WacoNut

That will get you by for a while. If your interest grows then you can always upgrade later.
I went from a 4ch to a 6ch to a 9ch Aurora. I love the Aurora. Hopefully you will enjoy the building process. I love to build more than flying. I have a plane going in my shop at all times. May be spurts during the summer where I do not get to work on it but these is always something there to build. It is a great part of the hobby that everyone should at least try.

Enjoy the build and there is always plenty of people here willing to help out when needed.
Later!!
Anthony

Rv7garage

My Feedback: (10)

Just wanted to say, "good choice" on the Sig kit. Be warned: once you build a Sig kit, especially one of their updated/modern ones, you will be spoiled!

Also, allow me to recommend the O.S. .46AX for your first engine. More power than the .46LA, and with proper maintenance will last longer than the LA model. I have one (its my only 2-stroker) and swear by it. Great idle, lots of power, very reliable.

Snoblitz

Sounds like I have everything that I need here guys!  I can't even begin to thank you guys for all the help in this thread.  Really looking forward to getting my shop setup this weekend.  Looking forward to getting my first build kicked off even more.

I'll post yet another build thread for folks on here to track my progress.

Thanks for everything guys!!!

-Jeff

acdii

You will like the LT40 kit, I built one myself but made it a taildragger with bolt down wing.  I have a build thread on this forum too, if you want to see the bolt down mod. Only extra needed parts is 1/4" plywood, and nylon 1/4-20 bolts. I used the dowels that came with the kit for the guide pins.

mikeh251

The Sig lt 40 is a good choice. A Midstar is very nice also (having built 2 of them). The Great Planes pt 40 has a very excellant manual for learning building procedures. The end product is good also. An os 46Ax would be a great engine that could be used in many applications if you can afford it. I have built many sig kits and love them all. however, the lt40 is not one of the ones I have tried. if you haven't yet made a purchase, you may want to consider investigating the Midstar or maybe Kavalier. They are a step up from a trainer but pretty mild and they look cool with the canopies (you can get creative with your passenger/pilot). I would go with taildragger gear if flying off of grass. Of course the 4star is great also!!! Ha ha so many choices. Are you a guy who reads and follows written instructions or do you just look at the pictures and dig in????? I STRONGLY recommend following the stepsin the manuals thet come with the kitwith whatever you choose! Have fun and be proud of your efforts!!!!

Rv7garage

My Feedback: (10)

Looking forward to seeing your build thread, Jeff.

soarrich

My Feedback: (98)

I had 13~14 different engines in my LT40....The OS.40LA was the best two-stroke, the Saito.50 was the best four-stroke. Don't overpower a LT-40 it goes from a great plane to just an average plane when you over power it.

Teachu2

My Feedback: (133)

No Bruce Tharpe kit should EVER be your 1st build!!! His kits are so well done that most others will look like scrap wood by comparison. It will spoil, ruin, and delight you - all at the same time.

Snoblitz

LOL! Thankfully for my own sake, his v60 is sold out. I'll be stalking his site frequently looking to snag one in the future though.

acdii

Well I had my first flight with the LT40 today with an OS 52 Surpass 4 stroke. The plane is one sweet flyer. Man I am just thrilled with it.  Now if I can just get the engine tuned right, this will be my go to plane for sure.

The one I built is modified though, with 1 inch Dihedral, and it is a tail dragger, but even with that it is very stable and gentle, it doesnt have the self righting that the stock one does, so banking turns are nice, just pull the one wing down a bit and let it go, the plane just holds that turn until you move it back.

Man what a great 2 flights I had with it today. I highly recommend it for both building and flying.  

With the 52 in it, takes offs are 3/4 throttle, leisurely flying at just under half throttle. I dont know what it will do at full throttle, the first time I went full throttle after a few minutes flying the engine quit, so I had a dead stick landing, but it settled in and landed on 3 wheels in the soybean field without a scratch.  I wish I could say the same for my second landing, but not going into great detail on that, just going to say I had some mud to wipe off the nose cone and prop.   The plane is the biggest one I have flown so far, so I need to work on my distance judgement, I came in too far out. but it lands so nice and slow.

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

Yep, that SeamusG is some kind of pretty smart person. For any newbies just starting to post up you may want to listen when he speaks, you may learn something. Wait until it's time for you to do some covering, you may want to be nice to him and not snark him too much if you don't get the humor, your going to want to know him pretty soon. In my case, I can slam him and not even use a smiley face, he gets the humor, he even knows how much I like to sand!!

Snoblitz

Thanks for sharing the experience! Congrats on you maiden, get any video of it by any chance? Also, with regards to the tail dragger conversion. I am thinking that I'd like to do the same. I really want wheel pants on my plane. Just love the way that it completes the aggressive look of a model. If you've got any pointers on the conversion, would love to hear about your experience there.

carrellh

Engine choice will always be a debate. I would use a Thunder Tiger GP-42 or OS 46LA. These engines are 'relatively' inexpensive, easy to run and maintain, and perform very well on trainer planes.

Some say 'buy a more powerful engine so you can use it on the next plane' but I disagree. My opinion is to keep the trainer totally intact and get all new stuff for the second plane. That way you have two flyable models.

For a tail dragger conversion on a different model I glued a 1/4 inch aircraft (lots of very thin plys) plywood in the bottom of the fuselage. I used this gear http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXNM65&P=0 attached with nylon screws. The way the tail of my plne was designed I installed a pushrod to steer the tail wheel. I have no experience with wheel pants.

For a first build I would not deviate much from the original design. Walk first, then start running.

soarrich

My Feedback: (98)

DuBro makes a really nice plastic landing gear you can use. I like to mount the gear just a little farther forward than carrellh does, I put a ply plate that went under the bulkhead in front of the wing so the landing loads get transferred to the whole side of the fuse. On mine that's pictured the gear is about 1/2" too far back for a beginer, it took some up at low speed to keep it from nosing over. The tail-wheel conversion was easy.

acdii

I have a build thread under kit building detailing the plane. Look for Kadet LT52 mod.   I have some pics of the mods I did. 

carrellh

soarrich,
You are right. Ideally the axle centerline would be even with the leading edge, or slightly forward, for best handling and reduced nose over tendencies. With a kit build I think it would be easy to put the gear mount exactly where you want it.
My conversion was a Big Stik ARF. I probably could have used two smaller ply pieces (one in front of the bulkhead) but it never tried to nose over with the location I settled for.

acdii

On the Kadet I took a 1" x 3" 1/4" ply and put one in front of bulkhead 2 and one behind it. I used 5 minute epoxy too to make it really strong instead of CA. This pretty much puts the landing gear dead on the centerline, or slightly forward of the LE.   I then just tapped into the plywood and use 1/4-20 plastic bolts.

acdii

Scroll down here, I have a few pictures of the mods done. http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_10988782/tm.htm