This RC warbird will challenge your scale flying skills ! Giant FMS 1.7 metre P51D Mustang
FMS 1.7m P51 AVAILABLE INTERNATIONAL: https://www.fmshobby.com/products/fms...
FMS 1.7m P51 AVAILABLE IN US: https://shrsl.com/3yh3q
FMS 1.7m P51 AVAILABLE IN UK: https://www.cmldistribution.co.uk/pro...

We use lipo batteries from 4Max in the UK from here:
https://4max.co.uk/batteries.htm

Insta360 GO2 action camera here: https://amzn.to/3Ie8dvB

RADIOMASTER TX16S MK II RADIO/TRANSMITTER AVAILABLE HERE: https://www.radiomasterrc.com/product...
RADIOMASTER BOXER RADIO/TRANSMITTER AVAILABLE HERE: https://www.radiomasterrc.com/product...
BATTERY FOR BOXER RADIO/TRANSMITTER AVAILABLE HERE: https://www.radiomasterrc.com/product...

The first of the giant 1700 series of aircraft from FMS was the fabulous P51 "Red Tail" Mustang. It features good quality scale finishing and best of all requires minimal effort as its simple assembly will have you ready to take to the skies in under an hour.

The airframe features a removable 2 piece wing that is simplistic in attachment and connection, the new FMS 'multipin plugs' mean that the complex wiring is now just a single connection per wing and not the usual plate full of spaghetti normally seen in lesser airframes.

The cockpit is adorned with the full complement of dials and levers and the hand painted pilot finishes the effect. Upfront, the scale shape spinner and reinforced nylon four blade propeller really does give a purposeful look. As you would expect, the huge brushless out runner motor is mated with a top quality ESC enabling stunning flight performance.

Metal gear servos handle all the control surfaces and are fast with great centering performance. The resulting flight performance gives a finesse unseen in a ARTF in this class.

Scale take offs are really enjoyable with this P51. Slowly progress the throttle, concentrate on keeping straight track with the rudder input, and the tail wheel will lift to indicate the need to go to full throttle and the mains will then leave the ground. Keeping my finger on the gear switch to tuck those away as quickly as possible, then make the turn at 50 feet, putting the flaps up half way through the first downwind leg. No trim required so I settled into some low circuits relatively quickly and discovered this P51 flies on rails even without the gyro being switched on! Some slow scale aerobatics followed. Slow rolls do require some rudder and elevator to keep them as axial as possible. A shallow dive to build up speed is needed before pulling a gentle loop. Don't pull too hard on the elevator at the bottom of the loop or you could risk a snap stall. Planning for landing and dropped flaps 1 on the final downwind leg after deploying the landing gear. Turning into wind I dropped flaps 2 but balanced with more power as the drag took affect. Letting the P51 descend with power and flying it to the ground with power all the way...only flaring at the last possible moment and being wary of any slight bounce due to excessive speed. Not a greaser on this occasion but acceptable for the first flight. Using full up elevator while taxiing to keep the tail on the deck and safely back to the pitts for debrief.

The only criticism of this beautiful looking P51 is that it does lack some power to make it look and feel like a real scale Mustang. It has adequate power to fly and perform scale aerobatics but not for the classic fast flybys we expect from this classic warbird. The KV of the motor is appropriate but the propellor is fairly flat. It needs more pitch to grab the air and pull it more aggressively. Having talked to another long term owner, Paul, he had solved the issue by disassembling the hub and using small zip ties to pad the leading edge of each blade to give it more pitch. I will make this modification and refly soon to see if I can get more speed !

00:00 Teaser
00:19 Intro
00:44 Packaging
01:05 Unboxing
03:34 Preflight intro
06:06 First flight
11:16 Thoughts
12:31 Slow mo
13:49 Outro

Filmed by Jason for the 'Essential RC' YouTube channel using the Panasonic AGUX180 4K camcorder. Onboard video captured with the Insta360 GO2 action camera.

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