Pelikan Piper Cub

 

Review 18-Jul-2004 Patrick Plawner Video Available
Motor AXI 2814/12 Servos 2x W-084 Micro Servos
Speed Controller Jeti 30-3P Batteries 8 cells KAN to FAUP
Channels 3 Flight Time ~10 minutes
Propeller 9x5 Gear Box none
Power consumption 20 Amp max - planned 9 Amp at cruising    

.

Wingspan "
110 cm		 Length "
78 cm		 Empty weight  oz
400 gr		 All Up Weight  oz
  gr
Wing Area  sq.inch
20.5 dm²		 Wing load  oz/sq.ft
 gr/dm²		 CG location
from wing edge		 on the wing spar (data from vendor)

.

Building General building comments

Very smart design where foam is mixed with balsa, at particular places, to make it stronger while providing a real plane good look.

The plane comes already covered, with all the stickers installed as well. It is also pre-wired. What left do be done ?

  • Install the tail, rudder and elevator with the horns
  • Install the landing gear
  • Glue the 2 wings to make 1
  • install the motor (needs some work on the firewall)
  • Install the servos (need some work)
  • Prepare a battery holder

Some Epoxy, or CA do the work

Issues:

  1. The place to install the servos, does not match the wires pre-installed position. Need to build a customized servo holder in order to make it work
  2. Some wood prevents the installation of the motor. I would assume this part will be replaced by 95% of the users who build the plane. Useless part, then needs to work on the firewall to make it compatible with the motor to install which takes some time and pain
  3. The user Manual does not contain any info on the CG ??? I would call this a major flow in the manual
  4. The English User Manual stops short of being complete. It is like some pages are missing. It explains in some details part of the building, and on some areas like motor mounting, or battery installation, or ESC BEC and Receiver position, nothing is there. For a plane intended for a beginner, this is absolutely not acceptable
  5. The back steering wheel part has some friction, just by itself. When installed, it therefore add some unnecessary friction on the servos to a point that I might prefer to not use it
  6. No information on how much the elevator and rudder should be able to move

Due to all these issues, if I would compare this plane to a Wingo/SoarStar or a EasyStar, this plane would arrive far last one on the list. Actually, I would NOT recommend this plane, if you intend to build it alone. If the supplier or friend who knows helps, then fine.

Take-off Using an AXI of this type adds quite some torque effects, if you push it full speed. Since the plane is so light, being smooth on the motor on take-off is recommended. The plane does take off in a snap. See video
Flight behavior If you use a normal brushed motor, with recommended gearbox, chances are it will be just fine, eventually better than with a too strong AXI motor, which adds too much torque. Said this, with this brushles motor setup, the plane really has some nice speed and thrust. Just, you have to either reduce the power, after half loop, or enlarge the loop, as if not, the plane would roll on its axis, when the speed gets low at the top of the loop.
Rools are possible, without any problems. The flight is clean and smooth in calm air. Due to the light weight, strong winds make it more difficult to fly
Landing Due to the extreme light weight of this plane, it is not any issue to land it. Just beware of wind shears and turbulences which affect it very much
Crash Results This plane is very well designed in this regard. First, the key parts, which uselly break on planes, are the reenforced ones. Firewall, wings, landing gear. Speaking of the landing gear, it is very well build and won't break. The Foam covered wings won't also.
Repairing Foam and balsa. Should be easy
Other comments IMPORTANT NOTE: Make sure to check time to time the connection between the firewall and the fuselage. After the fews first flights, a weird noise appeared and after checking, turned out that the firewall was half way detached from the fuselage. Just a little more and it would break away from the plane.
Interesting Links  
FMS plane  
Pictures building pictures

Latest Update: Monday, 19 September 2005