Hi, I've already ordered the Tower Hobbies Fun 51, so please don't tell me to get something different. I'm 16, and I'm poor. I was just wondering what the cababilites were. I'm going to be using a .46fx. I mainly want to be able to do real nice flat spins, waterfalls/lomcevaks, harriers and possibly rolling ones if I get good enough. Mabye an elevator or two. I would also like knife edge but it is a profile so I dont see how that would be a problem. I would like to be able to hover it, but I doubt that it will be easy to learn with the fun 51. Have I gotten the right plane so far?? Have any of you guys enlarged any of the control surfaces?? Thanks

Alex

Keep it light and it should be a blast. A flyer at our field had one last year and it was very capable (so was the pilot). He had it hovering, flat spins, knife edge. He had a TT .46 on it. He said it was a little weak where the gear bolt on.

I had a Tower Hobbies Extra Special, which is basically the same airplane. I flew it 400 times before it just started falling apart on me. Since then I've built a Fun 51 and just recently sold it...

I can honestly say the most fun I have ever had flying was with that Extra Special. It's would spin so dang quick it wasn't even funny. It would do incredibly fast inverted flat spins, without losing altitude on a good day. Upright were great too, but it would lose more altitude. This is the easiest plane to flat spin you will find...Basically all you do is kick in full rudder. You can enter from any attitude from any manuever...

With spoilerons it will harrier great...Takes practice though, not as easy as it is with other airplanes. Harriers are definitely not it's strong point. There is a lot of wing rock. I don't think a proper elevator is possible...

I learned how to hover with my Somethin' Extra's and then used the Extra Special to go the next step. I was doing tail touches everytime out. It's lighter than most of these other profiles so with the same engine will pull out much quicker. All that builds your confidence. It's very easy to hover and torque roll. All control surfaces, especially the rudder are very effective.

Knife Edge on the Extra Special was great, will be almost as good with the Fun 51. Knife Edge loops were also easy...Falling KE was fun... I used to point the nose down at full throttle and roll to the side and kick in full rudder and watch is completely slip around on it's side and pull up.

Mine would also do a positive conic lomcevak...Never found another airplane that would do that.

As far as building goes, reinforce the landing gear area. Double it up with plywood and then cover it with fiberglass cloth and CA before covering it. Buy some of the Dubro profile landing gear, that is a must. Enlarge the rudder and elevator on the Fun 51 by 1/2 an inch in length. That will bring it up to the size of the Extra Special. You can add 1/2 inch to the ailerons if you want too, depends on how much you like rolls!

Besides the landing gear and landing gear mount, it is a great airplane. It's a better kit than those $110 Morris Hobbies airplanes! You're going to love it.

If you have any construction questions, feel free to email me. I've got my manuals standing by.

Oh yeah Alex, if you have any more money laying around you should consider the Tower Hobbies muffler. It's $13 shipped. The Will give you about 1000 RPM on your O.S. .46 and really make that thing a rocket going straight up.

I used an 11.5x4 on my Pro .46 and it was just perfect...

The Dubro landing gear is a must, and the muffler is a really great upgrade. I say the landing gear is so important because the stock stuff will keep bending no matter how soft you land and eventually break, most likely breaking the fuselage off with it.

Now you got me missing my Extra Special more than I did before!

Great, I'm feeling real good about my buy. And it just so happens that I have that dubro landing gear from a failed SPAD attempt. However, the LG feels heavy. Is the metal gear that is supplied just as heavy, or am I worrying about nothing?

Bottlerocketwar: How would I englarge the rudder and elevator by 1/2 inch. For the rudder I'm thinking just make the bottom 1/2 an inch longer, but what about the elevator.

Thanks for the report from all of you, if I get a job the tower muffler will be coming my way. Thanks again

Alex

It's about the same weight as the stock stuff... Either way, the stock stuff won't last long so you will end up with the Dubro stuff anyway!

Until you can get the Tower muffler, you ought to take the baffle out of the stock muffler if you want some more power. Just take it apart and take the little metal thingie inside out.

To enlarge the rudder and elevator just make each piece 1/2 inch longer.

You can either just glue a 1/2 inch piece of 1/4 inch balsa onto the leading edge of each one or make the sticks bigger... Just making it a bigger stick built surface will be lighter, but it's not a big difference.

Someone else should be able to explain it better. If i get some time tonight I'll draw a picture in paint and post it here...

Check this thread out.

http://www.********.net/forums/showt...p?threadid=665

I'm still flying my Extra Special. I really haven't had a big problem with the gear area. I've bent them pretty good a few times, but just bend them back. I guess I should stop landing on Barns.

I never thought the plane was a great Hoverer, the Something Extra hovered much easier for me, but the flat spins are awesome. I have the O.S. .46fx on mine also, and if you get the nose up a little in the Flat spin, it will level off, and start to climb.

The rudder is extremely effective, and knife edge loops are no problem if you mix out the coupling.

I would suggest mounting the OS as far back on the motor mount as you can. I think I have about 4 oz of lead glued to my tail, my CG is way back.

The plane tumbles pretty good also. Lots of fun for a bargain plane, I think a few of us got them for about $30 when they were discontinuing the kit.

Stick with the APC 11 1/2" x 4 you will like the prop on the Fun-51.

This was the last shot I got of mine after a year or so of flying and at least 400 flights...Flew it at least once a week, sometimes 4 times a week for the whole year. What a fun plane!

I don't get it, what does POS stand for??? HHMMM...just kiddin, I like it. The price of those things has to make up for any flight draw backs.
CM

You got it!

I still have my Extra Special 40 which is almost identical to the Fun 51 with the exception of the shape of the profile. I am in the process of enlarging the elevator and rudder. The easiest way to add the extra length is to take a 1/2 wide balsa stick and just lay it inline with the trailing edge of the rudder and elevator and draw your new trailing edge. Doesn't get much simpler than that. I powered mine with a .46FX and the vertical was unlimited but pull was slow out of a torque roll. I have since found that the BB .46 engines like the APC 12x4 prop better than the 12.25x3.75 apc prop for hovering and throttle response. The narrower blade gives the engine much better throttle response. Also, I know the tower muffler is cheap at $12 but pales in comparsion to the rossi mini tuned pipe conversion for the .46FX sold by Morris Hobbies. You can find them online. The rossi pipe cost more but the performace difference is large. Better torque, smooth as silk midrange, and lightening like throttle response. It produces at 1500+ rpm gain using a 12x4 APC. This is like putting a afterburner on. It also fits the plane better than the tower muffler too. It does cost around $54.00 but is worth it completely.

Here's mine.
It was my first kit build and I learned alot from it.

I've actually had the gear break the wood away from the fuselage 3 times. It's a real pain to fix to so make sure you strengthen it somehow in the beginning.

Doing it on the leading edge maybe?

Besides being a little easier, you won't need as much wood so it's also lighter...


Nice plane Kris3D...

Thanks

I had one and loved it. In order to beef up where the landing gear attaches, just don't leave it two ply. Make it four. I just used some of the round pieces that came out of the wing tip ply and cut out the outer ply sheet in the same shape. Then slipped the round pieces and the ply was flush. Good luck,

Dan

Mine handles terribly (almost uncontrollable) on the ground.
Ground loops in a hearbeat in the lightest of crosswind.
Wingtips are getting a regular scraping too.

I have Du-Bro profile gear and a Sullivan tailwheel assembly on it.
Axles are about 1" ahead of the wing leading edge.

Is ground handling a problem for anyone else?
Did you have to fix this? How did you do it?

Mine never ground looped but to get better steering I always held in a little up elevator to keep the tail wheel from sliding around.

take care to epoxy the fuse well. i got in a hurry and used ca ended up with a weak fuse that folded in mid air, totally my fault the plane flew VERY well right up to that point i would lose the stock gear its rathes soft alum. and would slightly reinforcearound where the gear attatches by using thin lite ply instead of balsa but just around the gear.

Mine was great on the ground...Really good actually. I could give it full rudder and full throttle and it would flat spin on the ground! Wing tips wouldn't scrape...

I did notice the same speed landing with the Dubro gear will cause a bounce while it won't with the stock stuff. The Dubro stuff doesn't have much "give" in it...

I belive they're talking about a 1/2 in. greater cord , not span . It sure sounds like fun , have a great time .
Maj. Crash

You will have a blast with your fun-51 for sure!! Flew mine for two years and beat the piss out of It till one day the horizontal stab broke off with elevator at the fuselage.

Doug

Great thanks for all the replies. I went to the ********.net link and copied the picture of the gear reinforcement, so I think I have that down. Let me make a list of what you have all told me so far, then you guys let me know if I left anything out.

I am going to get some carbon fiber rods and put them between the horizontal and verticle. (I read this somewhere else)

Draw an extra 1/2 inch to the back of all the tail feathers

Beaf up gear

Keep the rates on low for a while

If there is anything else let me know, thanks to everyone for their input.

I don't know what you mean about the carbon rods between the two tail surfaces, but if it really helps go for it. The tail does flex a lot without any special support...

I would put the 1/2 inch on the FRONT of the surfaces. That way you are only cutting out 90 degree angles, much easier to get it all matched up. There is also less wood so it would be lighter...Not a big deal though.

Beef up the landing gear mount and use that Dubro landing gear you have from the start.

The rates depends on your flying experience. I thought there was not enough control with their recommended low rates and instantly switched to high rates on the first flight...

I think I could handle it, but when I fly the extra special on realflight I get to roll happy and usually end up crashing.