JMcRae

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Hi everyone. Just thought I would post the build of my baby Cub. It has been way too hot these last few days to work in the garage so my PBM project has been put on hold for a few days until it cools down which brings me to this little office desk project. I scaled down my set of GP .20 size cub plans to a 40" span electric powered version to fly at a pond a few blocks from my house (that and being small makes the evidence of a new plane project a lot easier to hide from the missus). Having no idea about electric power I thought this would be a good starter plane. I'm leaning towards powering it with something GWS makes because I like the price of their stuff. Any suggestions would be great. It will also probably have NiCads to start off with (I know, hold your smirks please). I really don't have a guestimate on how much it will weigh (I'm really bad at that) but I don't think it will weigh more than 15oz with the floats on it. The fuse and tail has been built using light 1/16 sheet. I chose to just add lightening holes (there will be more in the tail area too) instead of doing a more complicated built up meathod to save time. The floats will be Edo shaped, hollowed pink foam covered in tissue and dope. I'm also going to do "scale like" rigging for the floats. The covering will probably be the tissue like Coverite (can't remember the name of the stuff) unless I can find that add I found for lightweight, iron on, covering with the adhesive already on it. I'm hoping to have it done in a few days. After all, it only took me 2.5 hours to get to this stage!! Here's some picks

JMcRae

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Here's a 12" ruler and an Xacto for size reference

retransit

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Hey Jesse, good to see that you haven't been overcome in the garage sauna. I was wondering what happened to you.
Nice looking plane. It so happens the October issue of Fly RC has a set of plans by Dave Patrick for a Super Cub with a 47.67" span and 17.5 oz. weight. I had them Kinko'd at 250% to produce the full size plan. Flies with GWS 350C-B motor and gear drive. Would be interesting with floats. They call for Apogee 2S 830 mAh li-Po's. The only thing I need now is some time.

Bob

retransit

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Jesse, you might try NELSON LiteFilm (www.nelsonhobby.com) as a covering.

Bob

JMcRae

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Is it iron on? The name rings a bell. Here's the completed fuse and cowl. I did most of the wing tonight. I ran out of 1/16 sheet so I'll have to finish it tomorrow. I still have to sheet from the LE up to the spar and make the ailerons. I would have to guess that the whole thing weighs around 2-3oz at this point. I've done pretty much every precaution I could make to keep the weight off.

retransit

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In reference to the last picture: Now I know why they call them remote control!


Bob

retransit

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As for the LiteFilm being iron on, the answer is yes. Check out the website.

Bob

NickC5FE

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Darn jesse, since i saw you last at 2100 last night, you have got alot done. Nice looking wing. I passed my final Instrument Stage Check, need to know if youd like to go flying today. One last time before my check ride. Call me, Nick

JMcRae

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Well, here's some more for you to check out later today Nick (It's 3:30 AM right now[[X(]). Tonight I shaped the floats and did the rigging. Boy what a pain in the ass that rigging was!!!!! I probably spent two hours on it. It took me 30 minutes to shape the floats and I decided to go with some white foam that was laying around. It's lighter than the pink stuff and since they're going to be covered anyway, I didn't see the point in using pink. I also covered the music wire with some 1/16 to make it look more scale. I used some picks from Airliners.net to get the basic configuration and dimensions. It seems that there are two different styles of full scale Cub rigging. Apparently there is short legged and long legged setup. I went with the long legged setup because, for one, I think it looks better, and two, I wanted the extra prop clearance. All the building I have left is to sheet the LE, cut out the ailerons, and make the gear mounts. I'll probably do that tomorrow along with routing some pushrods.

wascamp

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Jesse, I must ask, What are you using to make such beautiful cutouts? Your work looks lazer cut. Please share your secret. Good, fast, and cheap. Impossable. Man but you do good work.
Roger

JMcRae

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Thanks for the compliment. "Good"- well it's good enough for me. "Fast"- I started it a week ago and took 3 days off along with a visit to the hospital due to being bit by a Brown Recluse (spelling?) spider and I haven't been feeling too good since saturday. "Cheap"- I've got $32.00 into it. As to cutting everything out, no secret really, just a template, a new #11 blade, a little sandpaper, and patience. As of tonight the Cub is almost done. I covered it with Coverlite and powered it with a GWS EPS-350C with a 6.60:1 gear ratio and a 1070 prop. According to GWS's performance sheet this thing should pretty much hover on 10.8 volts. I don't have a scale but I'm sure it doesn't weigh more than 15 oz. It has 232 sq in of wing area so it should fly "like a cub". The only stuff left to do is to run the rudder pushrod and mount the rudder servo, hinge the surfaces, cover and mount the floats, make the windscreen and battery mount, and paint the white sunburst. I hope to finish it tomorrow (minus the paint). I'm waiting on a Lipo pack but I'm pretty sure I can use a buddy's NiMh to give it a test flight. Here's some pics.

JMcRae

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Also, the covering is nearly as transparent as the picture makes it out to be.

Bob- did you make it through the last 2 hurricanes ok?

retransit

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Nice looking Cub Jesse. Fast build!
No damage from the last one, Jeanne. Had to clear some fallen trees from our club field access road though. Two port-a-potties were down and some P.A. speakers have disappeared. Probably in the brush somewhere.
My damage was from #2, Frances. 2/3 of the pool enclosure has to be replaced; $6800 estimate.
To show you how some businesses react, U-Haul wants $650 for a 26 foot truck rental one way to Atlanta. After labor Day, when rates go down (less moving in the fall and winter) they quoted my son $450 for his move to Atlanta. Nice huh?

Bob

JMcRae

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Well, it's done (minus paint) an I got my Lipo pack. I don't have a scale but I'm sure it doesn't weigh more than 13 oz. I'm running a 11.1 volt 730MA thunderpower pack with a 5 amp GWS ESC. It hovers on 1/2 throttle with the floats on!!!!! Can someone please tell me if this is an OK setup since I have no idea about this electric stuff other than what a few other people have told me. I guess I overpowered it a little but how was I to know, this is my first electric airplane . I have to admit that the lipo pack kind of scares me. I've heard of a lot of horror stories and I'm a little worried but I'm sure it will go away as soon as I get used to it. I'm going to go buy a ceramic pot today to charge it in. I'm using a hobbico MKII field charger (once again can someone tell me if this is a safe way to charge it or not) and it charges the pack in about an hour at 0.8 amps. I also need to know if the GWS esc has a low voltage cutoff that is safe for Lipo's. I know it has a cutoff but I'm not sure if it is Lipo safe. Thanks!!!

Bob- Glad to hear you made it through unscathed. I hope insurance will cover your patio cover. I'm going to get back to the Mariner this weekend. The hull is done, minus 3 or 4 tiny spots to fill. I'm going to start on the wing tomorrow. Have you gotten anything done on yours?

JMcRae

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Wish me luck on the maiden as it's going to be in a few hours

Bud Faulkner

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bit by a Brown Recluse.........

I got bit by one of those rascals in Vicksburg Miss. in 1975 and didn't know what the problem was for about three day's and finally limped to the hospital with what felt like a hot knife in my leg, doctor took one look and yelled "MY GOD" scared me more than the bite. That's when I found out what bit me. Nasty little suckers.

JMcRae

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Yep, got to respect something that is one millionth your mass but can still put you on your ***** in a second. I went to the hospital after about 18 hours. Boy my back hurt like hell. I got bit about three inches above my tailbone and I couldn't sit or lay down the entire day until I got a shot and pain killers from the doc. When my kidneys started hurting is when I called my mom and asked her for her advice which was "go to the hospital". It is still sore after 5 days.

Anyways...........IT FLEW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And rather well I might add. The only glitch with the flight was that my aileron servo quit on me but I just kept flying it with rudder. The thing floats like a glider. I honestly didn't expect it to perform as well as it did. It leaped of the water in 10 feet and at half throttle. It flys around comfortably at around 1/3 throttle and full throttle is a little scary. I'm going back to the pond in an hour or so after I finish the servo swap and add in a touch of down thrust. I'll get Nick to get some in flight pics.

NickC5FE

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Heres a pic on the water, no inflights due to the fact that the pilot didnt listen to his spotter and flew into a tree.......damaging the rudder. DUMBAS#. I will never let it down dude! "GO UP GO UP GO UP, WHY?..........SMACK. = Last few seconds on the Flight data recorder ;-)

retransit

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At what altitude was that tree flying at?

Bob

JMcRae

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Thanks Man (Jerk)!!!!! Yep I flew into a tree. But what you all need to realize is that I was testing it's crash survivability !!!! Hey Nick, you didn't mention that YOU were the first one to crash it . Tip stalled it into the ground but there was no damage except to one wingtip that I wanted to recover anyways. I thought this thing would be reduced to a pile of splintered balsa if it was hit by a little wind but once again, I proved myself wrong. Anyways, today I got another flight on it. It flew great and it handled a lot better on the water with the addition of a water rudder that I made last night. Still no inflight picks. I promise I'll get some tomorrow.

akflyer

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Just to let you know, if you are flying the GWS motor on a 3 cell pack, then dont expect to get more than 15-20 flights on it before it burns out. You could go to something like a 2 cell 1200 and get ALOT longer flight times (15-20 minutes of cruising). The GWS speed control WILL NOT cut out at the proper voltage for the 3 cell pack. If you fly it till the speed control cuts out then plan on buying a new battery. You can get a Lipo saver and put in and that will do the trick for you. I have about every GWS plane and engine combo there is so I am well versed in the do's and dont's of keeping the motors alive