So I had been pleading my case to my wife the whole time and told her about the Super Cub. I had told here how I had talked with several different people about it and also did a lot of research about it online. I also told her that the biggest thing that sold me on the Super Cub were all the videos that I saw on YouTube. A lot of the videos were done by people that had just gotten them and they were up and flying in now time.

After a day or so of thinking my wife was ok with my getting one when I got the extra money. I figured that I could come up with the $160 within a month or two.

Well a day after I got the OK from the wife I was on Craig’s list and decided to see if anyone was selling a Super Cub. Sure enough there was a guy selling one for $100. I fired off a quick email to them to see if they still had it and if it had ever been crashed before. His reply back was that he still had it and that it had only had a few hard landings. He also mentioned that he had one of the 9.6 volt batteries for it that he was throwing in with the plane. I immediately ran to the wife and asked her if I could get it.

She said yes (I love my wife sssoooo much!).

Anyway, that afternoon I picked up the plane and went flying the next day.

I have had the plane about 3 weeks now and have had 10+ flights with it totalling in about 1 hour or more of flight time. The difference between the Yellow Bee and the Super Cub is night and day. I wish that I would have just gotten the Super Cub to begin with as it is actually fun to fly it.

Have I crashed it? Yes.

The third flight that I took it out it was too windy and I am still a noob so I crashed it and cracked the wing. I bought a new wing because the guy at the hobby shop said you cannot guy the wing but then I saw several threads where people have glued all the parts of the plane back together and that it works fine. I got some 5 minute epoxy and glued it and it is as solid as the new wing. Now I have an extra.

Anyway the Super Cub rocks and I am looking to do some arial photgraphy with it pretty soon. As my wife says – this hobby is going to get expensive – but it is sure going to be fun!

Technorati: HobbyZone Super Cub, Super Cub, RC Airplane, Hobbies

I had seen a post on a forum where another person used a wing from a different plane and it actually worked alright. I may try this in the future but I already have my eyes on a different plane – the HobbyZone Super Cub. I have read a lot of reviews on it, talked with the guys at 2 different hobby shops about it, and have seen a whole bunch of videos of it on YouTube.

Now if I could only talk the wife into it…

Actual Flight Time

After a few adjustments to the plane I go about 5 minutes of total flight time in without ant major crashes. I even was able to have a couple of smooth landings – cool.

Near the end the wind was picking up more and more and the on one gust it caused the plane to nose dive into the ground which caused the plastic nose to crack. I snapped the it back together and it looks like it will not affect the plane.

The other thing is that my tape job on the wing started to falter so that was starting to affect the performance. I decided to call it day and head to work. A storm is blowing in so it looks like it might be the weekend before I can give it another try.

Replacement Parts for the Yellow Bee

An another note I found out that you can get individual replacement parts from Harbor Freight. I ended up ordering a new circuit board so that I can have 2 planes operational. Cost for the circuit board was $9 and $6.99 for shipping.

I can tell that this is going to be a very, very fun hobby.

P.S. Above are pics of the wing where it breaks and it after it is fixed.

Plane # 2 – Flight # 1

I found a church that is building a High School that has 2 football fields next to each other near my work so after work I went to try out the new plane. After talking the 10 or so minutes it takes to get the plane assembled I headed down to the field despite the steady breeze that was blowing.

As you may have guessed the first flight did not last long since the breeze turned into a gust that caused the plane to crash. This crash caused the wing to break in the exact same place as the the first plane’s wing. The reason for the breakage was not because it landed on the wing put because of the whiplash effect that the downward pressure of the crash had on the weak spot of the wing.

Lessons Learned

With 2 planes down and about a cumulative flight time of about 5 minutes these are the lessons that I had learned:

1. Do not fly when it is windy or breezy until you know what your are doing and you know that you plane is adjusted correctly.
2. Put tape on the wings where the weak parts are at. I am convinced that if I had done this that the wing would not have broken at all

Am I discouraged by my luck so far? Far from it. If anything I am more encouraged to keep going. I know that my crashes so far have been due to pilot error so I am fine with that. The planes have stood up to my thrashing amazing well so I am pleased.

 I had been eyeing this baby for a while and for Christmas this year my dream of having one came true thanks to my lovely wife.

My wife had originally gotten me a Horizon Hobby Night Flyer from Radio Shack and took one look at it and knew that once I crashed it that it would never fly again. I took it back to RS and took the money to Harbor Freight to get a Yellow Bee.

My First Flight

At first when I tried to get it to fly it would barely climb and then go down and to the left. I could not get it to turn right. I tried trimming it a little with the left propeller spinning constantly. I got it to fly but the sun had already gone down and I ran it into a light pull for the baseball field I was at.

I broke the right wing off right where the motor is located.

Some Repairs and Adjustments

I took it home and threw some packing tape on it and reread the instructions on how to adjust the plane. I noticed that the propellers did not line up with each other and were tilted to the right a little which was causing the plane to go to the left. I thought about getting the grinder out to try and get them lined up but decided to try the adjustments in the instructions first.

I ended up loosening the rear screw on the rudder assembly so that it would provide some more lift. I also adjust the left rear wing of the rudder assembly.

My Second Flight

So after my wing repair and adjustment I took it back to the park even though it was dark (I am a 30 year kid – what can I say?). I found a grassy area near the tennis courts at the park that was illuminated.

 The only issue was that there where electrical towers over it (not pools but the tall ones that look like erector sets). I really did not think that this would be an issue since they were pretty high and I had not seen it get that high before.

This time the take off was completely different as the bee shot straight up into the sky. I had to back off the throttle so it didn’t go too high. This time it was flying nice and straight and I could turn in both directions.

I had been flying it for a couple of minutes when I was doing a turn and climbing at the same time and hit the electrical cable. There weren’t any sparks or anything but the poor bee went into a flat spin and hit the ground. So much for “it won’t go that high!”.

Assessing the Damage

I ran over to get it and their weren’t any burn marks on it but it was unresponsive. I had my brother-in-hold it while I tried cycling the power on and off on both the plane and the controller. At one point the plane turned on but would not respond to the controller. It was toast.

Going Forward

The only thing that I can say that I am disappointed in is my ability to fly without crashing into pools and electrical lines. The Yellow Bee held up in both situations pretty well considering what I put it through.

I am planning on purchasing another Yellow Bee and will use the first one for parts as I am sure there are plenty more crashes to come in the future.