HuckinChikn

Hey guys, Has anyone had any experience with the big Kadet Senior? I picked one up today from a dude at my flying field, and to tell ya the truth, i dont know alot about it...I mainly just need to know like, engine specs, CG location, basic stuff like that. This plane looks like its been through alot, but it also looks to be a promising flyer.
Any thoughts??
thanks,
Jared

HuckinChikn

got a pic........

badger5964

My Feedback: (6)

The Senior has to be the most modified kit of all time. Yours is proof. The Senior is designed as a 3 channel, no ailerons, and trike gear with a rubber band to hold the wing that has plenty of dihedral. Your friend obviously changed that and for the better.

The CG is on the main spar and Sig calls for a .25-40 2 stroke. Kadets are probably the best trainers out there.

I modified mine when my son crashed and wrecked the fuse. I added a Fox .60 for power, made a tail dragger out of it and put in a huge bomb bay. At a fun fly last year I took off with 40 oz of candy. Even with all that weight it still flew well. With a big 14x4 prop on it has unlimited vertical! The Senior however is about as far from and aerobatic sport plane has you get though. It is fun to fly backward in a breeze and other slow, lazy stuff.

When the wing gets busted I'll modify to a flat bolt on similar to yours and add some lights for a night flyer.

Scott

HuckinChikn

ooooh, lights!! That sounds cool I was actually thinking of putting some floats on it.
i've never flown a FLOAT plane, so that would be cool to try.
i dont think a .25 to 40 2-stroke will fly this thing, man. Its BIG.....it's like a 73" wingspan or something, i dunno for sure, i havent messured it yet. I was thinking more like a .91 or 1.00

HuckinChikn

or how about this???

tyler.allen

RU Serious? [8D]

badger5964

My Feedback: (6)

If built according to plan it will fly with the small engine. Remember this was never intended to be fast, aerobatic or go where you point it plane. It is a trainer and probably the safest and easiest out there. With its huge flat bottom airfoil and a small engine it flies with good old fashioned lift.

The speed with a big engine hardly picked up at all when I put in a 60. I did need more power for the candy drops etc. I also wanted to try floats, a sailplane tower, a banner tower and perhaps a sky diver platform. The Kadet is a great platform for all those things. Over the years I intend to make it a real workhorse.

Other then ribs it is all sticks and sheet, it can be rebuilt endlessly. It is very light construction. A .90 four stroke would be a great match to get the Kadet performance up. But no matter how big an egine you put in it will always be big, slow, soft and stable. If you work with those characteristics you'll enjoy the plane.

cooperd

I have a Senior Kadet ARF. It has ailerons, apparently the kit version does not unless you add them. I love the plane. It is huge, lumbers trhough the air and lands so scale-like. I have a Saito .72 on it! I RARELY use full power even for takeoff. It's just cool to here the sound of the 4 stroke putting along at 1.2 or less throttle.

As stated above, it is a trainer and will probably not stand a lot of heavy aerobatics and high speed dives...parts will leave the area. But if you fly it nice and practice landings with it, you will really enjoy it. It can carry a bit of weight, ideal for a video camera, towing gliders, etc.

khodges

My Feedback: (1)

They're pretty tough birds, and will do a lot more than you might think. The kit is 78 inch wingspan, the ARF is 81 inches and comes with barn door ailerons. I've seen the kit fly with an LA .40 OS; not fast and you had to stay close to full throttle, but you could actually loop it from a dive, and it would fly slower than walking speed. One of our club members made his into a tow plane and added a bomb bay for candy drops. It looks so cool that I bought the kit this week and plan to modify mine in a similar way, plus I'm going to stretch the wing an extra bay on each side, add half span slotted flaps as well as short barn door ailerons. I'm putting a .65 Saito in mine, mainly for towing and as a candy bomber/camera platform.

HuckinChikn

sounds great! looks like i picked up a pretty decent flyer then I'm a 3D guy, so i'm used to having WAY too much power than the plane needs, so hearing that it will fly with a .40 2-stroker just sounds kinda funny Anyway, i'm looking forward to getting this one up there! geez, i gotta spend MORE money?! (servos, reciever, batt, engine, tailwheel,) anybody wanna donate to the "Jared is broke and needs to get this plane in the air" fund??

TCrafty

I just finished flying my Senior (photo in my bio section) tonight. It is a kit that someone built years ago and I bought it to get into flying. Came with a 50 saito but I just put a 72 saito on it to test the engine. Really flew great and I did figure-8s at about two feet off of the ground again and again. Definitely go with a larger engine. That little 50 would get it off of the ground but comparing the plane now with it would be like me comparing myself to Lance Armstrong by saying, "I can ride a bike."