FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

I hope we can get some flight video from a one or more of the maiden flights! (Beg, plead, grovel!)

TomCrump

There should be some more flight reports soon.

My buddy assembled his in 5 hours, much of which was epoxy cure time. These are surely more in the air than just his.

Bcolici

Some video would be nice!

SIGPlanes

We are starting to get the T-Clips 70 ARF maiden flight reports and pictures posted on our Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/#!/SigPlanes

We agree...some video would be nice!

acdii

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5PMwIZ10dE&list=UUHE8UwXC4TW4e7Paxm9aXUA
What a sweet flying plane. I have 3 flights on it so far, only one little mishap due tot he south winds getting under the left wing and flipping it over. I will need to remove the wheel pants though, they are too small for the grass field and already showing cracks from the couple of nose overs I did. First take off attempt I had too much down elevator, so as soon as the tail came up it nosed it right over. Gave it a few clicks of up, and then the next take off roll was nice and level, but as son as the wheels got off the ground the wind got under the left wing and it spun around and plopped on its nose( I think this is what cracked the pants). Third attempt you can see in the video. Rudder is a bit touchy, but this plane just leaps off the ground. That was at half throttle with the FG-11. My second and third flights were much smoother on take off, but the landings on all three were very nice. The last one came in a bit hot though, so it bounced, and nosed over when it landed after the bounce. Ground handling with the pants on in grass I found it hang a couple times, which I think attributed to the nose over on the last landing, so going to remove the pants for future flights. I did some loops and rolls and upside down and this plane flies very nice, once the engine is broken in I bet it will be a blast to do tricks with.

sawdust

My Feedback: (7)

Has anyone put an OS 70 4s on this plane? I am trying to decide on how to power my T-Clip. Will the OS 70 run well inverted? Todd

acdii

Should be a perfect match for this plane. The FG-11 I have is based on a FA-62 case which is smaller than the OS-70, so I had to modify the way it mounted. The Magnum 91 and Saito 100 both dropped right onto the mounts. As far as weight goes, the FG-11 weighs the same as the FA-100, and I added no dead weight to balance it, so the 70 should come out pretty much the same. I flew it on a 13x8 APC.

Iunnrais

Looks like I've at least another week to wait before mine arrives. Called the LHS today and while he had an invoice showing shipped, when the shipment arrived, no T-Clips. He called his supplier and found the shipped status was in error and they were out of stock. :/

acdii

When someone asks what would be a good second plane, This is the one to recommend. It has great low speed handling, yet can tumble all over the sky. I actually stopped the plane in midair last night. There was practically no wind, and I idled down and held the plane level and it was stuck in one spot in the sky, what a sight to see. Kicked up the power and off it went. Landings are nice and smooth, holds track very well and touches down nice and smooth. The only thing I am having some trouble with are take offs, however I think its due to the wheel pants dragging in the grass. it's a little squirrely going down the runway, it will hold track, then turn nose, so it wiggles its Arse going down the runway. I may pull the pants off and see if that helps, but other than that a great flyer. I did notice that if you pull up 45* on low power it will drop a wing, which makes it interesting.

TomCrump

I don't think that I can agree with your assessment of the T-Clips being a good second plane. I feel that it is far too responsive.

It's an excellent airframe, but not for low time pilots.In their limited time on the market, I've already repaired two.

Bcolici

[/QUOTE]so it wiggles its Arse going down the runway. I may pull the pants off and see if that help.[/QUOTE]
This doesn't t sound right. Sorry I couldnt resist. Lol
Glad to hear she flies well. Mine will probably be here for xmas. Im starting another project soon that I opted for instead.

acdii

Thats what Rate and Expo is for. Soften the sticks and its docile. Go full throws and yes, Wild one! If you trained on a Kadet, and have a lot of flights on one, then this would be a good step up from it. If I had to choose between a 4* and this, I will take this.

TomCrump

Let's agree to disagree.

Iunnrais

Mine finally arrived yesterday. Looking very good out of the box. I've got epoxy on the tail feathers setting up now (slooooow cure - west systems as I have it on hand). Figure maybe maiden her in the next week or two depending on weather and work. Plane has a nice amount of room to work inside and has gone together quite nicely so far.

acdii

Maybe a "second" plane if you are really good at the first one. I did find two things that make it not so user friendly. Since I fly off grass, the wheel pants make ground handling and taking off a chore. Just when you think you have it heading straight down the runway, one wheel or the other may catch a clump and veer the plane off in a different direction. This happened to me on my last flight, and that is when I discovered #2, If you take off with just enough speed to fly level, but not enough to climb, it will stall quickly, and drop a wing. I had two choices, ram into the soybeans head on, or pull up and climb over, well I chose the climb over, and it cleared, and before I could level off, dropped the left wing. I cut the engine, leveled off and let the soybeans act like a net, so she sat nice and neat on top of the beans. No damage except to my pride. Pretty sure had I just cut throttle and tried to not hit the beans head on, I would have cracked something.

In the LT-40, when you climb out with not enough speed, it just hangs there and slowly drops the nose, so I can see why you would not suggest it as a "second" plane.

Two things I am going to do, pull the pants off, and see if that helps with keeping it straight on take off, and put a different prop on, the one I have on it now is just a hair more than the engine calls for being a 13X8 instead of 13x7. Going to switch to a 12x8 to see if I can get a bit more out of it.


However once up in the air and has speed, it is a really stable plane, my low level passes are rock solid, and I can see just how much stick translates to movement when it flies by, just a touch up and I can see the nose come up, and just a touch rudder or aileron and I can see the movement, unlike the LT-40. Really enjoying this plane, far more than I ever expected. I am so comfortable with it, I am a foot off the ground at full throttle with it.

The FG-11 is slowly breaking in, I noticed my idle is climbing, which made the last two landings HOT. I had to keep trying the final until I got far enough out after chopping throttle to slow down enough for a decent landing, as I didn't want to have a nose over by touching too fast and having the pants catch something. I had to adjust the trim setting on the radio to slow it down some more. It started out with a 2600 idle on the first tank, and crept up to 3600 with the trim all the way down. I got into the sub trim screen on my Futaba and was able to bring the idle back down to 2400 or so.

Last time out I didn't even bother pulling out my other planes, I just grabbed this one and the wing and closed the car. With it being able to fly for about an hour on one tank of fuel, and being so much fun, my other planes will collect dust.

Iunnrais

I've found wheel pants to be an issue in general when flying off grass fields.

On my four *, a grass field landing normally includes a round of epoxy to reattach the plywood panel on the plane's belly (she's been "well loved" over the past 8 years and her wheel pants are built like tanks). On my others, it normally means either a nose over or a nose over and repairs to a damaged wheel pant. I've not had a trike landing gear in my inventory since my daughter killed my trainer on her first flight.

Luckily, my primary field is paved so I don't think I'll see that particular issue show up. I'm going to start off with a 3 blade 14x7 prop on my Saito 100. I'm not anticipating too much issue with lack of speed overall. I will make sure to note that it likes to drop a wing though. I lost my first warbird to a tip stall once upon a time. Doesn't look like a maiden flight is in the near future here. I'm on call this weekend and there are thunderstorms in the area that are predicted to hang around at least through Monday. I'm down to just adding in a throttle cable, cutting the cowl and figuring out how much lead needs to go into the tail to balance that engine

acdii

Move your battery as far back as you can, along with the RX. The 100 weighs in at about the same as the FG-11 with the module. I put the module at COG, and use a 2500 mah Life with dual leads. I haven't put the cowl on, and it comes in at about 2 ounces, so I will need to add some dead weight to counter it. Right now I am flying without the cowl until the engine is broken in, and I want to put a 90* adapter to put the muffler on the bottom and not out the side, fewer holes in the cowl. I have also had bad luck after putting on a cowl, both planes that I put cowls on I crashed the first flight afterwards. The 100 will work fine with the stock mounts too, but I dont know about using a 3 blade prop, it takes a bit to get this plane up to speed. Will be interested in how it does, I have one sitting on a shelf that came with the 100 GK I have.

Iunnrais

Well, the engine came out of a fat heavy P-40 (pneumatic retracts) and that was the prop that flew it (actually the spare). Seemed to have plenty of oomph back in the day. I've got some wooden 2 blade props if need be. 15x6 from when I did the original engine break in.

My T-Clips weighs in at 6lbs 15.2 oz dry with cowl (uncut) which is a couple pounds lighter than the war bird. Expecting her to be slightly more friendly to fly.

About 4 oz on the tail is what the balance rig says to get her level (3.5" back from LE) with the cowl sitting in place and all of the equipment locked in. I've got the battery back as far as I can without opening up the covering. Looks like figuring out the final balance will be next on the agenda. I did swap out for a turboheader on her. The deflector isn't on yet but will be before I fire it up. I'll want to run a tank or two through it on the ground to make sure its happy. I'll miss the Keleo exhaust I had for the P-40, but somehow I doubt I'll miss the mess it made of both sides of the plane.

TomCrump

All of my glow and gas engines are cowled. Properly vented, they're should be no problems when using the cowl.

acdii

I'm not concerned over cooling, the FG-11 doesn't prime itself just yet, and will still need fine tuning, so the cowl stays off until then. Lunn, is that weight before or after balancing? Its just an ounce shy of mine. Mine came out at just a hair over 7 pounds, balanced.

Iunnrais

Hi acdii, That weight is before balancing. I don't really want ~4oz of dead weight hanging out on the exterior of the plane. Since I'll need to open the tail anyway, I'll see where the battery needs to go (2100mah life) and work on moving it further back before I think about internalizing any dead weight.

Cowl on mine will be staying off a bit for similar reasons. The engine has been sitting on a shelf for a good bit. While it looks & feels OK (it had a nice dose of corrosion x before going into storage), I expect that it will have some tuning issues before it is to a point where I am comfortable hiding it within a cowl.

acdii

Still contemplating whether to get a 90* adapter or a Turboheader for it. Being its gas, will there be any benefit to it.

Iunnrais

Got mine balanced with cowl on the nose and battery moved way back in the tail. Only additional weight needed was the triangle stock, lite ply and velcro + velcro straps to build a little battery tray sitting lengthwise between two frames.

deanz406

My Feedback: (28)

Hi Gentlemen- Well, I bought mine on the pre-order deal, and it arrived in mid Aug as scheduled. I haven't done anything with mine yet, as 2 other members also bought one, and 1 was going with electric power, and the other member was going with glow power. I thought I'd wait and see how their planes faired before i decided on power. I definitely am more in favor of glow power, vs electric, as i like to fly for 15-20 min at a time. 1 member Greg was the 1st to complete his, using an Eflite power 32 motor, 75A ESC, and I think a 4S, 4000 pack. This combo performed very nicely, and was plenty of power to do everything he wanted. We are also flying off grass field, but our parks maintenance people keep it cropped very short for us. Th plane tracked straight and true down the runway with little rudder input, and Greg didn't horse it off the ground, rather let it fly itself off. He only used about 3/4 throttle, and the climbout was impressive to say the least. He did a bunch of maneuvers after a minor trim adjustment, and it is rock stable at cruise speed. I think he flew for 13 min on that battery pack, and came in for a picture perfect landing. No issues with wheel pants, or handling in the grass.
Our 2nd membe just finished his, and came to the field this past weekend. He put an OS 61FX 2 stroke in his, and did the inverted installation as suggested in the Sig instruction manual. With some doubts about issues with inverted 2 strokes, and fuel fouling of the plug, he opted for an on board glow ignitor. He had our club test pilot check it all out, and proceeded for maiden flight. He powered up to about 1/2 throttle, and the plane tracked down the runway smoothly and lifted off nicely, and with a minor trim adjustment, flew perfectlt level. Adding full power, the plane rocketed upward, and was almost ought of sight when he powered back. It performed every maneuver flawlessly, and was fun to watch. The landing was also smooth, coming in with only a touch of power. I think that anything more than a .70-.80 4 stroke is just overkill, and going to a 15-20CC gasser is just way too much. I think that the torque of a 4 stroke is what makes these planes squirrely on the ground, and why so much more rudder is needed to keep them straight. After watching both setups, I decided I'm going to stay with glow for mine, and at 7lbs, I decided that I'm going to power mine with an OS 46AX that I have. The one with the OS 61FX cruised nicely with only 1/4 throttle, so I'm not going to overpower mine, as I fly more scale, and I think it will do everything I want with the .46. If it needs more power, I have plenty of motors that I can step up to. I'll post a few pics of my assembly and motor setup when I get it unboxed. Thanks for the thread, and ur inputs, and any suggestions u may have. Dean

TomCrump

Dean

I admire your decision to not over power your T-Clips, as seems to be the trend. Let us know if you are satisfied with your results.

Thanks for the info on the Power 32. I have a similar sized motor in my smaller Clips. It's more than it needs, for sure.