Hobby Shack Citabria .10-.15 size

[dgliderguy]

Anyone else build one of these? I found it on Ebay for cheap, and it has been an enjoyable build. I'm putting my OS.15FP in the nose, adding functional struts, sunburst white-on-red colors. Should be flyable in another week.

I'd love to hear from someone who has built and flown this model.

Thanks,

Don Bailey
Snohomish WA

[Lynn S]

Don, Nice work. I sent you a PM

Lynn

[David Hogue]

Looks nice...I will have to look for one of these kits...like I need another project!

Thanks,
David

[justaboutgeese]

I would think twice about the functional struts. They would tend to restrict the wing leaving the fusalage in a less than perfect landing. wings tend to be more functional when they dont need repair. My .02 worth

[dgliderguy]

Geese,

If you look closely, you will see that the wing center section wraps around the cabin/windshield headliner. If this wing comes off in any way other than the intended bolt removal process, it's gonna make a nice crunching sound, and the cabin area will pop open like a pinata. I know what you mean about breakaway, but even without struts a cartwheel landing would not be a pretty sight with this design. I'll just have to be careful! ;)

The struts are for looks, and for added insurance during snap maneuvers. I should have it flying in another week or so.

Don Bailey

[dgliderguy]

Finished product, still flying strong. Fun plane!!

[Dukester]

Nice covering job. Also congrats on coming back and updating the thread. A lot of times we see planes in the bones and never end up seeing the final product.

Duke

[johnvb]

Very cute! I particularly like the whitewall tail-wheel. :D

[willin]

Very nice indeed! A couple of questions...

What is your all up weight? Did you get a real bargain on Ebayinc shipping?
Reason I ask is it makes me wonder if I should try looking on Ebay.

Yours sure is nice, Happy flying!

Robert

[TRP]

Wow!

Great looking little ship! I fly a full scale 1968 Citabria 7ECA. Your looks pretty close to it! The colors are different - but the outline looks about right.

Nice work.

What's the AUW?
TRP

[dgliderguy]

AUW is 38 oz, with three standard-size servos and a 270mah battery pack. I could have shaved off some weight with smaller gear, etc., but at this weight, the little Citabria flies just fine.

It is squirrely on take-off from a hard surface runway. I have to jab a slight amount of right rudder when I throw the throttle forward, and then not monkey with it until it comes off the ground. Trying to micro-adjust the rudder just leads to a ground loop. It also wants to tip stall a bit right after take-off, until flying speed is attained, so I gotta be careful not to horse it off too abruptly, lest it should start to dutch roll menacingly. Once underway, however, it is a pussycat. It also slows down well on approach, and I never worry about tip stalling on final.

The landing is a bit exciting, as the gear has virtually no spring to it-- it bounces on the tarmac like a b-b in a shoebox. Touch 'n' goes require that you slide it on and then not let it slow down too much before taking off again. If it slows past a certain point, you gotta bring it to a full stop before applying the power again, or it will ground loop when the torque kicks in. Not exactly a beginner's airplane, but it is FUN. It will snap roll on a sneeze, and does gorgeous avalanches and hammerheads and Cuban Eights, plus the rudder rolls look like it has ailerons they are so axial. The inverted flight characteristics are really good, too, even with the flat-bottom airfoil. Though it is small, the HS Citabria looks very scale when winging overhead, just like a little Decathalon on the way to the practice area.

I paid $24 for this kit, plus $6 for shipping. Not a bad deal!

BTW, TRP-- I copied this color scheme off a Citabria I found on the internet; N2940G. Yours, perchance?

[TRP]

Naahpp... I'm N53893 and N1806G. The KCAB is N88353.

Looks like the top of your wing has the Super D scheme. Very nice.

The shape of that bird looks pretty darn close to scale.

Again - Nice job.

TRP

[Woodpecker]

That .15 Citabria is really a masterpiece. What foil do you recon they have in it ? :cool:

[dgliderguy]

The kit doesn't reveal a specific airfoil. My guess is it is a typical "model airplane airfoil", patterned after the Clark Y. There is a bit of Philllips entry under the leading edge, with some thick sheeting just behind the leading edge strip, to allow for material removal there. This feature offers better inverted flight characteristics than a simple radiused leading edge.

Mods to the kit include adding the rudder 'horn' (area ahead of the hinge line)-- the kit showed a straight hingeline (yuck!), and adding side window cutouts. The kit had fully sheeted sides, with decals for windows. Again, yuck. Gotta be able to look through the fuselage for good scale effect! I could have added the elevator horns, as well, and maybe some fuselage side stringers, but hey, it's a cheapie woodie kit. Gotta stay reasonable! At least they got the wingtips right, which most of these bottom level kits don't bother to do. Check out the HOB "Schoolyard Scale" Decathalon for a comparison.

[TRP]

Ahh.. so the basic scale stuff was your handy work?! Very nice.

Once of the best looking stand off scale Citabria models I've seen.

Ted

[3jbltd]

Hello, I just tried to take off this thing for the first time and broke the gear off. How wide of a surface do you need to takeoff? :D

[dgliderguy]

The trick with the HS Citabria is to hold a little right rudder when applying full takeoff power, and then don't play with it during the takeoff roll. If you try to adjust the rudder input, the little guy will ground loop on you (or worse, snap roll on takeoff). Just a bit of right rudder, hold it, hold it, let the plane get up to flight speed, and if you did it correctly, the Citabria will roll along in more or less a straight line until liftoff. I fly off a narrow paved strip, and I can usually keep it on the pavement all the way to wheels-off.

When doing touch and goes, either feed in the takeoff power while the Citabria still has a good bit of groundroll speed, or let it slow all the way to a dead stop before applying takeoff power. There is a speed regime in there between a fast taxi and "tail off the ground and rolling" speed, where jamming the throttle forward will guarantee a groundloop. This is a small little model. You need to treat it like a Pitts.

(BTW, it handlaunches just fine, if that's your choice. Get up to a good trot before pushing it out there.)