DeAgostini Spitfire Engine

[Bill Hughes]

Some twenty years ago I left the UK to work for Ghana Airways, and sadly had to give up RC flying. In January 2006 my son reached the age of 14years and gave me the great excuse to resume RC flying. Of course Adam my son, wanted a Spitfire and with his earnings from his paper round decided to buy the De Agostini Spitfire in it's instalment form, whilst I presented him with a Thunder Tiger 40 trainer for his birthday.
Having been out of the hobby for so many years I was very surprised by the excellent quality of the parts and most of the supplied accessories for the Spitfire. I completed a subscription for the rest of the magazine on my son's behalf, mainly to take advantage of the LEO engine offer which ran along with the magazine.
I duly paid my money for the LEO engine last August 2006 and have still yet to receive it. I have phoned the De Agostini helpline on a couple of occasions only to be told "because of demand, the manufacturers are experiencing difficulties in producing so many engines, as soon as they become available again we will mail you your engine"
I visited the Just Engines web site and discovered the same engine quite freely avaliable by mail order from them.
De Agostini were mentioned on a BBC Watchdog episode some time ago, regarding a similar matter to mine, maybe I've become somewhat sceptical in my later years, but I am concerned now as to whether or not I will ever receive the LEO engine. Are any RCM&E readers going through the same problem as I am, or have heard of anyone else in the same predicament? I would appreciate any info or advice other subscribers to this forum could help me out with

[Antony Wright]

my brother asked me to build this plane for him. When he bought it to me he thought he had all 60 parts but on checking we found he was one issue short - part 31. We spent several weeks contacting DeAgostini for a replacement copy only to be told that of all the issues for the plane this one was not available.When we checked what parts were missing we found we could duplicate them from other issues so we contacted them again for the individual items only to be told we could not buy the individual items and would have to buy the complete part issue for the various items needed. I think this came to around 4 or 5 seperate issues. Anyway to cut a long story short we decided to order them. They never arrived. When we double checked with them they had not been sent. My brother got into a conversation with them only to discover that the issue we orignally wanted ahd been available all along. This was finally received after a further couple of weeks.
what we dont understand is why the website clearly stated we could order individual replacement parts but when you try to you are told they dont sell them like that.
Not quite the same proble as you but it does show that they give conflicting information out.
What I want to know is whether or not the publishers of the new partworks for the Bismark is better than DeAgostini have been.

[Bill Hughes]

WONDERS NEVER CEASE!!!!
Today, Thursday 1st March, my LEO engine turned up on my doorstep with the postman.

Not bad DeAgostini, only took you 7 months!

I was impressed, even the exhaust manifold extension, screws and extra gasket were all there. Included was an instruction leaflet and account statement, but strangely no apology for the phenominally late delivery or reason for it.
May be it's coincidence, the engine arriving so soon after I started this string, or could someone from DeAgostini actually be reading this forum???......hmmmmm.
Hope this situation does not arise again for those "Bismarck" builders starting with DeAgostini's newest offer this week

[Antony Wright]

actually the Bismark is by Hachette not DeAgostini - they are the folk who made the triplane recently. So hopefully it will be better supplied.

[nasa_steve]

these magazines that offer things like the spitfire are an extremely expensive and long winded way of buying a model. for instance the Bismark my brother worked out it'll cost you in the region of £500 to build.
the spitfire was probably the worst thing one of these magazines could offer as a build it is most definately not suitable for someone to learn to fly with. i personally think it was darned right irresponsible to market such a thing to what would largely be a public with no previous modelling experience. i just hope nobody is on the receiving end of an out of control spitfire by someone unwittingly trying to fly it in their local park. and if they are i hope they're not killed or seriously wounded it.we can do without any bad publicity

[Brian Young]

I have a spare engine cowl for the DeAgostini Spitfire if anyone's interested?

[Bill Hughes]

My apologies to Hachette. As for Nasa Steve's comment, regarding the Spitfire safety issues, I couldn't agree more, but in fairness to DeAgostini they did emphasise that the Spitfire was not suitable for beginners, and did issue a very comprehensive safety booklet which conformed to BMFA and CAP safety procedures.
On the other hand anyone could walk into a model shop and buy some ARTF ballistic model and attempt to fly it without any prior knowledge of safety regulations and 3rd party insurance so I would not go as far to say that DeAgostini were irresponsible in this case.

[nasa_steve]

thing is though bill you have actually obviously read the magazine and its contents in great detail what concerns me is the people that flicked to the construction side without bothering to read any of the other info involved. prime example is myself i subscribed to the same magazines build your own robot series i don't think i personally read anything other than the build article that month and then only to find out where the next bit went. agreed with the model shop but and i say BUT most model shops if they did'nt know someone as a regular customer would ask a few questions i know i used to as do most if not all the locals down near me. what would the newsagent know about the subject??

nasa

[Pete Gow]

my wife bought the first spitfire issue just for the prop and spinner to go onto another model spitfire that my son was building, but the spinner was consigned to the bin as it was badly out of balance and wouldn't fit together properly, the prop faired a little better with some fine tuning with the old glass paper!

[Stephen Peart]

I have really enjoyed collecting the parts for, and building the de-ag spitfire. It's got me back into aero modelling again after a 30 year break. It's made very clear by De-ag that this is not for beginners and the best course of action is to join a club, and get insured Etc., This must be good for the hobby generally I think.
I agree with Bill Hughes' comments and feel they have been quite responsible in their approach
It got me out learning to fly RC again with an ARTF high wing trainer last summer, and progressing onto a low wing trainer while the parts for the spit arrived. After a slow but intersesting build The Spit took to the air about 6 weeks ago under the careful hands of my instuctor and it flies really well - a great feeling. Yes I know it's cost me more money and it took a long time to collect, but it's meant i've stuck with it rather than the whole thing being a five minuit wonder. I thought it was a very well put together and informative series, and the fact that you actually have to 'build' it rather than it being an ARTF has to be a good thing I feel.
I hope others have enjoyed this collection as much as I have. And no I don't work for or have shares in De-Agostini!

[Antony Wright]

I built the Spitfire for my brother. He didnt really appreciate how difficult it would be to fly, but I did manage to get the message over to him about joining a club and learning to fly properly before attempting to fly the spitfire.
Like you Stephen it got me back into wanting to build again. and I thought it was great for that reason. But as to flying stuff - well a much more sedate Arising Star is what I took to the flying field this week for my first visit to a club. And I thoroghly enjoyed watching my trainer put it through its paces.

[arthur bishop]

'lo lads, interesting stuff on the Spit,I made a modified mk 5 years ago but,being me knowing the 5 was fast low down..dug an unintentional hole filled with my 5,yeah,I know..I am. what I would like to know is,has anybody got a 49" span P60 plan? I bought an old model recently but without engine cowlings and outer wing struts,also what size engine was best? help please,

[nasa_steve]

hi arthur
try posting in the main forum about the P60 plan you might get more help there seeing as not everyone will be reading this thread
regards

[ray bull]

Hi shortfinger, do you still have the cowl for the spit?
Ray

[Selwyn Tree]

Hello SHORTFINGER any chance of contacting me about the spitfire engine cowl you want to get rid of.

[Les Adams]

I got my LEO engine quite promptly through the post. The problems began when I had a good look at it. The build quality is what you might call dubious. I was even able to shake some unwanted swarf through the glow plug hole. I have now replaced the LEO with a RCV 58. Much nicer :-). Sounds better to :-))).

[Dave Harbour]

I may be wrong here but at the time of first being advertised didn't the spit cause a lot of speculation as to its suitability as a first time build, and didnt the BMFA warn de-agostini about this and were duely ignored, therefore the BMFA wanted nothing to do with it?
Also i remember the warnings were in small print at the back of the mag as if an afterthought, also on watching the video most of the club were disgusted at being shown a spit flying straight at the camera and out of the sun!!!!DANGEROUS!!!
As to Bill Hughes coment about anyone walking in off the street and buying a hot missile of the shelf is daft, yes it is possable to dupe the model shop owner, but any self respecting model shop owner would immediately ask if the punter has any experience of flying model aircraft and also what they have flown, how long, record of achevement and wich club they belong to and try to sort the wheat from the chaff so to speak, if not convinced something more suitable is recomended. well thats what our local shops do.

[Mike Bell]

A word of caution to anyone building the DeAgostini Spit, a chap in a local club was asked to test fly one and he reported that although it actually flew pretty well, he suffered aileron flutter. Investigation revealed that the push rods to the ailerons were too thin or not very well supported, or both. He found a similar issue with the elevator push rod too. It would be worth checking yours out by tring to move the surfaces by hand against the servo with the gear switched on. If the surface moves easily you may need to beef the push rod up.

[Steve Cawley]

Anyone still waiting for their DeAgostini Sitfire engine? I completed the actual plane last summer (June)it was then as a subcriber I ordered the engine.I've made at least two phone calls every month since to DeAgostini only to be told they are still waiting to hear from their suppliers In Italy.

[Antony Wright]

sounds to me like they need to get a new supplier - chances are they never considered how many folk would want to actually get one.

[Les Adams]

Mike, a couple of guys, including myself, in our club have found the same problem with the ailerons. What we did was to dump the torque rods and install a servo each side (as suggested as an option in the instructions). With a transmitter programmed to use the two as standard flaperons it worked great. Note the standard transmitter can't do this so you'll have to use a "Y" cable instead. This mod makes the world of difference. Other mods I did was to use a carbon push rod for the elevator and a pull/pull system for the rudder. I then threw away the leo engine and installed an RCV58. The result was a half decent model :-).

[Peter Thompson]

im new to all this modelling, and i live in Australia, hello to everyone.

i started the spitfire parts works and have put together the first 14 issues, i ordered the engine and controller, which took a long time to arrive but it has.

i also ordered and paid for the battery and charger but these items have not arrived ... yet!

my gripe is i have been waiting for back orders for #24 and #47, have made numerous calls to de-ag about this, they say i have to wait for them to find the parts in New Zealand, which is not far away, but its still not this country, where i ordered the parts.

(im not poking fun at New Zealand, its a wonderful place to visit)

was just wandering around the net and found this site. looks good.

Peter

[winchweight]

Hi Peter. Try eBay, incomplete sets turn up daily. You might be lucky.

[Rob Harris]

I also subscribed, When I had completed the build at the back end of last year I phoned for the 'special offer' Leo engine ans was told they were out of stock and would not be getting anymore. 

I'm not too bothered though as it has given me more time to practice with the trainer, get a follow-on black horse Canter and save up for a nice 4-stroke !- It will fly one day!!

Rob.

[Tim Mackey]

Er Les - I am intrigued as to how you can get 2 wing servos connected by a Y lead to function as flaperons! Ailerons YES. Flaps YES.  Flaperons ???