Fly North

Thanks Dave I was not sure how it was going to look until I got all the covering on .
Hearing how well your Kadet flies makes me want to get mine finished up and ready for its maiden flight . The main goal for building mine is to finish up my training for my wings with a plane thats less affected by wind . The foamie cub i have is grounded a great deal of time due to wind in my area.

acdii

I just attached my hatch with one screw. Its a snug fit with foam on top and under the tank. Give me the chance to check the tank without having to take the wing off. I have been guessing at how long it will fly, but with being able to take the hatch off I can check fuel levels after so many minutes to get a close idea. I narrowed it down to about 12 minutes flight on the stock tank with the OS 52. I flew 10 minutes, and then took the cover off and had just under a 1/4 tank. The fuse it very tight it glued well, this is my fourth year with it and it has been crashed a few times, and is still tight.

I had noticed last week when I flew it, that it resonated the engine loudly, turns out the wing covering needed to be tightened up. hit it with the heat gun Sunday and it was quiet again.

Zor

soarrich,

I consider that a glued on 'hatch' is not a hatch anymore after gluing.
The purpose of a hatch is to provide access and has to be easily removable.

Zor

BigTeeEldorado

I did not incorporate droop in the slat I think it would have been too much since my slat is running the entire length of the wing. Ya it would have been outstanding if I was good enough to make the slat movable but I am pushing my limits with this much.

I am getting excited to get her out to the field cause I too enjoy "dancing" with my Kadet just as you describe, low and slow!! The only other planes at the field that can hold a candle to the Kadet are those foamy thingys...... which I have but prefer the Kadet.

Kevin, very very nice job on your LT40....taildragger is the way to go regardless of the field. I will be looking for your comments after the maiden flight!!

A couple more pictures with covering......there are a LOT of *%#@ parts now on these wings to work around....just venting!!

flyingagin

It really depends. On most of my smaller (.25 sized) planes I use 4 or more screws to screw the hatch on. The screws threw hard points plus keying the hatch. That adds back a lot of stiffness back. It is so hard to get into the tank area of a small plane. I never ever make a tank installation that I can't 100% work on or replace. On my bigger planes I find I usually have enough room to accomplish the same thing with a glued on hatch. Note I did say usually. the plane in my avatar has a removable hatch, and it has a .60+ 2 stroke up front. Also my ST 3000 powered plane has a removable hatch. Someone else built it though and I consider it crossly overbuilt.

So no hard and fast rules here other than what ever works FOR YOU.

Ken

skylark-flier

Total agreement, concerning the nose strength. Actually, most all my "higher-than-trainer" performance planes (more than Goldberg Sr. Falcon, Craft-Air Butterfly, SIG MidStar-40) have tanks that remove through the rear of the tank compartment, into the radio area. But, even my Falcon & MidStar have 6 screws going into hardwood strips holding their hatches in place, Butterfly has 4. The joke around our house has always been that I build my planes to double as tanks - which is probably why I fly so many planes that are at least 30 years old.

skylark-flier

Kevin, I definitely would not worry about wind and a Kadet - an awful lot of my own flying is in 10-15mph winds and she likes them just fine. In a 15mph breeze she's practically a STOL aircraft. Your LT40 is somewhat larger than my Mk-II (70" vs 57") and you're lighter (4 lbs vs 5 lbs) but you're also probably higher powered (mine runs an older OS.40LA)- she'll be just fine. My original 1973 Kadet (retired this past December) was only 3 channel and I had a lot of fun with her for a lot of years, but this Mk-II is a lot more airplane. Should have gotten one many years ago. I'm actually seriously considering ordering 2 more Mk-IIs to play with - one as a twin-engine and maybe twin-tail, one as a low-wing.

One other thing - my radio is a VERY BASIC Futaba 4-ch on 72MHz. No computer, no high-low - 1980's technology level (but new, for this plane).

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

I didn't glue my LT-40 hatch on but I did add triangle stock to the firewall on both sides to reinforce the area. So far in my misadventures with this plane damage has been limited to bending gear, holes in the covering, and an unfortunate tail bounce that split the exit area around the elevator pushrod. I love this airplane! I will probably recover it at some point if I ever get done building something else. that's the problem there is always something else that needs building!

spaceworm

"...
A couple more pictures with covering......there are a LOT of *%#@ parts now on these wings to work around....just venting!!


[/QUOTE]"

Just a comment based on my own experience. Having "lost" a plane from not seeing it in the sky, The silver/gray on the bottom will blend into the sky and the plane will be hard to see and to determine its' flight attitude. I recommend adding some yellow or orange stripes or diagonals on the underside of the wing. Something different than the design on the top side, to give contrast to the sky overhead. Good luck on the maiden.

Sincerely, Richard

acdii

The only wind gripe I have with the LT-40 is that a cross wind can get under the tip and flip that bugger over if not careful when landing. That angle on the tip can act like a sail when the wind hits it just right at just the right speed. Happened to me once when landing, I knew it was too slow and powered up, just as the wind switched from NW to N and flipped it right over, it was 10' up, and when upside down, goes in REALLY fast!

Other than that, LOVE to just hang the bird right into the wind and watch it slowly descend in one spot. Has to be just the right wind or it keeps flying forward.

flyingagin

I find my SR is very sensitive to cross winds. Wind gets under the up wind wing and It takes a bunch of aileron and rudder to compensate, if I am fast enough that is. It has halve that listed dihedral, and strip ailerons 2" wide.

I think you are right acdii. I think it is the tip shape that makes it so bad. I have done some other planes and reversed the tip angle so the tip bottom is parallel to the wing bottom. Much better, but then different planes so only way to find out is change SR tips. Thought for the future.

Ken

soarrich

My Feedback: (98)

Right, I was just pointing out the part. I haven't had the need to remove the "hatch" in 5 years.

soarrich

My Feedback: (98)

My club had a contest for the longest flight last year, I won with 1 hour 32 minutes with my 70 Surpass powered LT-40. I set the throttle up so I had just enough power to get off, I tuned it real lean and thremalled when I could. Others made aux tanks, one guy had 32oz. of fuel and only got 45 minutes. The Kadets can fly on very little power.

acdii

I think I could keep my 4*120 up that long too. Has a 14 or 16oz tank, and I can fly it at near idle. At near full throttle I can stay up over 20 minutes and have 1/4 tank left, so when its just putting, it could stay up there for who knows how long. With the right head wind, just get it floating in one spot and keep it there.

skylark-flier

WOW! That's impressive - 1:32 is super. What size tank did you have on her? My own CA Butterfly has a OS26FS and 4oz tank - I regularly get hour-long flights out of her.

BigTeeEldorado

"

Just a comment based on my own experience. Having "lost" a plane from not seeing it in the sky, The silver/gray on the bottom will blend into the sky and the plane will be hard to see and to determine its' flight attitude. I recommend adding some yellow or orange stripes or diagonals on the underside of the wing. Something different than the design on the top side, to give contrast to the sky overhead. Good luck on the maiden.

Sincerely, Richard[/QUOTE]

I hear ya.....I am still working on adding some more design to the project as a whole. I typically don't have trouble seeing the planes although I too just lost a twin but not because I couldn't see it (another story) It was covered almost entirely with this aluminum color and in certain attitudes it would kind of disappear. It had a much smaller profile, in fact that is what it was



where it would disappear was on approach when the plane was level and coming at me so the only visual signature was the leading edge of the wing. But it was a lot faster and smaller than the Kadet and I'm not going to fly the Kadet that far away from myself. The aluminum color visibility was a consideration and still is as I finish up my trim, thanks for the input.

soarrich

My Feedback: (98)

12 or 14oz. whatever I had when I put it together. I landed underpower, I didn't want to make it seem unbeatable, so that others would keep trying. The trick, other than soaring is to lean the motor out at part throttle, if you tune it at full throttle it will be running rich at 15% power.

Fly North

The more I read about these planes the more I want to fly it
I have plans to put some yellow stripes on the underside of the wing . i have read it may be better to only put it on one wing to help with orientation . What do you guys think ?

BigTeeEldorado

I think it is personal preference. Most of the time I have no trouble but occasionally under different sky conditions the colors will get washed out of your vision. When that happens it doesn't much matter what colors you added for visibility cause all you will see is a dark colored blob....that is when I have experienced that Oh-Oh feeling of which way am I going. Honestly though your Kadet will fly so smoothly and predictably that before long you should be able to stay ahead of the plane and feel in control through the whole flight. The visual attitude helper of adding color to one wing would only come into play if she gets away from you......believe me you won't remember what color you saw when your fighting the stick to get yourself in control of a plane that got ahead of you.

Back when I began my soap box filibusterer I believe I said I think it is personal preference. You should try it first and see what YOU think but more importantly focus on staying ahead of the plane and you will thoroughly enjoy yourself. One last thought.......preflight.....preflight.....prefligh t all your control surfaces and make sure the engine runs smooth both in a vertical as well as the more common horizontal tuning attitude. Can't tell you how many times I have seen experienced flyers take off with ailerons reversed or go dead stick right after rotating both of which will increase the chance of a terminal deceleration exponentially.

Good luck!! Wish I could be there, I love maiden flights.... no matter how many I watch or fly myself they always solicit a big smile when you see those wheels leave the ground for the first time. Then an even bigger one when they come back safely.

soarrich

My Feedback: (98)

You want contrast. Below is the color scheme I settled on for my sailplanes. The bottom of the wing should be one solid dark color, mine was red. You do not want the color scheme the same for the top and bottom, if you make it the same you won't know at a distance if you're looking at the top or bottom, that could cost you an airplane, it almost cost me one. The best thing for visibility is keep the plane close, not an option with sailplanes though, see chart.


Transparent looks great and is easy to see, but if you get any distance away they become harder to fly. The Purple and Yellow plane was great fun to fly, but if I didn't keep it with in 200 feet or so I had trouble seeing what it was doing so I added the Yellow to the wing, it came with only transparent Purple on the wings.

Jersy Hank

Harold Hearon Hey guys never tried this stuff before but here goes, SIG SR. 20 years old given to me by a club members son after he passed, has had OS ,FOX,ENYA,K&B and SATIO on it. Now it is elct. with a 4230/6 on 3 cells with a 15/8 prop., 2 3300ma in parallel runs about 20 mins with time to spare. Weighs about 10 lbs. But flots around like a sailplane. A.M.A.-1242

TomCrump

I tend to agree. The bottom colors are in shadow. They usually look black, at least they do to me. On sport models, I tend to use sharply contrasting colors on the top of the wing, and leave the bottoms with minimal trim color.

kb8ife

Hi and thanks for the posting
what ever you do the plane flys great and slow and I keep one in my trailer all the time for training. I have one for night flying and 1 for training night flying is electric training is nitro both get about 20 min flying time
thx jim

acdii

What I have done on my Cub, the top wing is red, white and blue, the usual angled pattern from root to trailing edge at the tip for one color separated by white with another angled stripe starting from front center towards trailing edge of red. On the bottom, only the leading edge and wing tip is blue, the rest is white. That plus the red on the bottom of the fuse is a reverse taper from the top, so I should be able to distinguish top from bottom at a distance. On my LT-40 though, I do lose orientation sometimes at a distance because I dont have enough contrast between top and bottom.

My 4*120 has the bottom in blue and white checker board, the 2" square type, with solid blue on top, and at a distance it is very easy for the colors to blend. If I ever do a scheme like this again I will use a completely different color on the bottom, maybe something like an orange. One of the members at my field has an orange Aeroworks large plane, and it is very easy to see top from bottom.

skylark-flier

Yo, Hank! Glad to hear from another satisfied Kadet flier - but then, I can't remember ever hearing from a dissatisfied Kadet flier either, they're just too much fun to throw around the sky. Geez, 20 years old - must almost be broken-in by now.

Hey, welcome to RCU, the SIG Kadet Brotherhood, this crazy bunch and all the rest. Can't help but notice the 4-digit AMA # - I truly do appreciate seeing another one joining in the conversation. Nice to know the "more experienced" bunch is still burning nitro and toasting batteries. If'n you're interested, we've got #160 set out for you.