Re-Maidened my Simple Cub tonight!

[flyinsparky]

After catching Covid and being way out of commission for over a week, I was able to get my Simple Cub out and flying tonight and boy did it feel good!

I added 2.4 oz of weight to the nose and just left my settings on my transmitter as they were. When I went back to check them, they seemed pretty conservative with a lot of expo already. Turned out to be a lot more due to the tail heaviness than the transmitter settings.

I built the plane out of Elmer's foam board, which is much heavier than Adams Readi-Board. I didn't think it would matter what brand of foam board I was using (I honestly thought they were all the same.) After getting some Readi-Board for my next build, I totally understand how it got so tail heavy during the build.

I'm super excited about building some more planes and I appreciate all the tips and encouragement offered from my maiden flight.
I've got a Baby Baron and a Tiny Trainer on the way next!

 

[Merv]

Great flying plane.
I also have found FT planes to be a bit tail heavy. I end up modifying the plans to achieve a proper CG. I prefer to extend the nose instead of adding weight.

Nose heavy planes fly poorly, tail heavy planes fly once.

 

[Winglet]

I see people building from Elmer's all the time and complaining that their Flite Test design doesn't fly well or fly at all. Using the right materials makes a HUGE difference not only in total weight but most designs will come out WAY tail heavy and require even more weight added to the nose. By this time the poor thing is a lead sled. Best to go with Adams Redi-Board from Dollar Tree or Dollar General or get the latest board from Flite Test. Even better....just order a kit.

 

[flyinsparky]

I see people building from Elmer's all the time and complaining that their Flite Test design doesn't fly well or fly at all. Using the right materials makes a HUGE difference not only in total weight but most designs will come out WAY tail heavy and require even more weight added to the nose. By this time the poor thing is a lead sled. Best to go with Adams Redi-Board from Dollar Tree or Dollar General or get the latest board from Flite Test. Even better....just order a kit.

Yeah, in retrospect I should have started with the kit. The thing was that I have hundreds of sheets of foam board and access to a laser cutter, so it seemed like I had everything I needed. Now that I've got the weight in the right place, it flies really well! I have 13 flights on it with just over an hour of flight time. I will remake it out of Readi-Board once I can't glue it back together any more to see what the difference really is. So far, I think the extra strength of the Elmer's board has been a big help, but it's tough to know until I can actually compare.