RE: E-flite J-3 Cub 25 ARF
 

Made 6 flights today. How nice this little plane flies!:) Very scale like, gentle, a beauty in the air. Suspension worked beautifully.

With good throttle management I was able to fly 20 minutes easy.

Take-off is becoming easy, just keep the elevator full up at start, slowly increase power, keep her right and stable, slowly release the elevator, she will balance and a second or two later, she's up in the air.

Total joy!

RE: E-flite J-3 Cub 25 ARF
 

Paul,

Did you cut holes in the front of the cowl or is that paint trim? Looking at putting an air hole or two up front. Was wondering about that little square area where an air breather would be on a full scale one, and if it is solid fiberglass or a piece of wood in there?

Any danger of cracking the whole thing?

RE: E-flite J-3 Cub 25 ARF
 

I did cut it and its for the cooling of the ESC and I did it with my Dremel no danger to break the cowl with that.
It works very well.

Paul

RE: E-flite J-3 Cub 25 ARF
 

Hi Luc,
I agree, total joy is right. Had a great session on Saturday with the Cub, take-offs are still scary but I'm going to try your T/O technique in the morning if the winds are light. I'm still ballooning her in on landing, taking some light gear damage even though I added the wire "shocks". I slowly bending the axles after straightening them last week. The wire shocks are keeping the gear assembly from spreading tho, and that's great. When I fly my smaller planes, I'm a lot more in control. The Cub is a handful ... demanding to fly for me still. ... I find it hard to set up for landing .. gotta get it together. T/Os are even tougher, but I've been lucky so far. I really love this plane ... thought I'd be well into the floatplane stage by now but whoa was I fooling myself. It gives me a great sense of accomplishment to get her in the air and back on the ground.

I've also learned from more experienced pilots to never say, "let's do that one more time" because that may be as long as she survives... one more time! They say, "let's do that again". I'm learning that a lot of pilots have their private little routines / mantras that they perform/say to themselves as part of the "i need good luck" ritual!

RE: E-flite J-3 Cub 25 ARF
 

OK, say it, it's Osama Bin Laden and his favorite RC plane. That's what you get when you mate a Scotsman with an Italian mama.

Notice the body language in the third shot ... get that left wing up!!

RE: E-flite J-3 Cub 25 ARF
 

Looks like a nice flying area :)

RE: E-flite J-3 Cub 25 ARF
 

Hi FlyingGuy,

Yes this type of plane is more demanding than a 3D Funtana or Cap; those almost take off and land by themselves!!!

With this cub you'll notice a clear tendancy to go left if you do a premature take-off. Then things get worst if you hit the ailerons and stall even more...

So again the routine would look like this:

-Keep the elevator full up
-Slowly increase power, keep her straight in the middle of the runway
-As the plane pick up speed you'll see the wheels starting to bounce up, the plane will almost be air born
-Release the elevator and the second the plane is leaving the ground hit the speed stick to pull it forward, not up, to gain airspeed.
-In addition to this, you'll need to use the rudder to correct and prevent any tendancy, i.e. crosswind, etc.

For landings I noticed that she comes down quickly and the propellor is a good break so I use a somewhat agressive descend and a quick balloon at the end. She may bounce but with the suspension it's ok.

Good luck! I'm about to put my floats and try it on the water next weekend.

RE: E-flite J-3 Cub 25 ARF
 

Has anyone tried flaperons on it yet?

RE: E-flite J-3 Cub 25 ARF
 

I dont think flaperons on barn door type ailerons is a good Idea without flaps, but never tried it yet. :eek:

Paul

RE: E-flite J-3 Cub 25 ARF
 

I use them on my Mini Ultra Stick on occasion when I want to land a tad bit slower. Wondered if it might help with the cub. Might have to compensate a bunch with elevator when deployed. Also might make for a shorter take off run.

RE: E-flite J-3 Cub 25 ARF
 

On the Mini ultra stick the ailerons are the lenght of the wing thats a better system, I have that on my Brio 10 and its very good.

Paul

RE: E-flite J-3 Cub 25 ARF
 

Doesn't that defeat the purpose of having a scale flying model? It makes me no difference what you want to do with yours. I guess I was assuming that was the reason for having a Cub to start with. That's the reason I bought mine but then I don't have the budget for the more expensive equipment either. Just the basics.
On another note I did get my servos and Rx. for mine and was about to order a couple of lipos but then the battery in my "Aircraft Carrier" van and the starter went bad so...

John

RE: E-flite J-3 Cub 25 ARF
 

Actually, I was watching some old video a while back of some of the planes and bush pilots in the far north a lot of years ago. It looked to me like at least one cub was using flaps on landing and take off on some very short "fields". That's what got me to thinking about it.

And a short landing and take off area is what I'm concerned about at my place. Once airborne, got lots of sky.

RE: E-flite J-3 Cub 25 ARF
 

I was trying to remember back 40 years or so to the last time I flew in a Cub or was even close to one for that matter as to whether they did have flaps. Then I went and looked at my Cub and found that it has full length ailerons.
You must really have a small runway there xrossbow. We have the same problem with one of the places we fly here. It's a smallish parking lot that's off limits during normal business hours and the grass around it is a hay field. Part of it though they keep mowed to a usable level. Even when it's empty the curbs are a worry but the flying area is plenty big enough.

RE: E-flite J-3 Cub 25 ARF
 

Actually it's 10 acres, but me and the gophers fight over most of it. I have managed to stake a claim to a small piece that I have kept mowed and most of the gophers hills beat down. Like the cockroaches back east, they just keep coming. :-(

Here's an "Oooops!" pic that I had found somewhere. I can't tell if it's a J3 or something later. But I think I see flaps on it.

RE: E-flite J-3 Cub 25 ARF
 

I think your right xrossbow and that's a OOP'S for sure!

I'm turning in. I have to get up in 3 hrs. to get everybody else up and going. Then I guess I'll replace the starter so I can go fly otherwise I'm grounded. I just couldn't get in the mood to tackle it yesterday. I'd rather take a beating than replace a GM starter. The battery tested bad so I bought a new one but it was the starter all along I guess. Dang It! I sure wanted to buy those Lipos from True RC. Now I'll have to wait till the 1st of Nov[&o]

John

RE: E-flite J-3 Cub 25 ARF
 

Thats a Piper PA18 Supercub and they do have flaps but standard flaps and ailerons.

If you were to install flaps and keep the ailerons it would work no dought about it. or if the ailerons were the lenght of the wings that would work too but to make barn door ailerons as flaperons not shure of the result [:-]

Paul

RE: E-flite J-3 Cub 25 ARF
 

The plane in the Oops! pic is a Super Cub, they have flaps.

CR

RE: E-flite J-3 Cub 25 ARF
 

I'm finally back. Thanks for the info guys.

Is there a place that you can go to find info on tail numbers? Both US and Canada.

Here is an interesting link I found some time ago for the real thing. Super cubs, J3, J4, J5, etc.

http://www.supercub.org/

Think that is where I found the OOOPS pic and others.

RE: E-flite J-3 Cub 25 ARF
 

Excellent link, Xrossbow! Almost makes me want to get re-licensed after 15 years away from full scale flying. And wish that the damn lottery would hit so that I can have a Super Cub!

RE: E-flite J-3 Cub 25 ARF
 

Yes that would be cool. I got to actually sit in a J3 about 30 years ago when I was taking flying lessons. Would have loved to go up in one.

RE: E-flite J-3 Cub 25 ARF
 

Hi xrossbow,
One of the two most memorable flights I ever took was in a J-3 Cub. We flew up thru the clouds and it was awesome. The other flight I'll never forget was a ride in a glider. I too wish I had continued on with my flight training.

John

RE: E-flite J-3 Cub 25 ARF
 

I'm envious. :-)

Waiting for my ride in a J3, sailplane, Stearman (or any other open cockpit bip), and of course F14. In which I saw some lucky reporter for CNN get one of the last rides when they brought the last F14 squadron in for retirement a week or so ago.

And lest we forget, a little jaunt in the old b17 work horse.

Ah yes, we can dream! :-)

RE: E-flite J-3 Cub 25 ARF
 

There's still time although it grows shorter each passing day to be sure. I've had the pleasure to work on some of the old classics but haven't got to fly in near enough of them.

If anyone happens to be in need of lipos, True RC is having a 2 for pre-order sale for a few more days. Too bad my next check will be after that's over with but that's just my luck.

Back to work,
John

RE: E-flite J-3 Cub 25 ARF
 

Well I finally got mine in the air. Sunday was beautiful, 70's and no wind, a real change from the previous rain and high winds it's been. Took her down to the local soccer fields and boy did those swamper tires work out, she just waded through the high grass like nothing. I'm positive it would have been a no go with the stock wheels. Only fault was she tracked right instead of left on take off, Which I probably made worse as I was planing on the left turn Cub's are noted for. Anyhow, she made a 90 degree turn and proceed to lift off. Whew.
Ah but in the air, no dissapointment what so ever. 2 clicks of down elevator and she was trimmed. The big tires did not seem to affect her at all. Loops were nice and easy, aileron turns required only the slightest touch of up elevator to keep her level. Ok landing was different, ok it was a lot different from the warbirds I'm used to flying. A warbird is driven to the ground, not so the Cub. She just floated, so much so I did 2 go arounds trying to get her down. I ended up shutting off the motor halfway through the upwind turn and just left her glide in. Again the big tires proved their worth. She just rolled on the mains until the tail dropped down. Not a hint of nose over. Couple blips of the throttle and she waded through the grass back to me. Oh and that was with the 10x6 wood prop. Was more then enough and speed was around 45 mph, judging from flybys next to the highway. A tad bit more then half throttle had her cruising at what I judged to be accurate speed, and as I found out on landing, just the prop ticking over was enough that she would not come down unless commanded to. And quiet, was a whisper in the air, even full throttle and she would only make a slight whine as she went by at head height. BIG SMILES!!!!!!!:D:D:D