76 J-3 Cub
Project Complete
Today (February 6, 2008) I have reached a milestone. I have the completion of the J-3 Cub as shown below.
The finished weight without the rubber motor is
79 grams (2.79 oz). I have no idea what kind of rubber or how many strands
are needed for the rubber motor. The wing has a span of 35-1/2" and a chord
of 5-1/4". I did a rough estimate of the wing area accounting for the wing
tips area reduction and came up with about 176 sq. in. The wing loading
without the rubber motor is about 2.3 oz/sq. ft. The model balance point is
about 30% of the wing chord without the rubber motor, so a small amount
of clay is going to be required up in the nose.
Last evening I finished trimming and painting the
two wing struts as shown below. I carefully glued each of them in place this
morning.
The next thing I did this morning was to bend the
prop shaft that engages the prop cam as shown below.
This shows the bend in the prop shaft engaged in
the prop cam.
This picture show the J-3 Cub sitting on the work
table. You have to admit, it does kind of look like a J-3 Cub don't you
think?
This is a close up of the right side of the cabin
area and the added wing struts.
This shows the J-3 Cub hanging from the model
room ceiling.
This is close up view of the left front.
This is another close up view of the left side.
This is the final construction Report No.76 on
the J-3 Cub. Later in the spring when the weather gets nice, Mike Midkiff
has volunteered to show me how to test and trim this model. At that time, I
will try to get a good picture of the J-3 Cub in flight and include it in
one more report of the flight test results (Report No. 77).
Even though the J-3 Cub is one of the more
simpler FAC model configurations, it has been a rather long and involved
project. This project has given me a real feel for what the Flying Aces Club
builders have to go through to produce their complex scale models. In
closing, I hope you all have enjoyed my series on the Herr kit construction
of the J-3 Cub.......................Tandy