Bunkerbarge

Lovely looking model now David. I hope the whole excercise was still worth it for you and you don't feel like you wasted your money on the Ebay sale.

__________________

“Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack, Butting through the Channel in the mad March days"

Greyhead

Looking very nice now, it’s amazing what a difference a re-cover makes. The Japlac paint has made a really good finish, where did you get the idea to use that particular paint? I’ve not heard of it for years! The Piper Club bear adds the finishing touch.

Just out of interest I notice that you’ve added rib tapes but not “stitching”, do the French stick the fabric to the ribs as per the Americans?

Glider Guider

The idea of using Japlac was from a team racer who always it for his models as it goes on well and is fuel proof. As to the lack of stiching on the model it is only semi scale so it wasn't worth the time to go into a lot of detail. At my club I doubt anyone will notice the rib tapes let alone the missing stiching.

With the Auster which is more a scale model than the Cub, it has rib tapes but the stiching was just too much of a job I'm afraid.

Glider Guider

The Cub has now been test flown and was very exciting - as someone at the club commented "is adrenaline sticky". On take off it either nosed straight over which was very difficult to catch on the elevator, but once caught it would go into a ground loop.

Once I got it up it climbed away nicely but then started to disappear in a bit of mist so I levelled out and throttled back at which point the Cub tip stalled and headed for terra firma in a spiral dive, with the visibility a bit compromised my instincts took over and I was able to recover before it hit the ground and the rest of the flight was not bad but it didn’t want to turn left although right turns were fine. On landing even though it was a ‘greaser’ as soon as the wheels touched it nosed over, the grass was very wet but that shouldn’t have happened.

The nosing over has been improved, but not completely cured, by moving the receiver and battery from their under tank position to the rear of the cabin, the turning is now fine after mixing in a bit of rudder with the aileron. The ground looping on take off and landing is still under development, reducing the rudder through makes it easier to control but I’ve read that putting 3º of toe-in is a help in preventing the model ground looping. I've added this but have yet to test it due to poor weather.

Once airborne the model is a delight to fly even at low speeds.

The wing struts were made from 5mm diameter aluminium tubing from B&Q with duralumin ends.



Unfortunately the fuselage end fixing sheared on the last flight and I’ve now replaced the duralumin with steel.

Greyhead

Nosing over on take off and / or landing is all part of the “fun” with most scale tail draggers; unfortunately we have to use full scale grass which can be the equivalent of a full size aircraft using a runway sown with mowing grass, I think that would cause them a few problems.

Ground looping is also a common problem; I’ve resorted to using a heading hold gyro on my Parnall Elf, which is effective but a lot more expensive than 3º toe in. I’ll be very interested to see how well it works.

Flying a scale model doesn’t generally involve “throwing” the model around the sky in great abandon at full throttle but to do it correctly takes skill and practice, stick at it and you’ll soon be flying your Cub in true scale fashion and then you’ll appreciate what scale modelling is all about. You might have to take a bit of stick from the younger “top guns” in the club for as they see it “just stooging around the sky”, but you’ll know better.

I like the end fittings on the wing struts, have you used aluminium weld? I saw some being demonstrated at this years Nats. and was very impressed; so much so I was nearly tempted to part with some of the folding stuff, but I resisted in the end!

Glider Guider

The other days I shared the field with a club member with a helicopter and a Glen's Models CAP 232 with a 45cc engine. The display with the helicopter involved tight loops, barrel rolls, grass cutting height inverted and other manoeuvres that made the model sound as though it was tearing itself apart. The flight with the CAP covered most aerobatic manoeuvres at low height. Two very competently flown flights by a modeller of my own tender age, but the G forces of both flights would probably have killed the pilots.

I later started the Cub, took off at half throttle, another fix-it for nosing over, and started a gradual climbed out, after some level eights and other very unaerobatic manoeuvres with the Saito sounding ‘right’ at quarter throttle I brought it into a nice slow, and for once, smooth landing. Although he didn’t say anything I’m sure he was impressed with the scaleness of the flight – or maybe not.

The ends of the tubes were flattened and the end fitting cut with two tabs that were epoxied into the tubes. They are only for show so no problem with strength.

I also saw the ali -weld demo at the Nats. It was very impressive but expensive for a short length of weld and I don’t have enough use to justify that expense.

Glider Guider

I managed to get down the field on Friday to test the effectiveness of the toe-in in preventing, or reducing, the tendency for this model to ground loop on take off and landing.

On release the model ran true with no sign of a ground loop a slight curve to the left was corrected easily with a touch of right rudder. Landings were also straight.

In future I will always incorporate 3º of toe-in for a tail dragger.

AerynPk

Sounds like it is a joy to fly. Im glad you are having fun with it after all the work you have put in it.