World Model 1/5 Scale J3 Cub?

[BountyHunter51]

Hey Root! Man I'm glad that you plane made it! Keep me posted on your progress. Seven months of jumping from one project to another and dragging my feet. I need to actually go finish something, LOL!
Cheers! BH

[root]

I'm about 3/4's done. I put 3 washers each behind the top engine mounts because I can't see much downthrust in the firewall and I read in a RCREPORTS review of the 1/5 regular wing cub that the pilot needed many clicks of down to keep flying straight and level. My flying buddy John Maloney also said he had to apply some down trim as well. The cub wheels are cool but the covers need to be repainted white from the factory yellow. Should be ready to rock on Sunday.

[BountyHunter51]

Way cool, Root. Man you're smokin' right along on your build!
Did you change anything on the servo tray? Don't forget to post a few pics when you get her ready.
Cheers! BH

[root]

Applying the decals and tapping the wing tube for frequent on-off's as per manual is what's left to do.
The crap instructions only give you 3x18mm numbers to go by so I had to phone Airborne in California and just found out that the screws are M3 X .5 size.
The Dubro authentic Cub wheels look better but the hub caps have to be painted white from yellow.
Besides applying more epoxy to the firewall joints and using a better fuel cap and putting in 3 washers worth of down thrust, I also did some mods to the hatch to make it safer to keep shut and easier to access with only 2 screws. I also made a ledge on the hatch side for the black deck.I'll shoot some pictures soon.
The elevator set up w/ the 3 control rods joined by the plastic contraption worries me cause I already had to tighten it cause it came loose while dialing in the throws.
Can any body tell me of a way to make this more dependable besides abandoning the set-up and wire wrapping & silver soldering the 3 rods?
***************Elevator rods UPDATE
I just brushed on some Gorilla Glue all over the little box and the control rods after sanding the pieces to assure a permanent hold. It looks like a tan cocoon around the whole section. Hopefully it will work better than epoxy which I heard can get brittle over time and the bond could crack especially w/ the planes vibration egging things on.

I'm done and ready for a maiden flight if the weather holds up.

[root]

I'm done arf-ing......ready to fly.....tomorrow if the weather permits.

[BountyHunter51]

Hey Root, way to go man! How about a few pics?? Good luck on your maiden!
Cheers! BH

[root]

Hey Bounty Hunter, I flew the Clipped Cub today (I beat you) . It needed a few clicks of down elevator and that's with 3 washers behind the engine mount and the CG spot on at 3-3/4's behind the leading edge along side the fuse. Otherwise not a tad bit of rudder or aileron trim was needed in order to run straight and true. Quite a bit of rudder is needed on take off but once the tail is up, it tracks pretty straight. I had to use a few clicks above idle in order to land smoothly.I found this out on the second landing attempt where I tip stalled but rescued it at the last moment. Loops are really smooth and very wide if you want them to be and rolls are quite scale with the ailerons set at 3/4 inch up and 3/4 down for low rates. Elevator was set to 1 inch for both directions because of others reporting the factory setting of 1-1/2 too much. Rudder at 1-1/2 instead of 2.3 factory and was very effective at slip and slide flat turns. The plane feels almost like your on a simulator most of the time. My Saito 82A w/ 14x6 APC at full throttle doesn't really pull the plane as non-scale as one might think. Maybe you just can't GO that fast because of the aerodynamics of a Cub - even a Clipped Wing version. The only thing I did when I got home was put on a Dubro chrome covered Brass spinner hub to give it a little more nose weight to compensate for the down elevator that I had to dial in. We'll see how that goes t'morrow. All in all I would recommend this plane to anybody with intermediate skills that wants a relaxing yet slightly challenging model.

[BountyHunter51]

Hey Root!
Congrats on the maiden. I'm glad that all went great for ya. Sounds like you had a blast!
I wanted to get some things done on mine this evening, but again, that didn't happen. It sounds like this plane is going to be right up my alley......old and slow. LOL
Keep me informed on how things go tomorrow. Post some pics man. LOL.
Cheers! BH

[root]

Took 4 more flights today without a hitch. The Dubro weighted spinner hub adjusted the CG perfectly ...I'm guessing it's moved to 3-1/4 from 3-3/4. Regardless, following the factory recommendations at 3-3/4 are not going to give you level flight. (and I have 3 washers of down-thrust added)
The flat deck and pilot aren't in yet because I was impatient and wanted to fly as soon as possible.
Gotta love Hazel Sig.

[BountyHunter51]

Root,
Glad to hear that you've gotten things sorted out. I'll definately keep an eye on my CG. I don't think that I put as much down thrust in mine (I'll have to check). I'm suspect that mine will be a bit nose heavy with my motor anyway.
The blue sunburst pattern is one of my favorites. I can see why you were in a hurry to fly yours. That's one great looking Cub! Now I want one of those too, LOL!
Your build has gotten me motivated again to finish mine. I don't have a great deal to do to complete it, I just over-stress on the details. I'll do my best to finish up on mine this week and keep you posted on the progress. Keep me up to date on how yours is flying.
Congrats again on the sucessful flights. Your Cub is definately a 'looker', and sounds like a sweet flyer.
Cheers! BH

[root]

Hey BH51,
DON"T FORGET to make bends in the 3 elevator rods and insert them in the little UNNOTICEABLE holes (THAT MUST BE REAMED OUT) in the 3 rod connecting box before you tighten it.
I didn't do that because the instructions don't mention it and the picture does not show it. The results were that one half of the elevator came loose and I ballooned like crazy until I fixed it.
Lucky for me, a club member who put one of these together a week before figured it out and showed me what I did wrong.
I had to scrape off the gorilla glue that did not hold worth a @#$% anyway and start all over by bending the rods and reaming them out at the feild and using a new 256 rod to replace the factory rod that I already had Z bended and was too short. All this was done in about an hour at the feild and I was able to fly that day thanks to DENNIS MALONEY.
A friend of mine just bought and started putting together the yellow AT-6 Texan by World Models.Sure enough, he did the same thing I did, forgetting or not realizing the right angle bends needed to be made and inserted. He epoxied the hell out of the straight wire inside the "box" and screwed it shut. He's hoping and praying it will hold up to the stresses of the servo. I told him that he's CRAZY for not re-doing the whole thing with a tube and silver solder if the epoxied plastic box doesn't survive prying it apart. We'll see........Any ways, mine is fine and I'm confident it will stay that way with the bends showing sticking out the bottom.
I hope I got to you before you made the same mistake I did.!!!!!!!!!!!
It's an awesome cub and I'm thrilled with its performance.
root aka Bob G

[root]

Ha ...it's me again, after 3 weeks, no more clipped model to talk about but I have the 83 inch model now. In fact, I'll be flying it for the first time after some sleep and a cup of Joe. I'll be sure to give you a report if all goes well...Hey BH did you ever get that Cub of yours off the ground?

root aka Bob G