beaver180

My Feedback: (10)

G'Day there Merv,

Recommends a 50cc motor LOL IMHO, maybe the weight of one plus some...?

Up front I have the Saito 180 FS, a weighty prop nut under the Ali spinner, 6 "C" cells ( 2 for onboard glow, 4 for RX mounted close az to the firewall ) which wasn't enough! I added to the front of the engine mount about 20oz of lead too. Oh and I have the big tyres ( "tires" to you folk ) on too.

Tried the ail/diff I wasn't too fussed, maybe the way I fly? but I have had great success with adding 10% rudder to the ailerons. I have this on a switch so that I can learn to fly " properly"

I'll just check my Futaba 9CAP/S radio config and get to you soon Merv.

MAC540513

Hi Paul,

I just finished the maiden flight on my Citabria, it flew great, had to ad about 3 klicks of up elevator and one of right rudder and right aileron. My dry CG is 91 mm. I have about 5 mm differential on the ailerons. It turned with the use of the rudder without any problem, found I had to use a little cross control with the aileron and rudder if I used too much rudder input. The Zenoah 26 pulls it around on about 1/2 throttle, it will take off with about 1/3 throttle but is a little sluggish there. Only did one loop and a few figure 8s along with some scale circuits. It flys great.

I do noty know if I willget to fly tomorrow as it is Mother's day and I need to keep the better half in a good mood.

Talk to you later.

Merv

MAC540513

HI Paul,

I managed to get out flying again today, got a couple of flights in. Still learning how this unit handles, I found it a little twichy in the controls so I increased the expo on aileron, and rudder. The G26ei hauls it around without any problem. Today was a bit of a strange day for flying at our field, the wind was going from 0 to about 25 Km/h and switching direction continuously. You would take off into the wind on the north south runway and then have to land on the east west runway. I am hoping to fly it on a calm day so that I can get it completely trimmed without any affect from the wind. I think you mentioned that the landing gear was a little weak, I agree on my last landing I came in a little hard and had to straighten it after []. no damage to the plane only a little bend in the gear. I was thinking about adding some springs like on the cub but it would take it farther from scale than it already is. I checked the gear on the full size ones and it appears that they are made of spring steel without any cross links like on the cub.

Well I had better go for now.

Talk to you later

Merv

beaver180

My Feedback: (10)

Well done Merv.... great to hear of a second KMP Citabria airbourne.

I'm not too troubled with my landing gear, even though I hung some huge 6 inch Dubro inflatables ( helped get the CG forward more too ) off the gear they have withstood some two good plonking downs. Having only bent them alittle, though now I think about it... I've not added any air to those tyres so they would absorb a heck of a lot more shock from any hardish landings.

Did you swap out the stock wheels?? or add the pants??

Now merv where yer pictures?? love to see her....

Chow for now,
Paul

MAC540513

Paul,

I changed the wheels for some Dubro 4.5" ones without the wheel pants all though the wheel pants will fit these wheels. I may install 5 or 6" inflatables as I like how yours look. I will post some pictures in a couple of days. My camera takes 6 mb photos so I have to resize them for posting.

Keep flying

Merv

MAC540513

Paul,

I managed to get a couple more flights on the Citabria since I last spoke to you. It is flying great. I have deadened my controls with about 40% exponential to tame my dumb thumbs and make the flying less scary. The plane flys great, the pilot is still getting used to controlling it smoothly. Still having a few problems with the landings but that is my problem not the planes and the aluminum gear is easy to straighten when you bump a little too hard. I will get it worked out. I will post a couple of photos, one is with a Piper Pawnee that I maidened last Saturday as well. One photo is with it beside a Cub owned by another member of our club.

Merv

MAC540513

Just an update on my Citabria, it is still flying even though I had one hard landing from a dead stick and short runway. No damage to the airframe, only had to straighten the landing gear aand the muffler extension. When I checked the engine out I found the mounting bolts had come loose. Rookie mistake, I check their tightness before every flight now. Chenged the wheels to 5" inflatable big wheels, looks good and handled well. Thanks for the idea Paul.
I will try and get some photos of it flying and post them later.
Is your unit still flying??

Merv

flybabyg38

My Feedback: (18)

Very interested in this plane I have a crrc 40cc engine that is very light and seems to be very strong running. I think it would make a good engine for this plane it looks like this model is needing nose weight. Need to know what is the distance from fire wall to end of cowl with cowl as far foward as possible and stil be able to mount it to plane. Thanks Tim

flybabyg38

My Feedback: (18)

Hello anybody out there

MAC540513

TO Flybabyg38, I will measure the distance later today and post it. I was going to do it yesterday but forgot sorry.

flybabyg38

My Feedback: (18)

Thank you very much also found out that they are going to be out of stock till September. that sucks

MAC540513

I measured the maximum distance you can push the cowl out and fount it to be about 6.25 inches and still have enough left to mount to the extensions on the firewall. Hope this helps. Good luck.

flybabyg38

My Feedback: (18)

thanks so very much Tim

beaver180

My Feedback: (10)

Hiya Merv,

Guess I must have deleted my email responces to this thread somehow.... Great job on your successful flights. Now all you need is a nice True Turn 2 3/4 inch spinner of the nose

I've just worked out how to put some short video on youtube. Enjoy these...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEyzz-ftdAI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruRgAKqIVdU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nioFluF1Jd4

SunShyne

My Feedback: (68)

great videos, the airplane looks really nice and it flies well. For the price it seems you really get a quality model. Shame its not as popular

MAC540513

Hi Paul,

Your video looks good, I will try and get some of my plane next time I fly if someone is at the field when I am there. I will post some more pictures in the next few days, so far they are all on the ground, I will try and get some with it flying.

Keep your wings level

Merv

beaver180

My Feedback: (10)

Hiya Tim,

I would, instead of extending out the cowl fully to cover your engine, think about cutting out some of the firewall and extending you motor into the plane some. I think I added some photos earlier in thread of a quite extensive fire wall cut-out that I did.

Hope this helps too.

Cheers, Paul

MAC540513

Hi Paul,

I managed to get out for a few more flights today with the Cetabria, unfortunately there was no one there to take any videos. The more I fly this plane the better I like it, how is yours doing? I installed 5" dubro big wheels on the landing gear and either I am getting better at landing or the wheels are a lot more forgiving than the ones I had on before as i have not had any more problems with bent gear.

Merv

RCSPORT FLYER

My Feedback: (11)

I don't remember who suggested the magnet trick for locating the blind nuts for the struts, in the wing, but thanks a lot. That saved a lot of time and effort. I used one of the small "super magnets "and it worked like a charm. The instruction booklet isn't much help at all. I had to install the landing gear backwards; that is, the leading edge of the gear slopes back.Looks a little strange.The only way I could figure out how to fasten the strut to the fuse was to run a tap through the landing gear hole where it lined up with the strut end. Now I can thread a 10-24 bolt in from the top and secure it. Does anybody know how it originally was supposed to be done? Thanks

beaver180

My Feedback: (10)

Guilty as charged... using the wee magnet saved alot of hit and miss probing with a needle.

Oh you can't have the landing gear round the wrong way [:'(] Mine didn't line up too hot either so I re drilled them out and used some 3/4" self tapper screws. I also enlarged the strut mounting hole to accept a larger screw too. See my pictures back in post #9

The balsa cover over the landing gear I held in place with a single screw in the centre. To attach the struts I flipped the plane over ( so was upside down ) and simply remove the cover and connected the struts and then screw the cover back on. Oh I recovered the landing gear cover to hide the bolt access holes that looked yuck. The cover also held the strut bolts in place... so I didn't have to screw them in.

Suggest you take note of my CoG placement.. it may be abit far forward for some ( worked out great for me ) but it is WAY BETTER than trying to fly a maiden with a horribly tail heavy bird!

In my biuld I swapped out all the control hardware and used Sullivan carbon golden rods for the tail and used 4/40 links for the ailerons. My personal thoughts were the thin wire stuff would be too light for use on this 1/4 City.

Let us know how you are getting on, am happy to help where I can.

Chow for now, Paul

MAC540513

Hi Paul,
Thought I would let you know that I have been palying with my CG, I originaly had it at 96 mm from the leading edge and the Citabria flew fine, lately I have been expeimenting with some arobatic moves specifically flat spins. I was only able to get it to do it once and still don'e know how I did it. One of the senoir pilots at my club suggested that maybe my plane was too nose heavy. I moved the CG back to 100 mm from the leading edge. I flew the plane today without any adverse effect, it stilll handles great but it did not help with the flat spin although I did notice that it rolls a lot better. I will probably move it back to 105mm before I fly again. As to get the CG at 96 mm I had put all the weight I could on the front of the fiirewall and then finished it with 6.5 oz just behind the wind screen I was able to lighten it by the 6.5 oz when I adjusted it 100 mm. It now weighs in at 18.5 lbs. I hope to lighten it a little more when I move the cg to 105.
This is a great flying plane, I will let you know how I do with the next test.

Keep your wings level and always land on the wheels.

Merv

MAC540513

With regard to the landing gear, I also redrilled the holes to get them the right way around. To get the holes in the right place, I installed the gear in the slots in the fuse and used a pencil to mark the locations and then drilled the holes out on a drill press. I then replace the philips head screws with socket head bolts and was able to use the factory installed blind nuts to tighten everything in place. I also used longer bolts for the strut mounts and a self locking nylock not to hold them when I mount the wing. It is a bit of a pain to get the nuts in place as my electronic ignition makes it hard to start them but I use a small magnetic retrieving tool to start them and tighten them with a nut driver.

Merv

beaver180

My Feedback: (10)

Nice one Merv

Gotta get someone to do a wee video for you to post now...

I'm having a bash at a Cessna 185 build now, a full-size Citabria pilot bought mine for a display model as he liked it so much. He owns a Super Cub on tundra wheels that he will take me for a spin and river bed landings in so I couldn't refuse selling

Here's a picture of it...

RCSPORT FLYER

My Feedback: (11)

I flew the Citabria for the first time yesterday. I balanced it on the main spar to where the nose dropped just slightly.It flew just about like my previous Citabrias. Rudder needs to be used with ailerons on turns. This thing floats forever on landing.I made four deadstick landings and had no problems . I did have to dial in some down trim to land. Does anyone know if the struts are necessary or are they more for looks?

MAC540513

Great to hear you had success with your first flights. With regard to the struts I do not know if they are required for mechanical integrity but I do know that they help to keep the wings in place if you accidently forget to tighten the wing bolts.