Fidy$Trainer

My Feedback: (1)

Is there a section that post mods for the ParkZone Micro Citabria. Specificly a mod to fix the motor. I've already had to replace two engines as the prop shaft keeps breaking off and then need to CA a new prop on. Just getting sick of doing that.

Wheelnut

My Feedback: (81)

Here is what I have done to both my Cessna and Citabria.
Go here to get the motor and gear box combo and graphite prop.
You will need the GWJ 7mm GB w/SS Red
http://bsdmicrorc.com/
You will also need their full river 130mah lipo so it doesn't keep going into low voltage cutoff. Then you will need to pick up some PZ battery leads. They have them in stock sometimes. Just ask.
This set up gave me at least a 50% power boost. just make sure to keep the motor/prop angle the same. I made the angle more straight on my Citabria and it gave it too much up lift. I had to compensate with down elevator adjustment.

Fidy$Trainer

My Feedback: (1)

I'm not sure I want to make that kind of investment. I like the idea of having the additional power but not the idea of chopping the cowl up. Thanks for the post though I really appreciate it. Is this the only option for me? I've heard people getting diffrent bearings and getting an increase in power but havent found the write up yet.

Did the motor combo come with the prop shaft adapter? Or did you have to buy that seprate?

Wheelnut

My Feedback: (81)

Did you look at the link I posted?
Yes it comes with the prop shaft adaptor and the whole motor, gear box, prop shaft combo was only $27.00. Didel 120mm x 90mm Carbon Prop $8.00 and I see they now have a Tenergy 30mah lipo for $12.00.

Just doing bearings isn't going to do much for you. I don't know who came up with that baloney.

After reading your post again, I see that it sounds like your actual problem is hitting the ground nose first. Stop doing that and you won't have this problem anymore and you won't have to spend any money.

But if you want more power, the mod I showed you is the best bang for your buck.

Fidy$Trainer

My Feedback: (1)

lol yes I need to stop hitting the ground and or tree trunk nose first. Or hitting the tree trunk then pavement nose first. I hate when they get in the way. I found the blue version not the GWJ 7mm GB w/SS Red is there a diffrence? http://bsdmicrorc.com/index.php?productID=625 is the blue version?

Wheelnut

My Feedback: (81)

The blue version isn't as fast. They said it was just slightly slower from what I remember.
Also, so you will know, if you get the motor seperate, it will not fit the stock motor mount, and they have larger gears, so even if you did make it fit, the gearing wouldn't be right.

tevans55

Fidy-
On my Citabrias I removed the top of the cowl by cutting the foam around the base of the windshield. Then I removed the motor with a sharp exacto knife cutting the silicone glue. With the motor and mount remove cut the two spikes off the bottom of the mount and reglue the mount in place using GE silicone. Then remove the rubber spinner and fly your plane without it. I have not broken a prop since I did this on all 3 of my Citabrias about eight months ago. The silicone acts like a soft shock absorber without breaking the prop. I also get longer flight times because I'm not spinning the extra weight of the spinner. Then just retape the cowl on the sides of the fuse and you are done.
Tim

Fidy$Trainer

My Feedback: (1)

I'm going to wait till the the PZ Sukoi comes out and get the 8mm motor and a couple of 110mamp batts when there available. It should be a hoot. For now I straightend out the prop shaft and removed the spinner it seems to be OK but not nearly as good as it used to be.

tevans55

Fidy-
I found that the proper amount of GE silicone offsets the loss of the weight of the spinner. It does make the plane more manueverable, particularly for loops. That Sukoi does look like fun!
Tim

speedemall

I got my Citabria two days ago and I wanted more run time so I bought an E flite 3.7v 110 mah batt. The charger that came with the plane does'nt seem to charge this battery very well as I have the same prop speed from mid to full throttle. Is the charger only made to charge the 70mah pack?? I though I would be fine seeing as they are both 3.7v and its obvious the 110 would take longer to charge its just that the power is not what I got from the 70 mah pack, Like it lacks voltage but has plenty of run time.

tevans55

Speedemall-
What I did to remedy this situation is order a battery harness for the Citabria and inserted the ends into my Hobbico Accu-cycle Elite. I just squeezed the wire ends between the jack plug and the appropriate hole in the charger. I then selected lipo setting and 130ma charge and start the charge. My charger gives me a warning but if you hit the charge button one more time it will fully charge a 110 ma or 130ma battery. I have been doing this for more than a year with about 6 batteries and it works great in about 36 minutes.

speedemall

yes TEVANS since I last posted I got a harness and now charge the batteries on my Hyperion works great

Fidy$Trainer

My Feedback: (1)

Ok Well I've been busy on the Citabria. I love the floaty slow flyer properties of my Citabria in my front yard. So hear is what I did. I took an AR6400 reciver and swaped it out and connected it to my DX7. I then took the 8.5mm motor and prop and did a motor swap on my sukhoi to the citabria. Are you starting to druel yet? Well don't becasue my findings are dissapointing. I also made a flat wing in the picture. Not sure why I guess I was extremely bored. Now if the plane flew well on the upgraded power plant and reciver my next upgrade would have been to make ailerons. But I was fairly dissapointed in the performance so I ditched everything and put stock brick and motor back in. Oh I also upgraded the battery to 130mAmp 1S terengy. That was probably the best upgrade of all of it.

Here were the list of mods:
1) Sukhoi 26m Motor transplant. Fits great. I had to trim a little notch in the cowl but if you do it right and just hollow out the inside ridge of the cowl so it doesnt rub you don't even need to cut a slot. Kind of reminds me of a blower hood with the slot hardly noticable.
2) Landing gear of Sukhoi. I didn't need it and wasnt using it besides the prop is huge and u need to replace stock gear with this one .
3) AR6400 Brick transplant.
4) Flat wing (useless)
5) 130mamp battery (make sure to move battery a little farther back to adjust for CG.

Here are the problems I experienced.
1) Flat wing sucked couldnt really get it to fly well at all.
2) Stock wing was much better still very floaty but much faster.
3) When you put the AR6400 in. I had throttle and rudder on the left stick. Sucks very hard to control on 3Channel. I couldnt figure out how to put throttle only on left stick and rudder / elevator on right stick. I might have changed my mind if I had figured this out.
4) Power of the Sukhoi motor was definatly noticable. Much more power. Problem was plane always wanted to pitch up. So I don't think I angled motor properly when I hot glued it in. I' think if I could have gotton the right thrust angle i would have been much happier.


Overall impressions. I belive I rushed this build slightly. If anything I would do the motor and battery and landing gear transplant again. I would just need to work out the thrust angle on the motor so it doesnt pitch up. I like the idea of having all my planes on on radio. But flying 3channel with rudder and throttle on left stick is very hard to get used too. I didnt want to put the time to learn. Besides why the heck would I want to fly the citbria when I could be flying the sukhoi That's a good question because I cant fly the sukhoi in my front or back yard to many trees and to fast not enough space. :-(

Wheelnut

My Feedback: (81)

Nice job.
I was out flying my Citabria biplane today. I have some slight tweaking to do to it. Luckily, when I put the motor in, I didn't glue it in that much so I can make changes to the motor angle pretty easy. I may try out the sukhoi motor out if this BSD motor upgrade ever burns out. will have to see which one cost less, because the BSD motor I have is pretty fast also.

Fidy$Trainer

My Feedback: (1)

I havent put a watt meter nor do I know how to measure thrust but the Sukhoi motor is 8.5mm I think the one your using is 7mm pager motor big diffrence in size. The Sukhoi swings a huge prop too. I didnt have any smaller props but I bet if I put a smaller prop with more pitch it would be a real screamer. The Sukhoi motor i think is also cheaper. 11.99 plus I think $5 for the gear box. I'm sure it's a little heavier though. We could do some speed runs if your ever in Atlanta lol.

I love the bipe. I think It will be way to slow on stock setup. Will see though. I guess I could use my flat wing to make a mod similar to yours and convert it into a bipe. How does it fly. What did you use for the post?

Wheelnut

My Feedback: (81)

Come on over and check it out.
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_89...tm.htm#8982816

For this being a bi-plane setup, it is plenty fast, even a little too fast. I only run it on 1/2 to 2/3 throttle most of the time. I have done the same conversion to my Cessna 210 and it screams with the smaller wing.
I used some bi-wing braces off an older project that has since been parted out. Here is a pic of the old plane. and my Cessna with the same mod from BSD. They didn't have the sukhoi back when I did these mods.