the S.T.A.R.S. scale rally in Olean NY. I've been slowly adding to the flight time, and I've successfully looped a few times (loops easily). Flight number 9 was an interesting one... After about 4-5 minutes in the air I tried to drop the gear and the left main didn't come down. Tried to "shake" it down, cycled the gear... nothing worked. Finally I opted to land it gear up (after some reinforcing conversations with those around me). I've worried about this happening ever since the first flight. After about 8 minutes in the air I finally got it lined up the way I wanted it and in came in and slid on the nacelles like it was designed that way. I guess if I think about that now, since it was originally designed as a no gear glider, it should not surprise me. No damage and flew it again that day. The problem turned out to be one of the wheel pants shifted back (I'm guessing due to flying off grass) and got caught with the wing skin. Also of note, after 8 minutes in the air I still only used 4.1 amps from the 8 amp packs.

June 19, 2006
Quick news update. I finally got the 262 airborne this morning. The temperature wasn't too bad but boy was it humid. Anyway, it was a short but successful flight. I was probably only airborne for 3 minutes... didn't retract the gear, just flew a couple of circuits and landed. No issues! (That makes 7 flights on the airframe). I have video too.

June, 2006
Well, it's June and I was hoping to have the Me 262 in the air again by now. It's ready, but I need to coordinate work and weather.
We finally received the spinner from TruTurn. I'll reserve judgment until I see it on the plane.
I will try to update this page at least once a month through the summer, but don't look for any updates to my "plane specific" pages... Summer is for flying, not writing <G>. Oh, and before I forget, in the most recent issue of Model Aviation (June 2006 issue) in the district II report there is a picture of me and my Me 262. The picture was taken in August of 2005 (at our fun fly) my Gary Fitch (district rep). This was right after my 5th flight and I was very happy! Thanks Gary!

May, 2006 (Active pages... Me-262 A-1a Part 2 )
A couple of things... first off, one of the videos of my Me262 is now available for viewing at Shay R/C. The video is of the third flight, which occurred at the Hamburg (NY) scale rally. Second item... I've had a spinner on order from TruTurn for my fathers P-39 since last fall. Now, the web site makes it sound like a P38 style spinner is an off the shelf part. At least there is no mention of the fact that it's a special order. Well, as is so typical of the R/C industry, It's considered a special order and special orders take a back seat to everything else. Many of my e-mail requests for updates went unanswered, though I now seem to have someone's email address that will respond. But still, it's always "6 weeks away".
Enough of that... good weather has arrived in western NY and I'm flying again. So page updates will be a little scarce for the next few months. I've been "warming up" with my little electric P-38, which is flying well. I should have the Me262 ready to go in a couple of weeks. Actually, it's ready to go now, but I want to check the retracts out a bit more.

April, 2006 (Active pages... Me-262 A-1a Part 2 )
Me 262 in final prep. stage.

March, 2006 (Active pages... Me-262 A-1a Part 2 )
Progress continues on the Me 262.

February, 2006 (Active pages... Me-262 A-1a Part 2 )
There has been progress on the 262 lately, so that thread is worth looking at. For the most part the paint is done and I'm tinkering with things like gear doors and cockpits. I still need to start a page for my Daughters' Skylane 62 (electric powered) and the Century Jet P-51 that only needs to have the radio installed.

January, 2006 (Active pages... Me-262 A-1a Part 2 )
Let's start things up again... I'll be concentrating on the 262 refinish for the next month... probably. Though I did get a new flight pack for the Century Jet P-51, so I'll start getting that together as well. In fact, I don't even have a page set up for that yet... lots to do, lots to do.

December, 2005 (Active pages... Me-262 A-1a Part 2 | Electrified IMP Fw-190 A6 )
This will probably be the only update this month. This time of year is just too busy with family functions, not to mention the end of year crunch at work. Slow but steady progress on the 262. The fuselage is tougher to wet sand than the wing was.
The site that hosted my videos has taken them down, which is a pita. I've got to find a better place to host them.

November, 2005 (Active pages... Me-262 A-1a Part 2 | Electrified IMP Fw-190 A6 )
About the only think I can add right now to the overall modeling situation at home is... leaf raking and general winterization has taken a precedence over all things modeling. A little progress is being made on the 262, but it's slow. I've actually done more to the Skylane 62 that will become a trainer for my kids than I have to the 262. Fall "clean up" is about complete so updates will be coming faster.

October, 2005 (Active pages... Me-262 A-1a Part 2 | Electrified IMP Fw-190 A6 )
The flying season is starting to close down. I'll be ending this season in the same way I started it... flying my little electric P-38. Nice little plane, lots of fun to fly. On the building front, I'm still house cleaning the shop, which is long over due. You will want to keep your eye on the Me-262 part deux diary, as things get moving. I'll also start a new Fw-190 page, if I decide to resurrect that beast. I think I'll also add a page for the little skylane 62 that I'm building as a trainer for my kids. It's funny... when I built my 262 I got everything functioning, then pulled out all the gear for painting. I put all the goodies that came off the plane in a dedicated drawer in the shop. I remember when I stopped the painting process and started putting all the gear back in how good it felt to pull the last item out of the drawer. "Now it's ready to fly". It was a good feeling. Now here I am, opening that drawer again, starting to pull everything out of the 262 so I can strip it and refinish it. Everything back in the drawer. As I look back, it was only a couple of months ago that I put my first flight on it! What a joy that plane has turned out to be, even with only 6 flights on it. I can't think of another plane, in over 30 years of flying, that has been this much fun to own (in such a short time). I was thinking about this last night... what other planes have I had that were like the 262. You know... Impressive on the ground and in the air, yet so simple and easy to fly. Lord knows I've had some great flying planes, and some that never got more than 6 feet off the ground. Sounds like the beginning of a great story here...

September, 2005
I think I've settled on a format for this site. This "front page" will have the general updates and will inform anyone reading it where the project specific updates are. I think I'll be closing out the 262 page (I'll leave it here for reading, but stop updating it) and start a new 262 page for "phase II". There is still a lot that can, and will be done over the winter. I'll also start a new page for electrifing the Fw190. For now I'm in the middle of cleaning up the shop. It's been two years since it had a major cleaning, and it's long over due. Keep checking back here, I'll have updates coming frequently through the fall and winter.

Me-109F