Hello All, thought I'd share with you my first rubber conversion, a west wing J3 Piper Cub turn in to an R/C L4. 35" AUW (as seen) 7.5oz, speed 300 sized brushless outrunner, 4 x HS 55, Schulze mini Rx, 2-3 cell 700-1000Mah Lipoly. This CNC kit built well and converted without a great deal of head scratching. gbruce made a plastic cowl for me(very nice) which save a lot of time not having to build it as per kit. Now just need a mod on the rudder to make it more scale then on with the so-lite covering and finishing.

Well I'll post some more pic's once I’ve started covering etc, if you guys have any questions please just ask.

Thankyou gbruce for your help an info and cowl on this one.

Stuart.

Stuart,

Nice looking "Grasshopper"! Interesting scale project.

Are you doing opening scale doors for battery access?

Mod to rudder--- will that be to add a balancer at the top?

Are you using 2 aileron servos out in the wings or a linkage from the wing center?

In the pic's, the wood looks pretty robust for such a light model. Should fly great if you can continue to keep the weight down.

Good luck with the L-4 "Grasshopper", and keep us posted as to your progress and as to how she flys, when finished.

AmpAce

I have a couple of examples the same kit picked up cheap off eBay - it's pretty nice for IPS S1 or similar. One is destined to become a Super Cub a la AmpAce, one to be done as a Reed Clip-Wing. I've been stuck with thoughts of how to do the ailerons off one servo without it being terribly obvious through the top glazing, but have come to the conclusion that if I hide the servo in one wing root it won't be far enough from the centre line to take the aeroplane much out of lateral trim, and even one gram weight in the opposite tip will be enough to re-balance. Of course, it would also fly acceptably on rudder-elevator with a touch more dihedral than scale - which this one seems to have, but my eyes may deceive me...

Thanks guys for your comments.

Ampace, no door access but if you look at the second pic (the wide shot) you'll see a hatch under the nose, this is how I'll get the esc and battery, either that or by taking off the wings.

Rudder mod: capping the top of the rudder for a more scale appearance, I’ll take a photo to show what I mean tonight.

Robust is the word, this model has reaffirmed my belief that you can build a very light and yet very strong model out of sticks

Stuart.

Oh yeah, alierons, one sevro for each wing so two mini servo's in total.

Stuart, I agree with you, I prefer two aileron servos where there's room to somewhat hide them in the wings. With the extremely light and small servos available now, the weight penalty isn't that great.

Another plus of having a servo on each aileron is that if a servo should fail, you still have a fighting chance to bring her down by compensating/controlling roll with the remaining good one. If a lone aileron servo fails, chances are it's gonna lead to a big crash!

AmpAce

Well said I'll be covering this weekend hopfully so i'll post back asap.

stuart.

Any updates on this one? It was looking great.

Hey weather man, Its slowed down a bit since my last post, mainly because i've started the covering. The tail parts our covered and so is the underside of the wing. I just need to get a y lead fitted into the wing before i cover the top. Once its all covered I'll airbrush it.

I'll post some progress shots asap.

Thanks for your interest

Sounds great, can't wait to see it fnished. What covering are you using?

Litespan, it does work well, but it take's a bit of time to get use to. Nice and light also.

OK, update time.

The since my last post I've manage to get my hands on a 12 amp bl esc, and a 3 cell 1000 mah lipoly flight pack (although I'm going to be swapping it for a 2 cell as to not overload the esc with the 4 servo's I have, also I think that 3 cell is just over kill!).

So I'm now in the process of installing these remaining airborn electronic's then I'll cover the fuzz (the last part to be covered, yipee).

I've also glued the glazzing onto the top of the wing ready for marking then painting.

I'll post some picture's before the end of the week.

Stuart.
: )

Ok sorry for a slight ( ) delay in post some news, but there hasn't really been any until this weekend.

Anyway I've covered the entire model now, ready for the first coat of spray. After this I'll attach all flaps etc and spray a final coat of olive drab, but before all of this I'll be sticking the plastic sheet (glazzing) on and masking ready for spraying. Then, once its all rigged, we'll give it a test fly i guess

Stuart.

BTW, ignore the messy bits around the front of the cabin area/glazzed wing, this will all be made tidy and presentable with the spraying of olive drab.

Looking very good, Stuart! You'll be flying her soon!

AmpAce

Thanks ampace, lets hope so.

BTW I have a 2 cell 800 lipoly pack in the cub, do you think this is big enough, or should I go for 3cells and more capacity?

PS. I'm very pleased with the AUW, thus far its 11oz!