Cessna172

Hello

I haven't been on here in a long time I am going back to school tomarrow from Christmas Break.

Saturday I took my U-CAN-DO-3d out to the field to fly it. The weather was perfect for the first flight.
I started up the Saito 91 it sounded great. I took off at quater throttle and climbed out at half. The plane
hovers,knife edges,loops, and every thing else. The plane really flies good.

The one thing that really makes me mad is that Great Planes didn't take the time to build up the landing gear block.
As I turned final the plane slowed way down and I touched the runway real soft. The Gear fell right off.
I will be back in the air though in the next day or so. This time is won't come off at all.

Next time Im going to start trying some 3d.


Cessna172

MikeEast

My Feedback: (3)

Yeah I like mine a lot.
I have landed mine real hard and havent had any problems at all with landing gear. However a friend has one and he had some of the structural joints separate but not break during a hard landing. He just went back and epoxied everything really well and no more problems at all.

THE KID

i just got my ucd 3 days agop..i hope i like it.

MikeEast

My Feedback: (3)

Kid,
Only thing I might consider changing if I were you is going to heavier pushrods. Especially on the rudder. I went to 4-40 everywhere and I still bend the rudder pushrod. I upgraded to carbon fiber pushrods today on the rudder and elevators, we will see if I can bend those bad boys.

jimr

Plane flies great but have also had problems. First cowl and wheel pants came through with badly cracked paint. GP replaced them fairly quickly. Second set were better but still showed cracks - after a little flying things got worse. Biggest problem was with landing gear. Landed the plane very smoothly on an ashphalt strip, after the plane slowed, turned it around to taxi back - the landing gear ripped right out of the bottom of the plane and went up through the wings (of course it really messed up the new set of wheel pants) as well as taking out a corner of the fuse. Upon examination there was signs of good adhesion of the landing gear mount on a strip about 1" long - very poor glueing. Ceratinly not adequate for a plane of this size and weight. I ended up glueing the mount back in and fiberglassing it. Called GP, they agreed to replace the wing - waited and waited and waited, called back and they had not even shipped. When I finally got the new wing it did not include a new belly pan. Can't wait to try and remove the old belly pan from the first wing without damaging it!

bentgear

Now BigNed, you know its after the 1-1-04 [&o] and you are not supposed to be in violation of Rule # 9

The 4/40 rod that was bending on the rudder, was it a solid rod or all thread?

Ed M.

adrian-RCU

[8D][:-][>:]some new pics just after the rain

antman450

When I built my UCD two weeks ago, I laid some thin fiberglass cloth on the landing gear block and then up the walls of the fus from the block to about half way up. I then epoxied it. You need to cut a hatch int he cockpit area, but that was fine by me, since I painted the cowl black and you can not see the hatch now.

In any case, yesterday I dead sticked and came in for a landing in the dirt a the end of the field. I did not realize i was on high rates and just as I was about to hit, i pulled up way too hard and the plane flew up about 20 feet at a very steep angle. I could not just float it back since i was running out of room and would have hit the building at the end of the field I fly at. So I pushed it down and put it in really hard. No damage. Not even a crack anywhere near the landing gear block. My gear bent upwards and looked like a "W". But, I bent it back and now it is as good as new.

Lesson learned: It's a good idea to fiberglass reinforce the gear block!!! That and, don't lean out your motor to where it will dead stick going into a hover. LOL

GarySS

My Feedback: (13)

Hey antman450,
How did you stick your fiberglass on? Did you use 30 minute epoxy? I first tried thin CA over my 6 ounce fiberglass, but it just peeled off like tried out masking tape. I guess it was the fuel proofing on the wood that prevented that from adhering. Then I used 30 minute epoxy after roughing up the wood as much as possible. It seems to be holding, but I have not flown mine yet. Thanx

antman450

Gary,
I just used some 30 minute epoxy. I tacked the clothed down with some thin CA and then covered it with epoxy. The epoxy will soak through the cloth and adhere to the wood. I also heated it with a heat gun so that it thins out a bit after applying it. I believe it helps to seep throught he cloth and into the wood.

outonalimb

i fiberglassed mine with 6min epoxy about a month ago and it has held up to some really hard harrier landings (even bent the p!ss out of the gear) and it's still holding strong. we've had some bad winds this winter.

MLC

My Feedback: (5)

Have they made any changes to current kits over the originals that had problems? Things like, the way they were packed that broke/crushed the wings, built in right thrust, etc?

AcroJo

My Feedback: (1)

The box that its packaged in now has light ply on the inner sides of the box. No right thrust, its compensated with an offset in the vert. stab. ( not enough ). The gear mount block is now pinned and they added light ply on either side of the fuse, inside where the wing bolt block is. Thats about it, Joe