Initially I was concerned about getting the speed control and servos out but these were actually pretty easy. The servos had double stick tape on the bottom of them and there was a little cubbyhole that they fit snugly in to. The motor was also very simple to remove via 4 screws and fit nicely on the new fuselage. I would have to say that the stickers were probably the hardest to put on but they were actually pretty easy as well.  All-in-all it took me about an hour to get the electronics in the new assembled airplane.

Unfortunately my initial flights did not go so great as I kept loosing power to the airplane and it would just glide blindly back to earth. After nearly missing a stop sign and a group of kids I decided to figure out what was happening. I was concerned that I had somehow pulled on a wire in the speed control to hard or something and now had a short. After a little fiddling around with it I found that the red wire in the molex connect for the battery wasn’t pushed all the way in. The battery was being disconnected if the plane banked at a certain angle. I pushed the connector in all the way and took it to the street again to see her fly.

This time around she flew great but unfortunately the wind had picked up and the sun was now officially down so I had to bring it in for the night. The next day I took my newly rebuilt Super Cub up and it flew great. I had to do a couple of adjustment with the rudder and elevators but nothing that you wouldn’t have to do on a new plane. With its new airframe my Super Cub looks band spanking new again.

As much as I enjoy flying the Super Club as soon as I was done with its first full flight I landed it and put it on the shelf in my office. I did have my eye on the new ParkZone F4U Corsair and the Super Cub was up on Craigslist (from where it came) so that I could purchase the Corsair. After a day I pulled the listing as I realized that I need more time with the Super Cub so that I don’t kill the Corsair on my first flight. Christmas is coming up so maybe I can score a Corsair then.

The rebuilding of the HobbyZone Super Cub is no where near as difficult as I would have thought it was. The electronics have held up to my abuse just fine and I am sure that I will have many hours of fun with it.

The fix works awesome!

Not only was it cheap, it was simple. I was able to fly until my battery ran out and even crashed it into my fence while trying to land and broke my propeller. With all of that the straps around the fuselage help up. The only thing that I noticed was that the wire that I used is now digging into the Styrofoam a little now. What I am going to do to make sure that it does not cut all the way into the Styrofoam is find a couple of pieces of plastic to put on the corners.

I will post pics when I put the plastic strips on.

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

The HobbyZone Super Cub is notorious for having the battery box ripped out of it because the landing gear are attached to it. My fix is more of a hack and isn’t very pretty but it is cheap, quick, and it works.

All I used was some tie wire that I had lying around and tied it around the fuselage make sure that it could not come undone. This should hold it just fine.

I had not had an opportunity to fly in almost 2 weeks due to the weather but had spent some pretty good time in the simulator getting my skills up to par.

Well this morning it was the first time in a long time that the weather was just right to fly so I head to my regular spot. I decided this time around that I was not going to practice approaches and landings but have some fun.

I had a lot of fun!

I turned the ACT off and started doing loops and rudder rolls galore! The only thing was that to do these tricks I had to keep the throttle at full speed so the battery did not last as long.

After about 6 minutes the engine cut out which meant that the battery was about done. I brought the throttle down to half and tried to get it back to me but a little wind had picked up. I was bringing it down in the field when somehow a gust (or just bad piloting on my part) brought the plane to the ground but not too that hard, or so I thought.

It end up that the battery box came out of the bottom of the plane and the tail broke (see the pic). I was really surprised that there was this much damage when I know I have hit the ground harder and have not had any damage.

At first I was think that a new fuselage was not that expensive but remembered my lesson from the broken wing. 5 minute epoxy works great on this foam so I will just glue it and see how that works instead of throwing down another $20.

Anyway, it was my best day because I did some really good tricks but my worst day at the same time because I crashed and damaged the plane.

I started searching online for RC flight simulators online and had found one that had a trial so I download it to try it. It was OK but you had to use keyboard controls (in the trial) and I wanted something that I could get used to the feel of the controller. The full version included a controller but was about $200 which is more then I paid for my plane.

I did another quick search and came up with another sim by the name of RC Plane Master. The site for the sim made mention of different controllers and the full version was only $40 which includes a cable for you existing controller (it wouldn’t work with the Super Cub controller though).

Anyway, I had a game $10 game controller (pictured) that I got at Walmart a while back for my PC sitting in my closet and decided to try it. Sure enough the controller work after configuring it.

 I setup the configuration on my controller to be the same as the Super Cub controller with the right stick for rudder and elevator and the left for throttle. I have almost an hour playing with the demo and it is really giving me a good feel for how to control the plane and saw a difference in my flying this morning with my Super Cub.

I really suggest the sim especially if you are new to RC Airplanes like I am as it will save you a lot of frustration and heart ache when you crash. Right now I am working on my approaches for landings.

I plan to purchase to full version for when I what to go 4 channel.

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