Piper Cherokee (low wing trainer)

by scottie | September 3, 2014 | (10) Posted in Reviews

Piper Cherokee

Low wing trainer

Wing Span  1195mm

Fuselage  957mm

AUW 1290grams/2.84lbs

E-Power BL2815 Brushless Outrunner Motor 1400KV 

10 x 7 3 blade prop

Tested using a 3s 2200mah


Full function flaps

Elevator

Ailerons

Rudder

Steerable nose wheel

Removable wing

So why a low wing trainer ?? 

Well everyone seems too be building Cubs,high wing trainers or SToL.Personally,Iprefer the low wing look and I wanted a model with decent,robust landing gear capable of withstanding heavy impacts or even crashing.We all need to learn to  land at some point!



Landing gear

Dihedral is perhaps a little steep !

Some pre flight shots

A picture of internal formers

The plane has been designed and built to the same specification as my P51B Mustang,However,this is the original model and true to form has already undergone changes :)

So,how does it fly?

I maidened her on a calm friday night a few weeks back,spent quite a while taxi-ing up and down the car park trying to convince myself I had done everything I could to ensure a successfull maiden.

Each run was getting faster,and each run was consistently running true and straight (least the undercarriage was working !!) Then it was do or die,full flaps and off I went....

1st time,clean lift and a steady climb.The CoG wasn't to bad but as I have found with later flights it has a very large tolerance for positioning the CoG. A couple of circuits round the field and then landed (something I am not very good at by the way ....hence the trainer with under carriage :P )

She has had about 20 or so batteries thru her now,thats possibly about an hours flying and apart from a suspected burnt out rudder/nose wheel servo,she's still good to go.

I kept the wing as simple as possible for the maiden flight,the wing tips are to be rounded on the finished model and servo's shall be removable as per my other builds,for this version they were just hot glued into the bottom of the wing.

A build blog will follow as will plans.

Talking of plans,the 1st set were printed straight from Sketchup and I have been trying several different methods for printing them .......people make this look easy..... My conclusion...I'm missing something because up till now I just couldn't get it right but hopefully,there shall be a set on pdf for you all to try .....soon....hopefully....if you want ;-)

 

The flight footage :-) 

We were still dialing in the CoG so the plane was a little twichy,that and it was windy.You might also notice on the line up for approach,the battery died......oh well !!

http://youtu.be/ncuDRqcm3UE?list=UUyg-G6WBI91yM0O3bvU_4Yg

2nd video shows the plane has the capabilty too perfom basic stunts...loops,rolls etc....

http://youtu.be/ZXAWvswjitQ

Thanks for reading,hope you enjoyed and watch out for the build blog and plans.

Cheers Scottie

 

 

 


COMMENTS

Yogenh on October 4, 2014
You did a great job with this one

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scottie on October 21, 2014
thanks Yogenh
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Yogenh on March 2, 2015
And I would like to have one
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jrvalentin62 on October 4, 2014
Great looking plane. Can't wait to build one. I'd love to try the P51B too. any chance of seeing some plans on that one too. Outstanding craftsmanship.
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scottie on October 21, 2014
thanks,unfortunately the P51 plans will be a while yet,its a complicated build !

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LordVader on October 4, 2014
Another nice build. Did you ever get any plans out for your P 51B Mustang? I would love to build that one too.
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scottie on October 21, 2014
Thanks LordVader,still working out the whole 'how to put plans together' so the P51 is a while off yet,sry.
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#3 on October 5, 2014
I love the cherokee I got my pilots licensce on one 40 years ago I will build one for sure cant wait for the plans thanks so much for sharing and taking the time to post the article
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scottie on October 21, 2014
thanks,yeah I like the cherokee myself,something about the look of it...just looks right to me :)
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Yogenh on October 4, 2014
I know that I will be one that would love the plans for this one. This is one that looks really nice
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81zapper on October 6, 2014
Nice job How do you get such a clean cut on the foam board ?
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scottie on October 21, 2014
thanks.
I think thats a 2 point answer....
1. A very sharp knife and go over the same cut about 2 or 3 times,or use a foamwerks cutter.
2. Use a heavier FB,a denser core gives a much better cut,its stronger,the planes last longer but it is heavier.
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scottie on October 4, 2014
I haven't done any build pictures because there are none,this is a review the build pics will come in the next article along with the plans.
I don't have any means to do in flight footage other than line of sight filming and there is a video of me talking about the plane,I listed the link in the article but thanks for the comment .
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Ultimate_Red on October 4, 2014
3/5 Needs build pictures, in flight footage and if you want just a video talking about it by yourself. Otherwise, the plane looks great!
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Iz@MisterIz.com on October 17, 2014
Hi,

Great looking plane, any update on plans for it? Would love to give this one a try.
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scottie on October 21, 2014
Thanks.
The plans are coming soon,I am currently building another model too test the fit of the plans so it will only be down to the maiden after that.
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jrvalentin62 on November 12, 2014
Looking out for the plans. This will be a great build. P-51 also. knife in hand. Clear Skies, Calm Winds. Cheers
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giovanni08 on April 12, 2015
have you herd back regarding the plans??
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kamil_sz_n on December 17, 2014
Hi
When plans will be available?? :)
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giovanni08 on April 12, 2015
have you herd back regarding the plans??
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giovanni08 on April 5, 2015
Amazing... i was going through the comments in hopes of finding a link that would lead me to the plans but i was not successful.. if plans were completed and shared with the public could you or anyone guide me to them please!
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giovanni08 on April 8, 2015
would you mind sharing the sketchup plans you have designed? pdf format isn't necessary

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jh1985@yahoo.com on August 28, 2015
Any chance you could upload or email a link to your sketchup file for this plane. Id love to make a set of pdf plans for it.

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scottie on August 28, 2015
The plans will be released once I'm happy with the final design,I'm sorry but I'm not releasing the sketch up files for any of my designs.
Cheers.
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judah on January 17, 2024
very cool
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Piper Cherokee (low wing trainer)