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Beautiful Ripmax Spitfire 600EP
These models have been around for ages but with the latest technology of brushless and lipoly now being more affordable than ever, if you haven’t got a Spitfire and want one, these models are just superb. This is going to be a quick review with just the important details.
Now I am going to be honest here, I have always wanted a nice flying Electric Powered Spitfire so just over 2 years ago this was advertised in a local paper as unfinished project so I thought I had to buy it. With that in mind, this model must be about 5 years old by the time it was ready to fly as it sat in my shed for 2 years waiting for me to finish it.
I have had a number of foam based Spitfires and they are all ok but there is just something about the finish of a balsa model that you can’t beat. The servo’s and motor screw in rather than glued which I always prefer.
Anyway, finishing the build was so easy there is little point me going into much detail about it. Motor fitted and just need to make sure it was long enough for the prop to clear the cone, 3 servos in, ESC and receiver and it was pretty much ready to go after a few adjustments.
OK here are the important bits.
1.This model was originally designed to take sub c nicad or Nimh packs so when choosing your lipo pack for this, make sure it will fit. I am using an old 3S 20c Etec Apache 3700mah pack which is very similar to many others of this size. It’s perfect balance with this motor and provides more than enough grunt for a 7-8 min flight which for a reasonably fast model is more than enough.
2. Motor choice is crucial, I bought this with the E-Flite power 25 motor which works a treat. The model was originally designed to take a 600 brushed, I have recently seen people asking if they are still ok to use….. No… Don’t bother either save the weight or get more power by going brushless. These models need a fair bit of grunt on launch and then they are fine. In the early days I hears more stories of the getting smashed up on take off with sub c’s and brushed motors. Just not enough power to weight. I rarely touch full throttle on mine but I know it’s there if I need it.
3. Consider a folding prop. I use an Aero-Naut folder on mine purely because they balance so well and any belly landing model has a chance of catching the prop and damaging the motor mount. This gets round all of that.
All in all, these models are great, superb quality and better than any ready to fly solution. They fly so well and this is the closest I have ever been to scale flying at my mere age of 40 now. As I get older I am sure more will come.
Here us the link to the maiden flight video and shot of dead Funjet that died that day.
Link to maiden flight video on YouTube
Link to Ripmax Spitfire on RC Groups
My setup is as follow.
- Spec: E Flite power 25 brushless outrunner
- Generic 40A ESC,
- 20c 3700mAh E-tec Apache flight pack,
- Spectrum 2.4ghz radio with DX8 TX
- Aero Naut Cam Carbon folding prop – still experimenting with different sizes