Flyzone’s P-38
Micro twin warbird fun with a new“Fork-Tailed Devil” P-38!
By Frank Fanelli PHOTOGRAPHY: FRANK FANELLI H 56
ave to admit that the P-38 Light- ning is an intriguing airplane, even though it never seemed to garner the acclaim of other WW II
fighters like the Mustang and the Thunder- bolt. Even so it was the airplane that Richard Bong flew to the highest number of American aerial victories (40) in WW II. Its twin engines and twin tail booms have always attracted modelers but that twin en- gine phobia kept it from being modeled very much. And then there were the myths about the real plane’s poor handling qualities even though Jimmy Doolittle announced that it was the “sweetest flying plane in the sky”. So, here it is as an electric powered model. The wonderful reliability of e-power has tak- en away almost all of that engine-out fear a twin can engender. But it’s still a micro model with a span of only 21 inches and that tapered wing brings up another one of those
modeling phobias attached to such a wing: very sensitive and tricky handling. Well, that myth could only be determined after flying the plane, indoors and out. But first let’s take a look and see what you get with this molded foam plane. There are two versions of it, the RTF (Ready to Fly) that comes with a small Tactic 402 4-chan- nel transmitter and the Tx-R (Transmitter ready). The latter version requires an SLT (Secure Link Technology) transmitter like the Tactic 650, or a transmitter that can be mated with Tactic’s AnyLink radio adapter. By the way, a new version of the AnyLink is just coming out and among the new AnyLink 2 features are its own power source (a small Li-Po) and some revised cabling to make transmitter hookup easier. FM got the Tx-R version which includes the cordless battery charger for the included 250 mAh single cell (3.7 V) Li-Po that pow-
AT A GLANCE Type:
Construction: Wing span: Airfoil: Length: Weight: Radio:
Manufacturer:
R/C micro scale foam
21 inches
undercambered 16 inches
68–74 grams Tactic TTX 650 Flyzone
Dist. by: Hobbico P.O. Box 9021, Champaign, IL 61826 217-398-3630
www.flyzoneplanes.com FEBRUARY 2014
Lightning
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