i have been flying electric and am now looking for a glow plane for a while. i found a j-3 cub 80" arf plane at www.horizonhobby.com. i would like to know if this would be a good first glow plane? and if any one has this plane or similar, can u give me some info and what to expect?


thanks,
matt

If it's the hanger 9 cub, go for it. I have it. I first powered it with an O.S. .46 FX two stroke but is flew too fast for a cub. I later put in a saito .65 four banger. The cub is deseptive in that you see it as a high wing, flat bottom airfoil and would expect it to be real easy plane to fly however, I've stalled it more times than I can count. Rebuilt the tail and replaced the fuselage. Im starting to get the hang of it though. All my problems are not a result of the
model and don't let my experience discourage you, it is a nice plane, I just have a tendancy of trying to slow it down too much.

The Cub is a good place to start.I can't say about the specific brand you found but as a rule they are one of the easyest to fly out there. They are however tricky on takeoff. Since this will be your first glow plane remember to advance the throttle slowly and use some rudder till it leaves the ground. later daveo

I worked and flew for Piper for 8 years. The J3 ARF is usually a good model except for tip stall characteristics. If you put about 1 or 2 degrees of dihedral in each wing it will make a J3 model a lot more stable. If you put much more than that in it it will no longer appear scale. As long as it has barn door ailerons and some washout you can correct the tip stall bit. This is a common thing about J3 models that more or less proves that exact scale doesn't necessarily fly well as a model.

I forgot one thing. If you plan to put a pilot figure in your plane PLEASE put him in the back seat. I see too many models with the pilot in front. The Cub wasn't flown from the front seat until the PA11 which had 90 hp.

The tip stall can be cured by using rudder only at low speeds. those big ailerons have a ton of drag.
later daveo