Monday, September 01, 2008

China Model Productions Me-109 ARF














Simply the best ARF warbird I have ever seen. It's a whole new level for CMP. Quality is top notch. It goes together quickly, but keep in mind that this is a somewhat complicated airplane with lots of features, so you are not going to get it together in two evenings.
The fuse is fiberglass, prepainted. It has a tremendous amount of detail.
The tailwheel is in the scale position, rather than just sitting on the rudder post, and it has a neat linkage to connect to the rudder.
There are multiple scale details on the fuse, such as seperately molded fiberglass exhaust stacks, airscoops, belly pan, and a neat belly tank that uses standoffs for better appearance rather than just being stuck to the bottom of the fuse.

The wings are very cool. There are three servos per wing...flaps, ailerons, and airbrakes. All servos mount from the bottom with the neat CMP servo mounts with fairings, and all hinging and horns are done with hinge points and horny hinge points for better appearance. The airbrakes are very cool, one pops up from the bottom and the other from the top, using a clever provided mechanism.
The plane is set up for retracts, and the retract mounts are hardwood and well-secured. Fixed gear with scale strut covers and gear doors are also included.
The spinner is amazing, about six inch diameter, of scale profile, made just for this model.
The canopy frame is prepainted.
The wingtips have places for lights to be inset, and clear plastic covers are included.
The stabs are airfoiled, and the LE of the elevators is inset into the stabs in a scale manner.
The rudder is built up and fairs neatly into the rudder post.
Soft mounts are included for a glow engine, a neat bonus.
Mine is going to be electric, with a Monster Power 160 motor and two Maxamps 6s 5000 batteries and a Castle Creations 85 controller.
I am beyond pleased, as a matter of fact, I am floored, by the quality and low price...flight report ASAP...
UPDATE:
With the Monster Power 160 and a 17/8 prop, it flies beautifully. Overpowered. Half throttle flies it around fine. It has almost no tendency to tip stall, it slows down really well, it's not intimidating at all. The landing gear has been fine, you can tip it up on the nose or scrape a wingtip if you are not being careful, but that's par for the course for a plane like this, the position the designers found for the gear in the stock position is a great comprimise between good ground handling and scale positioning. It works great.
I am incredibly pleased with this plane in all respects, it's an awesome warbird.

10 comments:

rcpilot said...

It's done, waiting on some weather to fly it.
I used Robart retracts, they are fine. I added the kit strut covers and gear doors to dress the legs up.
This is not a one evening build,as there are a lot of parts and details, but construction goes very smoothly, and quality and fit of parts is excellent.
The speed brakes are VERY cool, there is a very clever two-pushrod mechanism to actuate them, it works perfectly.
I also did not glue the wing halves together, so I can do a two piece wing for transport. I don't think this will be a structural issue in flight, the aluminum spar is plenty strong. I added some wooden blocks and made the belly pan and drop tank assembly removeable to facilitate the two piece wing.
I also put a wooden dowel into the fiberglass elevator pushrod to stiffen it a bit, just made me feel better.
All the hardware in the kit is good stuff, not throwaway bits like so many Chinese kits of the past. CMP is a premium brand nowadays, they know what they are up to. How on earth they offer so much for so little is beyond me.
I see some internet threads about people heavily modifying this plane, primarily to change the LG location...I think the designers knew what they were doing, and reached a good comprimise between scale appearance and actual useful ground handling when they placed the gear on this plane, so I left mine as designed. Keep in mind that the folks over at CMP have designed something like 50-100 planes over the years, they must know SOMETHING! As a matter of fact, the 109 clearly displays they know a heck of a lot, you can tell it was designed by modellers for modellers, there are too many thoughtful touches for this to be the product of some random industrial combine. There are some pictures of the CMP factory over on www.rcfreedom.com, it's very interesting, it's not some sweatshop at all, but rather a clean, bright facility, staffed by people who know what they are doing.
But I am getting off topic here!
Can't wait to fly this puppy. I will be adding a few more details, like a radio mast and guns, but it looks great right out of the box. I've yet to see anything else, ARF-wise, that looks anything like this, the paintwork and detail is really something, particularly at the price.

Anonymous said...

any flight photos?

Anonymous said...

got mine a couple of days ago.this plane checks in at between 1/5 an 1/6 scale.the scale detail is superb with an equal amount of quality to boot.the price for this quality is amazing,and other kit manufacturers should pay careful attention to these guys.going to add a few scale details guns,antennas,swastika to tail.going to run evolution 26cc gasser.anyone considering this kit should go for it,no disapointments.no

Anonymous said...

What ever happened here?
Did the plane fly beautifully?
Was the maiden a successful one?

We are eager to know.

Hector Ortiz said...

Hey guys I'm curious of what the flight time an electric airplane this big might be. Any help?

Guapoman2000 said...

I believe that the person who converted this model say that he had MaxAmps 6S, 5000mAH Li-POLYs. I am sure he means a total of 12S in series and not parallel. The Monster motor delivers 245Kv (245 RPM/VOLT) with a Monster of 5.5 Inch-Oz/AMP and I would not stick my hand in the way of that large 17 X 8 Propeller!
http://www.wonderhobby.com/mo1602mopoou.html

Lets assume it was a 12S Series Setup Total and therefore, you would have at FULL WIDE OPEN THROTTLE:
71 Amps / 2,763 Watts / 74 MPH pitch Speed / 366 oz. Static Thrust (The model is 12lbs.) / 93% Efficiency / 42 Volts to Motor / 4 minutes Full Wide Open Throttle Flying / Perhaps 6 minutes average Throtte. Guapoman2000

Unknown said...

can u post more pics pls 4 this airplane?
and is it fule eng or elect eng?
thnx

Unknown said...

WOW...3 servos evey wing!!
how many servos's 4 the whol plane then???
and how many channel it need?what kind of Radio Systems dos this plane work with??

bigtank120 said...

Beautiful fighter, is a video of the flight?
Andy
Large armour model....
http://bigtank120.blogspot.com/

Unknown said...

I have the same machine. Looks great and flys well. I used a DualSky 6350 2000W motor with a 4000 mA 22.2v 6 cell batter plus a 2 cell 1800 mA fur the radio. I get 5 minutes with time to land. It weighs in at 6.4 kg. what was the weight of your machine with the 12 cell setup? I have 8 servos troddle and battery on an Auroura9. using a power board to combine servos to save slots on the receive .