cap 230 gallery

Flair CAP230

A long time ago, Antics model shop in Cardiff had a Flair Cap 230 kit, which stayed on the shelf for ages. In the end, they marked it down in a sale, but it still didn't sell. I thought about buying it every time I went in the shop, but I felt that I wasn't a good enough flyer to do it justice. It eventually sold to someone else, and I felt a bit miffed if truth be known.

Imagine my surprise when DW Models in Bridgend had one on the shelf a couple of years later. It had been in stock for a while and little interest had been shown, so Geoff let me have it for a better price than the one on sale in Antics. I got it home, glued the wing panels together, and then got on with the Puppeteer!

Some time later, I returned to the Cap, and decided that I had to get on with it. Note that this model is a kit, not an ARTF. The fuselage sides are simple sheet balsa with diecut liteply doublers, and Ľ square longerons. You have to cut a groove in the fuselage sides to start the taper behind the cockpit, which was a bit odd, but works fine in practice. The front and rear decks are veneered foam, as are the wings, which come with leading and trailing edges already fitted. The plane came together very quickly.

The elevator is driven by an internal horn which has to be fitted with its pushrod etc before closing up the fuselage, which is unlike any model I've built before. Again, this works well in practice although I was careful to select a good clevis for the horn, as you only get one chance.

The cowl comes in two vac moulded ABS halves, and is a tricky assembly job. Luck and patience gave a very nice result. The spats are not so good, and I ended up using the ones from my crashed Somethin' Extra as the supplied items fall way short of acceptable.

The model is covered in Profilm apart from the gold trimlines which are Monokote. The colour scheme is taken from a full size Cap 232 which has been sponsored by Avidyne systems and Reebok. I used the Futaba stickers as I was too cheap to have the scale ones made!

The engine is an Irvine 39. Flair provide a mount which fits a plain bearing 40 such as an OS40LA, but was too narrow for my Irvine 40. I had already drilled the firewall for the mount, so I bought the 39, which fits fine. I bought a Pitts silencer from Just Engines to match. I needed to put the nicad at the back of cockpit to balance the engine.

Futaba 3001s drive the control surfaces, and a 148 works the throttle. I fitted one of my favourite Hitec 555 dual conversion receivers.

So, the day of the test flight came, and there was noone but me to do it. I started the engine, which fired and ran smoothly straight from the off, so rather than put a whole tank full through on the ground, I decided that I might as well fly it. She took off with just a bit of right rudder needed and climbed well. Some clicks of down trim were needed to get straight and level, but rudder and ailerons were fine. The Irvine 39 puts out more power than the 40, and it powers the plane with ease. Loops are as large as you like, and reversals a piece of cake. The roll rate with the factory recommended aileron throw is a bit slow, but the controls are very nicely harmonised. This is a plane that flies exactly where you put it. It will slow down nicely, and appears to have no vices. I really can't understand why two model shops had them on the shelf for so long. Well actually, I can. Most people look at the cost of the kit and think that they can get an ARTF for similar money.

So is it worth buying and building this kit when you can get any number of ARTF Caps? In a word, absolutely. The model is much lighter and stronger than the VMAR efforts I have seen, and even with the covering, glue etc is cheaper overall than the Kyosho offering. It is also unique to me, and doesn't look like all the others out there. Having flown this one, I think the Glens 68" model would be a good bet.

This page was last updated on 21/02/04