M12plyby

Great to hear about your waco. I have a couple questions for u or who ever else. This is my first biplane ive put together how do u set the incidence, and method did u use to balance your waco.

mga

I balanced it exactly as per instructions. I put a tape on the tips and my wife and I hold it up to check the cg. Re the incidence, the bottom wing and stab and engine are all at O incidence, and I put one degree of negative incidence on the top wing. It gives you a little less lift but inverted you need much less down elevator to keep the plane level. I hope this help. Oh, If you take the hatch off put a levev on the edge of the opening and bring up your plane to zero level. you will see that the wing and stab are at O. then do what I mentioned on the top wing.

M12plyby

thanks for the help. one more thing the instructions dont really say how to mount ther cowl to the blocks, what method did u use for mounting

mga

What I first did was measure the depth of were I wanted the spinner. Then I take a strip of masking tape and tape the side of the fuse and bring the tape to the block. There I put a pen mark where I want the hole to be drilled. pull back the tape just past where the cowl sits. position the cowl where I want it. Bring back that strip in the staight line and drill through the cowl and the block. Do that on all five blocks. I think I added the top one. Then I get the small nylon screws and tap the block for the size you buy and that is it. The cowling will never come loose with those nylon screws. Hope you can understand what I described. as it is an old modelers way of doing it. It is very accurate.

M12plyby

so u jus drilled the nylon bolts straight into the wood blocks with out a blind nut?

mga

yes, that is the whole idea, you tap the wood blocks and the nylon bolts, make a nice fit a tight fit. I have never had one come loose. I have it on my Edge, on my Yak and the Waco. Also if you don't want them to show paint them the color of the cowling. I did not bother doing that. Just make sure you have the right tap. dirll a hole on a spare piece ow wood then tap it, and try the nylon bolt first before you attempt the blocks on the cowling.

Birddog-RCU

My Feedback: (62)

I just wanted to note that I finally got my replacement CF gear mounted and boy do they look geat! Pictures to follow soon. Great product Ken! [8D]

mga

I use the B&B reinforcement gear kit that Bennit sells. I have over 300 flights on the Waco, and there is not an inch of bend. I have had a few hard landings and the reinforcement holds the aluminum landing gear nice and straight. Plus very easy to install. I hope you can make out the rod with the four attachments on each side of the landing gear. I painted the rod and the B&B reinforcements same colour.

ohforester

I have followed this post for the last 2 years and have been flying the Kangke Waco for 6 months. Love the plane and all of its chararistics. This thread has been very helpful and I feel the need to contribute back. The first issue I had was breaking in the Saito R-3. I have run 2 gallons thru it and it still drops out the 4 oclock cyl ocassionally with on board glow @ 1/3 throttle. I believe I remember a post where someone said they had to run 6 gallons until the saito broke in on all three. 2nd issue was the main LG.
I used the 1/4 piano wire reinforcements on the stock gear and found them way to stiff. My solution was to scrape the stock LG and reinforcements and I found a nylon gear made by Tetherite for up to 22 lb. planes. They call these "spyder legs" for profiles and they are made to be wimpy for rough landings in the smaller sizes but the 22lb. model, the largest that they make, works great on the Kangke WACO. No bounce! Great dampening on hard landings, Wider stance , hold paint well and about 2 higher prop clearance. all Good in my book. I highly recommend. Ray at tetherite plastic in TX can be reached at [email protected] or (281)-488-3993.
Well I can't find any other issues and everything about this plane is good. If you want lots of power you should go with a 40cc motor as recommended in the protype. The R-3 1.70 at 2 hp flys this plane scale but is marginal in strong wind. I set the incidence @ 1 degree positive. Maybe I have too much drag but the plane slows down very nicely for landings. Other recommended stuff I used was the Keleo exhaust ring, carbon fiber and titanium control rods from Central Hobbies, and the Jimmy Franklin graphix that is described and show in this thread. If you like 1/4 scale bipes look this one over. Its well built, nicely covered, flies well and looks good. Thanks Kangke. Now my job is to keep it intact and you all know how difficult at times that can be! OH!, does anyone know the sourcing of wing bags for this plane? I see where Wingtote is coming out with some but not available as of 10-18-06 Thanks to all!

mga

Glad all went well with your Waco. With the engine you are using, I see that with the 1 degree positive incidence you did the right thing. As I guess you will not be flying it inverted very often. But with that amount of incidence make sure your nose is not up too much or she will stall. Me with the 40cc I fly her inverted for at least 1/4 of the flight. so having 1 degree negative on the top wing makes my life easier inverted, and I can land with tail down and nose up without stalling.
As you are aware that I have hundreds of flights on mine, the only problem I am having is the strut bolts that hold the wing, some of them have begun to strip, and the result has been they hold no more. I will have to open up the wing this winter, and put in some new blind nuts. I am still flying the plane but no more snaps and high torque manuvers.
In my case the B&B landing gear reinforcements have worked great. I did not have the problem of bouncing. I know I do not have the original wheels, so maybe that is why my does not bounce. Like I said over 400 flights and counting.
This is the plane to go to after the Great Planes Super Stearman.
Also you will notice when you go to different clubs with it, you will be the star of the day. For some reason, nobody has seen the plane, so it is a very popular plane at the fun flys.
Have you any pics of your Waco in flight or close ups of the landing gear. Would be nice to see.
Thanks for your report.

dingo9882

Hey guys! I have just started building my Waco and I have a stupid question for you guys. What length servo extentions are you using? I am putting in the 4 aileron servo setup and putting the elevator servos in the tail. I will be using JR servos too with Heavy duty extentions but I am not sure what lengths I should buy and the amount I should buy.

geebeeR1

Im using 12" twisted 20 awg extensions and two Hitec 5645s for the ailerons, but the upper wing sevo extensions need to be probably twice that. Im still building mine, but youve probably flown yours by now!

dingo9882

Yeah...actually I only used 18 inch Hobbico JR extentions. They worked great because they weren't too long or too short for the top and bottom wings. Just so that you know..this plane flies great.

Varmintmaster

My Feedback: (5)

Check out my ad on the For Sale page, yes she has to go and she never left the ground........Divorce has it's ups and it's downs.........All the info is listed and for the dollar amount it is a great buy............

mga

I know you are all going to find this silly, but I lost my manual for the Waco, I put it away for the winter, and now I have installed a smoke system. I want to make sure of the cg location, and I have no markings on the plane. I had tape at the beginning but took it off. can someone tell me the location of the cg.
Thanks

mga

I found it, 3 1/2 to 4 1/2,

geebeeR1

I have been really enjoying my waco!!!!

I have been wanting to put post a few words on here that may help others as well as feedback to me.

1) My Saito 180 fits perfectly inverted in the cowl using the predrilled saito metal motor mount and a slimline muffler. the mounts expensive for a mount.. but its worth it to me. Im running a jomar on-board glo and a perry osc pump with a sullivan 20 oz tank right behind a 1400 mah sr battery pack. the only problem i have it the plane goes lean inverted and i havent figured out whats wrong. I knew the tanks probably high... but i was hoping the pump would resolve that. i dont know what to do about it... except trying to increase the pump screw and fly it rich. any ideas anyone?

2) I never used the stock metal gear after reading all the posts and bending the gear by hand. my plane weighs about 16 punds w/smoke. I went with a carbon fiber gear from Ken at [email protected]. It looks great and hot rodded up. After fighting the dreaded death bounce on landing... I moved the gear back by one pair of holes and drilled 2 new holes backed up by plywood. lands great now and havent nosed over yet. (knock on a 15 dollar prop wood)

3) Im running a sullivan smoke writer pump (w/6.0 300 mah pack) which has failed me twice so far.... but sullivan has been good at replacing them. Im using std super dry smoke oil. i cant see where i need to shock mount the pump. so far so good on my last pump tho. im using a 16 oz hayes tank on rails above the servos since i dont have room anywhere else up front for the tank.

4) The round ends of the elevators are easily damaged in transit (or getting thru a door lol) If you twist the elevator youll notice theyre not gusseted and easily twist at the joints. i think the elevator framework is weakly designed so I tore off the covering an gusseted the elevators up... and now feel much better.


Ive got lots of other thots about the plane but those 4 above are my biggest issues Im dealing with. I love the plane tho... its maybe not 3d... but its a hot rod golden age bipe...and smoke on it makes flying it like an airshow at the club field.

ramduster

My Feedback: (2)

What do you guys think about a Evolution 26cc gas engine on the waco. My waco has been out of service for some time now because of problems with the US 41 that I had on it and I have a Evolution 26cc that needs a home so what do you think.

soarrich

My Feedback: (98)

It would fly it, but it wouldn't have an excess of power, probably very normal scale bipe like, NOT like Franklin's WACO for that you need a 40~50cc motor.

ramduster

My Feedback: (2)

Kind of what I was thinking but Evolutiont has got to have about the same power as the old US 41 I had on the plane but 2 or more pounds lighter so performance could be better.

soarrich

My Feedback: (98)

I'm flying mine with a Saito 170R3 so the power is about the same as a gasser 26. I enjoy flying it, but it's not 3Ding. Come to think of it that's probably why I still have it!

ramduster

My Feedback: (2)

I know what you are talking about. 3D and the Waco just do not go together.

dingo9882

Hey guys, I need a little help here. I just had a mishap with my Waco and I was wondering about what kind of wood the Waco is made of. Now, what I mean about that is what are the stringers made of? Are they a hard grain of balsa are is it not balsa at all but another form of wood? Anything would be greatly appriated because I absolutly love the way this plane flys.

voyager_663rd

Kinda old thread but:

Are these still being produced or have they been discontinued? I see lots available in usual online outlets but wonder if they were just clearing out old stock.

Thanks for any input.

Twin_Flyer

My Feedback: (4)

Kangke is still around as well as the Waco!

http://www.kangkeusa.com/superkraft.htm
http://www.kangkeusa.com/Super_Kraft/waco_upf7.htm

I did receive a mailaing from them about a month ago with a xmas sale. Looked like several of the smaller models were being moved out.

Bill