“The build was super easy for this ARF although the wiring from the wing to the receiver in the fuselage is a bit of a mess but nothing unmanageable, I'll need to do some thinking on how to clean it up and make it easier to remove the wing for transport. It's not too bad now but I think it could be better.I knew when I ordered the plane that I wanted to do something different with it, almost every spitfire you see has the British Roundels on in which make sense since it was a British fighter but I wanted something to set my plane apart from the others. I looked at what Callie Graphics had for the Spitfire and found one with U.S. markings which is what I wanted. I started with the base graphics of Maj. Garth Jared's Eleanor; he commanded the 309th Fighter Squadron from November 9th, 1943 until his death in action on April 18th, 1944.I asked Callie for some changes and she was happy to oblige. I changed Eleanor to Terri in honor of my wife for supporting my aviation addiction and putting up with all the planes I have. I changed Maj. Garth Jared's name to my name, I thought about giving myself a promotion to Colonel but the research I did seemed to indicate that very few above Major were flying combat missions, I did find a couple of Lt. Colonels though. I changed his two Nazi kills to three because that's my favorite number and finally the lettering on the side of the plane. The WZ was the squadron identifier, Major Garth's plane was WZ GJ (his initials) so I changed the GJ to DK (my initials). My decals arrived within a few days and looked great; Callie puts out a quality product, if you interested her website is www.callie-graphics.comOn maiden day when I left home there was really no wind, when I got to the field there was a 90 degree crosswind. Anyone who's flown a Spitfire knows they can be a handful in a crosswind with the narrow gear. I waited quite a few hours for the wind to be acceptable for my maiden.I'm running an Admiral 6 cell, 5000mAh, 50C battery pushed all the way forward, I didn't check where the CG was, this is the battery and position that one of the test pilots from Motion was using and he liked how it flew.Takeoffs are pretty straight forward, advance the throttle slow and steady and use right rudder to counteract the torque, a little up elevator and your flying. I didn't notice any bad habits on the three take offs that I had. It's worth a little extra time to get the tail wheel straight when setting up the plane so it'll track straight when taking off and landing.The plane looks beautiful in the air and is a joy to fly. Most of the flights were done at 1/2 throttle which gave it scale looking speeds. Low presentation passes were done at 1/2 and full throttle. The plane tracks nice and straight in big loops and rolls are really nice.I did my landings without flaps and they were a nonevent, on final I was at ¼ throttle, over the runway threshold I cut the power and she settled right in. I'll need to experiment with the landing technique but I suspect with flaps or wind you're going to need to carry a little power in to keep things stable. Once the mains were on the runway the small crosswind caused the left wind to rise thus scraping the right wing on the runway. I think some kind of protection is in order, perhaps some kind of clear tape on the wing tip bottoms to help minimize the scuffing.”
“This is my third plane purchased, along with quite a few other items from Motion RC. Allways a pleasure to do business with. I'm very impressed with flight line products, they've set the bar very high for their new line of warbirds, Very well packaged and scale design, along with easy assembly. As one reviewer said which I also wish is that flight line would produce an ME-109 and FW-190, along with a new designed F4U Corsair and P-51 Mustang in a 1600MM or 1700MM size with the same ease of assembly and scale appearance as they done with the Tiger-cat and Spitfire. The current 1700MM models by FMS has its flaws and should've been upgraded since their introduction well over three years ago. hopefully, Flightline will capitalize on this.”
“Very well packaged, no damage at all. Assembly is fairly straightforward, no real problems... assembly instructions are... not great but adequate, especially if you have already built a few of these foam ARFs. Prop and prop hub assembly are clever, and appears to be very strong. Landing gear are very sturdy. Vinyl decals are very good quality. Excellent size, great presence in the air, not too big, not too small, fits in the back of my crew cab fully assembled, easy to load and unload.I got it this past Tuesday, took my time Tuesday and Wednesday evenings assembling and applying decals, setting throws, etc.I flew it tonight (Thursday) after work... ran two 5000ma batteries through her, 4 takeoffs and 4 full stop landings. I had the battery too far forward at first, set it back about 3/8 and everything seemed to be perfect. Even with the battery too far forward, it was never too difficult to maneuver. This plane flies beautifully, no bad tendencies at all. I had zeroed the control surfaces when I set the throws, and never had to trim after I had set the battery back. Loops, rolls, inverted, everything was smooth and as it should be. I had been waiting patiently since February for this bird.... it was worth the wait. Outstanding value! Buy one, you will enjoy it!We need more of these Motion! An ME109 and/or FW190 would be cool to go with the Spitfire... but... and I know that some people consider it overdone, but I'd love to see a Corsair in this line, and of this quality. I've had the FMS 1700mm Corsair for over 4 years, and it is OK after some experience, but it has issues. If you guys get Flightline to develop a Corsair in the 1600 to 1650mm size, especially the same build quality as this Spitfire, I will definitely buy one!Keep'em coming Motion, good job!”
“First off..let me say I LOVE THE SPITFIRE! And this one is best package I have ever come across. The level of detail is just right. Price point is amazing and the overall quality is excellent. The size is right for transportation and the use of a single 6S pack makes it rip through the air. This bird just does everything right. Flys well off of both pavement and grass but requires the standard Spitty handling...Take off - Flaps on the spit should only ever be used on landing.....slowly get the Spitty moving then briskly move to 3/4 throttle, tail up, let her run a bit then pull smoothly back.Flight- what can I say she flys just like a Spitty should... rolls, loops, inverted..she does it all effortlessly.Landing- I always use full flaps for landing and keep the power on all the way to touch down. The Spit remains very stable and you can control your landing approach easily with only throttle. Once she is about a foot off the ground I pull a little elevator and settle her in on the mains. Let her run a bit until the tail starts to settle down then slowly apply full up elevator to keep the tail down - this works well on pavement too as it gives you immediate control on the tail wheel. Keep the Spit tracking straight until the speed is bled off or the famous wing tip Spit scrape will happen.She is an awesome bird.....I like it so much....I bought another!”
“I'm a life-long model builder who has won a number of times at Toledo and had some articles published in Model Aviation. I have not been a fan of ARF's and have been slow to use electrics. The Flightline 1600 mm Spitfire has certainly changed my mind about ARF's which I have mostly been dis-satisfied with in the past. It is very well engineered, the production work is excellent, everything fits and it is a beautiful model of one of the most beautiful aircraft ever. My only complaint is that the upper part of the rudder(the balance) was bonded to the fin with excess paint which I did not detect until I was trying to move the rudder to set up the controls. This caused some damage to the rudder material. The instructions are a little confusing, especially with some poor Chinese to English translation, but thought and common sense will win the day. I was especially impressed with the engineering and fit of the four blade prop and spinner. I've built a scale Spitfire in the past and I could not produce something similar to this for less than three times the cost. Have not flown it yet, but may return to report. Expect to use 6,000 mah battery for longer flight times.”
“As always great service from MRC , Unboxing found all components well packaged and not a scratch or blemish anywhere. Finished quality is second to none and I look forward to putting this beauty together and getting it airborne.Thanks again MotionRC.”
