Build update #3
Hello all, I got more done to it last night after the attending the club meeting for one of the local flying clubs. I had a good show and tell of the Cub in what was it’s current state. To feel you all in, I decided to swap out the ESC to a Swift 20A from the Super Tigre, that knocked off ½ an ounce! The weight as of the meeting time was 7.7 ounces! Which makes the wing loading 8.55 ounces.
Last night I decided to do my initial test flying and trimming with the smaller 430mah Venom 2 Cell LiPoly. This decreases the weight by another .6/.7 ounces. Well enough of those changes lets press on to the build items that was completed!
I installed the pushrods for the control surfaces, I went ahead and install guide tubes even though they were not called for and made a bracket to hold them in place. I slide on the control surfaces temporarily to cut the wires to length with a little bit extra for trim adjustments. I think that turned out very well.
After that was done, I drilled out a hole in the plywood landing gear bracket to pass the motor/esc wires through as well as the switch wire. I wished I would have done that before assembly! When I did swap out the ESC, I cut the leads down by about half to help avoid any extra wire bundles! As you can see from the pictures I need to make sure the bullet connects are fully seated! I used a small piece of foam tape to hold the wires down next to the motor.
I mounted the receiver on the left side of the fuse at the top with a piece of double sided foam tape. I routed the long wire antenna down the side of the fuse and back to the pushrod bracket where I “sewed” it to the bracket. A little bit of thread is a lot lighter than a zip tie. You will also notice from the pictures that I also “sewed” the servo leads to one of the dowel cross brackets. After I made a few laps around the wires and dowel I put on a drop of thin CA to hold it in place. I did not CA the thread around the receiver wire.
Hooking up the receiver wasn’t too bad, a little tight and hard to see the labels, but very doable! I did use one zip tie to bundle up the receiver wires. I relocated the ESC to be farther to the left side of the fuse bottom. This left just enough space to “squeeze” in the 430mah batter vertically down the side of the right fuse. It fits in there “as snug as a bug in a rug” and the wing fits on perfectly like that. If I decide to use the larger battery the dowel rods are still in place for it!
Yesterday I did get the decals put on, they turned out very nicely! I had a friend print out the Cub image on sticker material. He matched the yellow around the Cub image as close a possible to my covering. Unless you are within a few feet you will not see the difference!
I have only a couple of more things to do. They are mounting the control surfaces, paint and mount the dummy engines. Then last but very important make sure the CG is right where it needs to be! If all goes well I’m planning on test flying it this weekend! Hopefully I will have some video of it I can post!
My flight goals is once I have it flying well is to have it trimmed so that it flies on ¼ to 1/3<sup>rd</sup> throttle straight and level and have power to maintain altitude during turns. Then if you want to loop it, just increase power and pull. In short, I want the final trim so that when it comes to landing, just throttle back, point it into the wind and let it settle in on it’s own through ground effect for a nice, soft landing with minimal elevator input!
I hope you have enjoyed these notes as much as I have had building this plane!
Also can you tell which controller is for use with the Cub????
Until the next update,
Bill