friedclutch

Went to the LHS yesterday to finally pick up a Super Cub. Been looking for a relaxing park flyer. As usual they had 5 in stock. Next to them was the Flyzone Cessna 182. Over walks one of the employees and we get to talking. He says the Cessna is WAY better... Ailerons and such. AND standard radio equipment. (After he finds out I'm an avid pilot) So anyways I got the flyzone plane instead.

Well.. At least it LOOKS better than the super cub so far. Not to mention the horrific problems I've had with the hobbyzone/parkzone electronics. Both my Stryker C AND the Aerobird Swift had defective electronics TWICE. Yes.... TWICE.

So I get the kit home and start assembly. Really easy build. Not much to build. Immediately I notice the battery is the same voltage and dang near the same miliamp rating.. Just a different shape, as the swift battery packs. Time to mod the battery bay. Long story short.. I deepend and rebuilt the bttery bay with balsa and epoxy. (I'm also an avid plane builder.) Yup... Modding a plane that's never been flown. Got the center of gravity spot on with either battery. Sweet. Also didnt like the stock throws on the controll surfaces. Put them in "one" hole on the controll horn for more throw.

Fast forward to today>>>>>>>>> Out at a local park with one stock battery and two hobbyzone batterys from the crappy swift. This plane is tiny and has very scale looks. It does not look like it will fly on that tiny wing. It's also a small plane all together. 34 in wingspan. After reading all the questionable posts about the plane being underpowered I was nervous that I may have wasted another 150 bucks on an RTF model. Lots of people stating to hand launch the plane.. No way I'm gonna throw it... It took off of grass (short) with out a problem. Mind you the grass was very short but I could still hear the prop mowing lawn on the way out. Took off very slight angle for air speed and everything went well. Note there was 15 mph wind and its about 100 f here in Sacramento today. (Alot more wind than recommended by the manufacture. Lets just say this plane is NOT for beginners. Flying in wind took lots of controll inputs to keep the plane going were I wanted it to be. Burned through all three batteries. No issues landing really. Kept a little power on. Flipped it one time when I hit some tall grass. I will def increase ALL the control throws for more athority... A roll would be imposible unless you were very high in stock trim. Overall happy with my purchase. The ESC and reciever are separate units.. Will be easy to upgrade the power system.

Robert

GT_Rat

I was just at the (not so) Local HS today, itching to get into flying. This plane looked like a great deal against the ParkZone 3 channels. I figured I had a lot of experience with flight simulators, understood aircraft dynamics and control well enough that I'd apreciate 4 ch ability. Man do I feel humbled... On the take off roll at the local park, I catch a small bump, get pitched into the air half a foot before nosing back down because it's not quite up to speed yet.. collapsed the front landing gear and shattered the cowl. I dind't want to give up my first experience so soon, figured the grass was soft enough to bring the plane down without the front landing gear. Well, 15-20 ft stall and fall and two trees later, my rear horizontal is partially vertical and 1/4 inch of my wingtip is missing. The control surfaces defintely did not offer much command over the direction this plane wnated to go on its own.. and I really should have choosen a more open area to allow for recovery between manuvers. I was making turns, finding the plane a bit too shallow, and next thing I knew, I was into a tree before I could build speed and turn again.

Replacement parts are on the way, but I plan to package-tape-repair what I have now and MacGuyver a repair for the nose gear, and pick a much larger park to crash-test in next time. Perhaps by the time I fully repair it, I'll be able to keep it airborne for more than 20 seconds and control the crashes/landings a bit better.

drunkenbushman

The bloke at the not so LHS really should of asked if you have flown before.

I know when i went to a differant hobby shop and bought my 2nd stryker the bloke made sure i had flown before.

Bigtone

Sorry to hear about your luck, the super cub is a better and bigger plane then the Flyzone Cessna 182. The Cessna is more of a second plane type. Look at this forum [link=http://supercubclub.proboards78.com/index.cgi]Super Cub Club[/link] and [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=6193876]On this forum[/link], two super cub pilots stay near your area [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/community/profile.cfm?section=profile&forum=1&memid=270881]Sinai [/link] and [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/community/profile.cfm?section=profile&forum=1&memid=325865]davemac2 [/link]

friedclutch

Here's an update on my experiences with this plane.... Now that I've got quite a few flights in, I feel like I can offer some insight. This plane is nothing like what the LHS portrayed it as. "will climb out at a 45 degree angle... very manuverable.... more powerful than a SC.... experienced pilot will LOVE this plane....ect"

It looks great but needs mods to fly well. Any kind of aggressive flying and it slows and goes into a dive untill it builds speed again. Classic characteristics of an underpowered plane. Note that I've been flying in moderate/gusty wind. There is no doubt in my mind that the super cub is a better flying plane then this one. I saw a guy on line do three consecutive loops with a SC. This plane cannot even dream of a loop or simple roll unless you get really high up and build speed via a dive. I'm a seaoned vetran R/C pilot. I am disspointed in this plane but I dont feel that it was a complete waste of money like the aero bird swift was. Also note that I never have flown it in "still" conditions yet. I have 8 flights in so far on this cessna.

I moved the controll horns in to get as much throw as possible and now I feel like I'm a little more in control of the plane. Note that the plane is very small and any wind pattern what so ever adversly affects the plane. It is by no means a relaxing flight as I had hoped. For me.... my Stryker C at full throttle, on an inverted low alt fly by, is more predictable than this plane is. Once again note I still have not flown this plane in "still" conditions.

If you've crashed this plane... dont feel bad. I came real close, and I've been flying since highschool. (15yrs) It was only a matter of luck that I pulled out of a spirol in the wind. I'm still kicking myself for not getting the super cub even though the SC does not have ailerons. I did modify the battery bay on the cessna to accept swift/SC battery packs. (same volts and milli amp hours dang near the same). Now that I'm done listing the bads... Here are some "goods".

The plane looks great and the build quality is good. Flight characteristics suck.. But they're way better than a aerobird swift. <----(WASTE of money) The electronics are pretty good. All standard type reciever....ESC....servos. It is a four channel plane. Power system can be upgraded easily. A quick lesson for me here. The planes that have the huge internet following, really are the GOOD planes.. eg.. Stryker, typhoon, Super Cub, ect.

Bigtone

This is a vid of my stock Super Cub doing [link=http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=6584677]Loops[/link] with a cvs/rite aid camcorder on board. I also have two SC's with [link=http://supercubclub.proboards78.com/index.cgi?board=aelrns&action=display&thread=1170051722]4ch radio gear[/link] in them.

zeddfirstwizard

Hello all , I bought this plane and had A blast with it, for the whole 2hrs before it broke. Just as fried clutch said good looking quality(key word looking) just like you I didn't wanna toss my plane and insted did A rog takeoff or so I thought, put it in the ground floored it and what ya know it flips seems the wheels were to tight. Then loosen them up and try again flips again!!!!! The wheel cover hit the ground and did her in. Now i've got two crashes and i'm not even off the ground! My pretty plane ain't so pretty anymore! Anyway changed out the gear and finally got her up and away. After at least A 80 ft roll off and boy you're not kidden about under powered. Did one turn and lost 30ft of altitude. Upon closer inspection realized those baby flips had bent the motor shaft ever so slightly. That may have been your problem as you said you fliped it as well. So A thinner wallet and now she took off in 25-30ft and booked! Same motor size but what A difference! Rolls, consectative loops from level, waterfalls you name it I was able to do it. The trows on mine were right at 3/8 down to 7/16 up and this came factory and control was beautiful. Now the landing,,,,, if you ever get one of these you gotta bring it in hot way hot, about 25-30 mph otherwise that small wing is useless and she'll fall like A rock. Roll out is very long so don't plan on A short runway.You see I made that mistake my buddy had his yak on the long so I took the short fearing A dead stick situation oh yeah, hit the first foot of A 60 ft runway on the verge of A stall rolled all the way to the end, upon arival hit the grass flipped and broke the fuselage clean in half!!!!!!! Took the guts out and put them in A slow stick!! Two planes aint bad for under $200 now is it. Most will agree you are only really buying the guts in these kinda quickie jobs, they give you A plane if you think about it. And for $150 I could not have gotten A better radio and electronics so i'm happy and remember Just because you crash it don't mean you messd up blame it on the misses callin you on the cell while your flyin ,,,, she'll feel bad and you'll have A better time explaning that new purchase of yours !