Post by jklong03 on Sept 10, 2013 2:43:01 GMT 1
Some of you may remember this recent post of mine:
My supercub days are over for me, at least for a while. After loosing (physically, not crashes) my first two cubs, and then a trail of 3 fuselage and 2 wings I finally was able to enjoy over 20 good flights, the last 15 or so with ailerons, A few days ago I hit a power line and really crunched my fuselage. Not wanting to buy yet another fuselage I tried to repair the damage. Got it all back together and even waisted a day trying to pretty it up, figuring I was having such good flights under my belt that many more flights were still left in her. A simple hand launch was quickly followed by a gigantic loop with no control smack down onto a sidewalk. Total destruction of both the front and rear fuselage has me deciding to make a fresh start with a new type of cub. Next payday I'm ordering a Multiplex Fun Cub and putting all my flight electronics and Park 480 power pack in the new plane and starting from scratch from there.
Well, as you all know, once the flying bug has bitten you good, the very idea of sitting around without any plane to fly for the next three weeks was killing me! I was sitting there looking at the carnage on my work bench, tail feathers broken cleanly off, front of fuselage from the top front edge of the wing saddle to about 1 1/2" in front of the battery box totally demolished, and then I started thinking (oh no, you know where this is headed!).
So I remembered I had reinforced the edges of my battery box and electronics bay with sheets of basswood following another earlier mishap, so the center of the fuselage was fully intact. I had a sheet of 1/8" plywood sitting there, and said to myself, I'll just build a new front end and see what happens! I just free-handed an outline of a new front end on cardstock and began cutting. I glued the front end extensions to the sides of the basswood inside the electronics bay, added a cross brace and then eyeballed what I thought would be an appropriate amount of down and side thrust angles and glued a plywood firewall to the whole contraption. Glued the tail end back together with a few wood skewers for added strength.
Here are so pictures to show how truly ugly this whole contraption is!
The "before" picture:
After the new nose was glued up:
And the resulting "beast"
Now honestly, I gave this contraption no chance of anything except perhaps a spectacular loop and crash, or perhaps an equally impressive corkscrew straight up followed by an equally impressive dive back down onto the runway!
Well, it was a bit breezy, and I normally would never attempt a first flight like this under anything other than ideal flying weather, but as I said, I really didn't have much hope for this thing actually flying. So, I prefighted thoroughly, pointed it into the wind and hit the pushed the throttle ahead cautiously, watching for any bad tendencies as it gained flying speed. When much to my amazement (no doubt akin to the astonishment of those watching the "Flight of the Phoenix" as it took off) she rose gracefully and tracked true into the wind. Gained a little altitude, did a few circuits around the landing pattern and brought it down for a very nice landing!
Still shaking my head in amazement, I wasn't about to tempt fate twice and loaded it into the back of my CRV and giggled all the way home!
Well, as you all know, once the flying bug has bitten you good, the very idea of sitting around without any plane to fly for the next three weeks was killing me! I was sitting there looking at the carnage on my work bench, tail feathers broken cleanly off, front of fuselage from the top front edge of the wing saddle to about 1 1/2" in front of the battery box totally demolished, and then I started thinking (oh no, you know where this is headed!).
So I remembered I had reinforced the edges of my battery box and electronics bay with sheets of basswood following another earlier mishap, so the center of the fuselage was fully intact. I had a sheet of 1/8" plywood sitting there, and said to myself, I'll just build a new front end and see what happens! I just free-handed an outline of a new front end on cardstock and began cutting. I glued the front end extensions to the sides of the basswood inside the electronics bay, added a cross brace and then eyeballed what I thought would be an appropriate amount of down and side thrust angles and glued a plywood firewall to the whole contraption. Glued the tail end back together with a few wood skewers for added strength.
Here are so pictures to show how truly ugly this whole contraption is!
The "before" picture:
After the new nose was glued up:
And the resulting "beast"
Now honestly, I gave this contraption no chance of anything except perhaps a spectacular loop and crash, or perhaps an equally impressive corkscrew straight up followed by an equally impressive dive back down onto the runway!
Well, it was a bit breezy, and I normally would never attempt a first flight like this under anything other than ideal flying weather, but as I said, I really didn't have much hope for this thing actually flying. So, I prefighted thoroughly, pointed it into the wind and hit the pushed the throttle ahead cautiously, watching for any bad tendencies as it gained flying speed. When much to my amazement (no doubt akin to the astonishment of those watching the "Flight of the Phoenix" as it took off) she rose gracefully and tracked true into the wind. Gained a little altitude, did a few circuits around the landing pattern and brought it down for a very nice landing!
Still shaking my head in amazement, I wasn't about to tempt fate twice and loaded it into the back of my CRV and giggled all the way home!
