Upgrades to the new Super Cub plane

Saturday, April 13th, 2013

I was thinking today about my first flight with the plane, it seems that against the white clouds, it becomes somewhat hard to see the plane sometimes in the air.  So after a trip to Michaels, I purchased some foam safe spray paint, and decided to give the plane a new look.  Since I had to do some minor repairs from my first flight anyway, I decide this would be a perfect time to give the plane a new paint job.

Below are some pictures I took after painting everything up, and doing a test fit.  I had to replace the front cowl, the prop shaft, and I went ahead and replaced the motor since one of the wires on the original motor was broken.  I will try to solder on new wires to the old motor and use it as a back up.  Back to the paint job, I wanted the colors to be something that will be very noticeable while the plane is in the air, so I decided to go with yellow and black.  I still need to get a new sticker set for this one, but being this is my first plane I am learning on, I'm not going to worry about making it too fancy.  Going to be taking it out tomorrow morning for another outing with the wife.  Maybe I can get her to try to take it up for the first time tomorrow.

I wish the yellow was a little darker,
but overall I'm very happy with how it turned out.
I think this will be very easy to spot in the sky now.

I will try to post a video of tomorrows outing, as I want to try to start videoing every outing from now on.  Eventually I would like to get a camera to have on the plane while flying.



Getting in some flying time with my Super Cub DSM RC Plane

Saturday April 6th, 2013

My brother has some planes, and I was always curious to see what it would be like to fly one.  So my curiosity finally won over, and I purchased my first RC plane.  I wanted to get something that would be easy to learn to fly with and after spending a lot of time on the forums, I decide to buy a Super Cub.   This is a great starter plane for anyone getting into the RC Plane hobby.


After checking out where you can fly in the city of Mesa, which after some research is limited, unless you are a member of one of the local clubs.  Unless I am wrong, there is only one location in the City of Mesa that is legal to fly RC Planes or Helicopters, and that is Basin 114 and 116 in far East Mesa.  Basin 116 is for Airplanes and Basin 114 is for Helicopters.  I will be doing more research here in the near future to see where else I can go to fly in the Valley of the Sun.

Below is a small video of my first outing, I was only out for about an hour because the wind was blowing more then I felt comfortable with, and was really hard to control the plane in the wind.  I think my next outing will be earlier in the morning, and hopefully on a calmer day for the wind.

KBRL Finals at HobbyTown USA/SRS

Saturday January 5th, 2013

On January 5th, the KBRL Finals were held at Scottsdale RC Raceway.  Although the weather was a little bit cold, I think it was a great night of fun racing.

After missing round 6 in Tucson, I dropped a little in the points race.  For the 17.5 2WD Sportsman Buggy Class I was sitting 9th in the points at the beginning of the day, and for the 13.5 Pro-Lite Class I was sitting in 26th in the points.  After getting all setup in the pits, I was really looking forward to the racing.

Sitting in the pit, ready to race with the TLR 22 SCT and TLR 22 Buggy
On to the racing:

Round 1

13.5 2WD Pro-Lite

Driver          Laps  RaceTime  Fast Lap
Ernest Palafox    9   5:36.951   35.607
Dean Vuckovich    8   5:02.931   36.135
Frank Lilly       8   5:37.313   38.538

17.5 Sportsman 2WD Buggy

Driver          Laps  RaceTime  Fast Lap
Dean Vuckovich    9   5:29.836   34.953
Ryan Hackl        8   5:14.446   38.143
Frank Lilly       8   5:22.592   37.448


Round 2


13.5 2WD Pro-Lite

Driver          Laps  RaceTime  Fast Lap
Ernest Palafox    8   5:01.476   35.792
Dean Vuckovich    8   5:00.276   36.424
Frank Lilly       8   5:35.737   37.975



17.5 Sportsman 2WD Buggy

Driver          Laps  RaceTime  Fast Lap
Dean Vuckovich    9   5:22.657   34.506
Ryan Hackl        8   5:09.914   37.374
Frank Lilly       8   5:18.608   37.772



Mains

13.5 2WD Pro-Lite

For the Pro-Lite class I qualified in the D-Main, and would be starting in 2nd place.











For a D-Main race, this had to be the funnest round I have had in the series so far.  The truck felt amazing, I made some further cutouts in the body, and added some more weight to the front  and the kiting was gone. I started the race in 2nd place, after the first lap I was in 1st place and feeling good, I small wreck, and on lap two I crossed the line in 2nd place, back to where I started.  In lap 3, I had a brain fart, and wrecked off the triple and then again off twice more in the same lap, knocking down to last place.  But this is where is got fun, the truck just took off, and the I was doing some of the best driving I have done all year, within 3 more laps I was back into first place, another slight tumble on the last lap and I finished the race in 2nd place, and earning a bump into the C-Main.
















For the C-Main I did not do as good I wanted, and was not sure what happened, I started in 10th and finished in 10th, and I swear I wrecked on every jump and probably hit everyone at least once in the race.  Below are the rest of the Pro-Lite Mains.


















For the Pro-Lite class, I ended up finishing in 22nd overall, which was an improvement for me, I finished in 28th place overall last year in the KBRL for Pro-Lite.  Next year I hope to be in the teens or even to top 10.

17.5 Sportsman 2WD Buggy

For the buggy, I qualified for the B-Main, and would be starting in 5th place.  The race started out okay, but after the 1st lap, the car just would not turn to the right very well, and on the 4th lap after coming off the table top before the front straight-away something happened to the steering, when I cam flying down the front straight, and came across the start finish line, the buggy would not turn at all, and I almost went straight into the wall.  I pulled the buggy from the track, and the steering was locked and would not move.  There was a rock jammed up inside, and after removing the rock I was able to rejoin the race.  Unfortunately, at this time I was already 2 laps down.  I was able to finish the race, and ended up pulling 7 laps.

Below are the Mains for the Buggy class.












.

For the buggy, this was the first year that I raced it.  I ended up finishing in 8th place overall, and it was great to finish in the top 10.  Next year I want to shoot for top 5 or even top 3.

Below are some of the pictures I took during the day.

Ernest on the left and Dean on the right

Me ready for some racing

Dean showing off his Kyosho colors

Dean's black stadium truck

Ryan on the left and Tom on the right working hard in the pits


Practice for KRBL finals at SRS - HobbyTown

Saturday, December 29th, 2012


I missed round 6 of the KBRL which was held at HobbyTown in Tucson, which I am very bummed about.  That would have been a huge points day for me, but unfortunately, it couldn't be helped.  I dropped two spots in the points from 7th place down to 9th place in the 17.5 Buggy class.  So this Saturday, I decided to get in some extra practice for the finals, which will be held at SRS - HobbyTown in Scottsdale, Az.  I still may be able to break into the top 5 if I can do well at the finals.

On to the racing:

17.5 Buggy - Round 1



17.5 Buggy - Round 2



17.5 Buggy - A-Main


Weather playing havoc again with KBRL, round 6 rescheduled

Friday December 14th, 2012

Looks like the weather once again is playing havoc with another round of racing in the KBRL series.  Because of the amount of rain that was received in the Tuscon area Thursday and Friday, HobbyTown Tuscon decided that their track would not be ready for racing on Saturday.

So Kenny (KBRL) has rescheduled with HobbyTown to hold the race next Saturday, December 22nd.  There has been a few grumbling on the forums (RCTech.net) about this decision, but I fully support it.  I feel it would better to have the race in good weather, and I feel it will be more fun for everyone involved.  Just my 2 cents.

Looking forward to next Saturday, hope everyone can make it!!!!!!!