rcflyinmike

Mastmec, The cowl is built up out of balsa blacks, then carved to shape.I bought mine from fiberglassspecialties.com. As far as the wing, I am scratch building a Citabria off of a kit plan and the wing is built and mounted in three pieces...........Andy, I was useing "quick reply" that has no uploading options, I found the beta but the server will not let me upload? I do have pic's posted in my Gallery. Mike

Highflight

My Feedback: (4)

I've built several of the 1/4 Nosen kits, including several Citabrias and a Champ or two.
I've done a couple using the kit method with the carved balsa blocks for the cowl, and I have to say that it comes out very nice and strong, and surprisingly light.

I would encourage anyone who doesn't want to spend more bucks on a fiberglass cowl to make their own from balsa as per the kit. Once done, put just one layer of light fiberglass cloth over it, prime and paint, and it looks great (depending upon your own skill at sculpting). Be sure to paint epoxy resin on the entire inside as well, however, or you'll find that it could turn into a fuel sponge and soak up a bit of weight.

After having said all that, I admit that I prefer now to just buy the fiberglass cowl in order to save time, and yes, it is more of an elegant solution.

rcflyinmike

I'm getting to the point of attaching the horiz. stab. to the fuse on my Nosen 1/4 scale Citabria, And reading through this forum I see that some peeps are raising the leading edge of the stab by as much as a 1/4" to get the plane to fly level. while the instruction sheet suggests 3/8" down trim. With the flat bottom wing I consider this plane somewhat of a trainer, any trainer I have built has the builder install the engine with 3 degrees of down thrust while this Citabria plan shows zero down thrust.. Is it matter of one or the other? or a little of both? Thanks Guy's, my build is comming along great!!

Bass1

I'm generally happy (at least with mine) with just adding a smidge of down trim. On the other hand a little positve incidence on the horizontal stab should alleviate the need for that. Whatever you're happy with. Adding down thrust to the engine most likely will cause the airplane to balloon (pitch up) on reduction of throttle and can make things rather interesting when chopping power for landings and other reduced throttle flight operations.[X(]

Highflight

My Feedback: (4)

You're about to open quite a can of worms if you mess with the stab trim. Where you need to start is with wing incidence, not stab incidence.
Correct me if I'm wrong because I'm working on memory, but I think the wing incidence of the Nosen Citabria is shown on the plans to be about 1-1/2 to 3 degrees positive. So once the wind is set at that angle with your incidence meter, set your stab at 0 which is a relative negative angle FROM THE WING even though it's 0 to the fuse.

If you then nail down your balance properly, the airplane should be pretty close to flying well without much need for trim offset.

rcflyinmike

The plan makes no refrence to wing incidence, the bottom of the wing (flat) runs 6-15/32" above and parelell with the thrust line. I did however cut the sp?> diheidral by 1/3,

rcflyinmike

I still; cant upload pics of my Citabria to this tread (firewall Prob?), But its coming along niceley and I have pic's in my gallery.

Thisstrangeengine

Oh man, I love this plane! I had a kit years ago but sold it at my clubs annual sale. I think it was only about 65.00 new but got 90.00 for it. Should have kept it for a future build but the amount of wood in the kit was intimidating at the time.

tenacious101010

My Feedback: (97)

Anyone building one of these, seriously consider making the door functional. I use mine to work on it and for putting a camera in to take video. Everyone that has seen this one that has had one says they wish theirs would have been built with a door. Also, flattening the top of the cowl where it mets the windscreen is a great idea. Mine was built round and is really quite ugly and noticibly incorrect. Especially when putting a scale instrument panel in place and taking video out the front windscreen.
Denny

exciter900rr

I can't wait to be able to put her back on the bench...... IT'S 10:45PM AND 97*F I don't mind working in the heat, but building planes? neh.... LOL I just can't wait... maybe in a couple months..

Bass1

Yeah.. It's brutally hot lately! Record all time 105 degrees around here with a heat index of 126 in areas! Could be a strong hurricane season with the higher water temps..[X(]

chris heystek

My Feedback: (9)

How much dihedral did everybody put in? The plans don't say but the plans have some built into the wing.Still trying to decide how to hold that wing to the fuselage, Will not drill through the dowels that much I know. Sure am enjoying this thread Chris

Bass1

I used aluminum tubes with wooden dowels inserted and glued into the tubes. Then drilled through those. It's been awhile since I built mine but I seem to remember making angled blocks the same size (amount of degrees) as the the dihedral depicted on the plans. Chocked the wingtips on the blocks while the tubes cured in the wings. I've seen a few Citabrias that looked really goofy with no or actually what appears to be negative dihedral.

ahicks

My Feedback: (2)

Seems like I used 1" per side for just that reason....

rcflyinmike

My Nosen 106-3/4" Citabria FLIES !! Uh, well kinda, in a way. At 17lbs. its Light in the nose, yet underpowered. Im thinking BIGGER Engine. I built it from scratch from a set of plans I bought on ebay, ICarefullyaddedsheeting to the tail feathers paying close attention to thebalance against my 2.5 lb. rcgf20 gasser...Perfectbubble at 4-1/2 inches Just like the plan says....WRONG ! ! Does anyone know where to get a kinda heavy 30 cc ish engine? Oh by the way Chris I cut my Dihedral by 1/3, looks good. Hmm, Lot ofMichiganpeeps in here, Hello.

LunaSea

try a "weedie" conversion (Ryobi or Homelite is CHEAP and they run good)... If you are not inclined to do that, but want a "ready-built" solution, maybe a Quadra (Q32 or Q35) or maybe a Zenoah G-38 might make a good solution. Both are good running engines that produce decent power, but being basically converted chainsaw engines, they are a bit on the heavy side (a good thing in your situation). They will be PLENTY of power or the Citabria as it is pretty much a kite at that weight. So long as it is adequately built to withstand the aerodynamic stresses, that plane will fly just fine well up into the 20's pounds... Actually, I think you may find that it flies much more realisticlly at higher weights.

rcflyinmike

Thanks LunaSea, Since I don't know where to find a new Quadra Q45, I'm leaning toward the Zenoah G-38, With all the extra sheeting on the wing and tail feathers, f-1 to f-2 Spruce stringers anddowels,the rabbited wing mounting blocks and Solotex Fabric covering I'mconfident the air frame is worthy. My first of three flights the heavy tail caught me off guard, it kind of hover'd gently into a tree... no damage

tenacious101010

My Feedback: (97)

Mike, the G-38 with magneto is the perfect engine for this plane in my opinion. We have sevaral flights on ours and are very happy with it. We even installed a smoke system, the extra weight of that didnt hurt performance a bit.
Denny

rcflyinmike

Well, From an RCGF 20, to a Whopping Q 42 should be somewhat of a noticeable difference. In studying this and related forums, I seebalancingranges from 2" at the front spar, to 4-1/2" as per plan. The Q 42 split the difference and put me at 3-1/4 ". I am looking forward to trying her out. Now Im trying to find some taller landing gear for the bigger prop. After reading about TNT's Landing gear I went to the TNT site, They show nodimensions so I cant tell what I'm looking at. Does anyone have any part numbers? another q: prop size, 18x10, 20x8...I think is gonna be more pitch then I want. Would 22x6 be okay?....Or do I need to change my way of thinking, I have only flew nitro where the rpm's are what 17k? Gas engines only do a little over 1/2 of that. Nitro.40 w/ 10x6comparableto a 40cc w/ 18x10 ??

tenacious101010

My Feedback: (97)

Mike, I do not consider myself an expert on many things, but know a little about a lot of things. I run a G-38 on my Citabria with a 18X10 prop. I would think that you are in that range of power and an 18X10 might be a good starting point. I run 22 inchn props on the four G62s that we fly and that is way too large in my opinion for your plane/ engine combo. The G-45 in out top flite giant mustang flies great with a 20 inch prop. I might also mention that I use Zinger wood props on all of the gas engines also. Youi will hear different opinions about different props and materials, but I am very happy with the wood Zingers. Those engine/prop combinations should help put into perspective the range of prop sizes that you might want to consider.
Denny

rcflyinmike

Thanks Denny , I have a couple of Pro Zinger 18x10's on the way. The other day I was test running the quadra with a balanced  Top Flight 20x6-10, without the wing on and the mid range vibration was quite violent, Does anyone use vibration isolating motor mounts?

exciter900rr

If you research it a bit, you'll find that it is not advised to run the gassers without the airframe together. The mass of the wings and tail and all damp a good bit of the vibrations, and spread the load of them over the airframe.
And yes, the midrange vibes are kinda nutty IMHO- Violent is a pretty good choice of a word. On one of my 3D planes, the Da-50 at just above idle "pops" the ailerons and it sounds like you're smacking the wing with a yardstick or something-

I'm getting really close to continue work on mine! Were there and citabrias made with flaps? I have been toying with the idea of making this a towplane.

tenacious101010

My Feedback: (97)

There were some made with flaps. I had considered the same thing. They land very short as it is, but would be cool to see the float down even shorter.
Denny

rcflyinmike

Having that high idle,low mid range vibration, makes it temptingto adjust my throttle curveon the tx to quickly pass through beating my wing with a yardstick rpm range..

exciter900rr

LOL!

Well, I have a couple of hundred flights (probably just that on the sukhoi) on it, and I must say that all is well with the plane- Hinges are tight, linkages haven't developed slop- Servo gears are all good with negligible wear, none of the screws and nuts have backed off or anything. That being said, I do R&R and check over the whole thing every now and then, but nothing stuck out... I think the airframe damps it out quite well.... It IS concerning nonetheless.....