Super Cub first flights and lessons learned, the bedtime story

[embie]

Let me start out with pre-brushless shenanigans that ended up with the picture I attached (post-brushless crash). It's a long post, but there are some good points I try to make throughout my experience.

Once upon a time, I purchased my first plane, Hobbyzone Super Cub. My friend John bought one too (different channels, please!). After hours upon hours of training on RealFlight with powerful Extra 300s and Yak 54s, pulling off amazing stunts, we now know we can handle this. Cakewalk.

---First outing---

Couldn't wait to fly -- tried to taxi in the small parking lot near my townhouse, just to "test" it. WOW this thing really moves when I push the thrott...oh no it just took off! Now what? Relax, grasshopper -- fly it around above the other townhouses and condos and bring it back in, pointing into the wi...oops, where did that tree come from? Huh, go figure. Nothing a dining room chair and my 6'2" stature won't fix. Wifey won't mind me standing on the white upholstered chair with my dirty shoes.

That went well, maybe I can do it again, this time without the tree. Nice ROG takeoff. Watch out for that tree, ahhh cleared it...darn building, it blocked my view and knocked my SC out of the sky. Broken prop, cowl, searched for rubber bands and found all four, one was on the roof. Good thing I didn't hurt somebody or break a window.

Lessons learned: I need a bigger space to fly and I should have waited. Kids in the neighborhood all want to 'try' my plane. These are not toys but they sure are fun.

---Second outing---

Found an empty soccer field. John went first. After seeing John's maiden last a whole 23 seconds, ending as a lawn dart, I decided to go a bit easier on the controls. John tends to be a bit more aggressive than I am when it comes to this.

Landings were far from perfect but plane is still in one piece after three take offs and landings. Upon returning, John's fiancee laughs and makes fun of John's flying skills. I go charge my battery.

John replaces his prop and repairs his cowl with blue painter's tape. Looks cool like that!

Lessons learned: the SC is easy to fix and a blast to fly. I'm officially hooked.

---Third outing---

Found a new field to fly in as the soccer field was being used for soccer. The nerve. It was a little bit windy but nothing we expert 3D pilots couldn't handle. John even did a loop or two and his plane flew beautifully! Into the asphalt "runway". Mine flew beautifully too! Good thing the tree caught it, I didn't want it to get away. Found a stick and knocked it out of the tree. No damage.

On the final flight of the day I nearly missed landing gracefully at the top of a 50 foot tree and instead crash landed in a field. No damage, but why did the SC go left when I asked it politely to go right?

Lessons learned: Wind *kind* of makes the plane do what you don't expect it to do. Must wait for a calm day. People love to just stop and stare at the plane when it's in the air -- makes me feel important or something.

---Fourth outing---

Back to the soccer field. Still a bit windy today. I, the expert pilot who doesn't learn very well from his mistakes, decide that I'm ready to up the ante so I change the clevis on my elevator and rudder to their innermost positions. The travel on those control surfaces is huge! Now I should have more control. Up she goes, she's flying great. Both John's plane and mine are in the air and then BAM! John's goes straight down and he cracks his fuse in two. Nice dust cloud there, John. Oh wait, mine is still in the air.

A random guy who was practicing his golf game is talking my ear off. I turn to him to say something short and witty about John's misfortune. I look up and my plane is now straight up, then down, then hurling towards the ground and ends up in a faceplant. I give it a perfect 10. Luckily my prop is broken and nothing more. Upon returning, we do the walk of shame into his house and John's fiancee just laughs and laughs.

Lessons learned: Flying takes concentration. I must fly within my limits, and that includes control surface movements. To stop a stalling plane you don't panic and pull back on the stick as far as it will go. Props are cheap. Fiancees have a sense of humor. My wife must admire my amazing piloting skills since I haven't had a killer crash. She should come watch my next flight.

---Fifth outing---

John spends a whole day fixing his plane using 5-minute epoxy and installs new electronics, servos, and ailerons. Sweet plane he's modded there. I bought the drop module, can't wait to drop that little parachute guy on my unsuspecting wife!

Off we go to an even bigger field; the two of us guys, my wife, and the funny fiancee. We take off one after the other. Oops, the drop module hits a bump in the runway, dropping the guy. Oh well, the two birds look great in the sky together. Did I remember to change that clevis setting back to normal? Ugh.

My wife yells, "Watch out for that playground!" I'm far enough away but a little hard elevator and hard right rudder should bring it away from it, thank you very much.

Did I mention that I don't learn from my mistakes very well? Flight ends in an uncontrolled landing. Some people might call it a crash. But they're just crazy-talkers.

Unfortunately my wing, fuse, battery box, firewall, motor, motor shaft, motor gear and prop are busted. It's OK, because I can put all the little pieces back together again with that trusty epoxy. This plane was not built Humpty Dumpty style. Personally, I think Humpty was pushed anyway.

John goes on to do some amazing flying, attracting more people to watch. These things are like people-magnets. This should be a spectator sport.

Lessons learned: This is a spectator sport (to the uninitiated). I'm not by any means the expert pilot I thought I was. Humbling oneself and doing the walk of shame hurts but man, is it worth it. 5-minute epoxy to us is as duct tape is to MacGyver. My wife can laugh just as loud as the funny fiancee.

---Conclusion (finally)---

Last lesson learned: you never stop learning lessons, and it's been a fun-filled journey thus far.

After that flight I decided to go brushless on my SC and upgrade my electronics. After two weeks of inspired work on the broken non-humpty, including waiting for parts, I had a fully-functional, FAST and quiet brushless SC. Pretty cheap to upgrade too. I'll tell that bedtime story and post pictures of my setup along with what parts I used, how I used them and how it flew soon.

Nighty night, sleep well, don't let the bed-bugs bite.

Mike (embie)

[Balil]

omfg i have never laughed so hard in my life!!!!! i hate to hear that you totaled the plane. but the way you told the story was just friggin hilarious! im currently in the process of going brushless on my 2nd supercub, im going to go w/ a lower pitch prop because i dont want to have the wing fold on me in mid flight *happened to brushless supercub #1* what motor/esc setup are you going with might i ask? im using ah 2000kv inrunner and 25amp esc w/ a 3s1p 2100mah pack from eflite. it should be fun w/ an 11x4.7 prop on it i just wish i could find a wing to fit it w/o dihedrial so i can turn it into an l-4 grasshopper

[M.T.]

embie...
Great story!
Very much like my learning curve with my poor unsuspecting Mulitplex Cub.
Why is so hard to 'learn lessons' sometimes?
If the branches are swaying, it is tooooo windy!!!
Keep up the good work.

Balil...
I hope that you have a gearbox on that set-up?
The first brushless I put in my Multiplex Cub was so powerful that on full throttle it pretty much tore the wings off!

[Olias]

Great-great story! Absolutely loved it. I'm still laughing (and relating) way to hard to respond any more right now. Oh crap...think I just wet myself!

Bryan

[whipple]

Bee-uit-i-ful!

Respects,
Whipple

[flydiver]

Originally Posted by Balil

omfg]im using ah 2000kv inrunner and 25amp esc w/ a 3s1p 2100mah pack from eflite. it should be fun w/ an 11x4.7 prop on it i just wish i could find a wing to fit it w/o dihedrial so i can turn it into an l-4 grasshopper

Not to hijack a very funny story, but....
If you are planning on direct drive with that motor it'll go like crazy and blow up like a bottle rocket. WAY over propped. 6x4 is more like a maximum for that KV.

You can pull the dihedral out by gluing in a stout carbon rod while it's flattened with bricks. Or, cut, trim out the bevel, and re-glue with reinforcement flat. Tiny amount of missing length won't matter much.

fly

[spiderhole]

Great post. I took my SC out for the first time last weekend. Flew 4 packs and had "less than perfect" landings each time, but the thing has hardly a scratch on it.

[Mr.Clean]

That was an appropiatly beautiful S/C story. I can't wait to hear more.

I am going to be flying (for the first time) with a club in my area on Memorial day. I thought "Hey Ill fly my S/C!" Then I thought "Hey Ill give it an nice patriotic paint job for the holiday!" Then I thought, "Hey I still have that 1500 lipo I never used from an old project. That will fit in the bay perfectly."

So I pulled the jumper and put on Alaskan bush tires so I could fly off the grass in my new fancy Super Cub.

Unfortunatily I never maintained the charge on the battery and the lipo had dropped a cell. So I grabbed a 2000 but noticed it was a bit big for the battery bay. I heard that people have "opened up" their battery bay so I dropped the guts real quick and lenthened the battery bay by clipping the the ends of the plastic bay.

Wait wait whats that you say the front end of the battery bay does what? It holds what in place?
Hmmmmmm. Well I have some balsa and some gorillia glue. I'll see what I can do.


By the way where is the appropiate COG for the S/C?

I would also love to know what kind of resonablly priced, reasonabilly powered Brushless set up people have had success with in the past. I just ordered a new unpainted fuse so I can start over again for the Forth of July.

Clean

[bassplayinDude]

Originally Posted by spiderhole

Great post. I took my SC out for the first time last weekend. Flew 4 packs and had "less than perfect" landings each time, but the thing has hardly a scratch on it.

I flew a few packs through my Super Cub last weekend specifically to work on landings (must've been really boring for wifey to watch). Out of about 50 landings there were three that were picture perfect aka landings I wouldn't mind having in real life. The other landings didn't hurt the plane, but there were many of the 'roll to a noseover' variety as well as the 'at least it landed in tall grass' kind too.

Still, I had never stuck a landing in my year of SC ownership until last weekend so I'm either getting luckier or actually improving my skills.

[embie]

Originally Posted by bassplayinDude

I flew a few packs through my Super Cub last weekend specifically to work on landings (must've been really boring for wifey to watch). Out of about 50 landings there were three that were picture perfect aka landings I wouldn't mind having in real life. The other landings didn't hurt the plane, but there were many of the 'roll to a noseover' variety as well as the 'at least it landed in tall grass' kind too.

Thanks to all who liked my story

After the crash that I still haven't posted about I rebuilt her, and she flies great with the new brushless mod.

However, I had the noseover problem this past week because I was landing in grass that was just a little longer than my supersized wheels (I'm sportin' some 2.5'ers on that bad boy).

I videotaped a few flights with my new HD camcorder (yes dear, I bought this so we could tape the flowers growing or something) and posted my first (edited) youtube vid! (link below)

shhh don't tell wifey about the cam please?

Super Cub brushless upgrade

Mike
a.k.a. embie

[FlyingMonkey]

now you just need to buy some floats....