Alun Thomas 2 Posted September 23, 2018 Share Posted September 23, 2018 Hi Colin, I'm with you on the lack of decalage on the Hobbyking (Starmax) Navy Cub and I've used similar wedges to adjust the incidence on the tailplane; what I haven't been able to discover anywhere is some indication of the right control throws. As intially assembled, the ailerons seem rather too mobile whilst the elevator is unipmressive to say the least! What sort of movement do yours have, assuming you still have the model? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Leighfield Posted September 6, 2019 Author Share Posted September 6, 2019 Isn’t it odd that I’ve only just noticed Alun’s post dated 23/09/2018! If you are still looking Alun I apologise for appearing ignorant in not having answered your question, which I will try to do shortly. The reason that I looked again was because of a recent event with this plane! It has been exactly what I hoped it would be, even though I often go far too long between opportunities to fly, I could always depend on this one and the odd hard landing from lack of practice caused minor issues quickly rectified. Although it can be flown in a perfectly scale-like fashion, with 4S it is massively over-powered and flies more like a WW2 warbird! On 21 July I took it to Fradley Scale Day, not as a competitor (!) but just to fly in between the real pilots. On one flight I took it on a wide circuit at about 50 ft and became disorientated against a dark sky. Looking for a gentle right hand turn to bring it into line with the runway I became convinced that the rather small and black silhouette was turning left. Classic error, I gave it some more right and it went into a spiral dive. I did the usual and thought “radio problem”! It came down in the farmer’s field some distance away, in a crop of some kind of beans varying in height between 4 and 6 ft. I spent some time in the field and found the nature of the crop, plus some kind of “bindweed” growing between made it extremely hard to walk through and even harder to see anything. Eventually I called it a day. I had the incident on video from my Tomtom Bandit and when I get home I had a look. There my mistake was obvious, the spiral dive was to the right, the plane was turning the right way and my further right aileron caused the crash. Personal incompetence, not a “brown-out”! I came back the following day and spent a long time searching without any luck. A few days later one of my club-mates searched for it with his professional standard camera quad and no luck. I gave up and wrote it off, thinking that when the farmer harvested the crop the plane would be wrecked. Yesterday a post came through on the club FB page to say it had turned up! The farmer had cleared the crop and there was the plane parked in the middle of the field! I can only imagine that he had seen it and deliberately avoided crushing it, many thanks to him. The photos show the easily repairable damage, although it is going to need painting! The LiPo is a problem because when connected to the charger I just get “low-voltage”, so I need to work that out. It is undamaged though and shows no sign of swelling. I bought the Hangar 9 Ultra Stick to replace this (I told my wife) and now I am getting some funny looks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alun Thomas 2 Posted September 6, 2019 Share Posted September 6, 2019 Hi Colin, thanks for that; please don't worry about the question, I flew the Cub with my own "guessed at" settings and I'm very pleased with it. Your observations about the decalage were spot-on! Your model's survival is a remarkable tale; I wish I had such an obliging neighbour but Cornish farmers are not very aviation-minded! I don't quite understand the funny looks-unless your wife can actually tell one aeroplane from another; my wife can't, and I was a professional pilot for 40 years! Edited By Alun Thomas 2 on 06/09/2019 17:30:26 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Leighfield Posted September 6, 2019 Author Share Posted September 6, 2019 Hi again Alun. I’m pleased that your Navy Cub version has worked out ok, hard to believe that mine is already three years old and having just survived seven weeks in a field it might last for a bit longer yet! My wife can’t tell one plane from another either, but sadly she can count! I’ve had a look at stuff on the forum about low voltage LiPos and sadly it looks as if I have to dispose of it. If anyone has another (safe) answer, please let me know! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Leighfield Posted September 10, 2019 Author Share Posted September 10, 2019 An hour or so’s work and it’s ready to fly again. Connected a battery and everything worked, so seven weeks out in a bean field have done no serious damage except to the paint. Repairs were to re-attach an aileron and detached wing strut, fix the undercarriage with epoxy and bullet tape, which will look ok under a coat of matt olive green paint. So my reliable flyer is back, I will keep it closer in from now on, particularly against a dark sky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J D 8 Posted September 11, 2019 Share Posted September 11, 2019 Keep it as is, a hard worked warbird with a survival story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McG 6969 Posted September 11, 2019 Share Posted September 11, 2019 I really like your weathering as well, Colin. Cheers Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Leighfield Posted September 11, 2019 Author Share Posted September 11, 2019 Thanks JD 8 and Chris. Good thinking, there’s nothing artificial about this weathering! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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