Got her in the air today!!!
Wind was about 5 km/h all day, of course after I got the Cub put together it was gusting 28 km/h and switching directions all over the place. The only place that I had to test fly was a narrow paved road with deep ditches on both sides. I almost packed it up, but decided to do some taxi tests since it was all together. It's a little squirrely on the cement, but much better than my .90 H9 Christen Eagle. Grass should be no problems at all with the big tires, and stock wheels should be great on the cement. The wind died down while I was taxi testing so I punched it and she instantly lept into the air! [8D]
My power system (approx 2300 watts the way it is propped) is more than enough for the big cub. It will loop from level and will climb almost vertically, but at a snails pace. Scale flying is at 1/3 to half throttle. My plane feels very draggy, and anything above 3/4 throttle added lots of noise without much of a gain in speed. Remember that I have a bunch of vortex generators on there that add to the drag though.
I tried some stalls, and when the wind was calm I was able to slowly add full elevator and with a touch of throttle I could fight off the stall with the ailerons. It was wing rocking BIG time, but didn't go into a spin on it's own. Just a touch of rudder or a gust of wind would put it into a spin when doing that. Still better than any Cub that I have flown...most that I've flown enter a spin with only too much elevator. Spin recovery involved just letting go of the sticks and it would recover in about half a turn, allowing for a gentle pull back to level. Very predictable, and has to be forced into a spin. The wind picked up again after I got in the air, and with flaps I could get it to stay still and almost fly backwards. Turns with or without flaps could be done super slow, and as long as I had any power on at all she did not try to spin on me. If you have this one spin out in a corner you deserved it. Like all Cubs it likes lots of rudder in the turns.
Landing was very tricky with the major cross wind and small width landing area that I had to deal with. I was able to crab it in, and with only a touch of flap I was able to drag it in until it was half a foot off of the ground and keep pulling on the elevator until it fianlly stalled. When it finally stalled it was going about a jogging pace and would have stopped in a few plane lengths if I was on grass. On cement the big wheels don't want to stop though. The Cub was going so slow when it finally stopped flying that the ailerons weren't effective anymore. Unfortunately that didn't work out very well with the cross wind and both times I dragged a wing tip on the cement. Nothing major, just a few scuffs.
All in all I'm very impressed with the Cub and it was everything that I was hoping for. Even with the big heavy tundra tires it floats like a dream and looks very scale in the air...I hate those Cubs that have to be flown at scale Mustang speeds! I had my timer set for 5 minutes, and my packs (3800 8s) were at 60% and 50% when done. I can't wait to try it on a calm day and see what those VG's will really do. I love the way it is and wouldn't change a thing though...except for maybe bigger packs so I don't have to stop flying it as often!
