Please watch in HD! Thanks again to SN Hobbies for providing the Fw 190
As you can see from the video, the Fw190 handles all the scale maneuvers and is very well mannered in the air. Everyone that flew it said how easy she is to fly. She goes where you point her, handles scale flight with ease and can even bust out a nice knife edge when you want to (but don't tell that to the guys that like to fly scale!)
So it handles well, what about the power system? The first thing that struck me about the Fw190 is that it is NOT overpowered if you know what I mean. I seem to be compelled to hot rod all my planes and this one felt a little slow by comparison. Having said that, it still flies at two to three hundred percent of scale speed and for the many people who fly these scale Warbirds at scale speeds, the power of this Fw190 is not an issue and there is lots to spare.
For scale flying, it gets two thumbs up.
Aside from the landing gear mods I did, the only other mod I would feel necessary to make is to open up some venting to get some air movement across the motor and esc. It's certainly not an issue now that we are getting colder temperatures, but in the summer, or for you lucky folks who get to fly year 'round in warmer climates, I think it could get a little toasty around the motor. Fortunately, it will be an easy matter to get some air going where it needs to go and the mod will be straightforward.
Now, about the retracts. As I mentioned in the Unbox video, if you are lucky enough to fly off of a hard surface, you are good to go with the Fw190 just the way she is and you don't have to do anything.
If however, you fly off longish grass and maybe a field that's a bit bumpy like we do, the stock arrangement isn't going to work. In its stock form, we went 3 for 10 in take offs and 0 for 10 in landings. Most of you will say no kidding when you see how close the gear doors are to the grass/ground with the gear down. Doing something with the gear doors is a no-brainer for fields like ours but I thought we should try it the way she comes out of the box, make the necessary mods and go back to the field to see if the mods worked. I love mods like this because they are free and don't require any parts.
Now for the good news, in about a half hour, I was able to shim the landing gear forward a few degrees (using shims cut from a Popsicle stick), removed the gear doors and took her back to the filed to try it again. This time we went ten for ten in take offs and nine for ten in landings. This was a huge improvement and the plane is now very capable of dealing with our field conditions. After proving that the mods worked, I cut a bit off the bottom of the gear doors and put them back on to hide the spindly looking struts. And now, it's all good.
I have to mention that on one of the rougher landings when one of the wheels dipped into a hole, a landing strut bent just enough that the gear couldn't fully retract because the tire rubbed against the wheel opening. It was easy to bend it back but it seems the struts are quite soft and don't like hard landings.
The verdict: If you like to fly scale warbirds..... get one.
Once again I have to say thanks to Delfin and SN Hobbies for providing the plane, a big thanks to Leigh and Malcolm for flying the plane for me while I attempted to get some video, a big thanks to Dave for taking the awesome still photos that you saw in the intro and of course, I need to thank you for watching. I hope you enjoyed it. Cheers!
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Artist: Chillheimer & Crock
Album: the difference
Song: The Difference
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