Warbird Joe

Hello everyone. I have been flying for about a year now and have decided it is time to experience taking flight of a plane that I have built instead of an ARF. So I guess lets get down to the nitty gritty . First off my name is Joe. I have no knowledge of building a plane but the Sig looks like it will be one of the easier of the planes to build because of the instructions they give you to build. Soooo with that said please feel free to give me any ideas or suggestions that you make have.

I will post pictures as I go along. So for the first few I have here are what came out of the box. The engine is an OS LA 40. I got it at a Swap Meet for $30. I have not started it yet but the compressions seems fine. So I am keeping my fingers crossed that it works and I can put it on the plane. i am thinkin about using blue covering with gold trim.

I would like to put lights on the plane but I'm not sure if I want to mess with it since this is my first build. If anyone has any suggestions, again please send me some ideas on what to do with the lights or where to get them and how to hook them up. Well I look forward to chatting with you guys.

Warbird Joe

I will start of with the first question.

How do you cut the pieces out. Do you use a exacto knife or what?

AERORICH73

Hi there glide03: The very first thing to do is read and understand the building instruction sequence. Next I would do a parts inventory to make sure the kit is complete. Then depending on the type of wood, choose either a bandsaw for llite ply, or a new #11 Xacto blade for balsa. It helps to have a self healing cutting board to use when cutting out the parts. Before starting the parts cut out, label each part to be cut out with the part number if it is not already imprinted. After the parts are all cutout, mount the plans onto a fiber building board(Lowe's calls this stuff "sound proofing board), and then cover the plans over with wax paper.
Following the instruction manual, start building the first part. It would be a good idea to inspect all the wood pieces that this first part is made of for strength, and choose the strongest sticks available to build it. There maybe some very soft building materials that could cause a structural problem when stressed during a flight. A trip to the local hobby store could replace any questionable weak balsa, etc pieces. I use 'T' pins to criss cross stick pieces when building built up stabilizers, elevator, and rudder. From this point on you move through the instructions building piece by piece. I have found Harry Higley's 'GETTING AIRBORNE VOLUME II to be very helpful in building a model as well as all of his other publications. The older RCM FLIGHT TRAINING COURSE manual by DON DEWEY also a great reference manual to have.

Get back to us as your construction progresses.

[email protected]

dhal22

1980? 81? my uncle bought this kit for me as my 1st foray into rc airplanes. I've been hooked ever since. i flew, crashed and rebuilt that Kadet so many times i lost count. What a superb 1st plane for both building and flying. good luck.

David

Warbird Joe

thanks for the tips aerorich. I have read the directions 4 times now. I am so excited to build this but yes sooo scared to mess it up. Oh well all part of building.

Warbird Joe

thanks dhall22. I can't wait to get started on this.

Fishin Geezer

Hi hdwideglide03. Best Wishes with your new project!
My Mark II kit was about 20 years old, given to me by my sister in the mid-eighties. Never got around to it until this fall.

Couple of thoughts for you. The masterful building thread by RCKen "Pay it Forward Build Thread!!Sig LT-40", in the RCUniverse Kit Building forum. Take the time to study it thoroughly, it's invaluable. The structure of the LT-40 is very similar to our Mk II. I wish I had kept a log of the location (page # post #) of the many, many jewels of kit building wisdom. I spent lots of time going back over it looking for a particular jem.

A mistake I made was lacking confidence in the accuracy of the plans and written instructions. The consequence was that I made several mistakes and had to try to recover as best I could. The quality of my build suffered from that lack of confidence. The plans and instructions were in fact of the highest quality and accuracy. So, when in doubt, stop and think, figure out what they're telling you. Don't make my mistake of deciding the instructions were wrong and jumping off in the wrong direction!!

My build. Not great, but maybe not too bad for a first effort.

Tee Bee

Welcome to the elite group of Kadet builders, hdwideglide03. I chose a Kadet Senior as my first build earlier this year and enjoyed it immensely. When it was finished, I made my first RC flights with it. The Kadets are nice birds. I enjoyed the Sig kit so much that I chose a 4 Star 60 as a second project. Both planes fly terrific.

By the way, I'm a Wide Glide guy myself. Always liked them. Mine is a '94 with lots of "stuff" done to it over the years.

khodges

My Feedback: (1)

I'm looking forward to your build thread. This was my first R/C kit, and a good flying plane. I highly recommend building it with ailerons (4 channel). As far as cutting parts goes, get a good exacto knife and supply of #11 blades. Single edge razor blades are also good. You need a very flat surface to build on, a hollow core interior door is cheap, lightweight and portable. You can stick pins into it, but using the above mentioned acoustic tile on top of it is great, the tile is easily replaceable when it gets boogered up as you cut, glue, etc. When you mark pieces from the plans, always cut on the outside edge of the line and then sand the pieces to fit as tightly as possible. The tighter the joint is, the stronger it is. The old woodworker's adage "measure twice-cut once" is all too true.

Make yourself some sanding blocks. Take a plain pine board, 1x3 works great, and cut it into several pieces about 6 inches long. Use spray adhesive to glue sandpaper to one wide side, allowing the paper to fold over onto the thin sides, and use a different grade of sandpaper on each one; I recommend 80 grit for the coarsest, then 100 or 120, and 150 or 180, and then one with 240 and one with 400 for very fine finishing. These sanding blocks are great for shaping and fine tuning pieces.

Another good tool to have is a metal straightedge. You can use it as a cutting guide and the blades won't damage it. A small carpenter's square is also handy.

Dry fit EVERYTHING to make sure they are correct before gluing, and read ahead several steps before you glue anything to make sure you're not going to "paint yourself into a corner". Above all, take your time, and enjoy the build.

AERORICH73

GREAT LOOKING PLANE GEEZER. Not sure of the deviation you made building the model, but know it will fly just fine. Have you flown it yet? If so, did you have to make any trim changes once in the air?

As the old saying goes: Fly two mistakes high, and away from trees, etc.

AERORICH73

hungryandbroke

I bought mine back in 1974. Box is a little rough but everything is still there. Can't wait to get it started.

Fishin Geezer

Thanks for the nice words, AERORICH

No, I haven't flown it (or anything else) yet. I've joined the local club (by mail) and hope that at their next meeting 1/2/08 I'll meet some of the guys and line up someone to help me get it off the ground. Apparently they don't fly a lot during the winter in the Oregon rain, so it may be a while before I find out what I've got. Building was fun, I've got no regrets, and I'll post the results of our flying efforts when it happens.

In the meantime, I'll be starting on my new-issue Ultra Sport 60, thanks to RCKen for triggering the new release.

Warbird Joe

Hello Fishin Geezer. Thanks for the tips. I really appreciate it. I have seen that thread and will have to look at it again. Nice looking plane by the way.

Warbird Joe

Hello Tee Bee. I can't wait to get this thing built now. It is going to be interesting that is for sure. Wide Glide are the best.

Warbird Joe

hey you have my plane. and my washer and dryer.

grimmy55

Hi all I too have just rebuilt one of these(Kadet snr) but have run into a problem ,mainly its that Sig koverall it goes on great, looks great shrunk it up with covering iron and doped it to fill the fibres ready for painting my problem is that I,ve given it a coat of enamel undercoat (spraycan stuff) and its all gone saggy and looks awful tried shrinking it again through the paint it looks worse than ever raggy edges now and my iron don,t look to good either ,Question what is the correct procedure with this covering .Ive just about given up on it ,its just that I,ve got about 10 metres of it left so might as well use it ,I guess I should have asked first any help would be gratefully received THANKS GUYS

hungryandbroke

Grimmy55...hang in there!

There's a solution to every problem. Cut a piece of Koverall about 6' X 3' , place the fusalage along side the wing, wrap it up with the koverall and place a nice ribbon on it. You still have 4 days to make someone a nice christmas gift and start all over again!

just jokin...

hungryandbroke

After viewing the instruction booklet on the Kadet MK ll I'll probably replace the washer and dryer before I start building the Kadet. There seems to be an awful lot of cutting and carving for just a trainer type airplane. Might be another 10 years before I start on mine now.

I could probably have my Sig Hog Bipe started and finished by the time I got all the parts cut out on the Kadet!

grimmy55

because we live where we are ,we are a day ahead of you guys (16hrs ahead )And Santa says there,s not enough time for delivery and it won,t fly there by it self

TFF

It does not take long to build; I think it was an afternoon to build each wing panel with titebond, afternoon to build the fues and tail, and a weekend to cover; its my now 11 year old son's plane and we did the wing in Koverall dope and luster coat, and the fuse in silkspan dope and luster coat. I am building a Senior and am going to bash it to look like this.

http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/aero...t/bellanca.htm

Fishin Geezer

hungryandbroke

I didn't find much woodcarving to be done. I did the "simplified windshield" and it was pretty quick.

But not quick like in TFF's case. I was a couple of months building mine, but it was my first plane!!

hungryandbroke

Actually, with my experience I'd feel pretty stupid building the kadet mk ll when I have a sig hog bipe, a great planes venus ll ARF and also a goldberg tiger ll also waiting in line to be built. But, if I threw the os 46 ax on the kadet mk ll I have sitting around here I think i'd have a lot of fun putting it through its paces. Sometimes the smaller planes are actually more fun to fly than the larger ones that don't seem to be going so fast. The kadet would also make a good plane for dog fighting with the others at the field when we tie 30 ft streamers on them and chase each other around. I did that with my goldberg clipped wing cub and they had a hell of a time trying to catch me!

still undecided

Warbird Joe

LOL...yeah there is a lot of cutting that is for sure. It will be worth it in the end.

TFF

The cutting might be scary at first, but it is over pretty fast. In 25 minutes everything can be cut. I like to use a 1 1/2 ft stainless steel straight edge and the rest is connect the dots. The thing to remember is although it is nice to have everything perfect, it rarely is. This is the type of plane to learn the mistakes and the nice thing is it will fly just fine. As a kid I free cut everything with dull blades, and the planes flew fine. As for the Venus II, work on it while the glue dries on the Kadet.

Warbird Joe

grrrrrrr...OK i feel like an idiot already. I finally got to tart building my plane today and the first dang step I feel like I have messed up already. please help clear this up if you can.

step 1. cut 9 1/16" off the end of each of two pieces 1/4" x 1/2" x 36" main spar stock. Glue these pieces to the remainder as center section spar doublers. cut two piece of 1/4" square stock 28 5/8" long. cut two other pieces 9 1/16" long. glue the 9 1/16" to the 28 5/8" pieces in the same was shown in Picture 1 above of the 1/4" x 1/2" spar.

OK. now the 9 1/16 = 9 inches and 1/16 of an inch correct?