~~SIG Brotherhood ~~
06-12-2016, 06:02 AM
#1751
My Feedback: (149)
Hi friends, Hope all is great + at the Sig fly-in. It's nothing but hot here in Alabama. Update (and Many Thanx to SigPlanes) on the expected Rascal 80 as it was delivered this weekend. Been busy with chores and legal issues, but did take the time to unpack the plane to allow it to acclimate to it's new environment, and review the Manual. Made in VietNam, the instructions are definitely well written by an American, with plenty of tips. Found NO wrinkles in covering and construction seems solid with plenty of epoxy, not hot glue. And Many Thanx to Bob at Sig Mfg for expressing his concerns of hi-idle for the GGT10 which I have read about (appx 3000rpm). May use a Saito FA62 and save the OS for a GP SS40 - Higher wing loading and faster landing approaches. My opinion is an A+ for this purchase and customer service and I'm very appreciative for it.
Mike Brennan
T-man49 in Alabama
Sig Bro #24
Mike Brennan
T-man49 in Alabama
Sig Bro #24
06-12-2016, 04:18 PM
#1752
Thread Starter
Just got back from this years fly In. It was WINDY and HOT! My Canopy was snapped from the wind while we were sitting under it, and had to run to Grinnel Walmart to get another one. Even though it was windy as all hecklydooda, I still got several flights in on my Somethin Extra and T-Clips, was fun watching it slipping in sideways on approach, then straighten out as it touched down. It was crowded too, more than the past two years combined, dont know if it was because of the hot and dry forecast or what.
Well, over Friday night a big storm blew in, and many people who left their canopy frames up, lost them, there were quite a few Picassoesk sculptures when we arrived Saturday Morning. Winds calmed a little, but were still strong and out of the West, but still great flying despite the heat and humidity. First plane up for me was my LT-40, the OS ran good, but later on as the day got hot, it didn't run well at all, so only got one flight. Got 5 SIG planes up on Saturday, 2 ARF, the T-Clips and Somethin Extra, and 3 kit builds, the LT-40, 1/5th Cub and 4 Star 120.
Skies were a bit crowded at times, but the games were quite entertaining, had several near hits, and a couple hits. Saturday Evening was the best though, they had the Somethin Extra races, and at least 8 of them were up there racing around until they ran out of fuel, then of course there were a couple show offs flying inverted, which resulted in a very spectacular mid air. The end result was amazing, the striker landed OK, the strikee went straight in. I am hoping the picture of the aftermath gets posted soon as it was great. the plane was stuck straight in the ground nose first and all you could see from across the runway was the tail. The cowl was all the way in the ground and was holding the plane almost plumb vertical.
On Saturday they held a memorial for Mike Gretz in the main hanger, a real touching moment for those of us who knew him. Great guy, sorely missed this year, just wasn't quite the same without him there. Later on they held the SIG dinner, then had an awards presentation. Every time you take off and land on Saturday you get a poker card, at the end of the day, best hand wins. Well the winner had 5 aces, though I heard that he was going around trading cards with other flyers, but thats hearsay. Second place had a king high full house, beat my 10's and queens.
They then had picked out best SIG kit built plane, but found out at the last moment that the plane was actually built by someone other than the owner and that it was built by someone from SIG. OOPS. I volunteered my 1/5th Cub as a runner up, never expecting to actually win, but I did. 
I got me another Somethin Extra!
All in all it was a great time, hot and sticky, but a great time. Best part, I got a lot of flights in and no damage to any of the planes. I did have a dead stick with the Cub, missed the power lines and trees by mere inches, but landed it safely at the end of the runway, a long walk to the end of the runway, but a good one considering the plane was 100% undamaged.
Well, over Friday night a big storm blew in, and many people who left their canopy frames up, lost them, there were quite a few Picassoesk sculptures when we arrived Saturday Morning. Winds calmed a little, but were still strong and out of the West, but still great flying despite the heat and humidity. First plane up for me was my LT-40, the OS ran good, but later on as the day got hot, it didn't run well at all, so only got one flight. Got 5 SIG planes up on Saturday, 2 ARF, the T-Clips and Somethin Extra, and 3 kit builds, the LT-40, 1/5th Cub and 4 Star 120.
Skies were a bit crowded at times, but the games were quite entertaining, had several near hits, and a couple hits. Saturday Evening was the best though, they had the Somethin Extra races, and at least 8 of them were up there racing around until they ran out of fuel, then of course there were a couple show offs flying inverted, which resulted in a very spectacular mid air. The end result was amazing, the striker landed OK, the strikee went straight in. I am hoping the picture of the aftermath gets posted soon as it was great. the plane was stuck straight in the ground nose first and all you could see from across the runway was the tail. The cowl was all the way in the ground and was holding the plane almost plumb vertical.
On Saturday they held a memorial for Mike Gretz in the main hanger, a real touching moment for those of us who knew him. Great guy, sorely missed this year, just wasn't quite the same without him there. Later on they held the SIG dinner, then had an awards presentation. Every time you take off and land on Saturday you get a poker card, at the end of the day, best hand wins. Well the winner had 5 aces, though I heard that he was going around trading cards with other flyers, but thats hearsay. Second place had a king high full house, beat my 10's and queens.
They then had picked out best SIG kit built plane, but found out at the last moment that the plane was actually built by someone other than the owner and that it was built by someone from SIG. OOPS. I volunteered my 1/5th Cub as a runner up, never expecting to actually win, but I did. I got me another Somethin Extra! All in all it was a great time, hot and sticky, but a great time. Best part, I got a lot of flights in and no damage to any of the planes. I did have a dead stick with the Cub, missed the power lines and trees by mere inches, but landed it safely at the end of the runway, a long walk to the end of the runway, but a good one considering the plane was 100% undamaged.
06-12-2016, 07:23 PM
#1753
Great report!!! Sounds like great times too.
06-13-2016, 06:13 AM
#1754
Thread Starter
I have a couple videos I need to upload. The real T-Clips came by as well as a flight of the real Clip Wing. I also have a video of how windy it was on Friday.
06-13-2016, 11:45 AM
#1756
Thread Starter
06-13-2016, 07:14 PM
#1758
Thread Starter
I would hope so since he is a performance pilot. He was on his way to do an airshow in WI, and he lives 10 minutes flying time from Hazel's place. I was hoping he would have done a little more showing off, but he got yelled at by hazel last year when he did.
06-13-2016, 07:19 PM
#1760
Thread Starter
It was a challenging day with the westerly winds, but thankfully not as bad as they were on Friday. You would have seen him slipping it in sideways if that were the case.
06-15-2016, 09:28 AM
#1761
06-19-2016, 10:53 AM
#1765
Hey, thanks Alan!!!! Yeah, been a GREAT day so far - had the Kadet, Midstar-40, Sr. Falcon, Butterfly, Eagle II & my old Great Lakes 2T1A in the air today.
Yeah, GREAT day!!!!!!!!!
Yeah, GREAT day!!!!!!!!!
07-21-2016, 05:08 AM
#1768
It's Official, the Rascal 168 is now up on the SIG website for pre-order. http://www.sigmfg.com/cgi-bin/dpsmar...168.html?E+Sig
Does anyone else here find it some what Ironic considering the size of the original Rascal from the 50s?
07-21-2016, 09:13 AM
#1769
Hey Mike! That's a good question - and I've got another. I've seen the MANY versions of Rascal that SIG has put out, but what/where/when/who was the ORIGINAL Rascal model?
Just wondering.
Just wondering.
07-21-2016, 09:57 AM
#1770
When and how the design went from Top Flite to SIG I haven't a clue. The first SIG Rascal I know of was the RC-80 Rascal C kit which I built with the the included brushed motor and gear box. SIG still makes the kit but the motor and gear box aren't included anymore.
07-25-2016, 10:42 AM
#1772
Thanks for filling in the blanks Bob! I have to say SIG has done a lot of great things with the Rascal series. I am looking to start flying my Rascal C again however; it recently was a victim of a fall from my overhead storage rack breaking one side and knocking the firewall out. Very repairable I just need to take the time. I continue to use the stock electric motor gear drive set with a GP BEC. It's such a fun little airplane. I will say I prefer a green interior to the gray and gold pen stripes to the silver you guy used. Those are the only deviations I made from the kit.
07-25-2016, 07:22 PM
#1774
Geez guys, thanks BUNCHES for all this great info. I've added it to the website - RC80 kit on page http://wanderings-ds.jimdo.com/sig-rc-kits-61-100/. This is one of the reasons I started the SIG history site - just for this kind of info. Cool stuff!!
07-26-2016, 08:01 AM
#1775
Glad we could help Skylark-flier! You can find a lot of interesting stuff on http://www.airplanesandrockets.com/ you may wish to reach out to Kirt the site owner he may wish to link to your page and he might have aditional resources you would like to link to as well.
Mike
Mike
