Can this plane land on grass...

[Park]

Just brought this plane and trying to put it together. Last night, I found a line somewhere in the manual says this plane is not for landing on grass. It must landing on a prepared or paved surface.

http://www.e-fliterc.com/Products/ProductGallery.aspx?ProdID=EFL2200

Any suggestion for me please. Should I just change the wheels or else?

[wollins]

Nice plane Park! My brother has the balsa version to it and we'll probably encounter the same potential problem that you're asking about. (We're yet to maiden it) Chances are that landing a plane with as small a set of wheels that this one has (its wheel pants even makes it worse) may cause it to "snag and flip" ... which just means it'll probably nose over on landing unless you get the landing absolutely PERFECT and even so it probably will still tip over.  99% of the time this will present no problem as the plane is too light to do any damage to itself on a flip over. []

However that "manouver" doesn't look too "scale" ... but nor does some humongous wheels either! [] Best advice I'd give is do what my brother did.  Leave the pants off ... and up the size of wheels just a tad.  You probably have 1 to 1 1/4 inch wheels ... I'd go up to 1 1/2. But honestly ... its not a big deal ... chances are it'll flip anyways.  Anything below TWO inch wheels in my experience tend to do so and TWO inch wheels will look rather odd on such a small plane. (Depending on the style/type of wheels of course)

Bottom line?  It's no biggee .. even if it does "flip" from time to time! [] Just enjoy your Cessna!

Colin.

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Three things are certain ... Death, Taxes and CRASHIN'!

[Park]

Thanks Colin.

I'll definitely going to get a bigger set of wheels.

For a newbie like me, flipping during landing is what I expected. [:I]Nose down, no problem, just hope I won't crash my Cessna all the way from the top. [:0]

Will see you & your bother soon at the field side.

Park.

[rkhoo]

My Cessna 182 comes with a beautiful tri-gear on wheel pants.  

However, it tip-over way too often on landing.  I followed the Collin brothers, remove its pants (not yours and replace the 1 inch wheels with a 2-inch GWS foam wheels.  Boy this place used to look scale, now its like it came from the toonie world.

Another note to be aware of.  Note the clearance between the bottom of prop and grass.  Too little will make Rise-Off-Grass impossible.

Prop-saver 'saved' my prop and motor many times.  Use it.

[Park]

Okay. Beside the wheels I got another problem.

I tried to glue the tail to the fuselage with a CA glue which the hobby store guy said it is safe for foam. I did carefully line up wings & tails with help of measuring type. Applied the CA and waited. About 15 mins later I saw gaps between tail & fuselage. Not a problem waited until it dry completely and fix it, right? Wrong, it was after another 15 minutes, I saw two holes on the fuselage. [] What happen Obviously the CA I got is not foam safe... I was very sad and this is my first ever build plane.

The CA glue I have is Zap-O. The label says odorless "no more tears" formula & safe for all hobby foams. What ran wrong? Any help please...

When I saw the "no more tears" slogan, I really wanted to cry...

[rkhoo]

No worry Park, everything is gona be fine.

If your bottle of CA really eat away some foam, wait until it all dry up.  I assume the damage is mostly on the fuse.

Use bamboo skewer and PA glue to recreate the missing foam.  Here's how:

Get a bottle of PA glue (ProBond) from Home Depot or Walmart ($6).

Ge a bootle of Carpenter's wood glue ($4)

Get some bamboo skewer sticks from dollar store or Walmart.

Do not put on any glue yet.  Poke the skewer thru the fuse and the tail fin (Rudder) while aligning.  Remove the skewer.

Mix the PA glue with Carpenter's glue (3:1).  This makes the PA glue to foam up slowly.  You've got about 5 mintues before it starts to set.

Apply glue to rudder and fuse, put them together.

Apply glue to skewer and re-poke it back to the assembly.

Use masking tape to keep everything align. The glue will start foaming and fill in all the holes.  Leave overnight.

When everything dry, use Exacto and sand paper to finish.  Now you have a stronger tail.  Paint as required.

All this will take you less than an hour to do.  No big deal.

Let us know how you fix it.

[Park]

Thanks rkhoo.
I need 2 inches wheels, prop-saver, PA glue,wood glue & bamboo skewer. All those stuff will keep me busy this weekend. []

[Park]

Got 2 inches wheels, pop saver & extra pops. To install the pop saver is easy but to move the motor shaft and to has it extend from the back of the can is not. It took me two hours.
Those 2 inches wheels look okay on my Cessna. I also signed up for the memebership at the hobby shop. I'm a TEMAC member now. []

[Michael]

Welcome aboard!

On Saturday, there may not be so many people flying at TEMAC because there is a funfly in Oakville, however, I would think that by 11am on Sunday, flyers should be at TEMAC.

Michael

[Park]

Thanks Micheal for letting me know. I'm not going to fly at the field righaway. I believe most of time I'll just talking, even I go visit the field. I should no harm to anyone. []

[piker]

Park,

It will be great to have you as a fellow TEMAC flyer.

If you can, you should really try to get to the Oakville Fun fly tomorrow.  You'll get to see a lot of great planes and a lot of great flying.  You'll also get to ask all the question you have.  We'll all be there.

See the event listing on the main page of this site.

I hope you can make it.

Robert

[rkhoo]

If you do decide to go to the fun fly, you may bring your kit with you and ask around for tips on setting it up.

I cannot make it to the funfly but I am sure many of us are more than willing to assit you.