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PT19 Maiden- At last


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My boys bought me a Fairchild PT19 2 xmas`s ago and it finally flew today. I`ve added a bit more scale detail than the standard kit and was quite proud of how it looked. However, I only past my A 18 months ago and hadn`t flown anything remotely scale before so I was a bit cautios and took small steps to work my self up to it. Low wing trainer, citabria, an old battered Texan T6 ( so I wouldn`t be to upset if it broke) and then finally my new favourite plane the PT19 laugh

In the end it seemed quite easy to fly. I dont know whether that was because my cautios approach was paying off or that the plane is inherently easy to fly. Proabably a bit of both.

It only a needed a little bit of left trim and both landings were greasers. All though taxying across the patch was difficult. It is prone to nosing over. I might put slightly bigger wheels on to help that.

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  • 2 months later...

Glad to hear that !

Interesting that you say it's a bit prone to nosing over. I have flown my Seagull PT-19 three times from our smooth strip without that problem, but landing with about 60º flap I had a gentle porpoising in pitch which made me think my CG was a bit too far aft. Especially as it sagged into a lazy wing drop at a couple of feet , and crunched a wing tip.

If your CG is a bit far forward, keep it there, and taxi slowly with the elevator full up ! thumbs up

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Ouch! I haven`t found the need for flaps. I do use full up elevator as you suggest but our grass strip is a bit lumpy so I raked the u/c a few degrees further forward and its helped with the nose over problem. I must say it flies very well. Its very stable. thumbs up

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I see from your photos that we do not have the same PT-19. Mine is below, and is the Seagull i/c 80" ARTF.

The ridiculous pilot figures supplied went straight in the bin, the u/c fairings are paper thin and need beefing up, as does the exhaust moulding. The cockpit instrument panel suppled would be more at home in Space Shuttle , but all things considered it is pretty good for an ARTF .

So far I've looped it , and rolled it, not yet spun it , but will next time out. Deploying the flaps at height , and slowed down, gave a slight nose down trim change which on trimming for ' hands-off ' did make it more unstable for and aft. I should have landed it flapless and added more nose-weight for the next outing, which I think will cure the porpoising at low speed. Hind-sight !

Happy landings !

pt 19 25may12 029a.jpg pt -19.1.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ref Liam's query regarding solo pilots in front or rear seat : Generally bi-planes are flown from the rear seat solo to get the CG in the right area. Monoplanes do not seem to be so critical : I have seen photos of Miles Magisters being flown solo from the front, and the back.

I have only seen web-pics of PT-19s being flown solo from the front.

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Posted by Old n' bold on 19/08/2012 13:40:16:

I see from your photos that we do not have the same PT-19. Mine is below, and is the Seagull i/c 80" ARTF.

The ridiculous pilot figures supplied went straight in the bin, the u/c fairings are paper thin and need beefing up, as does the exhaust moulding. The cockpit instrument panel suppled would be more at home in Space Shuttle , but all things considered it is pretty good for an ARTF .

So far I've looped it , and rolled it, not yet spun it , but will next time out. Deploying the flaps at height , and slowed down, gave a slight nose down trim change which on trimming for ' hands-off ' did make it more unstable for and aft. I should have landed it flapless and added more nose-weight for the next outing, which I think will cure the porpoising at low speed. Hind-sight !

Happy landings !

pt 19 25may12 029a.jpg pt -19.1.jpg


Thats a nice looking model. Thats the bigger seagull version me thinks. This is mine.

PT19

I created my own instrument panel.

PT19 Cockpit

The pilots were twins so I got the paint brush out and made a few changes. You cant see in this picture but the guy in the back seat has a beard and moustache made from off cuts of velcro.

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Excellent ! I like the Velcro moustache idea

I flew my PT 19 today on its 4th , and most successful flight so far. The weight added to the nose made all the difference, and I was able to do loops, rolls, and spun it, with it behaving perfectly. A flaps down greaser was most satisfactory at the end. It needs just a couple of tweaks and then I will be completely happy with it.

See below what I did for my instrument panel. I wanted a ' 1930s ' look , so I viewed photos of vintage aircraft instruments for sale on ebay. A lot of the photos are full-face, so I down loaded those that looked right, reduced them in size, and created as near an authentic panel as I could. See the result in the attached photo below.

Looking forward to the next outing with my PT 19.

Cheers

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  • 3 months later...

Hi

I'm thinking of buying a model just like that for my OS 56a 4stroke, that has been draging a Spacewalker ll and a Chipmunk round the last four seasons, and done a good job. (The Chippie a bit underpowered, but werry nice flying)

Wich engine did you end up with in your plane? As I understand from an earlier thread, you considered a SC52 4stroke.

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