I just started this build which is supposed to be easy as ARFs (Almost-Ready-To-Fly) go but honestly I’m tired of gluing I just want to get it in the air.
If you’re following along, here is a well-written review/build log for this model
Posts Tagged ‘R/C-PLANE’
Video: Backyard Super Cub Flight & Crash
July 3, 2007 – 8:15 pm
Flying over my folks’ backyard near Tahoe… a plane-eating bush helped me “land”.
LiPo Batteries for the Super Cub: Benefits Analyzed
June 13, 2007 – 5:42 am
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…
Video: The Super Cub as Dog Bait
June 11, 2007 – 5:14 pm
I coaxed our dog into chasing my R/C plane, a HobbyZone Super Cub.. I may come to regret the monster I created but at least she hasn’t yet developed a taste for foam…
I simply mounted the camera backwards to get these shots. Please excuse the excessive “Get The Plane” doggy talk which came out in a somewhat embarrassingly high pitched voice (must have been a technical malfunction). 
Anyway, enjoy the video.
Here’s a non-embedded link to the video.
LiPo Batteries for the Super Cub
April 24, 2007 – 8:18 am
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.
An Indoor AC Solution for a 12 volt LIPO Charger
April 20, 2007 – 6:38 pm
This probably isn’t going to be of much interest to regular readers of this blog. But for the sake of those googlers and rc enthusiasts who found their way here I thought I would share a method to power your 12 volt battery charger indoors.
I decided to upgrade my plane a bit (a HobbyZone Super Cub) by moving from NiMH to LiPo batteries. Before the batteries arrive however, I needed to buy a new charger. Due to the inherent volatility of LiPo batteries I wanted to be sure I got one of the safest chargers available. After some shopping around I settled on the CellPro 4S.
It seems like any high-end battery similar to this one uses alligator clips and requires a 12 volt power source (i.e., car battery) to work. Seeing as how I didn’t like the idea of always charging under the hood, I looked for other solutions.
Inspired by a thread outlining the use of laptop ac to dc converters for doing so, I constructed this beast:
As you can see it’s just the DC Converter (which you can find an Ebay link to in the thread above), two bolts, 4 washers, 2 ring terminals, 2 nuts and a piece of wood for stabilization.
I also cut a small hole in the toolbox to feed the plug to the wall. When not in use it’s easy to push it back in. …that’s it, not much to it.
Thanks to ‘bpd282′ (on page 2 of the thread) for the idea of converting a tool box to house the electronics. It’s funny how similar my box turned out to his.
Guess all I need now are some batteries.
Super Cub Camera Mounting Location
April 18, 2007 – 4:52 pm
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.
Sunset Flight w/New On-Board Camera
March 7, 2007 – 10:04 am
I took the Super Cub up at dusk during a beautiful Southern California sunset to test my new camera. The results were impressive but as you can see the camera isn’t very good at low light levels. The sunset was much more brilliant than the camera captures; it seems that the automatic white balance makes capturing a sunset somewhat difficult.
The camera by the way is an EDVR 5-in-1, which is very similar (if not the same) as the 5-in-1 multipod camera. It fits in the palm of my hand and weighs only 43 grams so attaching it to the plane was no big deal.
Update: See the mounting location here
All in all I’m very happy with the results this camera puts out. It seems worth the $90 I picked it up for here.
Here is a non-embeded link to the movie.
Super Cub Maiden Flight
February 14, 2007 – 2:01 pm
Well since I mentioned that I picked up a plane I know you’re all dying to hear how it went. Honestly, I can’t stop grinning about it.
This last weekend my wife, my friend Nabih, his son and I took my first r/c plane ever: the newly assembled Super Cub to the local soccer fields for her maiden voyage.
Although I fully expected the plane to crash and break at some point in the day, secretly I hoped she wouldn’t get a scratch on her.
Having my buddy around was really helpful (as he has RC plane experience). We talked out a game plan for getting the bird in the air and adjusting the trim (although we didn’t think to do a hand toss flight first). He also tossed the plane for the first flight so I could focus entirely on the controls which was very helpful.
(nice photo by this guy! isn’t this a great shot?) Photo: snow55Before I get ahead of myself, I should mention that my dreams for returning home with out a scratch were dashed before the plane even took its first flight. Nabih brought a small scale Cessna 180 and given that I’ve never really watched an RC plane in action very closely, I wanted to see him fly it for a bit.
His plane had some difficulty with the battery so while he was troubleshooting that I decided to taxi my plane around to get a feel for the controls. I think I made it about 6 feet when the propeller hit a roll of packing tape I brought for any repairs and promptly broke in half.
Oh well, I’m glad I got that behind me so quickly Now time to have fun … and fly!
Winds were light at about 5 mph with a moderate cloud cover so conditions were close to perfect, no excuses now.
But Can She Fly?
As I mentioned above, Nabih agreed to toss the plane so I could concentrate on flying, I rolled it up to full throttle and he gave her a good chuck…
She leveled off and slowly climbed in front of us as I worked to keep the wings level. Which I should mention was only work because my hands were shaking so much and doing more harm than good.
Once the plane had some altitude I basically took my hands off the controls and we adjusted the trim. I was so nervous I didn’t want to take my eyes off the plane or the control sticks so Nab made the adjustments for me as I called out “left”, “right” or “up”, “down”.
I made a few turns and fought a bit with the wind but it didn’t take more that a few minutes for me to get excited about attempting to land.
Flying is easy.. getting it back to earth is the hard part
I must say, there’s something about seeing that plane come in for a landing that is just a joy to watch.
For my first two approaches I came in a bit hot which ended up in a slow nose-over (no damage taken). However, after watching my buddy make a landing my 3rd and final landing of the day were near perfect which was extremely rewarding.
We flew only one battery (about 15 minutes of flying) as the wind started to pick up and we called it a day.
Like I said when I began the post, I can’t stop grinning about the experience. Looking forward to flight#2; hopefully I’ll be able to take some original pictures!
Park Flying Envy
February 13, 2007 – 12:21 am
We live across the street from a good sized park that has four soccer fields at the end closest to our home. Unless the weather is really crummy it seems that not a week passes where I don’t see some dude out there flying a radio controlled plane.
They really are interesting to watch and the pilots I see usually make flying the thing look easy. Sure it would be a blast to get one and join the fun but they’re way too expensive, time consuming and difficult to learn… Fortunately, as you’ll soon read, I couldn’t be more wrong about that statement.
Seed Planted
One day last week on a bike ride near the park, curiosity got the best of my wife and I so we stopped to ask a guy how much he paid for his ridiculously fast styrofoam jet. He said that everything he needed to fly the thing set him back less than $200.
Given the speed and obvious advanced experience required to fly his plane I was very surprised, I would have guessed a price closer to $350.. his radio was pretty sweet.
Okay so the price is right, how about the difficulty and build time? Well after looking at many many planes and reading many many discussion forums I decided to look into the HobbyZone Super Cub.
This particular plane is a beginner aircraft that even many advanced pilots seem to thoroughly enjoy as a slower change of pace to the inherent stress of flying a screaming jet.
One Super Cub Please
The main wing and fuselage are nearly entirely made of high density foam so repairing damage - even breaks is straightforward and should only cost you the price of glue.
I wasn’t sure I would be able to self-teach myself to fly any radio controlled plane but after reading this dedicated thread about the Super Cub I became convinced that it would work for me.
(ain’t she a beaut!?)
It took a day or so for me to run to the local hobby store and pick up the Super Cub and then 30 minutes to piece her together.
As soon as the weather calmed a day or so later - I went to the park with my buddy Nabih (who has rc flight experience), his son, my wife, and the guest of honor… the Super Cub.
So how was the maiden voyage you ask? Stay tuned to find out!