I have a small trainer (TD) and a chloral plast (evestrough) plane, Do you think I'm ready for a Cap 232 kit.

Thanks, DT

It depends. IF you are reasonably skilled you may be OK. If you can fly the pattern INVERTED (rectangle, horizontal figure 8, etc ), then you MAY be OK with a SPORT SCALE Cap 232 ON LOW RATES.

I would not suggest a scale 232. They fly/handle differently than a sport scale.

If you have a simulator, set the wind to about 10 - 12 mph and at a 45 degree angle to the runway with gusts medium, then fly the Cap in the simulator. If you can successfully land the plane 3 times out of 5, then you should be OK. The sim will give you a pretty good idea of your abilities.

I agree that basis your very brief comment you probably are not ready for a Cap yet, at least not a true to scale Cap 232. As Campy said, a modified Cap that has a modified wing designed to be more forgiving would be fine if you have good solid basic flight skills.
How long have you been flying and what sort of skills have you developed? If you are just learning to fly and are not real and I mean real comfortable with loops, rolls, spins and such and fly aerobatics with pretty decent control then you better hold off. Also you need to be very proficient at taking off, and more importantly landing with skill and precision. Scale aerobatic planes are very unforgiving, especially if you slow them down too much. You cannot make mistakes on landings with a Cap, Edge, Extra, Yak, Sukhoi, Ultimate, Pitts etc. If you slow them down too much they will tipstall every time. This also holds true for warbirds like the P51, Spitfire, etc etc. I see so many guys that are okay at flying try to move up to these sorts of planes only to tear them up trying to land them, or stall them in flight when they try to make a slow turn to downwind like they did with a trainer only to see the plane fall out of the sky in a spiral dive.. Im not trying to scare you off, they are really easy to fly and actually fly just a WHOLE lot better than the 4stars, trainers, cubs, warbirds etc.. you just have to be absolutely certain that when you take on one of these sorts of planes you are prepared to handle the stall characteristics.

I saw a guy at a fly in a couple of months ago that had a 40% Carden Cap, Jets, and the whole 9 yards. He "looked" the part and apparently had money. But he took off this georgeous $8000 airplane and flew it around for about 10 minutes only to slow it down too much on a dead calm day. It was an absolutely routine dead calm landing and the guy slowed it down and you could see it slow down and start to hang,,,, it slowed down and sat there moving about 10mph wobbling for about 3 seconds 10' off the ground and then like clockwork, the nose and 1 wingtip dropped and WHACK. It hit on a wingtip and then the belly, smashed the landing gear, broke a $125 prop and probably did about $500 worth of damage. Point being, this guy is/was a pretty good pilot and obviously flew reasonably well. But these types of planes just present a whole new set of challenges to a pilot.

No way.
Go with the Sig 4 Star or Goldgerg Tiger

Hey,
I been flying a modified telemaster (3 channel) for about 3 months, and 2 channel gliders for about 6 months before that. I got a mini katana not long ago and flew it last sunday very nicely. Just before flying the katana, i flew a fun stick for about a month. Only a month ago, i started flying planes with ailerons

I also teach 2 people. My brother and the other, a person i meet at the school we fly at.
If you are going to build it, there are a couple of things that you must be able to do:

1.) YOU MUST BE ABLE TO TELL WHEN THE PLANE IS FLYING TO SLOW. A lot of beginners have trouble with this, but you pick it up the more you fly. I find this easy cause i first flew gliders. You should be able to watch anyone fly and be able to notice when the plane is flying to low.

2.) Fly your approach with power. Once you have trimmed you aircraft for straight and level at about 50%-70% power. Do your approach by reducing power, not by pushing nose down. On approach use power to adjust your aiming point, dont touch the elevator (on calm days, on windy days you will have to use elevator as well). Flying your approach with power, will make sure that your approach isnt slow, and is alot smoother. Round out then reduced throttle a bit more, and hold the model off the ground at about 20cm off the ground. Remember, it is better to put the model of the ground faster, than slower.

3.) Have to CoG pretty close to the fwd CoG limit, no where near the aft limit.

4.) Only test fly when there is NO WIND.

5.) Have a long final with a shallow approach (not to shallow). Its so much easier to land with a long final.

6.) Can easily fly the plane when its coming towards you (reverse input).

Cheers,

Good luck!!!

Dave that's a tuff question to answer & one that I had not too long ago as well. You said Cap 232 kit. If that is indeed correct & you aren't referring to an ARF, I would say at least go ahead & start your build. It will take a good long time to kit-build a nice Cap & in the meantime you can be getting all the stick time in that you can. By the time the Cap is done you could be much further along in your flying that you are now. As for when you're actually ready to fly a Cap? Only you can really answer that. When you decide you're ready, all I can say is start out with minimul control throws & fly it right to the ground when you land it. Mine actually was easier to land I thought, than my Trainers. It wouldn't float all over the place in the wind, but just sort of slide right in under the wind nice & straight. And in the air it flew like it was on rails! I'm really going to miss that plane! Good luck Dave.

They really area a cut above once you learn how to handle them aren't they?

I have an over weight underpowered low wing SPAD (www.spadtothebone.com) that I am using to practice hot landings. I learned real quick that trying to float in was not going to work with this plane as it did as these experts describe, tip stall. For little money (about $20) you can put one of these together with the parts from your trainer. By the way. When I botched my final about 3 ft off the deck there was no damage to the plane at all. Just restart and try again.

Yes they are!! I will be putting another one together as soon as I can afford too. In the meantime I just got back from Maidening my little WM Ultimate 40.
All I can say is WOW!! What a sweet little plane this thing turned out to be. I spent many hours trying to get all the throws set up mechanically as close to dead nuts as I could so that I wouldn't have to rely too much on the radio to get them trimmed in right. I missed by one click of down elevator.[&:] After that it flew perfectly straight & level @ half throttle hands off. What a pure joy it was to fly. It took all the sting of losing the Cap out of me. I flew at least 10 tankfulls one right after the other. I don't remember when I've had so much fun!! It was so well behaved I just couldn't get enough. I haven't giggled like that since I soloed. I love this plane, it's my new favorite flier for the moment.

Yep, I have a good friend that flies WOrld Models Ultimate in a 50CC version. It is sweet![8D]

Since we're discussing CAPs I just purchased a .46 size ARF from Atlanta Hobby and I'm hoping that it will be my third plane. I'm currently flying a H9 Super Stick and like Dave here was wondering if it would be too soon to move up to it in a month or so. So far I have close to sixty flights and because I live here in Colorado, I'm getting plenty of crosswind experience
Also, I believe that the CAP is from World Models or is very similiar to that version so that would make it a Sport Scale aircraft? is this right?

Thanks,

Mark

I've got a GP CAP 232 .40 kit I assembled last winter, and my own design Simple Plastic Low-wing Aerobatic Trainer with a Thunder Tiger GP 61 (SPLAT 60). See the pictures below.

The CAP is very sensitive to control inputs, and will snap roll in a heartbeat. It doesn't like slow landings, and will drop the left wing on approach if I slow down too much. I find myself getting pretty anxious when I'm flying it because it is so sensitive. I'm still working on adjusting things like exponential, and fiddling with the CG to get it where I want it. But it does look nice in the air.

The SPLAT is FUN to fly. Its does nice smooth aerobatic manuevers, and lands very nicely. Slow flight (high alpha) is pretty tame, and is easy to control the approach with throttle. Wing loading is a little high at 22 oz/sq ft, but it is almost impervious to wind. And because its a SPAD, its cheap to build and fix. Most of my flight time right now is with the SPLAT while I develop the skills needed to fly nice precise pattern maneuvers. The CAP comes out for a couple flights each session, and its getting easier to fly.

Brad