Such a COOL Community.

[cranialrectosis]

I have thought and thought and went over the toss physically and mentally and am at a total loss for what is going on.

Film the maiden.

The ugliest thing is to fail and have no idea why and have no way to find out why.

The point of filming the maiden is so you don't get to this frustrating place.

I busted an FT 3D and an FT TT to bits learning to hand toss a plane. I was utterly and completely lost and I totally feel your pain. I didn't learn until a guy at the local field showed me and trimmed the plane to the point where I have time between the toss and getting to the controls to 'catch' the plane with the remote and begin flying.

Hand tossing a new, untrimmed airframe is for EXPERTS.

Novices should learn to become experts on the cheapest bird they can chuck, and film the attempt so you can learn from your fails and bask in the glory of your successes.

This happens to everyone. It's an obstacle to overcome just like any other. Don't beat yourself up, PsyBorg. Beat up a Tiny Trainer!

 

[sprzout]

Thanks for a good laugh, I have a problem with those (not so little in my case) brown spiders. recently one tried to make a home in my desk, I must have swatted him 25 times it freaked me out so bad.

I don't hate spiders. They're generally interesting to me and they eat bugs that I don't want to deal with, so I generally leave them alone. But when I have wood piles and there's brown spiders in there, or black widows coming out in the tool shed under the lawnmower handles?

Those get to die.

I've been bitten by a black widow once; my hand swelled up pretty good around the site. I've seen 3 people now suffer the bite of the brown recluse, and 2 of them have been SIGNIFICANTLY worse than Bill's love bite. So I may go JUST a little overboard with killing them.

Bill, stuff happens with hand launches. I got my F-27 from FT a while back, and on its maiden flight, I hand launched it, overhand, and it nosed right into the ground and bent the fuselage a bit. Battery door doesn't want to sit flush now, but I'm going to do the hot water bit to see if I can't get it to expand out again...It happens. You pick up the pieces, and move on, right? That's all you can do at this point.

 

[JTarmstr]

I don't hate spiders. They're generally interesting to me and they eat bugs that I don't want to deal with, so I generally leave them alone. But when I have wood piles and there's brown spiders in there, or black widows coming out in the tool shed under the lawnmower handles?

Those get to die.

I've been bitten by a black widow once; my hand swelled up pretty good around the site. I've seen 3 people now suffer the bite of the brown recluse, and 2 of them have been SIGNIFICANTLY worse than Bill's love bite. So I may go JUST a little overboard with killing them.

Bill, stuff happens with hand launches. I got my F-27 from FT a while back, and on its maiden flight, I hand launched it, overhand, and it nosed right into the ground and bent the fuselage a bit. Battery door doesn't want to sit flush now, but I'm going to do the hot water bit to see if I can't get it to expand out again...It happens. You pick up the pieces, and move on, right? That's all you can do at this point.

Ouch, I have never been bitten by either a recluse or a widow though I have had close encounters with both. Where I live there are predominantly wolf spiders (they get to live since they hunt insects) and recluses. the recluses have a bad habit of hiding in shoes and books though, I have to knock my shoes and dump them to make sure my foot doesnt have to spend time with one of them. Anyway I dont wanna hijack this thread so back to airplanes

 

[rockyboy]

Rough launch, but a learning opportunity and one I go through at least once a summer myself. I trashed up my Balsa Cuda a couple months back by not letting go at the right point in the arc and essentially threw it into a cartwheel across the ground at full throttle! Repairs after that tumble took a couple hours, but she's back in the air again, and I'm not so cocky on my hand launches (again).

Left hand launches can be damn hard, but it keeps my right hand on the stick and that is way more important to me in the couple seconds after most of my launches. Unless I throw the plane into the ground of course. Rolling take offs are the best, especially with new untrimmed airframes, but we don't always have that luxury.

Building a DTFB wing is a great idea to get you rolling again, and posting a couple pics of the damage to the wing will help us all talk you through the repair. It doesn't sound too bad from your description.

 

[Turbojoe]

So sorry to hear of the failed maiden. I've always known there were at least two guys that couldn't hand launch an airplane properly. Myself being #1. It looks like you are that "other" guy. I never, ever, ever hand launch a plane with landing gear anymore or I know 100% it'll crash before I can get to the TX and make the needed corrections. As I told you both of those planes are overpowered. Before trying the EZ-Sport I would suggest either getting a 7x4 prop or limiting throttle in the TX. DO NOT hand launch the Sport! That thing is fast and crazy fun if you want it but for now R.O.G. with maybe half throttle until you are comfortable with the bird. That's how I always flew both of them.

Are you sure the wing can't be repaired? I honestly didn't think it could be broken. Brian beat the crap out of one of those wings on the display table at the Arizona Electric Festival back around 2007 or so and sold out of the kits because of that!

If you can't save the Cub then at least you have the gear from it to use in another bird.

Joe

Edit: Removed reference to the wing being EPP foam. It's not. Brian's wing was covered in "wing" tape. That's what allowed it to handle the abuse Brian gave it. The one I sent Bill was covered in SolarFilm. I obviously should have listened to Brian and used tape.......

 

[PsyBorg]

First thanks again to Joe for the planes and to Jonathan as well. Shipping them from Az to NY overnight was not cheap and was something I noticed before even opening the box.

Ok for the pics...

Here is the break. Its fairly clean and looks to be easily glued with proper glue. My main concern are spar repairs as that is all under the covering.

Here is the start of the foam replacement parts which will have wooden yard stick cut down for the spar and to complete the shape of the airfoil before I cover it in yellow really thin poster board. Yes I will be watching the weight as I build it.

Any and all ideas will be welcome if some one sees something too drastically wrong.

 

[rockyboy]

I think a schmear of epoxy on the spars and foam would do the trick nicely. Stab a few toothpicks into the foam to cross the joint too. Maybe tape a couple yard sticks to one wing half for alignment and do a clear tape wrap keep everything snug while the epoxy cures (and to keep the covering from peeling up at the edges). Then again I haven't repaired many EPP parts before and would bow to a more expert opinion - but the spars would be just fine and don't need replacing if epoxied together. And the longer the cure time the better so it wicks deeper into the wood fibers.

 

[Hai-Lee]

My repair methodology for damage such as illustrated above is a little more involved than some.

I would carefully remove the covering over the spars, (top and bottom), and remove the top/bottom gusset completely. Then I would glue the foam and lower spar together using a glue such as Sullivans craft glue.

When the glue is dry/hardened/set I would sand down the spar joints and cut a new gusset piece, (top and bottom from a suitable plywood, 1/16th inch) and epoxy in the required central position. When the Epoxy is set I would sand to give clean finish and then refit the removed pieces of covering and secure them with either clear or coloured packing tape.

If that was the only damage I would be back flying the following day!

Just what works for me!

Have fun!

 

[PsyBorg]

Well I have reglued the foamafter stripping the paper off them and they are 3g lighter then original butI still have to add ailerons and at least a coat of something to seal them and make them smooth.

Another day of glue drying and I can start cobbing them together.

Pics to come soon.

 

[Turbojoe]

Been out of touch for a few days.... That wing break was at the foam and not the joint so at least I glued it together right. It's painfully obvious that I should have listened to Brian and covered it with "wing" tape instead of SolarFilm. After watching Brian abuse the same tape covered wing repeatedly a A.E.F. for two days straight I should have learned. But nooooooo. I had to do it my way. Probably should have at least added a CF spar to make up for the tape strength lost. I don't build for crash survivability though and I mistakenly thought this was an EPP foam. It's NOT. Shows how much this balsa snob knows about foam....

Joe

 

[PsyBorg]

Its all good Joe. Obviously your experience and skill is higher then us new guys and for you added protection was not a necessity.

My only regret is all this perfect flying weather I have missed. Warm sunny days with little to no wind. Odd rainy days or showers at night...

Progress has been made though. I did have to make a new wing half as one of the layers slid during regluing the first one.

Started to route a channel for the yardstick spar so when its glued in keeps the dihedral but will still help the shape of the upper half of the wing.

Still not sure about the added weight and may revert to foamboard spar.

From what Joe has said the plane is a bit over powered so I think I have some wiggle room on weight.

 

[PsyBorg]

Ok... I managed to get the video off my camera, onto my computer, then on to this phone without converting anything.

It took near two hours to upload 280 meg... No way Id try to up load a gig or more that way hehe.

Anyway here is my goofy nervous self breaking the cub.

 

[DamoRC]

Looked like you had everything setup right. Only thing I could point to was the launch - it was a bit timid - so the plane doesn't get up to flying speed and you have very little time to get on the sticks. When I throw something up for the first time I tend to use 100% throttle and as good a chuck as I can give. The plane might not need this but at a minimum this will give you more time to get your fingers on the sticks. Once you are used to it you can start to back off on the throw and, possibly, the throttle.

Better luck next time

DamoRC

 

[rockyboy]

Looked like a fairly soft landing - hopefully not broken too much - I think if we can't get you a rolling takeoff then we need to get you a launch buddy to give it a healthy throw. Any roaming middle schoolers that can be conscripted? Or Tom?

 

[PsyBorg]

That split the main wing in half as posted previously.

You guys are right on the toss and I am pretty sure i am softer on the throttle then I should be.

Ill be doing rolling take offs from here out for a while. The park has a basket ball court and two baseball fields that are well kept that would be great runways mo matter where the wind comes from.

 

[Userofmuchtape&glue]

Did you get a chance to pull up elevator? Is there enough elevator throw? looked like it was flying, just flew into the ground...

 

[rockyboy]

That split the main wing in half as posted previously.

You guys are right on the toss and I am pretty sure i am softer on the throttle then I should be.

Ill be doing rolling take offs from here out for a while. The park has a basket ball court and two baseball fields that are well kept that would be great runways mo matter where the wind comes from.

Ahh - this was the video from the flight a week or so back, not a new attempt yesterday. I miss-understood that.

Your future has rolling takeoffs and blue skies my friend!

 

[kilroy07]

I am pretty sure i am softer on the throttle then I should be.

 

[PsyBorg]

Well I got back around to repairing the cubs wing. My first two attempts failed for multiple reasons.

I am still pondering the best way to repair the original wing. I think if I can notch in a few slots to make supports and act a bit like internal spars that gorilla wood glue will do fine for getting the styrofoam core to bond withour melting it.

Then wrap it with clear packing tape it should hide the repair well enough until I can learn how to using the iron shrunk covering for balsa.

Now all that is left to do is fond props for both this and the edge 540. Every time I manage to find the right props on Amain they are out of stock.

Everywhere else seems to think I need to buy sets of 4 in quad copter form to get the right airplane props.

Spent two hours last night checkin every place I could think of other then Banggood and had zero luck.

Seems 10x4.5 is so popular (Or these props suck so bad they break too easy) they cant keep em in stock, and the 7x6 prop for this is not usually stocked at all.

 

[cranialrectosis]

Altitude