Well, I am finally done with the Senior. To recap, three of my flying buddies finished a Kadet Senior kit for me. They did a fantastic job and it looked great. It had tricycle landing gear and ailerons and flaps. I had an OS 46 on it and it flew great with only a few clicks here and there to trim it. Unfortunatly, the exhaust was hard on it and it had oil on it in no time. After trying to clean it up for the umpteenth time, I decided then to convert it to electric.

Due to circumstances beyond my control, the last time I flew it was July 4, 2012. Needless to say, it has taken me some time to convert it. I am using a Turnigy Easy Match 46 with a 50 amp speed control. The battery is a 3600 mah 30C. I also converted it to a tail dragger. The first picture is what it looked like before conversion. The second picture is what it looks like now. As you can see, I had to change the windshield because the hatch took away most of the curve from the original windshield. I was kinda glad since the old powder blue didn't ever quite look right. I think it looks more like a windshield now.

The plane originally had an 11 ounce lead plate in it to balance it. I had to add an additional 3 ozs to just a shade over 14. To add the weight, I took a 1.5 inch cardboard rocket tube and filled it with #6 shot. I shaped balsa plugs and glued the plugs tight against the shot and glued it to the bottom of the fuse boxing it in for more support. I had to make the tube an oval to fit in the space just above the bottom hatch. It is nice and tight and shouldn't move anywhere. The third picture shows the shot tube.

Originally, I cut the hatch too short and had to cut more of the hood off and glue the two sections together. The fourth picture shows the hatch after rejoining the two pieces.

One more change I made was to use the same rocket tube as an outlet vent for the air. If you look in the 5th picture, you can see where I cut the rocket tubes at an angle to help air flow out of the airplane. Hopefully, there will be lots of air flow.

All in all, it was a fun build and I learned a lot. I plan to maiden it on Tuesday when the wind shows to be optimal for a maiden.