skyraider71

I made a mistake here, I accidentally drilled the wing dowel hole off center.
I made a balsa dowel by rounding off a balsa stick and gluing it in with wood
glue. Then re-drilled the hole correctly. Then the last remaining sheeting was
put in place.

N1EDM

My Feedback: (2)

Glad that you caught that. Otherwise, you'd be using a lot of rudder

Bob

skyraider71

The drill bit hit the epoxy in the wing joint and scewed to one side.
A few minutes of head scratching led to the fix. Maybe I should patent
the 1/4" balsa dowel!

N1EDM

My Feedback: (2)

skyraider71

The tail feathers couldn't be any simpler. Elevators were joined with
a joiner wire, then then the tail wheel wire was inlaid, then glassed in place.

skyraider71

I made a small mod to the forward fuse bottom as I put it on.
I enlarged the hole to make it easier to see the carb as I set
up the throttle.

skyraider71

A small detail here. I used small balsa strips to complete the
forward fuse top back to the head rest. It gives a nice finished
look to the cockpit.

skyraider71

Well here she is in the bones. Hinging and sanding are complete.
Time for one last mock-up to ensure everything fits as it should
before the covering phase. I love it when a plane gets to this stage.

Twin_Flyer

My Feedback: (4)

Very nice!!

Always tempted to cover a plane in clear at this stage so i can see whats inside!

Bill S.

skyraider71

I always wanted to cover a Kadet Seniorita in transparent orange/black

skyraider71

I always glass the wing joint after the final sanding.

skyraider71

My plan was to make this plane look just like the box art. But
I went with Cub yellow instead of regular yellow. This is also the
same color of my original FourStar.
I started with the feathers.

G-JIMG

Just finished building a 4 Star 40. Lots of modifications - balsa cowl, sheeted front wing section, carbon undercarriage, sheeted turtle deck, Sullivan tail wheel and battery indicator incorporated into cockpit. Just need good weather and a day off to see how she flies.

Twin_Flyer

My Feedback: (4)

Skyraider, I always thought Cub yellow was a nicer yellow too, though i do not a cub done in cub yellow as there are too many like that already!

G-JIMG, nice work, especially on the cowl!

Bill S.

G-JIMG

Thanks Twin_Flyer, I'm pleased how it turned out. I also clipped the wings by one bay. All the changes I made came from various posts on this site, so credit goes to all the guys that post on these threads.

Twin_Flyer

My Feedback: (4)

A fellow club member years ago built the 120 version, powered by a G23 and clipped the wing so it would fit better in the camper he had on the back of hid truck. lasted for years till he let another member fly it and somehow lost perspective and in it went.

The new one he built , not G26 powered, with the full wing as it will fit the new truck. he regrets doing that as it floats way too much when trying to land. I wouldn't be surprised if next spring the wing ends up being shorter a bit again. I think he removed one full bay per side.

Bill S.

Bill S.

skyraider71

Very nice build G-JIMG. I have thought about building the .60 and clip the wings
one bay each side.

G-JIMG

Skyraider, I've never owned or flown a 4 Star before so I don't know how the stock model handles, but the general opinion on this site seemed to be that it was a 'floater' that benefitted from having the wings clipped by one bay, so that's what I did. This model handles well and settles in for landing very nicely - I can see it's going to become a favourite of mine.

Clipping the wings on the .60 would be a good idea. In fact the new Sig 4 Star .60 ARF has clipped wings (64" instead of 71") and a cowl, so it appears the changes initiated on this site have gone full circle and are now part of the product design.

I note that you didn't reinforce the wing saddle area during your build, have you had any issues? I did add some reinforcement during my build, but only because it seemed to be the general concensus that it was required.

lamarkeiko

My Feedback: (1)

I have a Four Star 40 that I picked up at a Swap & Shop a year ago for $10. It had seen a lot of use, and needed some recovering and rework at the cowl area. I've got a 1/2 doz. flights on it now, and have a question on it's flight characteristics. When I'm flying straight & level, and apply rudder, the plane seems to excessivly drop its nose with very little turn in the direction of the rudder. My low wing flying experience is very limited, so I don't know if this is normal. My high wing planes did not drop their nose so much with the same input. To me it seems like there should be some rudder & elevator mix programed. Other than that, the plane flies very well, and does float a lot on landing.
Lamar

Mr-Punk

My Feedback: (2)

Lamar, to answer your question, yes the 4 star's do pitch down when rudder is applied. It's a aerodynamic trait or flaw they have. Moving the cg reward will make it pitch less but be careful it can get pretty snap happy moved much behind the main spar. I just put a rudder to elevator mix to balance out the yaw/pitch coupling.

Mine is shown earlier in this thread with Bob Hoovers Rockwell International theme. It is clipped 1 bay per wing and I cut the dihedral in half. I also added a dorsal fin. It fly's great. It's had a 46ax with macs pipe MA 11x8 @ 13,5rpm that made it unreal in the air. Now she sports an OS 52 4 stroke. I've been flying a MA K series 12x6 and really like this combo.

As to the clipping the wing and mods. I like it clipped. It really didn't seem to have much affect on the speed of landing just made it easier to settle in with out that float float all the way down the runway if you hadn't bleed the speed down. It still comes in really slow and gentle. My mods also made it track and roll a lot better. The dorsal fin helps with any tail wag and makes it knife edge better.

I did put a couple lite ply gusset plates in the fuse behind the wing saddle. And put scab plates running up in the nose on the lg block with the blind nuts on top of them. I had trouble with those two areas on my first. It was also my first low wing too so I was a little rough on it.

Skyraider/Breeze, Thanks for putting up this build. I enjoyed looking thru it and remembering building my 2nd one that I still have. Kinda funny but I think I have the same left wing, a tail, and the LG from my 1st. I've long said when this one gets rekitted I'll have a 3rd kit on order that night and have #3 rtf in a couple weeks. I love this plane that much. Here it is with the pipe next to my BTE Flyin' King.

Peace,
J

lamarkeiko

My Feedback: (1)

Thanks for the feedback J. I think I will do a little mixing of the rudder & elevator. I got in a good hour of flying my 4 Star a couple days ago. It has been a challenge to bring the plane down without too much bounce. I did finally get my last two landings without any bounce. I think my Four Star may even float more than most, because whoever built her added rounded wing tips without removing any rib bays. The wing span is 64" now, instead of 59 3/4 per specs. Do you think I should do some shortening? It weighs in with my OS 46 AX engine at 5 1/2 lbs.

Lamar

lamarkeiko

My Feedback: (1)

I thought I was off on the weight. I just weighed the plane, and it is 4 lb 14 oz.

Lamar

Mr-Punk

My Feedback: (2)

Lamar, sound like you have nice light one. Mine after a few "improper arrivals" is probably a little over 5 lbs. As far as the infamous 4 Star bounce. Make sure you have the gear put on with any sweep towards the rear. The main reason it's such a bouncer is because the gear is a little too far forward. I turned my gear around and it tamed that somewhat. To grease it in you either have to full stall 3 point land it or set it down really easy on the mains and relax any up elev immediately. Another thing to try to limit it's float is to use a prop with less pitch and more dia. Like a 12-4 or 12-5. I remember flying one of those APC 3d props 12.25 x 3.75 on my 46ax with muffler when I had the full wing on it and it helped slow it down and provided unlimited vertical too. It's up to you on whether to clip or not. I just built a new wing kit and kept the old full wing. One thing about it is if you can grease a wheel landing with a four star your landing skills are excellent.
Practice those touch and goes with it. I love doing that with mine.

Peace,
J

skyraider71

Here comes my favorite part. I'm using my "Two iron" covering technique here.
I use two irons, one set to the sticking temp of the Ultrakote and the other set to the shrinking
temp. I use a temp gun to set the iron temps accurately.
I have already covered the feathers, next is the fuse.

skyraider71

Now it's time to glass the wing joint. I wasn't happy with the results of using
CA, I went back and gave it a skim coat of thinned epoxy.