RE: P-40 Brotherhood (All P-40's Welcome)
I'd like to join. I've always liked P-40's. I currently have a Top Flite Giant Scale with a DA 50 that I have been flying on and off for the past 18 months. It's easy enough to handle in the air, but a bit of a handful on the ground. Greg
Posted on: 9/3/2012 12:54 PM by Author "gsmarino2000" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11215922

RE: Redundant RX packs are they overkill?
You do need to have something, because just tying two packs together gives the opportunity for a dead or shorted pack to bring down the plane. I use JR PowerSafe recievers in my gas planes. They are built to handle redundant batteries and have a diode "or" function to keep a dead or shorted pack from killing the good pack. There are a number of other options - Fromeco, Powerbox, Smart Fly PowerExpander, etc.
Posted on: 8/5/2012 5:16 PM by Author "gsmarino2000" in the forum "RC Jets"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11182164

RE: 60 size ARF
Don't know about being bored with a stick. I've been flying for many years, 35% IMAC, 50cc warbirds, helis, etc. I have an Ultra Stick 40 and I still enjoy flying it. It's a great "kick around" plane. A lot of fun, doesn't cost 3 grand, is easy to fly in the wind. I'm comfortable flying it in club "fun fly" events. I've flown both Ultra Sticks and a Big Stick. I prefer the Ultra Stick because of the crow option. Otherwise, I thought they were pretty similar flying planes. I think either one would make a great second plane. Greg
Posted on: 7/28/2012 6:29 PM by Author "gsmarino2000" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11172682

RE: Minimum power for a 9# plane
I fly the H9 Spitfire wtih a Saito 100 and an MA 14-8 K-series prop. 20/20 fuel at 5000 ft field altutude. This set up provides plenty of power of any kind of scale flight. I'm not a big fan of MA but they look much better than APC on the warbirds. Greg
Posted on: 6/28/2012 8:00 PM by Author "gsmarino2000" in the forum "Questions and Answers"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11135906

RE: JR11X is dead
This is a well known problem. Just make sure your charger is powered off when you plug or unplug it from your 11X and it shouldn't happen again. I carry a spare fuse just in case, though. Greg
Posted on: 6/23/2012 7:36 PM by Author "gsmarino2000" in the forum "JR Radio & Spektrum Radios"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11129289

RE: I Have a New Respect for Turbine Engines
bevar, That's an interesting picture they way the debris are laying in the mixer. Looks like a classic contained failure. In the industrical turbine world they refer to it as "shelling out" the turbine. Greg
Posted on: 6/18/2012 6:02 PM by Author "gsmarino2000" in the forum "RC Jets"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11122996

RE: Lost a plane today
Okay guys, 1/7th scale P-51, 8 servos. Control surfaces Hitec HS-525, throttle HS-522, not sure on the flaps. Robart mechanical retracts with JR 721. Battery Sanyo 1650mAh 4-cell 4.8V NIMH, receiver JR 921. Assembled the plane inverted on a stand. Battery was flown out 2 days ago and has not been reharged. Checked with Futaba BR-2000 at 1 A loading, reads 4.6V in "warning" zone on display (note that I would never fly in this condition). I exercised the servos for approx 10 mintes stalling various servos and operating everything at once on high rates trying to induce a brown out - nothing. Now bat reads 4.4 V @ 1A in the "Danger" zone on display. I clamped both ailerons and the elevator with quick clamps and foam sheets. With the three HS-525 servos stalled, I also simultaneously operated the gear and flaps - nothing. No brown outs, no evidence of problems. I removed the wing looking for any alarm codes on the receiver. Nothing. I believe that the HS-525 stall current is approx. 440mA at 4.8V, no load is 150mA. Total load on the battery with gear cycling, etc. was probably around 2A. End voltage of the battery checked with the BR-2000 was 4.2V @1A, 3.4V at 2A. That's as much as I care to abuse my servos. Sorry guys, but I believe this test is more severe than the plane will ever see in real life. I started with a lower voltage than I would ever start a flight, ran the equivalent of at least 1 more flight with excessive load, and then simultaneously stalled 3 servos with no problems. You may think I'm foolish but I don't have any plans to change out my 4.8V packs on these 60-size planes. Greg
Posted on: 4/23/2012 9:23 PM by Author "gsmarino2000" in the forum "JR Radio & Spektrum Radios"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11054446

RE: Lost a plane today
Sorry, but I don't buy that this is a simple brown out situation caused only by the choice of a 4.8V Rx battery. There are just too many people (myself included) who fly more complex, higher current draw planes successfully on 4.8V with JR/Spektrum. I have run current draw tests on my larger gas planes but never on my smaller glow planes ... but I will set it up before my next flight. I am also going to see if I can stall 2 or servos at once and cause a brown out. I think all of my JR and Spektrum Rx's are the newer fast recovery versions, but if I can induce a brown that way I'll be curious to see how fast it recovers. Greg
Posted on: 4/23/2012 6:27 PM by Author "gsmarino2000" in the forum "JR Radio & Spektrum Radios"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11054246

RE: Lost a plane today
Wow, not to use 4.8V with 2.4 is news to me. I have three older planes with 4.8V Rx batteries. Two of them are 60-size warbirds which use JR retract servos that are only rated for 4.8V. These are fairly complex planes tht use 7 or 8 channels for flaps, retracts, etc. Quite a few flights, never a brown out or any other sign of problems. One spectrum and two JR receivers. These planes have fairly good size NIMH packs (~2100mAh) that have been well taken care of, but the packs are 3 - 5 years old. I had one of the mechanical retracts bind up last month (worn out Robarts) and it did not cause a brown out (and least nothing I noticed flying the plane). Greg
Posted on: 4/22/2012 4:54 PM by Author "gsmarino2000" in the forum "JR Radio & Spektrum Radios"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11052698

RE: New 6, 8, and 11 ch. JR radios announced - DMSS technology
I've been using the 11X and DSMX for about 5 months now (replacing Futaba 72Mhz and Spectrum DX7) and I am happy with the JR/Spektrum combination. One of the main reasons that I went with JR instead of Futaba to begin wtih was the fact that in addtion to my larger planes, I enjoy buying new BNF planes and helis now and then. I'm happy with the signal integrity performance of DSMX, and the remote receivers are a very minor nuciance as far as I'm concerned. Only thing I may miss at some point is telemetry - especially battery voltage on electric heli's and EDF's - but I'll live without it for a while. Greg
Posted on: 4/16/2012 7:58 PM by Author "gsmarino2000" in the forum "RC Radios, Transmitters, Receivers, Servos, gyros"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11045068

RE: mCP X Begginer problems.
I agree with the bigger helis comment. I picked up a Blade 450 BNF Basic in December and I love it. It's not flybarless but it is a smooth and stable as long as you set up the right rates and expos. Easier to fly than either my mCP X or SR and you can fly it in the wind once you know what you are doing. Of course, if you are going to crash, the mCP X will save you a lot of money. Bigger helis, if the blades hit anything but air it's going to cost you $$ Greg
Posted on: 2/11/2012 11:40 AM by Author "gsmarino2000" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10954363

RE: JR 11x and Trex 450 set up
R/C Foolish, Can't help you specifically with the TREX 450 (I fly a Blade 450). I am curious though, as a fellow 11X user, what happened to your board to cause it to "fry"? Thanks, Greg
Posted on: 2/5/2012 9:17 PM by Author "gsmarino2000" in the forum "JR Radio & Spektrum Radios"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10945904

RE: MSR batteries dead?
Lithium batteries will be ruined if they are discharged below the cut-off voltage. If you keep flying after the low voltage warning (flashing LED) occurs, it will damage the battery. Or did you leave the battery plugged into something which could gradually discharge the battery? Some of the eflite chargers will do that if they are unplugged from the wall and the battery is left plugged into the charger. Hobbyking has good, cheap batteries. I am using their Nano cells in both my mSR and my mCPx and I get better performance than with the stock eflite batteries. Greg
Posted on: 1/18/2012 7:06 PM by Author "gsmarino2000" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10916149

RE: New Radio what to choose??
I chose the JR 11X over the Futaba 12FG. I am very happy with my choice. Not a brand thing ... when I really got into the details and was able to play with both radios, there are a lot of things that I like better about the 11X and it's $250 cheaper to boot. Also, I fly a lot of the Horizon Hobby BNF stuff (Habu, various Blade helis) which are all DSM2. I wanted a good radio that would fly both my high end and low end stuff. From a signal integrity standpoint, I like DSMX fine (as opposed to DSM2) so I used all DSMX to convert my warbirds and gas planes from 72Mhz. Satelite receivers are a bit of a nuciance, but they work fine. If you don't need the high end features, either the Futaba 8FG or the Spectrum DX-8 would be great. Greg
Posted on: 12/29/2011 5:59 PM by Author "gsmarino2000" in the forum "RC Jets"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10882092

RE: I need to build an ugly jet
It's an PZL M-15 Belphegor (the name means demon in Polish). It was a Polish design for a Soviet requirement for a jet powered agricultural aircraft. One of the slowest pure jets on the books as well. If you are every in Poland, go see the Muzeum Lotnictwa Polskigo in Krakow. It's one of the most interesting aviation museums I have seen - tons of old Warsaw-pact designs including Migs from 15 to 25, and a huge collection of engines. Also a M-15 Belphegor [:D]. Greg
Posted on: 12/3/2011 5:15 PM by Author "gsmarino2000" in the forum "RC Jets"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10841901

RE: When's the 12X replacement coming?
Just curious ... why no mention of the 11X? I realize that that it's styling is a bit ah ... controversial, but the ergonomics are really good, and it's modern, with a bigger backlit screen. Full switch assignability, throttle stick timers and servo matching. Not a high end radio but it seems like a very competitive mid range radio. Greg
Posted on: 12/2/2011 2:00 PM by Author "gsmarino2000" in the forum "RC Jets"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10840216

RE: contol rods
Scale, At least in larger planes, the issue is not what all-thread looks like - in longer lengths the all thread isn't ridgid enough in compression. The aluminum tube and CF tube methods mentioned above solve that issue. The turnbuckles work very well also. Greg
Posted on: 10/2/2011 4:36 PM by Author "gsmarino2000" in the forum "Kit Building"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10745387

RE: MSR or 120sr?
I'd recommend the mSR if you are primarily going to fly indoors. It's a lot of fun indoors, but not so much outside if there is much of a breeze. I also have an mCPX and an SR. If you are ready to try collective pitch (it's a big step from fixed pitch), I think the mCPX is a better choice for learning than the SR ... still a big step, but it doesn't get damaged every single time you make a mistake. And even when you do damage something, repairs are cheap. The SR is kind of twitchy, really easy to damage and IMHO not all that easy to learn on. If you want something bigger than an mCPX for outdoor flying, people are saying that the 450 is a better choice. Of course it's also twice the price. Greg
Posted on: 10/1/2011 6:34 PM by Author "gsmarino2000" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10744198

RE: Blade mSR
I have a mSR as my first heli. It's pretty stable, and you can set it up with higher rates and a different set up on the swashplate when you are ready for more advanced manuverability. I avoided a coaxial copter after flying them on the simulator - thought that I would get board pretty fast. There are some nice 3rd party upgrades available for the mSR as well. Greg
Posted on: 7/16/2011 3:39 PM by Author "gsmarino2000" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10624221

RE: Blade mCPx or 120 ?
Deleted. Posted to the wrong thread. Greg
Posted on: 7/16/2011 3:28 PM by Author "gsmarino2000" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10623368

RE: Hangar 9 60 Size Corsair...Where's The Glue?
Oh, come on. I'm sorry for your loss, and it would frustrate anyone. On the other hand, I've had many H9 ARF's, including the P51-60 and Spitfire 60, and I have never had a structural failure on one. I do reinforce firewalls and wing joints during the assmbly process, but I do that with any ARF and some kits I have built. I've also known H9 to replace ARF's when there are known and recognized manufacturing faults (a friend's Funtana 90, for example). I don't see H9 as being any worse than TF or any other company that markets Chinese made ARF's. Greg
Posted on: 3/27/2011 4:59 PM by Author "gsmarino2000" in the forum "Crash & Rebuild"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10426757

RE: NEW Top Flight P-40??? 1/5 scale
I used the screws as recommended (I don't want to glue them on because of access to the Robarts). The screws are holding okay so far but I'm worried about the overall durability of the thin fiberglass. Greg
Posted on: 1/26/2011 9:32 PM by Author "gsmarino2000" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10291887

RE: NEW Top Flight P-40??? 1/5 scale
[quote]ORIGINAL: youngguy I had at least 1/4'' gap on mine. Made new flaps using ply and carbon laminate and used the orignal rib structure. [/quote] Don't know how you would get that large a gap with a Slimline muffler ... could our geometry really be that different? I'd looked at my flaps last night and they are worse again - near 1/4" gap on the left side. Ribs have seperated from the sheeting in one area. Looks like I am going to have to rework them. I'd be interested to learn more about your carbon laminate method. Do you mean a carbon / ply laminate? How thick was it and who makes it? Thanks for the help, Greg
Posted on: 1/20/2011 6:19 PM by Author "gsmarino2000" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10277173

RE: NEW Top Flight P-40??? 1/5 scale
A couple of times I have seen it stated that you need to make cut outs on the side for the slimline muffler. I switched from the socket-head capscrews to pan head screws. That gives me about .08" clearance with the front screw; no cuts except to the bottom of the cowl. My flap fit is not perfect (about 1/8" gap in the center) but I'm going to live with it. I installed the stock (non-retractable) tailwheel as the robart unit is still on backorder. Greg
Posted on: 1/16/2011 6:11 PM by Author "gsmarino2000" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10268534

RE: TopFlite GS P-40
I just realized that I put this in a short thread and not one of the main threads where I intended. Thanks for the suggestions. I am hoping to avoid recovering or a complete re-build. I've gotten it down to about 3/16" by bending it opposite and re-shrinking the covering. I think that is the best I can do ... we will see if it stays. Thanks, Greg
Posted on: 12/29/2010 6:13 PM by Author "gsmarino2000" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10226231

RE: TopFlite GS P-40
All, I'm building my GS P-40 now, and other than a damaged canopy (which Top Flite replaced), it's going to gether great. Now I notice that the RH flap has started warping pretty severely at the trailing edge - unfortunately in the opposite direction that I could correct with the shrink film. I've searched for this problem and found comments about other warbirds with split flaps but nothing that tells me how serious this really is. All of my previous warbirds have been 60-size and my other giant scale planes are IMAC. The max gap in the warped right flap is about 3/8". You would not want this on an IMAC plane, but it seems like it could just be trimmed out on a warbird. Can some of you with more GS warbird experience tell me how much this is going to affect flight performance? Thanks for the help, Greg
Posted on: 12/28/2010 8:00 AM by Author "gsmarino2000" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10222650

RE: 2.4 Glitches - It Does Happen!
Just curious ... seems like all the posts assume that the RF noise from the magneto ignition is interfering with the 2.4Ghz transmission signal and causing the glitching. Any reason to assume this as opposed to the noise getting into the receiver circuits through other means? Either directly from the RF or conducted up the throttle servo wires? The original description indicates that all the servos were all glitching at once, which I find surprising if it was transmission interferance. I'm not an expert in the SS communication protocols, but I almost all protocols include error detection and rejection schemes. Greg
Posted on: 6/9/2010 9:30 PM by Author "gsmarino2000" in the forum "RC Radios, Transmitters, Receivers, Servos, gyros"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9792963

RE: DA 50 crank bearing went off in flight.
Joeairport, I put over 300 flights on my DA50 with Amsoil Sabre mixed 60:1. Still runs like new, good compression, piston and cylinder walls looked good last time I had the muffler off. I am not trying to push anyone to use Sabre, I'm just saying that it did fine for me. I've switched to Penzoil Air Cooled now because that's what I am running in my BME 110 (I don't want to run synthetics in that engine due to cooling issues) and I got tired of carrying two cans to the field. Greg
Posted on: 5/28/2009 12:36 AM by Author "gsmarino2000" in the forum "Gas Engines"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=8804860

RE: STUKA - Enya 60 replacement - Saito 82a?
I knew that I was going to get a reaction from my comment about 4 strokes. All else being equal the 2 strokes do make more raw power for displacement than a normally asperated 4-stroke. It's just that the difference between a typical two stroke and a modern Saito or OS 4-stroke is not as much as some people think it is. And the YS four strokes make amazing amounts of power (admittedly on expensive fuel). It all depends on a person's preference and the application. I own both 2 and 4 strokes, but for 60-size warbirds I like the Saito 91 - 115 four strokes. Better sound, better throttle response and I just like the way the plane flies better. For maximum speed in my F16 prop-jet I use a 2-stroke. Greg
Posted on: 4/25/2009 12:39 AM by Author "gsmarino2000" in the forum "Glow Engines"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=8713274

RE: STUKA - Enya 60 replacement - Saito 82a?
wfmnut, The Saito 82 is a strong engine and is compact to fit in a tight cowl. Very much like the 72 but with signifcantly more power. I have 2 "60-size" warbirds and I fly both with Saito 100's. At my 5000 ft altitude the 82 might be a bit small. The 100 with a 14 x 8 prop pulls the planes well above scale speed and has enough extra power to get you out of trouble - even at my altitude. I'm sure that I will get some flack for saying this, but generally speaking a Saito 91 or 100 will pull a 60 size warbird along much better than a 60 size 2-stroke. Thanks, Greg
Posted on: 4/19/2009 11:04 PM by Author "gsmarino2000" in the forum "Glow Engines"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=8697317