its cuby, all tubeing is 4130 with a acid test. the j-3s were never all 4130. the guy my cub was aquired from was converting it to a taylor E-2 20 years ago. they quit the job after cutting off the birdcage and turtledeck. then stuck it in a open shed on the dirt ground for the next 20+ years. he has wings and tail feathers to a E-2 and it sent me on a wild goose chase for a few months. i left the aileron fairleads because i thought they were cool. there was definantly j-3 parts in it however, alot of bolt on parts were mild steel, and the panel and seat and boot cowl looked very 1938
the bellie of the fuse was rotted from sitting in the dirt and requiered alot of patches and new bottom longerons. i ran a bore scope down open tubes and just kept cutting tell i found nothing wrong. i did the PA-11 mod based on a live PA-11 i have access too, extended the cockpit 1 inch over a super cub, and replaced too channels in the birdcage to act as "handles" and to keep them from getting bent too crap like evry other j-3. fabed the L-4 green house from pictures and left out several cross peices that are (probably) unnesesary with modern window material's. added a ski plane handle to the left side of the fuse so the right side dosnt look like a jungle jim and when i get old someone can help me push then shove me into the cockpitt. replaced one landing gear fitting and both wing attach fittings. and added two bars that i understand the aerobat experimental guys did to stock j-3's to make them good for heavy engines up too 180 HP, cant remember where i read/heard this though. structurally there very comforting anyways. they tie the "V" brace into the bottom motor mounts.
not useng the plain wood stringers, it just makes it look more finished and reminds me to not wipe off the turtle deck with air lines...lol
im putting my bathroom scale in my car so i can weigh it tommarow. but i figure it this way. if i always shoot for the lightest and strongest way to put everything I want i my cub then ive done it right regardless of weight and performance. fact is, i'll probably always weigh less then a super cub unless its a butt naked one, i weigh 115 lbs to boot
awsome RC ski's. i built crappy looking wood ones a few years back that work wonderfully. im have a very bad addiction to my RC cubs they started out bone stock and now have over 40 mods from major to minor. instead of the box 6-7 lb mine weigh in at 10 lbs with a 4 stroke .70 on both. 21 once fuel tanks come out too a 1.2 hr endurance if i just cruise. ive had them landing on frozen cow paties and land on gopher mounds regularly, i logged over over 125 hrs this last year. i dont expect wing mods to translate %100. although in my own prgressive moding and testing its amazing what does scale down. a prime example is the "myth" that booster tips leave nastier wake turbulance seemed to be very true when i went from square tips to droop tips then flew through my own wake while circiling, and they improved ground effect stall speed and stability significantly. the VG's improved aileron effectiveness enough to get the standard aileron lnght extended wing all the way through a roll. flap gap seals eliminated slow speed tail buffet. now im running out of rudder at slow speed and this was the one control i thought id never run out of. the next mod is to move the leading edge cuff and stall fence in a rib bay or 2 on $whore
.....i dont own stock wing RC cubs anymore, and dont have any more stupid unreliable two strokes. that set up gets you a 120 mph, loud, fuel wasteing, pain in the but to fly, peice of.......
