Super Cub Reborn

[wjcjr1]

I unexpectedly now have 2 planes!

So about a week or two ago I decided it was time to get back into R/C flying again. Long story short my 450 BL modified SC was destroyed 1 1/2 years back from a crash ( not I ). Nonetheless I wanted to get back in the air now but wasn't certain I wanted to strip the wrecked fuselage just to rebuild a new Super Cub. So I purchased the E-Flite Apprentice, a size 15 BL trainer. This is a RTF plane requiring about the same amount/type of assembly as our stock Super Cubs and figured this was a nice way to reenter the hobby.

I also decided to strip my Super Cub down and sell all the goodies off of it that I had modded it with. Well that went nowhere except a ton of effort.

OK SO I said ENOUGH and today I purchased a new Fuselage, Wing, Decal set, Tail assembly and have started building. I have the servos mounted, tail assembled and on, and my latest greatest motor mount for the BL Park 450 constructed and fully in place. Last mount I made was of plexi-glass and well is GONE so this time I made it out of 14gauge aluminum. So now another bit of mounting the ESC, RX, hooking up some wires and the ole Super Cub will be reborn.

Probably should have gone this route a couple weeks ago......

BTW today at HobbyZone, I went to their storefront location here in MN, the gentleman serving me was mentioning this website in particular as a wealth of useful information and a great bunch of people, so good job everyone....

Wayne

[patmatgal]

Way to go! Having a second plane suddenly and enexpectedly make an appearance, gotta love that...

[wjcjr1]

Plane DONE! Just completed, well have COG to check but should be ready to go.

Short on time but will take a picture later. It's a Super Cub but I'll throw up a picture for the heck of it. I do want a comment on wire routing, did differently than before, I was concerned about ESC/RX interference so joggled things around.

Maiden will be tonight or tomorrow morning.

Wayne

[old crow]

Good luck with the maiden! Glad to see you getting back into the air!

[wjcjr1]

Maiden flight went great. Ran first battery 12 or 13 minutes before coming in to land. Was flying AGAIN in a small tight area and missed my landing three times and finally got it on the fourth. Going around on like the third time I was getting a bit flustered with my surroundings and accidentally just so barely ticked a branch of a tree across from my house. Just barely nicked it, no damage, no scar, no mark just a brief nick heard on the video. Yes video; my wife snuck in the camera as I was aborting landing attempts...

I will try to get video up. Not the best quality but it's OK.

After this I shot model rockets with our son. Fun of course! Then took out my Apprentice, not so much fun. There is a spar that runs through the wing halves and the only thing holding the wing halves together are those little plastic stick on band protectors that is front and aft on our Super Cub wings where the rubber bands sit on. So that little things stuck on there are supposed to hold the wing halves together. I banked in a corner, MUCH MUCH Larger area than where I flew the Reborn Super Cub's maiden, and the plane started getting loose in the air. I came back to level flight and the plane just started trying to roll real hard to the right, I got it back then the plane literally did a loop all out of shape, I landed it as soon as I could then in this farmers field. Came down actually really smooth considering, I got some dirt in the cowl but that was about it.

Come to find out these plastic caps that are supposed to act as the holder of the wings had come loose. The wing halves were spread apart and off center and all messy like. The only actual damage I see other than my nerves being wired up is the rubber bands dug into the wing from the wing half separating opening up unprotected foam due to the sticky cap being moved.

My wife decided it best NOT to video this part, many bad words. FUNNY thing here I mentioned to E-Flite on RC Groups.com that I was worried about these caps not doing their thing, I was told not to worry. Hah guess who I am writing next.

Try to get that video here in the Super Cub section,
Wayne

[patmatgal]

Glad you got the Apprentice back safely, sounds like a high pucker factor event. Having the wings start to seperate in flight... It's a tribute to your fying skill that you got it got back with only some dirt in the cowl.

[wjcjr1]

I'll throw a picture up of the carnage from that wing seperation in the other more appropriate area. Plastic stand-off mtoor mount broken as well as a bit of trailing edge intrusion from bands.

Trying now to put up the Super Cub Reborn maiden video. Should be in SC videos in a bit...

Wayne