John C

We qualified a new pilot on fuel planes yesterday with his Kadet. He has flown electrics and has no problems flying. Later in the day he was flying his Kadet when most of both wing panels left the plane and it made like a lawn dart through the trees, pretty much destroying the fuselage although most electronics and engine were OK. I had assembled the plane forhim and we decided on a two piece wing. It had maybe 20 flights on it.

Root cause of the failure appears to be a lack of gluing the spars to the innermost rib.There was almost no adhesive we could see at the upper and lower spar ends or on the rib. The center ribs and hold-down bolt area was still attached to te fuselage. One wing landed on the field, the other is stuck in a tree 40+' off the ground. Hopefully, the weather here today will bring it down.

Had the aluminum wing joiner been epoxied in to make a one-piece wing there would have been no problems. If you have a Kadet Sr. I would make it a one piece wing design to preclude this failure. Darn shame, it's a much better flyer than the Hobbico NexStars he also has (and flew later in the day).

He'll be talking to Sig tomorrow!!!

John C

AncientCityFlyer

I had the same thing happen to my Kadet about 1-1/2 years ago. I had a second pair of wings on the Kadet and converted it to tail dragger. Two flights later coming out of a split s with throttle at 1/4 at the bottom of split s I leveled out and POP, the right wing folded up, with a total loss of the aircraft. Upon inspection I found the same problem, very little glue at the root rid. Called SIG and was told to send pics, which it did. Told them what happened and they said I probably over stressed the airplane. No compensation. Oh well.

tkg

My Feedback: (1)

We had one at our club fold a wing a year or so. Level flight, 3/4 throttle. Both panels broke at the biginning of the ailerons and the break wend forward/inward at a 45 degree angle. They had cut into the rear spar more than 1/2 way  to notch it for the rib ends.

isxism

I am huge into warbirds now, but the Sig Senior Kadet I had was the BEST trainer I ever had. I still have it in my basement. It was sooooo fun to fly!!!!!!! Sorry to hear about the wing mishap. isxism

John C

Sounds like we were not alone, and yes, ityis a wonderful trainer.

JohnC