H9 P-51D Mustang ARF Coming Soon!

I'm going to start off this post with a bit of trivia from the Wings Miniature Aircraft Society history books.

I find myself missing flying my model airplanes. Anybody who has read this blog back in November/December 2008 will know the reason why I had to give up my models.  The weather is still windy, but getting warmer here in Lubbock, Texas.  My friends are in the process of getting their models ready for another season of flying.  Some are even upgrading to turbines and I cannot wait until he gets his Jetcat P-160 class turbine and the F-4 Phantom II ARF from Skymasters this summer.  My friend Les has a F-4 from Skymasters done up in USAF Vietnam War era paint scheme.  I can't wait to see both in action.

But today, I saw a ad for Hangar 9's revamped .60 size P-51 Mustang ARF.  Sweeeet!  For this post, lets refer to this new P-51 as version 2.0.  I on the otherhand, had two of the version 1.0 s when they first came out.  The first one I purchased form my local hobby shop (LHS).  I had a Saito .72 four-stroke on it and had over 40 flights on it before I lost it.

The second was a crash/rebuild project that was given to me that I repaired and managed to get one flight on it before my time of finical troubles began.  The throttle rod came loose on the servo and the throttle on the OS 0.91 four-stroke, was struck at about 3/4 throuttle. I had to fly that Mustang for 20 minutes until it ran out of fuel and then I did a beautiful dead-stick landing.  

I love the Hangar 9 warbird ARF series. That version 1.0 Mustang was/is a great flyer! Other friends picked up the F-4U Corsair, the P-40 Warhawk, the F-6F Hellcat. 

Now and then, I think about renewing my AMA membership and club membership - but for what purpose?  I have to start all over again from scratch:  plane, engine, and the new spread spectrum series of radio transmitters.  FM transmitters are going bye-bye now.  No more getting shot down by someone who is on the same frequency turning their transmitters "ON" while you are still flying your model on the same frequency. 

That second H9 P-51, I had stripped down and recovered it and painted a different paint scheme on it.  I also went to the trouble of putting the tail wheel in the scale location. You can go to Wings & Things on West 50th street & Slide Road, Lubbock, Texas, and you can see it and my Top Flite Sea Fury that I sold to the store owner to raise the cash needed to get my RV(i.e future home).  While there, one can get on the computer and play with the Real Flight training software loaded onto the computer that is hooked up to a big screen tv.  

Flying on the computer is ok, but I still want to do it for real.  And that is where this story takes us now. 

Several years ago, we had a young college-age man who I will refer to here as Jim (not his real name), coined a phrase that is still in use by members of that club today to describe their feelings about not being able to get out to go flying. 

That being "RC Horny." 

"RC Horny" - used as phrase to describe someone who loves to fly radio control model airplanes (but can be applied to other radio control hobbies like cars and boats, etc).  The term is applied when a long stretch of time has passed since the last time someone was out enjoying the hobby. Such time periods is different for each individual.  For a kid, that could be measured in a day or two.  Older foks, it can described as weeks between flights. 

And now, we can get to this new (version 2.0) .60-sized P-51D Mustang ARF that will be coming out this summer from Horizon Hobbies (parent company of Hangar 9).  Street price is $319.99 (list is $499.99).  Follow the link to read more about this model ( http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=HAN2420 ). version 1 had a silver body and a yellow tail. Version 2.0 is now finished in the "Cripes A'Mighty 3rd" paint scheme.  The blue spinner, nose, and rudder with the black and white D-Day invasion stripes under the fuselage.  

Seeing the photos in the gallery makes me want this bird even more. The mechanical, all-metal spring loaded strut assemblies (which makes the orignal landing gear on the orignal P-51 ARF was a joke).  But this new version looks much, much better.  I am going to guess that there will be less nose-overs on landing now thanks to this better design.  Working flaps, fully sheeted flying surfaces.  Airfoil tail surfaces on this version as opposed to the flat slab on the orignal that I had.  Scale-shape spinner included!.  Plug-in wings and stablizer/elevator for easy transportation.  A large removable top hatch on the fuselage to get into the interior of the model without having to undo the wings to get inside. Scale machine gun ports and removable scale radio antenna (always getting broke off from hangar rash if the owner was a bit careless in handling it). 

Now the specs for this model are as follows:  wingspan is 65 inches.  length is 57 inches.  Engine size can range from a .60 to 1.00 2-stroke/ .91 to 1.25 4-stroke, or even one of the new gasoline motors in the .20cc class (like the Saito FG-20).  Finally, you could also power this baby with electric.  You would need a 60-amp ESC and a 6s 5000mAh Lipo battery.  Expected flying weight of 9.56 pounds. 

I cannot wait to see this baby out on the flight line in 2009.  Looking forward to it.  Yup.  RC horny time again.