xtratorque

Hey guys,
I just got a Herr Cessna 180 and I was wondering if anyone could tell me how long it would take to build it. Because I'm in school and everything I could only realistically put like an hour into it each day if I'm lucky. Plus, I want to add ailerons to help it fly better in rough winds. If anyone can help me out I would appreciate it alot.
Eric

jessiej

There are a lot of variables here. First, what is your previous building experience?

colmo-RCU

The great parts, laser cut and all, make a very easy kit, I bet it won't take more to build it than a pt trainer, though it will look a lot nicer. Good luck
Colmo

MikeSell

My Feedback: (2)

My Herr star cruisers were the first two balsa R/C planes I built. Mine took 10-14 hours from box to flightline. I built my herr cubs in less than 10 hours ea. My son took closer to 30 hours to construct his herr AT-6 when he was in jr high shop class. Most were built as 4 channel systems. Your time will depend on how well you can adapt the kit to ailerons and how well you want to finish it.
These are great kits. They build easy, fly great.
A few cautions:
Build light and use light battery packs and micro servos (flying will reflect your choices)
Don't over power (Norvel .061 or .074 are plenty, larger just adds unnessary weight and troublesome power)
Don't expect to taxi (unless you have a paved runway, hand toss

colmo-RCU

Sorry, I disagree with Mikesell in the taxi isue. Every model should be taxiable if it has enough power to take off. I´ve handled lots of small airplanes on the ground, including my gillow´s zero converted, witch doesn´t even have movement on the tailwheel. All you need is caution, elevator and rapid shots of throttle.

Colmo

MikeSell

My Feedback: (2)

Most 1/2a planes at our local fields have problems taxing thru the grass. These same planes leap into the air on pavment or bare packed ground. I don't recommend the abrasives you stir up on the latter.
The kit you mentioned as with my Cubs have so little tail weight that enough throttle to move the mains thru the grass will flip the prop into the ground even with full up elevator. Your field may be different.

colmo-RCU

I just do the taxiing for the looks of it, and I also fly from a grass strip. Besides, on cubs and that sort of high wing planes, thowing them is safe, but with low wing models where you cant hold it from the center of gravity, the thing gets very difficult. A friend of mine solved the problem on a small corsair with no landing gear by putting a scale bomb below the fuselage to hold it from, and it didnt suffer on landings because the wing elbows were lower.

Colmo