FT Bushwacker - Essential Mods/Cub Style Upgrades

Hi everyone!

  I've been flying and crashing Bushwackers for over a year now, and have scratch built about 10 of them so far.  I've seen a lot of really good tips spread out through the forums, so I thought I'd share some of the essential modifications in one article, as well as what you can do to add a steerable tail wheel and a few Piper Cub inspired tweaks.  I've also been able to install a 10 dollar cheap set of LED navigation lights that really bring this great flying plane to life!  The general assembly process doesn't change much, so be sure to watch Peter and Josh's build video if you haven't already.

- Upgraded Parts List - 

• 3/16" diameter wooden dowels (used in place of BBQ skewers; except for power pod lock)
• 3/16" steel wire (for the landing gear since it doesn't flex as much)
• Jumbo Craft Sticks
• 10mm neodymium (rare earth) magnet (for the battery hatch)
• small pieces of scrap metal or used razor blades (for the magnet to cling to)
• Standard popsicle sticks
• LED Navigation Lights
• Dubro 955 Semi-Scale Tail Wheel System 20-60 size

 To start out, cut out the parts as usual except for the landing gear fairings.  They're slightly different:

FT Bushwacker Double Fairing

 - TAIL MODIFICATIONS - 

In order for the tail wheel to fit, the bottom of the vertical stabilizer that pokes out throught the bottom of the epinage has to be removed  However, I do leave a small area of it near the rudder hinge to help with keying into the fuselage during assembly.  Here's the vertical stab drawn over the original plans so you can see the changes.  You'll need to cut a piece of hobby plywood (or balsa) that will fit inside the bottom plate of the epinage, as well as cut the ends of a craft stick to support the steering bracket on the rudder.

Here's where you can glue in the plywood on the fuselage.  Notice I kept some of the slot for the vertical stab to slide into:

Here's what the tail should look like cut out.  I simply used a compass to draw the round edges of the tail:

You can now assemble the tail as you normally would, but add a popsicle stick to the top of the elevator to keep both sides moving at the same rate.  I also add a BBQ skewer to the leading and trailing edge of the rudder to keep the foam from creasing when you inevitably front fliip the plane on landing!  ;)

Now on to the fuselage and magnetic battery hatch!

- FUSELAGE MODIFICATIONS - 

  Here's where you can really add a bunch of strength to the landing gear.  I had a lot of issues with the gear folding backwards under the fuselage and this pretty much eliminates that!  Using the bottom hole as a guide, glue popsicle sticks on each side, a craft stick over the landing gear reference line (cut to size of course), and a craft stick on each side plate. The craft sticks on the side plates are just above the score cuts to allow them to fit on top of the popsicle sticks on the bottom.  Just be sure they don't interfere with the B-fold during assembly.  I also install the rudder and elevator servo's internally, following Josh B's idea on the FT Mustang.

Lastly, once the wood is glued in, cut out 3 sides of the battery hatch, and score-cut the fourth side somewhere near the craft stick you glued over the landing gear reference mark.  (You can then make a hot-glue hinge like any control surface.)
 Now cut a rectangle of foam a little smaller than the width of the fuselage and stuff some scrap metal or used razor blades into the side of it.  Seal it off with a smear of hot glue for safety.  Then glue only the non-metal side to the bottom of the fuse, covering some of the battery door.  This will act as a stop for the door. 

 I then notch out some foam from the end of the battery door and glue in the magnet.  Finish it off with a folded peice of packing tape to make a pull tab.  I made a small hole in the bottom of the fuselage for the rotating beacon light.

Since you'll be ready to glue in the power pod mounting plate around this time, take a moment to setup your power pod.

- Power Pod Mod's - 

I had some issues with the ESC overheating, so to get it some more air, I mounted it on the outside of the power pod on the right.  There's more room on that side due to the thrust angle built into it.  Just use some good ol' velcro to secure it in place. For increased durability, coat the entire power pod with 3M exteme packing tape (fiberglass reinforced).  I also added a few small peices of foam behind the firewall to keep it from crinkling the foam as easily during a nose dive into the ground. (I've field tested this one a few times and it really does help!)

  The LED nav ligts are not remote controllable out of the box, so I got myself a Turnigy relay switch from HobbyKing and a secondary 2s 500mah lipo for the lights.  Keep both as far forward as you can to help with the CG.  

It would also be a good time to test fit the power pod into the holder and get the BBQ skewers ligned up since it's easier to do outside of the plane.

It's also a good time to go ahead and paint and add graphics before assembling since it's easier to paint flat surfaces.

Now onto the wing....

- WING MODIFICATIONS -

  A few major changes here are the wing tips, which are rounded off to look more like a Piper Cub, wiring up the nav lights, adding two dowels to the wing spar (you can also use a carbon fiber arrow shaft from the sporting goods section at Walmart, but I'm cheap), and adding foam shims to cover the flap servos for a cleaner look.  For the nav lights, I pressed the wires into the score cuts on the wing to hide them.  The included wire length in this set is EXACTLY long enough for the controller to fit centered on the wing.  So I had to cut a second hole to fit it in.

The upgraded wing spar:

The wing all wired up.  I cut two holes on the leading edge to fit the landing lights.  I mounted them to a silver colored (litterally with a silver sharpie) "C" shaped piece of posterboard to make reflective lenses, and to hold the bulbs in place. 

Once the wing is folded together and glued up, you'll want to add craft sticks to the top-centerline of the wing at the leading and trailing edges, right where the rubber bands would go.  This keeps them from embedding into the foam.  On the bottom of the wing, I cut double layer peices of foam about 4" wide to fit inside the fuselage.   Be sure to glue these on perfectly centered.  This will help key in the wing when installing it at the field.  And the block of foam at the trailing edge keeps the wing from folding in on itself over time (another common issue found on the forums.)

The completed wing (minus the foam blocks - sorry for the continuity issue):

- LANDING GEAR MODIFICATIONS - 

Starting with the bottom of the fuselage, create a V shaped notch along the bottom of the fuselage and remove the foam right down to the craft stick you installed earlier.  Dump a bunch of hot glue in there and insert the landing gear wire just like you would for the regular build.

Once the glue is set, I cover up the hole with another craft stick just for good measure, although it's probably not necessary.  To glue on the fairings, follow the plans I referenced at the beginning of this artilcle and wrap them around the landing gear wire as shown.  The little curve on the top edge will help them sit flush against the corner of the fuselage. 

You can now screw on the tail wheel and glue the bracket onto the craft sticks on the rudder.   Final install should look like this:

- FINAL THOUGHTS / SUMMARY -

  Well, that's pretty much it.  I hope you enjoyed reading this article and are inspired to build a tough as nails Bushwacker!  In this article you learned how to give your Bushwacker a Pipe Cub appearance, make a magnetic battery hatch, add a super awesome steerable tail wheel, and beef up the landing gear to handle the hardest landings!

  I would highly recommend searching the forums for LocalFiend's swappable float set as they're a perfect fit for the Bushwacker.  And I'll be working on getting the plans together for the skiis I made in these pictures, so keep an eye out for them.  

Happy Flying Friends!!

Mike Picard