So, you’ve been working on that winter project for months now, and it’s starting to take shape. You’re thinking, “Boy, this thing is going to be great. All I need to do is get one more coat of primer, paint it, take about a week to get the gear in and we are done.” You find a propeller, roughly mount the wing and tape the spinner in place.

Team JR manager Peter Goldsmith prepares to build a ParkZone P-51D.

It’s about this stage of the building project you start to miss the flying experience. Your buddies start calling to tell you about their winter projects’ first flights. The weather starts to warm up and the desire to fly builds like a hunger. What you need is a fast food solution to satisfy your hunger to fly. As Team JR Manager Pete Goldsmith discovered, the new ParkZone Charge-and-Fly P-51D is the fast food flying fix you’ve been looking for.

CABIN FEVER

This winter while building two giant-scale racers, the anticipation of flying them was so overwhelming that I started to drive my family crazy. Fortunately for them, good friend and ParkZone product man-ager David Ribbe came down to my office at the height of my cabin fever with a nice looking box that had a ParkZone P-51D prototype in it. “Hmmm, what’s this?” I asked. David smiled, “This is what’s going to get you out of that funk you’re in. You’re driving us all crazy. All you need to do is fly this and you’ll feel better. Trust me.”

Okay, I have to be honest here. I have not quite gravitated towards the electric segment as much as I should. Sure I have been involved in events, and have supported many electric events through Horizon’s very generous sponsorship program, but the fact is I haven’t really owned any electric models myself. I am surrounded by them at work but have always been just a little intimidated by the knowledge needed to get one flying.

I shared these reservations with David, who just laughed, “You know how to charge a battery, right? I assume you know how to turn on a radio. That’s all you need to know.” If you know David, he pretty much tells it as it is—a real-hard-to-argue-with type. I needed to get back in the air and fast. Maybe this was a solution.

"IT'S REALLY THAT EASY?"

I took the ParkZone Mustang home, and it sat on the bench for about 5 minutes. I looked at it as if it was there, but I wasn’t inter-ested. How could anything be as easy as Charge-and-Fly? I told my wife Caroline I was going downstairs to build the thing. I told her I didn’t know how long it would take, but I had to do it for my sanity. She said, “No problem, but dinner will be ready soon.” I didn’t have long, so I hustled downstairs.

When I opened the box, I was blown away. I have seen some well- thought-out stuff in my time, but this took the cake. It was done. I mean it was totally complete. No questions to ask. Nothing to build or install. We’re talking an airbrushed camouflage trim scheme, installed motor and gearbox, installed servos, installed receiver and speed control, mounted pilot figure, even batteries—for both the plane AND the transmitter. It was done.

I have had models that took longer to pack in the van than this thing was going to take to get flying. I was expecting to have to get out the glue, assemble parts, install servos, and so on. I had the ParkZone P-51D ready to fly, literally, in just 5 minutes. And most of that was spent taking it out of the box. Of course, my desperation to get flying probably helped me complete assembly a little faster than normal, but it was like “just add water,” and I was done.

SUNSET SORTIE

If this thing never flew, I would have been satisfied, but not only did it fly, it flew superbly. “Sure,” you say, “you’re paid to say that.” Yes, I do work at Horizon, but I only fly Mode 1. The fully proportional, 3-channel FM transmitter that’s included with the Mustang is Mode 2. I have logged maybe a total of one hour of Mode 2 in my life. So my point is, this thing had to be easy to fly or I (and it) would have been doomed.

I was a little nervous when I launched the model but it flew straight out of my hands. “Shazzam!” I was flying again! That aeromodeling drug kicked back in, and my cabin fever disappeared in seconds. A few clicks on the trim here and there, and I was transported in time to the skies over Europe in the middle of WWII. I strafed the trash-can, buzzed the squirrels—anything that moved on the ground was a target. I was a WWII ace and loving every minute of it. But I was jarred back to reality by a disquieting thought—“Batteries. Electric planes don’t last as long,” or so I’d heard. I throttled back to see if I could go longer.

Eventually 5 minutes passed. Then 6, 7, 8, 9—I was actually becom-ing exhausted. I’d done rolls, loops—all kinds of aerobatics. I “shot down” four ME 109s, blew up three bridges, attacked five Axis squirrels—pretty much shot up the whole neighborhood and was still going strong. It was about then I heard a shout over the radio from the base commander, “Dinner’s ready!” Drats. Time to return to base. I felt like I could’ve kept flying forever.

I had so much fun with the ParkZone P-51D I couldn’t contain myself. It’s perfect for that quick modeling fix, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to operate it, and I was able to fly it in a very confined space (much to the amazement of my neighbors and their kids). The struggle-to-fun ratio is about as low as it gets.

Breaktime, lunchtime, anytime you just need to get in the air fast, this is your answer.