Modeltech Cap-21 arc
 

Anyone have experiance with one of these? Looks good in the box. I think it is for 40-60 size engines. Cowl is balsa,not sure if I like that or not, but it should work ok. Wings are fully sheeted,along with the fuse. LHS has one for 159 bucks. I am sure it is out of production, should I pass on this one or pass it up? What do you all think? Thanks

Cap 21
 

Had one years ago with OS .50. Plane was very snap happy. Also, if I remember correctly, the landing gear mounts in the wing were very weak. Just a couple of small pieces of ply glued to the foam cores with no support. The gear itself was very soft too and would bend even on the good landings.
On the plus side, it goes together easy and fliew quite well as long as you did not over control the elevator or slow it down too much. I had many flights on mine before the radio quite working on me one day. I glassed the inside and outside of the wooden cowl and painted it. It held up just fine. cbk

Modeltech Cap-21 arc
 

Just my $.02 but i think he's asking about $30.00 to much for an out of production plane and a balsa cowl to boot. Lots of nice Cap ARF's out there tho' not that model. Caps are good planes but not forgiving in a stall. Cap 21 is a neat looking plane,so if you MUST have it try to get the LHS to come down on the price. Tom

Re: Cap 21
 

MeThinks you are partially right and partially wrong: I believe the landing gear is made from a softer grade of aluminum. Like many kits of its vintage, this could probably stand replacement with a gear made of a stiffer grade of aluminum ... TNT Products makes excellent ones. Moving the replacement gear to fuselage mounting forward of the wing would also probably be a good "hack"

As for snap rolls with exaggerated control inputs: as the previous poster noted, the plane is designed for aerobatic manuevers and has a double or triple tapered wing. This means it snaps and spins easily, the amount of control throw should be adjusted at low rates to allow smooth control at lower speeds/more sedate manuevers, and care taken to keep the speed up during landings .... standard aerobatic fare. Its stall characteristics are not nearly as severe as say, the GP CAP231EX

The kit itself is well done ... as are most of Model Tech's products. I auctioned the one in the picture on eBay this past February, and it went for $130 delivered.

$159 is/was the "street price" before all of Model Tech's line of ARC's were discontinued in favor of ARF's.

So the previous poster is also probably correct that the current market value is somewhat below what your LHS is asking.

Modeltech Cap-21 arc
 

I put a TS 75 in mine and 1/2" wider ailerons and it was a blast.Had to bring it in a little fast but it was not to bad.Was very capable and could do some wild stuff with it.I would pay maby 130 for it unless i had to have it.I wish there were more arcs so i could cover them the way i want.A lot of the snap goes away if you program in some up aileron with up elevater.I ran 2 servos on my wing(burnt lead passages with hot screw driver before putting wing together.)so i could do this.It is a cool looking plane when finished.Mine had a low knife edge acident with a tree.The landing gear are no good,I put one piece gear on mine.

Modeltech Cap-21 arc
 

When Hobby Shack/People discontiued these, they blew them out at $79. Seen them on eBay for less than $100. Just something to compare with.

Modeltech Cap-21 arc
 

I flew one for two years almost every weekend. incredible knife-edge performance. I also taught my brother to fly on the airplane. the soft landing gear have actually saved my plane. on final approach about 3ft up some idiot turned on and shot me down. Hit on the gear, they folded flat and left two little rubber marks on the monokote. The airplane is worth the money.

RE: Modeltech Cap-21 arc
 

hi i like to know if anyone still have the plans to the model tech 21 i had a
flooding here while back and well the booklets were ruinted plane is fine had it
at a different level, i was wondering if u still have the plan booklets so i
can finish the plane like the angle for the firewall for the diffferent motor
please email me back [email protected] my kit is the ARF version

thank you
mike

RE: Modeltech Cap-21 arc
 

Booger ... they don call it the Snap King for no reason ...

Comet - my pal has it NIB, I will try to see if I can scan it for u. Give me a few days and please PM me to remind me!

RE: Modeltech Cap-21 arc
 

I believe my Brother has one of these NIB. He'd probably let it go pretty cheap. If your interested, PM me.

Gary

RE: Modeltech Cap-21 arc
 

Ahh the Modeltech Snap. ;) I had one.. Snappy is the word of the day with this plane..

RE: Modeltech Cap-21 arc
 

$159 seems very pricey for this plane. I bought one on ebay a few years ago (i think for much less). It is a well-built plane -- foam-sheeted wings and fully sheeted fuselage. The instructions are terrible. They contain absolutely no photos, only a list of tasks -- "1. Assemble plane. 2. Install suitable radio and engine. 3. Fly." The landing gear is made up of two separate aluminum pieces that bolt into a hardwood piece inserted into the foam wings. I did not have a problem with mine, but they seemed weak. I flew the plane with an os61fx, which was more than enough power and still required quite a bit of noseweight. The plane looked good when finished and flew ok. It rolled very well, but it's heavy for its size and needed some speed to fly. It tip-stalled pretty severely, especially in loops, even with the recommended elevator throw. Overall, I say life is too short -- for $159 you can get a more modern design that is lighter, flies better, and is more fun. Even if the plane were much cheaper, I'd pass.

RE: Modeltech Cap-21 arc
 

For $159 there are a ton of MUCH NICER options.. UCD3D, Funtana, etc..

RE: Modeltech Cap-21 arc
 

The Snap-21 my favorite plane of the 80's. Plastered one when the radio quit in a airshow, never seen so many pieces of balsa and foam fly. The second one is, well still in the cellar. It is at least 20 yrs old hasn't flown in about 4yrs. I pulled the covering off to recover and found so much oil that it wasn't worth it. I was given a new kit this fall so all is well. I will put it on a slight weight watcher program and then build.
I think this plane is quite stable when flown accordingly, just can't hammer it around like the newer ones.
For that much money I would opt to go more funtana or something. Maybe look at the BME cap as they will be much more stable. However, I haven't seen another plane that will snap as true, straight, and faaaasssttt as this little cap.

RE: Modeltech Cap-21 arc
 

Looks like I got a good deal on mine....$40.00 .40 to .60 or 59" Wingspan
I am going electric Monster 110 and 85HV castle creations.
Following the color scheme of a newer competition full size plane.
When I get it built I will post a picture.
Did someone still need a copy of the construction planes?
Not that good of instructions. But, I would scan them and email if someone needs them. (4 free)
allelectric50

RE: Modeltech Cap-21 arc
 

I had one years ago with an OS 60 on it. yes the entire wing is weak not just the gear mounts, but the gear are real soft aluminum. It does snaps very well even when unintended. with that said mine would fly knife edge the length of the field with no coupling. fun airplane. it also will do the pancake, pull the airplane vertical and then go into an outside snap. the plane would make three revolutions, like a flat spin, but not going up or down, just a pancake in the sky.

RE: Modeltech Cap-21 arc
 

my dad built one of those in the 90's with an os 91....man it was snappy...it flew like crap....i think this is the plane that gave the Cap a bad rep....it was a tip stallin *****

I will start building mine tonight.

I built mine 4 years ago.
Still looks new and I love it and fly it very frequently.
Good luck with your build!

http://www.rcmf.co.uk/4um/span-style...554/#msg997554

I had one years ago. It was the larger one and I flew it with a Super Tigre 2500.Out of the box I thought it was well built and ready to cover but as mentioned here before..it was snappy so keep your speed up.

Erez,

I had already read your article "A simple CAP 21". In fact, I have it as a reference, and it helped me to decide buying this model, so now I have the opportunity to thank you. Mine is the same model as yours and, of course, I'll try to keep it as simple as possible. I'll certainly follow some of your construction tips, like the pull pull system for the rudder. I will install a 55ax, which I believe will deliver more than enough power without beefing it up. I'll have to keep the wood cowl cause it is not easy to find a fiberglass replacement here in Brazil. Not sure yet if using two servos for the ailerons is a good mod, I don't like the idea of digging the wing foam. What do you think?


Regards,

Leonardo

Pacoflyer,


Thank you for your advice. I understand this model demands a very respectful and concerned pilot, so it will be. I really want to make it last.

Regards,

Leonardo

Hi Leonardo,

One aileron servo is certainly enough.
I did this using standard strip-aileron torque rods and one central standard servo.
I agree there is no need to dig into the foam for two servos.

Also, if you keep the weight down (check my thread for numbers) you will find that with low rates and some expo on aileron and elevator, this model's low speed performance is like a standard low-wing trainer. It lands very slowly and not once did I get an unintentional snap.
I suspect that those that have experienced this, had this happen due to excessive wing loading, aft CG, and maybe also extreme aileron movements. I find the model is easier to land than a low-wing trainer.

The wood cowl is good. Fuel proof it well and you will have no problems. I think it absorbs engine noise better than a plastic or f/g cowl.
The .55 engine will be very suitable.

Thank you very much, Erez,

I´ll follow your tips. Soon I´ll post some pictures of the construction.

Regards,

Leonardo

She´ll be ready for xmas.http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2131951http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2131952http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2131953http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2131954http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2131955http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2131956