SeamusG

All SIG - LT 40 with a SIG42" float. The float would fit a Senior much better.

BTW- yea, SIGsponsored the construction of these floats - to Pakistan - I think 250 sets. However, the finish sucked big time so SIGslid them out the side door to various "fav" retail outlets. Paid $50 for the pair.

SeaplaneFreak

how hard is the kit version? I found the black and red kit version for $75 local and its too good to pass up, so on a scale of 1-10, 1 being a three year old could make it, and 10 being NASA level, could anyone give me a ballpark estimate of the skill required?

SeamusG

Assume that you mean the kit version of the Kadet Senior.

A 5 on your scale given this is your 1st build. Be aware that the Senior kit does not have ailerons so a "bash" will be necessary to add ailerons. Bob Nelson of SIG suggests strip ailerons - a simple piece of balsa - hinged to the wing's trailing edge from the wing tip to "near" the fuse side. How near? Well, the standard Senior uses rubber bands so ya need to leave some "stretch" room. The SIG 4Star60 uses this type of aileron - tapered from maybe an inch at the tip to 2 inches at the fuse. Probably easier to do a dual aileron servo implementation too.

Idid a bash thread that includes nearly 200 pics of the build. HERE

SeaplaneFreak

ok, sounds good. I left a message for the seller, and hopefully I will hear back from them soon, hopefully tonight because I might be in the seller's neck of the woods in the morning...

*Edit* I talked with the guy, gonna go pick up the kit tomorrow. considering the size of it, I dont think I'll have much of a problem with the parts.

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

The included build manual with the Senior Kaydet back when it was written was quite a revelation for its time as it was far ahead of anything and considered an industry standard by many (opinon agine).

It is among the best of the build manuasl then or now. The Senior Kit may seem overwhelming at first with such a large box of sticks but sticks is a key word here as they are amost all 1/4 square inch and its very easy and fun to do the cut and fitting.

One note on the ailerons as John Gilmore indicated you will definately want the ailerons and the added on strip airlerons are fine and quite easy with one big caviet though. You will need to reduce the indicated dihedral on the plans to one half or the ailerons will be very unresponsive.

John

Ok I'am gone plugging in chargers

SeaplaneFreak

I was wondering the best way to do ailerons on this, and I am looking forward to building this thing, some of the first balsa models Ive built are guillow rubber powered planes, when I was younger. Pretty sharp looking kits really, and theres some good stick work in that.... and try building a radar tower array for a model ship with 1/16 square balsa sticks! but in all honesty, Im really excited about building this kit and then flying it, and tomorrow I think I might also get one of the sets of plans off of RCM, either showboat or liki tiki, and have those on hand for later.

SeaplaneFreak

Ok, I picked up the kit, looks good but he had already built the wings and I will be picking those up tonight, Im impressed with the quality of this plane and think it should go together well once all the parts are accounted for.

joebahl

My Feedback: (2)

Hello seaplanefreak iam nuts about seaplanes also and have some reading for you . http://www.seaplanesupply.com/faq.htm When you get to the bottom of the page click on the book to learn more about setting up your floats . This is also a good place to buy light floats also or you could build some . I will post some more sites for plans on float planes and sea plane sites .Its a sickness and i only fly off of water for the last 10 years now but its also alot of fun. Here is one of mine .joe

joebahl

My Feedback: (2)

Ivans plans are where i got my short solent plans from but you need a couple builds under your belt before you try to take one on. Follow the links to luke z's thread for videos and the build section. http://www.ivansplans.com/ here is one of my best real seaplane sites and it has a model section ,i like the walkaround section so i can get a good look at what iam trying to build.http://www.seawings.co.uk/ here are a couple more of my sickness ,the red white and blue one is a znz beast they dont make them any longer and it is very fast with elevons .The red and white one is a sea cruiser and it was kitted by hanger desighn ,its 16 years old and they no longer make that kit either. joe

joebahl

My Feedback: (2)

Here is a free download of a ken willards drake 11 plus others if you look for them . http://www.outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=1252 it looks like my seacruiser but my seacruiser has a 60 inch wing span and this one is smaller but its electrict or nitro . The first drake is there also for a free download plus the one you started talking about in the begining of this thread.If you get into foam electrict seaplanes i have many plans for them also and if you need and help just pm me .Its not often we get a seaplane guy around here. good luck with your build. joe

SeaplaneFreak

I saw the drake, I was looking for something a little more.... I guess substantial. Anyway, instead of recieving the missing parts from the guy I bought the Kadet from, he gave me a whole new kit, so I have plenty of pats to work with.

SeamusG

Psst - freak - if ya wanna make the Senior "float ready" add a landing gear plate (1/4" plywood bit) just behind the frame work that supports the back edge of the wing - side to side about 1 1/2" deep. It'll make a great place to secure the rear float "legs". Since I built mine as a tail dragger I added a "mini" servo (Hitec 81 / 82 / 85) on the bottom of the fuse to control the tail wheel. When floats are added a control rod can be run from that servo to the float "rudder". Just sayin' ...

Geez, hope my grammer passes muster 

SeaplaneFreak

I was planning on running something to the forward wheel for rudder control...... but since I was given the better parts of two kits I think rigging something up shouldnt be too hard....... also, I want to put ailerons on the Kadet, could someone tell me where to place them/ what I would have to do to get that mod to work, or if someone could point me towards a good guide for it, some of the stuff Ive found so far doesn't really make sense

joebahl

My Feedback: (2)

Here is the kadet wing pdf and it has the ail detail on it plus some instructions .BTW you can run i nyrod from the rudder towards the front then bend it down (a loop)and zip tie it to the wire float atatchment wires and then back to the water rudder ,so when the airplane rudder moves so will the water rudder . The nose gear should be taken off or like seaplane supply does is take the wheel off and use it to attatch the float with . Look at their site my young jedi you will learn. good luck . Here is a e-flight apprentice with tri landing gear set up with floats and the nose gear used to mount the foats , http://www.seaplanesupply.com/electric.htm plus a video

joebahl

My Feedback: (2)

My sea cruiser is basicly a large drake with ail ,it can do a knife edge cyrcle or just about any other manuver most planes can. I can't hover it but almost.lol I am the second person flying my red and white sea cruiser in this video ,my landing was fast because a guy after me took off very tail heavy and i landed FAST to get out of his way. Dont under estmate a drake its like most planes ,it's how you set them up . joe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tExcCotOxfo

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

John, last year at the London Bridge float fly I spotted a Hots like mine on floats, even had YS power. It has gotten the gray mater flowing. I may build a set of floats for mine when I get th time. The floats didn't hamper the flight of the Hots much at all.
Gene

joebahl

My Feedback: (2)

Out of all my years of flying off of water i have never seen a hots on floats . Its a great flying plane and i bet it flew well off of water. Acouple years a go i did see a gee bee on floats but it never got in the air ,just kept flipping over . BTW pete frankenthal was a club member of my club and he built and covered the midwest hots prototype for their picture on the box cover .

SeaplaneFreak

quick question as im building this: as Im laying the parts for the wings out on the plans, I see that there is about a uarter inch of wood beyond the last notch on the trailing edge, where the plans show the last notch for the rims on eich end being only slight cuts so the ribs mount flush with the end. Has anyone else experienced this who has built the kit, and would I just trim the trailing edge part down to the way it is shown on the plans?

joebahl

My Feedback: (2)

They dont cut every part to fit exact some times prints get a little off from copying and if they cut the pieces they would not fit every print.So you have to cut and sand things like leading /trailing edges so it looks just like the print and fits directly over the plans. Good luck OH you will have to bevel the ail to a v shape where it meets the wing so the ail can move up and down without binding . Let me know witch kind of hinge you are using and i can give you some imfo for installing them .I use round robart hinge points on my bigger stuff and ca glue hinges on my smaller planes. I also use tightbond two when building all my planes ,yes it dry;s slow but it;s cheaper and it's not a pain in the rear to sand later and its waterproof . Hope this helps. In the case you have at the rib, i would just glue it with the spar or trailing edge/leading edge running long and cut it off later flush with a balsa saw and then sand it real smooth. While building on a flat table i have a small building sqaure to make sure my ribs are at 90 degrees to the table but when i did not own one i checked a old credit card for square and used it to check my 90 . Some times the ribs are supose to be on a slight angle in the middle for when you but them together keep a eye out for this on every build. This is for your diheidral . good luck and take your time building is not a race. joe

mike109

G'day

Plans stretch. Paper is not a very stable medium. In Sig's instructions, they tell you that if the wood does not match the plan then the wood is right and the plan is wrong. The plan is a guide but you should not cut the wood to match the plan. You should use the cuts in the wood to adjust the plan. I have just been building the Sig LT-25 and the trailing edge notches did not line up with the plan. I lined them up at the middle of the wing and just adjusted the ribs as the error became greater towards the tips.

Quite often, the two halves of a wing plan are slightly different because of stretching and shrinking of the paper. Use the trailing edge notches as they will be right and adjust the plan to them.

Now it is time for me to head to the shed to complete the covering and start the assembly of my LT-25. It will have one of the new Enya 36 four strokes for nose weight.

Have fun.

Mike in Oz.

SeaplaneFreak

this is definitely the wood though, theres about a quarter inch of wood beyond the final notch for the w-1 ribs where the plans show the notches as having to be flush with the end of the trailing edge so the two halves can be joined together. I think it was where the machine cut the parts a tad off from where they should have been cut, and there was a bit of extra, because even though plans shrink this doesnt fit the plans. also, I was going to use the "Barn door ailerons" on this eventually, but if you guys could recommend a better way and some info for it, I would appreciate it.

mike109

G'day

Which Kadet do you have?

There are three basic types.

1 ... The original Kadet and its son the Kadet Mk2. The Kadet did not have ailerons, the Mk 2 has strip ailerons. This is the smallest Kadet. I have a Kadet Mk 2 and I find it the most difficult of all the Kadets to fly. It is relatively heavy (especially when compared to the Seniors) and smaller than all the others. It is quite tough in its construction and this makes it heavier than the others. This higher wing loading means that it needs to fly faster than all the others.

2 ... The Kadet Senior and its smaller sister the Seniorita. These do not have ailerons. They are built up from sticks and take a while to build but are not difficult to build. They are very large for their weight and as a result they can fly really slowly. As they do not have ailerons, they MUST take off straight into the wind or they risk being blown over. I love these Kadets. It is fun getting them to roll. They will but they really don't want to. There is an ARF version of the Senior which does have ailerons and is 2 inches bigger in wingspan. It is quite aerobatic in a slow graceful way.

3 ... The LT series. The LT 25 and its bigger brother the LT 40. These are built up from laser cut kits. The LT 25 has a balsa fuse, the LT 40 is lite ply. They are quick to build and fly really well. I am currently finishing an LT-25 to replace an old one which I gave away. There is an ARF version of the LT-40 which I have owned and which was good. It is currently teaching a friend to fly.

Cheers

Mike from Oz

joebahl

My Feedback: (2)

I posted the pdf of the wing and ail with some directions on how to build it but i will post it again. Click on the pdf freak . BTW i own two kadet wings with ail and one with out .My son is 10 and i had bought a complete one then ran across the others at swap meets .I also as you can see have the fuse plans and wings and iam not afraid to bust out some balsa and build a couple more kadets. You can also build it as a tail dragger and get rid of the nose gear later whitch i have done before.My son asked me for a trap door under the fuse so he can drop flour bombs or candy so that will be another prodject for me in the future. good luck with your build freak. joe

SeaplaneFreak

This is the Kadet senior without ailerons, which I believe is the standard kit. And the plans are fine, its just the wood itself has an overhang on the trailing edge piece that isnt mentioned in the plans

SeamusG

Joe - which Kadet is that in your attached pdf file? Sheeted stab? Sheeted wing between the LEand the main spar? 10 ribs per wing side? Just curious.