Ft simple cub group build thread!

The Hangar

Fly harder!
Mentor
The parts I ordered from Flite Test arrived today, right on schedule from North Carolina! I’ve been running the Bixler live Cub Build. He goes way faster than I can so I need to keep rewinding. The resizing of plans went well & the Staples girl behind the counter has figured out the I don’t speak their copy artist language.


I’ll keep working on The Phoenix modified Simple Stick to have it ready for the nice weather expected to start tomorrow. I’ll also be burning midnight oil plodding along at slow speed building the Simple Cub. I guess the FT Wire Gear Kit will work just fine on the Cub with the 2” wheels a bit like over size like Tundra Tires.
Great - they arrived! Was that the B pack twin that you got? Sweet! Have fun on the build!
 

sh0sey

Member
I’m never gluing servos to the paper again. Lesson learned! Always remove paper where servos get attached. Was enjoying a beautiful maiden, and the elevator servo decided to detach, ripping the paper off with it, taking a nosedive from 100’ up 😭
This was my first genuine rc crash in 6 years of flying. I’ve had some bad landings, but never smoked the dirt with velocity like that haha. Oddly, it was kind of satisfying. I think because I had never really wrecked one I was nervous about the possibility of it. Now I know it sucks, but it’s not that big a deal 🤣
It looks like a pretty light repair, don’t know if I’ll get to it right away though. Might get back to some other builds I was looking forward to instead.
Still glad I built this one. Really fun build and learned a lot from it and from you guys’ experiences and posts.
Cheers to more flying, and less crashing! 😂
 

Attachments

  • AD73CF61-90A1-4E83-952D-DB34CF7D1D7D.jpeg
    AD73CF61-90A1-4E83-952D-DB34CF7D1D7D.jpeg
    1.6 MB · Views: 0

BATTLEAXE

Legendary member
I’m never gluing servos to the paper again. Lesson learned! Always remove paper where servos get attached. Was enjoying a beautiful maiden, and the elevator servo decided to detach, ripping the paper off with it, taking a nosedive from 100’ up 😭
This was my first genuine rc crash in 6 years of flying. I’ve had some bad landings, but never smoked the dirt with velocity like that haha. Oddly, it was kind of satisfying. I think because I had never really wrecked one I was nervous about the possibility of it. Now I know it sucks, but it’s not that big a deal 🤣
It looks like a pretty light repair, don’t know if I’ll get to it right away though. Might get back to some other builds I was looking forward to instead.
Still glad I built this one. Really fun build and learned a lot from it and from you guys’ experiences and posts.
Cheers to more flying, and less crashing! 😂
My question would be why was the servo working so hard that the servo pulled the paper off the foam. Maybe the hinge wasn't free enough or there was some binding in the control rod. I have had that happen before on an elevator servo, ended up using a zip-tie wrapped around the whole mess to get it to stay, but it did have a bit of a stiff hinge to begin with
 

sh0sey

Member
My question would be why was the servo working so hard that the servo pulled the paper off the foam. Maybe the hinge wasn't free enough or there was some binding in the control rod. I have had that happen before on an elevator servo, ended up using a zip-tie wrapped around the whole mess to get it to stay, but it did have a bit of a stiff hinge to begin with

Good point! I’ll have to check it out and see if the hinge could use some improvement. That may solve it right there. That is one area I’ve overlooked a little bit in construction. Any advice on how to soften up a stiff hinge? I do the hot glue & scrape method to give it strength at the expense of flexibility. Maybe just less glue, more scraping?
 

BATTLEAXE

Legendary member
Good point! I’ll have to check it out and see if the hinge could use some improvement. That may solve it right there. That is one area I’ve overlooked a little bit in construction. Any advice on how to soften up a stiff hinge? I do the hot glue & scrape method to give it strength at the expense of flexibility. Maybe just less glue, more scraping?
In the construction process i use the HG method as well, after it cools though i will rub a scrap piece of FB along the hinge, paper side to the hinge on the inside of the open hinge, if that makes sense. Just like you would if you were smoothing the Hot Glue down, but after its cooled. If you rub it back and forth fast enough the friction will help re melt the glue some on the hinge point and free it up a bit. In your case where the control surface is already installed it might be most beneficial to cut the elevator right off at the hinge and use tape top and bottom to create a new hinge, depending on how stiff it really is. It should move fairly free of binding within reason, a tape hinge will be free enough if done straight and square
 

Figure9

Elite member
I’m never gluing servos to the paper again. Lesson learned! Always remove paper where servos get attached. Was enjoying a beautiful maiden, and the elevator servo decided to detach, ripping the paper off with it, taking a nosedive from 100’ up 😭
This was my first genuine rc crash in 6 years of flying. I’ve had some bad landings, but never smoked the dirt with velocity like that haha. Oddly, it was kind of satisfying. I think because I had never really wrecked one I was nervous about the possibility of it. Now I know it sucks, but it’s not that big a deal 🤣
It looks like a pretty light repair, don’t know if I’ll get to it right away though. Might get back to some other builds I was looking forward to instead.
Still glad I built this one. Really fun build and learned a lot from it and from you guys’ experiences and posts.
Cheers to more flying, and less crashing! 😂

I glue to paper all the time, maybe I should consider your advice. I also slip a bit of hot glue along the cut edge between the servo & the foam board where there’s no paper. No trouble so far but my servo rates are usually so low the control surfaces barely move. Recent builds have been mostly floaters. (Waiting for the laughter to subside.) You might investigate the accident for an additional component of cause.

Opps, after I did this reply I continued down the string & saw @BATTLEAXE had already addressed other causes.
 

The Hangar

Fly harder!
Mentor
I’m never gluing servos to the paper again. Lesson learned! Always remove paper where servos get attached. Was enjoying a beautiful maiden, and the elevator servo decided to detach, ripping the paper off with it, taking a nosedive from 100’ up 😭
This was my first genuine rc crash in 6 years of flying. I’ve had some bad landings, but never smoked the dirt with velocity like that haha. Oddly, it was kind of satisfying. I think because I had never really wrecked one I was nervous about the possibility of it. Now I know it sucks, but it’s not that big a deal 🤣
It looks like a pretty light repair, don’t know if I’ll get to it right away though. Might get back to some other builds I was looking forward to instead.
Still glad I built this one. Really fun build and learned a lot from it and from you guys’ experiences and posts.
Cheers to more flying, and less crashing! 😂
Too bad about the crash! I’m really excited to get mine up in the air - the nose isn’t turning out like I hoped but I’ll get something figured out and get this bird in the air!
 

Figure9

Elite member
No more broken wings trying to squeeze planes into the passenger seat of my Ranger. Here’s a telescoping box I made for transporting DTFB lightweights to the field in the open pickup bed.

EA55C552-F725-4C9E-A55F-E0BD41DDFF68.jpeg


While I’m here, the 1st J-3 Cub I ever flew was built in 1946,
I was born on Dec 7th 1946.
Upon completion & on the maiden flight my Cub build will be christened, ‘War Baby’.

1A199F20-9CDE-48AC-8191-0B76D4380118.jpeg
 

Crawford Bros. Aeroplanes

Legendary member
Turns out I've got only one sheet of FB left, Dollar Tree is over by my glider hill and I'd like to maiden one of my gliders on my way back but it's raining sporadically and there isn't much wind. I guess I can build the fuselage with what I have left and get more FB when the weather gets better.
 

Figure9

Elite member
I’m getting batty with isolation. I meant to put that airplane transport box item above on the Scratch Build string. I build it to transport my long wing models in the bed of my Ranger because shoving them in the passenger seat was causing wingtip damage.
Bixler & I worked on my Cub build tonight, he’s still talking & moving on with his build & is way ahead of me. I’m still cutting out the wings on mine. I’m going to make him start over from scratch again. That’ll teach him.
I can’t figure out why there’s a C fold at the lower wing surface trailing edge. Seems like the airfoil shape would be nicer without it & just bring the upper surface to the lower surface at the aileron hinge. Seems a bevel would be better than another slice of foam board stuck between the upper & lower surface trailing edges. What do I know? Bixler’s the boss of this build in my shop.
 

Figure9

Elite member
Well, I did my best to build a Cub but the difficulty level of this build is over my head.


I used the Bixler video step by step, stopping & starting the video over many times to get the steps of the build right. Those long runs of glue are a killer. My Ad
tech Pro 200 glue gun is difficult to use on those long runs, particullarly because the feed mechanism doesn’t return automatically so I need to stop & pull it back by hand. That doesn’t present a problem with Ed’s video on the Armin Wing doesn’t use all those glue runs like the Simple Cub Which has 4 long runs to lay down for the fold. Leading edge, 2 spar runs & a trailing edge glue run. That takes me so long to do that the first glue runs are hard by the time I finish the last one. To me, that amounts to a skill problem. I watch Bixler do the same glue runs in mere seconds.
The frustration is too high for me. I can always come back to this in the future when I have more build experience. For now, I’m sticking to rectangle fuselage designs & simple fold wing with only 2 glue runs on a single or double thickness flat spar.

40F9B586-E536-4939-85DF-DFF5B54D3A18.jpeg

Think I fixed the glue gun.
 
Last edited:

The Hangar

Fly harder!
Mentor
Well, I did my best to build a Cub but the difficulty level of this build is over my head.


I used the Bixler video step by step, stopping & starting the video over many times to get the steps of the build right. Those long runs of glue are a killer. My Ad
tech Pro 200 glue gun is difficult to use on those long runs, particullarly because the feed mechanism doesn’t return automatically so I need to stop & pull it back by hand. That doesn’t present a problem with Ed’s video on the Armin Wing doesn’t use all those glue runs like the Simple Cub Which has 4 long runs to lay down for the fold. Leading edge, 2 spar runs & a trailing edge glue run. That takes me so long to do that the first glue runs are hard by the time I finish the last one. To me, that amounts to a skill problem. I watch Bixler do the same glue runs in mere seconds.
The frustration is too high for me. I can always come back to this in the future when I have more build experience. For now, I’m sticking to rectangle fuselage designs & simple fold wing with only 2 glue runs on a single or double thickness flat spar.

View attachment 165401
I’m sorry the wing is giving you issues! I don’t know if it would help but you could try building two separate wing halves (cut the ting spar in half) and then joining them together and use a popsicle stick reinforcement between the two wing halves. Just an idea...
 

Hai-Lee

Old and Bold RC PILOT
@Figure9, hot melt glue is not mandatory when building an FT design either from a kit or when scratch building.

I do some large builds and I use liquid glue almost exclusively. I am never pressed for time or the worry that the glue will set before I get the pieces into position. In addition I never suffer from the extreme summer heat softening the glue.

My cub was built a year or so ago now and it is still as solid as the day it first flew!

Just what works for me!

Have fun!
 

Figure9

Elite member
I’m sorry the wing is giving you issues! I don’t know if it would help but you could try building two separate wing halves (cut the ting spar in half) and then joining them together and use a popsicle stick reinforcement between the two wing halves. Just an idea...

I was having trouble with the whole build. Don’t worry, I’ll be back. Just need more experience. If I try again I won’t use the FT technique. I can do other easier techniques but I need to acquire more design, cutting & bonding skills. Simple is good for me right now. I might take the fuselage & re-cut it into another design. I’ve had good luck doing mods on existing designs to make them easier to build. Thanks

Additionally, I don’t like that trailing edge C fold. It goes against everything I was ever taught about aerodynamics. Trailing edges should be sharp, not flat, leading edges should be round, not sharp. 2 thicknesses of foam board is a lot, 3 seems too much, Experimental Airlines tapered trailing edges are best but not easy to do nicely.
 
Last edited: