New with some questions!

Slalom

New member
Hi all,

I’ve been reading on the forms for a little bit now, but finally decided to join and get a little more involved. So I’m on the beginner end of the spectrum and looking to start building my first planes with foam board. Now I have owned and flown several three channel small foam planes such as the champ and the F949. I’ve also been flying drones for the past few years as well so I am comfortable with orientation and I use a pinch grip and I’m pretty comfortable with controls. So ultimately in the big picture I would consider myself a beginner but I have flown quite a few times so I’m not a first time beginner.

Now I’m looking to build some planes for the fun of it, and of course to be able to have multiple styles of flying and keep the price down as well. I’m less interested in fast or aerobatic flying but more along the lines of slower peaceful cub/STOL Flying and I’ll probably want to do a powered glider as well. Some of the planes I will probably be building are going to be a simple cub, possibly the Bushwacker and some smaller ones and maybe some sort of glider. I intend on building floats for the simple cub eventually and I definitely enjoy the look and flying of stol planes so I will either do the bushwhacker with oversized wheels or the simple cub with oversized wheels.

I’ve decided that the first plane would probably make sense to be the simple cub. While I Like the look of the bushwhacker, I don’t need a plane that’s as agile right now. So I will probably have my first one the simple cub with oversized bush wheels on it. Now I would like to make a plane that has STOL characteristics and can fly pretty slow. I’m assuming that weight and wing size will be the biggest factors and how slow a plane will fly. So my question is what could I expect or what downsides would I have to added a small amount of size to the wing on a plane such as the simple cub? I am thinking I could potentially add half an inch to an inch to the chord and another 2-3 inches on the wingspan and likely keep similar flight characteristics but have 10-20 less wing loading. Is this silly or is this quite common to change the wings like this? I could also be open to building the Bushwacker with slight changes to calm down it’s flying characteristics if it could be a better STOL flyer and fly well enough that way. Also any other recommendations for what modifications could help a plane be a good slow flyer would be appreciated as well. I would assume that having a higher angle of incidence could help to a point but I’m assuming there is a point of diminishing returns, so changing aspects to a plane that someone else designed could have negative effects.

So anyways, hello all! And I look forward to making my first powered foam board flyers soon!
 

JasonK

Participation Award Recipient
higher angle of incidence
if it gets to high, your wing stalls.

if you want to get really slow, you might want to look into an under cambered wing style. IIRC, they are higher lift and drag then the 'standard' FT wing design (which is similar to a clark y IIRC).

you can also get more STOL by installing flaps or setting up flapperons.
 

Slalom

New member
Thank you guys. I fully plan on doing a plane with either flaps or flapperons, I am thinking I may omit that from the first one I build though just for the sake of simplicity. I assume it is easy enough to swap from a 3ch wing to a 4channel wing on most planes like the simple cub? If so I may just build my first cub with a 3ch setup first then have a 4ch wing shortly after.

Also, any advice on small cheap electronics that could be suitable for small light planes such as 500mm wingspan and auw under 60grams? I have made quite a few foam board chuck gliders for my kids and would enjoy making some small rc ones if I can do so cheaply. I have a Flysky transmitter and have seen the .9 gram fs2a reciever but once it comes to small batteries esc and motors it looks harder to find. For the micros are using brushed motors a better idea?
 

Tench745

Master member
I think it's worth noting that the bushwacker can fly just as docile as any cub if you keep the control throws small. Then, when you feel ready to do more you can increase the throws, mix in flaperons, add flaps, etc.
 

Merv

Site Moderator
Staff member
Welcome to the forums.

The Bushwhacker is a great first plane. Flapperons work great, they should only be used on full length ailerons. Don’t use flapperons on ailerons that are only on the outer half of the wing, they give the plane a nasty tip stall.

Use flaps with half length ailerons.
 

The Hangar

Fly harder!
Mentor
Welcome @Slalom ! The Simple Cub will be a great first FT design to build and fly! However I don’t recommend flapperons - I would do separate flaps. I’ve done them both on different ft cub builds and the flapperons give you almost zero aileron control. For flaps, cut the aileron 5 inches in from the inside, and that way you’ll have great slow speed and you still have plenty of aileron control. Also, increasing the wing chord is fine but it does present some issues such as CG so I’d stick to extending the wingtips several inches on each side for starters. Good luck, and keep us posted on your progress! If you have any questions, feel free to ask!
 

Slalom

New member
Thank you for some more helpful information! It sounds like flapperons could be fun to try out on a build but perhaps I should stick to flaps for the first one. Also, does anyone have any on the speed, stall and STOL characteristics of the cub vs the bushwhacker? Im wondering if the Bushwacker with reduced throws or reduced surface area on the throws would be closer to what I am hoping to get with a STOL type plane. I do quite like the looks of the Bushwacker but I figured that the simple cub may be a wiser choice for someone with my experience level. Of course the great thing with all these Flite test foam board planes is that nothing will stop me from building both!
 

The Hangar

Fly harder!
Mentor
Thank you for some more helpful information! It sounds like flapperons could be fun to try out on a build but perhaps I should stick to flaps for the first one. Also, does anyone have any on the speed, stall and STOL characteristics of the cub vs the bushwhacker? Im wondering if the Bushwacker with reduced throws or reduced surface area on the throws would be closer to what I am hoping to get with a STOL type plane. I do quite like the looks of the Bushwacker but I figured that the simple cub may be a wiser choice for someone with my experience level. Of course the great thing with all these Flite test foam board planes is that nothing will stop me from building both!
If you tone the throws down, the bushwacker would make a decent trainer. One of the big benefits of the cub however is that it has dihedral in the wings that makes the plane self-stabilize. Also, the cub is a much more simple design so it’ll be easier to fix/rebuild when you crash.