P-51 Mustang

Here is a picture of my Top Flite Gold P-51 Mustang .60 size.  I used a SuperTigre G-90 and  JR 4 channel radio on this one.  It took me a year to build this plane, because it was my first attempt at a large scale plane, and only my third plane at that! 

Here are some pictures of the construction process of the Mustang.  The hardest part of building this plane was the make-shift cowl which you have to construct around the engine.  Once you build the top wood cowl around the engine, you have to destroy your work of art if you ever want to get the engine back out.

Wanna hear ironic?  It took me a year to build this plane, and when I finally finished it, I crashed on the fourth flight.  I was coming in hot for a high speed pass over the runway, when just before approach, I got a jitter in the ailerons.  First I thought it was the wind.  Then I got another...A BIG ONE!   The plane immediately dove towards the ground while rolling drastically clockwise at full throttle.  My sticks had no effect on the victim.  Before I knew it, I found myself stunned and just gazing over the bushes to see little particles of balsa and monokote floating back down to the ground after the loud "CRACK" that we all fear so much. Once I had gathered myself and scraped up enough courage to stumble over to what was once a beautiful WWII replica of the most feared warbird of it's time, I found myself disoriented, staring at the blanket of wood chips and shiny plastic covering the ground.  I slowly picked up all the debris, most of it soaked in fuel, and started to stagger back to my car.  It was hot, and the sweat dripped off my face and onto my oil covered hands so tightly grasping the remains of a years work, but I failed to notice.   I was in a daze...lazily muttering something about the possibilities of radio-controlled sprinkler systems that might be in use for the new golf course that was under construction near by. As I sat in my car and took a deep breath, my phone rang.   It was my brother, asking me where the hell I was.  I had to think for a minute...had to get myself together.  After all, this was my WEDDING DAY!

Well, I made it to the church on time, but the moral of the story:   Never try to do too much in one day, because chances are, ONE of them will fail.