Flight of the Airfield T-28 Trojan

My RC plane hobby continues! This time I've chosen a Warbird era plane named the T-28 Trojan. This is one of my favorite planes of the era, both for its looks and its history.

After becoming adopted as a primary trainer by the USAF, the United States Navy and Marine Corps adopted it as well. Although the Air Force phased out the aircraft out of primary pilot training by the early 1960s the aircraft continued to be used as a primary trainer by the Navy (and by default, the Marine Corps and Coast Guard) well into the early 1980s.

This RC plane, Airfield Trojan T-28 800mm from NitroPlanes, is quite a step up from my first plane, the 3-channel Champ by HobbyZone. A few of the obvious changes are the size of the Trojan in comparison to the Champ with an 800mm wingspan, nearly double of the Champ, and its low wing design, while making it more maneuverable, it also makes it a little harder to control. This plane also includes 4 channels of control with the addition of ailerons, the flaps on either side of the wings which help control the banking of the plane.

The plane came "Ready to Fly", meaning it came with all the parts needed to fly including the transmitter, battery, servos, motor and the ESC (Electronic Speed Controller). It was partially preassembled with the servos, wiring and labels all installed, leaving me with the assembly and a little bit of gluing and building to finish the plane. This was my first time putting together a plane like this, so I took my time, making sure I got everything right on the first try. The most time intensive part of the build was attaching the control arms to the servos and the control surfaces like the aileron and rudder. These had to be lined up just right, or the plane won't fly true. From there I installed the landing gear, screwed in the main wing, glued the elevators in place and attached the propeller. I then charged the Lithium battery and tested all the controls. All good on the first try!

Myself and two co-workers, who are also involved with RC planes, headed out to a new found area to fly our planes. This new spot is great, a housing development that hasn't started building yet, but has the road laid and all the lots cleared. This gives us a nice open treeless field plus a runway like road to takeoff and land from!

Take a look at the video below to see my first two flights with the T-28 Trojan.