I maidened my new CAP today and then burned most of a gallon of gas just having fun. It has a stock G62 and hitec digitals. First flight, a couple of 4 point rolls and checked for KE coupling in both directions. Suprise! It pulled to the gear. So I landed and mixed in a few percent of elev with rudder. Next flight started with an 8 point roll 10 feet off the deck.. Nice and crisp. Then I did a really slow horizon to horizon slow roll. As I flew through this move, I noticed something I've found in other caps, too. when inverted, for me the first few degrees of down elevator seem kinda dead. So when I landed I reduced expo for down elevator in normal (precision) mode. Next flight I started in on 3D. This thing harriers like a cross town bus. Rediculously stable. I was doing low harriers and those cool sliding 180 degree harrier turns where you steer with the rudder while keeping the wings level with opposite aileron and add power through the turn. No problem, no wing rock ever. I tried some harriers to TR's and that was easy, too. I felt like with the heavy engine power to weight wasn't as high as I'd like. I mean it pulled out fine, but if you got out of shape too far too low you could find yourself running out of throttle and throw. Mine's still a bit nose heavy so I had to stay ahead of it but it was no big deal. at one point I counted 10 or 11 rotations, got bored and throttled away. But here's the big news.... This plane does the best HAKE I've ever seen! For the first day with a new plane I used this technique: slow pass, pull up to a 45. Feed in top rudder and balance with power. I could easily adjust AOA and speed. Every time it settled into a super slow high alpha knife edge. It looked like about walking speed. When I was done, I'd just throttle up and climb away in KE. I tried a bunch of rollers but they didn't look that great. The problem was the rudder is so much more authoritve than what I've been flying recently. So I kept giving too much correction, too soon. Oddly, Rollers to the right looked better for me today than to the left. Nothing an hour or so of practice wouldn't fix. The trimming I did for the first day was of course rough. So it really wasn't sorted out, like, up lines required a bit of right rudder. But I'll start on that next time out. The plane is very easy to land and made me comfortable right away. I think it does great with the heavy Zenoah. A light weight motor would make this a real balloon.

I'd enjoy reading other flight reports or comments on mine.
Thanks,

Dave

This thing harriers like a cross town bus

Yes it does

I have a CAP232 120 with a Moki 1.80 and just love it. I can imagine something with 10 more inches of wing span and a light gasser on it. Looking forward to putting one together this winter.

Nice flight report. Did you do some tumbles with it? Fun stuff.

Joe,
no, no tumbles yet. I was being a bit conservative since it was the first day out. Good luck with yours! It was a nice build, too.

I have to ask. Does anyone here have the Cap and the Ultimate Im concidering getting a cap. I fly the ultimate and this plane has me thinking I can do almost anything with it. It makes my edge look real bad as far as wing rocking I can do nice 90° turns while in a harrier. It can power into a harrier from any position an elivator to a harrier is very easy. I often wonder if anything will do better. Im not a great pilot but the ultimate makes me look real good. So if any of you could offer a comparison that would be great.

Let me say this, the cap should be a dream with your Evo 58.

TF

The evo is just getting to that point where its running real smooth still neeed to get ussed to starting it when warm. I have to check out the carb mounting. Today it didnt want to shut down when I closed the throttle. I hope it gets like the DA flip and go no tinkering. But the power differance is well worth the tinkering in my book. I feel so much more comfortable close to the ground with this one.

Check that little line from the case to the carb. Mine got hard over time and started leaking which made starting hard and it could also cause it to not stop.

TF

well, I've got over 25 flights with it now. The trim is getting there. Up lines look good without the need for rudder. My rollers look better. Did a bunch of rolling harrier circles, all is well. And yes, I did tons of harriers, inverted flat spins (these look great!) Got used to the way the tail responds in TR. But I'm afraid I was a bad pilot today. Not a good steward of the nice airplane I posess. Instead of working on 3D all day, I was a complete dork and rammed around, doing really low, fast inverted passes, inverted stall turns, outside snaps and just fun tumbling stuff. I treated the poor CAP like a Sig Cougar. Gosh it was fun! Actually, that kind of flying is in keeping with how I have it set up. I mean, when you use an engine that adds excess weight that can be measured in pounds it simply has to effect how it flies. I'm writing this because there might be some folks who will read my flight report and think they can buy a stock G62 and have a 3D monster. This is my 4th airplane with that engine. None of them crashed, just wore out or got ugly. 3 were used for basic 3D work. What I'm saying is, I knew what I was getting into when I bolted it on. Yes, it does all the moves and looks good doing them. But, for example, when you're doing a tight harrier turn sometimes the airplane will want to settle. With this motor, I know I need to anticipate this and get in the throttle or if I'm too low I may get myself into trouble. Same thing with the torque roll. You want to be gentle when backing it down and stay ahead of needed inputs, or you might not have enough throw/power to pick that heavy nose up. I was doing walls to TRs all day long. They looked so cool! But I was careful and mindful of the limitations of my equipment. So, if you want to use a G62 and 3D is your goal, go for the electronic ignition conversion. Just an honest, thoughtful opinion.

I bought this thing for an EAA full scale airshow my RC club is going to be featured at. It's going to be awesome!

interesting flight report, i felt very similar to you... there is that dead spot in the first little bit of inverted flight. Caps really are quite a bit different feeling compared to the others... i was flying the 1/3 matt chapman cap on G3 yesterday and it felt really similar to my 91" version. Do you feel pretty comfortable doing tight loops/ outside loops? i think my elevators were a little off in the beginning and it was causing it to kinda snap out of that stuff, but i think the 8611's will help that i just put in.

erik,
when the airplane is flying "on the wing," not HA, yes you can induce an accelerated stall by using too much elevator. What I'm saying is, tight loops, inside or outside are in my opinion not the forte of this kind of airplane. i did a bunch of outside loops today, but they were just normal sized, round loops. Try this, get in a gentle dive in normal mode (rates) and pull full up. It will most assuredly snap. Then do the same thing in 3D mode and you'll get a parachute or wall. I'm sure you know all this stuff already, I just like to be clear for whomever might read this. Thats what all the G62 ranting was about, trying to set the newbs straight. Anyway, I feel comfortable doing outside loops, but not tight, funfly type ones.

got ya. sometimes i just get nervous when i'm pulling out of a maneuver pointing at the ground cause i wonder if it will snap all of a sudden. if you aren't going really fast it seems like its bound to happen. The problem i was having was when you exit a flat spin or something like that when you finish i had to really ease it out or i felt like it would snap. I feel almost more comfortable just inducing the snap by making it parachute out so I don't have to wonder if its going to happen. i exit that stuff pretty low and i just want to know I can count on the plane. Question for you: where is your cg at?

Erik,

That's a really good point. It seems for me, the most dangerous part is the transition out of a move like something high alpha or a flat spin. Do you find that to be true? That point when its starting to fly again is when it gets a little weird. I always hit the switch back into normal mode before I pull out. This seems to keep me from over controlling. So far, the CAP has been pretty good in this regard. But I'm not familiar enough with it to be really confident. I honestly don't know where my CG is at. I did just add 2 oz to the tail yesterday. It maed it come in slower on landing. You have the 91 inch? What motor are you running?

i'm running the 3W-75 on the 91" er. I think my cg is around 4" I have been wanting to change around the cg, but have been grounded since i had an interferance problem and sent my stuff in to get checked out. After some time i hope to get some more data on this plane with different cg locations... I've talked to a pretty smart guy in Nebraska thats going to help me out when i get out there. He seems to understand caps really well and i'm hoping i can work it out so the airplane can mush in and out of that slower-speed we're talking about without having much of a snapping tendancy. hard stuff to describe.

I have the 85 in. cap. one of the horzonal stabs is off. can any one tell me the incidence of wing to stab. thanks fxd

i just did my incidences, and the way i did it was to match the wings to the elevator halfs. I'm no expert but this is how a guy taught me. so every application would be different and I think my numbers would be useless to you

They should be zero with the wings.

TF