Piper J-3 Cub Power 46
Hangar 9

Several years ago, I owned a Hangar 9 ARF Cub J-3 which I flew with glow power. I liked it very much, except for the
rubbery aluminum landing gear. Early this past flying season I was looking for a scale ARF, electric, of course
This model had just been released. For $299 with the Eflite Power 46 motor, it was a steal, in my view.

It is 1/5th scale. The wingspan is 80", and the wing area is 932 sq/in. The length is 51 in., and the flying weight is 7 to 7.5 lbs.

Covering is Ultracote, the cowl is fiberglass. It even came with scale Cub wheels.

Electric Components

I installed a Castle Creations Phoenix 60 ESC. These units are American made and using the Castle Link and their software,
you can set your ESC up using your computer and you can save the parameters. The BEC is Medusa 3.5 amp 5 volt
unit. This is critical, as I am flying all my models with a Spektrum DX7 transmitter, and this model has
an AR7000 receiver.

Keeping the voltage up is an issue, because if the voltage dips, the receiver - being a
small computer - will reset. It takes three (3) seconds to do so, and chances are disaster will
have struck before it comes back on line. I have never had that happen to me as I use Medusa BECs
and make sure I do not run my packs down.

Battery power comes from a Thunder Power Extreme V2 4S 3850 mAh pack.With the Master Airscrew 11 x 7 wood glow prop
580 watts are provided or 77 watts per pound. More than enough power. I like the the MAS wood props. They
break easily before damage is done to the motor or the mounts in most instances. And, a
wood prop looks pretty cool on this model. I wish Master Airscrew still made the wood electric props.

I have for some time been considering building the Sig laser cut 1/5th scale Cub, but no more. The quality on this model
is excellent. There were no construction faults to be found or discovered after several dozen flights.

The panel between the wings has the Cub skylight, and it is removable to get at the wing bolts.

This is the view of the inside of the fuselage through the cooling hole on the bottom aft of the cockpit.
You can see the laser cut part constriction. The fuselage is made of a frame of thin aircraft plywood.
Very light and very strong.

The landing gear supplied was a rigid frame made of music wire. The above picture is of the Robart 1/5th scale J-3 Cub
landing gear I bought to replace it. The parts come in gray primer finish. I airbrushed the parts white as a primer, and
then Testors yellow enamel in the small bottles. Two were used to get a perfect finish. I cover the gap between
the main struts with Ultracote.

The groove the old landing gear was in had to be filled and the area re-covered.

The finished product. At some point I will fashion some bungy covers. The gear works wonderfully.
Even my less than perfect landings (and that is all of them) look good with these. No bouncing!
This Robart gear is very, very rugged. It will survive a lot of abuse. Those are the same
wheels that came with the model. I only had to enlarge the hole in the hub slightly on my drill press.

My fancy, custom charging station. My wife had no idea what was going to happen with the oak TV tray
table when I asked if I could use it. This model has functional wing struts. The wings would fold without them.
So, there is a set-up period at the field. If I still had the Ford Windstar I used to drive, I could
leave this model assembled all the time.

I found that mounting the wing struts with four separate cap screws and locking bolts was a bit tiresome. So, I cut two small pieces of
brass, drilled holes the same distance apart as the strut brackets on the fuselage and solver soldered the cap screws to the brass.
I have had that silver solder around for some time, but I have never used it. I found using my trusty Weller
soldering gun was not so good, so I got out a torch, and it worked perfectly. It needed a lot more heat.

It is a lot easier to just press the bass in place and put on the two nuts.

Bottom view of the strut mounts.

My flying buddy, Joe Gilbert, took this and all the flying photos below.

You can see the flying wires on the tail. They are part of the kit and nicely done.

Landing is a cinch, but you need to keep a little power on.

Touch and go.

Take offs are done with care. This is a tail dragger. You have to watch the substantial torque the Power 46 can produce,
and you have to be on the rudder with corrections until it takes off. Full power is not needed to take off.
The only time you might want full power is in a loop.

Piper Cub NE-1

During WWII, the U.S. Navy took over all stock J-3 Cubs available at Lock Haven, PA for use
as primary trainers. The traditional Cub yellow was retained and even the Cub logo on the tail. The lightning bolt on
the side was not used, and some simple lettering was added for the serial number and an "NE-1" on
the tail. A photo of one such Cub is found on page 57 of Peter M. Bowers' book, Piper Cubs (Tab Books, 1993).

In July 2008, while flying in windy conditions, I managed to let a strong gust get under the left wing on landing,
and the Cub cart wheeled causing a broken windshield, cracked cowling, bent wing spar and some damage to the
upper portion of the pilot's cabin. As long as the model was going to be out of action pending the arrival
of replacement parts from Horizon Hobby, I decided to duplicate the aforementioned NE-1 markings with Major decals
and lettering I printed on decal material duplicating the markings of U.S. Navy NE-1 #26381. The results are below.

This Cub is now a little unusual, and the results came out making this an attractive model.

All flying pictures were taken by Joe Gilbert on October 25, 2008.