DeaninMilwaukee

I always wanted a SureFlite Cub, but they were a bit pricy for a eps foam kit at the time for around $75. Therefore when I spotted one at a swap meet new but shopworn in box for $10, I pounced. I built it for long flights and scale like power which meant a geared sp400 on 3 cell lipo. After adding the starburst paint scheme with foam safe paint, I had the good looking plane you see here.

I really enjoy painting up planes, this one was not my first.

Dean in Milwaukee

MAX HEADSPEED

That's a nice lookin' Cubbie you've got there. It's a very clean, and I'll bet, a very visible, paint scheme.

Would you like to tell us what paint and masking tape you used?

I noticed that you had no wing struts. Is the wing reinforced?

DeaninMilwaukee

The wing does have a thin carbon spar buried in the bottom side, perhaps 1/4 inch dia.   I just cut a groove in and hot glued it into place.

The masking tape was just the basic cheap kind used for house painting, and the paint was Design Master  larkspur blue #707.

Basically I laid down tape strips, drew on the correct lines, carefully cut on those lines with an exacto knife, and peeled up the extra tape.  Spray and wait till its mostly dry before peeling the tape.   Prett easy.

Dean

Tommygun

My Feedback: (2)

Dean, that is awesome. Thank you so much for sharing! It's gorgeous! And all these years, I thought I was the only one familiar with the Sureflite Cub. My father and I tried to get one of these going back in the 80's. It was before I knew how to fly, and he couldn't because of deteriorating eyesight. I still remember when he ordered the plane- it came to the house via UPS in the early 80's, and for some reason the company he bought it from (I think it was Indy RC?) taped a huge sucker (lollipop) to the outside of the box! I wonder if they were telling us something...We went through a lot with this airplane, from learning how to build a foam plane, to painting it. We used this homemade primer, then painted it with bright yellow Black Baron epoxy spraypaint! Needless to say, I had a few holes to fill in where the primer didn't cover well enough to keep the foam from being eaten [:@]. Originally, we powered it with an OS Max .25, the old kind with the strap muffler, and used a heavy Kraft radio for guidance, with rudder, elevator, and throttle only. The day we tried it, (about 6- 7 years after it was delivered [X(]), the plane went about 30 feet along the ground, maybe with 1-2' altitude at most, and torque rolled into the ground, breaking off the nose and tail after the resulting cartwheel. This was fortunate, since I had no idea how to fly an RC plane yet. I repaired it, and then after having so much experience with Tamiya RC cars by then, we decided to make it electric- in the late 80's. I fashioned a direct drive 540 can motor with a cobbled together pinion for a prop adapter, and used a heavy, 3 speed, mechanical Tamiya speed control combined with a big, heavy 7.4 NiCad battery pack from my Tamiya Hotshot car, all the while maintaining use of the heavy Kraft AM radio. Well, actually this combination would get into a slight ground effect in a big school parking lot, but that's about it. No real flight was ever obtained, and the plane was relegated to little more than a taildragger taxi trainer. Because this was my first R/C plane, I've always wanted to get another, but this time use electric technology from 2012, lightweight radio gear with ailerons, and possibly flaps. Combined with all my aquired building/finishing skills, (acrylic paint this time!!) I think it could be a real winner. Unfortunately, like you, I just can't justify the now $90 price tag for a 1970's era EPS plane [] Maybe I'll be so lucky one day...

DeaninMilwaukee

They are nice flyers, and require very little power. Mines 33oz and only has 79 watts and flys very well. I don't think they are available anymore however. I couldn't find anything on the website at all.

Dean

Tommygun

My Feedback: (2)

So how much real estate does it use up in flight? Can it be flown as a true "park flyer," say from a big softball field, or do you still need to fly it at an AMA type setting? You using a 2100 (ish) lipo?

DeaninMilwaukee

"So how much real estate does it use up in flight? Can it be flown as a true "park flyer," say from a big softball field, or do you still need to fly it at an AMA type setting? You using a 2100 (ish) lipo?

_____________________________

The original Tommygun "


A baseball field is plenty, in fact a football field is big enough.At 33 oz weight, my cub is a gentle flyer allowing very tight turns. Iam using the standard 3s2200 packs with a heavy (3.5oz) geared sp400 setup. If Ihad to start over I'd problaly go brushless 450 class just to save weight.

Dean in Milwaukee