FlyingIreland

I built my Kadet senior about five years ago from a kit. I had intended to use it as a camera plane, so I included a camera pod. I only flew her once or twice before I took a break from the hobby to build a boat.

Anyhow, its 2009 and I'm going to get the old girl flying again. I had the plane in storage in my brother's somewhat damp shed. He had accidentally damaged the plane by dropping various planks of timber on it over the years! I plan to rebuild the horizontal stabiliser (snapped off both sides), repair the main wing (one or two ribs crushed), remove the camera pod, put new bearings in the OS 46FX engine ( The old ones had rusted in storage) and make new shorter wire landing gear.

WIll add photos shortly.

flyngfrog

Hey, nice plane. Lots of sticks but very nice to fly.

FlyingIreland

Well, I made my first flight today since about five years ago!

Thanks to FMS simulator, my reactions were ok and I took off and landed the plane nicely first time. The second landing was not so good...I undershot the runway slightly due to misjudging the wind and not applying enough throttle. It was flying so slow at the time that there was no damage done. The rest of my five or six takeoffs and landings were really enjoyable. It was the first time that I have consistently been able to do lots of landings where the plane kissed the ground at a shallow angle and rolled along nicely.

She flies much better without the bulky camera pod. She can do loops and even rolls, despite only being 3 channel. I'm using an 12.25 X 3.75 prop and it really slows the plane down very nicely for landing.

One problem I had was that the engine doesn't transition well enough from idle to full throttle. I spent hours adjusting the low speed needle, but I can't seem to get it to transition without a delay/spluttering. It was a bit scary a couple of times when I throttled up to abort a landing and the engine spluttered a bit.

The other problem is that the piano wire landing gear bent back a bit. I didn't think any of my landings were particularly heavy. I can only put it down to the possibility that the wire already had a weakness in it due to being bent and rebent back into shape 5 years ago after a bad landing.

FlyingIreland

Just thought I would post a video of the plane flying after the repairs.....

http://www.youtube.com/speedboatbuil.../3/MH7Kw87aFMc

FlyingIreland

Well, its back to square one. Tonight the plane is resting in the top of a tall pine tree. It went in at almost full throttle.

The cause of the crash was me! I flew too far away, lost orientation in the poor evening light. When I tried a left turn, I was so small that I couldn't see what was happening.
I think I didn't realise how far the plane had travelled because it was flying with a tailwind. Eventually she lost height and went down behind some trees. I heard a loud crash, I was sure she had hit solid ground at full throttle.

It took about an hour to find it, high up in a tree beside the overgrown ruins of an old farmhouse. From what I could see from the ground, the wing is in several pieces, but the fuselage looks to be largely in one piece. The vertical stab is still connected, but the horizontal stab might be sheared off. I have no idea how to get it down from there. Its at least 30 feet off the ground.

WestCoastFlyer

My Feedback: (1)

Depth perception is something that gets me. The airplane is further away than you think.

My little electric MUS spent a couple nights near the top of a 100' fir tree a month ago. My step-nephew wanted to free climb the tree to get it, his Granddad and I wouldn't let him. So I hired a logger for 100 bucks to get it down.

I've also heard of guys enlisting the aid of fire departments and getting it with a crane on the truck. Same thing with that, a $100 donation to the fire department.

It's not worth someone breaking their neck to get the airplane, but obviously you want it down.

Senior or Seniorita? My first RC kit was a Seniorita. Sweet plane!

FlyingIreland

I got up at 6 this morning and went to retrieve the plane in torrential rain!

I have one of those marquee tents that has a tubular steel pole framework that slots together. I slotted together about 7 or 8 of the poles and poked the plane from different angle until it was dislodged from the tree. I was able to catch it when it fell!

The damage is not quite as bad as I had imagined. The wing took the brunt of the impact. It was sheered off on the right side, about a foot in from the wing tip. The rubber bands holding the wing on didn't move much! The fuselage is intact, except for a hole through the front windshield and the flimsy bottom bit of balsa under the engine and between the balsa cowlings. The tail feathers are intact, except for the horizontal stab on one side that is snapped off. The engine and propellor are fine. The battery and servo had remained in place, velcroed securely in their foam cradles.

So...where do we go from here? If I can get a wing kit from sig, I will build another wing. It may be possible to repair the old one, but I'm not sure if it would be easier to make a new one.

sir crashallot

cut ur old remains of the wing up and mae a few templates, then draw up alittle plan to build from. its not hard at all and i recomend anyone to do it as it is fun. im building a 17th scale spifire from nothing but 3view drawings and have managed to more or less build the entire fus from it by just measurements. at worst its only going to cost you maybee £15-20 to build the wing from sig you will be talking 20-25 then postage ontop. anyway you orifionaly built the plane dont you have the plans stashed away or has your brother managed to attack them. glad you og thte plane back as theres quite abit of money in radio and engine and it is not always easy to replace. good luck and if you need a hand drwing a wing up let me know im sure i could draw one up simple enough then you would just have to print it out

FlyingIreland

$36.99 for a wing kit and $10.99 for the plans from Sig.

Plus shipping from USA to Ireland.

My original plans are long gone.

sir crashallot

seems quite abit all up dosnt it. im pretty muc sure its going to be cheaper and easier to build your own wing. i could have it designed in an hour or so and you could be building it tomorow evening provided you have somewood. all i need is the length of one wing pannel and size of the rib at root of the wing and again at the tip thats if it is a taperd wing,if not then its just the length of wing and root rib i need. let me know if youd rather go that way because i could email you the plan and it would print out onto 3 maybe 4 pieces of a4 paper

sir crashallot

dam pc posted that twice

WestCoastFlyer

My Feedback: (1)

Sir crashallot, is being very generous to offer his help. I think however you can easily fix the wing yourself. It's a clean break? Peel back the covering on each side of the break, enough to get some work space. Support the 2 pieces of wing in a fashion that keeps the integrity and shape of the wing, then glue/attach a hardwood doubler to tie the spar, and use scraps of balsa to double and join the other bits. It really is easy, much easier and quicker than building a new wing. We haven't seen the damage, but it sounds like that's the way to go.

sir crashallot

yes i agree westcoastflyer, but hes already enquiring about a new wing, but the choice is upto him, if he wants to repair then we are all here to help and if he wants a new wing im sure again we are all here to help, thats the idea of this site. heres a pic of one of my own rebuilds soon to be put on the table. an 1960's control line spitfire i bought off ebay with origional fox 35 engine, it has no throttle control neither. the spit is finished off in an australian scheme too. and just recently it turns out a spit was burried in australia just after the war and it was in crates so the tale goes. the very weird thing is it had markings and numbers almost matching mine, but when i come to rebuilding il keep it all origional as possible. as you can see the fin is missing and almost half the rear fus is missing, but il soon sort all that out i love my spits. hence my other build in the war planes area

forgot to mention theres a massive portion of the wing missing

FlyingIreland

Thanks for your encouragement everyone. The shipping is over $50 so the wing kit plus plans would cost about $100 total.

I think I will be repairing the wing. Its probably not as bad as it looks. I'll try to get some photos later.

WestCoastFlyer

My Feedback: (1)

You'll be fine, just use your creative/common sense and rejoin the wing. No butt joints on anything load bearing. Just overlap parts and tie together with a doubler, be creative. You can get fancy about it and do it perfectly, or slam it together. With a wing that big and a plane that flies so well, it won't matter if one side of the wing weighs more than the other, it'll trim out fine when you fly it.

After you've made the repairs, take some sandpaper and make sure all the surfaces are level, then cover.

The stab might be more problematic. You'll have to cut it out of the fuse and fashion a new LE somehow for it. Same routine, re-build with integrity of the components. There's a million ways it'll go back together. Do it your way, tying everything strongly together.

FlyingIreland

Well, here are some photos of the damage.

WestCoastFlyer

My Feedback: (1)

Ouch. A little more damage than I imagined, but still easily fixable if you have the the ribs from the crash site to either use again or trace new ribs. Do you have the missing ribs?

Someone else needs to chime in here and tell FlyingIreland if he can use those same rib templates for the missing ribs, or trace off some drawings for him.

FlyingIreland

Considering that I thought the plane had impacted straight into the ground, I'm pretty pleased that the damage wasn't worse. The missing ribs were pretty much all crushed up, but I think I can trace some existing ribs ok.

Any tips for joining the leading and trailing edges? What kind of joint should I do...halving joint or a splice? Epoxy or CA?

I don't fancy trying to remove the vertical stab to fix the horizontal one...its epoxied in place!

WestCoastFlyer

My Feedback: (1)

The horizontal stabilizer wasn't sheared flush as I feared, you have enough to work with. Peel off the covering. Use epoxy and long clamps or a piece of material underneath the clamps long enough for the width of the stab to hold it flat. Make a sandwich joining the horizontal stab broken piece back onto that stab ledge jutting out of the fuse, while at the same time laying on a piece of balsa on top and maybe curling a little onto the vert stab. A tall order, but easy. When it dries sand it and cover it.

The leading edges of the wings are actually easy, it's simply fashioning a nice hardwood LE, spruce and I've used basswood into/onto/behind the the existing leading edge. I've doubled it from behind. I extend the doubler (behind the leading edge) at least halfway down the existing front LE or the LE replacement. Cutting is involved, creativity is involved, the idea is to make it stronger than when you originally built it.

Edited: The perspective of the photographs threw me off, I thought the mid section of the wing was missing and it's not. Take it one small step at a time and you'll be surprised how quickly you get it back together.

FlyingIreland

Well wow, my last post was in 2009!
Can't believe my plane has been up in the attic for the past 8 years, still in the same condition as the photos in my post from 2009!
I took it down last night and showed it to my 8 year old son who was just a newborn the last time I flew the plane!
I'm planning to fix her up and get her flying again - my son has been practicing on FMS flight simulator and I'm looking forward to showing him how to fly!

flyboy2610

My Feedback: (1)

That is wonderful! Enjoy as much time as you can with him. It goes by faster than you think it will. My son turns 18 next month, but I could swear he was just born a few days ago!