mydartswinger

I recently picked up a well used Hangar 9 CAP 232 120 that has been owned by several club members since new (I am the 5th, the 4th to actually fly it). We have affectionately named this plane Furby because there is a Furby doll as the pilot that has been on the airplane since it was first flown at our club. It's a club tradition that whoever owns Furby, must keep him as the pilot, and if sold, it must be sold to a club member.

It does need a lot of TLC. There were some important pieces hanging on only by the covering that had surrounded it (IE: the stick that the elevator control horn is mounted). The landing gear had also been raised with a block of wood to allow for the clearance of a larger prop on the gas engine (I believe a 26cc was used), as well as a block of wood was installed under the firewall to allow for mounting of the ignition. Some of the wood is also cracking and deteriorating, needing repair or replacement. The cowl has also been hacked due to numerous engine configurations used by previous owners.

My plans for this airplane are:

1. Strip all existing covering - done with the exception of the ailerons.
2. Remove the tail feathers - done
3. Remove the added blocks for LG and ignition - done
4. Repair/replace broken/cracked wood
5. Clean up surface for recovering
6. Recover in my own color scheme using the original Matt Chapman design with different colors
7. Power with an OS 1.60 (thanks to some persuasion from club members and an RCU member), though I was tossing around the idea of a twin cylinder glow (OS Gemeni 160 4S). It was previously set up for gas.
8. Repair the original cowl using fiberglass and fiberglass specific Bondo (both found at auto parts stores and discount stores)
9. Paint cowl to match trim scheme
10. Cut cowl as needed for the 1.60FX
11. Equip with standard JR Sport servos
12. Install Spektrum radio gear to fly with my DX7
13. Balance
14. Set up, break in, and fly

I do, however, have a few questions regarding certain aspects of this build.

First off, how many rolls of each color should be needed for a complete covering job? Just use the original Mat Chapman colors of green, blue, and white. I would kind of like to keep the color scheme to myself until it's finished. I already have 1 roll of each of the colors (3 rolls total).

Secondly, would the above mentioned fiberglass products be sufficient to repair a cowl? I would be using the Bondo to fill smaller gaps (IE: cracks and chips), and the fiberglass sheeting and resin to fill the larger gaps (IE: Muffler, glow, head, and tuning cut outs).

I'm pretty well set on the OS 1.60FX, but is there a better choice for more unlimited vertical or better 3D capabilities? The 3D is not the deciding factor in engine, nor this airplane, just throwing that out as a possibility that I might try some 3D with it. I'll probably be doing more IMAC and scale type aerobatics with a few hovers, knife edge, and such thrown in.

I'm including some pics of this airplane. The first 3 are of it's last flight before it was given (airframe only) to the member that I traded for it. The last picture was taken about 30 minutes or so ago, and shows how it sits after I have done some work to it.

Thanks in advance.

Happy flying.

icando3d2

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haha i have one of these and had a 1.6 i did the 27cc stihl swap too and now its sick like mother of all sick with a 50 cc will hover at like 1/4 throttle its a beast. and the thing flys good not tail heavy any more lol [>:] the 1.6fx does a really good job the problem with these planes is slow high alpha snap but if your on the sticks its all good. i loved the 1.6 on this plane ran a bison pitts muffler the thing was a tank first flip prime second start. the covering if your doing the whole plane 3 rolls wont cut it. you may be lucky to cover one side of the fuse with it. I have 9 rolls in a 35 percent cap now and not done. ill post some pics of my 1.20 cap this weekend with the 50cc on it

mydartswinger

The person who was flying it in the pictures didn't like flying it with the gas motor on it. He said that it made it just too heavy. That's one reason I'm going back to glow with it.

icando3d2

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the 1.6 will do good it has power but i had a 50cc and needed a test mule so it went on there and the 1.6 went on a .90 showtime 4d making them both unlimited verticle and stunning to fly

icando3d2

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1.20 cap with 50cc

krayzc-RCU

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kewl

icando3d2

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this site is awsome krayzc-RCU is always on anythread that ive looked at or posted. at least im not the only person that hounds this place.LOL

mydartswinger

icando3d,
What 50cc are you using? What mods did you have to do to get it to work on the CAP? I noticed in the pic that you aren't using the cowl. Is that just for a test flight, or does the 50cc not fit in the cowl? Sorry for all the questions, but you've got my interest peaked with the 50cc.

Think a DA-50R would fly it nicely without too much fuss?

icando3d2

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hey i will try to post some pics of the plane tonight so you can see what i did do i have doubled the firewall but nothing that was major very simple install the cowling will go on it i just choose not to run it on there untill i get it all broken in the engine has about 15 flights give or take a few on this airframe i will get the brand ect for you i am doing some holiday shopping or i would have already have posted you the pics.
thanks

krayzc-RCU

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icando3d2 that is because we belong to the same group:

Hi all I am kray Z Cee and I am a plane a holic

hi krayzc[8D]

icando3d2

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cap with 50cc i had to rob some fuel line stuff off this plane for my large cap thats why its soo messy but ne how its a simple install and if you want to do it i may be able to hook you up with an engine, if you have anyother questions just give me a shout

mydartswinger

Thanks for the pics, very helpful. Looks pretty easy.

This afternoon I talked to the last guy that flew it. He was using a 35cc Evolution on it. He said that it flew great in the air, but the reason he didn't like it was because it added so much weight to the plane (it was balanced) that he had to land it hotter than he likes. He has an Aeroworks Extra 260 with a DA-50 on it that he enjoys, so it's not his piloting ability. He also said that the Evolution 35cc is actually a heavier motor than the DA-50. I'll do some research tomorrow evening to find out the exact weight on both motors, as well as on other 50cc class gassers to help me decide which one to use. I've heard some great things about a 53cc distributed by Cermark that I'll look into as well. Any recommendations?

This will be my first venture into gas, and I want to do it right the first time.

This may come as somewhat of a shock, but I've only been flying six months. Club members, instructors, and myself all feel that I'm already read to step into an airplane such as this. I have had no problem flying a .60 size Yak (very prone to tip stalling if not easy on the sticks), an 80" span Decathlon (likes rudder input, takes some work to make rolls axial, needs close attention to rudder control on takeoff and landing), a 71" span Tiger Moth biplane (needs rudder input to turn, slows down significantly when throttle is cut to idle, has a tendency to float when it should drop like a rock), a .52 4 Stroke size Nemesis Formula 1 Reno racer (VERY fast, yank and bank turns, extremely responsive ailerons on high rates, likes to land fairly fast), and an OS 1.60 powered Katana profile (sensitive to control inputs due to large control surfaces, 3D airplane. Never tried to land this, but got a few minutes of stick time and had no issues recovering from anything I put it into). I also dabble a bit in helis (small, easy stick movements are a MUST), and not just the counter rotators (mostly for fun indoors). I know, I'm moving up a bit fast, but I like a challenge, and I don't push it beyond what I can do. As of yet, I haven't crashed a plane beyond repair (my "biggest" crash was with my Decathlon due to a tip stall 5-6 feet off the ground on a deadstick with other pilots on the field retrieving another airplane. Only damage done was a bit of Ultracote ripped and glue broke loose on a wing tip. Both were easily repaired). I have seen the effects of moving up before one is ready. A guy at my club who has only been flying about a month and a half was flying his Sig Four * 60 powered by a Saito 115 (second flight with that motor) this afternoon doing outside loops too low to the ground and "WHACK". He got disoriented on the exit and dove it into the ground, totaling the plane, and causing some damage to his new motor. I've had my share of "pucker moments", but had help and a bit of luck on my side. I only try new things up high, and wait 'til I'm comfortable with a new plane to start pushing it to my limits. I'm looking at this plane as an opportunity to step up in size, skill, and to gas. I feel that this plane will aid in my progression into bigger and better planes (I'm hoping to have an 89" Hangar 9 Carden Yak within the next year to 2 years, hopefully followed by something such as the 46% TOC Ultimate shortly thereafter). I'm not afraid of overpowering an airplane, throttle management goes a long way.

Just thought I'd throw that last part out there to better help you better help me.

Thanks again for your help.

Happy flying.

icando3d2

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hey man pm me and ill give you some specs and some info.

30636086

Hi everyone! I'm new here and I don't know if I'm in the right thread; but I have a question. I'm a helicopter guy and I just got a CAP 232 plane from a friend; I'm looking to buy a new cowl for it, but don't know where or how to order it. I found bunch on line but I'm not sure what or which one I need. The plane is a CAP 232 with a wingspan of about 72 inch. Any advise or pointer that you guys can offer will be appreciated. Thanks

Bass1

Do you know the manufacturer of the airplane? If not a photo might help in locating the proper cowl.

30636086

For the pics I have seen on the net is a Hangar 9 CAP 232; Its a 120 size(thats what the guy told me) and for I saw on one that was for sale that looks exaxcly like it is a 1/3 scale? The wingspan is about 6 feet and is a one piece wing.

mydartswinger

The Hangar 9 CAP 232 120 is a 1/4 scale.

Robotech

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Do you mean the color scheme was the same? The Hangar 9 120 was covered in the Matt Chapmann scheme as were allot of others back then.

A 72" one piece wing sounds like the H9 120. I had one. It flew well with a Webra 1.20 on it. I can't imagine the weight putting a 40 or 50CC engine would do to it. It might have plenty of power but it seems like the wing loading would make it a flying brick.

mydartswinger

Whoa, nearly 5 months since I've worked on this project. I did do a little bit this evening on it.

The fuselage was fairly well ready for covering, so I decided that I'd get the first color on the fuse. The first color will be white, just as it is on the original Matt Chapman scheme. I've decided that since this is my first covering job, I'm going to make it a bit simpler than the Matt Chapman scheme, while still being somewhat similar. It will still be a 3 color design, but will use white, purple, and silver for the colors. I haven't made the final decision on exactly where every stripe will go, but the main color will be white with the top of the fuse being purple. I will probably add 1 silver stripe to the side of the fuse, and maybe a second stripe using purple under the silver stripe with some spacing in between. I'm undecided completely on the wings still. For ease of covering, I may go with white in the rear and on the bottom, with purple on the leading edge, followed by a silver stripe and a purple stripe in the same pattern as the fuse, but instead of going top to bottom, maybe front to rear.

The wings and stabilizers still have some wood repair to be done to them before covering can begin on them.

For power, I'm now contemplating going back to glow using a Saito 150 or Saito 180.

Here's some pics of the covering so far. I still have some touch up covering to do on the white. The purple will be starting around where the tail servo holes are located and go up from there. Like I said, this is my first covering job, so it's not the best.

mydartswinger

For anyone following this thread, my appologies for not posting anything in a while. A few days after my last post, I left for a deployment. It's almost done, so I should be back on the wagon with the CAP sometime in April. Still planning on the same CS as in mentioned in my last post, still contemplating the wing trim, and power source. I'll keep you posted on the progress of this project once I can get back on it.

For those of you that can, get a flight in for me. Take care and happy flying.

rtn9105

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mydartswinger, after looking at your pictures I'll pass along a couple of things for you to consider. I had this same plane a few years ago with the elevator servos in the same location as yours. I remember my plane being VERY tail heavy, I even put a small gas engine on the plane and still had to add some weight to the cowl area to get it to balance. If your planning to run a glow motor I would suggest moving your elevator servos back to the stock location on each side of the rudder servo. I also noticed that the landing gear isn't the stock gear and I'm guessing that's why the wood block was added for prop clearance. The gear in the pics looks like an Extra type gear and looks quite a bit shorter than the stock Cap gear.

Your covering job looks great so far, just make sure you either get covering on all the wood or fuel proof any exposed wood.

mydartswinger

Thanks for the advice rtn.

The landing gear/extra block was installed for prop clearance on a gas motor (35cc Evolution, if my previous post was 100% correct). Just take a look at the prop that was used on it in the first 3 pictures at the beginning of this thread. I was also told that the stock LG was weak, so they upgraded to the stiffer gear. I was told that the gas motor actually made it nose heavy, hence part of the reason the servos were mounted in the tail.

On that note, I played around with the default CAP 232 in G4.5 (the red, white, and blue one powered by an OS 1.60) a bit last night to get a feel for what the previous owner was talking about with the weight of the gas engine. I took it down to the size of this CAP, as the one on the sim has about an 83-86" wingspan, then adjusted the fuselage weight accordingly to keep the wing loading close to where it should be, installed a 35cc gas motor on it, and set the CG (the 35cc made it very nose heavy) on it to the point where it's just tail heavy enough to require a touch of down elevator while inverted to keep level. Wow, that thing was a bugger on landings, but flew nice at speed for level patterns and sport aerobatics (though the tip stalling tendancy made harriers and hovering next to impossible with my skill set [I can harrier and hover the default Yak 54]). VERY prone to tip stalling at landing speed during flare, requiring constant throttle to keep it manageable. The power was awesome, though.

As for fuel-proofing, I learned about that the hard way with my first plane. By the time I had traded it for the CAP, it (the PTS Mustang) was about 75% fuel soaked wood, including the covered wood. Every plane after that, I take some 5-minute epoxy and cover all exposed wood with it, the firewall in particular. I opted to go only as far forward as I did because the cowl (and let's not forget the epoxy ) will cover the rest.

Have a good one.

Atlanta 60

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I just stumbled across this thread and thought I'd put my .02 cents in...he he

I have one of these which I was originally running a YS 1.20 4 cycle engine on but it wasn't enough power...Now the YS 1.20 is a very powerful engine for it's class and I'd put it pretty much head to head with a Saito 1.50 so I doubt that will be enough either...

I mounted the elevator servo's in the tail when I originally built the plane so it wound up tail heavy...It takes quite a bit of weight in the nose to get the CG within range...I learned (after the fact) that these planes had a tendency to be tail heavy...Had I know that I would not have mounted the servo's back there...Oh Well...

I shelved the plane for several years but recently put it back in the air...I've now have a SuperTiger G2300 with a Bisson muffler under the cowling...I still need the weight up front but but the airplanes overall performance is a whole lot better!! I'm currently running a 18x8 APC prop and it's turning about 10k RPM's which is pretty kewl...I would call it "Scale Like" performance...I'm not a 3D kind of guy but I doubt I have the grunt to "hover" with my current set-up...I'm sure a guy could play with the prop selection and get some more out of it but I'm pretty happy with the way it "feels" now...I like the scale like performance...If I could loose the weight I have added in the nose I would gain allot I'm sure..I forget how much I actually added but it's "substantial"...

IMHO...An engine along the lines of the SuperTiger G-2300 (3.5hp) is a good fit for this airframe...Be it a four stroke or a gas engine I think it will take about that for it to be fun...The performance with my YS 1.20 just wasn't any fun...I believe it was advertised as a 1.20 class airplane when it was released but I would argue that for sure...I know I kinda goofed by mounting the servo's in the tail which lead to having to add weight to the nose but even so it's not a 1.20 class airplane in my opinion...

I have some trimming to do to mine to get it flying "right"...I only have 8-10 flights on it since I got it going again...I think it will be a decent plane if I'll spend spend some time trimming her out...I know it pulls pretty hard to the belly with rudder input so I gotta work on the wing incidence for sure....Snap rolls are just plain crazy!! Almost too fast...I' need to work on my technique and learn how to slow them down a little...lol

I have no real complaints other than the yaw/pitch coupling but I feel that will be an easy fix...I did notice the ailerons require more throw than specified and the elevator requires less throw than specified...Not sure why that is but it's easily resolved in the rigging...Other than that I think it's alright with no bad tendencies...Once it's trimmed out I may try my hand at an IMAC contest...I think it should be competitive in the basic or sportsman classes... [8D]

Good Luck with your rebuild!! Think about the power plant a little...I haven't read every word of this thread but I thought I saw you mention you were considering either a Saito 150 or 180 for power...I'd say at least a Saito 180... (Looking at the specs of the OS 1.60FX that may be a great choice too...I thought I saw you mention that engine earlier in the thread)

Just my .02...

Chuck

P.S. I forgot I put a heavier set of landing gear legs on it too...They came out of a 1/3 scale Lazer 200 kit I have sitting on the shelve...I'll probably replace them with some lighter carbon fiber gear when I get the chance (money)...

tmaucher

Im going to enter into the fray so to speak. I bought one of these at a swap meet on saturday. I was able to buy the plane complete with a YS 180 engine fully ready to fly, including a brand new cowl for $100. It definately pays to wait till the last. This come to find out from a local long time flyer and hobby shop owner. He said that it was his favorite plane to fly for a long time. He said that he was able to get them cheap from people because of the tendancy to snap. Thats why the name snap-cap. He allso said the incidence was from the factory incorrect on the elevator. He had fixed that by shimming it. I will try to take a picture of the tail for you, so you can see how it sits. He said that it took all of the bad tendancies out of the cap, and he had even went so far as to contact Horizon about it. Like I said I have no first hand knowledge of the plane yet but I soon will. goood luck

tmaucher

Oh yes I allmost forgot that the plane came with carbon fibre gear as well.