Plastic Cessna ARF
 

Was in the LHS the other day, wanted something to beat around with. The owner had a ModelFly Cessna 177 ARF on the shelf, been there a looooong time. He played the Godfather thing on me (made me an offer I couldn't refuse) and I took it and a SuperTigre .61 home, I already had Rx and servos from my recently defunct DR-1. One of our club members had a smaller version a couple years ago, it was a nice flyer. This one has a 66-1/2 inch wingspan, .60-size.

This whole plane is PLASTIC; well, the horizontal tail has a single balsa stick inside for a spar, but everything else is ABS. This one also has floats as well as wheels, so I have another floatplane now. It took about two quick evenings, and the thing was ready to fly (I put the wheels on to maiden it). I took it to the field, ran two tanks through it to break it in and get it tuned, and took off; boy howdy did it take off! This thing is a little rocket, and very responsive. It also flies very docile at 1/3 throttle, and the .61 with an 11-7 prop will take it straight up as long as you want to go. It lands pretty fast, but I'm going to program in some flaperons and see how slow I can get it.

Needless to say, I'm impressed with this thing. The plastic skin is tough enough that you can really beat it around without worrying about hangar rash; the downside, I guess, is that when you do really ding it, it's more difficult to repair. The only thing I don't like is the big-***** muffler on the SuperTigre, it doesn't fit well on the plane (there is an indentation molded into the fuse for the muffler to sit) and this muffler interferes with the front struts for the floats. So....I spent a little more money today and ordered a Pitts style muffler for it. The ARF comes with a piece that fills in the indentation in case you use a Pitts muffler or mount a 4 stroke. I would have used a 4-stroke, but the only one I had available is a .91, too much power. But for what I gave for it, this is just what I was looking for--something to throw in the car when I don't have a lot of time to pack up the big stuff.

RE: Plastic Cessna ARF
 

I love my cessna! :)

It still looks brand new after many many hours of flight.
No wrinkles in the covereing on this plastic ARF

Great performance with a magnum GP 65 2 stroke, but i have since installed a ASP 65 4 stroke....just for the better sound ;)

RE: Plastic Cessna ARF
 

Pics of the kit

RE: Plastic Cessna ARF
 

last pics of mine ;)

RE: Plastic Cessna ARF
 

I like your red trim better than my blue. It was about 8 pm and kind of hazy when I was flying yesterday, and out past 300 yards, it was just a speck with nothing to show orientation. I plan to strip the stickers later and paint it in a red scheme I found on the Airliners website. I bought a TruTurn aluminum spinner for it, but the LHS didn't have the correct adapter for the prop shaft. I really wanted a 4 stroke, but was trying to get out as cheap as possible. Can't beat a .61 engine for $80. If I'd had a .72 at home, I would have used it.

Do you have flaperons programmed in? If so, does it slow it down much? This thing out to be a blast on floats, and with a little silicone sealer around the gear legs, pretty much waterproof. When you mount the floats, the nosewheel comes off and the front strut bracket screws in its place on the firewall. The water rudder is pull-pull and the wires go through the firewall, down the front strut, and back to the rear. That looked too busy for me, so I made a hatch on top of one float, right over the step, and buried a mini servo in the foam block that runs the length of the floats, and snaked a flex cable inside the float to the rear and hooked up the water rudder that way. Plugging in the servo should be a lot quicker than messing with the pull-pull wires. The hatch and cable exit got sealed with silicone. I'll probably leave it on floats most of the time during summer, we fly every week at our lake site.

RE: Plastic Cessna ARF
 

Bingo! That says it all right there! :D

And, what could be more perfect for a float plane that is going to get wet? I like this plane!

RE: Plastic Cessna ARF
 

Mine had an OS 91 in it and I Loved it. It fit a little snug and I never felt it was really over powered but then I liked to fly it about 1/2 power so I never really noticed. The 91 was great when the floats were on it and it was one super plane on floats. I still have my floats but I lost the plane a couple months ago, have NO idea what happened it just decided in a slow turn that it wanted to dive and it did and that's all she wrote. I really liked that plane and I will probably get another one, one of these days.

A couple things to watch for with the Cessna: Be carefull with your aerobatics, the wing joiner is only about 8' long and doesn't go into the wing as far as I think it should. I've folded 2 wings at that point because I played to hard, I never lost the plane but the wings buckeled at that point and then flexed back to where I could safely land. In fact one of the wings I continued to fly for touch and go's but I was really carefull with it.

The other thing is with the floats designed for the Model Fly planes: When installing the float mounts to the float you should open up the ' POST ' area bigger then the post and FILL it with glue so that it has something to grab onto. If you don't , all that holds the post is foam and it may not last. I dropped the front of a float while making an approach and ended up in the drink. When I got it back the post had pulled out, needless to say I pulled them all and fixed it right. I also suggest that you SCORE the post real good before putting them in.

You should have a ball with the Cessna or any Model fly plane. I've had them all and still have most and ENJOY them every time I take them out, some I've had for over 10 years. ENJOY !!! RED

RE: Plastic Cessna ARF
 

Got a video of mine....looong time ago :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqVchML2cKs

RE: Plastic Cessna ARF
 

Nice video, Sonnich. Enya was a good choice for soundtrack. too. Hopefully my Pitts muffler will get here today, and I can get the floats on (the SuperTigre muffler interferes with the front float struts). I'll try to video it at the lake.