Here is video taken once again from the camera on-board the Super Cub. I’m flying out front of my folks’ house this time in the Carson valley. (See the previous flight and crash from behind the house)

I’ve been flying a little more recklessly of late, hence all the crashes… Today I was trying to fly a little slower and use the wind to “hover” but the wind left me high and dry with too little altitude to recover. The plane fell out of view near a neighbor’s house so all in all I’m lucky to have avoided more damage.

It’s too bad I didn’t have more free memory on the camera because immediately after this crash I nosed it in the dirt which was by far the worst crash the Cub has seen… never fear though, the Cub sustained only superficial damage and lives on to fly another day.

A little while back I wrote about buying and installing LiPo Batteries as a means of upgrading my R/C plane, the HobbyZone Super Cub. Since then I’ve made a good deal of flights with the batteries and I can say without hesitation that I recommend them to any Super Cub owner with the desire to get into LiPo.

That being said, let’s examine some of the benefits upgrading your battery to LiPo affords the Super Cub owner.

• The batteries keep a full charge for months. When I was rotating between my 7 and 8-cell NimH batteries, I would have to “top them off” just before heading to the field. With the LiPos I simply charge them after flying and put them away until the next opportunity.
• The batteries power the plane MUCH longer. Someone recently asked me on this blog how long my LiPos last and I replied “about 40 minutes”. In all honesty that number is probably inflated as I have never actually timed a flight to be sure. But let me tell you, it sure feels like 40 minutes! I fly at about half throttle with the LiPos installed (which is plenty of juice for me) so your flight times may vary.
• The batteries are lighter than Nimh batts. Weight is everything in the world of R/C aircraft. The higher the mAH rating the longer the battery should last but for your Super cub you don’t need more than 1300 maH. 1500 would probably be fine but I’d prefer to keep the plane lighter with a 1300 rather than pack the extra reserve. Not to mention that a light flying weight is ideal when shooting aerial photography
• LiPos give you more power! Power in these terms is a combination of factors…

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Well, as mentioned before, I decided to order some LiPo batteries for my rc plane - Hobbyzone’s Super Cub. I’ve heard good things about the Cub-LiPo combination so I ordered some batteries that I can use in my next plane as well.

I chose to order a couple Enerland 11.1v 3S 1200mAH 20C batteries from a guy on Ebay. If you don’t know what all that stuff means this might help.

So why go LiPo? Well I’m hoping that the upgrade gives me:

• more power
• lighter weight
• longer flight times
• a newer technology

Bottom line though, I just want to fly faster.

The new batteries are a different shape than the current batteries I have. In order to make room for the new batteries I had to move some of the electronics around a bit in the battery compartment.

* Check out the photo link for a view from
the bottom as well.

In the photo on the left you can see some of the internals (taken from above the fuselage). Below the two servos you can see the taped over ACT eye I described in another post.

On the right hand side of that first photo you can see the receiver/speed controller which I had to move from the top of the battery bay and velcro to the side wall of the compartment.

At the bottom of this photo you can see where I cut away the plastic battery compartment (the reason I had to move the receiver) to make room for the longer battery (as I plan to stand it up).

Connector Upgrade
I also had to change all my connectors to Deans Connectors which should actually increase performance by itself.

If you’re holding off on a LiPo upgrade I recommend that you upgrade the connectors at the very least. The aluminum connectors that come with the plane just don’t work well.

Stay tuned for a flight review.

A number of people online have asked me where exactly I have mounted the camera on my Super Cub.

I simply holed out the bottom Anti-Crash-Technology (ACT) system’s “eye”. This wasn’t a big deal to me because I’ve never turned the system on after hearing it can actually cause more crashes than it prevents.

I should also mention a little trick that minimizes the throws (good for training people) if you cover the bottom eye up. Because I was removing it to make room for the camera I just put it in the compartment where the other electronics sit and put a piece of dark tape over the eye.

Anyway, a picture or two would probably explain it better than I can. Check out the view from the camera here.