Balsa USA Citabria Aerobatic Pro Build

[vhandon]

I finally built the FT SeaDuck I picked up at Flight Fest Texas 2018. The maiden was uneventful so I can't wait to fly this one off the water. With that build complete my backlog is empty.

The Balsa USA Citabria Aerobatic Pro caught my eye a while back and I finally pulled the trigger on it. The plan is to go electric, probably a Power 90 with 8s.

 

[speedbirdted]

Ya'll are achieving an empty build backlog? Man I wish I could do that. What are you going to cover it with? BUSA sells Oratex alongside most of their kits and that stuff is great if you dope and paint it (but not as great as Solartex ) though if you want to go that route you might as well just use Koverall since it's lighter and less expensive.

 

[Joker 53150]

I love this kit, and have been very tempted to buy one that a local-ish guy has had on MarketPlace on and off for a while now. He wants almost full-boat price on it though, and I've got enough projects in line to last for a while... Looking forward to the build!

 

[vhandon]

What are you going to cover it with?

I plan on using Doculam to cover this one and then paint it.

 

[Ryan O.]

I finally built the FT SeaDuck I picked up at Flight Fest Texas 2018. The maiden was uneventful so I can't wait to fly this one off the water. With that build complete my backlog is empty.

The Balsa USA Citabria Aerobatic Pro caught my eye a while back and I finally pulled the trigger on it. The plan is to go electric, probably a Power 90 with 8s.

View attachment 167485

Nice, did you order it before balsa kit prices were raised because of a minor shortage?

 

[TooJung2Die]

I plan on using Doculam to cover this one and then paint it.

What weight film? The light weight 1.5 mil is probably too thin.

 

[Ryan O.]

I finally built the FT SeaDuck I picked up at Flight Fest Texas 2018. The maiden was uneventful so I can't wait to fly this one off the water. With that build complete my backlog is empty.

The Balsa USA Citabria Aerobatic Pro caught my eye a while back and I finally pulled the trigger on it. The plan is to go electric, probably a Power 90 with 8s.

View attachment 167485

I see that you are using ceiling tile for the build area. Do you have any tricks to keep the dust from getting everywhere? I have mine inside the house, and the dust makes my eyes cherry red and itch really bad

 

[vhandon]

Nice, did you order it before balsa kit prices were raised because of a minor shortage?

I did not, but I did catch a 10% off coupon Balsa USA was offering at the time.

What weight film? The light weight 1.5 mil is probably too thin.

I am concerned about that as well so there will be extensive testing between 1.5 mil and 3 mil before final covering.

Do you have any tricks to keep the dust from getting everywhere?

I really have not had a problem with dust. I do vacuum the surface and surrounding areas frequently. I cover it completely with wax paper so that may be helping with the dust as well.

 

[rockyboy]

Nice plane - although I think it's missing the bottom wing. With those looks it should be a biplane!

 

[nhk750]

The Citabria is a scale high wing aerobat that has been around a long time so it does resemble the bi-planes of the era due to design of the times. I have been looking at this kit for a long time now, but I have to many other projects on the list right now...I think this would be a great conversion to elecctric and a fun aerobatic flyer. You could probably run this on 6s and run a more scale larger prop and lighter, but I really havent studied it that much as of yet. I will be following your progress on this one as I am very interested in this plane.

 

[Tench745]

I was assuming this would be the aerobatic descendant of the Aeronca Champ but it's a single seat parasol design. Weird. Neat! Looks a little like a Baby Ace.

 

[vhandon]

Unpacked the box and read through the build manual. I was surprised with the ratio of die-cut parts to raw wood stock. There is a lot of raw stock. All the pre-cut and die-cut parts are on my build board in the picture below. I would have liked a complete parts list to verify against but only the die-cut parts are cataloged.

The landing gear seems very sturdy and the cowl and wheel pants are thicker than expected. I am tempted to create molds of them and make lighter weight versions. Since I will be using electric they do not need to be fuel proof.

This newer version uses better printing processes, instead of the blueprint method, so the plans look really nice. I will be cutting them into sections so they will fit on my 2'x4' build area. The numbers and diamond graphics are included as high quality stickers.

The hardware package has nice components but no hinges. I wonder why they did not include any but it's not an issue since I have a healthy stock of hinges.

 

[speedbirdted]

If you haven't started gluing stuff together already, here's a tip: Weigh all your sticks. For some reason, and this seems to be in the BUSA kits only, the weight of the sticks supplied can be wildly inconsistent. Weed out the lighter ones, and put them in the tail.

 

[vhandon]

If you haven't started gluing stuff together already, here's a tip: Weigh all your sticks. For some reason, and this seems to be in the BUSA kits only, the weight of the sticks supplied can be wildly inconsistent. Weed out the lighter ones, and put them in the tail.

That's a really nice tip. I will definitely be doing this but it may take some time because there are a lot of sticks in this kit!

 

[Joker 53150]

It'd be nice if they also offered short-kits. Most of those sticks could just be cut from planks to save money that way.

 

[Winggo]

I am in a month or two on my BUSA Citabria Pro. Wings are assembled but not sanded. Working on fuselage now. There was another forum for this plane that shows a couple of different methods of stengthening and stiffening the tail section by adding 1/8" ply to either the inside or outside. Anyone try that or even sees the need to do it? If its on the outside seems to me you would be able to see the outline through the covering.

 

[vhandon]

I am in a month or two on my BUSA Citabria Pro. Wings are assembled but not sanded. Working on fuselage now. There was another forum for this plane that shows a couple of different methods of stengthening and stiffening the tail section by adding 1/8" ply to either the inside or outside. Anyone try that or even sees the need to do it? If its on the outside seems to me you would be able to see the outline through the covering.

I helped move my parents over the past months and are prepping for a move myself so not much progress from me. I am not planning on deviating from the plans but that may change when I get to building the tail section.

 

[Winggo]

If you have not started the fuselage I suggest you measure all the die cut pieces and also compare them to the plans. I had some pieces too long and some too short. There are a number of things I could point out but a major one was fitting the belly pan over the landing gear. The bulkheads and the fire wall were wider than they should be so when I got to making the belly pan the strips you lay down on either side of the fuselage, when in the correct position, were riding up on the curve of the landing gear. I reinforced the inside of the strips at the landing gear location and carved out the outside of the strips to fit over the curve of the landing gear. I think it will be OK but wish they could get the sizes right.