Parkzone P-51

P-51:

Being a big fan of the Parkzone line-up of war birds, getting the P-51 Mustang was an easy choice.

I was a little disappointed in its smaller size, feeling it would have been a better choice for the company to keep every war bird close to the same wingspan / scale as the T-28. But, the P-51 does fly very nicely and it's slightly smaller size comes in handy when transporting.

In the stock configuration, this 'Bird flies nicely, but I personally felt it needed a little help. The power is good enough to have fun, but not outstanding. And, a P-51 should be outstanding to fly! So, I traded out the stock ESC for a Castle Creations Phoenix 45, and the stock 3 cell Lipo for a Thunder Power 1800 4 cell LiPo. I also switched out the stock prop for a T-28 prop and adaptor, this choice works really well.

While making these upgrades, I also rebalanced the C.G. of the plane as they seem to come nose heavy from the factory. This in itself really helped the plane fly much better and I highly recommended doing this. Just a word of advice, make sure you balance out close to the suggested range, do not make the plane tail heavy!

With the 4 cell upgrade the plane is truly outstanding to fly, much like a P-51 should. Well, maybe even a little better than the full scale plane, as now it will pull the nose vertical and head right out of sight without slowing down! With the C.G. balanced out properly, the plane lands much easier and shows only a little speed gain during landing for the extra battery weight.

I fly this plane without the rudder upgrade and enjoy it just fine. I prefer not to do serious aerobatics with war birds anyway, it's just not what they were/are meant for. Preferring instead a smooth style of flying with plenty of low, high speed passes down on the deck. The rudder is only missed when pulling vertical on a windy day, having a rudder would help the plane track striaght when the nose is pointed towards the sky!

As you can see by the pictures, this warbird looks great in the air. With some tweaks this is a great airplane to own and fly.

I recommend the Parkzone P-51 Mustang to an intermediate/advanced pilot. Although not particularly hard to fly, this is not a trainer plane.