Nose over

[dheaton]

Well yesterday was the maiden flight for my SC. First I tried taking off from the ground and it would just nose over so then I just hand launched it. It flew great. Had a lot of fun and it handled just as I thought it should. Then came the landing. Perfect pitch slow plane, touched the ground and nosed over right away. I have tried this on gravel and grass but can not get it to work. I am thinking it is because of where I have to fly it is too rough. I think the wheels being bigger would be a great help. I have some Du Bro 2 3/4 rubber wheels but they are very heavy and will not fit the axle that is on the SC.
I have looked through this forum and found lots of things that people have done with landing gear and wheels but all the threads are old. So I guess I am asking if anyone has anything new on this or is the older ones still the way to go?
Love the plane and it if fun to fly. I can see that I want to make some wing mods real soon.

[bpj1980]

Hey dheaton, i use 2.5inch Dubro micro sports wheels, they are very thin and very light, i used a few spacers to keep them from rubbing and they work a treat, i could never taxi really well in my field but now landing and just taxiing along the ground has improved dramatically, i also use a smaller version of these as the one on my tail wheel,

Front Wheels:
shop.dubro.com/p/2-50-micro-sport-wheels/aircraft_tires-wheels?pp=12
Tail Wheel:
shop.dubro.com/p/1-23-micro-sport-wheels
(although i could have sworn it was smaller, will measure it tonight for you)
I will post a picture tonight of the setup with the spacers, i just used the little plastic spacers you get with Helicopter Training Rods but i have heard of other people using Heat Shrink and other things,
Congrats on your maiden, and wait a little bit before you do the Aileron Mod if thats what you mean, i waited about 2 months and just practiced as much as i could, love my cub but now want more, so looking at a Parkzone Visionaire.

[dheaton]

Thanks for the reply. I will order these tonight. Hope it helps.

Ya I am not doing the aileron right away but am learning how so when I am ready i will have them. Should be fun.

Apr 4, 2013 23:04:05 GMT 1 bpj1980 said:

Hey dheaton, i use 2.5inch Dubro micro sports wheels, they are very thin and very light, i used a few spacers to keep them from rubbing and they work a treat, i could never taxi really well in my field but now landing and just taxiing along the ground has improved dramatically, i also use a smaller version of these as the one on my tail wheel,

Front Wheels:
shop.dubro.com/p/2-50-micro-sport-wheels/aircraft_tires-wheels?pp=12
Tail Wheel:
shop.dubro.com/p/1-23-micro-sport-wheels
(although i could have sworn it was smaller, will measure it tonight for you)
I will post a picture tonight of the setup with the spacers, i just used the little plastic spacers you get with Helicopter Training Rods but i have heard of other people using Heat Shrink and other things,
Congrats on your maiden, and wait a little bit before you do the Aileron Mod if thats what you mean, i waited about 2 months and just practiced as much as i could, love my cub but now want more, so looking at a Parkzone Visionaire.

[kenninny]

look at your plane from the side and make sure the wheels are going forward just in front of the wings, not under the wing ( facing back )

[flydiver]

Skinny wheels like those linked work best in grass to go through the blades.
Fatter ones work better on gravel or lumpy ground to roll over the bumps.

A reality is tiny little planes have tiny little wheels and just don't work well on rough ground. You have to figure your situation and make adjustments appropriate to the terrain up to an including no landing gear at all sometimes. That's kind of hard on the prop though.

[renard80]

My field is all grass and I invariably make rolling take-offs.

I ease back slightly on the right stick while accelerating smoothly during take-off, getting her off the grass fairly quickly. This almost always prevents nose-overs.

And of course, same applies on landing. Ease back slightly on the right stick, letting her down gently. Won't prevent all nose-overs but can help considerably.

Larger wheels definitely help, as advised above.

[dheaton]

Well I ordered the 3 inch wheels. We will see what happens. Sure is fun flying though. I notice that when I am flying as soon as I get in the air I start worring about running out of batterie and start to look for a good landing. Too funny. I need to relax a bit more.

[toff]

Battery power isn't an issue. Your plane will tell you. You don't say what size battery, but I fly with a 2200 lipo, and that's good for 1/2 hour or so. If it's the stock 1300, it should be good for 10 mins with throttle management .

[Dillzio]

Apr 6, 2013 23:20:53 GMT 1 toff said:

Battery power isn't an issue. Your plane will tell you. You don't say what size battery, but I fly with a 2200 lipo, and that's good for 1/2 hour or so. If it's the stock 1300, it should be good for 10 mins with throttle management .

My god, half an hour?!?!?

What motor are you using?

I guess I've been flying cub-tanks for so long that anything over 12 minutes seems unreal to me! Perhaps, rather than loading my cubs up with profilm, navigation lights and oversized tails I should be making them ultra lightweight.

[bpj1980]

Hey dheaton, check out my other post with the video, you can see what i mean about the wheels, see below
Hey Dillzio, if i nurse my 2200mah batteries i can easily get 20 minutes plus, havent timed it till dead but longest was 25 minutes in the air, half throttle most of the flight, but i dont use them much, i got 3 1300mah and the plane flies much better with these as they are lighter, and i need this with my flying, lol,
Agree with Toff with about 10 mins for the 1300mah, i usually get 6-7 with my flying, see below, lol

supercubclub.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=vids&action=display&thread=5007

[flydiver]

Apr 7, 2013 5:28:50 GMT 1 Dillzio said:

I should be making them ultra lightweight.

Mmmm, how long have I been recommending that?

[Dillzio]

well yeah i know lightweight is an excellent goal to aspire to for a SC build, but remember how much I love my mods. Profilm, navigation lights and an enlarged tail for better acrobatics are vood value as far as i'm concerned
Admittedly it would be night to have a lightweight cub as well though

[SussexFlyer]

I have fitted some new wheels to my SC. I fly on farmland which is not the smoothest (have to always handlaunch) and the SC would invariably nose over on landing, no matter how smooth and slow the approach. The wheels I got were only £2.59 plus 90p postage from eBay (Item No. 181035093987). They are 5-spoked and very light (important). Diameter is 63mm so they look OK-ish on the SC - didn't fancy fitting non-scale diameter 3" wheels. Available in different colours, I went for light grey (that's colors and gray for our US members who spell English rather strangely!) The wheels are a fair bit narrower than the standard wheels which helps a lot. After waiting several days for some calm weather Saturday was great and I can report that in every landing the SC stayed the right way up! It also helps that I have the pushrod wire on the second hole from the innermost on the elevator clevis which allows a good flare (as bought, the SC has the pushrod on the outermost hole). Was a good day's flying with several victory loops too (well, can't really do a victory roll without ailerons!) - captured on video with my airborne Flip Mino cam.

So, if you after a good lightweight wheel to stop nosing over I'd highly recommend these, together with plenty of elevator movement. Just one thing, due to the narrowness of them you need to add a spacer to the axle to stop the wheels from wobbling. I just used a quarter inch of plastic tube snipped from a ball-point pen ink tube.

[SussexFlyer]

Just as an update, really just to confirm my last post and in celebration of the wheel mod and decent elevator throws (I recently treated myself to a Spektrum DX6i Tx which has exponential - gives gentle responses in normal flight yet has large throws in hand for when they are needed).

Anyway, yesterday evening as the sun was starting to set the wind dropped to a gentle breeze so I grabbed the SC and had a flight. I always keep the battery charged 'just in case' and yesterday it paid off.

The feeling after a satisflying [sic] flight is immense and this was the best so far with my SC. I always fly now with my Flip Mino vid filming (Velcro'd to the left side of the fuz) and this captured my partner and children watching as the Cub came in on the final approach leg. I landed towards me, keeping her level with small adjustments, easing off the power and feeding in up elevator. As the throttle is reduced, I find using the elevator to 'keep her flying, keep her flying...' makes for a nice gentle landing as the plane gently gives up flight and kisses the grass. In contrast to my early flights where there seemed a lot to think about, this was magic with everything seeming to occur in slow motion. She landed just five feet from me and again upright. Oh joy!

Looking forward to more twilight flights - the nicest time to fly.

[renard80]

Apr 24, 2013 7:53:56 GMT 1 SussexFlyer said:

As the throttle is reduced, I find using the elevator to 'keep her flying, keep her flying...' makes for a nice gentle landing as the plane gently gives up flight and kisses the grass.

Me too! Bringing her down gently, gently, throttle off as much as possible, playing with the elevator to keep her nose up, finally the wheels touch the grass and she rolls to a halt without nosing over - absolute satisfaction!

And yes, that magic time at evening, when the wind dies and all is calm for a few precious moments.

I am glad you managed to enjoy southern England's brief interlude of fine weather. I got out twice and had some great flights. If only it would last . . .