FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Looking real good! So how did you like those winds yesterday?

DBD1

Brian, thanks for the kind words. I would like to come up and fly with you sometime, after I get this thing built and learn to fly it, if it is still in one piece. I need to pick a club (3 to choose from) get hooked up with an instructor and get my feet wet.

I am still leaning towards koverall & dope for the finish, I like the idea of the toughness and longevity vs. mylar film. Maybe I shouldn't be too concerned about it on a trainer. Plus I am not to sure about being able to cut & position the monokote pieces accurately enough to achieve the color scheme I want. I have no problem with masking off and painting. Still not totally committed though.

DBD1

Hey Mike,
It was pretty blustery, would not have been a good day for flying. I thought it was going to blow me over a couple times.

carddfann

The vintage Kadets are fun to build and I've seen more experienced builders do some crazy things with them. Over the years I've seen them redone as bipes, low wingers, tail draggers, straight wing, clipped wing, multi-engine, etc. We got a member in our club with the bigger Kadet Senior rigged to drop candy on kids at fun flys. Kavalier is a great second choice. Very smooth flying plane.

Also, use the max recommended engine size. You can always throttle back. Back in 1981, my kadet had an Enya 35 and could barely get off the grass. Later put a KB 40 on it and it was a lot better.

bchapman

I hope we can get together and fly. It's not often that you see two Kadets at the field anymore. I'm not a certified instructor at my club, but I would be glad to help you in any way I can. I have a couple of ARF trainers I'd be glad to let you fly on the buddy box with me to get your feet wet before you start flying the Kadet.

I am going to take some pictures of my Kadet, un-painted in Koverall for you to see. Been sitting un-painted since right after I got married over 18 years ago. Still looks great, no wrinkles.

Sure glad you started on yours, you've inspired me to get with it, and finally finish mine!

Brian

DBD1

Brian, that is a very kind and generous offer, I truly appreciate it. I look forward to coming up to fly with you when weather & schedules permit.

Please do post photos of your Kadet, I would like to see it. I am very glad that my build has inspired you to finish yours.

skylark-flier

Geez, you guys make me wish I was out in your neck of the woods - we'd have 3 flying this year.

Hey Brian, I'd like to see that koverall'd Kadet too!!

Been slow going for the past week. However, my wing's about 95% done (no trim yet, nor lettering & numbers). This bird's taking a lot longer to cover than most of my planes. I'd originally planned to do the koverall & dope thing but finances didn't work that way, so I'm going with what monokote I actually have on-hand. She's going to be missile red & insignia blue as a result. Latest pics of the wing (top center section is now finished, haven't taken a pic of it yet though):



Kinda lookin' like she might actually be in the air in a bit.

DBD1

Finally got around to glassing the wing center section. I had been putting it off for a couple reasons, one is that it was just too cold to keep the shop warm enough, the second reason is that I was a bit apprehensive about making a mess of it. I came to a point on the fuselage that I could not go any further until I glassed it, and it was warm enough this weekend so I tackled it.

I used the masking tape method I had read about, except all I had on hand was painters tape. I leaned a couple of thing doing this. Frog tape is not sticky enough and wanted to come loose when saturated with the epoxy and it bled underneath quite a bit, that was the bottom of the wing.3M blue tape worked much better on the top side. Also on the bottom of the wing I learned that the nice factory edge on the Hobbico fg cloth would not take the epoxy and stick down, so I ended up cutting it off and that side ended up about 1/8" shy of what I had intended.

Just as the epoxy gets real tacky a sharp x-acto will cut the cloth at the point where you are pulling the tape back on itself without cutting into the wood and leaving a nice edge. I made a cradle out of scrap wood to hold the wing upright to cure when I had wet epoxy top and bottom so I could get to both sides to work it.
All in all it worked out pretty well.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Looks great, fantastic glassing job!

skylark-flier

Outstanding glass job!!!! I'm going to send all my wings to you in the future - seriously. That wing could go into combat and not get hurt!!!!

DBD1

Thanks for the compliments guys, I was really fretting that step.

Dave, I like the red & blue you are covering the wing with.

The latest addition to my shop, courtesy of my brother-in-law ( my wife's brother), he's a great guy. He bought this thing thinking he would need it for a project he was doing at his wife's office, turned out he never used it. He brought it over the other day and told me he knew I would use it and if he ever needs a use for it he know where to come. I count myself as pretty fortunate.
8" disk - 4"belt. It is well made, powerful, smooth and quiet. It made quick work of the angles on the windshield block.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Nice! I think you should get it in a pr-nup if the two of you break up you get to keep her brother!

I'm fortunate in that my younger brother is a shopaholic and can't stay out of the tool isle. He buys tools in case he ever needs something when I'm doing a project for him. He has to have the latest and greatest so that is how I acquire a lot of tools. Now if I could just talk him into a small band-saw...

trisdisp57

nice... belt and disc sander.... I need one of those

bchapman

That looks like an outstanding glass job! I only used the thin strip of cloth on mine and reinforced the fixed training edge area where the rubber bands hold down the wing down. I never thought of using a larger strip. I think I'll do that if I end up building another Kadet (which I will). Again, just great work on that airplane! The joints are impeccable and I love all of the jigs and everything that you build to hold things in place, ect. You really put a lot of thought into things and do it right.

I've been swamped at the office so I haven't gotten those pictures taken of my Mark II in the Koverall. I haven't forgotten and will get those posted in the next day or two.

Brian

skylark-flier

Well, she's nearly done - just waiting for my trim monokote to arrive so I can cut the windows, trim between the colors & add my AMA #'s. Also have to re-install the engine/cowl, which is no big thing.

Here's what she looks like in one piece:

Not happy with that flash-caused reflection in the 3rd pic, but I can live with it. Definitely better pics when she's in the air (hopefully, in a couple weeks).

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Dave, so your the one to blame. You finished your airplane so it naturally turned cold again! It came out great! Are those Dept 56 in the background?

skylark-flier

It ain't my fault!!!!!!!!! (to quote my favorite Star Wars character)

Naw, she isn't done yet - but nearly so. I'm waiting for my trim monokote to arrive (probably next Wed, Thursday), along with an engine part (remote needle valve, which simply gave out after 10 years of abuse) and new muffler bolts. Engine and cowl go back on her tomorrow - I can replace the broken part with the engine mounted. Also have to reconnect the rudder & elevator control rods (5 minutes work). Tonight I cut out my AMA #'s (top & bottom) and mounted them. I'm thinking about doing her name for the top of the left wing - template is pic #3 - sorry 'bout the quality, goofed and saved as gif.

TOP Bottom template for top of left wing????

Yeah, some of it's Dept 56, some of it dates back to the 1960's, some is from Wallyworld, some from Europe. This is only about 1/3 of our entire winter village. If all of it were up it would stand 15' wide, 5' deep and has hills about 2.5' high. Also has HO railroad going through it when full-up.

More is in our website at: http://www.wanderings-ds.com/family/53-7a.html

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

I have a number of Dept 56 myself mostly retired pieces. My favorite is the airport with all 3 airplanes. I have a 1940s Lionel Super Chief to go with mine.

DBD1

Dave, your Kadet is looking good. I wish I had your ability to cut and apply monokote.

After talking to several folks, both old-timers been doing this a long time, Leo Prescott and LHS owner Mike McMurtry have convinced me to go with monokote instead of koverall & dope for several reasons. Cost- dope is getting very expensive. Weight- I am told koveral & dope will end up heavier than monokote. Monokote is easier to repair. So it looks like I am in for a learning experience and I may need to change up my color scheme a bit to make it easier. For now though, I still have some building to do.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

You can always go the Koveral and dope route on your next build and use a slightly larger engine to balance out the weight!

skylark-flier

Quote:

Originally Posted by DBD1

Dave, your Kadet is looking good. I wish I had your ability to cut and apply monokote.

After talking to several folks, both old-timers been doing this a long time, Leo Prescott and LHS owner Mike McMurtry have convinced me to go with monokote instead of koverall & dope for several reasons. Cost- dope is getting very expensive. Weight- I am told koveral & dope will end up heavier than monokote. Monokote is easier to repair. So it looks like I am in for a learning experience and I may need to change up my color scheme a bit to make it easier. For now though, I still have some building to do.

COST!!! Yeah, that was the prime deciding factor in my own decision to go with monokote too. I've got several cans of SIG dope (actually half-cans and quarter-cans) that are apparently no longer made at all!!!!!! I WAS thinking of just buying a bit more of a couple colors (metallic burgundy and pearl white were my prime choices) and going with that - no such luck though. The availability of colors has dropped to nearly nothing at all, and I'm not all that happy about that either. Actually went over to the Brodak website to see what they had - - had to sit down and catch my breath again after seeing the prices.

Oh well, it's all part of building, I guess. There probably just aren't that many of us builders still alive out there. Had to happen eventually.

Hey Don!! Leo and Mike are right - monokote DOES save weight, but koverall & dope are nearly indestructable. Either way, the Mk-II wouldn't suffer at all with dope/koverall weight if you were to go that route - she's simply got too much lift available to hardly even notice the little bit of extra weight. Also, the cut/apply thing with monokote - it's no big thing at all, really. I wasn't even sure that I had enough red to do what I wanted - I didn't really or the wing would be ALL red, not just on top. As it worked out, I've got a 6" X 18" piece of red left, and that's it. Blue? Got tons of that (still got 3 rolls not even opened, and they're all over 10 years old). Shoot, ALL my monokote is at least 8 years old, some of it's over 25, and it still works just fine. Anyway, monokoting really isn't hard, just tedious - a lot of cutting of tiny pieces, slot cutting for compound curves, that kind of thing.

Y'know the place on a plane that ALWAYS defeats me with monokote? Right where the leading edge of the horizontal stabilizer meets the fuselage - if there was a way to just do away with the horizontal stabilizer, I'd do it. Each side always takes an hour or so, neither side ever really matches the other. No other spot on a plane EVER gives me the fits that part does.

OH!!!!!! One quick word of advice - DON'T ATTACH YOUR CONTROL SURFACES UNTIL AFTER YOU MONOKOTE THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Being that I'd planned koverall & dope, I put them on ... and then went with monokote. You can imagine the tiny pieces that finally sealed each control surface - a small piece over and under each hinge, a longer piece to seal between hinges, then the full cover for the rest of the part. THEN, you get to do it for the non-moving side too. That's 2 ailerons, a rudder and both sides of the elevator - a million pieces for each of them. Sheesh!!

Yeah, decide on one or the other before you glue hinges. I didn't, and my scotch and peach brandy supply suffered for it.

Well, she's 99% ready to go. I did go with the name lettering on the left wing, engine & cowl are now back on, radio's charged - just waiting for the one engine part & trim monokote for windows. Also, got a jpg here of the Kadet windshield, I inserted it onto a MS Word document and sized UP to get the right size. Hopefully, it'll help with that part.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

So Dave when do you maiden this work of red and blue art?

DBD1

I have been working on the windshield area and while it has been a lot of carving, fitting and sanding, this is where she starts to take on her character. I am not done yet but have come a long way on this step.
I like to do most of the rough carving on the blocks before I glue them in place.

Here the windshield block is rough carved, fitted and hollowed out, and the underside of the two fairing blocks have been fitted to the wing profile. Finally the windshield block gets glued in place.


Here the fairing blocks are rough cut and ready to be glued. Workbench is getting pretty cluttered again, time for a clean up.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Looking real good!

skylark-flier

[I like your method of carving the blocks - WAY better than what I did. I simply glued the windshield block in place and then carved & sanded my terhinder off, then scrollsawed the under-side of the wing fairing and carved & sanded that part until she was something close to right. Your blocks look a whole lot better than mine did at that point. You're a much more meticulous builder than I am - no doubt about it. Your plane will look a whole lot better too. I get a plane, I wanna build it and fly it - no patience at all.

Workshop's cluttered ... yeah. You should see mine on a normal day.

Mike - my critter will get her maiden as soon as that engine part arrives. Hopefully, that won't be very long but the part is on back-order with Tower. With luck, I'll live long enough to see it arrive (LOL).
... update: part was shipped Friday, will probably maiden this Saturday or Sunday.