STORY OF AN ABANDONED
CULVER CADET
Photo provided by Rizwan Hassan | sriz.hassan@gmail.com
RIZWAN HASSAN (Danville, California) came across an unfinished RC airplane at the Livermore Flying Electrons RC club, abandoned by a family that had lost a loved one and could not carry forward his RC passion and projects. There were no plans or parts—just a wing and a beautifully planked fuselage. Rizwan said that he could not see himself leaving this project at the field, where it would have certainly ended up in the trash bin, so he brought it home.
After some research and help from AMA’s Michael Smith and Greg Prater, it was concluded that the model was a Culver Cadet. Many variations of these aircraft were built starting in 1939, so it was easy to pick the tail section design to finish the project. The Culver Cadet was originally designed for a nitro gas engine, but Rizwan converted it to an electric four-channel aircraft running on a 4S 2,200 mAh battery.
After six months of procrastination and admiration of this build in his garage, Rizwan mustered the courage for a maiden flight. To his surprise, the airplane took off without much effort and was controllable. As he tested the flight characteristics, it was certainly tail heavy, and the dual rate could have used 50% less throw. After 3 minutes of flight, he tried landing it, but 14 mph wind gusting at 18 mph made it quite a challenge.
As Rizwan came to the final touchdown, a southerly gust flipped the airplane upside down and damaged the rudder, but overall, the Culver Cadet survived to fly another day.
“Project accomplished.”
