NitroPlanes 49" Piper Cub ARF  
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NitroPlanes 49" Piper Cub ARF - 1/16/2007 4:19:23 PM   
foresterxt



Posts: 306
Joined: 8/1/2005
From: Minneapolis, MN, USA
Status: offline 		I wanted to take a moment to write up a couple of short reviews, this will be my first. In my quest for "small" ARFs, I came across a little piper cub over at Nitromodels (http://www.nitroplanes.com/furedj3picub.html). I have a number of .15-.25 two strokes, but I thought this little guy would be the perfect candidate for a Magnum .30 four stroke that I had sitting on the shelf. There has been quite a bit of talk over Nitromodels, some good, some bad, my experience thus far has been great. I've probably ordered five planes, and some gear on a number of different occassions and all the shipments have arrived to my door without incident. As a matter of fact, all the planes were doubled boxed with a rather thick outer card board (much better then Towers flimsy boxes that's for sure).

First Look

Opening the box, the first thing I grabbed was the instruction manual- A whopping 8 pages. Like most ARFs from the far east, the directions are nothing to write home about. Luckily, this plane is a rather easy build. I believe I only looked at the manual once or twice to get a relative idea on placement of things. At least the manual has the center of gravity listed (I purchased a couple of ARFs off of FleEBAY which didn't even list the CG) Now onto the contents. I was pleasantly surprised when I started to pull out the bits and pieces. The Fuselage and wings looked great! The covering was iron on, not the PVC shelf paper you see on many of the lesser priced ARFs. The covering was drum tight but did have a wrinkle or two, but that's nothing out of the ordinary for an ARF.


The Build

Examining the pieces, the build quality seemed excellent. All the joints were glued properly however I couldn't tell if it was wood glue or hot glue. As always, for good measure I added some extra epoxy to the landing gear block. The fuselage and wing were build up rather than sheeted which I think is a huge plus for these smaller planes. I took a few pictures to give you an idea. The cowl is a nice painted flexible plastic rather then fiber glass . I hate cutting and sanding fiber glass cowls so this was perfect and very easy to work with. The hardware that came with the plane wasn't great, but definitely not bad so I went a head and used most of it.

The plane itself went together rather quickly. There weren't any surprises. throughout the course of putting everything together, I noticed that the white iron on trim was starting to peal up in places where the "star burst" effect started. I put a few drops of CA over any suspect trip pieces. The wing felt rather sturdy and quite rigidity (I gave her a good twist). The wing uses two servos for independent ailerons, another huge plus. The tail wheel that came with the model most likely would have worked, but I find the aftermarket Sullivan tail wheel setup much more reliable with virtually no stress on the rudder. I probably spent two thirds of my time getting the servos and control surfaces set up. I'm not exacly a patient person, so dealing within small servos in a small fuselage with small pieces gave me some cause for a few choice words.

With everything glued together and servos mounted, I proceeded to mount then engine. The firewall was thick, however on the inside I added some triangle stock with a little epoxy behind it just in case it decided to let loose somewhere down the line. I didn't encounter any problems with getting the engine mounted. The thrust lines were already scribed on the firewall for easy engine alignment. I was a bit worried about CG issues with the four stroke on the front, but after bolting on the wing and doing a CG check, I only had to move my 4.8V AAA battery back about an inch behind the wing hold down bolts. Total build time was about 6-7 hours with an AUW of 38oz or 2.37 lbs and roughly 19oz/sqft wing load. The factory specs say 2.3lbs so I'm right on the money.

Overall this is an excellent little ARF that will no doubt grab some attention at the field.


The Flight

Unfortunately it's 5 degrees out side with a foot of snow on the ground up here in the Midwest. As soon as the weather breaks, I'll update this with a flight report and hopefully a video clip. If things go well, I may put the little cub on a pair of floats.




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< Message edited by foresterxt -- 1/17/2007 4:40:49 AM >
       Post #: 1

RE: NitroPlanes 49" Piper Cub ARF - 1/17/2007 7:07:07 AM   
elecfly


 

Posts: 129
Joined: 6/13/2006
From: Johannesburg, SOUTH AFRICA
Status: offline 		Did u use mini servos with youre piper? do you think standard size servos will work with a 25 tt upfront?

(in reply to foresterxt)
       Post #: 2

RE: NitroPlanes 49" Piper Cub ARF - 1/17/2007 4:01:49 PM   
foresterxt



Posts: 306
Joined: 8/1/2005
From: Minneapolis, MN, USA
Status: offline 		The servo cutouts are designed for mini servos (not sub-micros) however I'm sure it would be easy enough to dremel out the cutouts for standards servos in the fuselage. In the wings, I think it would be best to stick with mini servos since the wing ribs and spars are built up around the cutout. As far as the 25 tt goes, that would be more than adequate- I think it would even fly fine with a .15.


quote:

ORIGINAL: elecfly

Did u use mini servos with youre piper? do you think standard size servos will work with a 25 tt upfront?


(in reply to elecfly)
       Post #: 3

RE: NitroPlanes 49" Piper Cub ARF - 1/18/2007 11:42:54 AM   
elecfly


 

Posts: 129
Joined: 6/13/2006
From: Johannesburg, SOUTH AFRICA
Status: offline 		so my mini srvos used in my mini funtana will work perfect for this plane? even on elevator? dont want to break a elevator servo

(in reply to foresterxt)
       Post #: 4

RE: NitroPlanes 49" Piper Cub ARF - 1/19/2007 11:00:16 PM   
foresterxt



Posts: 306
Joined: 8/1/2005
From: Minneapolis, MN, USA
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: elecfly

so my mini srvos used in my mini funtana will work perfect for this plane? even on elevator? dont want to break a elevator servo


They should work just fine however remember, this is a really light cub and with a .25 engine on it, you'll have to use some throttle management. I think the stick built elevator might give out before the servo would. What type of mini servos are you using?

(in reply to elecfly)
       Post #: 5

RE: NitroPlanes 49" Piper Cub ARF - 1/22/2007 8:22:54 AM   
elecfly


 

Posts: 129
Joined: 6/13/2006
From: Johannesburg, SOUTH AFRICA
Status: offline 		it is lexors servos , but i found a 25 size cessna so Ill think ill rather go for that than the cub , the planes designed for electric motor are very flimsey! would rather get a plane designed for nitro . Thanks for the input !

(in reply to foresterxt)
       Post #: 6

RE: NitroPlanes 49" Piper Cub ARF - 1/29/2007 5:08:42 AM   
foresterxt



Posts: 306
Joined: 8/1/2005
From: Minneapolis, MN, USA
Status: offline 		The cub is not specifically designed for electric. It comes with a thick firewall and motor mount- It's actually more of a nitro model than an electric.

(in reply to elecfly)
       Post #: 7

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