Piper Cub by Flair

1 Jun 07 - Nosed over and broken motor mount & nose, repairable.

I have converted this kit from i.c. to electric power. My model's specification is:

6 Apr 07 - I decided to convert the Cub to LiPo power and as the power was more than adequate with the 16 NiMH cells decided that a 5S pack would suffice.  The cells are mounted directly behind the motor and couldn't be moved forward much.  This meant that the total pack weight would need to be around the same as the NiMH pack at 945g. I had bought 2 x 5S1P 20C 3700mAh packs to power the Mustang, which weigh around 465g each, giving a total of 930g.  This would also give a total capacity of 7400mAh and a full throttle motor run of over 19 minutes.  As the throttle can be reduce to about 1/2 stick the flight time would probably be in excess of 30 minutes.  To allow the packs to to removed easily for charging I have fitted a hatch between the undercarriage blocks (picture above) and enlarged the battery bay as the packs are a little wider.

I have also remade the camera mount to suit my new Canon S-410 compact camera, which adds 250g (8.8 oz.) to the model weight when fitted.  The camera mount can be fitted in the belly as before or in the upper cabin shooting down the right wing as required.  The banner towing release can still be used and adds 68g (2.4 oz.) when fitted.  In theory the camera and banner towing release can be fitted simultaneously if the camera is mounted in the upper position.

22 Jul 06 - I have finally got around to returning the Mega S9 to this model, and fitted 16 Sanyo RC-3300HV cells as a pack.

17 Aug 00 - Temporarily I have fitted a Megs S5 motor with APC 11" x 7" propeller on 12 cells to keep the model flying.

10 Aug 00 - I sent the motor away a short while ago as one of the balancing weights had come adrift. The motor was returned today with a new armature fitted by the maker at nil cost. This is the sort of service I really like and why Mega will be motor of choice in future.

25 Jul 00 - I have added a photograph of the camera mounting plate I made for the Cub. It sits in an aperture I left just behind the rear undercarriage wire (visible in the photograph). The shutter is directly operated by a servo using an extended output arm. The camera I am using is a cheap disposable camera that unfortunately doesn't have a motor wind-on facility. I therefore, at present, have to land between photographs to wind-on the camera. I intend to build an experimental winder for use with this set-up.

11 Jul 00 - I have slowly been adding optional parts to improve the scale appearance. Whilst these parts will not normally be fitted for general flying, they can quickly be added for scale competitions. The first addition is a mock-up of the undercarriage suspension system, whilst not functional it looks reasonable. I have also added the main wing bracing struts and will be adding the sub-struts before finishing them. All these options add drag and weight, which will reduce the flight time, but I can still achieve 15 minutes on 16 cells.

7 Jun 00 - The CEM2008 motor threw a magnet a while ago whilst bench testing my prototype variable pitch propeller. I decided I wanted to be able to improve the performance and ended up buying a Mega S9 motor. This motor will handle up to 35A and 24 cells (at the same time). It is also a slow revving motor with bags of torque swinging a 13" x 7" propeller at up to 9500 rpm. I have temporarily fitted 16 cells to be made more permanent when I get around to it. I will also be adding the option to fit an additional 4 or 8 cells to boost performance. This additional performance will be used for glider towing and in the float plane role (when I finish the floats).

5 Jul 00 - I completed the larger banner, which is 12" wide and just over 12' long, which is a scale size of 6' high by 75' long. After work today I managed to fly with the new banner and the model requires significantly more power than for the small banner. Despite this it still copes very well with plenty of power in reserve.

1 Jul 00 - This week I made the wing-fuselage struts from 3/16" x 1/2" (5mm x 12mm) hard balsa, sanded to a symmetrical aerofoil shape. I also made a camera baseplate to hold one of the cheap disposable cameras. The cameras do not have motor wind, so at present it is a single shot device. I plan to make an external winder to allow multiple shots. I also made a backplate with a cable release to allow banner towing & possibly glider towing. Both the camera and towing plates fit in the same gap I built into the bottom of the fuselage. I first flew the model with the camera & towing plates yesterday and no major problems were found. The only slight problem was that the plane was more unstable in yaw on the ground, but fine in flight. I flew it with a very small banner approximately 8" x 30" (200mm x 760mm), which equates to a scale size of 4' x 15' (1.2m x 4.6m). In future I will probably make a large banner equivalent a scale size of 5' x 50' (1.5m x 15.2m).

16 Jan 99 - This morning I cut the tissue from the open areas of the fuselage and wing tips and replaced it with Profilm. The main reason for doing this was the poor impact resistance of the tissue, and numerous cuts & holes that occurred when I moved the model to my new house. There is no noticeable weight change but it stop me having to frequently fix the tissue.

30 Sep 98 - After a short 5 minute flight on 19 Sep 98 the speed controller stopped working & I am returning it the dealer for investigation. The failure was unusual as one minute it was working fine. The next time I throttled up it didn't give power to the motor. The ESC was replaced, free of charge, by Ripmax as the FETs were faulty. I have refitted the ESC and flown the model since. I have found a picture of a Cub float plane which is basically white (luckily) with some red trim and metal floats (silver). I must now start the paint detailing and fitting of a little scale detail.

During Build - I have fitted an external charging facility for the motor and RX batteries. As a safety precaution the main fuse can be removed through the fuselage side. The wings are veneered white foam and the fuselage Liteply and balsa. The model is covered with tissue applied with watered down PVA glue. The open areas are shrunk with dope. The whole model has been sprayed white and when test flown will be finished in the colours of a UK registered Piper Cub. I have now completed a few flights on the Cub and will be adding the 'scale' detailing in the near future. I incorporated the wing mounts for a set of struts to improved the appearance and will be making them in the near future. I also purchased the Flair sport float set and have started to construct them. I will be taking my time for the moment as I don't have anywhere suitable to fly from at the moment.

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