E-Flite Super cub

[Tony Richardson]

Hi all, just wondering if anyone on here has an e-flite super cub?

I had the kit/ARF for a long time before I decided to assemble it, Maidened last week, not to bad but some joints that should have been glued better came apart, now duly fixed, the third flight last night was OK but not as I would like them, now I know from numerous club mates cubs are not the easiest to fly, model or fullsize but this is not at all what I expected, it was extremely sensitive to pitch input even at the recommended low rate, duly dialed down also it tends to climb excessively when power applied - it is not tail heavy - according suggested CG? my biggest concern however is its reluctance to bank and turn, turns are initiated with rudder and followed with roll input but it seems slow to respond then has a tendency to roll to far too quick threatening a tip stall.

Has anyone experienced anything similar, advice thoughts welcome.

Tony....

[Paul Marsh]

Which one is it, the electric balsa version?

Cubs are not the trainer models one would think, although high wing, the elevator is sensitive and will stall quite nasty is provoked.

[Tony Richardson]

Hi Paul, yes it is the balsa electric model 68 inch span.

No it is not being used as a trainer I passed that stage long ago, I bought this model because I liked the looks and I have never owned a cub. It just seems so alien to every other model I have - and I have quite a few - I plan on adding some aileron differential to see if that helps, I have also read on other forums that it is heavy for a cub and slow flight is not very good, that I can agree with.

Keep flying and work out the kinks I guess, I just hate being beaten by model.

Tony..

[Richard Clark 2]

Posted by Tony Richardson on 31/07/2020 20:05:17:

Hi all, just wondering if anyone on here has an e-flite super cub?

I had the kit/ARF for a long time before I decided to assemble it, Maidened last week, not to bad but some joints that should have been glued better came apart, now duly fixed, the third flight last night was OK but not as I would like them, now I know from numerous club mates cubs are not the easiest to fly, model or fullsize but this is not at all what I expected, it was extremely sensitive to pitch input even at the recommended low rate, duly dialed down also it tends to climb excessively when power applied - it is not tail heavy - according suggested CG? my biggest concern however is its reluctance to bank and turn, turns are initiated with rudder and followed with roll input but it seems slow to respond then has a tendency to roll to far too quick threatening a tip stall.

Has anyone experienced anything similar, advice thoughts welcome.

Tony....

It's not just the Cub. E-Flite stuff is not as good as they would like us to believe.

For example my E-Flite Sea Fury.

1) The provided ESC was not powerful enough to drive the provided motor with the provided prop.

2) Neither the retract servos or the retract mechanisms were positively located with regard to each other. As a result the undercarriage collapses on about half the landings.

I could easily fix these things but why should I have to? It's an ARTF foamie and is claimed to fly right out of the box.

[EarlyBird]

Tony,

My experience with the Cub led me to :-

Aileron differential 100% up 50% down

Rudder/Aileron mix 25%

Climb on power I added more down thrust.

This made it controllable even in a wind , solved the adverse yaw issue, however it would easily tip stall especially on landing approach. I learned, the hard way, to keep the speed up and land with power.

The conclusion I came to was that Cubs are not easy to fly and they are not fun. So having risen to the challenge and manage to get it to at least fly it now sits awaiting repair again while I fly planes that are fun to fly.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

Steve

[Denis Watkins]

Am glad the lads are contributing now Tony, as 3 times now have come to your post and written a boring essay about flying a large bodied high winger.

This is not an e-flite issue, this is a Cub issue as stated.

I fly your wing span and larger with the Taylorcraft, the Cub, and the Super Cub.

You just have to watch the YouTube flying of the e-flite Super Cub, to see how fast this has to be flown and does not look scale speed.

I don't feel that the wing has great lift as a model, but that is true of many ARTF models.

The fun is in the flying, and as stated, this style of model requires balanced inputs on moving surfaces, in the turns and manouvers.

Throttle, and rudder are a constant balance with the aileron and gentle zero expo elevator.

[Tony Richardson]

Ok after a lot of other maintenance projects were cleared I got back to the Super cub. I thought about the climb under throttle and wondered if the down thrust was adequate, it didn't appear to be so i have added a couple more degrees, hopefully that will help, also the lateral balance was off with the port wing being heavier than the starboard by 1oz not a lot but could make a difference in flight, I failed to check this as when i build from a plan or kit I check for lateral balance before covering so I can add weight and then hide it under the covering, as the sub assemblies are all covered I got a brain block on this part of assembly and totally forgot about it, aileron differential is dialed in a little more than previously, if its too much very easy to dial out at the field. I am hoping this brings the handling of this model into line with a club mates from a former club who had no issues with his right out of the box, it is the exact same model.

Time will tell I plan to fly it this week and will inform you of any improvements or otherwise, fingers crossed.

[Tony Richardson]

Quick update, I have flown the cub twice since my last post, first time out it was a little better but still not responding to inputs the way it really should, back on the ground I noticed the left aileron was not working - could this be the issue ? as it was getting late in the day decided to take it home and deal with it there ( small screws seem to vanish in the grass especially in bad light) took the cub out of the truck put it on the bench hooked up a battery,aileron works fine, re checked the connector plugged it in and taped it with electrical tape, all good. next outing fair takeoff climb to height back off throttle and it stands on its tail increase throttle nose comes down and keeps coming down, finally get it under some sort of control and call a landing, now it decides it will only respond to rudder, elevator and throttle really sluggish on aileron input. once on the ground taxi back, check the surface movements, all good? what the heck is going on.

Finally figured that maybe I added too much downthrust so removed some of that and shifted the battery forward to give a little more nose weight, put it on the runway check control movements, guess what left aileron has stopped moving again and is in the neutral position - it was working fine when I taxied to the pilot box - OK thats it for me for the day, back home on the bench, same thing as before, hook up a battery aileron works fine..

Ive ordered new servo extension cords Y leads and a new servo, i'm hoping these will chase the gremlin infestation out of the model.

I don't think its the RX as its only on one channel but I may be wrong, anyone else had a similar problem, the servos are Spektrum 5030 digital coreless servos, I am honestly getting ready to put this one on the block, really frustrating.

On the bright side I maidened my Goldberg Tiger 2 and it flew just fine apart from a little elevator up trim, I heaved a sigh of relief after the shennanigans with the cub..

Edited By Tony Richardson on 09/09/2020 06:34:51