RCU Forums - View Single Post - Citabria Pro by Balsa USA
View Single Post
Old 06-13-2004 | 02:19 AM
  #114  
Shogun
Senior Member
My Feedback: (2)
 
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 930
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
From: Omaha, NE
Default RE: Citabria Pro by Balsa USA

Outstanding! That has to be the best thing I have read all day, thanks for the report and congrats.

All the C-Pro talk lately got me to pull mine out and wax it up in prep for the first flights of this year, possibly tomorrow. The guys love it when the old 1.60 starts up and kicks out a sound like a real aircraft on a low fly-by.

For set up get as much upward aileron travel as possible without giving away servo torque by moving the clevis too far out on the servo arms or too far in on the horns. I have mine with about 1.5" of up travel and they deflect downward about 3/4"(differential), this may sound extreme but it's not at all. The plane rolls pretty slow with the high wing and small ailerons and if you set it up as I described it will fly a lot like most any other plane with nice control feel, not sluggish but not by any means lightning fast.

Get all of the throw on the rudder you can, mine come within 1/16" of the elevator. Elevator is the only touchy control and will depend on your tastes and CG as to where it winds up. A good starting point is what's in the book. I think my low rates for the elevator are a bit less that what the book calls for and are plenty. I hardly ever use high rate on the elevator because it will snap the plane hard if I even think about flipping the switch into that position!

The only other thing to be aware of is to NOT slam the throttle on take off. You MUST ease into it and get the tail up and flying before lift off or it's going to be a wild ride. Landings are a non event if a bit of power is left in on approach. This is perhaps my favorite aspect of this plane since the gear springs a bit and the whole thing bobbles a little as it lands on the mains first followed by the tail. You really have to see it landing to appreciate what I am talking about, it looks like a real plane setting down.

You'll see......