1/3 scale Piper Cub Build

That is amazing that it only ways 25 pounds... I was surprised at that number!

25 pounds is the suggested weight. It is sort of a median weight for the plane. The wing loading on this Cub can take up to 35-40 pounds, but I don't think I will get anywhere near that. I'm sort of a nut when it comes to planes. I plan on having all the cables where the full sized plane has its cables. I am also planning on having this part



which is the trim controls for the stabilizer as an active and fully functional part. The cable runs to the front of the plane and is operated by a crank on the left side of the cockpit (I've always wondered where that word came from) operational. Its kind of funny, but the full scale Cub's pulleys are made from a fiber soaked in resin and turned on a mill. Basically.... plastic... ya really, plastic pulleys on a plane that someone is flying. Now the pulleys in the wing are light aircraft steel and all the cables are braided stainless steel. A far cry from the modern aircraft we fly in as commercial airliners with three back-up hydraulic supplies and another back-up which deploys automatically if all of the other supplies fail. It's a small and yet powerful wind powered generator which drops into the airstream under one of the wings. It has hooked to it an alternator which supplies power to only the essential controls so the pilot can fly the plane manually.

With all of our technology, the last chance is something out of the 1920's, a wind powered generator which hasn't changed much since they were used on trainer aircraft going way back.



This is a wind generator on a 1933 Lincoln Primary Trainer Bi-Plane.

I just get so amazed by the amount of info you know about these planes!!!! It is like I am learning more stuff everytime you post!!! Thanks!

In my search for information about the Cub I find many things lately like this...



I thought the cabling for the ailerons came straight out of the wing. Seems there's a pulley or roller at the exit on the top of the wing where the aileron cable exits the wing before it connects to the aileron.

Come on now why not just go crazy and build a real plane???

Do you remember "The Flight of the Phoenix?" This is a real airplane.... it has to be better than a real airplane because it has to fly itself with a little help from the radio.

Cub's Update:

Had to remove the aileron hinges. By the time I got the leading edge trim on I found a mistake in the design. My hinges didn't drop down far enough to allow access to the hinge bolts. I picked up some new hinge plate material today and am going to replace ALL of the hinge mounts and also build new servo arms. The ones which I was going to use were too soft and bent very easily so I'm going with .032 brass servo arms and .064 brass hinges. These won't flex, this I assure.

This is the aileron control horn. Took me all day to design them so I didn't introduce differential into the operation. Differential is when one part moves faster or farther than it opposite component. I had to make a total of six identical hinges of which two will be for the aileron control.

Although I haven't built the cable pulley mount, with a lot of experimenting and checking my photos this is going to be the final setup. The aileron horn is off set as shown in the photo. The servo horn has the same off set. Most everything is made up of brass for strength. The pulley, however, is actually three servo horns. I used two large and one small horn. They are bolted together with two very small screws. There is also a ball bearing in the center for smooth operation. I am probably going to take a few days before starting the right wing. I have however, made all the parts needed for the right wing as I was building the left wing so every part is identical. The aileron connecting bolts are temporary... they really are not going to be this long... LOL


The pulley is just setting on a temporary mount and one wing rib. The finished product will be a
plywood stand epoxied to the rear wing spar.


Side view showing the position of the pulley in reference to the aileron. This also shows how it clears
the trailing edge as in the full scale.



As with everything... my mind was elsewhere when I epoxied the servo mounting rib. It was too far to one
side so a box had to be built to move the servo out in line with the aileron horn. I was getting tired.

All didn't go as well as I wanted with the aileron controls so I had to go old school push-rods but am going to put fake upper control cable which will just slide in a nylon tube giving the effect of the pull - pull system of the full scale Piper Cub. But today I framed up the other wing half and wished to post some stunning photos of just how big this plane is going to be. The wing halves are just clipped together... there will be another 6 - 8 inches between the wing halves where they connect to the fuselage for total of 140 inches of wing span. Gulp!!!! As a scale, the lofted ceiling is 10 foot and 4 inches.

The red, white and blue plane is the Super Chipmunk I built last spring. It is upside down because.... well the guy that made this plane famous did most of his stunts upside down.