fozjared

Picked up a piper cub clipped wing 62" wingspan.. it was kit built by an elderly gentleman that flies at my club, super guy too! he is 83 and still flies pretty good! anyway, he complained about how his clipped wing flies one too many times until i made him an offer, got it with 5 servos for 125$ he is a super builder, he has about 30 planes that he has built over the years all from kits! he did an incredible job on this plane, it hasn't been flown in about 5 years though.. all the servos work fine with my spektrum rx..

where can i get a large "N" number decal to replace the one on the top of the wing

what side does the number usually go on (left panel or right wing panel?)

will it fly well with an evolution .46 (it had a magnum .52 4stroke but i never saw it fly so i dont know if that pulled it well, he said it did so i assume i should be fine with my .46 2 stroke)

he made some balsa wheel pants for it, but i dont recall seeing a cub with pants.. they look nice, but should i remove them in the name of scale?

the old battery is a futaba 4.8 600mah dont know how old but when i plugged it into the rx it worked! who knows how many years it has been since it was charged! question is, i have a hobbico accu-cycle elite, how can i test this battery, i have never cycled one on this charger, but would that tell me if the battery is trustworthy? should i just charge it and then plug it into my expanded scale voltmeter to see if it will hold a charge? should i leave it plugged in to the plane for a certain amount of time after charging it fully to see how long it will hold up?

he gave me a new cowl for it that i just have to paint since the old one was cut for the .52 magnum 4 stroke, so do you guys think i got as good a deal as i think i did? this is a greatplanes clipped wing cub, a few years old, but it came with 5 servos and all hardware plus an old battery for 125$ and he is an excellent builder, this plane looks (and feels) bullet proof, thats the way he builds all of his planes, but it feels a little lighter than i expected! any info leading to the flight of this plane will be rewarded with a thank you!

Insanemoondoggie

Sound like a great deal to me .

If your running Spektrum , dont take a chance on such a small battery , even if it does take a charge.

fozjared

small battery? you mean 4.8? thats what i use on all my spektrum rx's, should i not? i guess a 6v battery would offer a little more protection.. oh i guess you might mean 600mah.. yeah i dont like that either, but there are some older guys on here that i have seen swear by 600mah batteries.. this thing doesnt have big control surfaces so the current draw of these servos should be low enough to get a couple of flights out of that 600mah battery.. i have the 4.8 1100mah battery charged and on standby if i fly more than twice per trip to the field, which i doubt i will, because i will be wanting to fly my yak more and i have a 4.8 2700 mah battery in it so i should be good to go for 2 flights on the cub and several on the YAK! if you think differently let me know, but i charged the battery on the accucycle last night and it charged to 5.9x volts from 4.5ish so i am surprised the rx worked on 4.5v but it did, i moved the control surfaces around on 4.5v for about 2 minutes solid and then the rx started glitching badly so i charged it and everything seems fine i am going to leave it on for about an hour and then go check the voltage to see if that battery is holding out.

bla bla

Don't even bother with the battery. Bin-it and get a new one.
You'll have more than enough power with the .46 2-stroke. In fact too much... but it'll take you some time before you'll understand that.
Cubs fly far better on the wing and not on the engine. Infact the more power you add the worse they fly so hold back on the power and let physics do the flying.
You'll find that the whole deal performs so much better that way thus you'll be pottering about at half throttle 99.99% of the time.
Especially take off. You'll find out.
And remember to get a new battery.

ChuckW

For the decals, you might try the decal set for the Great Planes kit or ARF version. Tower should have it. As far as placement, google some pictures of full scale cubs to get an idea. This video has some nice cub shots and there are some on the web site: http://www.onesixright.com/ It's also a great video by the way.

As for the battery, I agree: trash it. Rx batteries are cheap and there is no reason to risk using an old one.

Also, if you really want a cool cub, put a 4-stroke on it sometime. There's something about that slow lazy airplane with a realistic sound that's just cool.

fozjared

well, with this being a clipped wing, i dont know about the lazy part.. i also don't think that the .46 is too much power for it, i am looking for a .61 right now because i tried to fly earlier today with the evolution .46 and when it left the ground it got up about 10 ft. and started stalling, it stalled around and i fought it until finally it cartwheeled! for some reason it was pulling hard left, it was laterally balanced with the 52 4 stroke but i didn't bother to check the lateral balance with the evolution 2 stroke thinking it wouldn't be that much different.. but why was it pulling left, the muffler on this engine is bigger and it is on the right side? i have no idea why it was pulling so hard.. the .46 may not be enough, especially since i plan to put this plane on floats, with the .46 would it even rise off the water?!? i got the plane all repaired and ready to go again in about 2 hours of repair, it cartwheeled, but not from a high angle, just right over the ground it dipped the left wing enough to catch and flip it, the nylon bolts did their job and snapped so it wasn't too bad.. would have been much much worse if this had been an ARF instead of kit built by old mister solomon! he is one heck of a kit builder, did a super job on this plane about 6 years ago! he built it with lite ply, maybe this is why the .46 just didn't quite have what it needed? i will weigh it and see what you guys think..

oh and this is a great planes kit, so i went to tower and found a decal set for it! oh and the 600mah battery seems fine, i had the switch on probably for a total of 20 minutes moving control surfaces trying to crank the engine, swapping a split fuel line out moving surfaces again, setting the throttle control rod precisely moving it a lot, flying it a total of about 1 minute, and when i checked the voltage with my expanded scale volt meter it held 5.1 for quite some time! i will use it for now, but i will definitely keep a very close eye on it! let me know what you guys think about using this .46 with floats.. thanks!

fozjared

i just watched a video of a h9 piper cub with a .46 evolution and a 60 something inch wingspan and it leaped into the air!! (he was on pavement, i was on grass, but once mine got up there should have been no difference!) my cub barely had enough ground speed to take off but i did it anyway and now i wish i hadn't.. i dont think this one is that much overweight, i think maybe part of the reason mine was stalling the whole time is that i was having to give it nearly full right aileron to keep it staying flat, it must have gotten severely out of balance laterally or something else was going on that i couldn't see!? i guess i will weigh it and see what you guys think about its weight with this .46 but that will have to wait til tomorrow as i am turning in, good night!

ps i am running an 11x6 prop and it was turning over 10,000rpm so the engine is not at fault unless it IS too small for this things weight..

ChuckW

The .46 will be plenty. Even with the clipped wing, it will have a lot of lift. Cubs fly slow, using lift from the wing; they aren't shot through the sky with thrust from the engine.

As for the roll problem, make sure the ailerons are centered correctly, the rudder is straight, the wings aren't warped and so on. Also verify that the CG is correct, that could be all you are dealing with.

The prop you are running should be fine. You should be turning well over 10,000 RPM though, probably closer to 12,000-13,000. Unless it is a 15 pound brick, I really doubt weight is an issue either.

Insanemoondoggie

The reason for running a bigger battery , is, say you do a hard snap roll , and you have really put a load on your servos. With a smaller amp battery, will some times drop below the 4.8 threshhold , which will cause the reciever to reboot. Takes about 5 seconds to reboot. A lot can happen in 5 seconds.

bla bla

My Cub experience to limited to the clip wing version exclusively. Even then I can state that you just can't fly a Cub and similar vintage Scale models... like a model. As you're experiencing. Apart from something being out of balance, both ways it's sounds as if your Cub (or at least your reaction to it) is quite normal.
Weight shouldn't be an issue. Most people prefer/add weight. The prop is a good start. You'll probably have to reduce the pitch as they can be quite difficult to land. Meaning they don't want to land!
They just keep on flying and flying with the engine at idle. As you'll find out. It's moments like these make you umderstand the power thing. Also learn to use rudder all the time. You know, it's the stick that doesn't normally see much action. You'll find the whole Cub experience becomes far more pleasant.
Once you've got a grip of this, and believe me, it's totally different to flying any type of sports models - including trainers- you'll start having a great time. You'll be able to introduce yourself to low power aerobatics. Believe me, thats an art form in it's self. And a crowd stopper.
Enjoy.

fozjared

i can definitely see that it is going to be a totally different experience.. i think that my sport flying experience with my yak will only hurt me with this plane.. for about 1 week before i bought this cub i had been spending a lot of time on real flight flying the cub on there, but it (just like most of the models on there) jump into the air easier than they should, plus they are all trimmed properly! the thing i love doing most with the cub on real flight that you really can't do with any other model on there is the side slip, so i plan to be using the rudder a lot once i get used to flying it.. since it has the tall fuselage it slows down pretty well on real flight and i imagine it will do the same in real life! as for the cg the man that built it said to balance it on the spar, which is a little further back than normal, but he said that is where it should balance due to the short nose.. he also said that the cg didn't even matter that much because he once tried to balance it on the spot he though it should be and added 13 oz to the nose, but it didnt fly real well, it was more than manageable with the 13 oz but didn't fly perfect so he thought he would remove the 13oz and see what would happen and he said it flew perfect after that.. so where is the cg?

ChuckW

If it is the GP kit, download the manual from their site or Tower Hobbies.

The cub should jently lift off at fairly low speeds in a fairly short distance. I thought my old Goldberg Cub was going to start flying with a light wind and no engine running a couple times. I had more problems making it stop flying rather than getting airborne.

ChuckW

A guy at our field has the Hanagr-9 1/4 scale cub. It is very cool. I may just have to order myself a new cub kit tonight.

fozjared

an update for the plane, i flew it today, and man did it fly beautifully!! the .46 was more than enough power! there is an older gentleman at our field who has a coro-cub that he built several years ago and dedicated it to the memory of his father, because he will never forget his father taking him for his first flight in a j3 cub! so he was up flying it, and the thought dawned on me that it would be great to fly mine with him, so on the second flight of this cub, since i have owned it, was in formation with another cub! it was a beautiful thing! we flew right together, 20-30' apart some of the time and some of that time low and slow side by side, most enjoyable flying i have ever had! i can't wait to get those floats on the plane and see her rise ever so gently off of the water!

today was a great day at the field for more than one reason.. late this evening as everyone was packing up, the sun was setting very pretty, making my cub look orange on its last flight of the day. well i brought the cub in for nothing less than a perfect landing (not me, but the plane's doings, as it is a gentle plane) brought it over to me and took the wing off for transport, just as i got the wing off we all heard a loud buzz in the distance, before we knew it a full size cub came putting along across one edge of the field, so we all wave, but i decide to use my wingset to wave, i flagged it through the air, and suddenly the big cub yanked around tight and circled us, then dropped below the tree line and came straight at us at no more than 25 ft. high!!! he couldn't have been going more than 50 mph! he banked slightly and almost drug a wing tip! he turned just enough to miss us and flew over our runway, i could read his shirt and see the whites of his eyes! he had the door open, he was in a hooded sweater and a ball cap looked to be about my age (24) or maybe even younger.. as he passed just out of reach he throttled up and jerked the elevator and took to the sky! man it was neat! we all admitted that we were scared as he was coming straight at us at 25' and flying on the wing at stall speeds, but after it was over everyone was so worked up, it was the best day i have had at the field thus far! as we were pulling out, one of the older guys said "there is no such thing as old and bold", as the age of the pilot was very clear from such a short distance!

WALKERS210-RCU

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Wish I knew how to upload a video I have of a Cub at an airshow I went to last year. Would really make you love a Cub even if your die hard Cub hater <G>. This guy is from North Alabama and he teaches 3d flying (full scale) and I think he even had Chip Hyde as a student. When you see a Cub land on the top of a pickup truck that will make your day.

fozjared

link us to the video on youtube or wherever you have it.