Adding flaps to Cub. Ever do it? Tips/tricks?

CheckMySix

Well-known member
Thinking out a design for adding flaps to the cub. Maiden flight today and really had to crank down DR. Sooooo much aileron control surface.
Thinking 4" wide flaps starting at the original point by wing root and turn servos in as opposed to out. 10.5" aileron stopping before wing tip more like real Piper Cub. Add new servos so control horn ends up at 5.25", add y cable and channel five on radio/receiver.
I'd be interested in seeing what others in the community have done with the cubbie kit/scratch build from the FT plans.
These guys have me back in the hobbies after nearly a decade away. Last plane I flew was the parkzone corsair. Had great times with it. I'm hooked all over again. Flite test creates opportunities to play around with ideas and grow. And when you crash, you don't have to go to your local hobby shop for and drops the $$$. Just some glue and tap and flying again in 20 minutes. Well...30 for me today but.flew again and just fine. Good times man!
So...watchable y'all do on your Cubbie😉😁
 

BATTLEAXE

Legendary member
Welcome back to the hobby and to the forums. Good job on the cub maiden. Sounds like you know exactly what to do with the Cub as far as flaps go, not to sure if you know but there is an upgrade vid and plans for the Cub through FT, they mention flaps in there. Half of your aileron surface would be ideal for flaps and you could open up the DR on your ailerons again. To tone down the throws mechanically you could notch in a hole or two on the servo arm and dial up the DR to get you resolution out of the roll control.

Glad to hear your havin fun and keep us posted.
 

CheckMySix

Well-known member
Yea... I gotta watch that video. Every time I go to watch it I see other wicked cool things the boys are up to 😁
I've been watching some real life cub videos and although I know the FT cub isn't exactly scale, I would like to try an mimic the look. After all my engineering (or so called lol) I eventually want to paint it like the USMC WWII L4 artillery spotter. So, want to get a real as I can pull off and pay homage to my Son who is former Recon Marine.
I just love that it's so easy to come up with an idea, get some foam board and cheaply test things out. I never had the courage to feel out on a $250 plane from Horizon and possibly destroy it. Really stoking my interest in Aeronautical Engineering. Gotta do some reading.😁
Just saw a video on a IRL cub with Fowler flaps. Ideas are coming like butterflies...lol!
Thanks man!
 

CheckMySix

Well-known member
I dig flaperons to but since I enjoyed scratch building the wing so much n I figured I'd play around a bit and try some flap. Got a pile of servos from back I'm the day and a couple channels open on the receiver so... yea.
Been doing some reading on some real Super Cub forums and the math is just took wonky. What seems like a popular config for serious STOLs is 100" aileron and 83.5" flap but that just seems like a ton of flaps. 33/66 percent flap to aileron seems pretty reasonable. But, using standard foot/inch starts getting funky too. I'll likely move to metric so I don't t have to mess with 16ths lol.
I wanna center the servos at least for the aileron which needs about 7/16th offset for the control horn.
Gotta use up those six channels right. Now retract landing gear...don't even know where to start! 😁😁😁
 

Sero

Elite member
How about programming your flaps as flaperons and leave your ailerons as they are. One of the reasons you ailerons are so effective is that they're in the prop wash as they're full length. At slow speeds the ailerons will do very little if they're not in prop wash. I built my Bushwacker with flaps and didn't care for the landings with dedicated flaps. Plan was to use the above mentioned set-up.
 

SportyModder

Active member
I did flaperons on my HZ Super Cub, It slows down really well, but looses the aileron authority with the more droop I put in.

My PZ Sport Cub S2 has a single servo installed to drop flaps, slows the bird down incredibly well and still works good, just gets a little sluggish at very slow speeds.

My Maule, I know not a cub.... Has 7 channels taken up because I mixed the flaps into the ailerons and have each of the 4 wing servos on its own channel. Roll is just as good with flaps down as up and the wing never looses its authority.
 

CheckMySix

Well-known member
I'm just geeked up to do some mods. It's been a long time and FT builds do make it easy to mess around. If you mess up or don't like something you're out a buck or two for more foam board lol.
Had flaperons on my parkzone corsair years ago and did like it. I'm not carrying the ailerons all the way to the wing tip in the new wing either. Just seems like overkill. I want to get a little closer to the IRL cub look since I want to eventually paint it like the WWII marines L4 grasshopper scheme for arty spotting.
I'd like to redo the rudder as well to get that horizontal separation. I just figure it's not in the FT design because the foam would likely be an issue on the cut in the red line (horizontal) in the pic. May be tougher to keep aligned too. Maybe I'll search the forum to see some other peoples mods. 😁😋
 

Attachments

  • 20191106_155113.jpg
    20191106_155113.jpg
    439.1 KB · Views: 0
  • Id95543.jpg
    Id95543.jpg
    332.3 KB · Views: 0

CheckMySix

Well-known member
Well, the flaps worked. Boy did the ever. First take off with less than half throttle it shot up into a high alpha like a rocket launch. Fortunately the nose dropped back down and I was able to recover. Talk about STOL! Get her back down and started reducing them in the radio. Setup a 3 pos switch and think the last setting was 25 and 50. On full flaps she is so sweet to land. You kill power, hit a glide path and just a touch of flare before touch down. Pretty fun experimenting.

I used Ross foam board this time for the wing and I like the strength and how easy it is to work with but.... it's so much so much thicker than Adam's/ FT that the FT plans just don't jive. Was a bit frustrating and some sanding on folds.
 
Well, the flaps worked. Boy did the ever. First take off with less than half throttle it shot up into a high alpha like a rocket launch. Fortunately the nose dropped back down and I was able to recover. Talk about STOL! Get her back down and started reducing them in the radio. Setup a 3 pos switch and think the last setting was 25 and 50. On full flaps she is so sweet to land. You kill power, hit a glide path and just a touch of flare before touch down. Pretty fun experimenting.

I used Ross foam board this time for the wing and I like the strength and how easy it is to work with but.... it's so much so much thicker than Adam's/ FT that the FT plans just don't jive. Was a bit frustrating and some sanding on folds.
did you ever gert vid or pix im thinking about doing flaps on my cub would love some info :)