Willy Nillies J3 Cub Balsa Build Along

[Joker 53150]

Video Part 12 is being uploaded, and covers the last work on the wing - ailerons and trim. Now all I need is some good weather and a charged 2 cell battery and I'm ready to maiden it! I took some liberties with the covering, especially on the wing. It's not covered in white where the rubber bands will go and the sunburst pattern is only on top, not the bottom of the wing. The idea is to give me a little better chance at orientation that way, we'll see how it works. It's far from my best covering job, but working with these lightweight parts has me worried about breaking things with my big sausage fingers. Once Part 12 is uploaded to YouTube I'll add it here, and then combine all 12 parts into one big build video. A flight video will also follow.

 

[Willy Nillies]

Outstanding Jeff!

What did your ready to fly weight come in at?

Any issues with getting it to balance?

Sincerely,
Doug and Becky
WillyNillies.com

 

[TooJung2Die]

Looks great. I'll bet it flies as good as it looks.

 

[Michael9865]

Marvelous looking covering job.

 

[Joker 53150]

Outstanding Jeff!

What did your ready to fly weight come in at?

Any issues with getting it to balance?

Sincerely,
Doug and Becky
WillyNillies.com

190g / 6.7oz, including a 1/4 ounce weight in the nose. I’m guessing this is due to the extra covering on the tail plus the little bit of weight added for my pushrod setup. TINY, compared to what I’m used to!

 

[Willy Nillies]

Thank you for the info Jeff!

A little on the heavy side, but I'm guessing you'll probably remove or lighten the nose weight after a flight or two. The recommended CG is the forward limit. Experienced fliers will want to move CG back between 1/8" to 1/4".

Where you are at is still only a wing cube loading of 5.1 which is still very light and floaty!

Have fun with the maiden!

Sincerely
Doug and Becky
WillyNillies.com

 

[Joker 53150]

Thanks guys, it's been a fun build and I look forward to my next WN kit! Here's the last part of the build videos, a full video start-to-finish will be next, along with a flight report.

Doug, without that 1/4 ounce it'll still be slightly over your recommended weight, but fairly close. For the first flight I'll just use some painter's tape to hold the weight in place so it can be quickly & easily removed.

 

[rockyboy]

Beautiful! Nicely done sir!

 

[PsyBorg]

What tape did you use for the hinges? I want to be a dummy and ask if it was plain old scotch tape but that wouldnt make sense I dont think.

 

[Joker 53150]

What tape did you use for the hinges? I want to be a dummy and ask if it was plain old scotch tape but that wouldnt make sense I dont think.

It's actually 3M "Blenderm" tape. For taped hinges there's nothing better! No matter how hot or cold the weather it stays flexible, and it's nice and sticky but doesn't leave any major residue when peeling it off. I've got a couple models that have had Blenderm tape hinges for over 5 years and they're still perfect. You can get it in a couple different widths, and I normally keep a couple rolls of 1/2" and 1", but use far more 1/2".

 

[PsyBorg]

ahh just looked that up.. Can grab that at wally world anytime.. cool! TYVM

 

[Joker 53150]

The full build (other than maiden flight) has been compiled into one 31:20 mega video. Not surprising to me, the covering takes almost 2/3 of the video time!

 

[mach1 rc]

Really nice plane in the end👍

 

[TooJung2Die]

What, no pinstripe? Kidding, it looks great!

 

[nhk750]

Wow, that came out great. What a nice kit for others with small build spaces to get into building. Willy Nillies really nailed it with theses kits. You have amazingly fast hands in the video, like a piano player, lol.

 

[Joker 53150]

Maiden Flight Report!

Weather today was called "less than ideal". Gusts to 12 MPH had it at my limit for some of my bigger planes. My Goldberg Eagle 2 handled it well, but that plane has some pretty heavy wing loading. If nothing else, I figured this would be a test of my skills.

The first attempt was a standard rolling take-off, but the wing picked up a wing and flipped the plane before it got a chance to fly, so I decided to hand-launch for the next attempt. Here's a video of what followed:

 

[Willy Nillies]

Yay! Bet you can't wait for a little calmer wind!

Sincerely,
Doug and Becky
WillyNillies.com

 

[rockyboy]

Awesome!

Looks like it is just fine with the wind as long as you have some altitude. Down at the ground though... the turbulence there has the upper hand!

 

[Willy Nillies]

Hey Jeff!

Check your email! Your coupon credit has been issued as promised!

Sincerely,
Doug and Becky
WillyNillies.com

 

[Joker 53150]

Got it, and thanks for making this build along a great success, Doug!

The plane really fought the winds down low, and up high it was barely moving into the wind at what should have been a nice cruising speed. She’ll now go into hibernation till spring.