hangar 9P51 PTS Anybody have one?

The H9 P51 PTS just shipped to hobby stores late last week. It might be a few days before any actual user reports start to trickle in.

Gig, At the field yesterday there were three of them flying. All of them did great and the pilots/instructors were very happy with them. Two of the guys were beginners being trained, and one had bought it for his second plane. IMHO, it is VERY impressive, very nice flier.

Bill Davenport AMA 28141

Gig wrote:

I've been training a friend on a GP Trainer 60. After 4-5 flights on his Trainer 60, he ran out and bought the H9 P51 pts. I test flew it for him and after one trim flight I took it back up and handed it to him. After flying it in the air for only for 3 flights, he soloed it. I was reluctant but he insisted and since it was his airplane and he was willing to pick up the pieces...well , what could I say , his aircraft. He did a good job though.

He bought this aircraft this past Wednesday. When we opened the box we were greeted with a completely assembled , except tail feathers , beautiful P51. It included a JR 5 channel computer radio , can't remember the model right now. Servos , battery pack and switch harness were already installed. We finished the assembly at the field while the batteries were charging...no joke, that quick. Not even a decal to put on. The tail feathers were all we needed to install to have it ready for flight. These were a snap to install. Two long bolts from the bottom of the tail feathers inserted into pre-drilled holes in the fuse. We installed 2 nuts coated with the included thread locker and we were done. Now , just wait for the batteries to charge. It really is 'ready to go'. It has an Evolution which starts easily with one flip and idles and runs reliably. No flames outs during any flight. They say it's already broken in and it acted like it was.

The things that make it a trainer....I call it a Warbird trainer , not a first trainer , although it does fly easy....are the following: Semi-symetrical airfoil , NACA droops , landing gear that sets farther forward than scale, and flaps. The flaps are not hooked up when you get them...no servo. The idea here is to lock the flaps down with a bolt through the linkage and make them functional at a later time. No real problem with leaving them down other than a few clicks of down trim. I flew it the first 3 times with the flaps up. Slowly advanced the throttle while holding up elevator...which I found is not necessary since the gear sets so far forward. This keeps the tail from raising too soon. When the tail finally lifted after quite a long roll it patted the ground a few times and took to the air. Sorry to say that the Evolution , although easy starting and realiabe is certainly no powerhouse and this forced me to make a scale like climbout. That looks better anyway. I would imagine that changing the 3 bladed prop to a 2 blade may help. I don't even know pitch the prop is as we couldn't find any markings on it.

The aircraft has an odd little pull to it on takeoff that I really don't understand. After the initial left torque and after easing off right rudder it rolls a ways and then pulls left again. Not real bad but it doesn't look good. After 2 flights I was ready for it and kept it reasonably straight. Maybe the stretched gear.

In the air this P51 is really a tame bird. After trimming , which was only a few clicks down and a couple left aileron it flew like a trainer. I slowed it down as slow as it would fly while gradually applying up elevator......very slow ......then full up elevator and it stalled so softly.... just dropped the nose straight forward and started flying again. No tendancy to drop a wingtip at all. Spins are so tame its really hard to get it in one with the control throws from the dealer. Rolls were slow but fairly clean if you followed then through with rudder and elevator. Inverted flight was a piece of cake. Hardly any down at all required. I think with the throws cranked up this can be a very interesting aircraft.

Landing was pretty uneventful. Just line up , keep a little power and contol your descent with throttle. It really likes to keep flying so it's very easy to pop it back up with the elevator right before it hits the ground. This was what the owner of the plane had more trouble with than anything. After I showed him how to use the throttle instead of the elevator , he done very well. I even had him using the rudder the last couple times to keep lined up , although using ailerons is OK since it has no tip stall tendencies at all .

This is a beautiful aircraft , with an exceptional Ultracote covering job. I don't think anyone can go wrong on this one for $399.00

Ken Day

I think the pitch is a 4. I like the look of the three blad prop and if I get one of those I would like to look for another three-blade with more pitch and maybe an inch more diameter that would still fit in the same nose cone. The engine probably has the power but the prop keeps it from showing it.

The 3-bladed training prop is a 10.5x4 designed to be intentonally slow

Going with a little bigger APC prop or a good eprformance 2 blaed pro would really make a big difference.

My bird has the same left runing tendency on ground rolls. It too some getting used to.

Also, double check the wheel collars. Might right main wheel fell of during intiial taxi runs. I found one more lose after that

-- RL

----------------------------------------------------------------------- RLM's Profile:

Been flying the regular version of the P-51 Hangar 9 for about four months, I'am been flying for nine years now and the Hangar 9 Mustang I have flies great, it's scale type flight, but easy to fly with no bad tendencies. It will fly slow also, but you have to give a little up elevator to keep the nose up. If mine flies this easy, I'am sure the one with the trainer package would be very simple to fly. Landing on mine is better if you come in on the mains, and roll down before you set the tail wheel down, take offs are a breeze, just make sure the speed is up before take off.

I have one of the p51 PTS from hangar 9. I am new to the hobby and have really enjoyed learning on the plane. The engine runs great right out of the box and my flight instructor says that it is a very stable trainer. I would definately recommend purchasing one of these aircraft. _________________________________________________________^M Posted via MilitaryForums.com