After more than two weeks and couple of crashes causing damage to the wing, had a very satisfying 15 minutes of flying today. I had almost given up my Stinson and decided to get John a very expreinced flier to give it a try. To my amazement and relief, John managed to get it up and after some trimming got my Stinson to fly beautifully. Anyway my Stinson, is somewhat battered already with damage to the wing, rudder, cowl, landing gear and a broken strut and propeller. Still fuse is intact!

I managed good three take offs and landings on my own - altogether about 15minutes of flying. The take offs were almost scale. Despite all the damage, which I repaired using Gorilla glue, Stinson now flies well. I had to replace the stock propeller, which was damaged with a 10 x 7 TSG propeller from Hobbyking and don't seem to have any difference in performance. Well, I am not sure whether it is drawing more or less current than the stock propeller.

I have also tried flaps. Not for a landing just yet. On the advice of John, I cut the throtlle back fully, when using flaps, which made Stinson float beautifully. With throttle on, flaps made Stinson to nose up.

I am waiting to capture the Stinson on video properly.

It has been a very windy for the past several weeks. But managed a short flight last week with few rolls for the first time. Everything was fine except for the final landing. The Stinson did a nose over in the tall grass and damaged the top of the rudder. I noticed a small cut in the foam in the top part of the rudder, which I think was a factory fault. The rudder snapped exactly at that place. Anyway managed to repair and do a short flight.

Like with most foam planes, some spots have to be protected against small dents. Since the damage to the rudder, I have put some fibre tape on either side and on top of the rudder. Also covered the main wing tips.

I have not tried the flaps yet. I have set it to about half throw using the travel adjustment function to trial it tomorrow - weather permitting of course.

Maiden flight of my Stinson.

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?xl=xl_blazer&v=DYttjyi4FcY

This is the latest addition to my hangar. It is a Parkzone Stinson, which I got last week and did the flight on Sunday. This is my step up from the well loved Super Cub to a 4 channel plane with the option of adding flaps quite easily. Stinson has taken away the need for any more upgrades and enjoy flying.

It was a windy day and managed only a short flight with the help of an experienced flyer. I will post a video of the maiden flight tomorrow.

It is a very nice plane and with equally nice scale features. It flew very well and fast with smooth turns. This is a PNP version and use my JR SX600 radio with it.

There is plenty of power with the 480 sized motor which is very smooth and quiet. It has a large battery box that can take a larger battery than the 1800 mAh battery without any modifications, which is a real plus.

On the downside (at least in my view) I noticed two. Firstly, longer servo leads for the rudder and elevator would have been very useful. It is a struggle to connect the receiver in the PNP version. Secondly, a better means of securing the tail to the fuselage seems to be needed. Other than that I am begining to like the Stinson and expect to have many interesting flights over the next few weeks.

I have had several very good flights last week in between pretty bad weather. These were done very late in the afternoon with a a light breeze. I could not do any more than half an hour each due to fading light. But captured all flights in both days on video and have posted three of these in my YouTube channel. See links below.

Super Cub is performing really well with the upgrade of electronics. Du Bro rubber tyres seem to be bit bumpy landing on the semi hard surface of the cricket pitch.

Whilst landings are still not perfect managed to do two short inverted inflights. By the way I tried these with my FMS simulator first.

1300 mAh battery lasted at least 20 minutes including more than 6 ROG take offs. Most of the time I did not use any more than half throttle.

ROG takeoffs are much more exciting than hand launches provided there is a suitable surface to take off from.

As I could not get hold of a 10 x 6 prop, I tried a GWS 10 x 4.7 SF. Whilst there seems to no real difference in take offs, I think I noticed the difference in speed. Anyway I decided to go back to 10 x 5 prop that I have been using. I decided I did not want to take the chance with the 10 x 8 stock prop.


http://www.youtube.com/user/Learnway#p/a

This follows my previous posting Super Cub Brushless Upgrade - An Update

My upgrade was completed about three weeks ago and have had several flights. It has been raining everyday for the last several weeks with only intermittent breaks to do some flying. This post includes several images of the upgrade and notes on these flights.

I have now got a Turnigy brushed ESC (20AMP), two Hextronix 9g micro servos and a Hyperion 6 channel receiver with the JR SX 600 Tx. Use Hyperion 1100 mAh and Turnigy 1300 mAh batteries and 10 x 5 APC propeller with this set up.

The new set up seems to be working as expected. The plane definitely has more power and is responding well. As stated in all forums, the motor might not last long. But I have two spare motors that I can use if this motor gives up. Maiden flights were done by an experienced flyer who trimmed the plane and also felt that a popsicle stick underneath the wing saddle at the trailing edge would help with the balance; and it seems to have helped.

24th July

I have decided to do only ROGs after my disasterous hand launch with my brushless upgrade. Where I fly there are two cricket pitches which I can use for takeoffs.

In all ROGs takeoffs today, the plane veered to the left in taking off. Perhaps due to left torque that is supposedly created by the motor. In one instance it climbed sharply and fortunately did not stall (this may be due to pulling back on the elevator too much). Apart from the erratic take offs the...Continue Reading

I was not able to make the most of my upgrade because about a month ago I lost my plane. It was a strange occurrance which I cannot explain. Soon after taking off(hand launch) it started spinning and kept going away from me and not matter what I did it did not respond and disappeared out of sight. Strange thing was that it did not loose altitude. That was the end of my brushless upgrade, which set me back some what (in my loss of confidence just as much as the plane and gear).

Therefore, before I move on to a brushless, I decided to try an upgrade except the stock motor with another almost new Super Cub, which I had bought earlier.

This upgrade included the following, which I bought from Hobbyking.

2 x HXT900 servos

https://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...?idProduct=662

1 x Turnigy 20A Brushed ESC
https://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...idProduct=9090

1 x DSP 6-Channel Receiver 72MHZ - Hyperion (new), which I bought in our local auction site.

In my next posting I will give you details how my upgrade went.

I would like to share my experience with the Super Cub upgrade.

My upgrade project was not so much a planned one.

I have a Super Cub with a stock set up using a LIPO. I bought another Super Cub (see below) to practice landings and parts in the event I burnt the motor of the other one.

As you can see it has had several crashes and was weighing too much with all the ducting tape wrapped around. Anyway tried to fly it and did not fly well and crashed twice resulting in a broken fuse and a wing.

Anyway, I managed to repair it and then thought why don’t, I convert this to a brushless as a trial. That was the beginning of the project and started looking for parts that I thought was suitable. Here are the used parts that I collected from our local auction site.

New parts used are the motor mount and the servos.

This Super Cub already had its firewall replaced with a hard plastic plate glued to the fuselage. It seemed to provide the correct thrust angel. Therefore, I decided to fit the engine mount to the plastic plate. Used some washers to get the downward angle comparing with the angle of my first Super Cub. Basically the thrust angle was set based on visual comparison. Aanyway, the prop lined with the cowl hole.

Tested the motor, servos with the JR SX600 and all seemed to work well. I found the rudder and elevator was much more responsive with the new servos than previously.

I have not decided on the permanent placement of the battery yet. For testing it...Continue Reading