shauntot

Joel,

Yeah, they do fit perfectly no mods needed. Btw, here's the result of the test flight (or so I thought) that I did this morning...the result..arrrggh!!!

I don't know where it went wrong, the plane was perfectly balanced (the cg of our plane's supposed to be 1/3 from the leading edge closest to the fuse, right?)

Weather was perfect for flying, dead calm, sun not too bright (8am) and absolutely no one in sight. Just perfect. In about 10 seconds it was all over.

I hand launched, the bird flew for a bout 15-20 ft climbing but was veering dangerously to the left, so I tried to correct with right rudder as the trim correction didn't really take effect. I must've corrected too hard and plunged straight into the ground from a height of about 20".

Broke the damn nose, and the landing gear mod!! The strut didnt bend at all, but it ripped the fuse where the credit card piece was holding it attached.[:@]

If there's one thing I learned today, it's that carbon fiber is reall, really strong. The prop didn't even flinch, just got dirty from the soil, and the LG mod I did with the carbon rods, as you can see the whole gear held, it was the fuse that didn't.

Oh well, back to good ol' glue. This hobby's crazy, you spend just a few minutes flying, and countless hours repairing.. [:'(]

Hope you more luck than I did with your videos..

Bleh
Shaun

shauntot

Joel, need your help...I was reparing my badly beat up bird today, stupid me, I stepped on the antenna hanging from the plane and it ripped from the receiver, prob is I don't know where exactly to solder it back. Can I ask for a big favor and can you take a pic of your receiver pcb so I can see where I need to solder back the antenna. Thanks Joel, hope you can, sorry to bother you..

Shaun

htjoel

Hey Shaun,

Absolutely I can take pix for you. Bummer about the Cub, man. You're saying it was veering left? Could it have been from prop torque? The Cub is so light that it may have been affected by the bigger prop to the point where the flying surfaces couldn't handle the strain.

Don't be discouraged, your Cub looks exactly like my first SDM J3[:@]...I'll send you pix of that one as well. If I didn't have the airframe from my foolish eBay purchase, I'd send you the replacement receiver. My weekend project is to remove the defective electronics from the 'HX-239' clone and replace them with rcvr, esc, and servos from Cub #1.

As to vids, around 3 p.m. yesterday afternoon, the winds picked up and haven't stopped blowing yet. Hopefully by this weekend I'll be able to finally grab some vid since I also promised Giantguy I'd send him some.

I'll take pix of rcvr after work and upload them immediately so that you'll be able to resurrect 'FrankenCub' . I think I saw this quote somewhere here in RCU: "If you're not crashing, you're not flying." Even the experienced guys here crash every once in a while, just check out Badius thread recent pix (4 flights, 4 crashes)... Consider it part of your initiation into the brotherhood of R/C pilots.

Hang in there,
Joel

shauntot

Joel,

Hey thanks a lot for your offer for the receiver. That's very kind of you. But it's ok, I just need to know where to solder the antenna back on, until that, my plane's grounded. The glue's already dry, my cub looks ok again. I just need to balance it tomorrow as the glue might have thrown the balance off.

Your theory about the prop torque might be right, I read somewhere in RC groups, a thread about parkflyers swerving into a left dive when up elevator is applied. I might have to point the motor a bit to down and to the left (when you're holding the plane in front of your face and it's facing you)

I'm thinking maybe I should've not applied elevator when I threw the plane, I think I should've let it climb slowly on it's own. Thing is, it didn't climb high fast enough, I thought it was going to crash, so I panicked and applied elevator..then she goes crashing. Oh well, I'll just have to do another test again.

I'm now officially a RC pilot I'll wait for the receiver pics.

Thanks a heap man,

Shaun

htjoel

Shaun,

OK promise to have pix uploaded by this evening. (darn, gotta find my Canon/USB cable) The Cub does have a tendency to snap roll violently if you're near stall speed and applying up elevator and rudder; looks really cool if you're at altitude and mean to do so.

Let me guess...

A. Slow go, not quite climbing, 'leaning' to left
B. Slight up elevator, no response to rudder
C. Increase ele and rudd input
D. Violent pitch upwards, followed by 'flip' in opposite direction and subsequent uncontrolled dive towards ground
E. Pick up pieces and start mixing epoxy

Does that about cover your timeline? Are you using epoxy or white glue for repairs? I was using white glue for its lightness (85% water so most weight evaporates) but switched to 5-min epoxy for better strength. Just gotta keep epoxy coat thin to keep plane light.

Joel

justjunior

My Feedback: (2)

hello everyone..well looks like thats joel & shaun
hey thanks for some good tips i have orderd a j3-cub im not sure if its a sd or a cclee
but got it from hobby e-store for $85 plus an extra battery they were out of the accepter battus
i know thats not the corect spelling but you get the idea..i was reading the forum for that ,man they got alot of info....so this will be my second plane i have a dragonfly now i got at the LHS
man that thing can take a beating!! some epoxy and tape and it's off to fly again!! but im ready for the 3ch now i am flying the dragonfly and landing no problem now,so the cub should be here wed or tue..hoping to fly it thursday night...so i do have a couple newbie questions..what is rog...? ride on ground? do you guys have any video yet? and what mods should i do before flying it for the first time?
and ill just say thanks before hand as it looks like a nice helpfull thread,
and i will try keep up also here, i might have my father video the first flight...thats living on the edge!!
take care
patrick

htjoel

Welcome Patrick!

Lots of confusion right now about Shun Da or CCLee...If you want the right info email Giantsuntoys.com...He is an authorized Shun Da distributor, sells the J3 for about $81+S/H, and the nice thing is he flies too! He's more than happy to help and carries all the spare parts you could ever want for your Cub.

As to mods, I have been flying mine for 3 months stock and have been very happy with it. It's my second one, and if you have to ask, yes, I would definitely buy it again!

Shaun,
As promised, close-up pix of the receiver w/out case so you can see where antenna needs to be soldered to...also included 1 pic of my small fleet. As you can see, I no longer have a guest bedroom--I keep my planes in there because of Alex, my ridiculous orange tabby cat who is insanely jealous of them. He loves chewing on the foam[:@]!!! Heaven forbid I pay attention to anything in the house besides him!

Clockwise: Shun Da J3, ParkZone J3 (notice lack of dihedral on PZ Cub single piece wing), ParkFlyers Cessna 182, ParkZone Super Decathlon, and in the middle, the best $25 plane I ever bought, 2 motor, 2 channel 'AirBus 3000'...eBay can be a good thing every once in a while!

Enjoy,
Joel

shauntot

Joel...coolness Thanks very much for the receiver pic, I badly needed that!!! I'm gonna solder it right now and test..thank YOU!!!

Nice fleet you've got there, I'm jealous! I've only got the Cub, and I'm heavily..and I do mean heavily contemplating on the Magister because of the great reviews and looks like it's pretty easy to fly. Just trying to convince my fiance so I can buy it hehe..

Nice cat you've got there, I have a labrador that's your cat's equivalent..likes to munch on everything, so far she hasn't touch my plane 'coz she still remembers the meaning of "NO"



Hi Patrick,

Welcome to the world of the SDM cub Now there's 3 of us..I don't a lot own this plane as most go for the parkzone cub version. Anyway, I think the CCLEE and SDM cub are one and the same if I'm not mistaken. But yeah, Joel's right, you can ask James of Giantsuntoys.com to be sure, he's a really friendly guy and would answer your questions.

To answer your question, ROG stands for Rolling start ON the Ground. ROW means on water.

I do have a couple of vids here from my cub's maiden flight, sorry the quality isn't that good as it was taken with a cellphone camera.

http://www.geocities.com/shauntot/rc...r_1st_flyt.avi

http://www.geocities.com/shauntot/rc...handlaunch.mpg

Regards,
Shaun

htjoel

Hey Shaun,

Glad pix helped. As for me, winds started blowing 2 days ago and haven't quit yet. At least it's a little cooler now. May start electronics transplant today to Cub clone and see how well that goes...Wish me luck!

Laters,
Joel

skid_68

My Feedback: (1)

Hey guys, I just purchased two of these planes. They should be here next week. I also have already bought the cessna 182, but am waiting for new parts on that one . It decided it loved the ground and wanted to give it a big kiss. I had never flown before, and I think I just over compensated with the ailerons. So was searching the boards for an easier beginner plane, and you guys say this one is a great beginner. So I bought one from Giant, and then found one on ebay for cheaper, so decided to pick that one up also. So is this a good beginner plane? As I said my cessna flight was my first flight ever, and it didn't go well. I'm contemplating heading to the LHS, and picking up a GWS Slow Stick, since even more people say that its the BEST beginner plane. What do you guys think? When I'm all said and done and good at flying, I have a Lanier Sport .40 trainer gasser waiting to be flown. So this may be my fleet when I'm done.

GWS Slow Stick
J3 Shun Da Piper Cub
J3 Shun Da Piper Cub
Parkflyers Cessna 182 4ch
Lanier Sport .40 Trainer

htjoel

Hello Skid,

Welcome to the SDM Piper Cub thread!! The SDM Cub is a much more forgiving plane to start with than the ParkFlyers Cessna 182. I own both and fly both, so I think I can give at least a little input on them. I wouldn't even think about going up again w/ your Cessna until you've mastered either your SS or one of the Cubs.

When launching your Cub, make sure to give it a hard STRAIGHT AHEAD throw with full throttle, and if your trims are OK it should just start slowly climbing. Give it a good 50-75 yards to reach flying speed and then enter a very gentle turn. If you find that the controls are too sensitive, adjust the clevises on the control horns to the outermost hole . When properly trimmed out, my Cub literally just flies itself with minimal input from me.

As you get better, you can adjust the clevis position to the inner holes and begin to try mild aerobatics. I can get my Cub to loop, stall turn, and snap roll pretty easily if I've got a fresh battery and full throttle going.

Good Luck!
Joel

shauntot

Hi Skid,

Welcome as well! Although I haven't got the Cessna to compare the SDM cub with, I can say that the cub is really easy to fly. 3 channels is all you've got and the plane literally flies itself when properly trimmed. I'm a total newbie, and this is my first plane, considering that I am a total newbie, I was able to maiden it successfully and even had a picture-perfect landing..i'm not kidding, I was trying not to get the prop damaged during landing as I only had 1 spare and there are no stock spare parts for it here in the Philippines , result was a really smooth landing. I even couldn't believe myself.

Just one tip though.. don't mod your cub yet, keep it stock. Unlike me, I've heavily modded my cub after the maiden flight (thought I was good already hehe) and haven't been able to fly it properly because of all the crashes since. I think I need to go back to stock

And when you crash, don't despair, like Joel said, consider it an initiation to the brotherhood of RC flyers. I think anybody who says he hasn't crashed once, is most likely lying or hasn't flown a RC plane yet. No such thing. So don't get sad when you do, there's always glue!!!

Regards,
Shaun


Joel, thanks again very much for the pix man, the antenna is back and working ok Hope it's both calm days for us, would really like to get this bird back in the air. Good luck with you videos man and happy flying

Shaun

skid_68

My Feedback: (1)

Hey guys,

Thanks for the kind welcome. I cant wait to get my cubs, but for the time being, I picked up a Slow Stick today, and am going to train on that one for now. I also downloaded the FMS, and am having a ball flying the Slow Stick in it. I rushed into things with my cessna(was too excited) so Im going to spend a lot of time on the FMS to get used to the controls and such, and then when the wind calms down, head out with my Slow Stick. When I get the hang of that, I will pull out my cub, and have even more fun. Thanks again for the info guys. Ill let you know how my Maiden flights go.

AJ1202

Hi Joel
The cub on the left in picture is identical to mine right down to the lettering on the wing
I think I have the same cub and if not it is the best knock off i have ever seen
I will take pics of mine and post soon
going to try to go and fly today
I finnished my first built from scratch plane it is a mini zero I will put pics of it too
looks good but is heavy and mods I made might not let it fly, trying to get answer on CG now before first attempt to fly it
Ace

justjunior

My Feedback: (2)

hey guys,
thanks for the tips!! just got back from a flight with the dragonfly....some wind but no major crashes, im getting the hang of flying in the wind i imagine with the cub i should be able to stay up awhile longer than the DF, i get about ten min of time,but its all motor,so im guessing ..the ad says the cub is a good glider..is that true? and do you guys take off from the ground?
i cant wait to see that video..i have to go to my sis's house, beleve it or not there are still places where you cant get high speed!! i had seen a bunch of post from bigsuntoys on the accepter thread,i will buy from james? from now on..not sure what i'll get after the cub but i think i'll be ready for a true 4ch...well i hope!! hey we got four of us here now..welcome skid soon we can catch up with the accepter thread...lol
so happy flying all waiting for wed delivery.....
patrrick

AJ1202

Hi again Joel
How rude of me not to mention how impressed I am with your planes, nice
I now have firebird outlaw, J-3 cub, SU 27 that took a nasty nose dive and has since undergone some serious mods to nose to the tune of 3 inches being removed to make it fly again and making it a stub nose instead of pointed and enough duct tape to fix a nasscar spoiler, and finaly the mini zero I built
well again I am Impressed
Ace

shauntot

Welcome all! This is nice, there's now at least 5 of us with the same SDM cub..hope we can make this thread as big as the PZ cub thread. They've got lots of mods that are applicable to our SDM version, so if you have any, post 'em here.

Btw Joel, too bad wasn't able to fly again today, damn wind's driving me nuts! Hope it calms down this week as I can't wait to try out my mods hehe. Still waiting for your vids though

Again, welcome guys!

Cheers,
Shaun

AJ1202

Hi Shaun
I feel for you with the repair needed on the nose of your Cub, been there 3 times now myself
however I have found so far it has been fairly easy to make it look right again , I too have been grounded due to winds, driving me nuts [:@], I want to fly so bad I can't stand it, with help from Joel and Paul I think I have resolved CG issues I had with mine and now I want to test it out
Mine came as it turns out with CG way off had to move ESC and receiver into nose in front of Batt to corect it
I like the mods you made to LG I was thinking about bigger wheels for mine because I need to be able to land on dirt road as well as not so clean cut grass. I have huge feild to fly in but landing conditions stink, been considering taking lawn mower and making runway

Good day and happy flying
Ace

shauntot

Hey AJ,

Same here, its windy..cant wait for the damn winds to die down. Anyway, I think my cg is also off, can't seem to find the CG distance in the manual. Would you know how far it is from the LE?

Btw, I'm not very good at balancing as this is my first plane, how would you know if the plane is balanced and the CG is already correct? (i'm assuming that on our cub that the plane should be level horizontally - if you're looking at the plane from the side, is the entire topline of the fuse supposed to be horizontally level? Or should it be nose down a bit?)

Thanks!
Shaun

AJ1202

Hi Shaun
I will tell you what I have learned from Joel and Paul during my troubles with my cub, but first real quick I managed to get a flight in today and it was great. The plane flew like it commanded respect, I almost felt bad flying it with my limited experience. The wind picked up so I had to cut it short and on approach the wind tryed to slam it but a quick burst of throttle and full flaps righted it just before touchdown however the tall grass made it tip up on nose, only broke prop so all in all excellent flight. OK here is what I found out on checking CG remove the wing struts and install the batt, then use your fingers under the wing and out from fuse and find the point it will ballance front to back with maybe a slight lean back as if in flight, that is the CG. Mine came and CG was about 50 % in the middle of wing, being worried about adding weight to correct I took ESC & receiver and moved them into area behind motor firewall, I had to take wing off to do it and had to be very carefull to arange it so it would fit neatly. I put ESC closer to engine and receiver behind it. as it turned out that was the exact amount needed to ballance CG
I did also make one other change and I need to find out if it has caused another new issue I had today, I replaced my prop with a 7x4 from the stock 6x3 I will say it wasn't lacking any power or boost,she tore out of my hand at lauch and shot up for the sky,but when I pulled my battery after my sorta landing it was fire hot. I need to find out if prop change could do that or maybe I have a bad batt or maybe it's normal but I don't think it should be that hot. On my 4th crash before Joel and Paul started helping me one of the wires on my batt broke and I soldered it back I am pretty good at soldering so I don't think I hurt it but who knows
These Cubs are great I'm glad I didn't let my crashes and problems stop me from finding the solution
Hope the winds let up for you soon but take it from me verify your CG first and you will not regret it

Ace

AJ1202

Hi Joel
I got to fly cub today and it was fantastic, It tore out of my hand at lauch and went screaming up up and up. My controls are very touchy have to be carefull not to over compensate I think I might need to move servo rod to outer notches at flaps to ease throw, But it was great she flew so well, the wind picked up and I started having to struggle with it a little so I decided to bring it in and wind almost slammed it into ground but a quick burst of power and hard flap uprighted it just before touchdown, I set it in tall grass so it nosed over on landing and broke prop but other than that all is good, now remember I put a 7x4 prop on instaed of 6x3 stock size. I would like to stay with it because the power it seemed to give was good and demanded respect, the climbing was strong and not labored at all I almost think I could have rolled it from level flight but was to afraid to try. Once up I dropped to half throttle and even there it climbed very strongly. Now I have a new problem when I removed batt is was fire hot, can the larger prop cause this or is it most likely at batt problem

Ace

htjoel

Hey Shaun, Ace, Skid and Junior,

Winds are the enemy of any park flyer. Here in LV winds started 4 days ago and haven't stopped since. Driving me nuts that I can't fly! Oh well, it's off to the R/C car track to get some relaxation time in I guess.

In answer to your questions guys:

CG: Shaun, the fuselage of our Cub tapers, so don't expect it to be perfectly horizontal when you're balancing it. Look for the top of the cowl to be somewhat straight ahead when you balance. I place my fingertips approx 2" from sides of fuse and about 1/3 of chord from leading edge. Be sure to do this whenever you try any mods as modding from stock WILL affect your CG!

Prop Size: From what I've learned from Badius Boys and other folks in the Universe, a larger prop will definitely affect battery performance and life. Remember, you're swinging more mass so it takes quite a bit more energy to swing that mass. You may get better flight performance but only at the cost of battery life and maybe motor life. In essence you're asking the battery to output more current in order to swing larger prop at same throttle speed. If you want to do a prop/motor mod, check out KCtrading's J3 thread or wait for Shaun's flight report in order to see what results are.

I've learned a lot just from communicating with all the experienced pilots in and around Universe. I'm glad to be able to give just a little bit of that knowledge back!

Totally Stoked About Shun Da Cub!!!!

laters,
Joel

P.S. Yes, I can ROG (Rise Off Ground) with the Cub, but find that it takes a little bit away from flying time. I make sure gear is straight, check rudder trim, and give her full throttle. I let her roll about 40-50 feet and just try to keep her straight until the tail rises up on its own. Then a little up elevator (ONLY A LITTLE, IT WILL STALL OR SNAP ROLL WITH TOO MUCH), and my Cub does a graceful climbing turn (normally to left.) Looks pretty scale, and very exciting when you master it!

AJ1202

Hi Joel
I posted for all to see but do you know where I can go to find CG for mini zero flat foamy
I built one and made mods in design to accompany gear I had availible but CG is about 75%
little much I think but don't really know
I am attempting to attatch pic of it here, I think it came out OK for my very first attempt at building from scratch

htjoel

Ace,

Looks awesome for a first scratch build! Did you build any reflex into the stab so that it has a little uptrim built-in? What electronics are you using?

Very creative--I like the pusher approach! Can't wait to hear flight reports!

Laters,
Joel

AJ1202

Hi Joel
I didn't set it up for uplift but now I wish I had but I did allow for it if I can only seperate wing from fuse, used realy good glue, I did cut ailerons and flaps for the lift under power,hoping that will be enough, as to what equipment I used all I can say is a freind of mine bought 2 planes called yellow bee and crashed them. I talked him out of one, motors are comp to firebird outlaw in power maybe even a little stronger. I put this thing on a string and held it out and throttled it and it climbed straight up to almost 3 or 9 oclock depending on how you look at it
My only real fear is I made it too heavy and now I may have to add weight to ballance CG
It is almost impossible to find dupron foam local and 1/4 fan fold just doesn't seem strong enough
Ace