My Maiden Flight - Now a question

[twr]

Went out for my first flight this morning. A successful flight with no damage!

A lot of thanks need to go to a friend from my work who had taken me "under his wing" and insisted I learn to fly using his R/C EasyStar on some slopes near our home, where I was able to get used to using the R/C to control a plane.

For my first flight he launched from his hand. The Cub performed well, controls were responsive and no nasty surprises. I flew with ACT off.

However, it now leads to the question I have. I had setup the Cub so that with the servos in the neutral (centre) position, and the trims in the centre, the rudder and elevator were straight and flat respectively.

During the flight though, I found I needed to have the rudder trim fully to the right to try to stop the Cub turning to the left all the time, even then I still needed to keep a bit of right stick to hold a straight line flight.

Is this normal? Should I simply adjust the length of the rudder control rod (using the thread on the end attachment) to give the rudder this amount of right throw with all the controls back at neutral position, or does anyone think this points to some other issue? My friend thought it was motor torque causing the left turning.

Anyway, I'm hooked now! I can't wait to get back out again. (Must invest in a 2nd, 3rd battery pack too!)

[sleddog]

twr;

Congratualtions on the maiden...Yes, It is addictive!

Rudder pull: I am new too, but a couple obvious things to look at:

1.) Take prop off. Does prop shaft look centered in cowl openning?

2. Remove cowl and check that motor is mounted tightly to firewall (four screws).

3.) Check that firewall is mounted tight to plane body.

It is normal that the prop shaft be pointing toward the plane right side, apparently to mitgate the natural pull left caused by prop rotation. Hopefully you will get some more informative suggestions with later posts, but this may help some.

Agian..Congratulations!

[twr]

Thanks for the suggestions sleddog.

I'll check the items mentioned tomorrow and post a reply soon.

[frazer1981]

I would adjust the control rods slightly and obviously fly in minimal wind as this affects the cubs performance greatly?!

[twr]

Thanks also for your comments frazer1981.

My friend and I were careful with the wind, it was quite calm.

Of course, if it was windy we could have gone off to the slopes and used his plane for more practice time for me, but now that I've flown my own cub, I'm not sure I want to spend as much time with his plane anymore!

[ace1726]

Is this a "stock" cub?? No mods??? If so, I doubt motor torque would be the cause. Personally, I would check & re check the balance of the aircraft. Not just CG, but lateral balance. It is normal to have to adjust the trim for level flight, but "all the way" to either side is not right at all. I never gave it any thought until I myself was in that situation.

[twr]

Hi everyone,

Yes, this is a stock cub, except I have put clear packing tape over the wing edges, and used fishing swivels on the base to allow easier release of the wing struts for transporting.

I checked the motor / gearbox suggestion from sleddog tonight. The prop shaft is not central in the cowl opening, but I think that is more due to the cowl being slightly off line, rather than the motor. The motor etc are tight on the firewall, and I can't detect any movement between the firewall and the body of the plane.

However, I may have located the problem. I placed a straight edge along the bottom of the tail section tonight, and found that over the distance from the tail to the front edge of the wing, it was off line by about 6mm or 0.25". I loosened off the tail section screws and straightened this before re-tightening. There wasn't really much give in it, it needed a bit of twisting from me to line up properly, but as it was off-line in the direction that would cause it to turn left, I assume that would be it.

I'll have to wait to try it again, the weather forecast for the coming weekend is not encouraging

I'll report on my findings once I've tried it out.

Thanks to everyone for their feedback, as a newbie it helps to know there are others out there who are willing to offer their advice.

[flydiver]

I'd look critically at the wing. If there is warp caused by taping problems, unequal strut tension or manufacturing/shipping/storage warp those would all be a problem. Obviously the tail needs to be straight and square. I've seen warped rudders out of the box.

fly

[twr]

Sorry about the huge delay in following up on this.

I finally tried another flight today, even though conditions were no where near ideal. It was quite windy and I really considered abandoning the attempt, but decided to give it a go. I suspect that makes me fool-hardy, but it was a successful flight, again no damage.

I had verified everything suggested here, as well as the tail alignment I mentioned in a previous post. This time it flew fine - not obvious tendency to want to turn left or right. Although a newbie, within myself I think it was the tail alignment that was casing the problem.

Thanks to those who offered suggestions on this, I truly appreciated your input.

Now I just have to wait for free time with better weather again, but it looks like winter is actually here now (in South Australia) so while the rain etc is very welcome, it certainly interferes with flying.