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The Hanger 9 Mustang MkII PTS comes well packaged in a full color box. The engine and radio gear come pre-installed at the factory. As you can see here, everything's included in the box.

The airplane comes with a Spectrum DX6i radio. Also included is a large sheet of decals, an instruction manual, an instructional DVD and a brochure.

The instruction manual is well illustrated and easy to read. The kit also includes a very nice DVD for your TV that tells you how to assemble the airplane. The DVD also goes over some basic flying techniques.

Very little is needed to complete the Hanger 9 MkII PTS:

• Screwdrivers (Phillips and flat head)
• Razor Knife (may be needed when installing landing gear)
• Small Drill Bit (May be needed when installing landing gear)
• 7/16 socket or wrench
• Fractional Hex Wrenches
• Covering Iron (if your airplane has lots of wrinkles)
• 2 Standard Size JR/Spectrum Servos (Optional - for flaps)
• Y Harness (Optional - for flaps)

To fly your airplane at the field you will need:

• Glow Fuel
• Glow lighter
• Engine Starter

Out of the box the airplane had a lot of wrinkles. I spent about an hour with a covering iron shrinking up the covering on the wings and fuselage. I was able to get all the wrinkles out of the wings, but not out of the fuselage.

Assembly of the airplane goes very quick. Start by bolting the gear to the bottom of the wing. Pay attention to which gear goes to what wing. The wire from the landing gear goes on the outboard side, just like the real mustang. The holes that come drilled for the landing gear needed to be enlarged slightly, and I found it helpful to cut some excess covering from the slot that the wire sits in.

The gear did not sit flush in the slot in the wing, but it is very sturdy. You will need to disconnect the rudder to install the horizontal stabilizer. The horizontal stabilizer simply bolts onto the fuselage. Notice that all the control surfaces use plastic clevesis. I would highly recommend that you change these to metal clevisis. The plastic clevisis will get brittle and break when the temperature drops or when they age.

The engine comes pre-installed in the fuselage. A plastic cap comes installed on the end of the crankshaft to protect the threads. A good size flywheel also comes on this engine, this helps the engine idle lower and will make it easier for the new pilot to slow the airplane down.

Now is a good time to check the muffler. During my first flight it came loose. I would recommend that you remove the screws and apply some red LockTite to them and reinstall. Installing the propeller is easy. First slide the backplate on, then the propeller, washer and nut. Last, install the spinner on the backplate.

To complete the assembly you install the exhaust stacks using 4 screws. The wings remove easy for transport to the field and are held in with 2 screws.

The airplane ready to fly weighed 6lbs and 5oz. With the 3 Blade Evolution Propeller, the thrust to weight ratio is 0.96 and with the Master Airscrew 11 x 5 two bladed propeller, the ratio is 1.17.

The engine comes broken in at the factory and should require little or no tuning at the field. I tested several propellers in addition to the stock Evolution 3 bladed 10 x 3.5 prop:

The Hanger 9 P-51 Mustang MkII PTS is not your average trainer. I was skeptic that it would fly anything like a trainer. After the first takeoff, all doubt was removed. With the NACA droops and low rates the P-51 MkII is a tame flier. It easily flies big gentle patterns so you can work on abusing that landing gear, opps - I mean work on landings. I would recommend that you install the optional servos for flaps.

I would recommend that if you are learning to fly, do two things. The first is join your local club and find a qualified, experienced instructor. The second is to get a computer simulator and practice every chance you get!

When you're ready to step up, go to a 2 blade propeller and spinner, remove the NACA droops and kick up the control throws. Then the Hanger 9 P-51 becomes a great second airplane. You will learn aerobatics while perfecting those spot-landing skills with the flaps. If you want to progress to a warbird, I feel that this airplane is a good stepping stone.

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The Hanger 9 P-51 Mustang MkII PTS really surprised me in its ability to be a primary trainer. With the removable NACA droops, it allows you to remove the training wheels and step up to a sport scale airplane. It's a great looking airplane, and certainty the best looking trainer on the flightline at my field.

Everything that you need to fly this airplane is included, ok almost everything. You have to add fuel and some field equipment. Once you pull this airplane out of the box, you'll have it ready for the field in less time than it takes to charge battery. I also liked the large hatch to access the radio gear. This is a nice feature if your working on the radio gear, or simply checking the fuel.

I found the landing gear and gear mounts to be exceptionally solid. That's an excellent feature when you going to use the airplane to learn how to land. You can see in the video that I didn't "baby" the gear, and it held up with no damage and no bent parts.

I would recommend that you plan on installing two additional servos (not included) for the optional flaps. You will need two standard size servos and a Y harness. The airplane comes from the factory with ground adjustable flaps, but I really liked having the ability to adjust them in flight. These make the airplane a pleasure to fly and the two position switch on the Spectrum DX6i radio is easy to reach. Having flaps will let you descend steeper on approach, which is especially nice if you need to clear obstacles when landing.

There are a few areas that I think can be improved on with this airplane. When I removed the airplane from the box, the first think that I noticed is that there were a lot of wrinkles in the covering. The airplane is covered in genuine UltraCote, so shrinking them up was not a big issue. I was able to completely remove all the wrinkles from the wings, but was unable to completely shrink all the wrinkles from the fuselage.

About a minute and a half into the first flight the engine lost power when the muffler came loose. I dead stick landed the airplane into the tall grass, and the only damage was a broken propeller. Before starting your engine, remove the muffler screws and apply some drops of LockTite onto the threads of the screws and reinstall them.

I found the stock 3 bladed propeller performed marginally as can be seen in the video. This propeller is designed to limit the forward speed of the airplane to make it easier to learn how to fly. While it did this effectively, it also wouldn't give your instructor on the buddy box a lot of options to get you out of a tight spot. All of my flying was done on a hot day (95 F+), so performance in the cooler weather should be considerably better. Most of my flights were flown with the Master Airscrew 11 x 5 propeller.

I also found the propeller to be brittle and more easily damaged than a Master Airscrew or APC propeller. If your propeller contacts anything, stop and completely and carefully inspect it for damage by removing it from the airplane. I had an issue with the propeller failing after the propeller dug into the dirt while taxing. After checking the propeller for damage, I flew the airplane and about 3 minutes later, one propeller blade separated in flight! Always practice good propeller safety and stay out of the plane of the propeller!

The first time I took this airplane to the field, I conducted a range check per the manual. The range check failed at 1/2 the distance that is called out in the manual. I later found out from reading in the manual that the transmitter has two settings for power output, European and US. After checking my transmitter, I found that it comes from the factory set on European. After changing the setting in the transmitter, the airplane passed the range check without issues.

The airplane comes with plastic clevisis installed on the control surfaces. I used these for the review, but from experience I would recommend that you replace them with metal clevisis. These plastic clevisis break more easily than the metal ones, typically once they've become brittle from age or cold temperatures. The rest of the hardware in this kit is very nice.

The Hanger 9 P-51 Mustang MkII PTS is a solid airplane as both a primary trainer and a sport scale airplane. I found the airplane to have several great features, including the flaps, large radio hatch, NACA droops and the Spectrum Radio. I had a lot of fun flying this airplane in both the trainer and sport configurations. I wish my trainer looked this good when I was learning to fly as this airplane sets itself apart on the flightline.