Hello - new to wings

[csmicfool]

Just got an FT Simple Cub as holiday gift. Have a couple years of experience with quads and decades of electronics hobbies so I'm building it w/ Arduplane and trying to set it up for as much autonomous flying as possible.

Step by step working through each challenge is always fun.

Hardest part of building the airframe was having enough hot glue fast enough to assemble the wings. My dollar-store glue gun just couldn't keep up.

 

[speedbirdted]

Welcome to the forums! Having a high-temp glue gun is crucial if you want your builds to hold up and is a downright necessity for building anything where a lot of glue has to be applied before it's folded together.

I've built four Simple Cubs and they're good but imperfect planes. A great first, second or 519th plane but there are some modifications I'd recommend doing, one being adding another doubler to the already existing fuselage doublers that hold the landing gear and power pod in place, as these areas wear out at least for me like nobody's business, making the fuselage triple-thick there. Making the landing gear block that slides into the bottom of the fuselage out of three pieces of 1/8 plywood epoxied together has also helped for me, as trying to get foam and metal to stick together with hot glue is pretty difficult to do. The thin piece of foamboard that holds the two halves of the elevator together will also fatigue and break apart very quickly resulting in uneven elevator actuation on either side. Popsicle sticks or even 1/16 balsa is the answer.

 

[CrazyFastFlying]

Welcome to the forums!! The fixed wing RC hobby is one of the best hobbies you can get into!(In my opinion)

Since you have been flying quads for a couple of years, it should be pretty easy to learn how to fly fixed wing.

 

[Merv]

Welcome to the forums
I use the AdTech glue gun from Walmart, the full-size high temp,one. It get hot enough to boil the glue. I rigged up a light dimmer to reduce the temperature. You can dial it whatever temperature want.

 

[csmicfool]

Making the landing gear block that slides into the bottom of the fuselage out of three pieces of 1/8 plywood epoxied together has also helped for me, as trying to get foam and metal to stick together with hot glue is pretty difficult to do. The thin piece of foamboard that holds the two halves of the elevator together will also fatigue and break apart very quickly resulting in uneven elevator actuation on either side. Popsicle sticks or even 1/16 balsa is the answer.

Great suggestions, thanks!

 

[Laddery]

hello, a newbie as well