SteveR3750

My Feedback: (1)

Hi all.... I have started building the Great Planes .60 Piper Cub that I picked up from a co-worker... I have decided that I am going to finish/cover it as a Navy NE-1. I am a little undecisive on a few things though, and wanted some other opinions.

#1. Should I build the standard 90 inch Wing, or cut it back and build the Clipped Wing? Which would you build and why?

#2. Would you keep it Cub Yellow with the Red stripe and Navy Markings or go with the Blue and Grey markings for the NE-1? I am thinking the blue and grey would be hard to see, although I like those Markings Better.

#3 Where could I find, or what could I use for the Military Trim and Lettering... ie.... The Star and NAVY lettering?

Any ideas, suggestions, or Help?

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

I don't know about your other options, but as for the wing, DEFINITELY go with the clipped version! Here's why:

Back in the 1920's they designed the Piper Cub. The idea behind this plane was that its designers envisioned that everyone in the country would someday own one, fly it to work, the grocery store, etc.

To make it affordable, they put a very small, inexpensive engine in it. In order for this tiny engine to get an airplane off the ground, they had to make the wing BIGGER THAN IT WOULD NORMALLY BE. So now, this little engine could get this airplane off the ground.

The problem was, it was under powered and that HUGE wing created a lot of adverse yaw.

By the 1930's, the dream of everyone owning one went away when they realized that very few people had runways in their backyard (Not to mention at their grocery stores), but a lot of pilots had them - and they were due for periodic overhauls. Some of these pilots realized that if they put a REAL engine on it, they could "Clip" the wing down to a NORMAL size and relieve some of the adverse yaw and other undesireable effects of that "Wing that is too big".

Unfortunately, now people think that Clipping the wing from the original design is making a radical modification to a good plane. In reality, the original wing was intentionally designed to be TOO BIG and the clipped wing is the correct size.

Try it, you'll like it!

ChuckW

You can buy a lot of military markings in decal form. Look up Major Decals on the Tower Hobbies site. You might also find an ARF version of another plane that has markings similar to what you need and just buy the decal sheet.

You mayt also gind lettering decals. If not, go to a local sign shop that does vinyl cutting or one of the many online places that do it.

You can also cut the lettering out of covering if you want. It is cheaper than having custom vinyl done but it takes more time.

If it were mine, I would do the blue and gray covering. It will likely be harder to see though. The military painted stuff certain colors for good reason. Iremember flying a Corsair that was light blue and white on the bottom on a day with blue skies and white fluffy clouds. Ilost sight of it a lot and trying to concentrate on it was making me dizzy. I finally just brought it down low so it contrasted against the mountains in the background and landed it. The gray bottom probably won't be as bad except on overcast days. You could always add some sot of stripe or something to the bottom.

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

I like flying the clipped wing cub but I had two wings for mine so it depended on my mood what one I put on. I like the military colors but everything Chuck said is dead on, they painted them like that for a reason. I covered mine in Solortex and hand cut the letters from mono. If you do a google you can find hundreds of them in full scale to come up with a true scale covering design. They aren't all yellow and black.

FlyingPilgrim

My Feedback: (26)

I agree on the blue/grey being hard to see. Go with the Cub yellow w/ red stripe and clip the wing.